Exclusive, Interviews | An Interview with Kinetics [FNT Exclusive]
Posted by jeffwbaird on August 16, 2012
Earlier this morning we had the privilege of gracing our site with “Still Dreamin'”, the first single off Kinetics & One Love’s upcoming album You Are Not Alone, which is due out August 28. We also had the pleasure of sitting down with Kinetics to discuss his place in hip-hop, the new album’s concept, and what we can expect from it. If you missed the video, you can check it out here, otherwise, sit back and listen to this talented lyricist speak his mind.
FNT: “Still Dreamin'”, which we premiered this morning, was our first taste of You Are Not Alone. What can you tell us about the rest of the album?
Kinetics: You Are Not Alone is by far our best work. Everything about my performance – from the issues I talk about, the flows I use, the mastery of my delivery – is a level above my previous projects. One Love’s production has also reached new heights: the beats just knock harder, sound more professional, and stay truer to hip-hop. Fans will immediately recognize a maturity in the sound. It still has that underground, indie and trippy Kinetics & One Love vibe that our fans have grown to love, but two years of songwriting for Warner— sitting in sessions with multiplatinum producers and writers —has taught us how to better package our sound. It’s tighter, more professional. It was cool writing the album together, because Love would notice me stepping my game up and would feel obligated to step his own shit up, and vice versa. No one was allowed to come weak even in the slightest.
And I’ll be the first to say it: the tapes I put out last year were trash. Little kid shit. There were a few songs I did that were cool, like “Butterfly Effect” and “Halley’s Comet,” but the whole vibe of What Model Are You? as a cohesive work was lame. No personality, no soul. TO EVERYONE AND ANYONE THAT HAS EVER HATED ON MY MUSIC OR JUST BRUSHED IT OFF UP UNTIL THIS POINT: YOU HAD THE RIGHT TO DO SO. But I promise if you listen to You Are Not Alone, there is no way you can deny its talent. There’s a reason why the first song One Love and I ever wrote together sold millions of copies across the entire planet. The songwriting on this album is exactly where it needs to be.
With so many new rappers popping up out of nowhere and releasing new music left and right, how do you feel You Are Not Alone fits in to or stands out from the crowd?
I had a lot to say on this album – and I think that’s one of the key differences between me and a lot of these other kids. I’m not just rapping about partying, or “swag,” or blowing up and making it. I’m talking about issues that will resonate a little bit longer with listeners. For example, there are songs about feeling like an outcast and struggling to fit in, a song about domestic abuse, teen suicide, a verse where I address a corrupt pharmaceutical industry and prescription drug abuse. I’m not saying you can’t throw this shit on at a party and let it bump – because you can, as should be the case with any good rap album – I’m just saying that if you wanted to, you could sit there with your eyes closed and have something to walk away with when you listen to the music.
So, would you consider it a concept album?
Yes, it’s a concept album from start to finish – but the concept and backstory may not be entirely obvious at first listen. I want you to listen closely, a few times, make some guesses, ponder a little bit and fill in the gaps yourself. In as few words as possible, the concept is this: the entire album is told from the perspective a futuristic alien society reflecting upon Earth’s mistakes in 2012 and pondering the future direction of mankind. Kinetics & One Love are a computer from this alien society, observing and reacting to what they see on Earth, like a reporter. That sounds really fucking weird when I say it like that. You’ll just have to listen to truly understand.
I’ll take your word for it. So what’s the deal with the whole “I am a computer” and “#teamcyborg” theme you constantly write about? You even have a little robot on your chain. I’m assuming that has something to do with the album concept?
Hah yeah…the robot/cyborg/computer alter ego is a major component to the You Are Not Alone concept. It started a few years ago. I would be freestyling for a crowd of kids, drop a crazy punchline or rhyme scheme and people would start shouting, “Holy shit, he’s not human! You’re a fucking robot, dude!” So I ran with it. But over time the robot persona began to symbolize more than that. Now it’s a metaphor for feeling like an outsider or outcast. I say “sometimes I feel like a robot” on the album for anyone that has ever felt slightly different, or alone – like a robot. It’s about embracing that feeling of being a weird ass robot amongst a world of completely normal humans and embracing it, using it to your advantage. Or…you know…maybe I am actually a cyborg uploaded into a human body.
Okay. And what about this Christopher Nolan comparison you’ve been making for yourself. Why do you consider yourself “hip-hop’s Chris Nolan”?
