Where are you based out of? Is that where you grew up?
I am based out of Toronto, more specifically the Greater Toronto area. Yes, I would say I've grown up here, but I wasn't born here; I moved here when I was young.
What do you like and dislike about your hometown? Were you surrounded by a musical community growing up?
It's a boring suburban hell. The demographic here are old people, kids and highschoolers, and I am definitely the outlier. But, uneventful as it is, it's still a really nice place to live. Boring is not bad, it just means nothing is wrong, and that's a good thing. A lot of quaint nature scenery. I live right next to the countryside, so every once in a while I would drive in the countryside and just blast music in my car. It's my home, and it's comfy.
Do you feel your upbringing inspired your artistry in any way? If so any examples?
Maybe. I grew up tied to my computer screen most of my youth, and I spent all that free time either playing video games or creating something on the computer. I didn't have much of a social life outside of school, so what else could I do? Lol. Although eventually as I grew older I also grew out of playing video games, but the creating thing never went away. I always wanted to make something ya know? It wasn't necessarily music even (although that came way later). I spent most of my days in my elementary school not paying attention in class because I was too busy daydreaming about a comic I was making, or the cool epic animated movie I wanted to do when I got home. Crazy stories going on in my head. Definitely distracting, and going home after school to do exactly just that; that was what I was excited to do everyday. I miss that. Nowadays it's a lot harder to get away with that as life is way more maintenance demanding now than it used to be, lol.
What does your free time look like outside of music?
I jog, do calisthenics workouts (but I'm not crazy into it like those guys on social media), I really like cooking meals for myself, and for my family too when nobody wants to cook that day lol. I try my best to maintain and harbor my social life, especially after everybody graduated university and has moved back to their former hometowns. I never play video games but recently I've been binge playing GTA 4. I dunno, my life outside of music is pretty average, at least in a "dude who attempts to take care of himself" way.
For me personally your music elicits a very strong feeling of melancholy -ish nostalgia, specifically from your sampling, if that is similar for you and if so what does nostalgia usually look like for you?
I know exactly the feeling you're talking about, and that is a feeling I always loved to cultivate from other music artists when I make music. Boards of Canada, sometimes Mac DeMarco, Nujabes, that sort of thing. I don't know why I love that emotion so much, there isn't even that much to be nostalgic about in my youth. Maybe it's the fact that back then it was simpler compared to now? Maybe it's an escape from the problems that plague my life. A psychologist could probably have a field day with that lol. But it's definitely a favorite aesthetic of mine.
What are you listening to now? Do you have any creators that influence your work?
HAHAHA I'm literally listening to "Get Innocuous" by LCD Soundsystem right now. Shit's banging!! Boards of Canada, Mac DeMarco, Nujabes, I already said all of this before lol. That question is hard because I love so many artists and I take influence from all of them, even subconsciously. But those three artists, they've been an influence since the very beginning. Mac DeMarco got me into playing guitar, Boards of Canada in the electronic side of things and their nostalgic production, Nujabes for the sampling (and the nostalgia too).
What does the recording process look like for a track like "the now now and never"? With the atmosphere of the track being created by a rich array of instruments, does a riff or a melodic idea come first? Or is this a free-flowing composition that slowly built itself?
So the thing about "the now now and never" was that it was created literally right after I finished making "reverie" from my other music project "2 0 2 1", which was a project focused entirely on sampling backed with chopped breakbeats. After I made that album I was really sick with that project. I wanted something new, and my friend TURQUOISEDEATH, who was also another breakbeat/drum and bass project, was making (and even incorporating into his own music) shoegaze. He was taking a lot of inspiration from Parannoul. That whole realm, South Korean Shoegaze, was already so cool to me at the time and was something I sort of wanted to explore, but I was too scared to jump into that because I had this weird mindset where I "needed to stay in my own box" with 2 0 2 1 and not explore out of my bounds. But like when I saw TURQUOISEDEATH doing it, which was a complete 180 from his own material at the time, I was like "yeah fuck it bro I can do it too". I had this fear in the background about what my 2 0 2 1 listeners would think about me if I switched to this genre of music, because shoegaze is so completely different from the breakcore stuff. Like, would they think "wow this doesn't sound like the old music he makes. I don't like it"? Would it be too different for them? I wanted to find a way to introduce this new side of my music to this audience, and the way I approached this was to bring the same production techniques I cultivated from 2 0 2 1 into this new album I wanted to explore, but replace the breakbeat aspects with real acoustic drums and real guitars and everything. That way, I get to explore new territories in shoegaze by recording real electric guitars and real acoustic drums and all that stuff, while 2 0 2 1 listeners would hear all the sampling and stuff and still go, "hey, this still sounds like 2 0 2 1!". Even "youthful days" started as a song from 2 0 2 1 that didn't go anywhere. The main sample you hear with that woman's voice going "ahh ahhh ahh" has been left exactly untouched since the day I made it several months before. I basically approached every song the same way I approached "youthful days"; roam through YouTube recommendations until I come across something interesting enough to sample, then I begin recording instruments on top of the sample and see where the song goes. I think this is why the songs start with the main sample before the instruments come in. Like, all of them. Because of this, the instruments aren't the main focus of the song. The samples are. The instruments just help elevate them. I do think that's interesting. And all of this I literally did because I was too scared of making something too different, which somehow ended up with me making something different ☠️.
