Photo Credits: Ⓒ Masanori Naruse
During Fuji Rock Festival, one of Japan's most renowned music festivals with a star-studded all genre lineup and location at the Naeba open ground at the mount of Mt Fuji, we had the chance to sit down with Kill The Noise.
After a surprising debut album release, he continues to give fans a wide variety of experimental sounds and this album was also an amalgamation of the several sounds he has been working on. During this interview, he shared with us his theories and thoughts on electronic music and processing this debut album.
You can't miss out on this interview because he shares really important life lessons and inspiring stories so check it out!
And a big ups to Kill The Noise and his team for sharing their time with us!
First of all welcome to Fuji Rock Festival! So you've been releasing EPs for a while. Why did it seem right to release this project as a debut album? Please walk us through that process.
Well as you mentioned, I think it started out from an EP situation. It started off with making a bunch of demos and jotting down ideas that were not necessarily refined. But some of the ideas felt related and so I started to narrow down the material and so some stuff didn't make the cut. That's when it felt more like an EP.
And also, over the course of three years, I've been releasing three EPs and so from an economics perspective of the "diminishing return", people had more less of a reaction when I kept on releasing EPs. So that's when I thought why don't I make them think I'm doing and EP and actually announce that I was releasing an album up to the release day to make it more exciting.
To my surprise, people loved the announcement and the album made it an extra excitement for the release for sure.
A couple of ideas on the album were little ideas that I would come up with on the road. Basically these seeds of inspiration grew to be the songs on the album. The whole process of making this album was based on the 80 20 principle where most of it took a short time but the last 20% took me over a year. This is because I did all the engineering mixing myself. Recording vocals and stuff was a challenge even though I had done some vocal recording prior via Slow Roast. So especially that 20% of the process was a big learning experience for me.
You released this debut album through OWSLA. Why OWSLA and how was it like to work with them?
I started the Slow Roast label with DJ Craze from Miami back in 2008. At the time I wasnt working with Skrillex and OWSLA didnt exist at that point. So we were looking for an outlet for our music. Craze and I had been friends for years so we were like why don’t we just start our own label?
At the time I was making more aggressive dubstep and when I met Skrillex, I was making that new sound in relationship with the things I was making before that like Electro House and proper Disco House before that. Skrill was really excited for the new different sound I was making at the time and he had a clear big vision for the OWSLA label too.
And i thought it would be a cool way to help even built a platform for the Slow Roast stuff too. So it was just so much fun working in the two different worlds and even up to this year I've been putting out small projects here and there on Slow Roast as well but I just think the infrastustcure and level of visibility that OWSLA and that brand has just gave me a much less effort in terms of having to put the album out.
With the album there's a lot of different sounds and divergence from the old sound. It feels bold and experimental. Where did all that come from?
I got to a place where with EPs its usually 6 to 7 tracks and you don't have a lot of space to tell much of a story.
You need to give kids what they want in the most condense form and thats the sign with music in general where people's attention span is not as long as what it used to be. I had all these ideas floating arond my head and I wanted to challenge myself if I could make those sounds that were more vocal driven and more melodic.
I think that there is definitely a core group of guys who want to hear that the hardest craziest stuff which I did put in this album, but when it comes down to it my favorite records are all diffent genres of records from Indie Rock, Hip Hop to Electronic Music.
Maybe certain songs you dont necessarily love when you first hear them. Say for instance you like Track 6 and 7, then all of a sudden you’re like you know what Track 3 is coming to hit me too. Those tracks glossed over at the beginning can grow to become your favorite songs.
One of my favorite bands are Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails which clearly follows that quality.
Every album sounds like he is musically challenging himself to come up with a new texture of sounds.
As a fan, I've followed them since I was 15 and so their existence and their music has become part of my life. So I'd like to believe that at a certain part of my life, I could pull something off like that.
I just love Radiohead and with Thom Yorke, he does a lot of side projects like 'The Eraser' and he is always trying to find the next thing that is going to get him excited with music.
Intricacies too matter when you're listening to a song. I've listened to Radiohead stuff as a kid and so when you listen to it as an adult, there's so much difference to it. You hear sounds and meanings you never heard of or related to before.
That's fantastic and 'Without A Trace', can you tell us where that came from?
There's a girl on the track that goes by the name Stalking Gia.
