Category Archives: Interviews

Bombaman Interview

Posted on February 7, 2012 by G.Poplopavich | Comments Off

Originally posted on Schitz Popinov

I talked to Mike D aka Bombaman a bit about himself in the new year and got some words on his Tommy Otis EP dropping today on Lucky Beard Records, which you should probably check.

[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/65100902″ iframe=”true” /]

Bombaman. Who are ya where are you from?

I am Mike D, born and raised in St. Catharines, Ontario.

Hows about those people tampons hey?

Don’t even get me started…

Before you went under just Bombaman you used to be Mat Carl / Bombaman. I hear you hate trying to explain the Matt Carl name but I was hopin you could here today.

Haha, oh gosh. Ok, it goes back like, 6 or 7 years when me and some friends were playing some Star Wars fighting game or something for the original Playstation or Xbox, I forget. I was noticing how lame the names of the characters were, like, how unoriginal and lame they were and one pops up that says “Marl.” I figured they just picked the names of two guys in the room, Matt and Carl and mashed them up to make this lame character name. I put them together as a persons first and last name and had a laugh. Then sometimes down the road I needed a funny name for dj’ing or whatever, and always had that stupid name in the back of my mind. It’s a terribly lame story and the only reason it’s funny to me is cuz my real name is also two first names. So, yeah…kinda wack lol

What got you into producing?

I always had an interest. I have played drums for a long time so it kind of lended itself to wanting to make stuff, I guess. I don’t know what the true determining factor was, but buying CD players definitely got me motivated to start making and playing my own stuff. I couldn’t do that with vinyl, cutting dub plates was too expensive for me..

What’s your DJ set up like these days?

Two CD players and a mixer. Nothing special, lol. Typical Pioneer setup.

And what are you producing with?

Ableton Live 8.

Are you Evian Christ?

I am not.

I did an interview with Paul Shore / SnapBack a couple month’s back and he’s of the opinion that your producing the kind of music that producers should be producing. Are you just going for straight bass heavy as fuck / weird isht when you jump into a new track? Or is there a more structured approach that you take and people might not expect?

Ummm, I’d say I don’t have much of an approach other than just kind of goofing around, seeing what different effects chains can do to a sound. It’s literally just me mucking about. I’m sure you can tell, but yeah, the sub bass is the most important part to me, and that’s where I usually start.

How often do you go back to your pre Ableton days and background with traditional (old school) instruments for new track ideas? Ableton was a total game changer for you wasn’t it?

I’d say I never go back to pre Ableton days, haha. Ableton was definitely the EXACT program I was looking for. I was using a tracker called Making Waves that was, I dunno, sort of finicky. It wasn’t intuitive, but I learned the hell out of it and made it work. Then through some music magazines I eventually came across Ableton. Based on what I read, it sounded like it was right up my alley. I started using it and haven’t turned back. That must have been about 5 or 6 years ago, I guess.

Your Tommy Otis EP is due via LuckBeard Records pretty quick here. Give us some words on that.

Ah man, so glad to get some of those tunes out on a label like LB. I had a pretty good cache of unreleased music by the time we started talking about releasing something. So we went through some of the better ones and picked out some older and newer stuff. This is also like, a two part EP. I don’t know if the second one will share the Tommy Otis name, we’ll see, haha.

Part one mixes up some old and new. “A Number of Names” was one of the first tunes I made late last year that is along the vein of what i am currently making. Some weird, super subbed out, chopped up vocal retardation. Lots of weird automation with the delays and reverbs, weird panning and stuff. I think I had just hooked up a second sub to my setup, so it may have been more of a demo tune that I just ended up finishing, lol. “Are Pats” is an old one from 2010, I think. It got some unexpected support, but I still never thought much of it. That one is definitely more of a cheesy, party tune. Super up beat with some female vocal workout. The last one is “Everything Came From Strangers,” which is a huge personal favourite, also from 2010. I had just come back from doing a five week stint in the States, and all those kids want is hard hard hard, except in Portland, lol. Anyways, I came back and didn’t want to listen to any of that shit anymore, so I started making some of that really stripped back, pure sub bass, no drums kind of stuff that I am getting known for. That was probably one of the first I made in that style. That track sounds fucking BANANAS on a big sound system, shit will knock a wall down.

