Miss Dre’s Advice to Producers: “You Just Need to Get Your First Track Out”
Miss Dre (real name Drea Kaplan) is known to most for her hard-hitting tech house sound as a producer, vocalist, and DJ. She has released on renowned labels like Farris Wheel, HARD Records, My Techno Weighs a Ton, and many more over the course of her career.
Hits like “Technocality” and “Down Like Me” didn’t always come easily to Miss Dre, however. Like other great producers, she had to find her footing as a musician first. “When I turned 20, I got my first DAW, Logic,” she said during Gray Area’s Spotlight interview. “I was dabbling, trying to figure it out. Production did not come easy for me. It took me a lot of work to learn to produce and make a good track that keeps dancers engaged. After two years, I moved to Ableton, and I felt way more creative. Then, I got a mentor and started going from there.”
Perfection takes time, even if a scroll through Instagram might make you think that every idea a producer like Miss Dre puts down is a winner. But that wasn’t the case for the Dirtybird flock member. She unveiled her first single "Down Like Me" on SoundCloud holding her breath, hoping for a hit. “I only released my first song after I'd made at least 100 tracks,” she says. “It was daunting for me to release my first track. I wanted people to perceive me as a good producer, but looking back in retrospect, you just need to get your first track out. Because it's just going to set you off, and you're going to make 1,000 more tracks after that one.”
Combating the imposter syndrome that comes with creativity is a challenge for everyone, even Miss Dre. She recalls that with the release of her first song, she was “so in my head, and now my sound doesn't even sound like that anymore” because “artists are always growing.” With hard work and dedication, Miss Dre has found her niche and has fully cemented herself as a tastemaker in tech house.
