5PiECE

Freedom 35 🎈

I went from tripping about entering my 30s to now being half way through it 😅

But hey, I got ID’d the other day so it can’t be all that bad 😬

Honestly, despite the ups and downs that life always throws, these have been the years where I feel most settled into who I am and what I’m capable of 🚀

I truly am blessed - with a great partner, family and friends that are always in my corner even when I’m not in it myself ❤️

I often forget what I’ve been able to accomplish in my brief existence - and I still have a lot of goals that I’m trying to cross off the list - but I’m happy to have made it this far and excited to see what I do next with your love and support 🙏🏼

Thank you for rocking with me and hope to celebrate today and everyday with you in some way. 🎉

-5

2025PIECE 👀

2024 has brought A LOT of major changes for me personally - including moving away from the city I’ve known and lived in my whole life to embrace a quieter, suburban experience with my favs and Piper 🐶

And soon, your boy 5PiECE is going to become an uncle 👶🏻 what a trip it is to know the next generation of your family is en route 🤯

I honestly feel like I still have so much to figure out personally and professionally - but I’m happy to have made progress and continue steering the course I set out on a decade ago 🚢

Sometimes I get caught up in thought patterns that are very competitive (I’m Italian-Canadian, what can I say, it’s in my blood 🤌🏼) but recently have been trying to remind myself that the only person I’m competing with is ME 😤

And compared to my past, I’ve made some incredible progress that I can only appreciate now as I stop to smell the roses before the year comes to a close 📆

I’m happy to have been a part of some awe-inspiring musical projects this year - including some awesome ones from and many more 🚀

And this has probably been the hardest I’ve gone on YouTube for awhile - dropping multiple videos per month for most of the year and becoming invigorated to continue making content, learning and hopefully helping other creators a long the way 🤘🏻

Huge shoutout to for their on-going sponsorship of my channel as it’s been a massive help, enabling me to dedicate more time to YouTube than ever before as well 🙏🏼

I thank you for rocking with me. If you’re seeing this, happy new years to you and yours and hope we can make 2025PIECE even better than 2024. As long as you’re still breathing, you can 🎯

Peace!

-5

A key difference I notice whenever I go Europe is people seem to work to live, whereas in the west, we live to work 😓

Work becomes everything to us. It consumes us. It’s very clear, as most times when you meet someone, one of the first questions they’ll ask is: “so what do you do for work?” 🧐

God forbid you don’t have a good answer to that question, especially when you do multiple things like I do - audio engineer, producer, content creator, grant writer and so on 😅

For a long time, I used to subscribe to the following idea: “Better busy than bored” 📆

But lately I’ve come to realize that being busy is not necessarily a good thing. and many good things can come from boredom 🎯

Afterall, if you’re always busy, then when do you find time to make your biggest breakthroughs? 🤨

It CAN’T happen when you’re multitasking and juggling your obligations, pressed to meet a deadline 🙅🏻

For me, it typically happens in my down-time when I actually have space and time to contemplate - like when I’m in the shower and can think clearly for 10 minutes without distraction 💭

Being busy can often put you into a REACTIVE state - processing what’s immediately in front of you and not being thoughtful or intentional with your actions ☢️

But being thoughtful in advance - utilizing boredom or even scheduling in time to think can help you escape that reality and become PROACTIVE. You can decide what you want to do, when you want to do it and have more control over what happens next. 🔍

As Idowu Koynikan said: “You just can’t let life happen to you, you have to make life happen.” ✅

Making life happen means becoming proactive 👀

Love or hate Bill Gates he would routinely take “think weeks” - times he would schedule in advance to do nothing but go away off-grid, with no communication to just read, learn and think about the next moves for himself and his businesses 🧠

While I don’t always agree with what he does professionally, I can’t help but think that this is partly what has contributed to his financial success over the past few decades 📈

Imagine what a little bit of forced boredom could do for you? 🤔

The internet is NOT a real place ❌

In fact, a lot of “places” aren’t real 🤨

Coming back from another trip across the pond, being completely detached for a brief reprieve, I can’t help but contemplate what “reality” actually is 🔍

It’s all in your mind 🧠 it’s YOUR version of reality as you know it and have defined it 📝

Perhaps you can relate but for instance, at home in Toronto, I can at times feel overwhelmed by the varying stressors of life…😖

Responsibilities and obligations - bills, maintaining a household, keeping up with the daily demands of life, work and the social constructs of being in a city and putting yourself out there 🌆

And then when I travel, I am able to briefly detach from all of these and be “free” 🦅 immersed in a new environment, new people and completely living in the moment not glued to my phone or computer 📲

I’m NOT naive enough to believe both are reality 👀

Life at home isn’t as stressful as I think it is - how I’m thinking about it is. And I realize that ESPECIALLY after coming back decompressed, refreshed and ready to embrace my former challenges and turn them into progress 📈