Dubstep. I think your the man to ask on the state of the genre, it seems to be a hot topic these days.

I don’t like what is being made and played these days. That’s that.

Is it just me or has “Bass Music” become the new in thing along side Future Garage?

Yeah, I think I’d agree with that.

Top 3 parties for you these days?

I don’t even know. I don’t go out or dj much these days, haha.

Do you spend much time following labels? You’ve got some shit hot releases with some of the good ones atm. I won’t go into listing them all.

No. I’ll be honest. I don’t follow much at all. I know what I like and I tend to stick within my comfort zone until someone shows me some truly next shit, then I go in the studio and try and make it myself, lol.

Comments Off on Bombaman Interview

Posted in Downloads, Interviews, Music

Tagged bombaman, Interview

Hush House / Nathan Brush Interview

Posted on February 6, 2012 by G.Poplopavich | Comments Off

Originally posted on Realtime

Hush House is UK blog based in Leeds dedicated to fresh beats, bass and melodies from the underground. They have been on the crest of such beats for two thousand nine and show no signs of slowing. Here I caught up with Nathan Brush of HH for a few words about the blog itself and it’s contributors.

So, who are you, where are you from and where are you living now?

I’m Nathan Brush, 19 years old and originally from Manchester. I moved to Leeds in September 2010 to go to University and probably won’t be leaving anytime soon!

How long have you been contributing to Hush House?

I started writing in April 2011 after seeing a post on the blog saying they were looking for new people. I hadn’t done a lot of this kind of stuff before but felt I had a bit of spare time on my hands so was pretty pleased to be made part of the team.

How has your time spent with Hush House involved you in your local music scene?

Yeah, it has helped tremendously. Leeds isn’t a massive city but it’s got lots of really good clubs so the music scene is thriving. Everyone’s at least a friend of a friend really and people tend to help each other out. Through the people I’ve met the main thing I’m involved with now is a night at Wire called Square One, representing the UK house and ‘bass music’ side of things. I also help out with a project started by a couple of friends called Vic53, a weekly live stream where we play a few records and get friends of ours to come down and jam too. I also hold down a couple of radio shows, on Leeds Student Radio and the Manchester-based Heavy Rain TV.

We have our launch party in Leeds coming up on 3rd March but unfortunately we can’t announce the full line up until 11th February. Keep your eye on the Facebook page for more details.

How many of HH’s contributors DJ and or produce and under what names?

Stewart (out in Philadelhia) DJ’s under the name Sideswipe and has a show on Rewind FM. Dylan has got a fantastic taste in all things house and techno and always contributes great mixes to our show on ESS Radio, as well as experimenting with some beats and edits of his own. Adrian (in sunny Barcelona) DJ’s as Thade and is the man behind our ‘Hush The Fuck Up’ mix series.
Joe, Josh and I DJ as well. So yeah, we all keep pretty busy!

You guys have been around for years now. You’ve seen your share of trends move through EDM in that time, what has been the most notable?

I think for me it has been following the work of the young crop of guys who just seem to do it all. People like Bok Bok and Pearson Sound who have got their roots in dubstep, grime and UK garage but haven’t been swallowed up by one specific sound. With these two in particular, I feel their DJ’ing, production and record labels all seem to feed into each other, creating something really unique.

I have to ask about Dubstep. Where do you see it and where do you see it going?

The thing is, I obviously wasn’t old enough (or living in the right place) to go to clubs and appreciate what ‘the originators’ were doing at the time, but I just worked my way back through the history of it and have been fortunate enough to go to nights like Exodus / DMZ in Leeds. It’s music that needs to be heard on a proper soundsystem and not enough clubs have good enough setups to do the music justice, despite there being an increasing demand for dubstep DJs to play. I can understand why some people get annoyed when producers they love start making tunes more suited to Radio 1 than a dark club but you’ve just got to let go. There’s no point waiting around for classics to be remade and so many of the ‘dubstep’ labels are still putting out really forward-thinking dance music, just less of it is at 140bpm.

At the end of the day, the dubstep scene was a great vehicle for a lot of artists who will carry on making great music. We never consciously decided to post less dubstep, there is just not as much of it that we’re feeling.

Is Hush House a record label?

