Critical comments, Dark Elixir beef, massive release plans and puppies… All in a day’s work for LA’s Protohype!
Protohype gave us his super-deep (not to mention FREE) Downfall last week and the rumour mill started crunching within seconds…
Protohype’s experimenting!
Protohype’s going deep!
Protohype has lost his direction!
As always, the reality was a lot more complex…. Sure, like all creative producers, he’s experimenting. For that particular track he has gone deep (it was actually inspired by the time he spent on road with Funtcase last year). But he sure hasn’t lost his direction.
We’ll explain all in due course. Just after we’ve got the lowdown on the major beef Downfall has sparked with fellow LA bass twister Dark Elixir. A week ago he called Protohype out on Facebook about the use of a certain patch.
I totally get where he’s coming from… But doing it on Facebook? I called him on the phone to speak man-to-man, come to my house and have a scrap, whatever.
“I was doing a show in New York and my manager called me to say Dark Elixir has called me out,” explains Proto. “To be honest I hadn’t even remembered that I used one of his patches. I totally get where he’s coming from… But doing it on Facebook? I called him on the phone to speak man-to-man, come to my house and have a scrap, whatever. But he was dodging me. I tweeted at him to say ‘what’s up? Why don’t you come over and talk to me about it?’ He didn’t respond to that so I wrote the post on my own page.
“Thing is, I used the patch on one moment of the song,” he continues. “There’s more parts to a song than one fucking patch. I could upload the track without that patch and would it still be good. He hit me back on twitter to say he was joking.”
Protohype – real name Max – went on to explain how he’s made a career from giving away a lot of music for free and how he still returns to the Icon Collective music school where he graduated to mentor students and show all his techniques for free.
It’s like giving Van Gough and some other badass painter the same colours and thinking they’d paint the same picture
“I give away all my secrets,” he explains. “There’s no hiding anything because that’s missing the point. If you gave me and Skrillex the same set of sounds do you think we’d make the same tune? No, it’s like giving Van Gough and some other badass painter the same colours and thinking they’d paint the same picture.”
The big question is… What other pictures is Max painting right now? Besides his remix of the Dirtyphonics & Modestep’s Los Angeles and, of course, Downfall, he’s been a bit quiet on the release front…
“I got a whole slew of collabs in the making right now,” he reveals. “Figure, Funtcase, Paper Diamond, Datsik, Antiserum and more. But the main thing I’m working on is kind of underwraps for now… It’s a big project with a major label I can’t name. A multiple album deal. The direction will actually be big melodic, vocal dubstep tunes with heavy drops. Not far from the music you might hear on the radio. A bit like the Dirtyphonics remix I did.”
I don’t really care how people describe my music. I make what I like to make and what is appealing to my ears and what I think people will go off to in a show.
“I’m not afraid to use the word mainstream. I don’t really care how people describe my music. I make what I like to make and what is appealing to my ears and what I think people will go off to in a show. So Downfall isn’t the direction I’m looking at right now. I LOVE the deep stuff, and I’ll make more of it 100 per cent. Although I did’t think there’d be so much hate on it. I try not to look at the comments to be honest. I don’t get offended if you shit on my music, but I guess we’re all trying to feed our inner narcissist. At the end of the day we all just want people to say nice things about music we’ve spent a lot of time on.”
Say what you like about Protohype but he’s candid. Refreshingly so. Speaking of nice things, we decided to end our call with the subject of puppies. Follow Max for all of a minute on Facebook or Twitter and you’ll see he’s entrenched in #Puppycrew activity…
I was troubled child when I was younger. I went to jail a few times. And part of what I had to do for rehabilitation was community service… I worked a humane society’s dog rescue centre because I’ve always loved dogs.
“One day I had an idea to give money to the ASPCA,” says Max, a lifelong dog lover. “I’d got paid from a show and had a bit of money so I tweeted to say every retweet this tweet gets I’ll give a dollar to the ASPCA. I didn’t think of much of it. I had a nap, woke up and it had been retweeted 900 times! Some DJ way bigger than me retweeted it, maybe Bassnectar, and I ended up paying $1000 to the ASPCA. I was broke for a month!”
And so Puppycrew was born. Currently a chance for fans to show off pictures of their dogs to the rest of Max’s ever-developing following, it’s set to turn into something much bigger and wholesome…
“Right now Puppycrew is basically people showing off pictures of their dog, but I got bigger plans,” he explains. “Here’s the history: I was troubled child when I was younger. I went to jail a few times. And part of what I had to do for rehabilitation was community service… I worked a humane society’s dog rescue centre because I’ve always loved dogs.”
“What I want Puppycrew to become is a not for profit organisation where I can highlight the hard work these people do. Say I’m playing in Chicago… I turn up early and spend a day working at a humane centre. Anyone who wants to come and help out and meet me and donate money gets a ticket for the show. All money that’s generated through that goes towards that centre. Further into the future I’d love to build my own rescue centre too!”
From badboy to welfare bastion, it’s clear Protohype has much more going on than beef over the use of one patch or rumours of his next direction. Stay tuned for more on both his audio and animal antics very soon…
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