Check Out Missingno’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Missingno.

Missingno, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin? 

My story begins in middle school. I had an iPod like most people and I used to download songs from Limewire, Frostwire, etc. Towards the end of high school, 2011-2012, my little brother put me onto Odd Future and I started listening to their mixtapes. That got me started with listening to full projects, so I had started going back and listening to albums from my favorite artists. In the process I discovered many more songs that I love to this day. I’d literally be stuck “digesting” an album for months at a time and I became a low level music nerd around that time.

I stayed at that level of “really appreciating music, but not making it myself” until I started taking college classes at UT Austin around 2013-2014. I made some friends there who make music – Lil Simba & Upper Reality – and I would hang out with them all the time. By doing so I was inadvertently living an artist lifestyle – watching them make beats, going to performances, helping record music videos, everything. And I fell in love with it without knowing. Eventually, I began learning how to make beats myself by watching YouTube videos and I just kept going. In the years since then, I’ve continued to produce and I learned how to record my own vocals and how to do a rough mix. Overall, I just made sure I continued to have a student’s mindset where I’m eager to learn and improve.

Has it been a smooth road? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?

It definitely has not been a smooth road. At the beginning, I struggled a lot with impostor’s syndrome, especially seeing my friends who (I assume) had fully embraced being an artist as part of their identity. I felt like a copycat who just wanted to do what the “cool kids” were doing and I wasn’t sure if I was serious about it like they were. I particularly had a difficult time calling myself an artist and putting my face out there as far as taking pictures, videos, performing, or anything where people had to look at me. Let’s not even talk about social media because I outright used to refuse to do it.

The next major struggle I had was figuring out how to improve the quality of my music. At this stage I was trying to figure out how my favorite artists got their music to sound a certain way and elicit a specific feeling. I guess I was trying to find out how to make my music “hit” like theirs did. For where I am right now, my biggest struggles are figuring out how to improve my marketing skills in order to cut through the noise and getting my business together with merch and performances.

We’d love to learn more about your work. What do you do, what do you specialize in, what are you known for, etc. What are you most proud of? What sets you apart from others?

I am a producer, singer, and rapper. The vibe of my music is generally chill but it can be emotional too. I used to draw the bulk of my emotional experiences from a place of negativity, so a lot of the lyrics in my earlier work tend to be sad. However, I’ve been moving past that and recently have been writing more about other things like love or telling stories.

I think what makes me stand out is my production. The bedrock of my sound is something I call “808-Bit”, which is a blend of Pop, Hip-Hop / R&B, and 8-Bit / Chiptune (a synth popularized by 90’s video games like Pokémon, Super Mario Bros., Donkey Kong, Sonic The Hedgehog, etc.). Overall it gives my music a “game-ish” feel but with 808’s so it still has a modern sound.

I am proudest of my most recent single, Energy, and a previous song I had written called Light. I say these two songs because I believe these are the best sounding songs that I’ve released, from a technical standpoint and because these two songs show growth in songwriting. Though these songs touch on a similar topic, Light addresses it from a perspective of melancholy with a little bit of hope and Energy addresses it from a perspective of motivation and continued growth. Looking back on those two songs shows me how much I’ve grown musically and emotionally, and I consider them as my major milestones.

Are there any apps, books, podcasts, blogs or other resources that help you do your best in life (at work or otherwise)?

For music marketing as an independent artist, I occasionally listen to the No Labels Necessary podcast. For overall music business insights, I listen to Trapital. For learning how to produce and improve music I’d say YouTube. TikTok likely has similar information on it but I know for a fact that YouTube does. I’d just directly type in the name of the DAW or VST you’re looking for and start searching from there.

As far as just helping yourself be a better human, I swear up and down by the iPhone Notes app. I type down almost every single business or personal idea I have in that app. But you can’t just stop there, you have to actually go through those ideas and start executing them. No joke I have a 100+ page document on Google Docs full of ideas that I go through, organize, and execute on.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://missingnomusic.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/missingno_music
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/missingno.musics
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/missingno_music
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@missingno_music
• SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/missingno_music
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/05sTASai4TIrPSRQgfycx9

Image Credits
Quaneia Murphy