I have to give credit to my parents for
exposing me to many different types of music for as long as I can remember.
Some of my earliest memories are those of my dad playing acoustic guitar while
sitting on the steps of my living room or playing some experimental DJ set
while we were driving in the car. I was always bugging my brother to play the
keyboard in his room or to listen to his speakers, and once I was finally old
enough to get my own mp3 player it practically never left my side.
You
are one of the best up and coming musicians we have encountered on the
internet! And your latest track, “Drift”, is probably your best track yet!
Could you tell us more about the story behind this track?
The track Drift was all inspired by the tone of the bass, and the somewhat larger-than-life, eerie feeling that it gives the song. After the initial inspiration from a sound or instrument, I set out to create a song that my friends and I would want to hear live at a concert. I think that for this track in particular, the bass is able to control the mood of the entire song, similar to the mood of an entire music festival experience being controlled by the different stage’s bass frequencies mixing as you walk around. The brass horns and synths switch up the feelings throughout the song, similar to how different artists will switch up how you feel during a night at a festival. I had recently gone to a few shows with some friends the day before starting this project, and I tried to encapsulate the feeling of that experience.
Going
over your Soundcloud we can tell you love experimenting with new sounds. Can
you tell us more about your studio setup and some of your favorite
plugins/instruments?
My set up is pretty simple right now. I do
all of my producing on an AKAI keyboard with drum pads, and some 5” Mackie
monitors. For my DAW I use Ableton, and with the recent update to 10 I haven’t
really been using plugins much anymore — I like to make all of my synths from
scratch through the wavetable. Sometimes I may play a melody on my acoustic
guitar, but the actual creating happens on the keyboard and through really
testing my sound design techniques on samples.
Your
signature sound is already very professional and amazing to listen to! How did
you manage to achieve such a professional sound in such a short time? Can you
tell us more about your musical background?
I got my first electric guitar when I was
11 and took lessons for a few years. In middle school some friends and I went
to a camp where we made a band and performed for all the parents at the end of
summer. Those are definitely my earliest experiences creating music, and since
then it has just evolved and adapted as I have grown and lived through
different periods of my life. I began learning how to produce music on the
computer using free online software about three years ago with a friend of mine
in college.
All
of your tracks are very melodic. Do you play any real-life instruments?
I play the guitar and have been learning
the keyboard more and more through my producing. I had some exposure to drums
when I was younger but have never had my own set. I am really looking forward
to the day that I can buy a grand piano for wherever I live.
What are your goals for the coming months? Any upcoming projects we can get excited about?
My goal right now is just to keep experimenting while getting better, and to hopefully get my music in the ears of some of the right people. It is cool to see the improvement from tracks that I’ve made a few years ago, but I can also see so many areas that I want to develop my skills in order to push my music to the next level.
