I'm trying to separate myself from other people by having songs that would be considered - technically - original things. I don't seek out mashups. I'm associated with the whole mashup movement, and it's too bad because I'm not a huge fan of them.
I found out about college radio and this whole noise genre blew me away. When I saw that guys could just get up there and have no traditional music ability and be in a band, it was really appealing to me.
I don't think my record collection or musical knowledge is vast. I just listen to the radio all the time - I'm a pop music enthusiast.
That's kind of a nostalgia thing. Nirvana was my first favorite band, in third or fourth grade. Then I got out of them. But one day in college a few buddies and myself all started listening to them again and it blew me away. They still stand out as my favorite band ever.
I always like the people who keep moving forward, but kind of stay in their own lane.
Something that distinguishes my solo work from normal rap production is that it has a lot of melody - it's not just cutting up a song and having someone rap over it.
When I would play pop music at underground shows, it was offensive to some people. I wasn't doing it to piss people off: I just didn't believe in those strong divisions that you're supposed to listen to this or that.
I think there's always room to grow.
I've always enjoyed taking pre-existing sound, songs I like, songs I want to share, and manipulating them and trying to do my own version. So just knowing there's that potential for that thing out there that I haven't discovered yet, really gets me motivated every day.
I can't wait to wake up in the morning and listen to music in order to try to find something to work with.
The goal for me is, I build the record that I put out as one individual song. Even though it's broken up into tracks, to me it's like one hour-long piece of music. In assembling the whole thing, I'm really thinking, okay, it's gonna end here, it's gonna start here, and I kind of have the idea of the journey.
I want the material I make to be mine; that's always the goal of the record and of the show.
The goal of the work is always for it to come across as original material, as transformative material.
I am ultimately comfortable with what I'm sampling.
I'll put out an album, and people review it, and some people love it, and some people tear it apart. By nature of the project, I've always wanted this to be something where people react strongly to it.
I hear something I like, and sometimes, I think it's gonna work, and I will cut it up, try it out, try to work with other material. Sometimes, it falls flat, and other times, it works out, so in that way, I'm constantly listening to music because I enjoy it.
I listen to music constantly, and I'm always hearing things I love that I'm excited to use.
I always like to borrow bits and pieces of things. There's a line between jumping on something that's happening and incorporating bits and pieces of it into my work.
I wasn't trying to make a following. I was just trying to make interesting music. That's not being modest, that's just being realistic.
When I was 18, I was playing to 18 to 21-year-olds, and then, when I was 25, still playing to 18 to 25-year-olds. As I've gone on, the crowd has gone in both directions, both younger and a little older now than it's ever been. It is an interesting thing to hit 30.
I love getting out there and traveling and doing shows and all of that. But when I can be home, it's a special time.
I do have some weeks coming up in the summer where I will actually be in my house, and I love working on new music and all of that.
You can feel a little vulnerable when you see people tearing you apart on the internet or saying, "It's the end of music." "This guy is a total hack." I've read it all. But at the same time, even though I feel a little vulnerable with that, I do feel comfortable.
I am always excited for gaps of time where I can actually hang out with my friends.
I'm most excited about going swimming and riding water slides, shooting off fireworks, and playing basketball, and things like that. That's what I really love doing. Summer is a great time.
