It’s no secret the road to success is often a rocky one. If you ask music producer Myles Wiliam, he will tell you, “I worked 24 hours a day, nonstop.” William has worked with artists like Lil Wayne, French Montana, Kendrick Lamar, Keyshia Cole, Iggy Azalea, Rick Ross and many others. He even had a hand in the creation of “Freedom” from Beyoncé’s latest album, Lemonade.
Named after the esteemed Miles Davis, Myles William was raised in a musically inclined family in Park Ridge, New Jersey. His mom worked in marketing and his dad is the musician that he looks up to the most. “My dad is the best musician I’ve ever met in my life. He’s by far way more incredible at making music than I am…” says William.
William got his start in making music when he flew down to Arizona State University for his freshman year of college. As he sat on the plane, he began learning Garageband. His passions for producing grew as he dedicated all of his time between classes and partying to making beats. Shortly afterward, Myles began selling his beats to locals on campus. His love for music caused William to leave Arizona State as an architecture student to focus on his music full-time. “I started making music all the time. I was selling beats at my school to make money to pay for school and I wanted more time to work on music, so I left.”
Failure was never an option for William. When he moved back home, he found a job as a waiter and focused solely on music. His journey to success caused him to lose a lot, but he gained much more in exchange. “I wasn’t a slacker with this.” warned William. “I stopped going to parties, I lost every friend I had. I just stayed in my house making music all day everyday. Literally, I lost my girlfriend at the time, I lost everything.” Despite all of the loss, Myles found his greatest strength in his family. Having his dad as his greatest inspiration and watching his mom win a fight against cancer was all the motivation in the world for him as he learned that anything is possible.
It is now 2016 and William has built a great foundation for himself. He got his start with Irv and Chris Gotti along with Reefa landing his first major studio session and placement with Ja Rule on his song “Fresh Out the Pen” from his Everything EP in 2013. Since then Myles has continued on to becoming a platinum producer and a great protege to Just Blaze. He also runs the movement Future Moguls with partners and artists @Titusxfm and @JayPharoah and continues to make moves with many major artists.
How did you imagine your life growing up?
I never could, it’s so weird. I didn’t have a defined vision. I just knew I wanted to do something, I didn’t know what it was going to be. I could never picture myself in a suit. I could never picture myself getting a job. I wanted to be a baseball player for a large portion of my life but eventually that phased out.
A lot of people would tell me I’d never make it and it wasn’t until I was a little older that I realized that the people that were telling me I couldn’t do it never did anything themselves so I started asking myself, ‘Why am I listening to this guy?’
I just knew I wanted to do something that people would look up to me for doing.
Why did you decide to drop out?
Music decided that for me. Architecture still might be for me. But just for the time, all of my time is consumed with making music and just trying to get better with music. When I first started making music my music was horrible. It was just other people who were saying to me, “hey if you keep it up you got a shot, you could do this this. Its pretty good.” I was doing a lot of partying and stuff so it molded into the lifestyle. I was being derailed from studying and doing school stuff because I was out partying, but I would be working on songs to play at the parties. It just kind’ve all like merged. I started making music all the time.
After you saw Ja Rule at the Apple store before you went to college, how did you use that connect in order to benefit your future in pursuing music full- time?
What’s so strange is that my first placement ever was with Ja Rule, but it didn’t come from the meeting at the Apple store. I ran into Ja Rule at the apple store and I didn’t even know it was him. I was like looking like is that Ja Rule and someone was like yea that’s him. So I just went up to him like, ‘Yo man I make beats’ and I was like ‘Just give me an opportunity and I will send some beats over… I never sent him any beats.
Two years later I’m working with Irv Gotti and Chris Gotti and them. They pull me in the studio and Ja Rule’s there. Me and Ja Rule do a record and that was my first placement. I was like yo do you remember me and I showed him the picture I was like yo I met you in the apple store and I told you one day I’m going to be a producer. I’m going to make beats like I’m going to do a song with you and we laughed about the situation.
