Sex Ray Vision Interview

Sex Ray Vision Interview

2 weeks, 6 days ago by

I’ve been holding on to this interview for a while now…perhaps too long. A while back we met up with Sex Ray Vision at a show in Ft. Worth and had some time to ask him questions about his music, his start as an artist and his plans for the future. Ravi, the man behind Sex Ray Vision, is one of the funniest artists I’ve met. We ended up hanging out for about an hour, cracking jokes and watching Basic Physics perform his set. Throw on some SRV tracks above and read the interview below (edited for readability).

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Alright, we’re ready.

I just gotta make sure I don’t say anything racist [laughs].

Tell us how you got started making music, producing.

I’ve been making music my whole life. I played the piano when I was a little kid, and I didn’t like it at all, but for some reason I felt some moral obligation to stick with it. My parents would always ask “you wanna keep doing piano this year” and I was like “yeah” but inside I was like “why did you say that!?” [laughs]

But I’m real glad I did. It payed off. Like in high school I was in a really shitty band that I thought was awesome. That’s really been the story of my life – I always think I’m a lot better than I am, which is why I stuck with it for so long. I didn’t realize how bad I sucked. Like every few months I’d look back and be like “man, that stuff sucked, but THIS stuff, these are gonna be the hits!” [laughs]

Where did you go to school?

I went to Stanford.

And that’s where you met Brian.

Yeah, so I was making house music and electronic music for a while, and then Brian was my roommate one year, and he was a rapper, so I was like I wanna make some rap music. So we did that for a good year and a half, and that’s where Sex Ray Visions came out of. But at some point I started making EDM again, and putting it up on the internet, and that just blew up.

At some point it was just all the remixes and stuff I was making had become the identity of Sex Ray Vision, so it didn’t really make sense for us to make music together anymore.

Well he was doing vocals, right?

Yeah, he would do vocals sometime. It’s a lot harder for him to do vocals than it is for me to do production, they’re just different skills. He’s not as EDM oriented as I am, so we just kind of split off into different directions, but it wasn’t like, contentious or anything.

What programs are you using right now?

Some Microsoft Word, some Excel, some Powerpoint. [laughs]

No, I use Logic, which is like the DAW on the Mac. I don’t really have a preference though, some people are like what’s the best one, but I’ve only ever used one. That’s what I learned on, so that’s what I use.

I also use Ableton when I’m playing live, which is great. I used to use CDJs for a little bit, but you gotta beat match, and I’m lazy, so I didn’t want to do that anymore.

You have a very distinct sound – where is this coming from? What’s your base when you start making a song?

So the secret is there’s this guy that made this VST that made everything sound amazing, and I killed him, so nobody else can use it [laughs]. I listen to a lot of Top 40, a lot of pop, a lot of the shittiest…like right now I’m rocking Justin Beiber’s Boyfriend on my Spotify playlist. Yeah, so. I don’t have any shame, I’ll admit it. [laughs]

You know what, you can start making EDM and then criticize me for what I listen to. Until then…

But I love good melodies and catchy hooks, it’s really easily digestible music and I just love it. I don’t like having to think and get really into music, not that there’s anything wrong with that, but that’s just who I am. I’m very shallow, self centered…[laughs]

I like really easy, palatable, melodic music, and that’s where I come from. but I also kind of like the driving electro house sound that’s coming out now.

Well now that I know you play piano, I can see that in your music. Lots of chords, melodies.

Yeah, I’ll sometimes listen to stuff like that, that I want to play, something like Debussy or Chopin. The melodies they were using back in the day are so much more intricate than anything that’s on the mainstream scene right now. I’m not saying I live directly from there, because I’m not that good, but that’s the kind of stuff I’d like to be doing. Just weaving this tapestry of sound…you know…that’s what I want to do.

So you’re 23, you’ve graduated from Stanford.

Yeah, I graduated June 2011, I finished my undergrad. Then I finished my masters last year as well.

So what are you doing now?

This, and I’m also doing research on Stanford campus in bio informatics. You know, like dealing with genetic data.

Do you want to do bio…whatever, or music?

I’m not sure. So my plan, if all things stay equal, I’m probably gonna apply for a Ph.D this year and do that. But the music thing is just blowing up so fast that at some point I might have no choice but to say, I’m making enough money here, so that’s what I gotta do.

Your music kind of blew up naturally, but where was your launching point to go from a kid at Stanford to playing shows in Texas?

Yeah, I just put it all online, YouTube, Soundcloud…all those sites. And blogs like The Kollection and other blogs just started picking it up. I didn’t really promote it or anything…we put up a Facebook page and stuff like that, but I didn’t do any hard work there.

Future plans?

I’m probably going to have to do music full time at some point. It’s a lot of fun, I’m not gonna lie, but yeah, I imagine I’d like to be a mainstream artist in the EDM scene, I wanna be writing awesome, big songs. I want to be doing tracks with the biggest guys in the world.

Will all this be solo, or will you collaborate?

I love collaborating. I don’t get to do it enough. I mean, I did a track with 3LAU back in September and then I did a track with Colin McLaughlin a few months back. I’m actually working on another track with him.

But yeah, it’s something that I love doing. I just don’t get around to it enough… collaborating just takes so much more effort.

What about your sound and style, are you going to try new things?

Yeah, my stuff is known for being really melodic, real poppy, happy. I want to introduce a harder edge into it, I wanna mess with it. I’ve been putting some heavier stuff into it, but I want to go all out.

I just released a new EP a few days back, and it’s very melodic, very fun, but I think in a few months I’ll do another big release with some harder tracks.

How was the Relaxed EP release?

It was great, we have all these blogs picking it up, you guys picked it up. A lot of people downloaded it. I think there was something like three or four thousand downloads off Mediafire yesterday. You know, thousands of plays on Soundcloud. Only like, a few hundred million more to go until I get where I want to be at! [laughs] That’s my goal. It’s reaching a little bit, but…

How did you get picked up by Blackbook?

