Piano since age four
Piano is where I learned how music is put together. Everything I make now started here.
Add 1–2 sentences: what piano taught you that you still use when you make a song.
Music + technology portfolio · Andy Dominge
A Man &
C Monster
I've played piano since I was four. Now I write, record, mix and release rap songs from a laptop — five so far, each one built with better tools and better technique than the last.
- 5
- songs released
- 16
- months, first song to latest
- Age 4
- started piano
- 8
- streaming platforms
01 · How it started
Piano first. Then a Rickroll. Then a barbershop.
I Rickrolled my piano recital
I performed all of “Never Gonna Give You Up” as my recital piece. Rick Astley saw the video and sent me this signed photo.
Add 1 sentence: what happened in the room, or what this taught you about performing.
First songs, made with my barber
My rap songs began as collaborations with my barber. We worked on them wherever we could, including in the chair.
Add 1–2 sentences: how the collaboration started and who does what.
02 · The songs
Five songs, oldest to newest.
Listen in order to hear the change. The first three are made entirely by hand in GarageBand. The last two use AI-generated beats under my own writing, vocals and mix.
Phase 1 Everything by hand in GarageBand
-
01
Where's Your Drip At?
- Beat built in GarageBand
- Vocals me
- Mix me, GarageBand
1–2 sentences: what this song is about and the hardest thing about making your first one.
-
02
Without You
- Beat built in GarageBand
- Vocals me
- Mix me, GarageBand
1–2 sentences: what you tried here that you didn't on song one.
-
03
Drippy Christmas
- Beat built in GarageBand
- Vocals me
- Mix me, GarageBand
1–2 sentences: what improved in the mix by song three, and the limit you hit that pushed you to try new tools.
Phase 2 AI-generated beats, my vocals and mix
-
04
Drippy Christmas, Pt. 2 feat. Lil Porcupine P
- Beat AI-generated with Tad
- Vocals me
- Mix me, GarageBand
1–2 sentences: why you switched to an AI beat, and how you got it to sound the way you wanted.
-
05
High-Endy
- Beat AI-generated with Tad
- Vocals me
- Mix me, GarageBand
1–2 sentences: what makes this your best mix so far. Point to something a listener can hear.
03 · How a song gets made
From an idea to eight platforms.
Every song goes through the same pipeline. I run every step myself.
- WriteLyrics and structureMe
- BeatGarageBand (songs 1–3)
Tad (songs 4–5)Me, then AI - RecordVocals into GarageBandMe
- Clean upAdobe PodcastAI-assisted
- MixGarageBandMe
- Cover artChatGPT, GeminiAI, my direction
- ReleaseDistroKidMe
What I do
- Write every lyric and decide how each song is structured
- Perform and record all of my own vocals
- Built the beats for the first three songs from scratch
- Mix every song in GarageBand, which is where most of the improvement from song to song comes from
- Handle distribution to every platform through DistroKid
Where I use AI
- Beats for songs four and five, generated with Tad, which raised the production quality
- Vocal clean-up with Adobe Podcast, so the recordings come through clearly
- Cover art for every release, generated with ChatGPT and Gemini
What this taught me about engineering
- Lesson 1, e.g. choosing the right tool for each step instead of doing everything the hard way.
- Lesson 2, e.g. iterating: what you changed between versions of a mix and how you judged it.
- Lesson 3, e.g. why this makes you want to study computer science / engineering.
04 · Listen
Hear the full catalog.
Also on Amazon Music, Pandora, SoundCloud, iTunes and iHeartRadio. Search “A Man & C Monster”.