A Medical Student's Journey Freelancing in the Music Industry

08 Dec 2021

7 Min Read

Caleb Ng Kah Lok (Guest Contributor)

IN THIS ARTICLE

Can a medical student really be a creative freelancer? Caleb Ng shares his experiences flexing his right brain during the pandemic.

I, along with many others, can confidently say that the ensuing lockdown for the past two years, had put a lot of my plans on the backburner. I saw myself sitting at home with my family, with nothing much to do, and as I was about to spoil myself with video games, movies, and lounging with my cat, I decided to dip my toes into online freelance work in the creative field instead.

Getting real here, I’d never expected to get deeply invested in my creative work, as I’d always assumed that most freelance commissions were for those with the skill of the pen and the tablet. Was there a place for a person like me, a person who’d fully intended to pour his attention into medical school and whose experiences in music and voice acting were few and far between?

Turns out, there was!

Online forums, Discord servers, even local communities that I’d connected with had given me a plethora of opportunities to explore! With every passing day, more and more casting calls popped up, seeking people to fill roles that the artist themselves couldn’t. Sometimes, the talents I had and the requirements they needed coincided. Sometimes, they didn’t need experience, just a person who could get things done fast.

I’m proud to say that I’ve broken out of my online comfort zone and lent my talents to numerous projects, be it through music, producing, or voice acting. Here’s my account of what I’ve learnt through this rare, eye-opening experience before entering medical school.

You’d Build Your Confidence as You Go

To say that I’d jumped into the wide world of online collaboration with nothing but a dream would be wholly inaccurate. If I’d gone in with absolutely zero knowledge, I’d probably wander aimlessly with nobody to blame but myself.

One of my friends (to whom I owe my thanks) introduced me to the basics of audio recording, mixing and mastering tracks, and some great YouTube channels for a deeper understanding of my Digital Audio Workstation (DAW), where I’d inevitably find myself spending hours upon hours of my free time in. If my DAW could show a ‘Spotify wrapped’ equivalent, I’d definitely say I’ve clocked in at least a thousand hours.

Popularised by Malcolm Gladwell, and succinctly put by Ed Sheeran in this video, the ‘10,000-hour rule’ demonstrates how it takes at least 10,000 hours of practice for a person to be a master at a skill. I find truth in my abbreviated version — the 100-hour rule, which takes at least 100 hours to be comfortable in what you do. For most of my time, it really was a case of ‘you learn as you go’.

Without that 100 hours’ worth of making music (both good and bad), I’d certainly never have had the confidence to put my talents out there for the world to see and reap the benefits from it.

You’ll Feel Like You Know Nothing — and That’s Okay!

I started with nothing but my second-hand guitars, a cheap condenser microphone, and a sparse toolbox of production knowledge. Now, I’ve progressed leaps and bounds, though my gear remains largely the same.

It’s an alluring thought to give up before you’d even begun. I mean, who are you compared to those equipped with years of experience, expensive gear, music certificates, or a combination of all three. Though those I told supported my decision, there was also an unsaid implication that I didn’t know what I was doing. Would my skills match up to what people needed?

As it turns out, people were more than happy to share advice! Some of the best collaborators that I’ve worked with were approachable, open to feedback, hardworking, and shared a common struggle — we taught ourselves everything we knew. During my first handful of creative collaborative work, I was paid with due credit and praise (sort of like exposure, really). On the off chance I was paid for my work, I found myself struggling with internalised impostor syndrome — which, I’m sure, is a common hurdle for many creatives at some point or another.

It’s Okay to Say No...

It was hard for me to get out of the ‘Yes’ phase.

When I’d started reaching out to others’ casting calls, I was far too eager to say “Yes, I can!” or “I can try!”, which increased the chance of learning experiences, but also came with its own set of challenges. I’ve a novel’s worth of freelancer’s horror stories, of blood, sweat, and tears poured into projects that, to my dismay, never came to fruition.