Matt Impastato, who’s the booking agent for Blackbook, he does great work, he’s responsible for all these shows I do, he just emailed me out of the blue. He’s like, your stuff is awesome, come sign with us. At that point we had just started getting fans and we were getting a lot of emails like ‘yo, we’ll represent you’ but Blackbook were the first people that were legit, and could actually bring more to the table than ‘we’ll field some emails for you.’

It’s been great though, Lauren and Matt are just really helpful. They know this industry and how all this works a lot better than I do. It lets me do what I do best, which is make music.

Last word to fans on The Kollection?

Keep listening to my music……please!

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Basic Physics Interview

Basic Physics Interview

1 month ago by

Our team in Texas had the opportunity to catch up with Basic Physics at one of his recent shows in Fort Worth, a rave of sorts at a bar-turned-dance-venue for a fraternity at TCU. There was an abundance of neon tanks, fanny packs, croakies, and underage partiers getting thrown out for washing Xs off the back of their hands – a frat party indeed. He was playing with Sex Ray Vision (interview to be posted at a later date) and we had a chance to hang out with both of them and catch up.

Alex Syse, the man behind Basic Physics, was impressive, both in the music he played and in his goals as a producer. Alex had a relaxed and humble demeanor through our whole conversation, always energetic and excited about music. Mashups are his game right now, but he’s working on a big things for his future.

Our interview with Basic Physics is below, written and edited for readability – throw on a track and see what’s in store!

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Where’d you get your start? When did you decide that the whole music thing was for you?

About two years ago – I didn’t have an Xbox or a PS3, and all my friends were just gaming. So I got ahold of Ableton, and I was like, that’s what I’m going to do. So I started with that, read the manuals, kinda got the hang of things by myself. Then I started to make the right connections to take it to the next level and the next level.

What kind of connections? With promoters?

Yeah, I started getting some shows in Madison (Wisconsin), a few shows in Minneapolis, which got me out there.

What were you playing? Were you just DJing or were you playing some of your tracks?

Pretty much just DJing. I was doing my mashups, but they were nowhere near where they’re at now. But I’d say the biggest connections were from the Hype Machine. I had two tracks in 2010 that hit #1, including Ghosts On a G6 which got 100,000 listens in three days. That was one of the big clinchers to break into the mashup game.

Playing those first shows was the key to getting out though.

And you still use Ableton for everything?

Yeah, all Ableton right now. I just bought a new custom-made desktop and original production is going to be started immediately. I’m really excited – I don’t know exactly what I want to do, but I want to stick to the electro genre, but I really want to try to do this infusion of the Pretty Lights sound and like the Swedish House Mafia sound, and try to meet somewhere in the middle. Make something that nobody has really heard before.

Are you planning to work with anyone, or are you all solo?

It’s solo for now. In order to work with other people I’m gonna have to prove that I can create good, original productions. But I think that once that comes, then working with other artists will definitely start happening.

Where have you seen your most fan growth? Has it all been through shows, or has it been blogs and the internet?

Well it’s definitely a combo, but the blogs is kind of where it starts. You get your music posted on the blogs, you get all these people listening, and then they’re requesting you to come to their frat, club, university. So it all starts with you getting it out to the people, they listen, and it goes from there. So I’d say the blogs are definitely a big contributor to a lot of artists’ success, if you look at it, over the past two, three years.

Are you still in school?

I just graduated in December.

So what’s the plan now?

Full time music, I’ve got to sleep at home five times in March – I’ve just been touring. Mexico, Georgia, Rhode Island, Oklahoma, here down in Texas. I get to revamp over Easter weekend then it’s back at it in Minnesota, North Carolina, Tennessee, all over the place.

How did you get picked up by Blackbook?

I released my first mashup album, Nightlife in the Northwoods, back in April of 2011. That was my first big push, my first big release. They heard it and contacted me and we got the ball rolling from there. I ended up signing last May.

What’s it like signing as a mashup artist?

It’s a little nerve racking. I mean, you’re committing to those people, and I had never met them before, but they made a strong argument of what they could do. And with the amount of shows I’ve played, and the exposure from then to now, I think it definitely paid off.

Next step this year?

I really want to make sure I get this original production thing right from the get go. You won’t hear me release an original track until it’s absolutely top notch, where I want it to be. So I’d say really learning that.

Also, continuing solid mashups as well, trying to expand even further. I’d like to get out west more, so Colorado, Washington, California, Arizona, out in those areas.

Who are you looking to for inspiration with original production?

Man, there’s so many. I look at like Deniz Koyu, Swanky Tunes, R3hab’s really good. Then there’s always the big dogs, Zedd, Porter Robinson, Skrillex.

But what I’ve learned with those artists is you have to find your niche sound, your unique sound, if you want to be one of those players. So I have to do that myself. I mean, you can produce an electro track, but making it your own is the ultimate goal.

Last words to Kollection fans?

I love the Kollection, it’s one of my favorite blogs. The boys at The Kollection know how to hold it down – props to Texas, you guys are doing it right!

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Adventure Club Interview

Adventure Club Interview

1 month, 3 weeks ago by

Canada seems to breed some fierce talent – Beiber, Drake… Montreal’s Adventure Club. Alright, that’s an odd bunch to group together but there’s no doubt about the caliber of talent that exists abroad. With that said, I’ve never been into hard Dubstep. I didn’t hear a melody, I didn’t feel emotion; I simply couldn’t vibe with what I considered to be arbitrary sound. After hearing the duo’s “Crave You” remix about nine months ago, I was blown away by the gorgeously crafted, layered melodic sounds that surrounded me. With their appreciation for sound dynamics and an ear for the perfect vocal, these two have not disappointed with their seamless work since that first listen – each remix (and original!), better than the last.

Last month, I caught the opportunity to witness these two electrifying performers (they’re actually just super nutty) at the Key Club in Los Angeles. But as you’ll see, these two consider themselves to be producers first and foremost. …That doesn’t mean ninja jumping, crowd surfing, and vodka pouring aren’t absolutely essential to their nightly routine. Despite their crazy show, Leighton James and Christian Srigley are just two regular guys who just happen to be creating some of the best music I’ve ever heard and are touring with some very big names. Read up below on two of the biggest names in melodic Dubstep, who together are in for one hell of an adventure.