Once you decided to drop out, what did you do?
I worked at a restaurant as a waiter and a bartender. I remember always telling everybody there, “I’m going to quit this job and become a music producer.” When I came back to my hometown, I felt like my close friends and peers were looking down at me for leaving school to pursue music. I didn’t really want to tell everyone yet because I wasn’t at the point that I wanted to be before I started to tell everyone what I was doing.
I was not a slacker with this. I worked 24 hours a day, nonstop. I stopped going to parties, I lost every friend I had. I just stayed in my house making music all day everyday. No one believed in me. Everyone was like you’re never going to make it. What are you doing? You threw away college, you threw away this, you threw away that. All of these comments are what kinda just fueled my fire to say, ‘I’m going to like make it no matter what they say, I’m going to do what I have to do.’ I lost my girlfriend at the time I lost everything. Literally, I hit the most rock bottom you could hit. That was all the motivation I needed to keep me going to make something happen.
I was there for two years and then I got picked up by Reefa and Irv Gotti and Chris Gotti. They called me up to tell me to go to the studio, a big artist is interested in a record. They said to come by the studio, we’re going to tell you about it. I was like finally, here’s my chance. So I quit my job at the restaurant and went all in.
What was a time when you felt really discouraged and how did you get through it?
I was dealing with a battle between me and myself. I wanted to be successful, and I knew I had to do something to be that. I had options, other things I could’ve done to be financially successful, but they were just regular jobs. It was just a battle of do I just go do what I have to do to make a lot of money, or do I keep doing this because this is what I would want to tell my kids, my friends and my family, like this is what I’ve done. I wanted to do something more than a standard 9-5. I wanted to do something I loved.
When my mom had cancer I was definitely down. You see other people go through the struggle, but you never think you’re going to go through the struggle. Seeing your mom like that, struggling like that, sick like that, there’s nothing you can even do. At that time in my life I was discouraged and I got in a lot of trouble, but all I could do was try my best to stay positive.
My outlook has always been very optimistic. Watching my mom being cured of cancer was like yo, anything could happen. Anything, just put your mind to it and you could manifest everything.
What is your ideal studio session?
Making great music, that’s it. It’s so different. Every time it’s just unpredictable. Everything goes wrong when you try to have things happen in an ideal setting.
Confidence in your abilities are important, but it’s all about a vibe. You’ll never really know what someone’s going to like. A lot of artists I’ve worked with, I’ve played them things thinking this is definitely something they want and then they pick something completely different that I never thought that they’d want.
You’ll hear everyone say it’s all about a vibe, it’s all about a vibe and it really is. It’s all about the vibe. You have to just go in and go with the flow and play some music.
How did you feel when you found out you could land some work on Beyoncé’s album? And How did you link up with Just Blaze?
When Just Blaze called me up to come and work on it, it had reference vocals and the sample. It needed drums, some transitional work and additional music like keyboards and stuff. At that point I was like really? Beyoncé? Beyoncé wants this record? I’m just thankful to have been able to be a part of the album in some way.
Just Blaze on meeting Myles: “So I started working on the record. I kind’ve knew what I wanted to do with it already… and then Saigon you know he’s always been my brother, he had a producer that he knew. He was like yo this kid just needs a shot, you know? So I’m like cool, cool, cool bring him to the crib—played me some music and I was floored by it.
So he came by the crib and I was working on the joint for Beyoncé so I said yo why don’t you mess with this. Do what you think I would do.”
What is Future Moguls?
Future Moguls is a brand that I’ve been pushing with my friends. Titus and Jay Pharoah were the two artists that we were working with and we just figured a brand was important, so why not start something and have a brand. We officially started it in 2014. We wanted to make something that wasn’t about us particularly. It’s about younger people seeing the things we’ve done and becoming inspired to be successful. It’s about inspiring people to be future moguls. Helping them to recognize that you are the next generation of moguls. You can you work hard and chase dreams and be that mogul.
