Hello Heroes: Collaborations

Hello Heroes is a guest blog series by the SoundCloud Heroes. Heroes Ben Z and Monica collaborated to share this post on…collaborations! Have any tips or suggestions about collaborations, add them in the comments!

What unites 20 million users from around the world, each with their own personalities, backgrounds, and languages? It is the one language we all know and speak: sound. Before any of us even knew a language, we used sound to communicate and make sense of our world. We became adept at giving sounds meaning and using them to express our needs and desires, including the desire for connectedness.

We are still using sound for that same purpose to create connections on SoundCloud. Within seconds, we can send our sounds to the far ends of the Earth and receive an immediate response in return. This makes collaborations possible and enjoyable, and that is why those of us in the SoundCloud Heroes program have been so enthusiastic about collaborating with you!

Monica

We’d like to share a few of our recent collaborations and the lessons we’ve taken from them with you. We hope that they both inspire and assist you in beginning your own collaborative adventures!

Two of my latest collaborations have taken place with two very different people from two very different places: Iran and Japan. The first is with EleWara from Tokyo, Japan. The second is with SoundClouder Mashoud Tehrani from Iran.

Ben Z.

I have collaborated with over a hundred people using SoundCloud! It is amazing what you can do when you intentionally reach out to others. Recently, I finished a full-length album with producer and fellow SoundClouder Dejection, who lives in Darmstadt, Germany. We used SoundCloud’s amazing features to connect, share files, find guest artists, and fulfill our desire to connect with people globally. Here is a sample from that project and the process by which we connected to create an album together.

Currently, I am in the process of creating a collaborative hip hop song meant to inspire youth around the world. This track is a collaboration between myself, Chicago emcee Roberto Rivera, and Ugandan emcee/b-boy Abramz. All three of us have a passion for engaging, inspiring, and encouraging youth through hip hop.

We hope that reading and hearing about our experiences inspires you to link up with other SoundClouders and collaborate! So go identify potential collaborators and build a creative bridge that spans hundreds or thousands of miles. If you missed the August collaborations theme A Road Trip of Sounds, there’s still time to submit and yours can be featured.