AJ Jaramaz launched the project with 2019’s Ipsum five-track, leading to live sessions and a particular Donna Lewis cover that hit the right wavelength in 2021. Now, boyhood. Is closing out the year with I Know, It’s Coming, a mini-album that further ornaments the Pittsburgh native’s indie-electronic catalog. The project dropped last week, spearheaded by the remarkable “Crash” released earlier this year, and so on the eve of release, we had a chat. Delve deeper into AJ’s songwriting process, future projects, and the story behind the curious moniker.

Audrin Baghaie: How would you describe your growth between the new release and your first EP?

AJ Jaramaz: You can hear me learning how to mix and produce back then like the last song on [Ipsum] is a lot better than the first, I was throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks. There was no roadmap. This new EP has a lot more collaboration, my friend Steve mixed four out of the five tracks, and one was produced with the band Toledo. I got a lot more outside feedback on it from sending it to other musicians and friends, there were specific reference points too. “Crash” was the first single that came out and the first song finished, so it was still a little bit in that headspace of throwing stuff and seeing what I liked.

 AB: “Crash” is definitely the bridge between Ipsum and now

 AJ: The heart of it is liking a lot of different kinds of music, and wanting to incorporate different ideas. It’s with more intent this time, more outside perspective, which has been helpful in the new stuff that I’m writing.

 AB: What’s the forecast on the new stuff?

AJ: I’ve started banking up a folder of demos for the third EP, hoping to do that one much faster. I have a shared studio space here in New York and a few times a week [my roommate and I] share stuff and work together. I used to write when I was feeling most inspired or most emotional, now it’s a more daily habit rather than little bursts. I’m hoping to keep working on new music, hopefully, a fruitful end to 2023.

 AB: Musically your themes are often encompassed by a melancholic atmosphere. It’s very wispy and emotional and sentimental. Where does that come from? How does that resonate with you?

AJ: I love a little melancholy. I like a feeling of nostalgia, and taking that feeling or reverence that people have for something that never really existed, and applying that to the present. Having that reverence for day-to-day life, or current relationships and friendships, all that stuff. I started taking voice lessons a year ago and I like wispy, ambient sounds but I’m also incorporating different ideas to mix it up a little. Like I’m learning how to do screaming vocals right now.

AB: Boyhood going aggressive, or metal? Manhood?

AJ: We’ll see what happens. I’ve been listening to Turnstile and, I don’t think I’ll ever be Turnstile, but I like a chorus switch up or adding different kinds of vocal texture to the recording. I was reading about the way Dijon recorded his last album where they’ve got an AKG 414 in the middle of the room and it’s picking up all the room sound. He’s singing in a way that’s not full-out screams, but it’s pretty scream-leaning. I like the texture of that noise and playing around with different recording techniques. I hope to do more of it.

 AB: I feel like you can implement it very powerfully in somber music, it can be cathartic to scream, it’s going to be very powerful.

AJ: [Amused] Yeah, watch this space. 

AB: Is there anything you’ve learned to implement for whatever becomes the  3rd record?

AJ: For the first project, I was swapping out the music the day of, or tweaking little things just before. I was putting stuff out as I finished it rather than having a cohesive plan, I think it worked for the moment, I was doing my best. This is the first time that a project was finished with a structured release, by the time it comes out, it’ll have been out of my hands for eight weeks. In those eight weeks, I’ve been writing and learning different production techniques. There’s a difference, hopefully not a huge difference sonically, but from where I was starting and now having finished it. It’s a project that’s all very much from the same point in my life, rather than being spread out over the course of a year.

AB: Can you talk about your “I Love You Always Forever” cover? It blew up, real quick

 AJ: That song was all around my house for some reason as a kid, I listened to it all the time. I feel like it was in a movie I watched growing up. During the pandemic, my friend Gabe was making a Bandcamp mixtape and asked if I wanted to work on something together. I ended up putting it out through Indie Mono, which is a label distributor, and it found a wider audience. But yeah, I love that song. That’s a fucking bop, people don’t appreciate her enough.

AB: What’s in a name? Where did boyhood come from?

AJ: The name boyhood is an homage to being trans and growing up without an experience, or a normal experience, of boyhood. I think for a long time that was a driving force in my life, where I have all this time and all these things I didn’t get to experience. Every day moving forward I want to pack as much stuff as I can. And so to consume as much music and make as much music and, I don’t know, capture as much as possible in two, three minutes. It goes back to that feeling about nostalgia and wanting to take that feeling of having missed out on, or that there’s something that you can’t get back… that you hold in such deep regard. But trying to apply that feeling to what you actually have, and what you can actually do with what you have moving forward. So yeah, that’s what the name comes from.

AB: What’s the future look like for the project?

AJ: Just to get more consistent. I feel like I’m in a much better place all around, making a lot of music that I’m excited about. I’m excited to work more with other people and play live again. In terms of the sound, I’ve been writing a lot on acoustic guitar. Often I’ll have a full song that I feel stands well alone, but instead of going in and kind of throwing stuff around, it’s more going in with a little bit of a roadmap now, and still experimenting and trying new things. But having more reference points or even more specific adjectives to work off of, so that I don’t get lost in a million different sample options. Trying to create a little bit more of a cohesive sound, but still staying a little bit scrappy and a little bit outside of the box.

The post Revisiting boyhood. An interview. appeared first on Quip Magazine.

Those keen will understand that Memorial Coliseum is a familiar place. Skyline Festival earlier this year in February was a welcome introduction to what would eventually unfold in the summertime. Hard isn’t dedicated to only house music, however, although a Kaskade / John Summit headline is nothing to scoff at. Skyline was only half the battle, literally: Hard Summer opened up 3 whole new stages. Two of those new venues were actual, literal arenas. This is the rave DLC that Goldenvoice just can’t give you.

Isoxo was a huge highlight for me. Watching him glow up from a timid DJ that G Jones brings out sometimes to a full-fledged performer, conducting huge crowds and flying around the stage like a maniac almost brought a tear to my dehydrated eye. Like, come on, Isoxo walked on stage to a guitar solo – if that man’s ego is competing against blimps at this point. I’ll allow it though Isoxo’s beats are disgusting. Truly just unsanitary. From the two paths that glitch bass DJs tend to go down, he specialized in chaos. For the rest of this year and most of next, you might hear his name a few times. 

Oliver Tree made an appearance during Dillon Francis’ set in the face of an audience that was somewhat confused. If you thought his haircut could get worse then you are correct. The Sunday set was more passionate, but I won’t be complaining about his surprise appearance on Saturday.. He’s not exactly known for bangers but Tree is loud enough to get things going. He also took a shot at DJing and resorted to blasting “Sandstorm” for the community, so I think someone somewhere has a completed bingo card to turn in. Dillon Francis knows the shtick though, no one else is able to play “Fireflies” by Owl City on a Saturday night without confidence. Frankly, I’m glad he did. 

