Episode 106: Fuck the Algorithm! with Steff Reed

Music Therapy with Jessica Risker

What's it like to walk away from the music industry?

Steff Reed is a New York-based musician, educator, and activist. As a musician and producer, he has produced many tracks that have made it to Billboard Charts. As an educator, he has taught thousands of youth over the past 15 years, and was nominated for the Grammy Music Educator Award. As an activist, he is currently building a non-profit in Brooklyn called Power of Love.

We explore how Steff went from grinding in the NYC music industry to teaching to starting non-profits. Steff’s throughline is a total devotion of his life to social change, forward movement, hope and inspiration.

Like the title of the episode, there are some amazing nuggets of wisdom in here. I walked away from my conversation with Steff Reed totally inspired, which makes sense, because he’s an educator and a social justice worker and has been working in the music industry for years, and these are all things I believe in.

He shares why he pivoted away from the music industry, which he feels was a traumatic experience in some ways, to pursuing an independent music career more aligned with his own beliefs and values.

He also told me off-tape an important thing he learned producing music for the industry all these years: even if your track has heart, it’s gotta *slap* to hit the listener - a piece of advice I’m taking to heart as I work on my new album.

Steff says he’s hopeful about the future - so I am, too. Give it a listen.

Songs featured in episode:

"Get Free" and "Power of Love" by Steff Reed

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Music Therapy Podcast Credits:

Music Therapy is hosted by Jessica Risker, produced by Sullivan Davis of Local Universe, and engineered by Joshua Wentz in Chicago.

Opening and closing music composed by Joshua Wentz.