oh wow I'm not used to getting reactions thank you so much 😭 as far as your questions um lemme think

For reference I just turned 20, but I've been actively playing and creating music since I was around 12, my dad is a musician who plays and record for his church so I would always check what he does and ask questions, but for the longest time I would record on garage band with my phone, often using the mic, holding it out to my physical piano, Drum set or guitar I had. Alot are actually on my YouTube, always gone by Freak Formal, I don't even think their half bad for what they are lol

I usually make a beat or a variety of instrumentals and take a walk with my note's app, listening for like an hour brainstorming ideas, usually with a theme already in my head. For "I's on me" it was actually melody first, where I came up with the first passage and chord progression and built momentum straight from there it took me a day to fully write it, it was exciting I loved it

I use a TON of free software and vst's, CakeWalk is my main daw with synth1 being my bestfriend, thanks to seeing ninja muffin use it, I did recently get PolyMax synth, one of the only vst's I have that cost money which is riddled all throughout these new sets of songs I'm pushing out soon

This one is a tough one... I think for me it's creating emotionally raw art that's as honest as you can make it. While maintaining a sonic sound you like. But I've always been more interested in Songwriting than technical performance, but I've put a TON of music theory hours I definitely know what I'm doing in that department, it really does make writing songs easier, at least for what I like to make, very indie pop

Thank you for your interest I have like 9 songs I'm putting out soon for an album so there's more if you're interested! Very excited I'm trying to experiment with tons of sounds.