Student producers at Deerfield have utilize the process of creating original music as an outlet of expression. Though their journeys may differ, the featured musicians have found their own path to a love of music production.
Bennett Eun – @bennetmakinghits on Instagram
With prior musical training in the piano and trumpet, Eun said he “clicked” with music production after watching a “series [on YouTube] of producers deconstructing their most famous songs that they produced.”
Known as @bennettmakinghits on Instagram, Eun is part of the producer collective “Dreams Worth Chasing,” a multi-platinum and Grammy nominated group. Eun himself is a Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) gold producer, and has a Billboard #1 song. He has produced songs such as “Rocky Road” with Kodak black and Moneybagg Yo, “Intro” with Yungeen Ace, “Bipolar” with Ar’mon & Trey, and “In Town” with Lil Durk and EST Gee.
His Instagram account @bennettmakinghits allows him to directly message “camps” — groups that professional artists work with including their managers, producers, sound engineers, lawyers, and label heads. Eun said that his collective “Dreams Worth Chasing” has “guys that I had been working with for a while” from all over the world including United States and Italy.
With a busy schedule at Deerfield, Eun works on his music during his spare time and by squeezing “in some sessions, whether that [be on] a Friday night, before a Saturday game day, on the road to squash matches, or even sometimes community time,” he said. He shared that his artistic process starts with a melody, then the addition of drums. After that, he said he goes “back and arranges the beat roughly to include an intro, chorus, verse, chorus, verse two, and ending.”
Eun said he “genuinely enjoy[s] all sorts of genres such as pop, country, indie, electronic dance music (EDM), jazz, and everything in between.” He said, “I think part of being a great producer is being able to listen to all different types of music.”
Currently, Eun is working with artists including Lil Durk, Lil Tjay, Meek Mill, Offset, [and] NBA Youngboy. Reflecting on his music career, he said, “There honestly wasn’t a single moment where I felt like I had made it, and I still don’t feel like I have yet either.” When looking to the future, he hopes to “help develop smaller artists and work with others to build them up to a more global scale.”
Thomas Harrick – TMHarrick on Spotify
Thomas Harrick ’23 has secretly experimented with producing music since seventh grade. His interest starting after he worked on the tech team for his middle school productions. “Nobody knew that I did any sort of music,” Harrick said. Nobody, including his brother. Harrick actually released his debut track, “Flawless,” after losing a bet he made with his brother. “I told him that if he pitched over 75 miles an hour before the end of the summer, I would release the song. It took him twelve days [to pitch that fast].”
“Flawless” proved to be a home run; the track reached fifteen-hundred listeners in the first week, landing him a contract with United Masters. “[After ‘Flawless’] I wasn’t going to release anymore, but for some reason people like it in Australia? It’s my second biggest demographic [after Deerfield].” Regardless of whether his Aussie fans encouraged the continuation of his releases, Harrick now intends to drop a new track every other Friday. New releases will include his personal favorites, “Starbound” and “Guess What.” “Each track is unique,” he said. “‘Starbound’ is the first track produced entirely by myself and it features a whole band, and I’m excited about ‘Guess What’ because it’s my own sound.”
When asked about his goals for the future, Harrick said, “I’ve hit my goal: if one person listens to this, that I didn’t forcefully play this for, I’ve done my job. Now it’s just for fun, but I want to get better at it.” To Harrick, music production was never about making hits, but rather about the process of “creating something that wasn’t there before” and taking a chance. As a message for aspiring producers, Harrick said, “[If] I can do it, you can… you have to look at what you really lose if you try.”
Cairon Harrison – kidd cai on Spotify
“The first song I released was in the summer of 2018, and I thought this is dope, everybody is going to mess with it… but it was bad. I didn’t know how to mix anything then, so when I released it I got clowned for it,” said Cairon Harrison ’25, recounting the early stages of his producing journey. Harrison has come far since his first release; his most popular song, “outer space,” recently reached one-thousand listener streams across all platforms.
Harrison is currently working on releasing his first album as an artist. This upcoming project has been a year-long effort, containing some of his most “ambitious” and experimental tracks. For instance, the outro of the album is a strictly singing song that diverges from his usual rap style.
Harrison attributes the reason for producing freestyle music to his early exposure to Hip Hop and Caribbean Soca music that largely influenced his ability to “find the rhythm in a beat.” However, he mostly credits his cousin, Tomo, a successful producer in Boston, for his distinct sound. When Harrison was twelve, Tomo had invited him and his other cousin to record at his studio, where they made their first ever song, “Ontario.” After this track (still available on Soundcloud under Dizel x Yung Cai-Ontario), Harrison returned to his cousin’s studio to start his solo career. Tomo’s professional setup made the aspiring rapper nervous, but it was this process that built the confidence essential to Harrison’s work now. Addressing any aspiring artists, he said, “Anyone trying to make music, do it. You never know.”
Donald Hutchinson – di-z on Spotify
It was Donald Hutchinson ’23’s late introduction to “God’s Plan” by Drake and then Hip Hop in seventh grade that inspired the young artist to explore music production on GarageBand. He has since released two of his projects: “Black Sun Demos” and “highway94” in the span of two months. “I didn’t have the intention of making a project,” he said. “Many of the tracks [on ‘Black Sun Demos’] are demos of what the songs could be, so it’s pretty incomplete.” While Hutchinson’s first release was experimental, he has a more intentional vision for his current project, “Shoeboxes.”
“Shoeboxes” is a musical memoir dedicated to his life experiences of moving. “It’s based on a line from a poem I wrote: ‘are you going to leave me in your shoebox when you’re done’ because that’s where you put your discarded items and memories.” While the range of his creative works consists of more careful projects like “Shoeboxes,” he still tries to explore his lyrical freedom, and he even has a song about a Subway sandwich.
“I like to be funny with my lyrics,” Hutchinson said. “The song [about Subway] is about a woman who messed up my order but I forgave her because I love[d] her so much.” Additionally, Hutchinson tries to expand his creativity to his production style. “I bought my bass off my friend for a hundred bucks in eighth grade, and I learned a lot of simple bass lines.” Despite never being formally taught to play any instruments, Hutchinson taught himself guitar and bass, which he incorporates in many of his tracks for a more “organic” sound. He considers himself an independent artist, but was never alone in the production process, saying, “I attribute a lot of my music to my father. He’s put me onto a lot of music. He’s the person who introduced me to rap. Everything that I love, half of the music I listen to, is all from my dad.” Now, Hutchinson plans to continue his solo career, joining his brother Jason Hutchinson ’21 in a Black art collective based in Atlanta called “da palace.”
Levi Tipton – aviles on Spotify
In 2018, Levi Tipton ’24 began making music in his room, eventually evolving from tinkering with free applications to transforming his room into a secluded space where he can make music wherever he wants. He explained that with the stricter rules regarding accessing recording studios, he decided to make a recording setup in his room.
In seventh grade, Tipton’s music teacher introduced him to GarageBand, starting his interest in music. In the beginning, he was always “making music for fun” before he “started taking things more seriously.” He shared that he continued to be “exposed to people who wanted [him] to record music, and [he] kept working at it.” Additionally, he explained that to a layperson, the term “producer” might come across as slightly “corny,” but that he tries to overcome this initial impression by playing some of his music. He now produces music with fellow student Xavier Aviles ’24.
Like other musicians, he acknowledges that “music is very subjective,” and that it is up to the listener to decide what they like. He developed his style by listening to other artists, then trying to “emulate something that sounds unique.” When asked about his aspirations in making music, he said that he ultimately just enjoys “messing around with his music” in his room and finding his own artistic style.