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R2RB Podcast - Women Entrepreneurs and Indie Artists Series
Where Indie Artists and Women Entrepreneurs share their journeys.
We sit down with indie musicians from diverse genres, shedding light on their personal and professional experiences. From the euphoria of their first gigs to the challenges of carving a niche in the industry, R2RB Podcast is your backstage pass to these rising stars' raw and unfiltered narratives.
We also embark on a journey of Women Entrepreneurs and share their inspiration, amplifying the voices and stories of remarkable women entrepreneurs. Join us as we delve into the worlds of visionary leaders, innovators, and trailblazers who are rewriting the rules and reshaping industries.
We look forward to sharing your journey!
‘RSSVERIFY’
R2RB Podcast - Women Entrepreneurs and Indie Artists Series
iLuCidi - Darek Nilsson - Producer & Artist from Sweden
Join us as we welcome Sweden's Darek Nilsson, iLuCidi, music producer and artist. From his early days cooking at his mother's restaurant to owning his establishment, Darek's journey is a testament to resilience and passion. He shares insights on managing his time between a bustling restaurant and his musical endeavors while maintaining a solid online presence.
In this episode, Darek also delves into his life as an indie artist, discussing his latest release, "iAdrenaline" and his plans to perform live as a DJ. We explore an exciting project involving a multilingual summer song and his reflective track "iSurvived," which speaks to themes of life and resilience. Darek provides invaluable advice for aspiring indie artists, emphasizing persistence and passion. We wrap up with a lively chat about his adventures in Las Vegas and his philosophy on enjoying life to the fullest. Don’t miss this inspiring conversation that highlights the joy of pursuing what you love.
https://linktr.ee/deblamotta
Hi and welcome to the R2RB podcast series. Today I have with me Derek Nilsson, otherwise known as I Love City With Me, and Derek lives in Sweden and I am so happy to have you join me here today. And how are you?
Speaker 2:I'm very good and thank you for having me, Debra.
Speaker 1:Oh, you are so welcome, so let me ask you this who is Derek Nilsson by day? So let me ask you this who is Derek Nilsson?
Speaker 2:by day by day, I work at a restaurant, I have my own restaurant and I mostly, to 99%, do all the cooking in the restaurant.
Speaker 1:Wow. So, I'm a chef and I have been a chef for 29 years now. Oh my gosh, were you always in the kitchen before you got into the restaurant business?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it started very much like that, because my mother was the one that taught me how to cook and how to do food. So we started as a child and at her restaurant. Oh, wow, yeah. And then I took that restaurant over about 25 years ago and have had it since.
Speaker 1:And is it all Swedish specialties?
Speaker 2:It's actually very mixed all the time. I choose to change the menu two times a year and do different stuff. So we have American steaks, we have Swedish meatballs. Of course, many, many have tried that from IKEA, I think but that's one that always sells much.
Speaker 1:Yeah, wow yeah, Swedish meatballs. So my great-grandparents were from Sweden, so I've had a little taste of Swedish food. Yeah yeah, so very nice. Oh, that's great, but you have a very busy day, though, I know. Do you work seven days a week at the restaurant?
Speaker 2:I used to, but like four or five years ago, I decided that I cannot do that anymore. I did work like that for about 20 years that I had a little bit of vacation but mostly worked seven days a week.
Speaker 1:Wow, and then how did you get into the music side of it all?
Speaker 2:It was the music that was my number one passion when I was a small child and also that was how I started in the nightclubs and playing as a DJ. I worked a little bit in the bar, always in the entertainment business. Yes.
Speaker 1:Yes business.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, so I did that already when I was 12, 13, 14 years old and played it at the nightclubs. There was much longer older people like 21, 22, 23 and I was the DJ and doing the music had a feeling for like what people wanted on the dance floor and I I did that, did my own beats and things like that.
Speaker 1:So then you took all that and decided to do what.
Speaker 2:Well, you know, in that time it wasn't that easy to follow that passion and make a living. I needed to pay my bills and the easiest way was was to, because of my mother that was in the restaurant business also.
Speaker 1:so yeah it was the the choice I had to make in that time and so then you, you still are cooking, you still are our chef, you still have the restaurant and you still do the music full-time, or is it part-time, or how do you fit this all together?
Speaker 2:yeah, the music takes much time, but I think more more time takes the promotion and trying to find my audience. That takes almost more time than producing the music, because producing the music is fun, it's something that you just really enjoy, but the promotion I think that takes very much time and energy from yourself. But food is my passion also, like like my music was when I was small and now when I took off a little bit more time from my restaurant, I'm like on Monday to Thursday a little bit free, just mostly in the office, and I do mostly all the cooking in the restaurant Friday, saturday and Sundays.