Yeah, we have got plans to start releasing some music. It’s still very early days at the moment though! Producers can send their stuff to us on this address: label at hushhouse dot net

What’s HH’s rapport with other established labels out there?

We’re really fortunate to receive a lot of music from well-established labels and we’re really grateful for it. If we like it, it’ll almost certainly end up on the blog, in a radio show or getting played out in the club. It’s always rewarding when artists and labels recognise what we do.

You guys have a great ‘Introducing’ segment. Always good up and comers, and more often then not, when it says in a post “a name to look out for,” it’s well worth following or liking on Soundcloud. Sources of new music?

I honestly think the best way of finding new music is from your friends, they know you best and are most likely to point you in the direction of something you like. Apart from that, I just check out a few blogs (shouts to Inhabit Magazine and AOAO in particular) and listen to loads of radio shows. Alexander Nut’s show on Rinse is one I always catch. Those of us lucky enough to still have a reputable record store in town should make the most of it!

Top 3 artists you say people should keep an eye out for:
John Talabot, Mano Le Tough & Ziro.

Top 3 sources for new music:
I’ve been listening to NTS a lot more lately – Jon Rust and Dark Sky have particularly good shows. The Autonomic, Numbers & Hessle shows on Rinse FM always leave me with a long list of tunes I want to track down. The FACT mix series is really well curated and there’s literally hundreds to sift through!

This was great, thanks much. Anything you’d like to sign off with?

Not really, just read the blog and come to our nights and we’ll be happy!

Hush House

Comments Off on Hush House / Nathan Brush Interview

Posted in Interviews

Tagged hush house

LOL Boys Interview

Posted on January 26, 2012 by G.Poplopavich | Comments Off

Originally posted on Realtime

LOL Boys, what do say about LOL Boys? Unique, uninhibited, experimental, crazy, composed, freestyle, light hearted, playful electronic music from Canadian and LA based composers/ orchestrators/ musicians/ artists. I’m really no good at these intro’s but for reals LOL Boys are a big part of a more experimental brand of electronica making it’s way into this and the subsequent future.

[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/53932282″ iframe=”true” /]

Introductions first, who are you guys and where are you from originally?

Markus lives in Montreal, Quebec Canada and is a virgo. Jerome lives
in Los Angeles, California and is a Cancer. But we are both citizens
of the internet.

Now, I know you two met on an internet message board and collaborated for a remix competition. Is it a place you’d recommend to aspiring producers or up and comers?

Weirdly enough we didn’t meet on an actual music forum. See, We were both avid fans of fitness and working out and met on a forum for that kinda stuff. There was a section on tunes you play when you work out and we noticed we both were into dj-ing and producing from that…

Not really an ideal place for producers or up and comers. More if you want to get into power lifting or need a good protein shake recipe.

Any up and comers that you can recommend?

Floyd Campbell, Dj Soulja Man, Rhythm Method, Dj Funeral, Goldffinch,
Octo Octa, Mokona, Mess Kid, Baauer, Morri$

Total musical freedom is obviously important to you. Who have been some names that have encouraged this and helped get you exposure all in the same?

We just wanted to make tunes and have a good time. We both are crazy about music and pull influences from so many sources so our sound is really hard to define but there is a definite vibe and energy we try to put in to everything we do!
Blogs.

How would you say that they’ve propelled electronic music to what it is today?

To a certain extent blogs/bloggers were very important and have changed the face of music journalism. Print mags like Fact, Urb and Xlr8r have become blogs now. They are definitely beneficial to the music scene as far as creating exposure and awareness. Things like tumblr and soundcloud have changed where people go to dig up music as well as sites that just pull info from every blog and re-blog. Now though as the internet continues it’s evolution we’ll just have to sit back and watch the progression.

Visually, your videos, your cover art, bills and overall web presence has a pretty distinct and unique style. Whats the influence?

Our visual aesthetic came from us just searching the far reaches of the internet. We really wanted to create a visual world for our music. Even if it’s not personally what the listener or fan visualizes when they listen. We wanted to give them something. It used to be if you liked a band you’d get a cd or lp filled with imagery. Or you’d get cool flyers or pins. We wanted to do the same, give the people something semi tangible.

The internet artwork is a reflection of our place in the music world. We are on the internet and we have an internet based moniker. We use the internet to make songs. We both also actually went to university for artistic related majors.