And life abroad isn’t as carefree as I think - I still encounter problems and challenges, as****es and other things - just viewed with a different lens 👓

I know if I stayed somewhere else long enough, I’d be trading my old problems for a variety of new ones to unique to my surroundings 🌴

What I’m getting at is: perception is everything. What you think, you become. Reality is what you make it. (These are not my quotes but ones I’ve lifted and can’t properly attribute at the moment)🔨

Sometimes we need to escape our current reality to get the perspective needed to approach life a different way ⬅️

A vacation is a “simple” way to do it, but I get that not everyone is as fortunate to travel. But finding a way to shift your paradigm and do something outside of your comfort zone and requires you to live in the moment is usually the recipe 🧑‍🍳

As my lovely partner has shown me, “a comfort zone is a beautiful place but nothing ever grows there” 💐

Looking for more track separation in a mix?

Forget sidechain compression - do THIS instead:

Forget Sidechain Compression, Do THIS Instead 🤯 (MORE Track Separation!) Sidechain compression is a great method of creating separation between sounds, but there's a better way....Multiband Sidechain Compression.In this video, Tor...

Struggling to achieve LOUDER mixes that compete? 🤔

Understanding how to manipulate loudness, particularly by enhancing the PERCEIVED LOUDNESS of a track, took me awhile to figure out 🥵

BUT, once I wrapped my head around it- it was a game-changer. 🤯

Mixes started cutting better across listening devices and were able to hold their own up against other industry tracks💪🏼

Like myself not-too-long-ago, this could be the very thing you’re missing too 👀

Click the link to watch the full video to learn about 3 of my favourite strategies I use EVERY TIME to get more loudness out of my mixes: https://youtu.be/3TupsTPSSlc

Use THESE 3 METHODS For LOUDER Mixes Toronto mixing engineer 5PiECE demonstrates 3 techniques to achieve louder mixes and masters.Achieving louder mixes isn't just a numbers game - its about pre...

Over the weekend, we laid my friend to rest 🙏🏼🕊

Mike and I spent a lot of time together in elementary and high school - bonding over Halo co-op (legendary only), walking EVERYWHERE, partying, and having lots of deep, late night conversations about life and what we're trying to do in our adult years.

Like most, we grew apart as we got older and our interests changed. He got into Ju Jitsu, I went to college and life just got in the way. I still remember our days together fondly though.

Last time I spoke to Mike was during the pandemic after he acquired Riverdale Ju Jitsu. As an entrepreneur myself, we traded some "war stories" about business, laughs and other good times. 

Mike was a genuine, happy-go-lucky, passionate and loveable guy. We picked up where we left off in that call like time hadn't changed a thing - even though we barely spoke for over a decade. I wish I knew that would've been our last chat.

I remember early on Mike taught me his "Polish drinking trick" - if we were ever going to have some drinks on an empty stomach, he'd bring a bunch of bananas and we'd eat them so we weren't drinking on an empty stomach. A little protein, a little potassium - it always worked. Guy knew his stuff.

Check out the third photo from semi-formal Winter 2008. We could never sneak in our booze into high school events without it being a problem as under-agers. That year Mike and I had the genius idea to take our booze, put it in a gift box, wrap it and coat check it AT the actual semi-formal so we knew our goods were safe for the after-party.

Mike was invested in this. He even bought a birthday card; writing "Happy Birthday Dan & Mike!" inside. We told the coat check "We're going to a birthday after" and they wouldn't ask any questions. At the end of the night, we went to coat check and got our "gift.” Our high school safely held our liquor all night. I still can't believe we came up with such a genius play at the time.

I have so many stories like this with Mike. We were a dynamic duo for many years and I wish I could go back to that time - especially right now.

I love you Mike. Thanks for all the incredible memories. Rest In Peace brother.

Entering my 33rd year of existence feeling thankful for the beautiful people that make life worth living ❤️

Some incredible memories here. Excited to make more with ya’ll 🤘🏻

Wish I had more pics and space to share because there are SO many people who I owe a great deal to who aren’t displayed here. I love y’all ❤️

#33

A funny thing happened in the comments of one of my YouTube videos 😂

Someone commented that I "still have a long way to go" 🗿

As in I still have a lot to learn 🤔
...well, DUH 😅

I *better* have a lot to learn 🙌🏼

While they were insinuating that I'm a know-it-all who's in over his head, the truth couldn't be further from it 🙄

I'm definitely not a novice - I've been at this for 10+ years now, with plenty of successes to back it up🏆

I walk what I talk 💪🏼

But similarly, I’d be hard-pressed to believe that I know everything there is to know about audio 🥶

And that is why I teach others because the BEAUTY of teaching something is you get to learn it TWICE ✌🏼

When I put together content, I'm re-learning what I'm teaching and getting better at it ✅

