There’s a thing elite NBA players always talk about. The great ones don’t score harder than everyone else, they score easier. They’ve spent so much time on the same moves, the same footwork, the same reads, that what looks effortless is actually thousands of reps deep. When KD or Curry gets a bucket the defender could do everything right and the shot still goes in. That's the result of working out the same shot, the same step-back, the same release angle, every day, for years.
I think about music the same way.
Most people assume making a beat that sounds effortless requires effort in the moment… that you’re sweating over every choice made. Some of that’s true but the reality is that you’re not making it sound effortless now you’re cashing in on the years you spent figuring out how to get from point A to point B with as little resistance as possible.
🎹 Chapters
00:00 — Intro
00:44 — Pizzicato Strings
01:26 — Rhodes
02:07 — NBA & Music Parallels
03:18 — Bass
04:39 — Drums
05:53 — Piano Bell Synth
06:48 — Synth
10:37 — Synth Pluck
11:11 — Arrangement
Whatever lives inside Heaven's Gate — the project, the collection, the world. If you've never sat with that part of the catalog, this is a good door in.
Heaven's Gate is the album where Drew and his crew try to build something real while the world keeps trying to snatch it back.
The casino at the center of it — Heaven's Gate itself — is where the deal gets made.
Album: Heaven’s Gate
Artist: DrewsThatDude
Producer: DrewsThatDude
Label: We Had Our Time
Released: 5/31/24
Genre: R&B,Soul,Dance,Electronic
The Full Breakdown
For paid subscribers: The complete instrument and FX list for Whatever. Every plugin and what each layer was doing in the arrangement.
It’s the kind of thing I wish existed for the records I came up studying and it transfers wherever you make music — Reason, Ableton, Logic, FL, hardware.
If you’re a producer trying to figure out how WHOT records get built, or just curious about what’s actually inside the sound, this is where that material lives now.
Either way — thanks for being here! The work continues.
— Drew
Get the breakdown and first looks at everything else — inside the studio.
The Heaven’s Gate Collection — 12 zodiac guardians, Illustrated by Bryson Boutte
11/12 signs complete.
