We always admire those who chose to stand outside the norm. Why does there always have to be a fine line between what is considered crazy and what is considered genius?
Gamechanger Series is a collection of editorial interviews that showcase artists in dance music who have blazed their own trail. They’ve flipped the script and tossed expectations to the side. Electronic music is a genre filled with cookie-cutter replicas of one another. People follow expectations to create a certain sound and hinder their creativity. Those who have taken their own path and create music that is genuinely who they are will be the ones who really stand out and will be remembered for years to come.
The first person in this series we chose to celebrate is Kill The Noise, one of the most genuine, down to earth people in the scene with a seriously good opinion on the direction of electronic music and what it has become. So here we have the 5 Reasons why Kill The Noise is always one-step ahead, and why we love him for it.
He explores other genres… Including ones that take him to be involved with movies, rappers and childhood heroes.
“My work on the Ninja Turtles song Shell Shocked started in a meeting with Brian Tyler who was the composer for the movie. Brian is a producer himself under the name Madsonik. We totally hit it off and became buddies and just started working on a track and all of a sudden Juicy J, Wiz Khalifa and all these guys were getting the track sent to them through the movie studio and it came together really organically. It’s nice to have something come together from a bunch of guys having fun. Best thing I got out of that situation was making a new friend that works in the music world that does something different than me.
The overall concept and trying to figure out a song that 5-year-old kids are going to listen to but also adults and people from all our fan bases are going to listen to was incredibly difficult. But it made it fun because it was a group game, and we spent a lot of time laughing about everything.”
He’s not afraid to involve heavy emotion into his music and he respects the people who have taught him about it.
“When it comes to emotion, it really depends on what kind of project and people you’re working with. If there’s anything I’ve learned from working with guys like Skrillex for example, is trying to capture the vibe of whatever kind of story you’re trying to tell. A lot of guys are trying to write music to impress other people. But I think it’s all depending on the vocals you work with – that’s the thing I want to get better at is working with people who have that talent, that’s something I really admire in other artists is their ability to sing and perform an idea on the spot and make it feel honest.
Flux is a perfect example of what I’m talking about; his ability to just on the spot make music that feels authentic is incredible. Whereas I have this incredible amount of emotion in what I want to say but it takes me a bit longer to express myself in a way that feels authentic to me and it takes a lot of time for me to get the ideas out.”
He doesn’t crack under musical pressure and is fatigued by the same old sounds.
“The whole dubstep thing was the longest my attention has ever been steady on a format of how to represent an idea. I like that the audience is very open to knowing there can be parts that are very emotional or have a lot of melodic content and it felt good for a while to do stuff in that world because it felt like the audience was on that page. There are most certainly people out there that still enjoy that format, but everyone is so fatigued by it because there’s so much of it out there.
Right now I’m just experimenting. Some people will like it, some people won’t but I just think that somewhere in the process you combine new elements and eventually something comes out that’s exciting. At the moment there’s a lot of people who are spending a lot more time trying to stay relevant and trying to convince people that what they’re doing is interesting, rather than just making interesting music.”
He’s more concerned with what he has to say to the world rather than how he appears to the world.
“The last time something really groundbreaking happened in my opinion was with Skrillex. And guys like Nero, Justice, and Pendulum. They were making dance music but the way it was being presented was that they were musicians. The music that they’re making is very unique and it makes everyone at home be like – I have to try harder.
The last time something really groundbreaking happened in my opinion was with Skrillex. And guys like Nero, Justice, and Pendulum.
People are more interested in working on how they appear to the world vs. what they have to say to the world and that’s the problem. That goes against the fabric of why guys like me write music. Overall staying true to why you’re doing this is the way forward because at some point some kid from nowhere comes out and changes what everyone thinks is cool. That’s always what happens.”
He’s not afraid to take risks… Including working with a children’s choir!
“We get caught up in chasing after the rewards and fame. It’s not even about the money. It’s about feeling appreciated, relevant and feeling like you fucking matter. That same drive pushes people with no money and it pushes people with all the money in the world. The conclusion that I’ve come to is it has to be relevant not just to me and not just to people who make music but it has to be relevant to everybody and anyone. The guys who have that X-factor, that you can’t quite put your finger on, they’re writing music that comes from a place that is really honest and people can relate to that.
Feed Me and I spend most of our time talking about life and when we sit down to write a song its like we’re referencing some of what we’re talking about. It’s important coming into the studio with that in mind instead of focusing on which DJ is going to play your song. With our new single we wrote some ideas down and we wanted to do something no one else would. So we ended up getting in contact with this music school outside of London and got the choir–little kids 8-10 years old – to basically learn the arrangement and the lyrics from this song and we recorded them all on the track. It’s a way of including that honesty into your music and I think people really want to connect to that.
Porter Robinson is also someone who has taken a complete risk and it’s paid off. Worlds has completely reset my creative compass. A year or two from now when people look back on 2014 Worlds will stand out where others won’t as much. It’s truly different, and listening to it I can hear him in the music, I think of him when I listen to it. The people we admire the most are people that take risks. I remember years ago, him talking about ideas of a record and being like its so different from Language and what other people expect from me right now and I just said man, you have to follow your instincts. It’s always a struggle but if it was easy, everyone else would be doing it.”
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