The audio-recorded interview has been transcribed and edited properly for clarity and readability purposes.

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You guys played in a band together in High School/fooled around with genres. Did you see yourselves diving into the electronic world or was this all accidental?

C: It was obviously intentional, but at the time, the very initial stages of it, it was more of a hobby than anything else – a side project to the band that we were in…
L: Pretty sure you were drunk…
C: Yeah, I’d be the one who was producing our band. We had a little studio and yeah, I probably was drunk the first time. I had a field day just making Dubstep and it was all just for fun – it ended up being a hobby until it started getting more attention than anything else we’d done previously.
L: And then we were just like… Fuck our pop-punk band…
C: Fuck touring, bringing massive cabs, and heads and drums.
L: We were in a squashed van together with a bunch of amps, guitars… and now we travel with a laptop.

Being relatively new to the genre, have you guys received negative feedback from more established artists?

L: No, artists don’t really call us out unless they’re into super… rudimentary dubstep, they like dubstep for what dubstep is. We’ll get called out for being a bit pop-step or club step. Artists don’t call us out, but people will call us out.
Have people contacted you just to say you guys are awesome?
L: We get like the Soundcloud messages and shit. But then we’ll get tweets saying “Yo, yo, yo! Jersey Shore is DJing right now!” [laughs] But like, we don’t really know why.

L: We get tripped a tiny bit…
C: But that’s kind of expected.

Do you have a track you’re dying to remix, but afraid to touch?
C: Not any more as much, but like last year I just wanted to remix an Ellie Goulding song so bad – everyone was doing it and I wanted to hop on it. She’s just got such a good voice. It was tempting and hard not to grab that acapella and fuck around with it.

L: If we got stems to like, a Weeknd song, then we’d probably go for it.
C: That would be huge.

Which do you prefer to do – original production or remixes?

L: We tend to make all our songs after vocals.
C: Yeah, even if it’s an original – like “Do I see Color”, we kind of used a few vocal samples and cut them up like crazy, made our own melody out of it. But even with our remixes – I kind of hate calling them “remixes”, because all we’re really sampling are vocals. We’re not taking the instrumentals of a track and just switching it up a bit. I’d love to call it a sample, but that’d just get us in a whole lot of trouble. The process itself between originals and remixes, at least for us, is fairly similar.
So you usually just take the vocal stems and not a lot of instrumental…
C: That’s the common starting place for us, just working with some form of vocal.

Speaking of originals, can we expect to hear more like “Do I see Color” for your future original productions?

C: In the future it’s definitely gonna be a balance of…
L: “Do I See Color” and maybe our remix jams.
C: But I mean all of our songs aren’t going to sound like that. That was just an area we were exploring on that one, it was just a fun track for us.
It was very bouncy!
C: Yeah, exactly. You can’t call that entire song dubstep…the drums pick up, tempo changes.

Who’s on repeat for you guys right now?

L: I listen to a lot of Jacques Greene. Super sexy-housey-dub.
C: He’s a local Montreal guy. He’s incredible. We could drive to it all day.
L: SBTRKT is fuckin’ cool, Mansions on the Moon…They’re coming tonight!
Electronic? Don’t say Skrillex!
Both: I love Skrillex! [we laugh]
C: Such a great fucking producer. So innovative.
L: I mean, without Skrillex we probably wouldn’t be here to be honest…and tech-one, Tech-One! He was like the catalyst for us. He did this Bring Me to the Horizon remix – heard it one morning and we were just like, “Holy fucking shit!” Our favorite band just mixed with EDM – it blew our faces off. We were just like, I guess we can mix the two genres together. We started a living room mosh pit to that song…
Two months later, we started producing tracks.

What do you guys have to say to the stereotypes of Dubstep being a bunch of noise, wabbles and whomps? Your style has evolved into a very melodic one – did that happen naturally or were you trying to get away from that harsh sound?

C: It’s definitely less wompy [laughs].
L: A little bit of both… we kind of got tired of the wompy dubstep, and once we saw the melodic dubstep was working and people were being responsive to it, we just went with it.
C: We just started focusing in that area more.
Do you guys listen to the crazy stuff?
C: We definitely listen to some of the crazy stuff, I think more me than Leighton. I’ll have my playlist of just the grimiest, most radical Dubstep.
After doing some research, I know you both listen to some hardcore stuff…
L: We still listen to hardcore all the time. Before shows we’ll play it, we’ll play some of it in our sets too… Bring me to the Horizon. [see Leighton's shirt, pictured above!]

Typically when you look at Hypem charts and your stuff that’s been most popular, it’s the tracks that feature high-pitched vocals from independent female artists who are pretty obscure (Foxes) – what is it about these lesser-known artists that inspires you guys?

C: Part of it is because we want to feel like were sampling more than we’re remixing. We want people to hear an actual song we’ve created instead of hearing “a remix of a song they already know” – I like the aspect of having vocals that not many people have heard, being able to rework them, and not having that feel awkward for someone when it’s not the exact same as the original.
L: We want to create a whole different tune. And a lot of the remixes we hear, they’re just the exact same tune with maybe an altered drumbeat or shifted tempo.
I didn’t know who Foxes was two weeks ago…
L: Yeah, we kind of like to remix artists that I guess would mutually benefit both of us. Foxes become known; we get a bit of cred. Oh! It’s also easier to contact those artists and get stems.

What, in your guys’ opinion, makes it difficult to stand out in an electronic age where “everyone is a DJ?”

L: Production wise… We kind of just make what we want to hear. As far as live goes, in no way do we consider ourselves ultimate DJs.
C: We were producers first and foremost, and once it started picking up we just started DJing because it was viable. We love it and we’re having a whole lot of fun, but we’re not gonna say we can “out spin” people. We’re still new to the live DJ scene.
L: We just started last January…
C: Yeah, within the past 6+ months, as far as Djing goes. We’re pretty new.