Saturday as a whole was overwhelming. The aforementioned Kaskade and John Summit B2B was furious and enticing. The Hard stage was engulfed in 120 BPM bombs that scattered lasers and fire in most, if not every, direction. Kaskade is right off the heels with the Deadmau5 collab, Kx5, so to switch gears so quickly confirms his versatility. A relentless, 20-year career has the man built differently. In contrast, John Summit is a straight shooter. What you see is what you get, and at the risk of sniping at one of the fastest-rising DJs of the 20s: I don’t think an AI generator could coalesce a more perfect fratty house DJ. You already know he played “Where You Are” with Hayla, you already know he slayed EDC earlier this year, and you already know what’s going down in the future. 

DJ Diesel, who’s likely more famous as a musician now than an ex-pro basketball player, was remorseless. There’s no reason for him to go this hard,  yet he refuses to stop. What I really appreciated was the San Holo outro. Light is a truly timeless song, a feat that’s quite difficult to accomplish in electronic music. For Shaq to have made room for an evocative track like that, it’s really cool to see in a set otherwise filled to the brim with heavy artillery. The chemistry between the two artists was effervescent, and it was obvious that they were genuinely enjoying the moment. 

Skrillex and Four Tet is what folks were banking on. I’ve never seen so many inflatables in a crowd before. It was electric, especially for the last set on the last day. At a certain point, they let basically the entire population onto the stage, to the point where our photographer Nate was on the widescreens for more than the headliners. I’m pretty sure they played a Nine Inch Nails remix? Paired with the hits: “Country Riddim” at full force, “Quest for Fire” bumps, and a Ratata remix. The crowd wasn’t prepped for that last one and it hit on a different wavelength.

There were a few things that took me out of the experience. Perhaps we’ve been spoiled with previous festivals this year, but $80 for parking is blatant thievery. This is the most expensive festival on the circuit, which is saying a lot. Not even Gorillaz at SoFi had that level of opportunism – I’m almost certain Taylor Swift’s run is the same. Also, whoever did what they did at the VIP bathrooms at Hard Stage – we’re not going to talk about that. But it didn’t need to happen. Hard Summer didn’t have the extra love other Insomniac events seem to have. My last gripe as the resident curmudgeon: we saw first-hand a firework miss the sky and mortar into the ground which could have seriously hurt someone. No one was, thankfully, but it made me appreciate previous festivals like Countdown where I didn’t fear randomly exploding.

Beyond the headline events, the festival grounds were a haven of creativity and self-expression. Attendees flaunted unique rave kits, fashion statements, and vibrant hair colors, in turn, Hard Summer became a canvas of individuality. Vendors offered a solid array of culinary options and ensured that enthusiasts could refuel between dance sessions. Hard events are a staple of the culture and to experience the best of what’s around is an opportunity worth taking. It’s the best aspects of Rolling Loud (Ludacris, Kid Cudi) and Portola (Skrill-Tet, Sullivan King) fused into a memorable LA venue with the best traversal and infrastructure a festival reviewer could ask for. 

Be sure to check out their wild merch line and keep up with forecasts of future Insomniac events here.

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Nala made a name for herself in the shark tank (Los Angeles) and her sets online corroborate this extravagantly. The Dirtybird TV Party for example is an excellent showcase. It’s melodic tech house that remains consistent between the changes. But that set was two years ago – what’s she up to now?

Well, she’s playing an upcoming show with Bonobo this year, which begs an important follow-up question. Did Nala get Bonobo into house music? Surely not, but the timing is too convenient. We needed confirmation, however, and Lightning in a Bottle was opportune. We caught some time with Nala on Friday to check up on what’s she doing, what she’s going to do, and how she did the things she’s already done.

Audrin Baghaie: What’s up?

Nala: Oh, man. A lot of things are up these days. But a lot of things are also down, and I think the importance is finding the balance.

AB: Oh that’s huge. I was just wondering how your day was going.

N: No I had to take it existential for a moment. This is my fourth interview of the day so I’m getting creative.

AB: I love it. Thank you for saving that for me. How was your set?

N: My set yesterday was very chill. It was good vibes, a lot of happy people. I was having a good time. It wasn’t anything substantially insane, like mind-blowing. But I think in that way it was kind of nice.

AB: Compared to EDC?

N: EDC was extensively aggressive. It was a lot of energy, yeah, but it was good.

AB: In terms of gigs you’ve played, of that energy, of that crowd, where would you rate it? Is it overrated or is it what you wanted?

N: I think every DJ deserves the opportunity to DJ at EDC because it is a substantially cool and massive event. The more you DJ, the more you realize that everything just blends into each other. So it wasn’t something that was like, “Oh my God.” But it was also really cool in general.

AB: I remember I found out about you in 2019 through a co-worker, and since then you’ve absolutely hit a pocket of momentum that you’ve been jamming in. What would you attribute that momentum to?

N: In 2019, I had this very individualistic mentality when it comes to writing, where I’m just kind of, “I’m just doing my own thing.” I mind my own business. But I realized that if I don’t start working with other artists I’m probably not going to get very far. I started writing music for labels and that’s when I started working with Claude Von Stroke. And he started mentoring me, I can attribute a lot of my success up until this point to him plucking me out of the local DJ community and going, “Okay, I’m going to give you the platform, and you better rock it or you’ll fall to the wayside.” And I said, “Okay, challenge accepted.”

AB: So this is rocking it.

N: I literally said, “Let’s rock it.”

AB: That’s beautiful. So you’re based in LA, and relevant to its seedy, dark house scene…

N: There is a massive underground scene in LA that is some of the best music, and some of the best people that I’ve ever met in that have been grinding and really creating a very cool cultural moment for quite some time. I definitely was part of that industry for a long time. And those people are my OG supporters and OG friends that anytime I see them, I love them. And I think having that root as a dance music artist is very important. I don’t think you can just… I mean, you could, technically. If you write the biggest electronic song in the world, you could just pop up out of nowhere. But if you really want to do it the organic way and you didn’t write the biggest song in the world right off the bat, you just build yourself within these communities and that’s how you develop your core.

AB: In the same stem of that local cultivation of house music, where do you think LA stands against Chicago, the UK? I’m sure you’re proud to rep.

N: LA underground, the warehouse party scene is more in line with Europe than it would be Chicago. They are definitely heavily influenced by bass music breaks, electro. Just really underground music. That’s all you’ll find. You will not find main stage behavior in the underground over there.

AB: Scaling a bit out, you’re touring with Bonobo. How, why, where, when?

N: I’m only playing one show with him! I am friends with his friends. Throughout the industry, you just start to find your crew. Especially within Los Angeles, I found myself in the crew of Amtrac, and TEED, and Durante, DJ Seinfeld. And I think it’s a mutual understanding of that indie-adjacent electronic music that’s got us all wrapped up together. But also, I just fucking love them. They’re fucking cool people that I get along with. We jive together. So that’s how things like that happen. Through them, I met Simon. And I don’t know, he just gave me a chance. And I’m really excited because he’s definitely one of the first artists… In 2019, he was one of the first artists that I was like, “I make music to make music to sound like him.” And I want to get earthy and weird. And so, to be recognized by him at this point is really nice. I’m very grateful for it. So yeah.