I had come up with a core progession and a rough arrangement and I just met up with her at an OWSLA event through this guy called Chris Morris. I had listened to some of her demos and she had a really nice voice. When I met her in person she was great and we had a lot to talk about especially music.
So when we started working together on a track she ended up with more of a vocal melody with no lyrics and so that sat at the back burner for a while. In the meantime, I actually came up with the lyrics. I actually wrote them and I asked her if she could try singing these lryics to the melody.
It really all came together really beautifully.
Actually though there were a bunch of a demos with different production styles and tempos. It took different versions of it to come to that final piece.
I got inspiration from Porter Robinson’s 'Worlds', particularly that song he remixed for Nero which was cool. The album is so cool I listen to it so much but I try not to listen to it too much or I would borrow too much from it. It's definitely one of my favorite albums that came out last year and I listen to it pretty regularly.
So do you hang out with Porter a lot?
Yeah, actually our OWSLA signing contract was around the same time and I ended up remixing one his tracks from his EP 'Splitfire'. That EP was one of hist first EPs that cam off OWSLA in 2011. I talk to him pretty regulalrly and he's been working on some really cool shit and worth the wait.
Great to hear! Moving back on to the album, 'Dolphins on Wheels' seems like a sequel to the Meowski 666 Project with Dillon Francis. How did you guys come up with this track?
Well it all started when I went to see Dillon's show at The Shrine back in LA. At that show he had this extra CDJ or sampler but while he was playing he would randomly hit on it and this dolphin noise came out of nowhere. At first, I thought it was random but as he kept on doing I felt that there should be a dolphin song. And so I got an idea watching him play and that night I mocked up a rough demo and sent it over to him.
His reaction was like 'Dude this is amazing and stupid in the best way possible' and that was exactly what I was thinking. This came together pretty quickly after he recorded some vocals on it.
The vocal of the little kids are his kids! So overall it was cool and it basically felt like an inside joke with all our friends working on it and simulatenously the whole dolphin thing was cool becuase dolphins have been used in flyer designs and fashion stuff but there had never been a dolphin sound.
It was just us screwing around but some of that stuff translates to if you're having fun. Kids hear that in the music. At least I do. Even with the Dillon stuff you can tell he's having fun when he's making it. I think that vibe is great for dance music.
'All in my head' really stood out in terms of vocals too. How did that perspective come about?
So there's an app on my phone where you can record phone conversations. I thought it was cool to use that recorded stuff as an inspiration for my music.
My little brother lives back in New York and so we catch up on the phone a couple of times a month to see what's going on with our lives. A reccurring theme on the album has just been how big electronic music has gotten over the couple of years and how some of my friends becoming so big and crossing over into full pop and stardom.
There are plenty people out there who don't have that ability for a number of reasons whether it's where they live in the world and maybe crazy stuff going on in their lives.
I also think there are a lot of kids out in the world that are frustrated trying to be creative. And my message to them is to just relax a little bit because you can't torture yourself for trying to become the biggest thing in music. So enjoy making music and great things will come in the end. For me it's just being happy.
That soundbyte actually from the phonecall?
Yeah it's me talking to my brother! Then we had the vocal a head of session with Aaron from Awolnation. The actual song came before the quote and some neurons fired together and emotionally the chords felt like it fit together. I sent it to him and he loved it too.
We had so much more to talk about with this talented artist Kill The Noise but we would like to thank him for sharing his thoughts on dance music and his debut album with iFLYER. Make sure to grab 'Ocult Classic' on iTunes to go on a journey Kill The Noise would like to share with you all.
During Fuji Rock Festival, one of Japan's most renowned music festivals with a star-studded all genre lineup and location at the Naeba open ground at the mount of Mt Fuji, we had the chance to sit down with Kill The Noise.
After a surprising debut album release, he continues to give fans a wide variety of experimental sounds and this album was also an amalgamation of the several sounds he has been working on. During this interview, he shared with us his theories and thoughts on electronic music and processing this debut album.
You can't miss out on this interview because he shares really important life lessons and inspiring stories so check it out!
And a big ups to Kill The Noise and his team for sharing their time with us!
First of all welcome to Fuji Rock Festival! So you've been releasing EPs for a while. Why did it seem right to release this project as a debut album? Please walk us through that process.
Well as you mentioned, I think it started out from an EP situation. It started off with making a bunch of demos and jotting down ideas that were not necessarily refined. But some of the ideas felt related and so I started to narrow down the material and so some stuff didn't make the cut. That's when it felt more like an EP.
