Origins of SSW
Since I was 6 years old, I've always dreamt of being a DJ. I used to always look up to DJ's like Skrillex, Alan Walker, and Marshmello. That year was 2016, so artists like them had really peaked at the time. I got my first DJ controller at around 8 years old and had been teaching myself ever since. Of course, I only DJ'ed for fun since I was a little kid. I haven't been doing anything compared to what I am doing now.
Back in 2022, my little sister had the idea to do a solo for competitive dance. Her song was longer than 2 minutes (which is typically the time limit for most competitive solos), so my mom asked me if I could "shorten" the song for her. At the time, I was around 13 years old and haven't had much experience with working DAWs like Logic Pro or FL Studio, so I had the idea to use CapCut which is more regarded as a video editing software by ByteDance.
The word started to spread around my dance studio that I was cutting music, so I started getting more orders from friends and choreographers of mine! I've been charging $10 for each dance routine since I started cutting music. At the time, my music cuts did not sound all the best and they also took several days to complete (since I was using a video editor instead of proper music software), but it got the job done.
After the 2023 season, my iPad that I was using to cut music was very outdated, and the motherboard in my laptop was fried, so I needed to upgrade ASAP. I started using BandLab on my phone. My music cuts started sounding a lot better since BandLab is actually meant for music. It got the job done of course, but it was also time-consuming just like how I was using CapCut to begin with.
Around the 2023-24 season, I got a MacBook for Christmas and started using GarageBand to do my cuts. Once again, it was very time-consuming, but the whole "music thing" was really starting to get me somewhere.
I was getting cut after cut after cut and eventually saved up all of my money to buy pro-level music software, studio monitors, and a brand-new DJ controller. With all of the upgrades made, I got a lot more music cuts in the 2024-25 dance season, the editing process took me minutes for most cuts and my customers were extremely satisfied.Â
After we got back from nationals in Chicago, I felt like this music-cutting thing was a success and that I should keep going. Then, it hit me that this could be a whole business. I never realized it until years after I started cutting music for friends of mine in competitive dance. I didn't even have a name for it. So like any creative person would do, I asked ChatGPT for business name ideas, and it came up with "Stubbs' Audio Works" and "Stubbs Sound." Both sounded clever but I kind of put them together and came up with "Stubbs Soundworks."
Ironically, a few days later, I was asked to DJ at an event called "Biz Kids" which was an event that took place in my hometown for kids in K-12 to showcase their businesses. And so, Stubbs Soundworks was officially open for business.
Throughout these past years, I'm extremely thankful for all of the amazing people I've met and memories made. I'm looking forward to see what the 2026-27 season has to bring to me and my potential career in music production.