AB: It’s cool because Bonobo is lately going into house. He’s been tripping into that field.

N: Yes, he is going way more into the house and techno world as a DJ. And I think, in general, a lot of artists are doing that. Because it is financially, first of all, incredibly unreasonable to tour as a live act right now. You will lose so much money. So as a result, you’ll be forced into spaces that require you to DJ. And if your biggest songs are not DJ-able… DJ-able. If that’s a word, then you’re screwing yourself. So I think a lot of live acts that hit that electronic indie-adjacent space are moving into the DJ space to actually make money so they could pay their rent.

AB: I don’t know how much of an effect you had on him personally into moving into house music, but I thank you for your service.

N: No, I had no effect on him moving into house music. I think this is just me making a comment on the general industry as a whole and based on what I’ve seen from artists who did tour live last year and lost substantial amounts of money and are struggling. So I just think that that is what’s happening at the moment.

AB: What is the future for Nala?

N: I am going to continue to incorporate rock and dance music. That is my true passion. I just am tired of…

AB: Gestures broadly?

N: Gestures broadly. No offense to the people DJing. But to me, I love rock music. I love indie dance. And I’m just missing it. I miss the era of Fatboy Slim.

AB: So naturally, there will be a shift towards maybe more instrumentation.

N: I mean, yeah, if the economy chills out. But at this moment, I’m going to DJ and I’m going to scream lyrics, and that’s the best thing I could do for myself.

AB: Last thing.. Is your actual name Nala, by the way?

N: No my name is not actually Nala. My name is Stefania. I am Italian. And when I was in Italy, my best friend’s dog was named Nala, and that’s what I took it from it. She was a pit bull, a little spicy girl. So yeah, that’s where I took it from.

AB: So in terms of Lion King…

N: Her dog’s name is a Lion King reference. My reference is a dog.

* * *

Check out Nala on Beatport as well as her upcoming show with Bonobo here. For coverage on this year’s Lightning in a Bottle festival, look no further.

The post Nala on EDC, LA Underground Scene, and Touring with Bonobo appeared first on Quip Magazine.

Now it’s LIB’s 20^th birthday and sanity has thoroughly eclipsed. Long forgotten are the times when bass music didn’t completely dismantle your brain. Rezz, Zhu, Glitch Mob, Mindchatter, Liquid Stranger, and Tokimonsta spearheaded the effort. Other artists like Phantogram, 070 Shake, and Ozomatli provided moments of respite between the chaos. Mind you, this is a five-day festival. There’s enough time to experience everything, but the pace is the trick.

Lightning in a Bottle’s geography compliments the lakefront. The Woogie stage is a northern star on the peninsula where typically more trance and house music is spun. Along the way there, you’ll find a myriad of satellite stages, shops, quaint pockets, and at one point a nice warm communal fire to rejuvenate at. It’s easy to get turned around, it feels like everything is always slightly off to where you last put it. It’s Alice in Wonderland scored in halftime dubstep.

Thunder and Lightning stage wrap around the water until you get to the desert campsites. Most of the music is scheduled for Friday – Sunday, which is naturally when the lake becomes its most crowded. Be that as it may, LIB’s stages for the last 2 years have never been as packed as other festivals. That’s one of my favorite things about it – you can go to the front of the stage if you wanted, or easily find a spot elsewhere if you prefer better audio. It’s meticulous and intricate, the vibrant atmosphere makes you forget how much effort goes into making it a smooth experience.

The number of solid Phantogram songs that I completely forgot existed is embarrassing. They’ve been jamming for more than a decade and in doing so stacked out their discography. “Fall in Love”, “Mouthful of Diamonds”, and “Run Run Blood” – the two-piece harbored a moody vibe that other acts failed to fly near. Rezz closed out on Sunday by taking that energy and clipping it. The Canadian glitch-bass alchemist launched remixes of Linkin Park’s “One Step Closer” and RATM’s “Killing in the Name Of”. Sophisticated flips that echoed the original artist behind screaming distortion walls we colloquially know her for.

My favorite of the festival was Moore Kismet, an 18-year-old glitch-bass artist who is leagues ahead of their contemporaries. Kismet’s music is an octahedron – it reflects an abundance of emotional electricity, in so many directions, and goes absolutely so needlessly hard. They are a master at micro editing, in producing music with thousands of different textures and paths that all flow down the same river. If G Jones is the darkness, Moore Kismet is the light. Both comprise the top of the game right now, and illustrate how intricate, emotional and connecting bass music can be. It’s truly a privilege to be able to see where their music will go in the near future.

Ozomatli played with Chali 2na and Cut Chemist, and I’m curious to see if other EDM publications cover it. On one hand, it’s not their wheelhouse. But will they oversee such a creative set? Frankly, the performance was a black sheep – Chemist only spun on vinyl, their instruments had playable frets and notes, and the rapping felt more like Kool & the Gang (Chali is getting old let’s not kid ourselves). They were one of the best performances of the entire festival, no contest, perhaps in spite of the excess of electronic music? Cut Chemist weaved a narrative with his sample choices: “In the beginning.. the music was simple” queued Ozo to start a drum circle. “Then.. it became more complex..”

Zhu’s set leveled up since his Countdown headline. Like literally, he’s 20 feet in the air on a walkable platform above fire dancers. Fitting his mystique perfectly, especially since there hasn’t been a Zhu performance before midnight in a healthy while. 070 played prior – it’s interesting to see how she was able to fit her performance into a festival that’s more or less already defined.

For example, and for the uninitiated, 070 Shake is the voice behind Fred Again’s “Danielle (Smile on my Face)” (Danielle being her actual real name). The crowd went wild for that track, yet lukewarm for the songs bookending it. The result is an inconsistent set, but one I enjoyed nonetheless. She has a solid command of auto-tune and I’m a simple man.

In reality, LIB is more than the sum of its parts, and dear god there are a lot of parts. It’s the only festival where the in-betweens are just as exciting as the main stages. I remember grabbing some lemonade adjacent to a small village where someone with a megaphone was playing Lego with an audience. Next to that, a perfect replica house from the 80s launching non-stop club music, immersed in drab wallpaper. Further down the road a large, trekking, fluffy beast was throwing a mobile rave – loyalists walking enticed and in tow. Campsites turn into boiler room sets. It never stops and in doing so feels like a census-designated area, if only for a moment.

It’s a safe festival that continues to be worth your time. One to consider when planning out your schedule for next year. Until then, keep an eye out for our upcoming interview with Nala, or check out last year’s coverage to compare and contrast the vibe. Lastly, lock into their socials, both for the main fest and the Do Lab to keep tabs on the forecast.

The post LIB 2023: The bass masquerade returns with a roar appeared first on Quip Magazine.