And also, over the course of three years, I've been releasing three EPs and so from an economics perspective of the "diminishing return", people had more less of a reaction when I kept on releasing EPs. So that's when I thought why don't I make them think I'm doing and EP and actually announce that I was releasing an album up to the release day to make it more exciting.
To my surprise, people loved the announcement and the album made it an extra excitement for the release for sure.
A couple of ideas on the album were little ideas that I would come up with on the road. Basically these seeds of inspiration grew to be the songs on the album. The whole process of making this album was based on the 80 20 principle where most of it took a short time but the last 20% took me over a year. This is because I did all the engineering mixing myself. Recording vocals and stuff was a challenge even though I had done some vocal recording prior via Slow Roast. So especially that 20% of the process was a big learning experience for me.
You released this debut album through OWSLA. Why OWSLA and how was it like to work with them?
I started the Slow Roast label with DJ Craze from Miami back in 2008. At the time I wasnt working with Skrillex and OWSLA didnt exist at that point. So we were looking for an outlet for our music. Craze and I had been friends for years so we were like why don’t we just start our own label?
And we worked with A-trak from Fools Gold Records. He helped us set the label and stuff.
At the time I was making more aggressive dubstep and when I met Skrillex, I was making that new sound in relationship with the things I was making before that like Electro House and proper Disco House before that. Skrill was really excited for the new different sound I was making at the time and he had a clear big vision for the OWSLA label too.
And i thought it would be a cool way to help even built a platform for the Slow Roast stuff too. So it was just so much fun working in the two different worlds and even up to this year I've been putting out small projects here and there on Slow Roast as well but I just think the infrastustcure and level of visibility that OWSLA and that brand has just gave me a much less effort in terms of having to put the album out.
I look at Slow Roast as more of a passion project. So things that don't necessarily fit with OWSLA, Craze and I work that through with Slow Roast and obviously friends of ours that are putting records out we put it out on Slow Roast too.
With the album there's a lot of different sounds and divergence from the old sound. It feels bold and experimental. Where did all that come from?
I got to a place where with EPs its usually 6 to 7 tracks and you don't have a lot of space to tell much of a story.
You need to give kids what they want in the most condense form and thats the sign with music in general where people's attention span is not as long as what it used to be. I had all these ideas floating arond my head and I wanted to challenge myself if I could make those sounds that were more vocal driven and more melodic.
I'd played around with that territtory over the years but I thought it was time for me to actually make that challenge and see if my audience were into me playing around with some ideas.
I think that there is definitely a core group of guys who want to hear that the hardest craziest stuff which I did put in this album, but when it comes down to it my favorite records are all diffent genres of records from Indie Rock, Hip Hop to Electronic Music.
But my favorite records are always the ones that you can put on and listen to the whole thing and it takes you on a little bit of a journey and even challenges you a bit.
Maybe certain songs you dont necessarily love when you first hear them. Say for instance you like Track 6 and 7, then all of a sudden you’re like you know what Track 3 is coming to hit me too. Those tracks glossed over at the beginning can grow to become your favorite songs.
One of my favorite bands are Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails which clearly follows that quality.
Every album sounds like he is musically challenging himself to come up with a new texture of sounds.
As a fan, I've followed them since I was 15 and so their existence and their music has become part of my life. So I'd like to believe that at a certain part of my life, I could pull something off like that.
I think at the end of the day if you’re not writing music for yourself, to a certain degree, no one else is going to feel that passion you know. That's how I feel.
I just love Radiohead and with Thom Yorke, he does a lot of side projects like 'The Eraser' and he is always trying to find the next thing that is going to get him excited with music.
Intricacies too matter when you're listening to a song. I've listened to Radiohead stuff as a kid and so when you listen to it as an adult, there's so much difference to it. You hear sounds and meanings you never heard of or related to before.
That's fantastic and 'Without A Trace', can you tell us where that came from?
There's a girl on the track that goes by the name Stalking Gia.
I had come up with a core progession and a rough arrangement and I just met up with her at an OWSLA event through this guy called Chris Morris. I had listened to some of her demos and she had a really nice voice. When I met her in person she was great and we had a lot to talk about especially music.
So when we started working together on a track she ended up with more of a vocal melody with no lyrics and so that sat at the back burner for a while. In the meantime, I actually came up with the lyrics. I actually wrote them and I asked her if she could try singing these lryics to the melody.
