Mid November, I travelled to midwest France, to participate in show number 400 of Les Sondiers.

For more than 10 years now, we’ve been hosting this show to talk about audio technologies, sound engineering, and now electronic music and synthesisers.

It started as a podcast, which used to air every other week on the now defunct webradio Synopslive. Eventually it became a YouTube channel, and in 2020 the Monday show became a video livestream.

We started with a handful of listeners. Now, the channel has more than 74k subscribers, thanks to Knarf’s hard work - it’s now his job. I never made the jump like him, but throughout those 10 years, I’ve walked that fine line between passion project and professional amateurism that so many other creatives know well.

Achievements Unlocked

I am humbled by the cool stuff I had the opportunity to do during those ten years:

• My own weekly YouTube video series: Called “Metro Boulot Homestudio”, I made about 30 episodes over a few months, giving tips and tricks in music production.
• A documentary in a historic Parisian venue: I worked on a documentary and an interview of a sound engineer working on a symphonic orchestra concert at Le Grand Rex, a historic venue in Paris.
• Covering major trade shows: We covered major music industry trade shows with a press accreditation: The NAMM show in Los Angeles (the biggest event of the year) and Musikmesse in Frankfurt. Musikmesse was a big catalyst for us, it allowed us to meet brands and grow our confidence and presence on YouTube.
• Interacting with the industry: I interacted with brands like Arturia, Native Instruments, Roswell Pro Audio, and some French music shops. I even reviewed some products on YouTube!
• Creative deadlines: Our yearly producing challenge around Christmas was a forcing factor to have fun making music, like my track We Don’t Need Roads.
• Community and connection I hosted the Monday show a few times when it was still only a podcast (one of the funniest things I’ve ever done), and I met our community during an event we organised in Brussels.
• Interviewing and meeting artists: As artists were invited to the show, I had the opportunity to ask questions and chat to folks like Airwave, Deep Forest, DeLaurentis, Hugo Paris, Joris Delacroix, Joachim Garraud, Rob Acid, The Toxic Avenger, etc.

Never Stop Learning

When you do something creative every single week, it’s hard to see how you’ve changed week in, week out. But looking back 10 years, so much has changed.

I learned so much by being on that show, by contributing to it, and to the YouTube channel. Technical skills, of course, but also things about myself:

1. Tools are props, story is the main character: I don’t care about technical stuff that much anymore. I used to. Now, I care much more about reducing barriers to creativity, and about what I am trying to accomplish, what I am trying to say.
2. Find your framework: To make one video a week, you need a system you can repeat and iterate on. You can’t make something from the ground up every 7 days, not with a full-time job. Find something that works for you and makes it easier. For me, it was: preparing an intro, an outro, a list of topics, and a consistent format for my series.
3. Iteration over perfection: By making one video a week, I improved my skills so much. So much more than if I had been working on the same one project for the same amount of time.
4. Just go for it: Audacity, entrepreneurship, confidence and hope will get you far. Applying to Musikmesse as bloggers/influencers was one of the most transformative things we’ve done. We acted the part, then we had a seat at the table. It was the same when approaching brands and distributors at first.
5. Challenge yourself: Giving yourself deadlines and making them visible really works. I had a weekly deadline with Metro Boulot Homestudio and it sure got results. We also challenged ourselves to make a music track for the Christmas show and explain what we did.
6. People come for the gear, they stay for the creative process: Talking about gear, reviewing products is a fast way to build an audience and connections. People type the gear name in the YouTube search bar. At some point, it becomes repetitive, and you feel like you’re part of a machine. Talking about creative process is what I find most fulfilling, but it’s harder to build an audience/community from that. Find a way to do both.
7. Tech vs workflow: Most people think they have technical problems. They don’t. They either have a workflow problem, or a creative process problem. Or a mindset problem.
8. Audio is easy, video is hard: When you start making videos, you realise that audio was actually not that hard.
9. Be human: Some people can be aggressive in the comments, but when you engage with them, or meet them in person, they become not so aggressive. When you realise the person you call out is human, it rings different.
10. Find kind people (they exist): People in the music industry are not as hard on each other as you think. Some folks are judgemental and talk about deserving, being worthy, “real music”, “real artists”. Distance yourself. You don’t have to be exposed to this. There are nicer people out there.

You Are Good Enough

During this weekend, we spent some time together. We played music. We nerded out on gear, and went through memories of these past 10 years of Les Sondiers. We talked about what changed in our setup and in the industry since we started.

After ten years of this adventure, here’s what stays with me.

Things kept changing. We kept learning. We kept trying new things. We kept learning about the industry. We kept learning about ourselves.

You don’t have to be an expert at what you do. You don’t have to be “worthy”. You don’t have to deserve it. No one will come and give you permission. So give yourself permission.

Whether it’s a podcast, a YouTube channel, photography, music, writing, or anything else, just start. Don’t wait till you’re ready. Don’t wait till you’ve figured it out. You won’t. Chances are that by the time you feel ready, things will have changed anyway!