What programs do you use to create?

C: Something called Sonar Cakewalk producer.
L: If you’re in the EDM scene you probably wouldn’t know about it. A lot of other producers will come up to us and be like “What do you use?” and we’ll say “Sonar Cakewalk” and they’ll just be like “What the FUCK is that?!” They’ll have the deer in the headlights look– no one really uses it for EDM, it’s mostly for band-oriented tracks, which is what we used to record on.
C: It’s just a live recording, like how a recording studio records. It’s not as simple as some of the other ones, but it’s what we were doing when we were in the band.

A lot of people criticize electronic music for being unauthentic or inorganic. You guys actually know how to play instruments, have you used a lot of that knowledge to build new tracks?

L: We all know how to play pretty much everything…definitely use a lot of theory, timing is super important to us. I mean, structurally the songs have to make sense. As far as playing live instruments on a track, we still haven’t gotten to that yet. We’d like to – I’d like to get a midi drum set, set up to our computer. I’d like to play live, on top of everything.

Do you guys remix on the spot?

L: Yeah, we definitely remix on the spot. Every show, but it depends on the crowd.
C: We don’t prerecord anything…
L: We don’t pop in the CD…
C: Unplug the mixer, pop in the CD! [we all laugh]

No but if we’ll get criticized for our performance, it’s because we fuck up or something like that. We have our idea of what we’re gonna do, but it’s still live.
L: It’s still organic.

Where do you two hope to be a year from now – what do you plan to do to continue this sound you have? I wasn’t into dubstep before I heard you guys – you made it into a fluid sound. Sticking with that?

C: We always try to progress, but within a reasonable amount. I guess it’s a little easier to ‘reinvent’ your sound with electronic than with anything else. I don’t know though…it’s always a different standard for EDM. You expect, like, Coldplay to sound like Coldplay over the course of an album. But if you release an EDM album with the same sounds and the same feel over every single track, you’ll start bothering people.
L: Yeah, Pendulum did that with Knife Party. They had their whole drum and bass feel, then they came out with Knife Party.

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Timeflies Interview

Timeflies Interview

1 month, 3 weeks ago by

Last friday night I hit up to Dallas to see Timeflies and 3LAU perform live at the Palladium Ballroom. I’d met Blau before, but Timeflies was a new group I was anxious to interview. I saw their set before I met them, and they put on one hell of a show. They do a great job of connecting with their fans, getting them involved, and keeping their energy up throughout the whole set.

Afterwards, the guys were incredibly psyched about their show, happy to have finally performed in Texas. As performers, they were energetic and excited, but as people they are incredibly laid back, easy-going guys out to have a good time. I caught up with them backstage and asked a few of my own personal questions, as well as questions you, fans of The Kollection, asked through Facebook and Twitter. This is a transcribed audio interview, with edits to improve readability. Throw on a Timeflies set and get your read on!

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Let’s get started with the basics – how did you guys come together, where’d you start, where did Timeflies come from?

Rob: Well, let us tell you. I heard Cal freestyling at a party, he was great. I was like, ‘yo, you’re great. Let’s work together, it’ll be fuckin’ awesome.’ I was in a funk band at the time, playing drums.

So had you been producing yet when you first heard Cal?

Rob: Sort of. I was actually in a lot of rock bands in high school, so we had our own studio and recorded all our own shit. So I was kind of into that, but not like electro or hip hop yet, at least until college started.

Whenever I met Cal, we had partied together before, I just hadn’t realized he was a talented vocalist, and then I was like ‘you should be in my band,’ because we were still in this funk band. So he became the singer for that.

We got to open for like Ludacris, won a battle of the bands – it was fuckin’ sick.

Cal: I was too lazy to write any tracks…

Rob: Shittiest, lazy person. Still true. STILL TRUE.

Cal: So I would freestyle. Every live show we had I would freestyle over the band. So that kind of got me ready for the pressure of doing it on stage. So we did that, and then Rez used to DJ a lot of the parties and we used to make joke tracks and try to sneak them in at the party, see if the crowd would die or still be into it.

Rob: And they were always into it.

Like what? What do you mean joke tracks?

Rez: We’d like pitch our vocals down an octave, so [instead of being normal, it'd be way. down. here.] I get you wet. It was fat haha.

Cal: Hopefully it never gets released.

Rez: It will, it will. On The Kollection haha. Hopefully not. Anyway, we were like ‘this is cool, let’s make real tracks’ so Timeflies was born.

So you started doing Timeflies Tuesday – those have been pretty big. One got one million views on YouTube. How did these get started? How do you keep up with it every week?

Cal: Well our team was like ‘you guys are like, just goons in the studio’. We just fuck around ya know? We order in every meal. So the studio was always set up in [Rez's] room, real sloppy, and they were like ‘you guys need to show your fans what you’re doing in there.’

So we’re like, alright we’ll do it one day a week, and it started out like I was eating like ‘yeah! Rez is making a beat.’

Rez: Like ‘I got chicken nuggets this week!’ Really lame.

Cal: And then one time we did a freestyle, and it was like 100 times the views as the other one.

Rez: So like, a hundred views. [laughs]

Cal: We started doing it. And then, uh, [Rez's] mom got him a steel drum for graduation…

Rez: Thanks mom!

Cal: …and we banged one note on that and we both were like…ahhhh. So we did Under The Sea, expecting nothing really, and then that blew up. And so we’ve been doing it every Tuesday and it is a fuckin struggle.

So how does it work? Do you wake up Tuesday morning and just go?

Rez: It’s really a Monday night thing. We used to be intense about starting at Monday at midnight and stay up the whole day…it was terrible. Then we had a show once on Tuesday, and we couldn’t, so we did it Monday, and we were like…wait a minute. We’re idiots. [laughs]

But the problem is if you do it Sunday, for example, and then Whitney Houston dies on Monday, you gotta redo it, ya know? We really gotta wait until the last minute. I’m sorry about Whitney Houston.

