Experiments in the sub frequencies are more prominent than ever. And what remains the most exciting part be involved in a listener or fan is being alongside an artist as they grow. Soundcloud, although in jeopardy of abiding by the majors rules and decisions it does still provide an ample place to follow and contribute.
The great debate and issue falls in with licensed music. Of course the obvious step to take is to create ALL your own material. Samples, drums, vocals, just go all original. This brings us to West Philadelphia’s MAYBEWISE, bringing their first release Belgian Man Records, the home to a wide array of experimental and Bass producers. ‘Welcome to the Fishbowl’ certainly hooked our eardrums and inspired this feature and come up storey. We spoke of their beginnings, productions style, flow and inspirations.
How long has MAYBEWISE been in effect? And where did the moniker come into play?
Welcome to the Fishbowl marks the first release of the MAYBEWISE venture, but Peter has been producing and djing for nearly a decade, going under a number of other monikers and concepts. Patrick is pretty new to the game, but he brings the X factor and the life of the party.
The concept for the project started as an exercise in synergizing all the different styles of UK bass music we liked and then kind of took on a personality of its own.
How does the duo function, i.e. what roles do each of you share or assume?
Our process really has two stages: Sample gathering and production.
Most of our sounds are field recordings (percussion especially), so we go out pretty often to random places and record ourselves hitting things with sticks. A recent trip to Home Depot was a highlight; you walk around there and you’ll realize its just a giant warehouse of percussion. Other times we’ll just watch old movies and record the sounds we like. Our personal sample library is massive.
When it comes to studio work, Patrick is the wildcard. He usually comes up with a number of substance-fueled sketches on any given night and then Peter polishes them up while Patrick sleeps off the debauchery.
Where about’s is the studio located and what does it consist of?
The studio is Peter’s bedroom; we’ve got it set up to be a pretty verb-dry place so sonically it’s nicely inert. We’ve got a couple guitars, an amp, a bunch of pedals, some home made noise maker circuits, a turntable, a computer, a number of interfaces/controllers, a mic, and a flash recorder to get the field recordings. Most of our production-end work is done digitally, but nearly all our sounds are recorded. We don’t mess with midi or soft synths as its more our style is more to get in close and rip frequencies.
What had either of you been doing before you banded together to make music?
Peter graduated from school a couple years ago and has been working as a graphic designer since. Patrick competed in pageantry. Actually.
How is Philly today, or as you see it, nurturing of artists?
There’s certainly active artist communities in Philly, but its a bit tough to find good UK bass music in the city. You definitely have to go looking for it, and it’s not like there are top notch shows every weekend. That being said, people are open minded about it here, and the absence of a scene is more likely due to lack of exposure rather than lack of curiosity.
The punk and noise scenes are huge in West Philly and have been for a long time, so we get out to a few of those shows every now and then. That’s more Patrick’s dig though.
Who are the biggest influences to MAYBEWISE?
Oh man, too many to name. Our background is primarily in UK bass: we’ve had some kind of obsession in almost every underground UK scene you can name and a few in the US. UK side, our influences range from the older dubstep vibes of DmZ and Hyperdub to the autonomic project of dbridge and Instra:mental. Patrick particularly likes the gully stylings of Niche 4×4 bassline and Wiley’s eski beats, especially when its 40s night, while Peter has a soft spot for Remarc and the oldskool jungle scene. In the states, we’re big fans Symbols and Tri Angle records; most of what we know about UK bass was actually introduced to us by a friend who is signed to the latter and whom we consider our mentor. We can’t give names.
Party favourites. What kind of shows do you like to attend? Are there any vibes or selections that you seek?
Nothing says party like raggacore. Any amount of amen flips and gabber kicks will get us hyphy to the moon. And oldskool rave breaks, though they’re impossible to find. Peter actually may or may not have an anonymous side project in the works to address these interests ;)
When someone ask’s you what your music sounds like, what feels do you associate your music with to them?
You could probably call our stuff anything from dubstep to UKG to autonomic, but, because it kind of changes all the time, we just call it deeptone (which is not a thing). We could say we try to blur the lines between genres, but its really more that we don’t want to commit to one groove. The way we see it, the unifying aspects of our music lie in two core principles: a respect for ambient space and subtlety in the context of beat oriented music, and a tactile, visceral approach to our percussion. Peter is a sound-touch synesthete, so he takes care of the latter.
Of all the things expanding the music world, every element, from accessibility to broader individual tastes, what is each of your favourite thing about the music world as it is today?
The internet is one of the best things to happen to creative evolution. The communities of artists have not only allowed us to get completely obsessed with a style of music we’d otherwise have no contact with, but also serve as massive creativity incubators, so musical ideas evolve incredibly rapidly. And, if the future scares you too much to deal with that, it also serves as a comprehensive archive of past music so we never forget. It’s absolutely mind blowing how much amazing music is out there; for all intents and purposes it’s infinite. We rest easy knowing we’ll never run out of things to listen to and discover.
While you’ve been in studio as of late, what’s been cooking? Heaters in the kitchen?
We’ve got a forthcoming single on the ЯΛRΞ ИNUĐΞS imprint that’s a nice little UKG jawn, a bit brighter than the Welcome to the Fishbowl EP stuff (you can hear an early build at the beginning of the mix). We’ve also got a couple collabs with some other artists coming up that will explore footwork and oldskool dubstep. Looking forward a bit further, we’re going to probably get a little darker and more experimental, and start to move away from the really vocal heavy stuff from the EP. Not that we don’t like it; we just don’t want to produce ourselves into a corner.
MAYBEWISE – Facebook | Soundcloud | Bandcamp