People thought it would get canceled, I’m kind of surprised it didn’t. All were on board to brave the rain and mud amidst greyscale skies. Perhaps the cold energized our constituency. Everyone’s attire was hardly updated to reflect the harsh weather. Day one was brutal – half of the grounds were closed until 3 hours in, resulting in Layla Benitez playing the longest set possibly of the entire weekend. Her 150-minute show kept people occupied and gave folks a reason to bundle up with each other. Good practice for her upcoming Lighting in a Bottle set in May. There was warmth deep within the crowds. The bounce was the answer: just keep moving.

I think somewhere between Michael Bibi and Eli & Fur I got lost in thought about why every west coast electronic festival is destined to fall on the receiving end of the most frigid weather California has to offer. Albeit, subjectively cold – Canadians can laugh at me all they want I don’t care. Countdown Festival had to battle through the same tribulations. Why must 2023 throw us such curve snowballs, I whispered to myself while E&F played an actually very impressive mix at the West stage. This song, in particular, is where it’s at. Having only passed by them briefly last year, I’m happy to have them cohabitating in my playlists nowadays.

The journey there was notable as well. Crowds were packed to get to the West stage because its opening was delayed, resulting in a gaggle of noise heads basically just loitering for 2 hours. Waiting for that opportunity to get the front row in a completely new zone. And so it was. The sound was better on that side as well; the East side was not adequately shielded from the rain enough. I’m not sure if that made the bass sound muddy but it sure was less thorough. In that sense, the West stage was the main stage – bold, brash, and baritone.

Day Two cleared up a little, with even a bit of sun there to remind us we’re still in the solar system. Shiba San was possibly my favorite Sunday set – a friend of the mag Mau P made a vicarious appearance through the latter mix. “Drugs in Amsterdam” played in tandem with Alice Deejay’s timeless “Better Off Alone” was a hit and a half, really impressive mixing there. I covered Monsieur Frazier extensively in our Skyline preview article, he and the entire Understated Recordings are worth writing home about. Pure Los Angeles house crafted with loving ears and test-driven in quaint, seedy warehouses across the county. Was awesome to see Insomniac throw some love in that direction, even just a little.

Diplo closed the weekend with a rare, mostly pure, house set. He also apparently was watching The Last of Us at the same time as his mix, because if you’re at that level you can kind of just hang out and do whatever. It’s like seeing a Disclosure CDJ set in 2014 – regardless of how big your debut album was, it doesn’t mean you have to learn how to DJ. It’s like a free-money glitch.

But his set struck a balance between regular Diplo antics and honorable house cuts. I think I even heard that Skrillex/Missy Elliot collab in there somewhere. The man is a showman. He plays songs that garner reactions regardless of how indulgent or crass they may be. He’s like a wedding DJ on amphetamines, and if that’s a hot take then ask yourself who else would play a Crank That remixes outside of matrimony.   

Skyline Fest is worth your time because if we had to experience the most difficult version of it, a year with proper weather will go even harder. The best part is that Skyline is not just in one place: Chicago and Orlando share the experience as well, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Insomniac tailors this to even more pockets of the world. Keep in the loop at their website and Instagram, and maybe peruse Insomniacs’ 24/7 twitch channel in the meantime.

The post Skyline Festival perseveres through rain and mud appeared first on Quip Magazine.

In that sense, this festival was both the end and the beginning. A very loud and shiny bridge connecting two pillars together, as any New Year’s celebration does across the world. But the difference here is twofold:

Volume. Let’s not pretend contemporary electronic music isn’t indulgent. All you’re getting here are risers into drops into risers into drops into laying on the floor and taking it all in. It’s what the people want. Are the people wrong? 

The second is a vibe, or perhaps a theme? I haven’t seen anything like Countdown Fest. The sheer dedication to the premise of the “alien invasion NY event” was bewildering and aggressively vivid. Performers placed into the crowd as guerilla insurgents dressed like aliens with hazmat handlers scooting from point A to point B. You could mind your own business and not notice the group of robots dancing in synch with brain-bleeding sub-bass bumps. Everything here was meticulously planned for immersion: stages, decorations, actors, it was overwhelming.

It’s a double-edged sword though, at least to weird pretentious music journalists like me. The marketing for Countdown was cheesy and unappealing. I had no idea the extra mile Insomniac went by ensuring a safe and unique experience – at least not by promo alone. Like okay, your socials are run by a quirky alien that ~ †ålk$  L¥ke ‡h1s ~. That doesn’t interest me. What does make an impact are the noticeable details: quick turnovers, arts & crafts stations, theme park rides, superb audio, and there was even some dude giving out haircuts. 

But you’re not here to get a fade, you’re here to enshrine a core memory. There were four mainstages, in descending order of grandiosity: Mothership, Nebula, Area 51, and Twilight. Each employed a vague genre for most of the night. Area 51 was mostly for the wooks, with Jantsen and Ahee -esque acts. The mainstream favorites like Madeon, the Chainsmokers, and Zedd took over Mothership for two nights. Twilight and Nebula were mostly left with tech house and bro-step: JAUZ, Flosstradamus, Maya Jane Coles, and Habstrakt to name a few.

Deadmau5 was possibly my favorite. His visuals are gorgeous and the new Kx5 tracks are melodically wonderous. Even some of Joel’s oldest tracks still hit: “Maths,” “Ghosts,”
“Cthulu Sleeps,” it’s difficult to make a “timeless” electronic song and this dude went and made twenty. “When the Summer Dies” is such a good song, utilizing Lights’ properly Mau5’d vocals paired with the kinetic typography in the background. Perfection.

Minnesota is still a really underrated DJ but his people were waiting for him at Area 51. He played a particularly enticing Ludacris/G Jones remix, in addition to his standard armaments “Devour” and the IDHS remix of “Confusion”. Nothing too out of the ordinary with his brothers-in-amps: Virtual Riot carried that torch until the end of the night, the same flame lit by Saka hours earlier. 

The latter has blown up in 2022 and his growth has been nothing short of inspiring. It really makes you have faith in the process that truly unique music floats up in time and after seeing him at Lightning in a Bottle last year, I have only excitement in seeing Saka’s next move.

We were welcomed to Nebula stage by the very subtly named Good Times Ahead, a DJ duo comprised of, you guessed it, two men in their late twenties wearing necklaces. Albeit crass, I quite enjoyed their “Legend of Zelda” remix as did the rest of the audience. ARMNHMR plowed the stage thereafter although I quite preferred Yellow Claw’s energy to theirs. It’s a lopsided comparison. the Claw have been in the game for about a decade with their over-compressed festival anthems, directly from the crystal springs of Holland. Los Amsterdam has aged surprisingly well if you’re a hedonist, because tracks like “Hold On To Me” (featuring our aforementioned Good Times Ahead) and the transient-laced “Open” are formidable in 2023. On the flip side, ARMNHMR’s mixing didn’t impress me much for someone who didn’t know them. They also lacked aliens with ray guns dancing on stage so, I mean, come on now. 