Chris Nolan — who directed movies like Inception and The Dark Knight — is my favorite director. The Prestige is one of my favorite movies of all-time. I just really admire his work, and I think there are similarities in the way we present stories, with hidden double-meanings and crazy twists in the conclusion. I would also like to think there are parallels in our career paths: Nolan’s first film, Following, was low-budget and didn’t really bring him much commercial success. Memento, his second film, was a major improvement in terms of production quality and was the project that put him on the map to a mainstream audience. From there, he followed up with huge blockbuster successes like Inception and the Batman trilogy. If our first album, Fading Back To Normal, can be compared to Nolan’s Following in that the quality was amateur and its reception lukewarm, then our second project, You Are Not Alone, like Nolan’s second, will put us on the map and introduce us to a wider audience. From there, we’ll sign a record deal and drop huge mainstream successes like The Dark Knight. Know what I’m saying? “It’s all part of the plan.”
Who are you looking forward to collaborating with in the future?
Man, this summer has been such an exciting period for me in terms of meeting and collaborating with new artists. Within a few days, I recorded a song with the internationally-known Termanology, said what up to Statik Selektah, chilled in the studio with Remedy and R.A. the Rugged Man, and met Hopsin. I also ran into Childish Gambino at a club, introduced myself to him and the next day we were sitting in his hotel talking about setting up some sessions. I would really love to do a track with Hopsin — he’s one of the only artists out of all these new cats that I really fuck with. What else? You can probably expect a track with the homie Skizzy Mars soon. I want to do a track with Immortal Technique on my next mixtape. Oh yeah, someone tell Soul Khan that Accent and I would love to do a track with him. And last but not least, everybody go please check out the reggae band Morning Sun & The Essentials. We’ve already begun working on a joint hip-hop/reggae album with them that we plan on releasing next spring. But in the meantime, make sure you cop You Are Not Alone on August 28th!
Exclusive, Featured, Interviews | Arty Interview (FNT Exclusive)
Posted by Middy on August 5, 2012
22 year old Russian producer / DJ Artem Stolyarov, better known by his stage name Arty has slowly become a household name with his crossover Trance / Progressive sound that seems to fill space so well and has become so unique to him. Already hailed as a legend by the trance god himself, Armin van Buuren, Arty is only going to become better and better as he gets older. His earlier productions that trended towards trance are all fantastic like “Bliss”, his “Vanilla Sky” EP with his more recent productions like “Mozart”, “Trio“, his “Walking Alone” remix and most recently “Open Space” have been more that Trance / Progressive fusion, offering not just one style, but a plethora of sounds. You will never hear the same set twice from him because of how varied his tastes are. He can create the perfect set for any occasion and will masterfully manipulate the crowd every time. He has a radio show “2gether We Are” that shows off his varied tastes in music playing everything from Dubstep to progressive to trance, generally choosing songs that are not your already huge singles.
Looking ahead to what the rest of 2012 has in store for Arty. He has upcoming collaborations with Axwell (finished), Porter Robinson, his collab with BT & Nadia Ali – Must Be The Love, and singles “Together We Are”, and “When I See You”, recently revealed by Sebastian Ingrosso on the latest edition of Refune Radio. In my interview with him we discussed growing up in Russia and the scene there, his love for video games, talked about a few of his songs such as his trancey Drum N Bass collab with Paul van Dyk “Sun After Heartbreak”, taking final exams the day after ASOT 500 and much more.
FNT: What is your mindset going into a set and how do you adjust during your set?
Arty: I don’t know, I just go to the stage and see the people and I have some sort of playlist, some sort of tracks that I plan to play, but it really depends on the crowd, what’s the kind of crowd, what kind of tracks they like and what the vibe is. So I decide during my set.
FNT: Does it depend on the venue too because I saw you at A State Of Trance and you played more trance than this show.
Arty: Yeah for sure. If I am playing for A State of Trance I am playing more Trance, if I am playing just for a festival, I am playing more festival music. So as I said, it really depends on the crowd, because the crowds are really different. Some of them like more Electro stuff, some of them like more Trancey stuff, some of them like more emotional stuff, it really depends.
More of the interview after the jump!
Featured, Interviews | Sammy Adams “On The Spot” Interview [FNT Exclusive]
Posted by LoffyG on July 24, 2012
Last week I had the opportunity to sit down with Sammy Adams for an “On The Spot” Interview while he was doing a show in Minneapolis, MN. I go beyond the average interview questions you would expect to hear in an interview. We talk about a variety of topics from what wakes him up in the morning to the best date spot in Massachusetts. The interview aside, the show was awesome and he performed some unreleased music. One song being “All Night Longer” which he recently filmed a video for that’s going to be released in the near future! If you haven’t already grabbed “Only One” on iTunes you can buy that here!