How big a part are visuals to your live sets?

We haven’t worked on incorporating it yet. We are definitely into the idea and often think about how to fit it in. We’ve also been asked to do art shows and have videos and print outs of our imagery. Something we’d love to do.

You guys are based hundreds of miles apart, there are no doubt some obvious advantages and disadvantages to this but how ofter will you meet for a live show?

Actually, it’s pretty easy for us to meet for shows. It’s just 2 plane tickets. We’ve done a bunch of shows together and bunch separately. We definitely prefer to play together. It’s just a lot of fun. Yeah, sometimes being far apart has it’s disadvantages but it’s best just to focus on the positive side of things and keep doing what we do.

Is production a higher priority for LOL Boys in the new year? Or live shows? More to the point, what’s in store for the new year?

We’ll have at least 2 new eps this year. Probably a lot more collaborations. One of our collaborations will be out next month on Unknown to the Unknown. It’s a collabo with Hot City and the ep is called “LOL CITY”. Our highly sought after bootleg of T2’s ”Heartbroken” aka “Moments in Heartbreak” is out the next day (feb.14th). We’ll have a new og track on the templar compilation sound cd. We definitely want to play a lot more. And write a ton more music. So, both are equal priorities.

PS. The intro track ‘List Them’ off Bubbles is something that I play all the time. It strikes me as subtle genius. Just curious as to what the thought was behind the making of the track.

When we first started the EP we had a track called “POP THEM”, then
we had ”ROLL THEM”, so every song we decided to name it “________ THEM”. So, “List Them” is just us singing the track titles to every song.

And at the moment I’m really digging Grown Folks stuff. How’d they come to remix your ‘Runaways?’ Did they contact you or vise versa?

Markus used to throw parties with Drew from Grown Folk. When Drew started Grown Folk with Brendan, We edited there first tune “Steady Moving” and they wanted to return the favor so, we sent over ”runaways”. They’re a really awesome producers/dj’s and good friends. We’ve collaborated on a few tunes and will probably continue.

Comments Off on LOL Boys Interview

Posted in Interviews, Mixes, Music

Tagged LOL BOYS

Starkey Interview

Posted on January 25, 2012 by G.Poplopavich | Comments Off

Originally posted on the ~~School of Remix~~

All the way from Philly we have Starkey. Big name in the grime game. Here he goes into his gear, a bit about his sound and whats on the come up for the new year. Get familiar.

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/24464447″ params=”color=ff5500″ width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

You are Starkey aka Stark Bot. Where are you right now and where you from?

I’m in Philly… I’m from Philly.

Years of age?

30

Where or how would you categorize your music?

street bass

Whats makes Street Bass street?

weapons and asphalt

How long have you been producing and what got you into it?

I’ve been producing seriously since I was about 19 years old. Before that I was playing in lots of bands… piano, singing, bass… from jazz to hardcore. I got into producing through going to college for production and needing to make my own music to practice working on the things I was learning in school… eq’ing, compression, etc. So since I wasn’t a guitarist / singer-songwriter, I started making music with my keyboard and some drum machines. I was into a lot of trip hop, downtempo and post-rock stuff… along with a lot of Warp, Ninja Tune and Planet Mu artists at the time… so the music I was making was kind of like a mixture of Aphex Twin and Mogwai. What I’m doing now isn’t too far away from that either. I guess this was before grime, so it had less of that influence in there.

Any specific influences that gravitated you towards your sound as it is today?

Grime 100%. That was the music that changed my way of thinking about producing and how to develop sounds.

Any software or hardware that help make your sound is what it is? Give us something to listen for in your music.

I’m known for lots of epic synths for the most part. I do a lot of pitch bent / portamento stuff with layered parts…. think Vangelis x 12. I use mostly soft synths nowadays, but I do have a Juno 60 and Korg N1 at home. I pretty much use the N1 as a midi controller though because it’s 88 keys and fully-weighted. It’s also all about having the right eq’s and compression to work with… that makes up a ton of the sound, particularly when you’re talking about big dancefloor tracks.

Is there a piece or two specific gear you’d like to add to your own repertoire?

I’d like to get some better speakers… like the Barefoots or something with a nice low end. Planning to do that this year. Then it’s all about having a good interface / A/D… so I’d like to get an Apogee Ensemble or a Prism Orpheus.