Speaker 1:Okay, so you found a balance, then, between the chef in you and the and the musician in you, and then, out of all that came Ilu City.
Speaker 2:Exactly, and yeah, nowadays it's. It's something that I do very much and bring many nights, sleepless nights, to just doing the music.
Speaker 1:What's the story behind the name?
Speaker 2:Like I said, I Lucid. It comes from the Lucid name and I always liked the name. But a couple of years ago when I started to be like now, I have to find a balance in my life. I cannot work seven days a week and not have time for my family, not have time for everything. So it just opened my eyes when I realized that life is very short. You have to try to find a balance, to try to have so much fun and follow your passion, your passion, as much as you can yeah, absolutely, and just real quick.
Speaker 1:Back to marketing and promoting yourself. Um. So many of the indie artists, that's what you do. You promote yourself, you record yourselves, um, you release your your songs singles, eps, albums yourselves. Um, and I just know for myself with the r2rb, just doing the promoting that I do for that, and I work a full-time job too. It's it's almost like by the end of of the week I'm like I want to turn the world off exactly, and it's.
Speaker 2:It's not so easy because the, the social media are everywhere. Yes, yes, and it is. So all are different. You, you have the Instagram, the Facebook, you have the YouTube and you have to try to be on all of them and that takes so much energy, so much time. We indie people have to do that because we don't have a big label behind us that does that for us. So I would rather do my music and have my passion and fun than doing the promotion. But if I don't do the promotion, then nobody listens to me right.
Speaker 1:And then when you, when you don't do that for a day or two, the algorithm just drops.
Speaker 2:So it just drops, yeah yeah, yeah, so it that's a full-time job in itself exactly, and that's probably how the social media like say like okay, if you're not here and you're just doing the movement online, we're gonna drop you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's what happens. It's crazy, and I know again, speaking with indie artists, how hard you all work to keep that going. It's crazy, so you write your own songs as well.
Speaker 2:Yes, I write my own songs, but I'm not a real singer. So to do my really full songs that are a little bit more vocal, then I have to begin to work with some other vocalists and musicians.
Speaker 1:And so you bring it all together. Do you all come together, or do they send you pieces, tracks to incorporate into?
Speaker 2:do they send you pieces, tracks to incorporate into? Well, right now it's only pieces and things like that, but I'm trying to find somebody to work with that can be like my partner in in in the vocal, vocal art and I'm I be the musician and doing the music behind it yeah, there's nothing like collaborating right and collaboration is wonderful, yeah yeah, absolutely, and you're, I'm sorry, I'm sorry it brings people together and makes you so many more friends absolutely.
Speaker 1:I just um, I was speaking with an indie artist here from delaware and that was something he had said as well. When you're collaborating, then you can get all the collaborators, friends and all their contacts, and it just helps do even with your promotions as well, to have somebody else helping you exactly, and you cannot do anything alone in this life.
Speaker 2:You know, because you have to have collaboration, you have to have people supporting you and you have to support other people. If you do that you understand that you cannot do anything alone then you're going to stand alone and probably you're not going to succeed with nothing.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and I also find that the indie artists are so supportive of each other here, Sweden, all over. You all support each other. You all come together, which I just think is fabulous. It's fantastic. It's yeah, so what is it about the electronic genre that drew you in?
Speaker 2:Well, it's the variety of it, because when I hear a melody I don't hear it in piano, because I mostly begin always in a piano, but I don't hear that melody sounds how I want it before I try like 50, 100 different synths and then find the one that is in my head for the right melody. So that's why I always loved just the electronic when it came, because I was doing the piano when I was younger, because I was doing the piano when I was younger, but it just didn't feel right because I didn't have all the right melodies from the piano. I needed the synths. When the synths came with studios and you could change and use so many of the different synths, then you had the possibility to like oh, this is the right tune, exactly the right tune that I wanted in my head.
Speaker 1:Wow, that is great. What was the first song that you put all together?
Speaker 2:Oh, I did songs when I was younger, but that's like in that time you had to burn drums on floppy disks. Then they didn't work that good in that time and sometimes when you were like finished with one song or almost finished with one song, then something happened to the computer and all the songs was just lost. Oh wow, but they still do the same melodies, the same melodies they do now. I did when, I was younger.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's timeless. It's timeless, Absolutely. Who inspires you in the music world?
Speaker 2:It's everybody, it's actually so many new indie people I find all the time they have the communication, because for me music is feelings and if they put their feelings inside the music and you just put it out, then it brings some feelings in me. Then, yeah, I follow so many different artists and I cannot pick one. I have so many, we follow so many different artists and I cannot pick one.
