Meet Connor “Noams” Riley | Music producer & Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Connor “Noams” Riley and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Connor, how has your work-life balance changed over time?
For a long time I didn’t really have a balance. By the time I got to NYC for school in 2016, my whole life revolved around my work. It had started as my passion, the thing I wanted to do ALL the time, and as it consumed my life I didn’t see it as a bad thing since I was doing what I loved and I know that one has to make sacrifices to do what they love.

At some point, though, most people realize that there is more to life than their career goals and as Louis Armstrong said, “choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life” it’s actually a lot of work in practice… But life mostly happens outside of work and that doesn’t change just because you’re in a career you’re passionate about. It’s still work that deserves ample recuperation.

When it comes to what a good balance is, the number values change for each person depending on a lot of factors, but the one overarching lesson that seems to permeate any style is separation of work and, non-work time.

The creativity that builds businesses, art, our personalities, etc. must be fed through experience. These days, I make sure that I get outside each day and appreciate the beauty of the world; real life fuels creativity. I’ve used the trial and error of the last few months making my own schedule to find out what works best for my flow. For instance, I work best at night, my brain is the most active then. For a long time I tried to get to sleep at a certain time, get up early, get working from the jump but my work would almost always inevitably take longer because my focus isn’t that sharp in the early day, the work would flow over the allotted time, and then my mind would be full of what I needed to do while I was trying to wind down or sleep. So these days I use the early day to hike, bike, run, or do whatever “life” thing I’m doing that day, and then get to work after I’ve given myself time to ramp up my energy and enjoy being a human.

As a final note, I’d like to reference the book “Be Where Your Feet Are” by Scott O’Neal which says that there is no such thing as balance, there is only being exactly where you are, exactly in the moment you’re in, and I try to practice that in life. I’ve half-and-halved a lot of tasks and it’s almost never efficient. Be in the moment you’re in. If you’re working, focus; if you’re relaxing, relax, and so on and so forth.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I am very proud and excited about the rest of this 52 Weeks 52 Releases project. For years, I would sit on tracks that were basically done because they weren’t perfect and as those songs piled up, I didn’t know what to do with them or how to go about releasing them. Max Civils was the one to really push me to take on the project (inspired by Russ), and it has been so rewarding in many ways. I started the project to combat my perfectionism and push myself technically and creatively, but at the same time, my listenership has gone up immensely, engagement on Tik Tok is steadily growing, people are finally starting to see my abilities as a cinematic, “no-genre” artist, and my artist work is reaching more people which not only allows more people to experience these new sounds but opens me up to do more production/mixing, or production/mixing lessons for smaller artists which is one of my passions as well. In the rest of the project, I have collaborations with Henry Thr!ll, Durow, Amelia Murray, Cory Wade, Lea Louisa, and many with my close collaborator, Lyda. I’m also a digital artist, and I create a piece of artwork each week that becomes the cover for that single. You can find the songs and art here: https://noamsmusic.com/releases
The first unique side of me as an artist is that I take a unique approach to music in my production process and my performances. I don’t believe in genres; that’s not to say they don’t exist, or aren’t helpful for categorizing music, but I personally don’t like to allow them to guide my own music. Over the past 28 weeks I’ve released 28 songs of genres ranging from dance pop, to trap, to rap, to lo-fi, to punk, with so much more to come, but the through line tends to be a cinematic, dramatic, or unexpected nature in the music.

Music always gave me what I needed at any moment. Maybe I was preparing for an athletic event, I needed energy and the music gave me that, maybe I needed to relax, or just feel my feelings, or just bop for a while; music has always given me what I needed and I want to give that to other people. When I start a show, I always present the same sentiment: “for the next hour, all I am going to ask of you is that you let yourself be your genuine self. Forget whatever is happening around us for a while and let yourself be you. Can you do that for me??” I want to make people feel what they need to feel.

Another unique side of me is that many times, when producing, I follow the Creative Splat method, also known as the “What If?” method. This means that when I sit down to start something new or continue an old track, I don’t really have any vision of what I want a song to sound like. I let the sounds and feelings guide the song and sometimes that means to switch something up completely like at the end of “WHAT’S GOING ON?” or “12 Scenic Woods”, but sometimes that means just saying “what if I added, affected, manipulated, this thing” and trying new things until the piece presents itself. I love to take unexpected turns, combine unexpected styles, or bring someone a feeling they’ve never felt before and that creativity takes an active effort to try new things.

I started my professional career simply recording rappers in my closet for a few bucks and mixing them for $10 a song. I wasn’t great but I was learning. As a freshman in high school, my goal was set, NYU’s prestigious Music Technology program with a focus in Music Production. In the meantime I kept working for local artists and in the next 3 years I released three mixtapes of my own, produced countless singles for rappers, and mixed/recorded a few albums. In 2016, I achieved my goal and went to NYC to start my next step. Through college I worked as a studio technician for NYU Steinhardt’s studios for 3 years, interned at 1 small studio in Brooklyn, worked for Jungle City Studios in midtown, and worked for/with as many artists as I could convince to work with me, first for little money or for free, and then slowly raising prices as I accrued a larger catalog of works.
Sadly, the COVID-19 pandemic hit right as I was finishing up my final semester at NYU and working on my Capstone project, producing a hybrid jazz, musical theater, pop album for Sarah Manzo, so I had to finish that at home in WV but in July, as the pandemic seemed to subside, I started reaching out to studios in the city to find a job and got an interview at the world renown Germano Studios. Troy Germano, the awesome owner of the studios hired me on the spot and I started a year of work for him in August 2020. In that year, I learned a lot and got to see a whole new side of the biggest artists in the industry and their teams.
I slowly realized, though, that I was working so hard under this studio that I didn’t have time for what I loved, which was producing for artists. So I decided to take a few months in my hometown of Morgantown, WV to fully focus on production for artists, and as an artist myself. I now work remotely producing for artists, giving production/mixing lessons, mixing/mastering, and every now and then I visit NYC to work with clients and collaborators.

It’s been incredibly challenging, physically, mentally, and emotionally but I believe all the 22 hour long shifts, all the overnight shifts, all the hours of biking to get around the city quickly, all the taking every opportunity and always working harder than I’m paid, are worth the ability to do what I love every day.

I think that the biggest lessons I’ve learned in my 11 years of producing music and working with artists are:

If you do what everyone else is doing, you get the same outcome and that outcome is not usually success
Leave the ego at the door
You can learn from everybody, no matter the level of experience

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
First of all, my parents for always being my biggest fans while also pushing me to be the best I can be. I’d like to shout-out Nich Caronna, who found me as a 13 year old producer on Instagram, and shifted my mindset to believe that music production was a viable career. The belief he had in me jump started my own belief in myself. I’d like to shout-out to Torr, who is a good friend and artist I’ve always looked up to. His music and presence motivated me not only as a producer, but also as a vocalist. I’m not sure I would be using my voice in my music if it wasn’t for him. I’d also like to shout out to Max Civils, a good friend and fellow artist/entrepreneur. He was the biggest factor in me starting my 52 Weeks 52 Releases project (which I’m currently on Week 28 of) and has given me so many opportunities to meet fellow artists and use my talents in new settings. Lastly but not nearly least, shout-out to Ashley Koon, who has been helping me shape my career and social media presence over the past few months. She has been absolutely invaluable, and we have a lot more to come!

Website: www.noamsmusic.com

Instagram: www.instagram.com/imnoams

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/imnoams

Twitter: www.twitter.com/imnoams

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/imnoams

Youtube: www.youtube.com/noamsmusic

Image Credits
Tanner Henson, Luke Parker