Name: Robot Death Squad Location: Washington, DC Affiliations: Salvage Recordings / Hate Recordings / Testflight Recordings / Covert Operations / Shadybrain Recordings / Earwaks / Moving Shadow / Flatline Audio
Part One: Evancipation Tell us a little bit about your background? Where are you from originally, how did you get your start, etc?
I'm from Arlington born and raised. I started off playing guitar in middle school and in 8th grade picked up some "Brit hop and Amyl House" compilation, and immediately became obsessed with electronic beats. I immersed myself in Prodigy and Chemical Bros and whatever else I could get my hands on, until an HFStival appearance by Hive made me turn to the dark side. What are you doing now?
Going to school, working on beats, making lattes for yuppies. What are your main influences?
Photek and Hive really got me into the music, and the quality of their production and tunes haven't let up since then. I grew up around the whole DC tech thing, so the Sinthetix sound has definitely influenced me a lot, along with most of the Ohm stuff from that time. I'm also a Molten Beats fanatic. What do you use to produce your work? How much is done using outboard gear? How much is done on the computer using audio?
Right now, I'm primarily using Logic for my tunes. Before it was mostly Reason and Cubase, but despite what the rest of the crew thinks, PC's blow ass. So I've buckled down, bought Logic 7 Pro, and have been using that in conjunction with my E-mu E5000 Ultra and an old mixing desk I found. Most of the work is done in Logic, but I love having the option of making sounds in the E-mu. I also use the mixing desk to clip stuff, cuz it's really a piece of shit, and the only value it has is the distortion it adds in some cases. How do you keep yourself motivated and interested?
It's tough sometimes because I have a lot of stuff going on in life outside of music. But music for me is a release of sorts, and I find a good music binge helps me clear my head. A spliff, a pot of coffee, and a couple of bottles of wine will always enhance motivation for me, but sober production sprees also have their benefits. Do you have any new projects/releases/events coming up that you can tell us about?
Well the Moving Shadow release is hardly new news, but it is finally happening, so that's something I'm excited to see come out. We've got an EP on Flatline Audio that should be due out by the end of the year, and a few remixes in the works. Other than that, we're just working on a shitload of new tunes, and getting ready to storm the planet with death and destruction. What is your favorite part of working under the RDS moniker? The toughest part?
I'm glad we have the name, I think it's great for making angry, evil, sometimes epic tunes. I love making samples for it and track titles that involve robots. However, explaining to your grandparents that you make music on the computer is difficult enough without having to explain why your crew is named "Robot Death Squad." With just a few releases out so far, are there any lessons learned that you think are vital to share with other emerging artists?
Don't get your hopes up. Be patient. Don't do things for free, but don't expect to get rich. Work hard and good things will come. If you don't, they won't. Outside of drum'n'bass, what other types of music do you enjoy?
I love hip hop from the 90's, a good amount of breakbeat music, old dub and reggae, and recently I've really been feeling a lot of dubstep. What is your favorite robot hero? Villian?
I'd say my favorite villain would be Krang. Although I guess he's not technically a robot. But he's got nuts on his chin, and tentacles, and being a talking brain is just oh so badass. And he guides a big robot. Kind of. Maybe that guy's a human technically at some level.
But we're not here to draw lines. I mean, boundaries are so restricting. I think I've said enough. Any final comments?
Harry Ransom is the man. Um, thanks Evan. /blush
Part Two: Signal Tell us a little bit about your background? Where are you from originally, how did you get your start, etc?
I'm pretty much from everywhere. I've lived in Indonesia, Ethiopia, Madagascar, and Maryland. I lived in the Philippines during high school, which is where I picked up music and art. I started getting guitar lessons from some really hard working and talented musicians. The first guy taught me the fundamentals of jazz guitar, scales, theory, anything he could cram into me. I joined the high school jazz band, and we got to tour across the country and play shows for the locals. Eventually my friends and I started a hard edged punk band called Hesinacoma, and we played regular gigs at a local rock bar.
When I moved to the States for college outside the city of Baltimore, I found myself hungry to persue music. I started to go to local rave events such as Fever, and this local club that had drum & bass talent called "The Spot," where I started identifying with the sound of drum & bass. The use of accelerated breaks and dark atmospheres really appealed to me. I started obtaining various software applications to try and make my own, and went from there. What are you doing now?
Currently, I make drum & bass and dubstep music with the group Robot Death Squad, which I helped found with my friends Evan (Evancipation) and John (Dstruct). What are your main influences?
Drum & bass wise, I picked up on Tech Itch & Decoder right off the bat, and have always been a fan of Tech Itch's production and style. Other artists such as Kemal & Rob Data, Stakka & Skynet, all the old tech steppers, really attracted me towards thinking futuristically about my music. New artists that I'm currently feeling would be Desimal, Black Sun Empire, Corrupt Souls, and lots of the talent being pushed by Renegade Hardware right now. The group sound of the Violence crew (Hive, Gridlok, etc) I think are owning drum & bass, I cant get enough of their music.