How much of a role does your DAW play in your song writing? Are you primarily producing with what's available to you via the software or are you using gear to achieve some of these idiosyncratic sounds?
Pretty big I would say. Especially since the way I make music is the same way a lot of other hip hop artists make beats on FL Studio, except I'm not a hip hop artist. I record instruments, place them in there, and if I felt like it I could literally manipulate those recordings any way I want to, because technically they're samples too, no? What's stopping me from recording myself nut and moan and then adding it in there? I could pitch it, speed it up or slow it down, reverse it, add insane amount of effects on it like, fuck it, you can add some reverb or delay, or hell some chorus cause why not? The point is, nobody would ever know it's me nutting and moaning, and nobody will ever consider that because people would be too busy thinking of how fire it sounds in the song. And that's the beauty of it, you could do this to any recording and turn that recording into something completely new and different, even if it's some dude busting a fat one in his mom's basement.
What was your first instrument? The guitar seems to find its way onto most tracks of your first project; is it through the guitar that these songs begin to take form?
The piano, but that was because my sister plays it so it was the only instrument accessible in my home lol. I can play, but I'm not classically trained or anything. I can only play maple leaf rag. The guitar though was the first instrument I got into where I really enjoyed playing it a lot to the point that I would play almost everyday on it to get better. I didn't start until I was like, 17 I think? And I was so bad at it too, lol. Only played bar chords because I didn't know any other chords. That sort of thing. But it's definitely become my main instrument for sure. I like that you mentioned my guitar coming into most songs, because it's true. 9/10 times I will play my guitar over something to see how it sounds, which is probably why it's a major influence on a lot of those songs.
Your music seems to live comfortably between what is purely electronic and something that is closer to what a band could confidently play on stage. Is that something that interests you, playing live with a full band?
YES!!!!
What is the hardest part of writing music for you, and how do you work through it?
I get creative blocks, and I get them bad sometimes. Especially after an album. I still struggle with it, actually I'm struggling with it right now. Sometimes I don't know how to start a song. Sometimes I start a song and I am just not feeling it. Sometimes I start a song and I'm feeling it and it sounds good, then halfway through I lose that momentum and the song stays stuck, and now everytime I add or change something in the song it doesn't really elevate the song further. It just gets stuck in this unfinished limbo. It really sucks, this. And how do I deal with it? Idk, I'm still trying to find an answer to that lol. The best way I've dealt with this was to sit down and actually write that idea down even if it sucked, because then I can approach that same bad song later with completely new ears on it. Boom, all of a sudden a rush of new ideas would come flooding in and now the song is a step closer to being finished than before. Most of my favorite songs were made this way where I revisited it later and fleshed that bad song into something good. Remember "youthful days"?
What was the first album you ever heard that you felt like you connected with?
Boards of Canada - Music Has The Right To Children (1998)
Did you have a spark that kicked off your desire to make the type of music you do now?
That's hard because I can't really pinpoint moments in my life where that happened. It was more like multiple sparks across spans of the past decade, all of which coalesced into what you hear today. If I had to pick it'd probably be around 2021 when I first started 2 0 2 1, and realizing that I really enjoyed when my samples had an emotional quality to them that I can't describe. I think this was around the time I made "the meaning of her"?
he artwork that accompanies your music is super interesting and correlates heavily with your sound. Is the art something that you work on personally and if so what is your process in tying both your sound and visuals together?
Yeah I make all the art myself. All either drawings from that I made or photos that I took locally. I wouldn't say there's a process though. It's pretty random. I think when I try and make a cover for an album I would play my album in the background and try to come up with ideas on a sketchbook or in photoshop, manipulating my photos to see what looks cool or not. I'm not really skilled at all in photoshop and would just spam the only effects and tricks I know on these images, but they do turn out pretty cool looking in the end though.
Is there anything you want your listeners to consistently take away from your music?
I hope they get the same feeling I got when I first listened to them after they were finished.
Anything we can expect to see/hear from you in the future?
Probably an album or something. I'm making a music video with some friends this summer.
Anyone you would like to shoutout?
MA BOY KAWEEN PEIRIS
Coming to Chicago/the U.S. to do shows anytime soon? :)
Maybe, although the whole ICE situation there is a little concerning for me to consider doing it right now :(