Meet 1blnk of Antioch

Today we’d like to introduce you to 1blnk.

Hi 1blnk, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
My name is 1blnk. Eventually, I’ll get around to telling you how I got that name, but I am a 20-year-old artist and producer from St. Louis, Missouri. I moved to Nashville in April of 2022 to grow myself as a musician and meet new interesting people who think like me. My story goes like this:
As far as I can remember, the music seed was planted in me when I was 6 or 7. My grandfather bought me an acoustic guitar. I had never thought to play an instrument or make music before this; my immediate family weren’t musicians. I was in awe when we went to the music store. My grandfather showed me the wall of guitars, and I remember feeling starstruck. I wanted a black electric guitar, but my grandfather told me I should start on an acoustic guitar. I picked one out, and went home with it. Right when I got home I started strumming it, and after a while, I had come up with a song. I don’t remember what it was about or what it sounded like, but I remember I ran into the living room where all the adults were and I shouted “I just wrote a song!”
They said “Let’s hear it”.
I was too shy to play it for them, so I ran back into my room.
For a while after I had my guitar, I was taking lessons through the music store we had bought the guitar from. Unfortunately, the instructor bored me. I remember going into the sessions with the same energy as him: apathetic.
I stopped playing guitar only months after we had bought it.
Fast forward to 5th grade. I was 10. Middle school introduction night came around. This was the night we would pick our elective. What instrument did we want to play? Did we want to be in the choir? Did we want to learn about music in our lives or paint? This was the night we would decide. The 8th graders were there to tell us about their experience with the elective they chose. They had all of their instruments out, and we were able to approach any one of them we wanted and ask them anything. I took interest in the musical instruments immediately. I didn’t think about choir. When I saw some of the brass instruments, I was intrigued. The drums weren’t for me, I thought, I want to play melodies. Then I came across the cello. It was something about the way you hug the instrument that made my eyes light up in the same way they did when I was younger. I remember thinking about my guitar in that moment.
I asked if I could play the cello right there. The student said “sure,” and I tried playing it. It felt so good even though I had no idea what I was doing.
I played cello throughout middle school, eventually earning the spot of first chair. I loved playing the cello. To this day, it is my favorite instrument.
Toward the end of middle school, I felt like I needed to fit in. I started spending my time with a different group of people. People who I still genuinely enjoyed spending time with, but they didn’t play music. They played football. After spending so much time with them, I was going to the football workouts with them during the spring of my 8th grade year to prepare for high school football. I would go on to play football 9th grade and focus fully on that and basketball, which I had played since 6th grade. I stopped playing cello.
After the basketball season ended, I started watching a lot of YouTube. I struggle to remember how, but somehow in February of 2017, shortly after the release of Juice Wrld’s “All Girls Are The Same” music video, I came across a Twitch stream. It was the producer of the track, Nick Mira. I clicked on it, and wow. I was amazed. I had already fallen in love with Juice Wrld’s music, and I was so excited because I knew Juice was going to be one of the biggest artists in the world, and I was listening to his music when “All Girls Are The Same” had only 500k streams on soundcloud—his music wasn’t even out on other platforms yet. Anyways, the way Nick made his beats was something that clicked with me immediately. “How does he make his beats so fast? Why does that bass feel so amazing?” Iconic duo.
From that moment on, I wanted to be just like Nick. I wanted to make those magical, dreamy melodies, and I wanted to feel those 808s in my bones.
I downloaded GarageBand on my phone, and started making beats in class. It was so fun to me, and I would show everyone around me what I was making.
For my 15th birthday, shortly after my freshman year was over, I got a computer and FL Studio. That’s all I needed. I looked up free drum kits and downloaded all the Reddit drumkits and started watching all the YouTube tutorials and all the Nick Mira streams.
I was a producer for years, posting type beats to YouTube rather inconsistently.
Eventually, I started recording local artists. It was an easy and fun way to make money, and I learned a lot. I was still mainly making beats, but being able to interact with artists and listen to all of this music no one had ever heard before sparked something else in me.
“I can do this better than anyone I’ve recorded” I thought to myself. Not out of ego or arrogance. It was just something I knew I could do.
I recorded my first song in 2020. It was the first song I dropped called “Way Too Much”. Not a polished song by any means. Produced by woodpecker, a YouTube producer. It was just my first time really sitting down and recording my mind. I wasn’t worried about how it sounded, but at the time I ended up really liking it. Of course, I feel like my ability to express myself through my music has grown greatly.
I am now working on much more in depth projects. For the time being, I am producing and recording myself, but as time goes on, I have a feeling that living in Nashville will attract exactly who I need to bring my music to the next level.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
A great number of people fail to realize is that failure is absolutely necessary in order to prosper. Things will seem to get in your way. You must accept them as a necessary part of your path, and continue to chase every moment.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am 1blnk. I am a 20 year old musical artist and producer from St. Louis Missouri. I write my own lyrics, and I direct the creative process behind the production of my music. I moved to Nashville in April 2022 on my own, and I didn’t really know anyone in Nashville. I got an internship at a studio, and wrote and produced my latest single “living in the sky” shortly after the move.
The specific emotions I am able to tap into an express in such detailed and fluent ways is what gives my music its uniqueness. I do not write my music down, I do not put it in my phone notes. I take each song, and I put it directly into ProTools, laying down each lyric as I hear it in my head. This way of writing lyrics paired with my unique production skills is what makes 1blnk stand out.

What does success mean to you?
Inner peace, happiness, tranquility. Nothing else.

Pricing:

• Feature – $300

Contact Info:

• Website: Linktree.com/1blnk
• Instagram: Instagram.com/1blnk
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/channel/UCpAwDQl88SiXbVPQOhy-W2g
• SoundCloud: https://on.soundcloud.com/Bi7g2xgKkXxmbckK9
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@1blnk?_t=8V4yTun25Fq&_r=1