Senior Yash Sharma, who recently debuted as a solo artist ‘THESPRITZ,’ self-manages all things music. He released his first song “BIENVENUE,” on March 13. Follow through his entire production process, step-by-step, to see how he turns an abstract idea into a tangible product.
Brainstorming, songwriting and recording
It took around 20 drafts for Sharma to pin down the perfect lyrics “BIENVENUE.” The French title translates to “welcome,” as a gesture to invite listeners into the world of THESPRITZ.
Currently, Sharma has 30 distinct, unfinished songs sitting in Logic Pro — an app for music creation. Sharma even has a song he intends to work on for many years, allowing it to grow alongside him and mature over time.
“It’s such a painful, time-consuming process to make something sound professional,” he said. “Even what I’ve released isn’t there yet, but right now I’m focused on pushing out content to get my face, my image out there.”
Sharma began songwriting in December. One month later, in January, he began recording, taking roughly a month and a half to finalize the vocals for “BIENVENUE.” He had over a thousand takes of singing, so he could track his growth in vocals from the early to final versions. Sharma entered with zero experience in singing, so initially, he felt very unfamiliar and unconfident with all things vocals.
“In some of the early versions, you would absolutely cringe if you heard my vocals over it, and I’m sure you would still cringe right now, because I can hear every mistake I make,” Sharma said.
His recording studio is low-budget but effective. Sharma either hunches over a Blue Yeti microphone in his bedroom closet, with a sock over it to prevent plosives, or downstairs in his often-abandoned game room. Sharma prefers settling in there and singing as loudly as possible, where nobody can hear him.
“I’m coming out of that cocoon and getting comfortable with the idea of singing in front of others. Going to the studio looks like me rolling out of my bed, plugging in my microphone to my computer and recording over a beat,” Sharma said.
Musical production
Sharma uses a vocal chain that aids in cutting background noise above a certain decibel to allow the sound to go through. Along with that, he utilizes auto-tune, as do most singers, and Logic Pro’s pitch correction. He also relies on the Xbox plugin for compression and saturation, ensuring sound quality stays consistent and level. He cuts off low-end frequencies of his voice so as not to interfere with any bass frequencies, to emphasize the booming bass.
In addition, voice effects like reverb, tape delay and EQ expand his production range, opening up a whole new world from his previously limited producing experience. Ultimately, Sharma seeks to fit in the “pocket,” a musical term which refers here to blending his vocals seamlessly as if they are another instrument.
In terms of the song’s production, Sharma usually starts playing around with the beat, particularly trap or swag beats with a wide booming bass. Some of his favorite drum kits include Trap Heat, Crate Digger, Impact 808 and Pounding 808.
Drawing from artists like Pharell Williams, Don Toliver, Justin Timber and Travis Scott, Sharma hopes to induce an infectious, feel-good sensation and niche in his sound.
“I love the 2000s beats and the swag kind of vibe with orchestras to create that grand, fun, pop-rap melodic swing,” Sharma said. “Especially at this stage, it’s very important to be specific with the music and genre. When people hear my song, I want them to immediately think ‘Oh my gosh, this is THESPRITZ.’”
After layering sounds and finding a beat that clicks, he fits a melody over it with Logic Pro’s stock melody library. He works with a variety of instruments, such as synths, trumpets and orchestras; in his first release “BIENVENUE,” Sharma layered and stacked trumpets for a full, rich sound, along with violins that joined in sporadically, for a grand, expensive vibe.
Sharma aims to keep his production original; rather than copying directly from the library’s sounds, he takes a sound, puts it over and uses his own ideas to revise it. In “BIENVENUE,” Sharma sat on a beat with violins for three weeks before revisiting the mix. With fresh ears, he switched out new stock sounds while preserving the beat as his own melodies came to take shape.
One unusual addition to the song is a French voice. Sharma wanted to incorporate a French touch, but was unfamiliar with the language himself. Ultimately, he put an AI French voice over the song (with the help of ElevenLabs) featuring a lady, a cheering audience and an announcer — all in French. He also sprinkled in French references throughout the lyrics, such as “Tous les Jours,” which refers to both a club and a bakery, to recreate a high-end French vibe.
“The French adds a lot of character to the song and it makes you feel like you’re entering an immersive world. You start the song, you hear the French voice, and you’re like ‘Wow, I’m in France’,” Sharma said.
Sharma spent two to three hours putting the melody over “BIENVENUE,” completing it in one sitting. The demo version took about five hours. All in all, vocal production spanned about a month and a half.
Simultaneously, as he reached a point where he felt comfortable with the song, he began reaching out to photographers.
Capturing content through photoshoots
The next step of Sharma’s process is promotion and visuals, which is done through photography. After realizing how difficult it was to self-shoot, Sharma started working with sophomore Allen Huang for his photoshoots.
“It helps to have a person who is super dynamic and moving with you. As much as I need to be expressive and act for videos and photos, the camera has to mirror that energy, so that our vibes match, and we can extend that energy to our audience as well,” Sharma said.
Each photoshoot took roughly three hours; Sharma goes into each shoot with an idea and location in mind. He began shooting at the start of February for a total of two to three weeks. Both sides came in unfamiliar and lacking a clear direction, but as they experimented with clothing styles, his artistic vision came to life.
As Sharma is expanding to video media, such as clips, films and music videos, another aspect he highlights is the way the videos are shot. He plans to record from different points of view; at first, during his rise to fame, videos will feature scenes of pleasant dates and hangouts. When he enters the next phase, of corruption, videos may feature close-up handheld clips, possibly like a security camera, a documentary crew or even paparazzi.
Sharma has been working with senior Max Rombakh on fashion and outfits, with the idea of developing the character through his clothing. At first, THESPRITZ holds a naive view, wearing clothes that resemble the introduction to the life of fame. But, as corruption creeps up on him, his clothes will follow that feeling of increasing insanity.
“It’s an incredible experience to go to a mall for the entire day and look through clothes and have somebody telling you that you should be wearing this or that. I’m lucky that I have people who can support me to have this experience,” Sharma said.
Photo editing, marketing and final release
After capturing the content, Sharma moves on to editing. Utilizing DaVinci Resolve and Premiere Pro, he experiments with color grading, stock presets and more. Much of his time has been spent on self-learning skills through tutorials and seeking creative input from peers.
While recreational video editing has been a long-term hobby for Sharma, the media marketing side of being an artist is new to him. Since his recently dropped first-release, Sharma has been working with senior Celina Ren to create promotional Instagram reels and he has been actively fleshing out details on the distribution process, including balancing the legal aspect of safely making music.
His largest struggles stem from the tightness of the deadlines with marketing and landing with editing and vocals he’s satisfied with. Despite his time constraints, Sharma forbade himself from pushing back the timeline as he knew imperfect aspects would inevitably exist. He believes marketing is just as important, if not more, than the quality of the music itself, and is essential to getting one’s brand out there.
On the flip side, his favorite part of the process comes from hearing his own improvement.
“The biggest reward is finding joy in the struggle. I want to hit that dopamine feeling where others constantly find themselves listening over and over,” Sharma said. “Ultimately, this character is a way for me to reaffirm that mentality, live vicariously and enjoy the whole process.”