Cal: So Timeflies Tuesday has become a full time job…

So what happened with Fox Sports?

Cal: Basically we saw some tweets that said Timeflies was played during the Texas Tech game. And we were like, that’s awesome, this is awesome shit. And then about a week later this guy hit us up like ‘don’t sue us please! We put it on Fox, do you mind if we use it again for another game?’ and we were like, fuck yeah, of course. We were like what game? Cotton Bowl? [laughs]

Rez: Fuck yeah. Yes.

Cal: The weird one is CBS just keeps using Lose My Mind during March Madness…

So are you gonna sue CBS?

Cal: Ha, no that sounds like a massive undertaking.

Rez: And I think they are paying…well, whatever.

Cal: The idea is that we get to watch fuckin’ TV and our song comes on…I feel like we should be paying them, it’s a good deal.

Rez: St. Patrick’s Day we’re at a bar and people are like ‘THAT’S YOU!’

You guys are one of the fastest growing groups out there, as far as listens, YouTube views, Facebook likes. Is it your freestyles? What’s the secret?

Rez: Constant contact.

Cal: It’s constant contact and I think relatability. The fact that [fans] see us in the studio and we’re not using a nice camera…we use an iPhone. We wanna show you our shitty environment so you feel like you’re in the studio and you’re real with us. Because we’re real…It’s just real. We’re showing people that you can do this too.

It wasn’t like 15 years ago. You can bring you studio home and make that shit in your apartment in Brooklyn. We just brought it home, we’re just doing it.

Well you’re doing a great job with it, but do you plan on getting into an actual studio?

Rez: I never want to be in an actual studio. Well, unless its in my house.

Cal: Yeah, we wanna build our own.

So what’s the next step for you guys?

Rez: We have a mixtape we’re working on right now, it’ll be out in a month-ish.

Can you give a name yet?

Rez: I wish I could. We’re fighting with a lot of them, but we’re not gonna give you any clues. But it’ll be a great name, I hope. And then we have another album we’ll probably work on over the summer. We’ve been saving a few of the tracks we thought were too hot.

Cal: The thing is we decided to do the mixtape a while ago, and it’s like we do all these Timeflies Tuesdays samples, and then we do the mix tape…

Rez: Mixtape is all sample based.

Cal: …and we’ll do all these tracks for the mixtape and be like we have to write our own chorus. Because we like writing original stuff, and I mean we wanna get back to the album. Scotch Tape was a lot of fun for us.

So you guys are touring now.

Rez: We kinda took this month somewhat off.

Cal: We’re doing a couple dates right now, and then all of April and May we’re on a bus going across the country.

Rez: It get’s real, like, every day.

You like it?

Rez: Love it.

Cal: Love it.

So we asked our fans some questions for you guys.

Rez: Fan questions are our favorite!

First, do you have to be drunk to freestyle?

Cal: No.

Rez: Shitfaced.

[laughs]

Cal: No, you don’t. The reason I drink a little bit of scotch…well, first of all I love scotch…but the reason I drink a little bit is because if I think during a freestyle, it’s like bad. You psych yourself out. It’s like if Kobe is dribbling down the court during the fourth quarter and is like ‘god I hope I don’t fuck this up, god i hope…’ you’re missing the shot. But if he just goes down and shoots blind, you’re gonna make it. You just need to not think. It’s really important.

Rez: [laughing]

Cal: Sometimes there’s alcohol involved, sometimes there’s not. It’s just the importance is not thinking, and that’s a hard thing to do.

What made you pick the name Timeflies?

Cal: We were real lazy pieces of shit…we never got our act together. [Rez] would make fat beats and he would play ‘em for me and I’d be like ‘that’s fat we gotta record it’ and we’d always wait until the end of the semester, record it, and give it to all our friends, and they’d be like ‘why aren’t you doing this at all times?’

And we’d never get together and it was like ‘ahhh time flies’ and we’d make jokes. And eventually it just stuck.

Rez: That sounds cool. Let’s just take this space out. [laughs]

What’s your favorite song you’ve made?

*chirp chirp*

Rez: That’s a tough question. It’s funny…we get a lot of questions like what’s your favorite Timeflies Tuesday, what’s your favorite Scotch Tape track, and we’ve got answers. I like the struggle…

Cal: Favorite song ever? It might be Ass Back Home on Timeflies Tuesday.

Were you gonna say that? [bro hi-five]

Cal: I really liked that track. I’d hate to say not one of our originals.

Rez: I’ve never heard that on big speakers and been happy. So actually, no.

Cal: That or For You.

Rez: Heater

Cal: Turn It Up, was like a real nice concept that we worked hard on.

Rez: Fade was one of my favorites, actually. That was one of the ones we were working on the day before we finished the album.

Cal: So yeah, nothing definitive.

Rez: No answer, sorry.

Any collaborations in the near future?

Cal: Not on the mixtape. We’re definitely open to collaborations, um. It’s interesting because…

Rez: Let me answer. I feel like there are people that I think we could collab with that are impressive people that I’d love to say I worked with and would be awesome on a track. But for the most part, I imagine either the chorus or the bridge would be where you’d have a feature, and not to build him up, but I’d rather have Cal in that part of the song.

Like, if there’s another dude singer it’s like, it’s good, but not as good. And same with the rapping or singing. So until we can find someone that can really do something awesome…

Cal: Like Neon Hitch on the chorus.

Rez: Right. A chick singer on the chorus is something I kinda want. But our mixtape will have that. We’re sampling a bunch of chicks. And then I mean I’d love a black fuckin’ man just tearing it up. Cal can’t outdo Luda…or Rick Ross. [laughs]

So yeah, we’ll probably make that happen eventually.

What’s your most embarrassing moment?

Cal: In life?

Rez: On tour?

Both. Either.

