Devonte Thomas is a 21-year-old sophomore here at Olivet Nazarene University and has always had an ear for music. He says he always hears a beat or a melody while writing lyrics to songs and over the years, he slowly found out that he was able to make his words come to life by writing his own music.
How Olivet Helped His Music Career
Olivet helped him meet someone who makes music. His freshman year he met a man named Dunkin. He showed Thomas how he made his own music and that helped him start recording music, but also helped him with coming up with lyrics. He Met another friend named “Eman” who is a producer and helps him out greatly.
Hardest Part of Making Music
For Thomas, recording the music is the hardest part, he says that you can usually find melodies or beats online, but you have to be careful when doing that because of copyright. Writing music just happens and the words come to him, but recording is harder because listening to your own voice is “not very easy to do.” Thomas says he does not know anyone who likes to listen to their own voice over and over again. He says finding your voice is a much harder thing to accomplish.
How He Makes Music
Thomas uses BandLab to make his music and many artists used this when they first started. For example Olivia Rodrigo, Lil Tjay, and Roddy Ricch all used Bandlab while creating their early music. It is a useful app for starting up and getting your music out there, and it’s very easy to release it on Spotify, and Apple Music.
Devonte Thomas’ Favorite Artist
Juice Wrld made a huge impact on Thomas. When he passed away in 2019 it was a shocking experience to him, but his passing inspired him to make music.
“Juice Wrld is my biggest inspiration up to this point,” said Thomas.
Melodies of Us. The Process, and Why He Made It
When Thomas was producing Melodies of Us, he first got a free beat from a guy that he buys his beats from who sent to him. Thomas listened to it and instantly loved it. He said that he “felt really good about it.” He said he felt something when he first heard it because sometimes it just happens that way. When you have an ear for music it is easy to hear the potential in a beat no matter what type it is, and most of the time you can make music out of it. He favors this song because it is fun to make and it has a catchy melody to it.
The process of making the song consisted of listening to it over and over and after about 3-4 listens Thomas states that the words would just come to his mind and he would start writing down the lyrics and see if it flows with the beat. You have to listen and let the words fly into your brain, at times it can be hard Thomas says, but most of the time he thoroughly enjoys it.
More ONU Creative Content
Hope you enjoyed learning a little bit more about Devonte Thomas and how he makes his music perchance you’ll want to take a closer look at Owen Smith’s new podcast called Perchance