Speaking of Amsterdam’s finest, jump over to our Mau P interview we published last week to get some more insight on the outlook of one of 22’s biggest DJs. He opened for Jason Ross and Deadmau5 on the Mothership stage; threw his trademark techno bop “Drugs in Amsterdam” like ninja stars during a Californian sunset.

Galantis’ set was a feature film. I really didn’t care for the music until going through the live experience. He played a three-song sequence that completely banished me into the shadow realm: “Seven Nation Army” (White Stripes) into “Chicken Soup” (Habstrakt) into “Robot Rock” (Daft Punk). The audacity. Visuals were mid but I was still in awe of the mainstage by that point: ribbons of massive speakers, tantalizing strobes for what felt like a kilometer backward. A particle, moving in rhythm with other happy particles, in a hanger the size of Star Wars carriers. 

If Galantis was a movie Zhu was the romantic evening surrounding it. He was the last act of the night on the Mothership and began the set with a low-key ambient movement. It was closer to 2 am at that point, so naturally, most of the townsfolk were waning away. The intro was soft and slow, gorgeous and cryptic – until it wasn’t. Dropping thereafter a rhythm so energizing I think my phone battery boosted by +3%. You don’t need me to tell you he played “Cocaine Model” although I like to think it was because of the girl holding up the sign: “ALEXA Play Cocaine Model by ZHU”. We’ve come a long way from the time he was that anonymous, hooded, night-sky DJ. I mean, we haven’t, but it feels like we have.

What I haven’t mentioned yet is the rain. Massive respect for Insomniac for keeping everything safe yet exciting in the face of the sky’s retribution. The torrent was manageable on day one but New Year’s proper was a true deluge. It felt less like a music festival than it did a water gym in Pokémon, with bass rumbles instead of boss battle music. And yet the rides were still operational. The stages were sequestered, the artists were dry, while the festival enthusiasts were huddled but raging appropriately. Genuinely it is impressive how they kept operations running in the midst of this, with the number of anomalies that come with the production and facilitation of a music festival. The trust I have in safety at music festivals certainly wavers, but Insomniac leveled up this weekend. 

And so 2023 inaugurates. With it comes a plethora of great music we haven’t heard yet, the anticipation of which is spent with jams we already love. Countdown was probably the most memorable NY event I’ve personally ever been to. If not because of the bass music, then because of the production and design. If not that, then because of the rain. I never realized a music festival could be this immersive – yes Tomorrowland has the stage architecture, EDC has the flamboyancy, and Coachella has… a Ferris wheel – but these aren’t immersive. These festivals don’t have side quests or NPCs or actors in the crowd fueling immersion. It’s difficult to comprehend the scope of it without attending especially when the marketing gimmick is an alien with broken English, but even that is thematically aligned. 

Amidst bass drops, melodic house arpeggios, the boons, croons, and all the drama that comes with delving into contemporary music culture, we here at Quip Mag hope you go forth this new year with the same astonishment that we reflexively vocalized when entering the NOS festival grounds on December 30^th 2022:

“Woah”

The post Countdown Fest loudly inaugurates 2023 in the face of inclement weather appeared first on Quip Magazine.

Mau P is the latest pseudonym for Maurice West, an electronic artist with almost a decade of versatility under his belt. His earlier work consists of a well-known Cascada remix amidst other festival rave tracks and driving house riffs. 

Let’s keep it clear though: this is a Mau P article, not a Maurice West one. There’s a noticeable rift between the two monikers; the latter is dissolved for all intents and purposes. After the name switch and releasing his debut track in August, Mau P has amassed over 45 million listens in four months. Stats that would make an excel sheet delete itself. The track in question, “Drugs From Amsterdam”, is no stranger in clubs and venues across the world. A catchy refrain blended into a deep house rave bass stapled together with vocal chops and that timeless off-beat high hat sample. The remix is worth writing home about too, with Reinier Zonneveld spearheading the flip. The Chris Nolan-esque horns go so very hard over a four-on-the-floor bop.

You could play that track in warzones and people would think twice about not dancing. Formidably, Mau P was placed before Deadmau5 on the mothership stage – the biggest and most beautiful of the Countdown tents. It was a moment in and of itself. I’ve covered a lot of festivals this year with Quip but that stage was on another level: tiers of strobing LEDs ribboned head-long for what felt like a kilometer, with massive speakers on each increment ensuring a solid audio quality for even the most distant raver.

Mau held his place and then some, packing the tent near the better part of the crisp Californian sunset. You already know Drugs From Amsterdam was played. Totems and costumes moved in pulse with the beat. The track was scientifically procured to make the community bounce and deployed in tandem with a solid hour-long set, Mau P straight-up set the vibes for the rest of that Friday. We were lucky enough to kick off 2023 with an interview with Mau P, wherein he details his life post-global takeover as well as his future moves with his new identity.

Audrin Baghaie: What’s up? How’s life?

Mau P: Life is pretty dope right now. Played some amazing shows around new year’s and now back in Amsterdam to work on some music.

AB: How was playing Countdown’s biggest stage?

MP: Honestly insane. I thought my set time was pretty early and wasn’t sure if there’d be a lot of people but it ended up being super busy, I couldn’t even see the end of the crowd anymore. The crowd itself was also really loud and amazing.

AB: Under the name Maurice West you’ve released a wide array of powerful electronic tracks; with the switch to Mau P you’ve eclipsed your last moniker with only one song. What was the reason for the re-brand, and was Drugs from Amsterdam the catalyst for it?

MP: I had been making a different style of music for a while before the re-brand. It was just that every time I was working on music I felt like it still had to fit whatever I had been doing under the name Maurice West, which kind of put a limit on my creativity. Also, I wanted to play different music and I wouldn’t have been able to do that under my old name, or it would just have been really confusing for people. Once me and my team decided for me to continue under a new name I just felt liberated somehow. I then started sending all the music I had finished to bigger DJs and organically Drugs From Amsterdam got played the most.

AB: Your single track has become one of, if not the biggest house tracks this year – what’s the response to the massive reception on your debut? Did you expect such worldwide acclaim?

MP: I expected nothing to be honest. I mean I just switched up to a new name, without even a Spotify profile, no shows, no nothing. I was ready to grind and hungrier than ever because of that (I still am). But don’t be fooled, I’ve been making music for so many years now, so when I started to notice that things were popping off with Drugs From Amsterdam I was definitely like “okay it’s finally happening now dude, get ready”. I feel super blessed and thankful, but I also know that the harder I work the luckier I get.

AB: I feel that Electronic Music awareness in the states, in general, is often overshadowed by more mainstream French, Spanish and English DJs (except every year around ADE). How is the electronic scene in the Netherlands?