Where has your music been best received by an audience?

It’s hard to say…. around Belgium’s always been a lot of fun, as well as San Francisco and Denver. They’re usually the most consistent crowds. But recently some shows in Georgia and North Carolina were sick as well…. so you never really know who’s down or what to expect. Moscow was great this past year as well. They seemed really into my sound.

What was you take on Vancouver’s scene during your time here?

It seems cool. I’ve known a few producers out there for a minute, like Taal Mala, who’s cool…. so it’s always fun to come out there to play. I like the city and hope I get back there again soon.

Just this morning I learned about Serato Video and wondered if this is something you’d considered using. I’ve always found your music pretty vibey and though it would be complimented well by custom or specific visuals.

I’ve thought about it…. but it’s something that has to be planned out and executed the right way. I hate doing things half ass, so if you’re going to do video… it better be sick. I’ve been happy with all the music videos we’ve put out, because there’s a lot of care in making sure that it’s professional and fits the overall vibe of the track. The directors I’ve worked with were all amazing as well. It’s definitely something I’m looking into though. For now, I’m just concentrating on putting on the best show I can as a dj.

You’ve got some crazy video’s out already, are there are any directors out there that you haven’t worked with and would like to?

No one specifically comes to mind. I rate all the directors I’ve had the pleasure to work with so far… and just want to continue to keep the quality high. In today’s immediate society, it’s very easy to just do something because you can. Like I could make a video myself and upload it to youtube, but it would look dumb. You need to have quality control with everything you do as an artist.

With whom do you share ownership of Seclusiasis and Slit Jokey Records?

Seclusiasis is owned by me and Dev79… the El Carnicero is also a partner in Slit Jockey.

Sduk just dropped ‘Anything Could Happen’ via Slit Jockey (and is available for purchase on Amazon, Beatport, iTunes, Amazon and Bookmat), what kind of new new can we expect from Starkbot and your labels in the new year?

We have a lot dropping. For Seclusiasis we’ve got a new DNAEBEATS mini-album, an Aquadrop single, as well as another Knight Riderz release, plus I’m gonna drop something on Seclusiasis this year most likely. For Slit Jockey, we’ve got some stuff from DS1, a Sduk remix single, a Mella Dee ep, a MIK ep…… loads of stuff. There’s tons more. We’re really excited about the stuff we’re putting out right now… it’s been a great start to the new year.

I’m currently working a new album… and will be dropping that hopefully this Summer. There will be some tracks I’ve produced for other people dropping this year as well. Gonna be a busy one.

Top 3 producers your listening to right now.

That’s hard… I’ll say Swindle, DS1, Darq E Freaker. Everything I hear of theirs is exciting right now.

Have you voted for the Dubstep Forum 2012 awards?

no

Comments Off on Starkey Interview

Posted in Interviews, Music, Videos

Tagged starkey

Lotic Interview

Posted on January 12, 2012 by G.Poplopavich | Comments Off

Originally posted on Realtime

Lōtic is someone I recently came across on soundcloud. Loved the dragish, spacey even “swisha house” sound that I heard on his tracks and other people’s remix’s of them. Great stuff. Get familiar.

[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/122371511″ iframe=”true” /]

Who are you? Where are you from/where are you now and what do you do?

J’Kerian Morgan, 22 years old. I’m from Houston and am living in Austin now as a DJ and freelance graphic artist. Moving to Berlin this spring, so trying to get ready for that.

When did Lōtic begin and what’s the story behind the name?

Lōtic actually started in early 2010 as a noise project by my boyfriend Mark and myself. I’d booked a date with a friend at this coffeeshop and she cancelled a few hours before the gig. Mark and I had been wanting to play together, so we formed a band that night, haha.

For some reason I wanted a name associated with water, so I Googled “words associated with water” and thought lotic sounded good. I thought it was fitting for a noise project. The ō is probably just me being difficult, haha. Or maybe I’m trying to be like Beyoncé. It’s supposed to help with pronunciation, but it’s probably naïve of me to think that.