Speaker 1:I have so many. Well, the thing that I always say is that never not listen to a genre just because you think you're not going to like it, because you're going to miss so many great artists, singers, songwriters and musicians if you just close down to so many great genres out there and I think nowadays everything is crossing over anyway.
Speaker 2:It is and it is like for me. I never have a genre. I do mostly electronic music for me, but when I listen to music, I listen to all music because it's is it good for me, then it's it's that song that I want to hear, and it's all different genres from from. It can be from rock to be slow songs. I have a very, very wide taste in music yeah, I do too.
Speaker 1:That's why I think I got into doing what I'm doing, which is crazy, but I have always loved all different genres and music, um, and then now I get to talk to all of you yeah, and, and we to you, and it's fun yeah, and this is yeah I like it.
Speaker 1:I like the social part also maybe not the social promotion, but the social part with the, with the people yeah, the interaction, the one-on-one, or even with the groups, and then supporting. You know all the indies that we do out there. Um, what do you want your audiences to experience with your music? What do you want them to feel?
Speaker 2:Well, I like to party and I'm often in clubs or something, and I know what kind of music I want to dance to when it comes to a really good party, and that's what I want to do. I want to do the dancing music for people.
Speaker 1:I like it because I like to dance too. So if you can get me, get me up and moving, I'm happy would be no problem.
Speaker 2:So I'm in us. We go to a club and move on the dance floor.
Speaker 1:That's it. Let's go. One of the questions I've been asking is about ai and how the indie artists are feeling about it how the indie artists are feeling about it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a really tough topic. I don't use I, but because for me it's my feelings that I have to bring out in the melody. And if I do the melody for you, then you didn't bring it out and then you didn't give that feeling to the, to the song, that's.
Speaker 1:That's the most different I can imagine yeah, I think I think from when, you know, a year, year and a half ago, when it when it came out full force, I think it's definitely changed on how people are using it and looking at it. I think it can be a great tool and it will be a great tool, and there'll be always somebody who's going to use it in the wrong way, exactly.
Speaker 2:If you use it as a tool to just enhance your emotions in the music and not let the AI do the whole song for you, then it's a tool. But if somebody don't have the melodies, don't have the performance in their head and brings out the song and just lets AI do 90 percent of the song, then it wasn't your song.
Speaker 1:Right, exactly so. Your newest release is I adrenaline.
Speaker 2:yeah, I've been listening yeah, that one I like. It brings out very good party feelings for me, and it's a little bit like you're going as fast as you can in a car and you have the police chasing you and you just want to get out there you go, get that heart pumping yeah, a little bit like that oh, oh, my gosh.
Speaker 1:Yeah, how's it doing?
Speaker 2:uh, it's performing, but it's. It takes sometimes very long time and it's the thing. I have to promote it every time. So if I'm working in the restaurant for three or four days and I don't have so much time for the social media, then it drops and then I have a little bit of free time, then I do the promotion and then I have to find also the time to do the music, because that's where my passion is. So it's a balance. You have to balance also the time to do the music, because that's where my passion is. So it's a balance. You have to balance all the time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, so far it's working for you.
Speaker 2:The thing is that I want to start to perform again as a DJ and as a performing artist to the end of this year and start taking bookings, and that's where I think I'm going to find my audience more like meet the audience and then, if they like my music and what I do there, they're going to follow me in the more of the Spotify and all of that.
Speaker 1:Oh, that would be fantastic. You'll never sleep. Are you working on a new release?
Speaker 2:Yes, I've been working on it. This is an interesting one because I'm working on a summer song and the thing is that I'm working with making it in different languages, the same song. We'll see how it goes, but it should come out in June sometime.
Speaker 1:Oh cool. Are you working, are you collaborating with somebody on that one?
Speaker 2:No, that one. I'm not collaborating yet, so I have to find my tools for that. But we'll see.
Speaker 1:Have you started translating into other languages and how do you find that experience?
Speaker 2:Well, I like theanish language very much, but I cannot do, I cannot speak that so much yet. So we see, but the thing is that I want to do it in spanish oh cool, do you speak other languages? I speak polish okay and swedish because my mother was from Poland so she taught me Polish and my father is Swedish, so I speak fluent Swedish and the English is going a little bit better.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, no, hey. I love when I get to speak to other people that can speak more than one language. That's always I love that. I love languages. Yeah, Well, that's pretty cool. I like that. I like the project of you translating. Are you gonna translate it into other languages besides? What are you doing?
Speaker 2:Swedish, English, Spanish the idea is to have the song and it's a really good summer song, like really good party song and the idea was to have it in Polish and in Spanish and Swedish Can use the languages that I know. The idea was to have it in Polish and in Spanish and Swedish. I can use the languages that I know.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's cool. So you're going to be singing it in all the different languages yourself.