MP: Well I feel like dance music is always a bit ahead in The Netherlands compared to the rest of the world, which is cool to see from closer up. Over the last decade, we’ve been diving deeper and deeper into underground sounds which have resulted in most younger kids now being into techno, making it almost the mainstream thing to listen to. In Amsterdam, the minimal house sound is really big. Despite the city being so progressive in dance music I feel like DJ-wise it’s kind of oversaturated. That’s why I want to try and bring something new and dive into a space that no one is operating in yet.

AB: Any local Amsterdam musicians/DJs you recommend for us to check out?

MP: My friend Franc Fala. He’s an amazing melodic techno producer and DJ. I’ve heard all of his unreleased music and know for sure he’s gonna crush it this year.

AB: What’s next for Mau P in 2023? Is it somewhat intimidating to try to follow up the success of such a huge debut track?

MP: It kind of is but at the same time I just keep reminding myself making music is the most fun thing in the world to do and it’s not supposed to be forced. I kind of cheated the system here though because the follow-up for Drugs From Amsterdam was already finished before Drugs From Amsterdam blew up, so there was no pressure there. Both tracks were made out of pure joy and messing around, which is what I strive to do for every track that will come after.

AB: How are the drugs in Amsterdam?

MP: Well apparently so good that I had to make a song about it.

AB: Anything else you’d like to plug/mention?

MP: My next single will be out this month. It’s called Gimme That Bounce. It’s being played by DJ Snake, Fisher, Diplo, John Summit, Dom Dolla, Wade, and more and I can’t wait for it to finally come out. Get ready to dance!

* * *

Check out Mau P live on all streaming services, among live DJ performances on YouTube

All images courtesy of the artist

The post Interview: Mau P describes his world takeover appeared first on Quip Magazine.

An anarchic possibly drunk British man points at his keyboardist, far off on at Portola‘s stage left.

“This one right here went and fucked me sister!!”

The crowd jeers in tandem and the poor musician in question cross his throat with a hand signaling for a subject change.

“Aint that sweet?”

I’m not sure if it’s sweet but it’s pretty in line for a Sad Night Dynamite show. These two kids are chaos incarnate, it’s like if Damon Albarn went full mitosis and straight-up duplicated; two musicians that clearly have more electricity in their bodies than normal. Josh Greacen and Archie Blagden are the team, you perhaps know them for their shadow hit “Krunk”, a funk-adjacent downtempo bop that tends to evoke a crowd and then some.

From the critics, you’ll be hearing the Gorillaz comparisons ad infinitum, with refrains exploiting that lazy, self-aware, catchy croons we’ve so come accustomed to. Early SND stuff is more cryptic, however, with slinky top-end tranced out over cryptic vocals. The track “Icy Violence” is timeless in that regard. It’s like walking alone in Silent Hill during crepuscular hours. Even the soft ballad-esque songs still retain an unease, a fervor waiting to explode given the right tick.

Josh and Archie’s hunger hasn’t subsided over the years. They still make crowds beat each other up. They still sing their hooks through what sounds like a dilapidated tank speakerphone. But they keep a cool, crass demeanor in the midst of a context change. Sad Night Dynamite songs are generally on the slower side, but demand folks to rage anyway. I didn’t know you could do that. 

Their last festival of the year was Portola but kept bouncing around well after the conclusion of San Francisco’s hullabaloo. QUIP was lucky enough to intercept them on the circuit and interrogate some info out of them before they left the States.

Audrin Baghaie: How’s life?

Josh Greacen: Life is crazy. It’s a roller coaster of things. But it’s all enjoyable. We don’t have a second to be bored. It’s a good way to be living. 

AB: First time in the states?

JG: We’ve been here with Glass Animals. We had a headline tour a few months ago. 

AB: The scene in London is so pristine. Boiler Room, RA, the underground. We exaggerate it in the states, but it’s an environment that seems so creative.

JG: It’s funny though, we fetishize the American scene. No matter where you are, you want what you don’t have.

AB: The grass is greener for sure, and your grass just hits different. Artists there, they’re built different.

JG: Especially now it’s getting stronger. There were a couple of years where I was like “fuck the UK scene”. Now there’s people doing cool shit. 

AB: Your music in particular is suited for that underground, seedy shit. Like loitering at 2 am, and hearing you guys going crazy

JG: They need to put us on later. We should be on at midnight. We’re not a daylight kind of band. Those are the venues we still like to play. Like I said, it’s a mixture. Our headline in London we were playing to 1500. For us to get that many people in the room is mad. But the other venues are intimate.

Archie Blagden [ARB]: Too intimate sometimes. 

JG: Oh yeah, tell them. The boobs story, right in Archie’s face

ARB: I thought when I was a kid I wanted that, y’know? I’m living the dream. But I didn’t enjoy it. Well, I found it funny. I was looking at Josh like “Yo look look”. He missed the whole thing. Shout out to that girl.

JG: Yeah no we love her.

AB: Let’s throw it back. When you guys were just unknown making beats in London. What’s the low down there?

JG: It was Somerset at first, which is the countryside. We moved to London after finishing the first mixtape. And the goal was… to… hmm

AB: What was the goal?

JG: … To disrupt the apple cart of what we were hearing. Like, everywhere. It seemed blindingly obvious what was missing from the world. In terms of music. And it wasn’t, particularly like we were resenting the week. We were just listening to music that was old and being like “why isn’t this being re-imagined?”

AB: Influences?

JG: It varies. Totally depends. There’s so many. You see all these amazing artists and… It’s kind of luck that you have the right influences at the right time. And they mesh together. That first mixtape was the perfect mesh of influences.

ARB: The specials, particularly their one song “Ghost Town”. That song… so many parts to it. And then like josh said, American hip hop and old bands like The Clash. Fuckin’ just throw ‘em all together.

JG: What are we listening to now? It all changes. A ton of Timbaland. Who else..? 

ARB: There’s an English duo called Jockstrap who are very, very good. BCNR adjacent. But like older music… even some cinema scores there. I feel like once you got a reference of when you put out a piece of music and you tryna discover a sound. Once you discover even a little bit, you kind of reference your own stuff. You identify yourself through the music of others.

JG: Okay okay I found some. It’s a weird mix. Black Star. The new Deadmau5. MF Doom, rest in peace. Weyes Blood. There was a very special time before we released any music when we were totally obsessed with the Specials, the Clash, and the Gorillas. to the degree where it was like… It was so obvious what we needed to do. And we didn’t have any outside influence.

ARB: It was just me and josh in the countryside, also kind of inspired by the scene around us. We’d be writing these songs late at night and it’d be just the woods and stuff

AB: Is that where the name came from?

ARB: No, josh came up with it. I don’t know why. He was reading a book.

JG: I was just reading a book. There is the word dynamite. And I just added it and said it to Archie, and he went that’s the shittest name I’ve ever heard.

AB: Yet here we are 

ARB: [Laughs] Exactly

AB: It’s funny you mentioned Gorillaz cause in your song Krunk, you probably hear this all the time, the refrain is so Damon Albarn. It’s insane.