Anyway, I just kept the name when I started producing, which was a few months ago after seeing Kingdom DJ here in Austin. His set made me realize that my experimental background could benefit me if I was smart about incorporating it. I’d kinda ignored the club scene before that night, but producing was always a childhood dream. I wanted to be Timbaland. Now I think I’m going to start using Lōtic for all my artistic output.

Whats you favourite Kingdom track?

I think my favourite Kingdom track is “Wartime HA,” and there’s this one particular whip sound he uses a lot that I really like.

Are you the man behind #FEELINGS?

No, #FEELINGS belongs to Ben Aqua! Well, it’s more of a collective, but he’s like the daddy. He’d been wanting to start a label and I wanted to release a few tracks, so the timing was good for both of us. It’s been really cool to see how #FEELINGS has been shaping up in just this short period.

After listening to your ‘More Than Friends EP’ I have to ask who are some of your biggest influences. There’s a definite sound or mood, just wondering who or what helped you get there.

Oh god I have so many. Obviously Kingdom and Timbaland. Beyoncé, Nguzunguzu, Björk, Maryanne Amacher, Ben Frost, Bernard Parmegiani, Mark Bell, Matthew Herbert. Anything that challenges its precedents, really. It’s always nice when someone has a completely different perspective on what a genre/type of music should or could be. I grew up in Houston, so that Swishahouse influence is probably there, too.

You into UK Garage at all?

Maybe? I tend to kind of ignore genre-specific music, so I have no idea what UK Garage is, haha. Maybe that makes me a bad DJ.

Your music has been described as “atmospheric and subversively minimal.” Was this your aim or even how would you describe your own music?

Has it? Haha. I think it’s just a product of how I think about music. I’m more of an editor and sound designer than a composer, I think. I’ve spent more time than I care to say on shaping reverbs and delay patterns, or on trying to mimic the EQ of a closet or make my voice sound like a drum machine, haha.

Philosophically, I’ve always been kind of a minimalist, though, so I’m not surprised that it’s obvious with my music. It’s more fun to make a song entirely out of vocals or marble sounds than to have 20 different sounds, amirite?

Is there any kind of imagery that you have in mind while you’re producing?

Sometimes. With ‘Coming Together’ for instance, I was thinking a lot about caves for some reason. I noticed it starting to sound like a cave so I tried to emphasize that sound. I tend to think about dark, moist spaces, haha. Like cold ones. Tornadoes are cool, too. Volcanoes, lightning. Factory sounds, like whirring and hydraulics. These all have such crazy sounds associated with them. I’m pretty abstract, I guess.

What, if anything, would you like people to derive from your music? For some people it’s as simple as having someone far away enjoying what they do, for others it’s a specific emotion they’d like to invoke.

Nothing, really. I love hearing other people’s perspectives, so I try not to be too overt with themes. I like for there to be some kind of mystery. In the end, I’m just happy people are listening!

As far as software and hardware go, what are you making music with?

Ableton and a half-functional midi keyboard. I code in CSound a bit, too, for more sound design-y stuff. For vocals I use a Duet and an SM58.

How has your production set up developed from when you first started?

It hasn’t changed much, it’s just a bit more streamlined now that I feel like I know what I’m doing. The “Rendez-vous” project file got up to like 40 tracks, haha, but newer stuff is only 10 or so. So I work a lot faster now.

Lastly, your ‘More Than Friends’ EP is up for download on your bandcamp exclusively, featuring remixes alongside original tracks from some progressive names like Ben Aqua and Arms&Suites.

Any words you’d like to end this off with?

Nope! Thanks for listening!

Comments Off on Lotic Interview

Posted in Interviews, Music

Tagged lotic

Evy Jane & Jeremiah Klein Interview

Posted on December 26, 2011 by G.Poplopavich | Comments Off

Originally posted on Realtime88

So much of my spare time is spent on the interweb looking for new music and so much of that time is spent looking for music that I’ve already heard but just can’t find anyplace. As is the case with Evy Jane & Jeremiah Klein. Listening to their live music two years in a row at Shambhala and no where else.. Thats too big a gap in between.
Reading “if you don’t already know” on some blog is kind of insulting I’ve always found, but you really should make mental note of these names. Big things. Their music is a bit hard to find atm but here’s a little about them:

Introductions. Who are you, where are you from, where do you reside?

Evy: I’m Evy Jane, I’m 21 and I’m originally from Crescent Valley BC. Jeremiah and I live in East Vancouver.

