Collin McLoughlin: “More than a vocalist” [WRR Exclusive]

You might have seen Collin McLoughlin on Season 3 of The Voice or you might recognize his powerful vocals on popular songs such as Vicetone’s “Heartbeat” or Mitis’ “Born (Vocal Mix)” but that only scratches the surface of Collin’s remarkable repertoire of talents. Hailing from chilly New York, this 22-year-old artist is not only a fantastic piano and guitar player, but is also a self-taught producer. He has almost completely released his debut EP Tears of Tempo, with only two tracks left (“Shooting Star” will come out tomorrow and bonus track “Broken” will be released with the entire EP). Everything on this EP is entirely his own, from the lyrics to the chords, Collin has personally crafted every aspect. He has written, produced, remixed, and sung every track, which is astonishing for someone that had to learn everything on his own.

“I’ve basically had to learn to sing, mix and produce out of necessity. You know, I never met Yasmine or Jahan at my high school, or Rob Resnick from Timeflies at my college. It would have been amazing to meet someone that talented that shared my visions, but I never did. So I basically had to teach myself how to do everything just to get my ideas across.”

When I first contacted Collin for this interview, it was solely because I thought he had an excellent voice and I thought it was interesting that he had moved from such a mainstream media (The Voice) to laying vocals over dubstep tracks. Never did I realize that he actually co-produced “Born” with Mitis, or that he has a deep-rooted love for electronic music. He’s not only extraordinarily talented though, Collin is also incredibly down-to-earth and casual. After about five minutes on a Skype call, I felt as if I was talking to an old friend. Get to know Collin McLoughlin for what he is: a multi-talented artist that has pursued his dreams to the absolute fullest without fear of failure. He’s got some huge plans for the future, and we were lucky enough to catch him right before he has entirely released his newest EP to discuss his musical process and inspirations.

Interview:

How long have you been working on your EP Tears of Tempo?

4 ½ – 5 months for the EP, but it took me about 2 years to learn to produce at this level. There was an interview with a creative writer, he was talking about creativity and said that when people are creative it’s because they have good taste. Their taste outweighs their skill level, and that’s their main problem. To get over that gap between my taste and my ability was the hardest thing. It took about 2 years, and 14-15 hour days to get to that level of producing.

Do you have classical background?

Absolutely none. When I was at The Voice they gave us voice lessons, and the voice coach actually stopped me and said that I had some of the worst technical skill he had ever seen. I mean, no one ever really taught me how to do it, I just did what I thought sounded good. So technically I’m not really sound in those categories, but I’ve made a career on doing what I thought worked and people liked it, so I guess I’ll keep doing that.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years? Do you see yourself DJing with vocals or keep doing solo products?

I’ve basically had to learn to sing, mix and produce out of necessity. You know, I never met Yasmine or Jahan at my high school, or Rob Resnik from Timeflies at my college. It would have been amazing to meet someone that talented that shared my visions, but I never did. So I basically had to teach myself how to do everything just to get my ideas across. People asked me if I would be opposed to doing duos or collaborations in the future, and later on down the road I would definitely be interested in working with someone else. But for now, I’d like to be known as a musician who DJs at his live show, because you know, I’m not really a DJ. What DJing became for me was a tool to get my style of music across, but I’d definitely like to be known as more than that.

What artist(s) would you love to collaborate with?

Seven lions is one of the top ones. The first time I heard “You’ve Got To Go”, was the real moment that this EP that I’ve been working on, there’s a point in your creative skill set that’s sort of the point of no return that depicts what follows after it. Listening to that song was that moment for me. That’s when my production edge took that more dubstep lane, I think you can hear his influence in the EP. I think he’s one of the most insanely talented producers out there.
Another one is BT, I absolutely love his music, I love what he’s done for the scene. He’s the guy that produced Dirty Pop for N*Sync, so he’s definitely been around for awhile.
In the near terms, Sound Remedy is a guy I would love to collaborate with. I think our music would sound really well together.
I’m also trying to find a really good female vocalist, like Aveela for example. We were actually introduced on Facebook, and I’ve talked to her about a collaboration. We’re just kind of waiting for me to write the right song that she would fit on. I’ve also got some projects with some really big artists that I can’t reveal too much about, but it’s coming in September. I’ll let you guys know more information as soon as I can.

What are some of your influences when you write music?

It’s different every time, but one of the things I’ve started doing now I learned from an indie writer in New York. You know, there are so many amazing pictures on the internet every day. So there are images that pop in my head when I’m thinking about writing a song. So let’s say I’m writing a song about “growing up”, so I’ll Google that and look through images until I find something that represents what I’m thinking about. Usually a good photo will give me an idea for a lyric, and then the train of thought continues. Then I try to incorporate them all together into a song, about half of this new EP was written this way. Sometimes I have a fully orchestrated idea in my head and I’ll just write the whole song out that way. Inspiration can come from anywhere and everywhere.

What kind of message do you want to put out with this EP?

A lot of people ask me why I didn’t put out remixes first, because a lot of major artists got big off of remixes. I was in this position where I had to show people who I was and what I was capable of doing. I had already built myself up as a cover artist in the acoustic world, so I knew rebranding that image was going to be a challenge for me. This EP was basically an attempt to show people that I’m a producer and a singer, and I have a vision and something to say and am capable of saying it on my own. I’m hoping that once the EP is out, that people will know that I’m a part of every aspect on this whole EP. The project shows that it’s strong enough to contribute. Now that I’ve done that though, I think I’m going to focus on remixes more.

 Connect With Collin: Facebook | Twitter | Soundcloud

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