By Dalila Bevab
With a list of prestigious Louisville music artists – including includes Jack Harlow, Bryson Tiller and Static Major – to emulate, junior music technology major Covy Giles hopes to add his name alongside those icons.
Giles is a producer/beatmaker, who creates instrumentals for artists to write, rap, sing and record to.
“I’ll admit that I’ve been more of a beatmaker at this point in my career rather than a producer,” he said.
Giles said there’s an ongoing debate in the “producer community” regarding the distinction between a beatmaker and music producer.
Giles said music has been an influential part of his life since he was a child and always spent his free time doing something music-related, such as playing with a toy drum machine, playing with the GarageBand software, writing songs or simply listening to music.
Participating in band and choir classes in middle school and piano classes in high school was only the beginning of his learning experience which led him to music production, he said.
“I was making beats on a raggedy laptop in study hall and when I had free time in class until I could afford the equipment I wanted,” he said.
When Giles got to Bellarmine, he said he immersed himself in student experiences to help build his career. He’s been involved in the Recording Academy’s “Grammy U” program and its mentorship program, Warner Music Group’s Career Classroom Series, and BeatStars’ Campus Marketing Program.
Giles is an intern for BeatStars where he works with the company’s music and publishing team, and he’s also an audio and visual intern for Bellarmine.
He said his favorite student experience so far has been his time at BeatStars because of the industry professionals he’s met in the campus marketing and internship programs.
“Even though I’m only weeks into the internship, meetings with the team that involve producer credits, album placements and close connections with emerging and big-time artists has been amazing to learn from professionally and creatively,” he said.
Junior Cody Hofmans is Giles’ co-intern, where together they run audio and visual production for campus events.
Hofmans said he’s known Giles since 2019, and they quickly became good friends because of their shared music taste.
“I have always admired and respected Covy from a musical standpoint,” he said.
Hofmans said Giles would bring in his beats to their music tech class every week and Hofmans was “blown away” by how thorough, well-executed and professional they sounded.
“This is not just raw talent, though,” he said. Hofmans said ever since he’s known Giles, he would always see Giles in the tech room or in Centro working on his music.
He said Giles is a go-getter who seems to love working with BeatStars, and the company seems to love working with him, too, because they promoted him from a marketing representative to an intern.
“He’s even managed to get me interested in using the (BeatStars) website which I had never heard of before,” Hofmans said.
As with any creative career goal, Giles said he is working toward developing the skills to sustain a career in the industry by selling beats to independent artists online. He said he is working with a few artists and friends who have similar goals and creative ambitions in hopes to grow his vocal production and mixing skills.
Giles also said he is working to release instrumentals on streaming platforms in the near future.
Sophomore Alex Perkinson said he and Giles became good friends after sharing their music with each other. He said working with Giles on projects and songs has been great because most of the time, they’re “just messing around” and making songs that are for fun.
He said, “He usually humbly plays it down as no big deal, but he has pretty important internships lined up from what I know.”
Perkinson also said he thinks Giles deserves these achievements because Giles is “definitely one of the nicest people I have met at Bellarmine.”
Making a song is a long process that involves multiple steps, and Giles said he usually starts with a core idea, whether it’s a sample melody he created or a loop he found online or through sample packs.
“I try to manipulate it and experiment until I’m satisfied, and then whatever I hear in my head in terms of counter-melodies, 808 patterns, drums, transitions and find the right sound selection to help me flesh out the ideas with it still sounding cohesive before mixing and arranging,” Giles said.
He said different artists and producers such as Curtiss King, Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole, Kanye West and EARTHGANG influenced his sound by their fearlessness to always innovate, their creative individuality and their willingness to experiment with different styles and techniques that blend hip-hop with other genres.
“I think they’ve influenced me to always try new things and step outside of my comfort zone for better or worse,” he said.
Collaborating with the Atlanta-based musical collective, Spillage Village, would be a dream, Giles said. Spillage Village helped to develop rappers 6lack and JID.
“They’ve gotten me through tough times and I just think their eclectic and resonating styles speak to me spiritually and creatively while still being rooted in hip hop and its sub genres,” he said.
Giles said he admires how the collective helped him to take pride in being different or “weird.”
Succeeding as an artist takes initiative, he said.
“When I first started making music, there was no one telling me to keep going but myself,” Giles said.
Giles said he came from a family with no musical background and he learned how to make music on his own through YouTube videos and trial and error before attending college music classes.
Hofmans said he sees Giles exploring many new skillsets during his time at Bellarmine. He said, “He’s begun dabbling in film scoring in our soundtracking class and even learning the piano, taking private lessons here at Bellarmine and studying music theory.”
“I love watching Covy grow and learn as the semesters pass and he only continues to get better at what he does,” Hofmans said.
One day, Giles said, it would be “dope” to play or have his music played at Dreamville Fest or Rolling Loud.
“I knew and still know that if I want to accomplish anything, I have to push myself more than anyone else can or will,” Giles said. “It’s going to be a journey of stepping outside of my comfort zone in several aspects of my career.
“I’m always thinking about different phrases in the realm of ‘dreams only work if you do,’ and practicing what I preach.”
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