JG: We met him a couple of times and he even put us on his playlist. His music is fucking godly.

ARB: Yeah, it is

JG: We’ll happily take influence from him. As long as he doesn’t mind.

AB: I saw them play live just two days ago, and all the ingredients were there. They closed with some weird garage house remix of Clint Eastwood.

ARB: Yeah! That’s the one that blew up in the UK. Huge. That was the original, how Gorillaz became big at first over there, it was that remix. 

* * *

Support Sad Night Dynamite over at their site here or stream them on all available digital service providers. 

The post Chatting about the roller coaster of things with Sad Night Dynamite appeared first on Quip Magazine.

We asked a fellow media correspondent about Portola a few weeks ago if they were attending the novel alt-electro festival:

“No, but oh my god”. 

It’s still the best way to describe it. Portola instilled a chain reaction of freakouts across the world with friends of friends showing friends this lineup. 

Fred Again. Huge. Though we’re on the tail end of his surge now the Boiler Room set was stashing 100k views per day. A slew of unreleased tracks is only available to see in person. Flume just released his 3^rd album and Jamie XX was dropping a new song the same day of his performance. All this, and more, on James Blake’s birthday. 

Chemical Brothers took it personally. That live set was like nothing else: Cryptic thespians on screen playing with the music and lights simultaneously. A shaman casting spells with lasers burning forth from his hands and into the crowd. They’ve been in the game for three decades now and after jamming a 25-year-old song live that still hits, I mean that’s it right there, we’re done.

Jamie XX’s IDs are in high demand. I can’t fathom his vault of hard drives with the secret sauce. His music is minimal but pervasive and insinuating, he doesn’t need a lot to set the tone. A few chops of Arabic vocal phrases over garage rave kicks is the recipe. “Idontknow” went hard, especially with people now anticipating the switch-up.

Fred played the hits and then some. He’s armed with just as many IDs as Jamie XX but his are the talk of the town. The Future collaboration just dropped and you already know the crowd went stupid I couldn’t get over the absence of his Romy collab. The XX vocalist/guitarist wrote a beautiful song, perhaps one of the more evocative songs in Fred’s repertoire, and her set was just a few hours prior. It did not play, though I have no merit to genuinely complain.

There was a focus on a wide array of artists during the day. Shy Girl, Dawn Richards, L’Emperatrice, Drama, and Sad Night Dynamite, who went on to demur “they need to put us on later, we should be on at midnight. We’re not a daylight kind of band.” Slowthai and Young Franco, who I spoke with here, seemed to be the most favored acts of the openers. 

Over on the ship stage, Arca had no regard for anything beyond cathartic sub-bass death rattle. She is the late Sophie morphed with Death Grips, and this is the part of the fest that most interested me. Some of these artists ventured so far out of conventional songwriting that it’s, like, occasionally incomprehensible. The music is abrasive and quick and sick and violent and annoying, but she found her people.

Oneohtrix, however, did not find his people. He was a last-minute replacement for M.I.A. (though not last min enough) and folks were quite bewildered. They switched him with Yves as well because it’s pretty much agreed upon that the latter has more closing potential. I liked it though. Electronic music doesn’t need a drop to be enticing, though the fervor live can go either way.

Portola is a new festival, but I trusted Goldenvoice after Second Sky last year and expected good things. Four stages: warehouse, ship, crane, and pier looking exactly how you’re expecting. The harbor boasted a solid foundation for a festival. If not too solid, because hot damn that’s a lot of asphalt. If only for a moment, it seemed like we all together disrupted the western shipping trade routes to rave down.

With Flume, it felt like this was the case, his sounds very loosely comprise the human definition of music. In fact, he hawk-style rail grinds the exact moments between rhythm and lunacy ad nauseam. Those tracks were the port lighthouse that evening. Jasper’s Song was a notable recess from this nonsense, but mostly everything off of HTIF was unreal.

The warehouse stage was a social experiment. They funneled the entire crowd into one small back entrance, usable only after a maze of cross-weaving lines, ignoring the literal garage-size entrances layered across the warehouse facade. People preferred to watch PinkPantheress and Charli from outside the zoo. But it’s only mentioned because there’s nothing else to complain about. 

Admittedly, I’ve never been too into Bicep. They exhume the sophisticated frat boy, only active deep into the warehouse rave where they gather and talk draft kings. So the context was there and the music was fine. It was bouncy enough but I was satiated. I prefer their live stuff over their recorded material. Cold take.

Peggy Gou was awesome too. I only knew her from live sessions over the pandemic. Her house music was so refined and smooth – comfy attacks and smooth releases. Her and the Four Tet / Floating Points mix set was the Crane stage summed up.

What Portola sought to do was kind of accomplished before it happened. The music showcases how much there is outside of the term EDM, a heavy term that Portola very lucidly sidesteps. This isn’t Electric Daisy tier, and the senescent grandeur of festival bangers is few and far between here. Portola ships you off into alternative electronic: micro house, glitch, dark ambient, post-dubstep, breakbeat, and hyper pop.  

Mainstream dance festivals have their place, in reality, you can’t run from it. But now there’s balance. A sub-world of glitchy, above-ground weirdness, and to be fair only a little pretentious, on a huge scale. The SF skyline in the background was a nice touch too.

Check out our Portola interviews with Young Franco, and keep an eye out for the Sad Night Dynamite and Palace features upcoming.

The post Portola’s debut redefines the West Coast festival circuit & disrupts shipping routes appeared first on Quip Magazine.

They took to the Twin Peaks stage at Outside Lands 2022 spearheading the final day that was comprised of electronic acts. Forester’s main setup has Xander Carlson on lead vocals and keys, with David Parris a few feet away on the guitar and sampler. The sunlight was paramount to their set and paired like wine with smooth jam on the main stage. A few hours later their DJ set at the music den had the lawn in shambles, it was the hardest I’d seen that venue go the entire festival.

Forester has a good habit of performing entire albums live on their channel, often in landscapes that echo the musical sentiment. They’ve been signed to Palm Tree Records since 2020, Kygo’s curated imprint with the likes of Haywood and Sam Feldt as label mates. Their three albums are all on streaming services, along with a wealth of singles that showcase their growth from their 3 years of the group. Catch them live this year at Life is Beautiful or their El Rey set in LA on October 21st.

Audrin Baghaie: How’s your day going

Xander Carlson: Not bad at all. It’s been chill, listening to the music. Phoebe last night was really sick. She came in with a metal track. Such an interesting contrast. 

AB: I hadn’t known of your music until recently, and it’s very emotionally rich and uplifting. Did you originally set out to make music like that?

XC: We had written an album and didn’t have a name for the project, all very influenced by indie acoustic folk at the time. Tender, wholesome, and sweet – but we wanted more energy with the introspective feelings. I think we knew to go toward more emotional chill stuff. The name Forester represents that – free, open spaces. There’s a through-line but we’ve expanded to other sounds recently

David Parris: We’re also inspired that more mellow electronic music. Downtempo house. George Fitzgerald, Jamie XX, we tried to incorporate all of that into the first record.