Rez: I have a great life answer…pretty embarrassing. 6th grade, I was taking a piss in the boys bathroom, you know, sixth grader, and some dude came in and pushed me and I peed all over myself. And I had to go change, but walk all the way through the school, pissed pants. It was terrible.

Thankfully, I was like the cool kid in sixth grade, just saying, no big deal. It all just went downhill from there. [laughs]

So it worked out, but it was bad.

Cal: Maybe tonight…I was in our hotel room. I’m staying with Jared Glick, he’s the other person staying there. So I’m like about to get in the shower, I get naked, I’m like standing in front of the TV because I’m watching March Madness, but like I can’t go away for the Baylor game, you know, cause I’m really into it. Like I wanna go to the bathroom, but I’m just standing there, like…watching.

All of a sudden I hear a key go in. ‘What’s happening?!’ and I’m just standing there naked, and a guy’s just like…’what’s your name?’

I’m like, ‘wait a minute! How does your key work on this room?’ He’s like a business guy. He’s like, ‘what’s your name?’ I’m like…’uh, Jared Glick.’ He was like, ‘ah, they must’ve been confused. I’m Jerry Glick. You can go back to what you’re doing…’

That was pretty uncomfortable….

[laughs]

Most embarrassing moment on tour was a show in Dayton, Ohio where we were jumping around during Cars, Money and Fame, and the laptop fell off the stage and gave the stupid question mark face.

Rez: No, black screen, worse.

Cal: Like, yeahhhh, you’re fucked.

Rez: Scariest moment of my life.

I was like, we’re fucked, show’s over. What’re we gonna do for the next forty minutes?

Cal: So I was like, you guys seen Timeflies Tuesday? So I told Rez to make a beat and I’m gonna freestyle.

Rez: So I’m like restarting with my right hand, beatboxing left, and he’s like freestyling his ass off, it’s going great.

Cal: And right when I finish, he’s like ‘if you’re in Dayton, fuckin scream!’

Rez: And they all go nuts, and thankfully I had restarted, everything somehow worked, and Under the Sea comes on. And everyone goes nuts. They were all, yeah, they totally planned that.

Skittles or M&Ms?
Rez: M&Ms

Cal: M&Ms

Rez: Skittles are disgusting.

Cal: I don’t think so. I love the yellow skittles…I like lemon lime.

[insert extended argument about whether skittles are made with horse hooves]

DJ 3LAU, any questions?

3LAU: You guys talked about it a little before, but I’m gonna go directionally. Cal, who’s your favorite male singer slash rapper. Rez, who’s your favorite producer?

Cal: Okay, male singer for me, is Frank Sinatra. Um. Rapper, probably I’m like really influenced by Big L, but the style and melody and flow of Pharoahe Monch is huge on me, so I’m gonna put him there.

Rez: Two part answer from me. First part is, to be honest, I know its cliche, but nobody can touch Skrillex. Nobody has done to music or to sound what that fuckin’ nut job has done. Skrillex is the fuckin’ shit. I would give a testicle to spend a half hour in a room with him.

Woooow.

Rez: Number two, if I couldn’t pick Skrillex, Porter Robinson. My fuckin dude. He’s like twelve and making hotter beats than I’ve ever heard, and he’s on fuckin’ fire. Look up his shit. He uses gameboy noises, extra points for that. Un. Fuckin. Real. WHOA.

Fair.

Rez: And shoutout to Blau!

Wrap it up – last words to your fans on The Kollection.

Cal: We do say this often, but basically there is incredible music out there on the internet, and thank god there’s blogs and people like the Kollection that are finding it for you and making it easy.

Rez: People spend a lot of their lives listening to bullshit so you don’t have to.

Cal: Yeah, so don’t get your favorite artist from the radio. Because the best artists are the ones who are doing it, the ones who are working tirelessly. The remix is always hotter. Don’t let the radio dictate who you listen to. Go find who you wanna listen to because there are a lot of really talented people out there.

So thank you to The Kollection for making it easy.

Rez: And go and heart us! Kollect us!

  1. By Grubeats March 26, 2012 at 6:00 pm • add @
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    Always enjoy K interviews and anything Timeflies is worth listening/reading/watching. Well done señor, much love from FNT!

    • By Flynn March 28, 2012 at 2:57 pm • add @
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      Really good interview, I only wished you had asked Cal how he learned how to freestyle like that. Thanks though!

      • By GZD April 4, 2012 at 10:31 am • add @
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        Does anyone not realize that their are legitimately like 10 other groups just like these guys on this website. I love The Kollection but please stop making a big deal out of a group that is lacking lyrical depth and has mediocre musicality at best. We all know they are just two bro’s. We all know it. I’m just saying it.

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        Radical Something Interview

        Radical Something Interview

        2 months ago by

        Last Friday, I got the chance to see Radical Something open up for The Dean’s List at the Key Club in Los Angeles. A little before the show, I caught up with Josh Cocktail, Loggy, and DJ Big Red to check in and see what they’ve been up to since their successful release of their latest EP No Sweat. The Kollection has been a huge support system of the trio ever since they were founded earlier in 2011, and all of you kollectors out there have taken that support to the extreme with everything that they have worked on to this point. This is transcribed from an audio interview, so there have been minor tweaks to improve the flow of the conversation for your reading pleasure. Before you begin reading, press play and listen to No Sweat!

        Okay, so we’ll start with the basics. How did you guys first meet?
        Josh Cocktail- I met Loggy and Big Red in New York City a little over a year ago and we met at End of Era studios at a late night recording session. We were introduced by our manager Alex Mitchell-Hardt, and that night that we met is when we wrote and recorded Be Easy.

        How did the name Radical Something come to be?
        Loggy- Me and Big Red were doing a mixtape together, and wanted the name of the mixtape to be something awesome, and the word Radical was such a colorful and awesome word. It was the first night we were in New York – the night before we met Josh actually- and me and Red were dishing out names back and forth and I said ‘Red, it gotta be Radical.. like Radical Gnarly, Radical blankety-blank.. it’s just gotta be Radical Something.” And Red just said “Log..Radical Something.” So it was like an accident.

