Aspire Artist Academy Offers the Mentorship Producers Need to Succeed

3 days ago 6

Stephen Bakarich told EDMID the story of Aspire Artist Academy, from its pandemic origins to its 2026 partnership with Chicago Music Nexus.

Countless aspiring DJs and producers are under the impression that the path to their success is a solo mission. According to Stephen Bakarich of Aspire Artist Academy, that couldn’t be further from the truth.

“I’ve met enough of my idols now, and every successful artist had a community of like-minded producers around them,” he told EDM Identity over video chat. “They all had mentors: people encouraging them, inspiring them, and helping them skip all the mistakes they made in their career to find the most efficient path from point A to point B.”

And that’s the exact void Bakarich intends to fill with Aspire. The growing platform provides coaching aimed to give electronic musicians a north star in what can often be an opaque and isolating industry.

“My biggest focus is making the program as world class as possible,” Bakarich said. “More resources, more trainings, more systems to use, in order to make the program the best it can be.”

Photo Courtesy of Aspire Artist Academy

Bakarich knows firsthand the value of insights like these. “I’ve always loved music production,” he recalled. “I was a raver at a young age, even a clubber at one point. I was all about the scene and I always wanted to produce music from a young age.”

He continued, “But I was never able to make any progress. It was always so overwhelming and complicated, from the software to how you write music to how the industry works. It really just kept me at the starting line.”

Things took a turn in 2017. Bakarich was the first employee of a tech startup and had been working seven days a week, sometimes even sleeping in his office. Once the company folded, he decided he needed a change. He launched the MASTERIA artist project, and this time, he had a small team behind him.

The difference was palpable. In a few short years, Bakarich got his music signed to labels like Confession, Mau5trap, Insomniac Records, Monstercat, and Night Bass. His music had garnered support from artists like Tiësto, Excision, and Martin Garrix, landing him gigs at nightclubs and festivals across the US.

Then came the pandemic. Under mandatory lockdowns, Bakarich’s tour life ground to a halt. He still longed for the sense of connection that he felt from gigging. This led him to artist mentorship, which came to him quite easily.

“I started working with these artists, and I realized that the same things that worked for me were working for them,” Bakarich shared. “From being very early in production to finishing awesome music, getting support from their favorite artists, and playing Coachella, Electric Forest, and Shambhala. I started to realize how much fulfillment I was getting from that, from waking up to texts from these artists saying this dream they told me about in our first conversation became a reality.”

Stephen Bakarich launched Aspire Artist Academy in 2024, after he had several years of one-on-one mentorship under his belt. Under his guidance, his clients have landed major festival bookings and garnered hundreds of thousands of streams.

Contrary to what you might expect, Bakarich doesn’t hold his most useful tips close to the chest. He shares his knowledge freely, casually rattling off actionable insights throughout a conversation like ours.

For example, Bakarich mentioned that an obstacle faced by a large number of producers is the inability to complete a project. “So many producers out there constantly start an idea, it sounds good, they work on it more, but they just hit wall after wall, starting a new thing, never finishing. That means we have no music finished to actually put out there,” he said. “Finishing is a skill on its own. There are so many things that happen when you finish a track that, when you abandon idea after idea, you never get to practice that skill.”

Bakarich also sees a lot of artists fall short on the branding front. He explained, “In today’s attention economy, there’s so much content, music, and artists that you have to be very intentional with how you package your product.”

What would he advise? “Number one: Package it in a way that’s interesting, memorable, and unique,” he instructed. “And the second piece is that you have to be very cohesive with that brand, everything from the aesthetic to the colors you use and your appearance as an artist to the lyrics. You can’t have this dark brand and have lyrics about finding love in the sunshine.”

Working on Aspire has helped Backarich connect with even more like-minded music professionals who share his vision to equip aspiring artists with the tools they need to succeed. This inevitably led him to Chicago Music Nexus cofounders Matt “Sherm” Sherman and Olivia Mancuso.

Photo Courtesy of Chicago Music Nexus

“I’ve known of Sherm for a long time just being an artist in the house world,” Bakarich said. “Sherm had me on his podcast a while back during COVID, and I’ve been watching what they’re doing. Obviously, our businesses are kindred spirits in that we’re both putting in a lot of work to try to help and enable this next generation of up-and-coming artists.”

Bakarich continued: “I saw they were doing another big event in Chicago. I had a bunch of our students go, and they all said only the most positive things. I was talking with one of them, Decker Rush, about potentially getting involved, and I decided to get in touch with Sherm and see what this next edition was looking like. We have so much more in common in terms of our vision and the impact we want to have than I ever could have imagined.”

Aspire has partnered with Nexus by offering a substantial giveaway to attendees of the now two-day electronic music industry conference. While Bakarich was at pains not to give away any spoilers, he was willing to share that he’s put up around $10,000 of scholarships and resources for the cause.

Looking at how Bakarich is moving, it’s easy to imagine a future where Aspire becomes a leading name in music industry mentorship. As he so aptly pointed out, behind every successful artist is a capable team, and his platform gives producers the fast track to that. With every new bond he forges for the brand, his students enjoy the benefits by proxy. It’s a positive feedback loop that bodes well for what he’s building.

Anyone trying to make it in music has surely heard it by now: “It’s not what you know, but who you know.” Aspire Artist Academy fires back with a more modern adage: “Why not both?”