When creating her music, recording technology and sound design junior Domonique Crumpton is constantly eager to learn from others, while also paving the way for herself.
Crumpton, who releases music under the moniker DOMONIQXE, produces electronic instrumental tracks she releases via Bandcamp, and has yet to find a way to properly describe her individual style.
“I don’t know to classify it, so I say it’s EDM without being EDM,” she said. “It’s danceable and it’s electronic music purely but it doesn’t have a mainstream EDM sound you would find at a music festival or something. It’s very unique, I’m still trying to find the subgenre for it.”
Regardless, her music can be characterized by its attention to detail, catchy melodies and dense instrumentation.
“Compared to the people I’m surrounded with, they move at a faster pace but I take my slow time because the details are the most important part of a song,” she said. “If (my song) gets stuck in somebody’s head then I know I’ve done my job. I want people to feel good listening to (my music) and relax and kick back to it and have a good time around it.”
Recording technology and sound design senior Josh Jackson admires Crumpton’s originality and precision.
“A lot of thought goes into her compositions,” he said. “It never sounds like she’s copying anyone or emulating her heroes. No one out there sounds like (her). I think she is in a lane of her own.”
Crumpton’s focus and dedication to music was evident from childhood, when she would learn about creating her own sounds from watching interviews and behind the scenes footage of artists she admired and enrolling in a sound design class for two and a half years of high school.
She also began playing clarinet in fifth grade, and still does today, and says her roots in classical music have impacted the modern styles she pursues now.
“Classical music trained my ear more, so when I got over to electronic music it was easier to hear sounds in different frequencies,” the music student said.
Crumpton currently has four singles up on her Bandcamp page, with tangible improvement evident from the oldest release to the newest.
“The newest song I have (“Escape”), there’s so much detail in it but it’s really simple to your ear when you listen to it,” she said. “Blending different frequencies is something I struggled with a lot and I’m still working at it, but “Escape” defines where my new sound is headed.”
The electronic producer’s influences include Martin Garrix, Skrillex and Justin Bieber, but she holds a special idolization for A-list DJ Calvin Harris.
“One of my future goals I always talk about to my friends, is that I want to meet Calvin Harris so bad and I want him to rip my music a part,” she said. “I want someone who’s been doing it for a really long time to notice it and give me feedback.”
Crumpton is not blind to the lack of representation of female producers and DJs in the music industry, but she hopes to see that change in the future.
“It would be really cool to see more female producers and DJs out,” she said. “When you see a festival lineup it’s dominantly male. The few female acts that are there are really good, they just don’t get enough hype around them which sucks.”
However, she doesn’t let this gender imbalance discourage her from pursuing her own career.
“I don’t feel that pressure because the people I surround myself with are really good people,” the musician said. “I’m the only girl in my major so that alone is the power stance I felt when I first came in. Over time, there wasn’t a sense of ‘Oh she’s a girl she can’t do it.’ They’re very encouraging.”
She even cites her fellow music students as some of her biggest inspirations.
“The biggest takeaways I’ve had and the most help I’ve gotten (at SDSU) is from the people I surround myself with,” Crumpton said. “We all make different types of music, we have our own sound, and being around them helped me most because it allowed me to be more open minded to different sounds and try out new things.”
Her next single, “Streamline,” is set to be uploaded to her Bandcamp page on April 19.