Speaker 2:I'm not sure. We'll see it depends. It depends because, as I said, I'm not a singer, I'm more like the producer and doing the music and the tunes and the melody.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:So we'll see what happens. Maybe you have some friends that sing for me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we could work on that. We'll find somebody for you.
Speaker 2:I have a.
Speaker 1:Do you have a favorite song that you have written of your own?
Speaker 2:I have so many of them I would say I survived. I think it's one of the deepest songs I did for myself and, yeah, it's an important song for me.
Speaker 1:Can you tell us a little bit about the background? Sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's just like what is the most important thing in life. And you know, when you're sometimes close, some things happen and, like it did for me a couple of times in my life, that makes you realize that life is very short. You have to enjoy it and just don't care about the small things because they're not so important. The important thing is your family having fun, your friends. That's so much more important.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely, wow, absolutely. I didn't put this on the list of questions, but what advice would you give another indie artist starting out in the business?
Speaker 2:well, never to give up, because, as you say, if you don't do the social media every day five, six hours a day, then facebook drops you and you, you don't get to communicate anymore, right? And then then it can feel like a backdrop that yeah, it's so much energy to try to find your audience. So just don't give up, because you're going to find your audience. It's just hard, but that's the most important thing, I think. Don't give up when it feels like, ok, nobody is listening. Then take a free day off and then on it again.
Speaker 2:never give up I agree, and even with myself, with the r2rb, I can tell you honestly, I quit every other week yeah, it's a little bit like okay, nobody is listening, so you can feel, but but I'm always been like that, I never give up If you want to go for it. It takes time and sacrifice.
Speaker 1:And if it's your passion, then you're going to fight for it and continue on, and I think, with indie artists, you just have to continue to work at it to get it where you want it yeah, and if you don't do that, you will never be better either, because we all evolve, evolve all the time.
Speaker 2:So the more we do, the more we play, the more we do our melodies and we bring out emotions through music, the better we get at it. And when we was when born, we couldn't do the bicycle, but then we learned how to do it and then we got better at it, and the same as me as a chef. I was not the best chef when I started, but I'm hoping I'm pretty good now.
Speaker 1:You've had a few years experience.
Speaker 2:You've had a few years experience. Exactly, if you don't train, you don't find new stuff, new things to do in your songs. If you don't do that and you just give up, then you will never get better.
Speaker 1:No, and it's with everything in life. If you don't continue to get out and do twice different things, you're just going to sit there and go nowhere.
Speaker 2:So exactly and the same. If you of you not open for collaboration and having much friends alone, you will never succeed with nothing absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 1:And the indie artists are so open and, um, you know, if and I I can't talk either along the way, I've had different questions about different genres, different music, different instruments, how it's produced, engineered, mixed, mastered and released, and anytime that, you know, I reach out to an indie artist and ask a question, um, they don't hesitate to answer, and which is great for me because I'm still learning to answer, and which is great for me because I'm still learning.
Speaker 1:You're doing very good, thank you. Thank you. Why don't you let everybody know where they can contact you, derek?
Speaker 2:uh, well, the facebook is the best one. There is my email number and, uh, spotify. Because for us indie artists, there is no more better support than listening to our songs. Because most of us don't do it for the money, because there is no money in Spotify to earn, because we do it from the passion.
Speaker 2:That's why we bring new songs. But we bring new songs also to have them be listened by. So the best support you can give us is to listen to our music and if you like it, follow us. And if you like it very much, then just support us and maybe buy a hat or something.
Speaker 1:Exactly. Do you have merch for sale as well?
Speaker 2:Not so much yet, but I'm beginning to get a little bit now. So that's a little bit how I'm thinking. I'm beginning to perform out on the clubs. I will have some merch with me and if somebody wants to have it, I will be. Oh good.
Speaker 1:I'll have to buy one. You can ship it over to the States. Have you been to the States? Have you been over here?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was a while now. As I said, I worked very much in my life before, so I didn't have so much time, but I was there once, and it was a long time ago. I was in Las Vegas and had much party and fun there.
Speaker 1:Great place to visit. I've been there as well.
Speaker 2:No sleep, no sleep in Las vegas.
Speaker 1:I can tell you that none, but it's fun and that's what you go there for right exactly so.
Speaker 2:I always try to have so much fun in my life and, uh, and me and my wife, we, as we, as we have a chance we have, try to have fun together oh good, that's so good.
Speaker 1:Oh, my goodness. Gracious derek nielsen, thank you so much for being here with me. You're welcome on the r2rb podcast series. I will be following you and I look forward to your much success in both genres chefing and music thank you, also important to have fun doing that. Absolutely, absolutely, because life, like you said, is too short.
Speaker 2:It's too short not to have fun.
Speaker 1:That's right, that's right. Thank you, derek.
