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GUESTLIST guestlist.net Issue 57 / 2013 5 7 IEW V ER T IN gramatik The artist who lives by the philosophy 'freeing music by making music free'' and has been topping HypeMachine's top 10 chart with every new release stopped by for a chat at his sell out event at Heaven, London. Nico | guestlist.net We know that you started with hip hop and rap, where did you get your inspiration? Was it just your everyday lives as teenagers? It was philosophical. When I grew up I was inspired by rappers like Mos Def. People that were actually real lyricists. I used to rap seriously you know. I grew up listening to Redman and those guys from super awesome comedy rap groups but when I sat down and wrote something really meaningful, it was either something philosophical or deep. And then I started making music more and more and rap less. I was really hungry for all these different music genres that I wanted to produce. So was it your dream to be a producer? Not at all, when I started out, I thought completely differently. I always thought that if I'm gonna make a career out of it, it's gonna be me making beats for famous rappers. There wasn't this EDM scene we know today. I never realised that I could just go and play my hip hop beats without raps on the stage and people would to come and fucking party. Then this new wave of EDM started. Making the beats as a stand alone track. I started to doing that out of curiosity. It's not just a beat anymore, it's a song. I never realised that it would actually become like it is now. You started in a new direction in 2010 with the album No Shortcuts Yeah, that's when it started. When I made Street Bangerz vol.1, I was making tech house and electro house releasing that to Beatport at the same time. People think that I started up with hip hop and that I started this electronic music shit later but I was just releasing is one of the main reasons I started to make EDM and Justice is my favourite EDM group of all time. Nice! So tell me about Exmag, your new group... Well Eric Mendelson, started playing with me on stage 2 years ago. At the same time, him and Tyler, one of the other members of Exmag, got together and somewhere along the way they formed Exmag. We were all living together and making music together. Exmag was a project that was looking for more like a new soul sound like Erykah Badu and on each other projects as well. So it's not really that much, it just gives you energy. It's just something that we do. We wake up and just smoke a lot of weed and just make music. What genre do you find most inspiring? We are always gonna be inspired by four or five genres. Funk, Soul, Blues, Jazz and then it's about how you interpret those genres with the technology of today. We always try to keep that spirit alive so you don't lose that soul. I think that's why you get problems today with " This music should be out there available for free. That's all the philosophy I need and it's not even philosophy, it's just common sense. The way of the future " different things at different times. I was making all that shit from the beginning. I started up with hip hop beats and not long after I started to make tech house, electro house, and other EDM genres that I really like. D'Angelo started. We are huge fans of their style and all the funk from the 60's, 70's and 80's. Eventually another member joined, Craig Bellamy, and we ended up making 2-3 albums and now we have like 40 tracks. What influenced you to make music? Me, personally, when it comes to electronic music, my biggest influence by far was the French electronic music scene, especially ED Banger, Daft Punk... ED Banger Wow! Do you ever find it too much? Not really. It's just like we're all living together doing this project. We're all making our own projects, all living together, all making sure we do everything properly and working EDM. Everybody is just focused on the loudness and the technical parts inside the thing and they forget about the music. It's like they didn't do anything with the song. It sounds amazing but there is nothing there to make me want to listen it again. So that's what we're all about. That's what, I think, the guys from ED Banger got. I felt that, every single release, they captured the song in a very fresh way, like nobody else. So, the inspired free music. What you to give your music away? I realized at one point, you can't really fight for privacy anymore. You've just got to accept this is the new way of technology and it's the future. Most of our fans are aged between 18 and 25. They go to college so they don't have all the money to buy all their favourite music releases. If you make it available for free, anytime, they will become your biggest fans and come to all of your shows and if they have the money they will download it and support you. Music is art, that should be available for free. Go to a gallery, you'll see a picture. It's there, you're not paying and if you want to buy it, that's up to you. This music should be out there available for free. That's all the philosophy I need and it's not even philosophy, it's just common sense. The way of the future. Okay, thank you very much guys. Enjoy tonight and good luck with your new album! Thank you! Yeah the Exmag album is out around November. facebook.com/gramatik