Dubstep is coming around in a big way, I think people have underestimated whats being done in the genre. As a whole, the music is entering its Golden Age, the production is getting tighter and darker, with no room for pop. Artists such as Digital Mystiks, Distance, Mark One, D1, have been getting my attention lately. Don't sleep people. What do you use to produce your work? How much is done using outboard gear? How much is done on the computer using audio?
I started out using Impulse Tracker & Reason (still using it occasionally to this day), but lately I've been using Cubase SX 3 with various vst plugins and synthesizers. My favorite softsynth would be Reaktor, pretty much the only thing I use to make sounds these days. I use the Emulator X softsampler instrument, and I monitor using Behringer Truth's (8 Inch cones). The only outboard gear I use is an ART compressor and a Big Muff guitar peddle to distort me some basses. How do you keep yourself motivated and interested?
Pretty much by taking breaks from listening to the music. Honestly theres no way for me to appreciate something that I hear all the time, so I make sure to draw upon external influences to keep me motivated. But yea, taking breaks is important to keeping my head in the game. That, and getting siked about new tunes with my fellow producers and Dj's. Do you have any new projects/releases/events coming up that you can tell us about?
Oh man, I think we have a problem with starting too many projects. I like to not talk about them publicly too much, and just leave the surprises to the final products. We have various releases coming out on such labels as Moving Shadow, Hate Recordings, Flatline Audio, and Earwaks, as far as I know. I know we're planning on doing lots more shows nationwide, as well as eventually doing some sort of European tour. What is your favorite part of working under the RDS moniker? The toughest part?
The best part of working in Robot Death Squad is not taking ourselves too seriously. From the get go as a musician, you have people watching you and judging you. Boom, we have this funny nerdy ass name, and we have fun being goofballs and writing all sorts of music. The toughest part would probably have to be dealing with releasing the music. The market is still relatively small, so the payoff to releasing music wont get you an Audi. It says a lot for why we are doing this in the first place, because we love doing it. With just a few releases out so far, are there any lessons learned that you think are vital to share with other emerging artists?
I'd say more producers out there need to learn how to listen to what people have to say about your music. You wont get better musically if you dont listen to feedback, because even though you're writing the music for yourself, your music wont be bought and performed by Dj's if it doesnt sound the best that it can be. Outside of drum'n'bass, what other types of music do you enjoy?
Punk rock, old metal, lots of ambient/atmospheric electronic music. I'm also a big house head. What is your favorite robot hero? Villian?
Hero would be Commander Data because he looks like Evan. Villains, hmm..he may not constitute as a full robot, but I'd say Hal from 2001. He's the perfect example of how ignorance begets evil. Any final comments?
Umm...Campari is the best.
Part Three: Dstruct Tell us a little bit about your background? Where are you from originally, how did you get your start, etc?
I grew up in north west Washington state and have lived in or around it most of my life. Musically, I have no training at all. I think my intial intrest in creating sound spawned from being told that I didnt have an ear for it when asking to attend violin lessons in third grade. I think this is something like my fifth year producing. What are you doing now?
Being broke and riding out the winter in Canada. What are your main influences?
The songs that inspired me early on before Drum&Bass was stuff like Mauro Picotto, Chris Liebing, Dave Clark, Chemical Brothers and a whole range of mainstream and vintage music. The first Drum&Bass tune I heard was: Where's Jack the Ripper? by Groove Rider. I kept seeking out more and more of what I liked in that song and found Konflict, Ed Rush, Optical, Fierce, Tech Itch, Cause 4 Concern and the list goes on.. Current things that inspire me include: Adam Beyer, Teebee, Noisia, GMS, Dark Soho, NIN, Calyx, Dom, Meat Beat Manifesto, Way Out West, Phace, Photek, etc... What do you use to produce your work? How much is done using outboard gear? How much is done on the computer using audio?
Most work and all arrangement is done in Cubase SX. Logic does some intresting things to sounds and Reason offers some truely weird sound mangling possibilities. I started out exploring music without a computer and have intergrated and removed various hardware from my computer based setup over the years. At one point I was doing a (non-dnb) live pa with no computer. How do you keep yourself motivated and interested?
Sometimes nethier of those happens and I'll move into an artistic/graphic mode for a bit. That change is what keeps me motivated. Do you have any new projects/releases/events coming up that you can tell us about?
Beyond the release on Moving Shadow Limited, there are several other releases we are all excited about. I'll let the other guys handle the details on that...
I've been working on some solo things one of which is slated for Nerve. I've been heavily involved with doing tunes with another crew also, "Identity" We have few things coming up from under the radar ;) What is your favorite part of working under the RDS moniker? The toughest part?
Favorite is that feeling you get when a project the group has been working on really starts to flow and basicly unfolds into the tune by its self. It can be tough agreeing on how sounds and beats should work, we all have diffrent workflows and concepts. With just a few releases out so far, are there any lessons learned that you think are vital to share with other emerging artists?
Spend every bit of spare time in the studio. Outside of drum'n'bass, what other types of music do you enjoy?
What is your favorite robot hero? Villian?
Hero would be Clouds Schatze from Five Star Stories. My favorite villan couldn't be limited to just one. How about the creator of many villans? machine, sub-human or otherwise.. H. R. Geiger. Any final comments?
Seasonal Affective Disorder sucks. Have a nice afternoon and thanks for doing this :)