        ‘No Sweat’ rose to the top 10 iTunes charts in the alternative genre as well as the overall charts. What was it like seeing so much support from your fans, and also surpassing artists such as The Beatles and Whitney Houston?
        Big Red- It was really great to get up there on iTunes because we’re doing this by ourselves and it’s cool that there’s not millions of dollars behind us getting up there; it’s because of the fans. They’re the ones that are supporting us and doing all of this so it’s great that our fans are so awesome and putting us up on Billboard and iTunes.

        What is your typical process to producing and recording an album, EP, or single? How long did it take you to complete ‘We Are Nothing’ versus ‘No Sweat?’
        Loggy- About the same amount of time, there was just more polishing on ‘No Sweat.’ We didn’t really know what we were doing, we came into the studio, and just rocked out with ‘We Are Nothing.’ It was kind of like “Hey, let’s make a song! Oh, let’s make another song! Let’s make this song! And then we’ll make that song..”
        Big Red – We did 15 songs in 3 months for ‘We Are Nothing,’ so they were rushed to the point where it’s like now we take a little more time and got everything mixed and perfectly done, which is why it sounds so polished.
        Josh Cocktail- ‘No Sweat’ was a little more planned out.
        Loggy- We knew it was going to be a smaller project, a shorter project. We knew how many songs we wanted to have, and from there it was just polishing out and making sure every song was a nice little banger.

        You all recently moved here to Los Angeles to be at the center of a thriving music industry. When was the moment you decided that you wanted to move to LA, and what was it like relocating to pursue your dreams?
        Loggy – I think it was the second month that I realized I was waking up on couches and hating life with no real bed. It kind of became obvious that if we wanted to succeed, we had to move down!
        Josh Cocktail- When we first started Radical Something we were all not situated in the same state some of the time. When it was first beginning we all knew we were going to end up somewhere but we didn’t know how it was going to happen and how it would all work. We are all originally from California- I grew up in LA, the other guys from the Bay- so LA seemed fitting especially when we started working full time with Alex Mitchell-Hardt, because he was already in LA too.
        Loggy – We needed to wake up and be together at a round table and make music. It changed the game for us completely.

        All of you put a heavy emphasis on connecting with your fans, including UStream and most recently, the Rad Hotline. What is the purpose behind all of that?
        Josh Cocktail – I think the coolest thing about independent music and building something from the ground up is that you can interact with fans. It’s a more personal relationship, and puts it into perspective of how the music hits people. That’s the biggest motivation for us to make music in the first place.

        So what’s a typical reaction when you call one of your fans?
        Josh Cocktail – A lot of the time, it’s kids saying ‘Is this real? Is this really you?’ They don’t believe that we actually do it. I’ve made hundreds of calls and talked to kids and said ‘What’s up’ and even that is awesome for us. It lets them know that we’re real people just like them.

        Josh, who are some of your inspirations when it comes to singing?
        Definitely Amos Lee, he’s probably the reason I figured out I could sing in the first place. Also a lot of the old R&B artists like Anthony Hamilton and Lyfe Jennings, Musiq Soulchild and Boyz 2 Men. A lot of soul stuff.

        Big Red, how did you begin producing, and who are some DJs or producers that you admire the most?
        I started deejaying when I was 13, because I heard a Run DMC Greatest Hits, I bought the CD and I was so juiced. I started producing for fun with my friends when I was about 15.

        What are some short-term goals you guys have for the future?
        Josh Cocktail- A lot of touring. At the point, we want to be on the road a lot, and make sure we can polish up our set a little more.
        So what do you want to have accomplished a year from now?
        Josh Cocktail- Billboard charts.We just want to continue the growth of the movement and build our fan base, and keep having fun.

        Who’s a recent artist or group that you guys are hooked on right now?
        Big Red- Recently I’ve been hooked on some M83, and I was big on Coldplay with this last album. I listen to it all the time.
        Loggy- I’ve been listening to Mord Fustang, dope electronic producer and DJ. And since we’ve moved down to LA I’ve regained my obsession with Tupac. Right when I got to LA , I was all “you know what? I’m gonna start bumpin’ Pac.” He’s the greatest.

        What kind of work can we expect from Radical Something in the upcoming months, and do you guys have any collaborations on the horizon?
        Loggy- For right now, we don’t have any collaborations in the works. We made a couple songs with Starting Six that are unfinished, but other than that Big Red’s been working with a guy named Mike Taylor who’s awesome. We’re going to New York, so we might meet up with a few people there. We have about 15 songs in the vault that we still have to piece together and write to them but the direction is almost a perfect fusion between “We Are Nothing” and “No Sweat.” It’s so exciting, the new music is so sick I can’t wait.

        Are we going to see more appearances from Big Red on the verses?
        Loggy – I think that’s a no-brainer. YES.

        How have music blogs impacted your recognition in the music world, and which music blog is your favorite?
        Loggy- Music blogs have been a huge driver in everything from us building our fan base to even our music spreading in ways bigger than the internet. Word of mouth comes from people listening to music on music blogs, getting the MP3’s and telling their friends. Without music blogs I would have never started, cause that’s what I saw with other artists progressing.

        Which blogs did you go to for inspiration? What were the first ones you followed?
        Loggy- To be honest, the ones that I first started getting on were the Kollection and GMAD. They were the only ones I was looking on that were actually blogs, cause right when I started making music was when I fell out of touch with actually looking for music. The Kollection has been something that’s been there for me a long time ago when things first started going. The support you guys showed especially with ‘No Sweat’ was incredible.

        Last question: Is there anything special you want to say to kollectors around the world?!
        Joe Busy – Stay Radical!
        Big Red- Thank you, we love you, keep reppin’ the Rad.
        Loggy- Kollectors, we love you. Thanks for riding with us and vibing with us.
        Josh Cocktail- Mad love to the Kollection!

        Make sure to grab No Sweat on iTunes here! If you’re really slacking, you can also get We Are Nothing here.

