Before putting his thoughts to hip-hop verses, Stefan Dismond was convinced his calling was making ringtones.
The second-year cognitive science student, who used to make alternative music and ringtones, decided to switch to rapping just last year. Dismond said he initially used his laptop keys as a digital keyboard to produce electronic patterns that turned into ringtones. Over time, his ringtones started to sound like hip-hop beats, which led to Dismond’s growing interest in the genre.
“I started to think: ‘Someone should really rap over these.’ But then I figured, why don’t I just do it myself?” Dismond said.
Dismond released his debut mixtape in January, titled “Did You Mean: Stefan Diamond.” He will also perform at this year’s Ecochella concert Friday.
Dismond said he did not have the advantage of using a professional studio to record his mixtape, however. It took over six months to record the project in his dorm room and work with beat producers over the Internet.
To level the microphone with his mouth at standing height, he took his roommate’s desk chair, stacked books on top of it and put the chair on top of a dresser.
Recording in the dorms, Dismond said, presented its own set of challenges, like neighbors’ concern about the noise from his room.
“It sometimes gets awkward recording in my room because people from the outside think I’m just screaming,” Dismond said.
Dismond, who began making music in eighth grade, said learning to produce music was a long process because he bought his first microphone only halfway through high school. Prior to using a microphone, Dismond would record with his laptop’s built-in microphone, which made it difficult to create music with good sound quality.
With three songs topping 2,500 plays on SoundCloud, the success of Dismond’s nine-track tape exceeded his expectations: Initially, he said, he feared it would be drowned out by the massive SoundCloud rap platform.
Because Dismond only began rapping last year, he said he felt he couldn’t compete with more popular and established student bands.
“People just go with what they already know,” Dismond said.
He promoted his music on public Facebook pages, but he said getting people to click on the link and listen to his tape at all was the biggest challenge. Dismond said the most effective strategy was sharing the mixtape on his own profile and having his friends voluntarily share it with their friends.
“It made it more personal so people that didn’t know me but knew my friends checked out my music,” Dismond said.
In addition, Dismond said though he performs in a genre saturated with explicit language, he takes pride in not using swear words in his songs.
“I have very limited space to rap about my life, so I try to phrase things differently instead of just filling my lines with bad language,” Dismond said.
Alex Guzner, Dismond’s friend and former music collaborator, said Dismond’s intelligence shows in his rapping. When the fourth-year neuroscience student listens to Dismond’s music, he said he can tell how much the rapper thought about each line.
Guzner said one of Dismond’s unique qualities is his ability to rap in different styles, which Dismond showcases by comparing his life ambitions to driving cars on the club-friendly track “Top Down” while pondering the viability of his love life on the harmonic “The One.”
Michael de Virgilio, a fourth-year psychobiology student and friend who Dismond frequently consults for feedback and advice, said the mixtape’s production is synth-heavy, with warm, driving melodies and chords supporting Dismond’s rapping.
“I think there’s a lot of heart and emotion in his songs which you don’t see in rap all the time,” de Virgilio said.
Despite being pleasantly surprised with the tape’s results, Dismond said he recognizes that his work has only just begun. He said he wants to bring more energy to his recording sessions and be more confident in his voice. Whenever a thought pops into his head, he writes it down to sharpen his lyrical skills and tries to learn more about audio production and music editing.
In a perfect world, Dismond said he would be a professional musician or a rapper, but until the opportunity arrives, he is happy with making music for himself, friends and fans. He said making the music is more fun than listening to the finished product because writing a good song challenges him the most as a musician.
“Rap has helped me express very intimate parts about how I feel,” Dismond said. “I think it’s really important to be able to share your life with other people.”