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What interests you about making music? What do you hope to get across to the listener?
I feel that through music I can communicate on a more psychological and emotional level than I can with other mediums. I want to try and get the listener to feel what I'm feeling. Have you always wanted to be a musician, or was it an interest/hobby for which received significant recognition? I've been making music for about as long as I can remember but in the past few years it's become my main focus. What differences have you observed between your live audiences in LA and Chicago? I sell out shows in Chicago and at the Droid party I cleared the room haha. How would you choose to describe your music? I usually just call it "electronic music." Your music inhabits this interesting postmodern space of being IDM (but not in the electronic dance music tradition), hip hop (but not in the rap or turntablism tradition), soul-tied (samples/feel), pop-structured (yet without gross mass consumption), all the while appealing to indierocktypes onto whatever might be the next new thing (though it's not the next new thing). What did I just say? The question is... two come to mind: What music (past/present) influences your own most strongly? and How does the consideration of genre function in your own production? How do you think genre labelling may affect who listens to your music? 1) Bay Area and Detroit rap, classic electro, 70's fusion, early 90's techno, and Chicago post-rock bands are all styles that influence my music. It sucks to get labeled but at the same time there are a lot of records coming out that are so ambiguous, and such a huge mix of genres that they sound really bland and generic. A lot of IDM is just modern day elevator music. 2) I don't think about the genre of music I'm making. I use samples, drum machines and synths and just try to put together good melodies and good beats. I think since a lot of my listeners are into music anyways, the genre that it's labeled won't have much effect on who's buying it. What is your general production process? How do you go about getting a track done, and what are your tools? I use a Roland ms-1, Sequential Circuits 6-track, Korg ms-20, mpc 2000, reverb and delay. The process usually starts with me coming up with a good chord progression or finding a good loop. Translating production-heavy music into a live performance can be a challenge. What's your approach/setup? I'll take one or two parts out of a song like the bassline or a keyboard riff and perform those live. Sometimes I'll do the RJD2 thing where I play a sampler live. How would you like to progress as an artist? I'd like to make more money, and I'd like to continue to develop my own unique style. What's your favorite food? Then talk about it so that I salivate and go to the refrigerator before reading the rest of your responses. Baja Fresh bean and cheese burrito Enchilado Style with a pronto guacamole and a Mountain Dew It's been almost a year since your EastDev release. What have you been working on since then? I've been touring off and on and I've been working on a project with a rapper named Vyle from Chicago. I've also been doing a lot of remixes with Leo 123 under the name Dark Party. My full length, Tacoma Mockingbird, comes out on Hefty in January 2006. Give us 5 (tracks, albums, people, whatever) music recommendations. 1) The Analord 12"s are amazing (I here there's a dope mix of these floating around) 2) Immediate Action #10 limited edition three track 12" featuring yours truly 3) Johnny Love and the Opaque Project - This kid has taken Chicago by storm. His parties are insane and he's an inspiration to me because he's such a visionary. 4) Kanye West is a big inspiration as well. I'm not that into his music but I like how he does things his way. 5) The Jeff Mills DVD "Exhibitionist" is pretty cool too. interview by bijan for droid (email) September 23 2005 |