        ALSO!! Here is a brand new song and video titled “Wash Away.” After the extreme success of No Sweat, the trio has been working hard on their next project, working on about 15 songs. This video is directed by the very talented Joe Busy, who is responsible for all of the other videos from Radical Something. Make sure to check if Radical Something is coming to your neighborhood by checking out their tour dates!

        1. By Bob March 22, 2012 at 4:23 am • add @
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          for a music video you feel pretty proud of, why not enter it in the Make a Star competition (http://www.makeastar.com/) and work on your international fan base!

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          Meet the Artist: Foxes

          Meet the Artist: Foxes

          3 months ago by

          London’s Foxes (aka Loui Rose Allen) is on the verge of something big. Her songs “Youth” and “Home” have attracted a loyal fan following in only a few short months, and she is currently beginning rehearsals for her tour. “Youth” has been praised by critics and bloggers alike for its dynamic arrangement, addictive tribal beat and Loui’s powerful pop vocal. The video for the introspective “Home” continues to captivate viewers with its distinctly intimate vibe and, again, Loui’s voice. Whether it’s an infectious crank-the-volume-and-move-your-feet-track or a personal, reserved ballad, there’s one consistency you can’t ignore: this girl can sing.

          Loui was kind enough to share with us a bit about her life as Foxes, some stories behind her music, music suggestions, and plans for the future in the interview below, and we really appreciate her taking the time. You can Kollect remixes of “Youth” from Adventure Club, Pyramid and Monsieur Adi, watch the video for “Home,” and stream both “Home” and “Youth” here, but be sure to support Foxes by buying her music on iTunes. And as always, Kollect on!

          ‘Youth’ has blown UP since its release earlier this year. How have your past few months been as you continue to gain international acclaim?

          They’ve been magical. It all feels like I’ve finally been hired…I went from singing into a hairbrush at 10 copying the Spice Girls, to moving to London and doing the same but on a stage in front of other musicians. Then writing my own stuff and still singing it into a hairbrush but now people are actually listening on YouTube, which is crazy! It’s great to love what you do and be able to attempt it as a job!

          You frequently draw comparisons to artists such as Marina, Ellie Goulding, Robyn, etc. How do you feel about such comparisons?

          Very flattered…they are great artists! Of course, it can be frustrating when some people just think its the same old thing and compare every female artist to another, but it’s always going to be that way. Luckily I don’t think I have anything to worry about because I’m pretty sure the music all comes from me and I have very different influences.

          When did you begin playing as ‘Foxes,’ and what’s the story behind the name?

          When I first started writing, I was a sort of toddler in music, and over the years I’ve grown up and so has my music. So it just felt right to start a new page. The name’s really all down to my mum being a mad hatter (in a good way), and the first song I ever wrote was called ‘like Foxes do’. At first I laughed at the idea, but then on the phone to my mum one day I mentioned that I was thinking about being ‘Foxes’ and she sounded really surprised and a bit freaked out. She said, ‘that’s so weird because last night I dreamt that a group of foxes were running up our road doing that weird scream thing they do, but it was haunting and beautiful and it reminded me of your music!’ Hoping she meant the ‘haunting and beautiful’ bit and not the scream bit, I then decided to go with it as mums are pretty much always right!

          I know some people have found it confusing and think I’m a band, but I figure if Sting can be a plural then I can get away with being a plural!

          ‘Youth’ transitions seamlessly from pulsing, danceable pop to hushed, delicate moments. What’s appealing to you about such a dynamic arrangement?

          A lot of my music comes about accidentally. I just sort go with it and there will be moments in the song that just happen because that’s how it’s written. I love making everything one big feeling and not having a typical structure, which for me makes things more exciting! It’s also nice to be able to show different parts of what I’m about…I love a good song you can dance to like no one’s watching but also love a gentle female voice to listen to. To be honest, I didn’t expect ‘Youth’ to be liked because of the inconsistency of the song, but it’s nice to see people enjoy the whole package!

          Both the (beautifully-shot) video for ‘Home’ and the song itself seem very personal to you. Would you mind sharing with us a glimpse into the story behind that song?

          ‘Home’ as well as ‘Youth’ were never really meant to go out into the world. They were just the beginning of some things I needed to sort out in my head. Which actually made them great debuts because it’s like the beginning of a bigger story to tell.

          ‘Home’ is very personal and I wasn’t sure about it going online (let alone releasing it), but it’s nice to have it out in the open. It’s therapeutic in a way. It’s about childhood friendships and how they don’t always last forever. When I was 18, I moved up to London and I needed to feel that it was okay for me to be living here and that sometimes you’ve just got to go do your own thing, and it’s okay to drift. Maybe you’ll meet again at a later date, but you just got to let life do its thing and not feel guilt for doing your own thing sometimes.

          With only 8 minutes of released music so far, you’ve already captivated a wide audience. When can Foxes fans expect to hear more? Is there a full album in the works?

          More is on its way! I’ve nearly finished writing the album, but I’m still writing bits and pieces to glue it all together. Expect to hear more music in the next few months for sure though!

          If you could sing a duet with any artist (alive or not), who would it be?

          Ah, that’s difficult. I have this rule where I don’t want to meet my heroes in case I make a twat of myself or they do and it ruins the dream. Right now I would probably want to do something with Robyn as she’s AMAZING…some sort of dance off in a video would be good.

          Who are some emerging artists you think Kollectors should get familiar with?

          Get familiar with Paper Crows. They are my best friends and amazing musicians. We met at music school at the back of a theory lesson none of us wanted to be in.

          What’s in store for Foxes in 2012?

          I’m going back into the lab to write the album and also going into rehearsal for the new live set. I am also going to be taking up laughing yoga!

          Big thanks to Loui for taking the time to do this interview, and also to Dan at Neon Gold Records.

          1. By Mark February 20, 2012 at 4:18 pm • add @
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            Great interview. She has a big career ahead of her, and getting an interview with her now was a good idea because I bet you won’t be able to in a few months. “Youth” will be a big hit.

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