The first time I heard your music was at Shambhala 2010. How did you come to perform there?

Evy: I used to perform a lot with Erica Dee when I first moved to Vancouver. She booked me for the hip-hop showcase which was such a great opportunity. It was definitely a stretch for me though, because as much as I love hip-hop… the music that comes out of me doesn’t exactly fit into that category. That was also the first show I did with Jeremiah. He was my super hot DJ soundbwoy!

Since Shambhala I’ve been looking for more of your music periodically to no avail. Why’s it so hard to find your music?

Jeremiah: Yeah, we’ve been a bit reserved about releasing tunes so far, but we have an EP coming out on King Deluxe in February so we’ve been mainly focusing on that. We did perform at New Forms Festival in September but then vanished for a couple months to do some writing. We plan on releasing music more regularly from this point on — singles, more EPs, eventually an album, etc…

When did the two of you meet and begin making music together?

Jeremiah: We met a couple years ago, talked music, and found that we had a bunch of similar aesthetic tastes. I then gave Evy some riddims to sing on and it worked. . we’ve been doing it ever since.

Any shared influences?

Jeremiah: We’re both into lo-fi bass-heavy music soaked in lush melodies.
Evy: I like pop.

It is said that two heads are better than one. Do you ever butt heads while recording or on an idea?

Evy: Short answer: yes. I can be a bit of a tyrant diva when I am really stuck on an idea… But of course we work it out!

Where do you find common ground?

Jeremiah: We do small animal sacrifices and consult the tarot to see who wins the round.

Nice. Between vocalist/ lyricist and producer how do you trade ideas back and forth for a track?

Evy: Well, we actually live together. So it’s pretty easy. My studio and Jeremiah’s studio are adjacent to one another. Sometimes I will start a project on Ableton and with my loop pedal and synth, then Jeremiah will finesse it. Or he’ll start it and I’ll write to it.

This one’s for Jeremiah, what are you producing with?

Jeremiah: For software, I’ve been using Ableton more and more cause its so good at editing but it still doesn’t sound as good as Logic. .. so I sometimes end up doing final mixes there. I also use some hardware…a Space Echo, Prophet, a bunch of boutique pedals. . and whatever other shit I’ve got lying around that catches my eye in the moment. Oh and I’ve an ampex 24 track analog tape machine. .. so that’s fun too.

Do you DJ?

Jeremiah: Yea, I’ve DJ’d a lot under the moniker phōwa. As well, my other band Basketball does some DJ gigs under the ‘Hyaenas’ and I’ve DJ’d a bunch at those parties. I’d like to do it more but I never seem to get around to booking myself for it.

I know of Basketball.. Crazy to hear your a part of that.
Evy, do your lyrics derive from personal experience? Whats your approach to writing/is there anything you write more about?

Evy: Some of my lyrics are extremely personal. I have no problem with writing somewhat uncomfortable lyrics. I try to put myself in an honest and sincere place, and then everything just tumbles out very easily. Other times, I feel like certain concepts or ideas are sent to my brain from the cosmos, or maybe hell, or maybe heaven, or maybe the toilet. I don’t know. Inspiration is so hard to define. I’m inspired by everything from Dostoevsky to Nicki Minaj.

Any formal musical schooling in either of your backgrounds?

Evy: I used to be a jazz singer. Total band nerd. I did private vocal training all throughout high school, also piano and guitar. I did musicals too, hahaha.
Jeremiah: I’m self-taught.

Would you guy’s mind recommending a couple good movies?

Evy: We’re watching Andrei Rublev by Tarkovsky right now. It’s beautiful. I also love Valerie and her Week of Wonders. Jodorowsky’s Holy Mountain. Anything with Katherine Hepburn. I can also watch Mean Girls over and over again. It’s just so effing goooood. Clueless is also in that category.
Jeremiah: Death Note, the anime series is fun.

What’s in store for 2012? Can I expect to see you at Shambhala?

Jeremiah: Our first 12” in February, more shows, festivals… yeah, maybe Shambhala too.
Evy: We’re in production for a video for Sayso right now. I’m super excited. There will be many videos… I think it’s so important to have visual accompaniment to music… or maybe I’m just ADD. I get bored otherwise.