As 2025 comes to a close, it’s hard to believe it’s already been a full year of Music Factory articles.
When I started, my goal was to pull back the curtain on my creative process. I wanted to explore the inspirations, techniques, and sonic experiments that shape my music and start building a resource for fellow songwriters, producers, and anyone curious about how the music gets made.
The timing for starting this project wasn’t random. One year ago, I was preparing to submit the biggest project I’ve undertaken to date: my Doctor of Musical Arts thesis, focusing on music production and composition. I had been working on the project part-time for six years. Six years! In late January, I handed in 30 pieces of music and an accompanying written exegesis totalling slightly over 35,000 words. Although the exegesis has an ‘academic’ feel, it’s full of insights and ideas about music-making, and I wanted to find a way to share parts of it with other producers and composers. After all, who’s going to bother digging through the Otago University archives for my thesis?
And so, as that last chapter was wrapping up and I was able to take a mental break over the New Year, I came up with the plan for what I initially called ‘n1ghtmar3cat Music Factory’. I knew I could pull a whole lot of article ideas from my doctoral work, making it more accessible to other music makers and creative-minded people. That’s exactly what has happened; many of the articles I’ve written over the last year covered topics I had been researching and contemplating for the six years prior.
I originally called it ‘n1ghtmar3cat Music Factory’ to explicitly link it to the sonic exploration of my solo project. However, the scope has expanded to encompass broader topics of creativity and music-making that go beyond my own workflow. I also started to realise that there were many practical examples I could discuss that relate to other projects I am involved with, from my rock band Villainy to the work I do with other artists. To reflect this shift from a personal artist journal to a broader educational resource, I am changing the project's name to ‘The Music Factory with Dave Johnston’.
I’m incredibly grateful to everyone who has subscribed and joined me on this mission during its first year. Your support and engagement have been hugely encouraging and have motivated me to keep this project going strong into 2026. Whenever someone comments on or reaches out to discuss something I’ve written, it really does give me a boost - I love chatting about this stuff, and it makes up for the times I publish an article and hear nothing but crickets!
For newer subscribers, or for anyone who might have missed a few articles, here is a complete archive from the first year, grouped by theme.
🎹 Creative Philosophy & Mindset
These are discussions about the bigger picture: the "why" behind the "what", focusing on finding a sustainable and fulfilling creative path.
- Beyond the Likes: Why Process Beats Outcome in Music Production - A philosophical look at finding creative fulfilment by focusing on the craft itself, not on external validation.
- You vs the Robots: Why Sonic Identity and Narrative Will Matter More Than Ever - Exploring how human artists can stand out in an era of AI-generated music by developing a unique sonic identity and a compelling story.
- The Authenticity Scale: Where Does Your Music Sit? - A framework for deciding when to use loops and presets versus building your sound from scratch, based on your project's goals.
- The Long Game Reality: A Sustainable Creative Career Requires a Good Money Strategy - A necessary look at how building smart financial habits is essential for protecting your creativity and preventing burnout.
- The Feedback Loop: Finding Creative Opinions You Can Trust - A guide to seeking out and filtering creative feedback to find trustworthy opinions that will actually help your music.
🎧 Songwriting & Arrangement
These articles dive into the practical structure of a song, from the initial spark to the final arrangement.
- Finding the "A-ha" Moment: The Making of a n1ghtmar3cat Track - A look at the messy, non-linear search for the "lightbulb moment" that gives a song its direction.
- Creative Productivity: The “30-Minute Mining” Exercise - A practical exercise to overcome creative block, build good habits, and generate a library of new musical ideas.
- Less is More: Using the Rule of Three in Music Arrangement and Production - A core production principle for enhancing clarity and impact by simplifying how many elements are competing for the listener's attention.
- Identifying the "Focus Element": Mixing and Arranging for Clarity and Impact - Building on the "rule of three", this piece introduced the concept of a "focus element" to guide your arrangement and mixing decisions.
- Horizontal Arrangement: Introducing the ‘Characters’ in Your Music - Thinking about arrangement over time, and how introducing musical elements gradually, like characters in a story, can create a more engaging track.
🎛️ Production Techniques & Case Studies
These articles examined specific techniques and looked at some of the building blocks of certain n1ghtmar3cat tracks.
- The Power of Vocal Manipulation: How I Use My Voice as an Instrument - A dive into one of my favourite techniques: transforming vocals into unique sonic textures, rhythms, and atmospheric layers.
- Reimagining a Classic: My Journey with "Your Song" - A case study on covering a timeless song, balancing respect for the original with a distinct artistic fingerprint.
- Reimagining "Anchors": From Post-Hardcore Anthem to Synth-Pop Dreamscape - The story behind my Secret and Whisper cover, deconstructing a beloved song and reinterpreting it through a different sonic lens.
- The Imprint of Circa Survive: Why I Covered "Flesh and Bone" - A reflection on the cycle of creative influence, and how I reinterpreted a post-hardcore track into a minimal, electronic soundscape.
- Heartbeat Kick Drum: Infusing Your Music with Meaning - How I used a recording of my son's heartbeat in the track "High Hopes" and how personal sounds can add a powerful, unique story to your music.
- Why You Should Be Releasing Instrumental Versions of Your Music - Exploring the strategic benefits of releasing instrumentals, from sync licensing opportunities to serving content creators.
🖥️ Workflow, Gear & Plugins
This section covers the "how": the specific tools, plugins, and workflows I use to get ideas from my head into the DAW.
- A Studio in My Backpack: Making Music Anywhere - A look inside my portable studio setup and the case for a flexible, minimalist approach to music creation.
- My Sonic Toolkit: The Gear & Plugins I Actually Use (and Why) - The introductory article for a new series, cutting through marketing hype to focus on the few tools I rely on regularly.
- My Sonic Toolkit: Why I Only Mix with One EQ Plugin - An argument for limiting your choices to work faster, focusing on the FabFilter Pro-Q 4.
- My Sonic Toolkit: The Two Essential Compressors for My Workflow - Why I generally limit myself to just two compressors (the UAD 1176AE and Fabfilter Pro-C 2) to keep my mixing focused and efficient.
- My Sonic Toolkit: I Own Two Microphones, and I Only Use One of Them - Why I simplify my recording chain to a single microphone to remove friction from the creative process and capture ideas quickly.
- My Sonic Toolkit: The Swiss Army Knife of Sound Design - Why Cableguys' ShaperBox 3 is an essential tool in my production kit, not just as a multi-effects plugin but as a fix-it utility plugin for common mixing challenges.
A Look Ahead to 2026
Writing these articles has been a fantastic way to clarify my own thoughts, and I’m looking forward to publishing more.
I plan to expand the "My Sonic Toolkit" series, dive deeper into production techniques, and share more case studies from upcoming n1ghtmar3cat tracks. I’d like to start adding video and audio clips to some articles to demonstrate the techniques and ideas I’m trying out - I think that’ll add a new dimension and bring us a bit closer to the music, which is the point of it all.
This has always been intended as a two-way street. One thing I’d really like to see next year is more interaction from readers with comments and discussion around the topics I post about, but to do that, I need to write about things people are interested in discussing! To help me make this resource as valuable as possible, I'd love to hear from you:
- What topics would you like to see more of?
- What are the most significant creative challenges you're facing?
Please take a minute to let me know by clicking here to answer these questions. Your response will genuinely be helpful!
And finally, if you've found these articles useful or know someone who might, I'd appreciate it if you shared them with a friend. Thank you again for being a part of this community.
See you in 2026!
- Dave
