“I’ve always had a passion for music, said Nina on her end of the telephone. I’ve been playing piano for ten years and have learned how to compose chords, melodies, and vocals.”

When Nina Petrovic of Miscast released “Waves” on July 22, 2017—the first song she has produced, and published on SoundCloud—it was clear her passion for music was translated into her work.

Nina Petrovic and Chase Gardner of Miscast, the music duo behind “Waves,” created the song while living abroad in China, where they have learned to produce music and DJ professionally. The music duo creates their own songs and original mixes with the inspiration from their favorite artists and DJs, hoping to connect with others who share their passion for music.

“I get my inspiration from artists like Odesza and Jai Wolf, and I personally like artists like Tarro and Eastghost,” Nina said.

As an aspiring musician and professional DJ, Nina works to make each song she produces entirely her own. By blending dream-like melodies with ambient beats, “Waves” embodies the softness of Nina’s style as an artist and her talent for music production.

“Producing music is a time-consuming process. It can take artists months or even years to create their songs,” Nina said.

The song was produced using a Digital Audio Workboard (DAW), which is a program that is used to build songs and allows an artist to map out where they want to place beats and melodies into their songs. Plugins like Serum can be installed into a DAW to add special effects to music such as new instrumentals and sounds, which add depth and dimension to songs.

“There are other DAWs such as FL, Logic, and Ableton that help you to create new synths, basses, and other sounds. Serum has a lot of settings that help you create a new sound altogether,” Nina explained.

Additionally, Nina uses a channel mixer, a part of the DAW, during the final steps of editing “Waves.” The channel mixer is used for deleting and reworking parts of songs, or to create new songs if an artist feels that they need to start over. Finally, a website called CloudBounce was used to add settings like louder bass, making the song more polished.

“The longest part of production is using the channel mixer because creating music is a personal process, and the channel mixer helps artists to get their song the way they want it,” Nina said.

Many songs also include vocal samples if they are not purely composed using melodies, chords, and instrumental beats. Artists may use their own vocals or blend vocals from existing songs into their music.

“I also get a lot of my inspiration for blending vocals from Clams Casino. The way he builds his songs is really interesting. He’ll take a sample of other songs or vocals and reverse them and edit them to such a point where you can’t tell where the original audio is from,” Nina added.

In “Waves,” the inspiration came from the 1975’s song “Somebody Else,” which encompasses Nina’s personal aesthetic as an artist with its ambient beats and dream-like melodies. However,

Nina did not use the exact lyrics from “Somebody Else,” as she transformed the song into something new.

“The vocal sample I used was changed, blended, and reworked into my song so that it was unrecognizable to avoid any copyright issues,” Nina said.

As the sounds of waves of the ocean crashing onto shore fade out of the song, “Waves” represents Nina’s talent and aspirations as a musician and DJ.

“I want to create more music and DJ to put my name out there. Music has always been my passion and I want to share it with others,” Nina said.

Listen to “Waves” and follow Miscast on SoundCloud for their latest releases and mixes.