AB: I hear a lot of Emancipator too

DP: Definitely a fan. I remember seeing him and Charles the First at the electric forest. Rest In Peace. Those two were formative. That show was before we started Forester, just two friends making music.

AB: What’s the story there

XC: We met at the beginning of high school, 14 or 15. David was throwing a lot of after parties, whatever event there was an excuse to throw a party for it. We would test out our music on the weekends.

DP: I was inspired by the underground rave scene in LA from my brother. There wasn’t a scene like that for kids our age. Once electronics got bigger they didn’t make it a space for kids. So the age limit was 18. The idea behind it was “let’s throw our own shows, play our own music and DJ our own stuff.” We were throwing somewhat safe raves within our high school group, at least as safe as you can get. The project that would become Forester was formed naturally there.

AB: And in 2019 Forester hit the ground running

XC: We had a demo folder and wanted to do something with it. Cold emails and cold emails. It’s been a lot of cold emails. Even palm tree crew, that was a cold email. Shout out to Dave Rishty. 

DP: It was all natural and organic for the most part. Sending out feelers and seeing what hit. 

AB: Was it like quality control on your end? Like you wouldn’t release anything until it was perfected?

XC: We spend a lot of time trying to make the song ‘feel’ good. I think there’s a difference between how a song feels and how it sounds. You can sing a song in this room right now and it would sound okay, but the tools can help it hit all the right frequencies. It’s an art we’re always trying to perfect. There are people who do it really well. It’s more of a how does it feel question in the end, instead of “is this song perfect?” It’s like, how does it make us feel? If it feels good, it’s right. Sometimes that takes a long time. 

DP: It’s different now versus the first album. We were on a deadline before we split up and went to college on different coasts. So we finished what we could get down, it sounded good and we pitched it out originally. But now we, sometimes, have more time to finish the songs. Actually, probably not. 

AB: You guys collated from across the coasts?

DP: And then finished up tracks when we were back together. It was a long-distance relationship. There wasn’t much file sharing though. Maybe some of the remix stuff was.

AB: You mentioned indie folk?

XC: That’s probably my favorite music to listen to personally. Maybe because there’s no production involved. It’s funny, listening to music after hearing what goes into production. When you hear really, really good production you become obsessed with like, “how do they get the kick like that??” 

DP: I grew up with rock music. I had two older brothers so I heard what they were listening to. Blink 182, Fall Out Boy, and Weezer were my first ever concert. All in one, I was like nine. That was really cool so naturally, I was more in the pop emo scene. But RHCP became the go-to after that. Later on I found the rest from Xander. After Bon Iver I just fell in love. Electronic has a special place in my heart. Boyz Noize and Skrillex. Lately, melodically, Avicii.

XC: I remember when Scary Monsters had 40k on YouTube. That, plus Bon Iver is where Forester came from. Which is weird because they’re on the complete opposite end of the spectrum.

AB: Good luck on the sets tomorrow. What’s the difference between each one?

XC: The main set has our full gear, guitar, vocals, keys, and the visuals set up. The DJ set is strict mixing, faster and harder stuff on CDJs.

Writer’s note: it was a lovely time

The post Forester talk EDM and songwriting at Outside Lands music festival appeared first on Quip Magazine.

We first tumble serendipitously into Rostam’s set on the Panhandle, a smaller venue for comfy indie artists. The former Vampire Weekend shredder hosted a lovely welcome for attendees, a quick and violent contrast from the upcoming nightmare awaiting us at Land’s End.

Lil Uzi Vert fans are a scourge. For an artist that has a considerable affiliation with mental health awareness, I’ve never seen a fan base so miss the point completely. There was no humanity in that crowd, between people pulled over the fence for crying and our photographer Nate nearly getting his gear obliterated, it echoed sentiments of Travis Scott’s infamous headline.

Jack Harlow was a toothless replica of Uzi although I’m still cross that I tolerated health hazards for such a bland act. Admittedly he was unlucky – placed between Mac DeMarco and Green Day, both of whom explored two ends of the sonic spectrum. Mac DeMarco’s profound chill boat-rhythm bumps compared with BJ Armstrong just going complete apeshit on the American Idiot tracks was an epic contrast. There simply was just no room for Harlow, nor was there room for him to bring up some significant social updates in his hometown of Louisville. But I digress.

Pussy Riot did satisfy my expectations because a literal Russian designated foreign agent took her shirt off to reveal a “FREE BRITNEY GRINER” message. Nadezhda has functionally inherited the band at this point, with the other past 10 members forgoing a less mainstream role for a more actively political one. Not sure if the crowd was ready for her succubic death-pop screams, however. Personally, my favorite part was when she cracked a blood-red whip over and over again while the word “VASECTOMY” lacerated on the big screen.

One thing, in particular, OSL likes to flaunt is a section on the festival grounds where the purchasing/consumption of cannabis is safe and legal. Grass Lands comprises the southernmost section of the park, practically a carnival that folks use to get away from the Land’s End aural blast zone. Ambulances and police were on standby, though much like previous iterations of the fest there was no urgent need for their intervention. It made for a lovely pit stop between stages.

All hyperpop acts were backlogged into Sunday, so the Lord’s afternoon was enhanced by palpable chaos. Glaive into 100 Gecs into Kim Petras is complete nonsense. 17-year-old Glaive’s unreleased track “Florida” is a four-on-the-floor banger, a necessary moment for a shy crowd to get to know one another via slam jamming. Petras performed Slut Pop in its entirety, a staple for her latest shows and one the crowd was quite notably looking forward to. Gecs flew too close to the sun; their set was cut short although that seems appropriate for them to be honest.

With how quick each turnover was, every headliner was set for success before their gig even started. Polo & Pan’s visuals were some of the best. Ani Kuni received a syllabic word-by-word visualization of the sampled Native American chant. Disclosure’s latest track “Waterfall” is some of their best work since the Settle days, evoking a Mura Masa-esque production that sent the crowd in every direction. 

SZA was the only artist done dirty. She started off her CTRL-era ballad “Drew Barrymore” smoothly enough but her monitors cut out, knocking off a beautiful song in her repertoire. The sound team turned it around before the next track. As such the audience experienced a cathartic performance, one that concluded with SZA compensating for her vocal prowess in front of a gorgeous lighthouse-themed stage décor. 

It was smooth sailing the entire weekend. Major 3-day music festivals will take it out of you, they’re an endurance test if nothing else. OSL at least attempts to streamline the experience into something less arduous. Straight up, I’ve never had better music festival snacks from any other concert experience. The scrumptious food almost made the inflated prices worth it.

It takes one thousand things at once to operate in tandem to make an event of this magnitude flow as well as it did. The lands beyond have proven themselves to be worth trekking to, a tall order considering the sheer number of fests on the west. In no uncertain terms:

Outside is the right side, man.

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