Events, Exclusive, Featured, Interviews | Hardwell Interview (FNT Exclusive) + Lavo Recap
Posted by Middy on July 21, 2012
Thursday I had the opportunity to sit down with Hardwell before his show and chat with him about his first show, touring as a teenager, his collabs with Tiesto and Porter Robinson, the importance of labels and much more. The superstar DJ / producer from Breda, Holland is now a 10 year veteran of the dance music scene even though he is just 24. He signed his first record deal at the age of 14 and started playing clubs in Holland around that time. You are all familiar with his recent singles “Spaceman (Original + Vocal)” and “Kontiki“, as well as his techy single “Three Tringles” on Toolroom Records and his huge upcoming single “How We Do” with Showtek. He premiered his remix of Example’s single “Say Nothing” that was incredible by the way (i somehow managed to not get a video of it, I apologize). He is a superstar playing main stage at all of the biggest festivals all over the world from Ultra to Tomorrowland next weekend to EDC and many more.
His set at Lavo was clinical — a lesson on how to be precise with your mixing, moving between songs like clockwork with a quality and varied track selection. He played crowd pleasers like Otto Knows – Million Voices, “In My Mind“, “Silhouettes” and “Nicktim”. He also played a variety of tracks from his own label like Dannic – Tombo and Jordy Daz – OMG, as well as many selections from his already remarkable discography. He played and bootlegged a few Hip Hop records like DMX – Party Up (Up In Here), which got a great crowd reaction and made sense if you read to the end of the interview. Anyway read the beginning of the interview below and the rest after the jump.
FNT: Lets go back to the beginning when you first started DJing. Think back to your first gig, what was like, who was there and how nervous were you?
Hardwell: My first gig was when I was 12 years old and yea I was so nervous the day before I couldn’t sleep because I was really preparing this stuff and all this music. I can still remember the date, it was fun. On the first side, I was really nervous and on the second side on I was playing for my best friends so that made really comfortable, actually it was a really funny gig.
FNT: You had to tour with your parents until you were 18 because you couldn’t enter the clubs; how strict were they with your schooling and your schedule.
Hardwell: School was the most important thing at that point and after that music because my parents really wanted me to finish high school, and I did. At that age I really had a tight schedule, I think you need it at that point.
FNT: When you started it was hard to promote yourself as artist without the help of a label, but now with Soundcloud, Facebook, Twitter, blogs etc; do you think is as important or useful for a young, unknown artist to sign record deals right off the bat, especially since people don’t buy music anymore.
Hardwell: I think it is still important because big record labels are taking care of your whole artist brand, so to take it to the next level, it is not about Soundcloud or Youtube, of course you can grow your artist profile too through that, but social media is just to stay in touch with your fan base and your profile as an artist you still need a big label and the right people behind you to push your name to the next level to make your name a brand. So I think in the beginning of course Soundcloud and Youtube and Facebook are really important, but then again the big labels are still important too not only for selling music, but for the branding as well.
READ ON FOR MORE OF THE INTERVIEW READ ON >>
Albums, Exclusive, Featured, House, Interviews, Videos | Jody Wisternoff – Trails We Blaze + Exclusive Interview
Posted by Middy on June 27, 2012
While the vast majority of you may not know who Jody Wisternoff is, I believe it is time you get to know the man and his luxurious, groovy house tracks. The British Dj / producer is a long time veteran of the music industry who has been a part of this since the 80s. At the age of 16 he was already playing for crowds of 5,000 people and has not looked back. In the 90s he formed the duo Way Out West with Nick Warren and his dance music career took off from there, becoming an integral part of the 90s British rave scene. His sound is more of the classic, summertime, poolside Ibiza house that is great to enjoy when relaxing when friends with some drinks alongside a pool or other body of water.
His recently released album on Anjunadeep “Trails We Blaze” is his debut artist album after making music for over 25 years under various different monikers and with Nick Warren with Way Out West. The entire album is incredibly smooth and moves seamlessly from one track to the next. There are plenty of great vocal tracks with John Mendelsohn and Pete Josef providing the proper vocal accompaniments to the instrumentals from Jody Wisternoff. The first track “How You Make Me Smile” has been one of the more popular tracks due to the addictive vocals from Pete Josef that have an uncanny ability to get stuck in your head, long smooth violin strokes and a funky, head bobbing bass line. The video for the song above represents perfectly how one feels with this song. The next couple tracks really get into the style of Jody Wisternoff, having much more of the club house sound with a more prominent featuring of the steady bass line and various melodic layers to bring out the groove in each of the tracks. We are also introduced to John Mendelsohn’s vocals in the second track. Continue on for more of the review and an interview with Jody Wisternoff himself.
Featured, Interviews, Videos | Radical Something Interview [FNT Exclusive]
Posted by LoffyG on June 21, 2012
As many of you know Radical Something just recently finished off the No Sweat Spring Tour. I was fortunate enough to kick it with the guys for a couple days during their stop in Minneapolis, MN where we filmed this exclusive interview. I talked with the guys about a ton of stuff from how they got the Radical name to the craziest thing a Rad Fan has done. Check out the interview and don’t forget Radical Something is dropping a new song every Monday for the next 10 weeks! If you missed the first two releases you can get those here!