Nick de la Hoyde on remixes, SoundCloud and using social media as a young artist

Nick de la Hoyde is a young artist from Sydney who prefers not to be defined to just one genre of music. The 23-year-old is a singer, songwriter and rapper, and is beginning to dabble in the electronic music scene thanks to a remix of one of his earliest tracks.

Having amassed almost 160,000 Facebook fans and 368,000 Instagram followers, he encompasses the essence of what it takes to be a new musician today – producing organic online content, experimenting with sounds, and having fun along the way.

TMN caught up with him before he set out on his very first tour.

You’re about to kick off thetour with MAX. How does it feel to be supporting an international act?

It feels amazing. So this is my first tour, so to be able to have my first tour with someone like MAX is awesome. I can’t wait.

You’ve just dropped the videofor the remix of ’By My Side’. Tell me more about the song.

’By My Side’ is actually a song that I released really early in my career. It’s one of my first singles, and this is a revamp. Myproducer Joe took the track to a new level. We wanted to resurrect it, bring it back to life. It’s akind of more mature sound of us. We thought it’d be something cool, a nice summer vibe.

Remixes of tracks is something you’ve obviously embraced. What advantage does having someone remix your track offer you as an artist?

I think it has heaps of value. Instead of just playing in venues, you can get them in clubs. You can get them played everywhere. Sometimes there’s a big ear for remixes. It’s the thing at the moment. A lot of radio is remixes. A lot of big artists are getting their song to go really worldwide through the remixes. Sometimes they’ll release their own track, and it’s actually the remix that takes it off. So yeah, I think they have huge value.

Some of the stuff that we’ve done to the tracks, you would never’ve imagined them sounding like that, and it’s just a matter of taking it back and seeing different areas that you can attack it. So it’s cool.

You’ve come a long way in terms of your sound since your first track “the Longest Way”. How has the music-making process changed for you over that time?

I guess it was, one, confidence, and two, finding my voice, because I used to be a rapper. Well, I still am a rapper, but it was all about perfecting my voice and having the confidence to sing more. When I signed with my management, she encouraged me to sing more on the tracks rather than rap. So if you notice now, there’s a big change. I’m singing a lot more in the music, and maybe I’ll have a rap verse in the bridge.

Do you think the music scene is starting to embrace more of that crossover?

Oh, definitely.It’s changing a lot. On the radio, you’ll hear all different types of genres, and I think especially in the rap side of things, a lot of underground rappers are getting their chance on features, and big artists are getting them on the bridge of the songs. I think it’s really cool, and it’s kind of a nice collaboration kind of thing. So yeah, definitely.

Let’s talk being a musician in the age of internet streaming. The video for your new track By My Side has already clocked up almost 15,000 views. What are the advantages and disadvantages of having platforms like YouTube and Spotify to release music on?

I think it’s great. The more you build the platform, the better it is, not only to show people so that you have a fan base and you have something there, rather than it just being empty.

I think it has a lot to show for the actual song itself, whether it’s resonating, whether people like it. People can go through the comments and see what others think of the song, and you can get a great idea ofthe kind of vibe people got from it. It’s kind of nice to know whether it’s someone saying, “Oh, I didn’t like this bit,” or “I like this bit,” or “Wow, the chorus was great.” So you kind of get a cool little idea of what people think of the song, and when you’re showing people, it’s always good to have numbers to support what you’re doing. And in a day and age where it’s all about social media to compete online, you need to have some decent numbers. So I think building that is very important.

Just on social media, how important is an Instagram account or your presence on Facebook to a young musician like yourself?

I think it’s very important. You look at the big artists, and they all have big ones, so in order to compete, like I said, you need to have a semi-decent one. And nowadays a lot of the labels and a lot of the booking agents and stuff like that, they’ll tend to look at your numbers and say, “Well, it’s probably not big enough,” or “It’s good for us.” So I reckon it’s very important. And for branding opportunities, if you want to make some money, if you want to represent a brand, it’s all about the numbers.

Do you think that your social media channels give you the freedom to express yourself, or are you feeling a bit restricted?

I only recently started to kind of try different things online. I mean, if you can’t be yourself and put out videos that you want to put out, then you shouldn’t restrict yourself. But those kind of videos can bring up numbers and streams and could turn into dollars. I wanted to change it up, try something new, and you know, I don’t think there should be a boundary for that.

Do you think SoundCloud is going to survive?

I mean a lot of artists now were starting to get really big. You’ve got Russ. He blew up on SoundCloud. A lot of the DJ scene is on SoundCloud. A lot of the DJs are getting big on there. I do think it might fall, just because Spotify is just taking over, and YouTube provides an image with the music. So in order for it to compete, it needs to have othervalue. Don’t get me wrong, it’s amazing, but in order to compete, I think everything’s expanding and new things are coming out, so I guess they might need to add some features.

What’s next for you as an artist?

Good question. Definitely more shows. We’re gonna look at playing a lot more shows. We’re hopefully going to be on a big tour in November, which would be great if we can get on that.

TMN’s Fast Five:

What’s your earliest memory of music?

We’ve got heaps of old videos of us as kids sitting in a highchair while dad’s got music blasting. Dad used to always play his music out loud, so it’d be that.

Which celebrity (past or present) would you like to switch lives with for a day?

Probably Drake.

What’s your favourite song of 2017 so far?

Demi Lovato’s song with Cheat Codes, ’No Promises’, It’s a very poppy song, but for some reason I like it.

If you could design a Snapchat filter, what would it look like?

I love Harry Potter, so it’d be something to do withthat.

What’s one thing you used to believe that you’ve changed your mind about?

That you can be lucky and fall into a situation, and everything works out. That’s not true. You have to work really hard to get to a place you need to be