In one particularly annoying instance, I'd joined a Discord server to create an opening theme for a student group’s pet project, which was to design, voice act, and animate an original anime episode.

I enthusiastically said "Yes!" thinking that it'd serve as a shining star on my music portfolio. They'd taken a look at my work on SoundCloud and were more than happy to have me on board.

However, 2-3 months passed with barely any work done. Follow-up messages, that I’d sent to the respective people in charge, fell on deaf ears and paltry excuses. One gray day, the server was hacked, and the members left one by one. I followed their lead, and to this day, they've not contacted me. Frustrated, lost, and disappointed, I was ready to give up and return to my comfy bed and Netflix. But perseverance is failing 19 times and succeeding at the 20th. I took as much as I could learn from my bad experiences and pressed on.

What I’ve learned from freelance creative work is that it’s okay to say “no”. It’s okay to ask the other party what their future goals and deadlines are for the project that they’re working on, and if we’re not on the same page, a refusal shouldn’t have any hard feelings. If there’s any takeaway from this, it’s that if there's no mutual hunger for a successful project, a successful project would've never happened to begin with.

...But an Occasional ‘Yes’ Pushes You Above and Beyond

One of the first-ever collaborative experiences I’d ever done was crafting a guitar solo for a punk-rock song requested by a client from India. With absolutely no experience in making guitar solos, I’d prodded him for advice, along with any references on how he’d like it to sound. He’d wanted me to “make something that you could hear in a good punk song” — a standard I didn’t feel like I could live up to at that time!

This prompted the question: What songs with guitar solos have evoked strong emotions within me?

I bounced some ideas back and forth with him, listening and absorbing ideas from similar genre songs, and finally came up with a solo I felt I could be proud of to show my friends. With my collaborator’s help and encouragement, we mixed and mastered the track to completion, and, to my delight, released it to positive reception.

This semi-overnight success caught the attention of a couple from Indonesia, who — you guessed it — needed an electric guitarist. The guitarwork I’d done for my previous collaborator had tickled their ears, and they reached out to me warmly for my talents on a remix of a song they liked. They needed two guitar solos.

Truth be told, if it wasn’t for the endless support and kind comments on the punk song, I’d have declined this opportunity. However, I confidently agreed and proudly created two solos for their song. But as many successful people would say, the comfort zone ends up becoming a zone of limitation. With no challenge, there can be no growth.

A friend of mine from America had a song in mind. With only acoustic guitars, piano, and a stripped atmosphere, her song pitch was completely out of my league. But with a passion to finish the song, and through countless recordings and reworkings, the final release of the song, Player Two became a fan favourite and still warms my heart when I listen to it.

Are You Satisfied With Your Efforts?

Whether you treat your freelance work as a hobby or a full-time job, freelance online creative work can help you grow leaps and bounds. I, for one, never thought in a million years that I’d be able to make connections around the globe, working towards a common goal: making something we could be satisfied with.

One night at the dinner table, I’d shown my mother ‘Player Two’, which I’d put up on Spotify. She’d supported my music journey, in spite of not understanding it, and beamed when she saw my persona light up on Spotify. As we listened, I, feeling anxious, couldn’t stop myself from bringing up inconsistencies and interrupting every few seconds, clucking my tongue in disappointment. I threw a few self-deprecating jokes around thinking it was funny.

My mother paused the song halfway through. She spoke clearly, but not unkindly, “Will the song be Number 1 on Spotify? Nobody can predict the future, Caleb. But you look so happy when you finish the song. Why don’t you enjoy the fruits of your labour?” As she replayed the song, uninterrupted, I let myself be lost in the music.

Caleb Ng Kah Lok is currently fighting for his life in Bachelor Of Medicine, Bachelor Of Surgery (MBBS) at Taylor’s University. When not seen studying for assessments, he can also be caught working on passion projects of his own, especially when it comes to music, voice acting, and participating in clubs and societies.

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