You ever find yourself in those moments where life feels a bit stale? 😐

Like you're bored, unsatisfied and unfulfilled to some degree? 🥹

Chances are you feel this way because you aren't CHALLENGING yourself anymore 👀

And a good way to challenge yourself and re-invigorate your zest for life is to LEARN something new 📝

This can happen in so many simple ways. For me, I do the following:

1) I listen to podcasts instead of music - especially interviews with elite performers who have done things I’s like to accomplish so I can see what it took and what they had to learn to become a success 🔊

2) I read non-fiction books - Same concept as above, except much more focused on specific niches, skills and ideas that I want to improve upon 📖

3) I watch educational content - I push myself to continue to learn, or re-learn things I already know. It’s possible to get rusty so I see this as a way to not only gain new skills, but also remind myself of things that we sometimes forget through our day-to-day practices. 📀

4) I talk to peers and share experiences - think of this like a mastermind in a way. I tell others about what I've done that was right or wrong, and they do the same. We all learn from each other and pull things away that help us all get better. 🗣

I firmly believe that the moment you stop learning, you start dying 📉

I'm trying to live long, my friends, and I hope the same for you 🙏🏼

“Wherever you go, there you are” - Jim Russell

I don’t know if you know this but…

Putting myself out there through my content has not been easy ❌

We’ll actually, at first it was - because nobody gave a s**t 💩 nobody watched my videos, nobody cared but I continued to post 📲

0 followers became several thousand, and on YouTube I just passed 13,000 subscribers today 🤯

It’s been a blessing to do this and grow as a person, and educator, in the process 🙏🏼

However, as my lessons reach more people daily, I’ve begun to encounter a lot more reisistance, pushback and just general negativity lately 📉

Comments from people who don’t know me at all yet literally question my knowledge, experience, character and integrity 🤔

Honestly, I’m not used to it 😅

My mission with my free content has always been to HELP people 🤝

To TEACH them what I never knew and show them things that I had to learn the HARD way 👷🏼‍♂️

Lessons learned when I was barely sleeping 3 hours a night, interning at 2 studios and working a night shift at a warehouse to make ends meet 😣

Building my own business from scratch with no prospects or guarantees 🎲

Winning $200,000+ in grants from $0 💸

I have to remind myself that I am NOT who these haters try to make me out to be 😓

These days, I’m more shocked that I have haters to begin with 😳

But like my guy told me the other day:

“I don’t know anyone that’s winning who takes time out of their day to leave negative comments on a post”

Hopefully that isn’t you 🚫

And if you’re going through something similar - If people are doubting you, throwing shade, and projecting their negative emotions onto you when all you’re trying to do is DO GOOD….well….

I guess we’re both winning 😉

WHY do YOU do what you DO? 🤔

I’ve been an entrepreneur (in the music space of all things) since 2015 📍

7+ years and counting of relying on myself to make ends meet ⏱

My choice to pursue this path boiled down to AUTONOMY 🚀

Being able to fully decide what I want to do, when I want to do it 💪🏼

For years I worked for others; helping them build their dreams while simultaneously never working on my own 🛠

I was UNFULFILLED and worse, I did nothing to fix it 😢

I really didn’t want to REGRET not at least TRYING to pursue my dream 💭

And I feared that a few more years on the path I was on would LOCK me in 🔐

Until one day I was FED UP 🤬

When I decided to become an entrepeneur, I had a full time job offer at a marketing company with a nice salary and benefits, and I turned it all down to pursue music fully 🫡

I was $30K in debt, getting out of a toxic relationship, with almost nothing in my bank account, no prospects, no guarantees - really NOTHING that made it a LOGICAL decision 🧠

All I had, as cliche as it sounds, was my FRUSTRATION in my circumstances, and my BELIEF in myself - that if I actually gave it 100% of my effort, I would HAVE TO succeed EVENTUALLY 🔑

And now, I make an honest living doing WHAT I love WITH people I love while HELPING others along the way 🙏🏼

Now it’s not all sunshine and rainbows - I certainly have eaten my fair share of 💩 over the years and likely still will in the future 📆

Years of unrelenting work from wake-up to bed time, no days off ☀️🌕

Being judged and doubted by those you thought would support you most 💔

Making a horrifying amount of mistakes and learning the hard way (which also turns out to be the best way) ❌

I would not wish this life on somebody who isn’t meant for it. It’s not easy, and the journey comes with many peaks and valleys (You mostly see the peaks here on Instagram) 🏔

But I’m THANKFUL that I took a chance and never let up 🎲🙌🏼

I’m EXCITED for what’s coming next ➡️

And I’m OPTIMISTIC that if I was able to pull THIS off, you can do whatever the f**k you believe you can too. BET THAT. 🎰

So why do I do what I do? 🤔

Because I STILL like to prove MYSELF and OTHERS wrong ✅