Hometown Highlight: Music Producer Ryan Hatfield

Article By: James McKissick, Staff Writer | BCS Chronicle

What You Need To Know:

• Ryan Hatfield, A,K.A, “HVTFIELD,” is a local music producer.

• Ryan has been a practicing musician for over 10 years.

• He has multiple artist pages across Youtube, Spotify, AudioMack, and SoundCloud.

• His music spans multiple genres including rap, metal, folk, country, and EDM.

• Ryan’s aim is to bring affordable, professional-quality music production to BCS.

Music is a vital part of the culture of the Bryan-College Station area. From the dancehalls, bars, or other venues where live music can be heard on a regular basis, to events like First Friday in downtown Bryan where musicians come play live on the street and on stage, to students playing piano in The Flag Room of The Memorial Student Center on the A&M campus, music flows through the hearts and minds of BCS locals like blood through their veins. But despite having ties to artists like Lyle Lovett and Granger Smith, as well as being home to the nationally famous Fightin’ Texas Aggie Band, the BCS area isn’t really known for its music. But that may soon change.

With technology ever-advancing, music production has become much more accessible, but still requires a good bit of know-how, and often a good bit of money, to get a professional quality result. That’s where producer Ryan Hatfield, A.K.A. “HVTFIELD”, comes in.

Ryan has been a practicing musician for over the past ten years and producing his own music for more than five, and now aims to bring affordable, professional-quality production to BCS. But surprisingly he didn’t always love music.

“I just didn’t care about music as a kid,” said Ryan. But at some point, something changed, and he started getting into a few different bands. First it was contemporary Christian music with The Newsboys, then alternative rock with Switchfoot, but his first true love in music was the genre of metal.

“When I really got into music was when I got into metal,” Ryan recounted. He was introduced to the genre by a band called Demon Hunter, and soon after he wanted to learn to play for himself. When Ryan was thirteen, he heard the song “Silence the Oppressors” by Impending Doom, and that was the sirens’ call that drew him in. “I remember thinking ‘Man, that must be so hard to play on guitar,’ and then I learned it in like a month,” he said. But it wasn’t all smooth sailing after that.

“So I got a handful of guitar lessons and actually both of my teachers kind of gave up on me because I didn’t want to do what they were asking,” Ryan said. “I was given an acoustic and told to play acoustic music and I didn’t want to do that,” he continued. But not one to be stopped so easily, Ryan took up teaching himself, and he didn’t stop at guitar.

“Bass, banjo, guitar, a little bit of mandolin, some cello. At this point it’s basically anything with strings and frets,” Ryan said. However, he didn’t just teach himself to play instruments; he also taught himself to record and mix them.

Ryan said that he wanted to find someone to record his music and no one could. “I knew one dude and he moved,” Ryan continued, recalling how he was left without a choice, as so are many musicians are nowadays. “A lot of people are their own everything,” said Ryan, and he came to the realization that if he wanted to make his music the way he wanted to, he was going to have to do it himself.

“It was about 2015 that I bought FL studios and I would just go to coffee shops and be on my laptop messing around and making these beats that I thought were great, and so did my friends,” Ryan reminisced. “Then I look back now and I’m like ‘Man, I hope nobody could hear that,’” Ryan said as he let out a laugh. With time and practice, however, he worked on perfecting his art.

But knowing that music is a fairly saturated field, and that being unique and talented doesn’t guarantee success in the cutthroat industry, Ryan pursued a degree in marketing to give himself a contingency plan and a leg up on the competition.

“You have to know how to market yourself in this day and age,” says Ryan. And that’s what he’s working on now. He has multiple artist pages across Youtube, Spotify, AudioMack, and SoundCloud that span multiple genres including rap, metal, folk, country, and EDM, and he’s starting to gain traction.

“I have one song on AudioMack right now that’s up to 90,000 listens, and I’m pretty happy with that,” Ryan said. But along with getting his music out there, Ryan also recognizes the value of networking.

“The main thing is just connections,” Ryan said, telling a story about how he recently met a producer at a social event in Houston and got invited to do some work in their studio. “It was a big confidence booster,” he went on. “I think there's a lot of people that are talented enough to do this, but you can have your friends and family tell you that all day and it doesn't mean anything until someone on the other side is like ‘Oh yeah, you're good.’”

Currently, Ryan is working on establishing his brand. “I have a Spotify page, and the name is ‘HVTFIELD,’ which is my last name, but instead of an ‘A’ it's a ‘V’ you know, cause I'm edgy,” he said with a grin. And along with the brand name, he’s working on a website and has started producing more than just his own music. At present, he works out of his home, but has plans to establish a retail space once traffic increases. But his main goal is to make quality music production accessible and motivate talented artists who otherwise wouldn’t put themselves out there or may not know how to take that leap. “I mean a lot of artists fall into that where you’re always your own biggest critic, and sometimes you just need a little affirmation to go forward.”