We had the good fortune of connecting with Toni Marco and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Toni, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
My journey really started right after I started my first collective of producers and artists called VIZIONAIRE with my right hand man Korron at the beginning of 2022. I had just dropped out of college and was lost, so I decided to start selling my beats on the BeatStars platform. I had been making beats on FL Studio since 2019 and decided my craft was at a point to where I could sell my product. It was scary since in a way I was attached to my beats but I just bought the subscription for BeatStars and started to upload them consistently.
 

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Honestly it all started back in middle school from the moment I picked up clarinet and switched from that to tenor sax. Playing saxophone throughout my life allowed me to step foot into what music is and what it started as. I was always in district band, All State band one year, and in jazz and district jazz band throughout high school. That in itself was never easy, I took lessons and just practiced to point to where I would be able to just come to band class, read through the music a couple times and have it down. When it came to graduating high school and choosing the next step into the career I wanted to choose, a lot of things came into play with that. While I was still in band, I remember still feeling out of place with the people in there so I always had friends outside of the niche and through my other friends, and the time of 2016-17, I really gotta obsessed with the SoundCloud era and the wave it was in. I would go into rapping with a bunch of old high school friends and getting to recording with this guy named Mark Raines. He was the first person to introduce me to Fruity Loops, through seeing him go through the process of making beats and even recording my friends and I on FL. I was amazed to see that music could be made in such a way, especially being a classical and jazz saxophone player. His process at the time confused me and that day convinced me that I could do what he was doing, especially already being able to play an instrument and read music. On top of that, at home my parents had been given a piano from someone, and I began to mess with the piano, even going on YouTube trying to learn how to play songs and sing them for my girlfriend at the time. So in a way, all of these pieces came together when it was time for me to choose the next step in my career, which was to go Kennesaw State University and study music and to play saxophone professionally. But when COVID hit 2020, it changed me. I already was fighting depression, trying to balance 2 jobs and school on top of it. COVID made me fall out of love with my instrument and in a way I was starting to feel lost. This all led me to where I am now, from dropping out of college and to fully embrace becoming a producer and engineer independently. All of this has planted the seeds to the identity of Toni Marco and his brand “offtherecord.”.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Honestly, I’d probably just take them to Lenox Mall or just to get wings at Wings 101. There’s probably better spots in Atlanta for wings but of course, I still haven’t finished exploring it myself. Can’t ever go wrong with the Beltline either! I love Krog Street Market and the tunnel full of street art. Little Five Points is always fun too, I love hitting the record stores there for inspiration for new and old music to listen to. At the end of the day we’d probably end up at Missing Island Studios because the studio is basically my second home, the real ones know I basically live in the studio if I’m not working.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I want to give a shoutout to Korron. Korron and I both started this producing journey together back at the 506, founded VIZIONAIRE together, and have learned so many lessons up until now together. I can say he really became my brother. I really need to shoutout my mentor Jaywise aka Tha Illlastrator and the Innovator Entertainment community. I remember first meeting Young Khubz at and KD Haley at a recording session KD was running, and I played them some of my beats and KD stressed to me that I needed to meet Jaywise. I took the initiative and DM’d Jaywise through Instagram and we linked up and stayed locked in since the first day. He became my mentor, and has taught me and allowed me to become a better musician. Now, I met Mark Smooth at podcast when VIZIONAIRE was still a thing and we all sat in that room and freestyled together and I really got to see what Rap Innovators was really about. Korron made another link up happen between Mark and I happen after that and we’ve been locked in since then, with them asking me to apart of what they call the “Innovative Movement”. Through that community, I’ve learned so much from people like Pro, Rashiyd, and Khamansha Raphael to hone my skills even further. If it wasn’t for these people, I wouldn’t be the Toni Marco I am now.

Website: https://linktr.ee/tonimarco?utm_source=linktree_profile_share&ltsid=c4e10f85-4fba-47dd-9042-89d4d7631a77

Instagram: @tonimarcoo

Twitter: @tonimarcoo

Other: TikTok: @tonimarco

Image Credits
Aaron Aurum @aaron.aurum Chris Lynch aka TwoSilverChains @chris__lynch Bryan Bedolla @bryanbedllaa Ian Guzman aka Vision @g.loadding01

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