RRAREBEAR
Simple, effective, and a master of dedication; Learn about RRAREBEAR’s journey through music, YouTube beats, and his collab with Trippie Redd!
RRAREBEAR is a talented musician, native to Albany, New York - he focuses on lofi, acoustic productions, consistently uploading to Youtube, he has accumulated over 2000 instrumentals and collaborated with some industry heavy hitters such as Rod Wave, Kehlani, MGK and Trippie Redd.
I first got in contact with RRAREBEAR when I wrote a review on a favourite song of mine: Trippie Redd - Save Me, Please, which he produced.
He kindly DM’d me, saying he really appreciated my breakdown of the song. After researching him for the review, I was intrigued by his music journey and approach to his sound, and wanted to dive deeper into his story, so here we are!
How would you describe your sound as a producer?
“Minimal and organic. A lot of acoustic guitar, subtle textures, and not much emphasis on perfection—just creating something that feels real and emotional. I believe in the minimum effective dose when it comes to recording.”
How did you get into music?
“My older brother was a drummer and told me to buy a bass when I was 14. We started jamming, ended up winning a battle of the bands, and from there I got into acoustic guitar, songwriting, and recording - just never stopped!”
What does music mean to you, and why did you start making it?
“Music has always been my escape, it’s just mine. I played a lot of baseball growing up but never liked the practices and relying on others. With music I could create in the moment and on my own terms. That freedom is why I started and why I keep going.”
What’s your favourite part about being a musician?
“The flexibility. I don’t make music for a label or for a specific audience—I make what I like… put it out and the right artist finds it. It’s given me total independence and the freedom to live life on my own schedule.”
“I’ve always been super self-reliant when it comes to music. I’m obsessed with figuring everything out. Writing my own songs, recording myself, engineering the songs, mixing + mastering, building the business, understanding contracts - splits, royalties, making all my own artwork etc.”
I see most of your beats revolve around the acoustic guitar. How did this instrument find its way into your life?
“I started on bass, but when I discovered Nirvana’s Unplugged and later bands like Dashboard Confessional and Death Cab For Cutie, I got hooked on acoustic. I began singing, writing, and even had a myspace project in college called Death by Seaweed that became one of the top downloaded acoustic projects on PureVolume.com.”
You aim for simple and effective beats—how do you know when a song has enough?
“I have a joke I like to say when it comes to acoustic guitar instrumentals: when it feels too simple, that’s usually when I start stripping things back LOL. Overproducing only gets in the way of the writing process. Simplicity leaves room for the artist.”
What do you like about acoustic guitars?
“It’s tactile—you can feel the resonance in your hands. I swear I can even feel when a guitar is out of tune by the way it resonates. I love capturing those details with a mic. I also don’t love gear; I believe in the “minimum effective dose” when recording. I only reach for a plug-in if I know exactly what I need, rather than buying 1,000 plugins and looking for sounds.”
“Just this year I switched from an older version of Cubase to Logic. I had been using an old version of Cubase and stock plugins for basically the first decade of my career ha.”
You post daily instrumentals on YouTube. What keeps you motivated?
“For me, music is a catalog game. Every beat and song I release is like a rental property—it keeps paying me back with no upkeep. At first, I started dropping a beat a day out of pure spite. I used to overanalyze every one of my tracks but I wanted to prove to myself I could just show up daily, no excuses.”
“My mission statement has always been “just drop a beat a day”. I’ve essentially been doing that for 10 years straight. Books like Atomic Habits talk about how “extraordinary results come from doing ordinary things for extraordinary amounts of time,” and that’s exactly how I see my career.”
“I’m not chasing one massive hit—I’m building consistency. Stephen King said he writes six pages a day; I make one beat a day. Simple system, big results over time.”
You grew up in Albany; what can you say about the music from there?
“Albany is a classic post-industrial northeast city - government buildings, old warehouses turned into breweries, that kind of vibe. When I started out in the early 2010s with my band Titanics, the local scene really embraced us. We played all the venues and festivals, opened for some huge national acts, landed on the cover of Metroland, and even won Best New Band in 2013.”
“Over time I realized I wanted to focus less on live shows, press, and blogs, and more on simply creating and recording music, so when I found selling beats online in early 2015, it was the perfect fit.”
What is one of your proudest achievements in your musical journey?
“Quitting my job at a violin shop in 2016 to go full-time as a producer, and then being able to buy a house in 2020, are definitely two of my proudest milestones.”
“For me, it’s all about freedom and independence—I value that more than anything when it comes to career. Honestly, just being able to do this for a living at all is number one.”
Could you describe a typical session of making a song?
“For beats, I just record the first idea that comes to me—no overthinking, just layers and moving quickly. Record it, mix it as I'm going, structure it, export it, onto the next… For my own songs with vocals, I build a beat, record vocal melodies into my phone, pick the best ones, then piece together words and meaning. Usually, the best vocal melody becomes the hook, the 2nd best is the pre chorus, and the 3rd is the verse.”
What’s the difference between working with big artists vs. indie artists?
“Big artists bring exposure to the song itself - but the real core of what I do is working with indie artists. There’s more freedom, more back-and-forth, and fairer splits. Recently, I’ve loved working with indie artists Ollie and Zuhair”.
“Touring shouldn’t have to be the only way artists survive. I think the more knowledge artists have about how royalties and splits actually work, the more they’ll realize that true independence comes from ownership. And with streaming like Spotify - consistency and catalog wins. Each song you release brings fans back to the other songs on your catalog and a rising tide lifts all ships. Artists are chasing one huge hit - but what if you had 100-200 songs each getting a set amount of streams per day!”
“More music is more chances for an artist to have one go crazy on Spotify also - so drop more music. Also, I’ve been proven wrong so many times about what songs or beats of mine are “the best”. My biggest beat “Sundowner” has almost 3 million views and I probably recorded that in 15 minutes. Then I’ve had other beats I thought were the best I’ve ever done and they didn’t do as well. You do yourself a disservice by only releasing the songs that you think are the best. Create it then let the audience decide.”
What advice would you give to other producers/creatives?
“Consistency has always been the driving factor of everything that I’ve done, so I would say find a style that you really like that you would be able to do for a long period of time that comes naturally to you. If it’s not natural you won’t be able to stick to doing it. So find something that seems natural to you and never stop.”
Anything new coming up?
“I’m dropping new beats daily on YouTube, and my pop project Cloudy Language releases a new song every four weeks!! Appreciate the interview!”
Any UK influences in your sound?
“Definitely! Led Zeppelin was the band that made me fall in love with music when I first started playing bass!”
How did the collab with Trippie Redd (Save Me, Please) happen?
“That beat started as an iPhone demo I recorded outside with birds in the background. I rerecorded it, another artist passed on it, and I reposted it on YouTube. Months later I saw a clip of Trippie recording to it … I’m guessing he found it there!”
What would you like to see more of in the industry?
“I’d like to see more ownership for both artists and producers. The old-school model of handing over your masters and publishing to a label in exchange for exposure is starting to fade. Too often artists are told there’s no money in music unless they tour, but as Russ always points out, “record labels are billion-dollar companies, and they don’t tour.” The money has always been in owning the music itself. When you keep your masters and publishing, every stream, sync, and placement continues to pay you over time. That’s how you create a sustainable career.”