The Echio Quizz with Jex Opolis

Hey, what's up, Jex Opolis here. So questions for producers

How did you learn music and did you have mentors?

Well, I took piano lessons. My mom is a singer, and she made me take piano lessons from age six to about 14. And at that point, I started taking guitar lessons. And so I learned Suzuki method, which is ear training. So I learned how to pick out chords and songs. And when I learned guitar, I would sit at home and listen to Smiths albums and learn, you know, Johnny Marr's guitar lines or try to and Have I had mentors? Yeah, I mean, obviously piano lessons helps and guitar lessons helps. But I worked with a lot of different people and bands and watching people and bands and having sound guys told me that I sucked and that I sounded like crap. That helped. And then in about 2010, I worked with a producer in Toronto named Roger Leven at boombox sound, and he showed me the fine art of EQing and how to use sub bass and layering to make your sounds and songs sound really big.

If you were not making music what would you do?

I would have day job, and for most of my life I have had a day job. So if I wasn't making music, I would be working.

If you could spend a day in the studio with one of your heroes, who would it be?

I’ll say Flood because he's an amazing producer, or Bernard Sumner from New Order because he's such a great singer and it'd be fun to collab. with, with a singer like that.

What is my secret weapon?

My secret weapon is live instruments. You can't replicate live instrumentation. And a lot of my music. I use guitars and pianos and I even sing sometimes.So I think that gives my music the human touch, if you will. And so that helps a lot.

What’s the special object in your studio that you can’t live without ?

It's my Patch Bay map because I'm a bit of a left brain guy, so I need this to keep track of all the inputs in the studio. Otherwise, I wouldn't know what was playing and I would never finish any music.

What was your worst / funniest performance experience ?

I’ll go back to the band days when I played guitar in a band and we drove 9 hours for a show to make 100 bucks between four of us, and it was supposed to be $100. And when we got when we got to the club, we played our set. There was like three people there, it was a snowstorm. Um, and at the end of the gig, the manager, the club manager, he only paid me 50. And I said, Dude, it was supposed to be 100. And he said, Yeah, well, here's 50. It'll take you less time to count it. So that was probably my worst or funniest musical experience.

Any ritual before creating music?

It is to just make time for it. I don't have any special yoga or wellness or walk or anything like that but I just need to make time to do it and then everything flows from there.

What would you say to your younger self?

I would say to my younger self to work harder. Basically, I've been given every opportunity to be good at music. Like I said, piano lessons, guitar lessons, and I feel like I dicked around a lot and didn't really make the most of my practice time as a younger person. So I would tell myself, work harder.