Sound Advice: Laila!

Making waves in the alternative R&B scene, the Brooklyn native discusses becoming a self-taught producer, promoting her music and navigating viral moments.

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Welcome to Sound Advice, the series spotlighting artists’ creative process and their SoundCloud journey. We’ll get the inside knowledge straight from the source on how musicians, producers and creatives are leaning into everything Next Pro offers to elevate their sound, reach the right audience and catapult their careers. Sound Advice is now available in audio format on the SoundCloud Stories profile. 

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If you’re a fan of Aaliyah or Brent Faiyaz, SZA or Brandy, you’re gonna love Laila!’s music. Laila! is one of the most exciting new talents to come out of Brooklyn this year. During the pandemic, Laila taught herself how to produce in GarageBand, inspired by Frank Ocean and Tyler the Creator. Just two years later, she’s already hit the Billboard charts for the first time with “Not My Problem,” a summery bop that just landed at No. 25 on the Hot R&B list.

While her career is just getting started, it’s undeniably clear she’s already got a really good ear for melodies and rhythms, riding her irresistible voice over self-made beats inspired by R&B, hip-hop, lo-fi and Jersey club. And she’s no stranger to going viral either, using SoundCloud alongside social media to promote beat challenges, flips and pre-release clips to engage fans. While in the midst of working on her debut album, we got a chance to catch up with Laila! in New York City to talk about her creative process, how she likes to engage with creators on SoundCloud and how doing it yourself can often lead to the best results.

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Listen to the audio episode of Sound Advice, featuring Laila!:

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Listen to Laila!’s ‘All Songs!’ playlist:

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Things We Talked About In This Episode of Sound Advice

• How Tyler, the Creator and Frank Ocean’s music inspired Laila! to teach herself how to produce using GarageBand and led her to upload her music to SoundCloud for the first time.
• Her journey discovering her sound through trial and error, from experimenting with different techniques to incorporating different musical influences.
• Building an audio library of sounds that represent her and what her workflow as a producer and creative is like.
• How Laila! strategically uses social media platforms like TikTok in conjunction with SoundCloud to gain awareness and drive fans back to her music on SoundCloud.
• The importance of responding to comments to build community and get to know her audience, as well as how she has navigated viral moments on social media.
• Organizing a beat challenge around her song, “Not My Problem,” to encourage fellow producers to remix the song, and how the beat challenge played a pivotal role both in helping the song grow and reach more listeners.
• Growing up in Brooklyn and how New York’s engrained hip-hop culture serves as a source of endless inspiration.
• How Laila! channels her creativity through other mediums, such as making DIY music videos and creating visuals to pair with her releases.
• Her best advice for artists, including what has been the most encouraging piece of insight she’s gained from working with acclaimed A&R and music executive, Sickamore.

Links and Extras

Listen to “Like That!” by Laila! on SoundCloud.

Check out Laila!’s favorites from the “Not My Problem” beat challenge.

Follow Laila!’s journey on SoundCloud.

Vibe out to some of Laila’s key influences: Tyler the Creator, Frank Ocean and Aaliyah, to name a few.

Listen to the Emerging R&B: Closer playlist on SoundCloud.

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GETTING THE MOST OUT OF SOUNDCLOUD

1. Learn more about using DMs to connect with fellow artists and potential collaborators.
2. Learn more about searching your own Likes on SoundCloud.
3. Learn more about using private tracks on SoundCloud.
4. Learn more about getting started with Insights on SoundCloud.
5. Learn more about Advanced Insights, available to Artist Pro subscribers.
6. Learn more about unlimited uploads, available with a Artist Pro subscription.
7. Learn more unlocking access to unlimited distribution, available with Artist Pro.

‍To discover additional features a SoundCloud Artist Pro subscription offers, visit here. To catch up on past installments of Sound Advice and make sure you don’t miss out on future episodes, visit here.

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_{CREDITS Host: Vivian Host, Executive Producer: Mike Spinella. Producer: KC Orcutt. Audio Engineer: David “DibS” Shackney. Coordinator: Trevor McGee}