The lyrics kind of felt true to me and true to my life and as we can see from the Radiohead songs I tried to leave it ambiguous enough so people can plug in their own meanings to the song. The general message I tried to underlie here is the uplifting message of when time gets tough it's all about solidarity and believing in yourself.
It really all came together really beautifully.
Actually though there were a bunch of a demos with different production styles and tempos. It took different versions of it to come to that final piece.
I got inspiration from Porter Robinson’s 'Worlds', particularly that song he remixed for Nero which was cool. The album is so cool I listen to it so much but I try not to listen to it too much or I would borrow too much from it. It's definitely one of my favorite albums that came out last year and I listen to it pretty regularly.
So do you hang out with Porter a lot?
Yeah, actually our OWSLA signing contract was around the same time and I ended up remixing one his tracks from his EP 'Splitfire'. That EP was one of hist first EPs that cam off OWSLA in 2011. I talk to him pretty regulalrly and he's been working on some really cool shit and worth the wait.
Great to hear! Moving back on to the album, 'Dolphins on Wheels' seems like a sequel to the Meowski 666 Project with Dillon Francis. How did you guys come up with this track?
Well it all started when I went to see Dillon's show at The Shrine back in LA. At that show he had this extra CDJ or sampler but while he was playing he would randomly hit on it and this dolphin noise came out of nowhere. At first, I thought it was random but as he kept on doing I felt that there should be a dolphin song. And so I got an idea watching him play and that night I mocked up a rough demo and sent it over to him.
His reaction was like 'Dude this is amazing and stupid in the best way possible' and that was exactly what I was thinking. This came together pretty quickly after he recorded some vocals on it.
Speaking of vocals, Skrillex's manager's daughters are on the vocal too.
The vocal of the little kids are his kids! So overall it was cool and it basically felt like an inside joke with all our friends working on it and simulatenously the whole dolphin thing was cool becuase dolphins have been used in flyer designs and fashion stuff but there had never been a dolphin sound.
It was just us screwing around but some of that stuff translates to if you're having fun. Kids hear that in the music. At least I do. Even with the Dillon stuff you can tell he's having fun when he's making it. I think that vibe is great for dance music.
'All in my head' really stood out in terms of vocals too. How did that perspective come about?
So there's an app on my phone where you can record phone conversations. I thought it was cool to use that recorded stuff as an inspiration for my music.
My little brother lives back in New York and so we catch up on the phone a couple of times a month to see what's going on with our lives. A reccurring theme on the album has just been how big electronic music has gotten over the couple of years and how some of my friends becoming so big and crossing over into full pop and stardom.
By all intense and purposes, I'm pretty much an indie guy and I think that message there in the conversation is just about not trying to contrive what you're doing to achieve those kinds of goals but more about just having fun and doing what you love and being okay and grateful with where you're at with it. Also to remember having the opportunity of making music, even if you're not travelling or making money, because it's a luxury to spend time music making music at all.
There are plenty people out there who don't have that ability for a number of reasons whether it's where they live in the world and maybe crazy stuff going on in their lives.
Just the fact that I made the habit and time to make music is great.
I also think there are a lot of kids out in the world that are frustrated trying to be creative. And my message to them is to just relax a little bit because you can't torture yourself for trying to become the biggest thing in music. So enjoy making music and great things will come in the end. For me it's just being happy.
That soundbyte actually from the phonecall?
Yeah it's me talking to my brother! Then we had the vocal a head of session with Aaron from Awolnation. The actual song came before the quote and some neurons fired together and emotionally the chords felt like it fit together. I sent it to him and he loved it too.
We had so much more to talk about with this talented artist Kill The Noise but we would like to thank him for sharing his thoughts on dance music and his debut album with iFLYER. Make sure to grab 'Ocult Classic' on iTunes to go on a journey Kill The Noise would like to share with you all.
KILL THE NOISE SIGNATURE BOARD PRESENT CAMPAIGN
If you read this interview you have the perks of winning a signature board by Kill The Noise!
All you have to do is follow iFLYER on Twitter (@iflyertv), Retweet our article tweet and that's it!
This twitter campaign will run until the 26th Aug 2016 12:00PM JST.
Lucky winners will be notified in their DM inbox!
Start following and tweeting!
*Please note this campaign is only eligible to those who live in Japan.
