Noted writer, producer, DJ, Keysound co-owner, and Rinse FM host (along with his cohort Dusk) Martin “Blackdown” Clark has taken on an essential, though often overlooked topic, over on his blog—attempting to answer the question, “How do I get started in production?”

This topic can be a slippery slope for most, as production advice is inherently a subjective topic of discussion (a point which Clark also makes in his piece), but the London resident does an exemplary job of sticking to key points and giving a bit of more or less objective advice on the earliest stages of anyone’s production career. Beginning with more tangible concepts such as “Make music, a lot” and “Don’t let the machines master you,” the piece eventually goes on to cover more conceptual matters involved with dedicating oneself to making beats. Clark manages to keep the discussion well grounded with gems of wisdom like, “Learning to produce well and find your sound takes ages: years of dedication at the expense of other things that are more fun like drinking, clubbing, sex, drugs and Xbox. It’s also a terrible way to make money: people don’t buy music anymore.”

In simpler terms, the man knows how to keep it real. We recommend that those just getting their feet wet in the production world, and even those who would consider themselves somewhere along the path to being a veteran, read the full article, here. You’re bound to learn something.