Conversations with Fly Montag

Today we’d like to introduce you to Fly Montag.

Hi Fly, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I was born in Chicago to Indian immigrants, and I grew up in the Atlanta area. Growing up, I was exposed to many musical influences. I grew up singing Hindu bhajans (devotional songs) and playing the piano and double bass in school and started listening to hip-hop in 7th grade and EDM in 9th grade. I then began producing my own music after 10th grade while attending a summer camp in California and settled on my current artist name and style (Fly Montag) during my freshman year at Georgia Tech. While I started my career as Fly Montag by producing mostly instrumental EDM songs, I have since added to my repertoire by singing, rapping, and writing lyrics for my own tracks. I’ve opened concerts for Kid Koala and Blackbear and am currently working on my 2nd album, which is currently slated to be released in late 2023.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I can classify nearly all of my obstacles and challenges over the past 4.5 years (how long the Fly Montag brand has existed) into buckets of external issues and internal issues.

On the external side, it’s obviously not easy to break through as a musician in a saturated industry, so I’ve had my fair share of rejections from opportunities, such as performances, record labels, or collaborations with other artists. I’ve also performed for small crowds and felt less worthy as a musician or as a DJ, had releases not do as well as I would have hoped, and have felt pressure from family and friends who have questioned why I spend so much time on music. Since music is a field where, unfortunately, external validation is important for success, I’ve also felt myself trying to pander or change myself for others and put out content that wasn’t actually true to myself or my style. The rise of TikTok, which I have always boycotted and will continue to boycott due to their complicity in human rights abuses in China, and its role as a kingmaker in the music industry (a large strategy of artists is to try to go viral through a TikTok channel or trend on TikTok), has exacerbated this to a point where everyone feels like they have to focus on going viral rather than being themselves as artists and musicians. I’ve also fell for my fair share of scams and farcical opportunities in the music industry, such as fake record label deals and pay-to-play shows, due to my ignorance and desperation to get my music in front of new audiences through gigs and releases. In addition, I often worry that my lyrics will offend people or get me into trouble, which I mentioned in my recent release, ‘Touch Grass’. However, I’ve gotten much better at being able to tune out external noise and focus on myself and my internal validation.

However, I’ve also struggled with convincing myself that I can be a good musician. I’ve often doubted my musical ability and my ability to grow and evolve my skills and sound, and this has sabotaged many projects. I’ve self-rejected myself from plenty of opportunities due to a lack of self-confidence and have considered quitting music at various low points. I’ve also been discouraged at times by mistakes during sets, which I often take to heart even if nobody in the crowd realizes I’ve made a mistake. I’ve now recognized that it’s important to stop overthinking each of my moves, allow myself to make mistakes, and trust myself more. I’ve also forced myself to follow strict timelines with past projects, which has resulted in sub-optimal quality in the music I’ve released. As a result, I’ve invested in learning sound design and mixing/mastering and removed all hard deadlines to allow myself to take as much time as I need to make a song the best it can be before it sees the light of day.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I’m a music producer, DJ, singer-songwriter, and rapper currently based out of Atlanta.

I’ve been producing music since I was a junior in high school and started the Fly Montag brand in my freshman year of college. I started DJing around this time and have since DJ’d across Georgia Tech and throughout Atlanta. I’ve also had the honor of opening concerts at Georgia Tech for Blackbear and Canadian DJ Kid Koala. On the production side, I’ve released 2 EPs (’48’ and ‘Combustion’) and one album, ‘Kerosene Lamp’. I’m currently working on my 2nd album.

How do you define success?
While it’s tempting to be bogged down by stream counts or the number of gigs I perform, and both are still metrics of success for me out of necessity, I also like to think of success as being able to think of a song idea and put something together in little to no time, regardless of whether it ever sees the light of day. Success is learning new things about production, songwriting, or about my own abilities. Success is being vulnerable and being able to tell my own story through my music. Success is making someone dance or feel alive while listening to my music or listening to me DJ.

Contact Info:

• Website: linktr.ee/flymontag
• Instagram: instagram.com/flymontag
• SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/fly-montag
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7KlvKwcScxowO6q1tSKApu?si=-I23mY6KTr-rEnBnqtdWgg

Image Credits
Aradhya Rajanala (personal photo) Anish Iyer (additional #1) Prasad Garimella (additional #2) Vaud Burton (additional #4)