After taking a break from touring and reflecting on where to go next, SPAG is back. Some may know him as Spag Heddy, but with this fresh rebrand SPAG is ready to embrace a more mature sound, while still bringing the fun.
His latest release, THIS IS: SPAG, gives us a taste of what we can expect from him going forward. With sounds ranging from basshouse and trap to dubstep, this EP contains the sound we all know him for, but it’s also introducing us to this new direction he’s taking. “I’m not changing my music that much, I want to put it in a modern jacket,” SPAG explains.
We caught up with SPAG and talked all about this new direction, how he’s combining maturity and fun, and what is next for him.
Congratulations on your EP release! How are you doing?
I’m still buzzing from finally getting the new music out. The reception has been very good so far and I’m excited for the next chapter.
You’ve been making music for 15 years now. Why did you decide to change your name now?
It’s a combination of things, but I’ve slowed down on the touring side of my career for a bit, because I have a young family. Right now, I’ve got some more time again, and I have the opportunity to fully focus on my music career again. In the EDM world, you’re behind on trends very quickly, so I took this moment to reflect on whether I was just going to continue where I left, or whether I wanted to start something fresh. I didn’t want to start a new alias, because I wanted to continue making the same music, but it felt like time for a refresh. My team and I have been brainstorming a lot about how we can bring something fresh without going in a completely new direction or catch the fans off guard. I mostly wanted a new visual style, a new visual identity, because for the past 15 years, Spaghetti has been the joke. I have diehard fans who still are finding out, so many years later, that that was the pun all along! We’ve done pretty much all the puns by now, all the cover artworks for EPs, releases, the tour posters. I’ve grown up with my musical style as well. Let’s get past this cartoon stage for now.
Why did you decide on the name SPAG?
This was actually a wild random idea by my wife. She said, why not just SPAG? I laughed it off at first, but it stuck with me. This name fits the new style really well, because I went from a cartoony, funny era to a bit more serious era, and I really feel like SPAG sounds a lot fiercer and more serious than Spag Heddy.
And like you said, you didn’t want to go in a completely new direction, so this name fits perfectly!
There are many artists who have completely switched to a new name, new look, and it confuses a lot of people. First of all, it confuses the fan base. Diehard fans will stick, but it can also have a negative effect. I think that is one of the reasons why Skrillex has never changed his name. He went from brostep to all the popular styles, but stuck with Skrillex. So many people told him to make a new alias for that, because that’s not what they wanted to hear. At the same time, Skrillex has come back to brostep as well, and has brought that brostep sound back again. But there are many artists who did listen to the critics and changed their name when trying out a new sound. I just didn’t want to do that. I wanted to make sure that my fan base knows that your SPAG is still here. I’m not changing my music that much. I definitely want to go back to the brostep era but in a modern jacket. There’s a brostep revival happening, and it’s been happening for a while. Barely Alive, Zomboy, Virtual Riot… making all these brostep tunes again. People are digging it. Another reason I wanted to stay with SPAG, is because I want to bring elements from my older music and turn them into a more modern sound.
You’re bringing a more mature sound and a different visual style, but is there anything else you’re excited to bring in this new era?
When you do a rebrand, you can get away with more stuff. If you always make the same music and you then go in a different direction, it feels a little more random. But if you shorten your name or do a little rebrand and your first release is multi-genre, then I think that’s a statement. I make more than just dubstep, and brostep elements can be used in lots of other genres, which is what I’m trying to do. There’s a basshouse track and a more trappy track EP, and they all have a lot of old school bass patches in there. I definitely want to bring brostep back, but at the same time, I want to reach a lot of new people. Nowadays, dubstep has so many influences from other genres.
Absolutely! The scene feels more intertwined. When you go to a dubstep set, you can hear techno and garage being played, whereas before it was just all 140, the whole set. You can see DJs having more fun with it.
It’s a lot of fun. Absolutely. I’m not one of those dubstep or riddim heads who wants a full hour of only the same thing. I don’t even listen that much to dubstep at home. I love all kinds of music and I want to make music that I enjoy listening to.
You’ve been making music for 15 years now. You’ve changed your name just recently, but how have you as an artist changed over the years?
My productions have become a bit more serious, and more focused on sounding good. Way in the beginning, my productions were very bad, up until 2016-2017. Not great productions, but there was an audience for it. I gained a big fan base by making that music, so it was fine. Music is music. During the last half of my career, I’ve focused on getting to sound better, but at the same time, while my productions got better, it’s lost its old and fun part of it. For a lot of people it was a big plus. I got a lot of praise for this, but the older fan base did not like that so much. I definitely want to bring that fun back. The danger of this is that my production might start to sound worse again, maybe, but that’s a risk I’m willing to take. It’s almost contradictory to say all of this, because I’m trying to be more serious. I want to combine the seriousness and the fun, I guess. Professional sounding fun.
My productions have gotten better over the years. I’m super proud of the tunes I’m going to be releasing in the near future. I think they contain a lot of that fun factor, but they sound better than back in the day. I’ve definitely matured production wise. When you get older, you get more nostalgic moments, and you think back to older times, “I want to do this again,” but approach it in a more mature way.
Talking about nostalgia, what are some of your favourite memories from the past 15 years?
The big shows and festivals that I’ve played, touring the world and playing your own silly music all over the place… That will forever stick with me and be a huge inspiration, no matter how your music gets received online. Especially nowadays, it’s a social media race and it’s all about numbers and popularity. The crazy thing is that, even if it doesn’t seem like a lot of people online, sometimes it feels like a hit or miss, there’s still a ton of people that like what you’re doing. If you placed all those numbers of likes in your house or in a room, it’s still so many people. I do miss the earlier days where dubstep was a novelty. While that won’t return, it’s also exciting to see how more artists are bringing that old school sound back into their sets and the scene really needed that hype.
Is there anything you’re working on at the moment? There’s one super secret thing, and also the most exciting thing. You’re going to hear about it very soon, but unfortunately I can’t say any more about it for now. I have some really good remixes that are coming out over the next few months. I’ve got so many releases coming up that we’re in a struggle to make it all work, and to make sure my releases breathe a bit. It feels nice after being silent on the release side in the last two, three years. I’m working on my US visa again as well, waiting to get that renewed because I have offers coming in. Hopefully planning a new tour this year. I’m also working on collabs with a few upcoming artists, like Edison Cole. He really brings back that old brostep sound. DJ Snake opened his Ultra set with an Edison Cole track. I’m working on a tune with him right now and I think it will do well. I also have a collab with Doil coming up, and one with Fraxure. These are all upcoming producers that are very sick and they will soon be seen by everyone. I’ve got some original releases coming as well, dubstep and drumstep. Drumstep is a big part of my style, I gained a lot of fans with my drumstep productions, so I’m excited to be releasing more of that.
