Artwork by Cat Elia

In this age of instant gratification of digital streaming, where just about any album from any era is available within seconds and we consume media in wanton binges, it’s easy to forget how much time and effort it takes for creatives to craft their content (we touched upon this a bit in the last episode of the Puddcast featuring Oompa, which you should totally check out if you haven’t already). It can take weeks, months, sometimes even years for an artist to perfect their material and feel happy enough with it to release. 

Photo Courtesy of Krystal Karting

With that in mind, what’s it like when an artist knows they have a limited time in which to write, record, mix, master, and release a project, especially when that artist hasn’t released music before? That’s the situation Atlanta’s Krystal Karting put himself in earlier this year when he set out to record his debut The Best We Can With The Teeth We’ve Got. To record it, he signed up for a 90 day free trial of Ableton (for those that don’t know, Ableton is a versatile audio software; it’s also what I use to edit episodes of this podcast). In those 90 days, Krystal wrote and recorded the album’s eight tracks, playing every instrument. 

It’s a bold move to put out music at all, but to try to do it with a technology that you don’t have much experience with and need to learn on the fly, it could seem like an insurmountable feat to some. But Krystal took this self-assigned homework in stride and completed the task.

After taking a quick first listen to the album, I was undeniably impressed. If I hadn’t known ahead of time about the 90 day free trial, I never would have guessed this was Krystal’s first foray into self-recording and -releasing. So I wanted to talk to him to get a sense of what this learning process was like and what his plans are moving forward as an artist. 

Check out the episode below, or wherever you stream podcasts. Plus, you can check out the accompanying Spotify playlist, featuring Krystal Karting’s music, plus a slew of the artists we mentioned during the course of the episode. And, of course, check out The Best We Can With The Teeth We’ve Got when you’ve got a chance.