Category Archives: Interview

Savant @ Starlight Ballroom w/ Blackburner, Kaster, Victor Niglion & More!! + Exclusive Interview with Blackburner!!

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Savant.Philly

Event Page // Buy Tickets // Starlight Ballroom

This Saturday the wonderful city of Philadelphia will grace itself with yet an amazing show. The year 2013 has already been an incredible year for the City of Brotherly Love when it comes to our music scene, with fans having to make difficult choices almost every weekend between a plethora of incredible lineups at various venues across the city. But April 6th, 2013, your decision should be simple, and it should be to be at Starlight Ballroom. The lineup for this Saturday includes Savant - who will be making his FIRST EVER US appearance – along with Blackburner, Kaster, Victior Niglio, and a humongous local support roster that boasts Dr. Ew, Architekt and Nobi. The whole night is brought to you by Jump Up Productions kicks off at 9PM and the party’s going to keep going to 3 AM, so be sure to pace yourself. We’ve got plenty of music from these artists for you to check out (just click their names above) if you aren’t familiar with one or more of them, but also be sure to visit our exclusive interview with Blackburner!! See your faces Saturday!

Event Page // Buy Tickets // Starlight Ballroom

Funkadelphia Exclusive Interview w/ Blackburner:

F: Let’s start off with some just general info. Where do you hail from?
Skyla: I grew up in the country on a dirt road with no neighbors in the middle of Michigan.  I know… so sad.
Spled: Los Angeles, born and raised.
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F: And where are you living now?

Skyla: I’ve been living in the Los Angeles area for quite a few years now and I don’t plan on ever leaving.
Spled: I’ve Never left

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F: Alright and how long have you been producing and/or DJing for?

Skyla: I’ve been producing Rock n’ Roll most of my life. I started getting serious with electronic music while I was touring and needing something to do with all the down time. I found it kept me out of trouble. Well….most of the time. The last couple years I’ve been diving more into the DJ world.

Spled: Since I’ve been a young lad which of the age of 13 and I’ve been DJing for 4 about years.

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F: Have you always been a bass music musician? Or what have you dabbled in before? I know you had a metal project before, Killingbird?

Skyla: I’ve been in bands ever starting in High School. When I moved to LA I started a band which was more Electronic/Industrial. That’s when I started producing electronic music but I never released anything till these last couple years. I was in Killingbird for a few years which was a straight up Hard Rock band. Later I joined Scum of the Earth playing guitar which is fronted by Rob Zombie guitar player Riggs. I toured with them for years and shortly after I formed another Rock band ModelSaint. Then Blackburner was born.

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F: So aside from electronic production, what instruments do you play?
Skyla: My main instrument is guitar. I’ve released a couple solo albums where I did a majority of the live instrumentation (guitar, bass, piano, vocals). I learned to read music at an early age and played multiple brass instruments as well.
Spled: Well I started off as a singer/guitarist and later down the road I started playing drums and bass.
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F: Coming up in the bass music scene, what artists (producers and DJs) would you say have inspired you?

Skyla: Well what got me started in the electronic scene was hearing NIN, Ministry, Marilyn Manson, Rob Zombie for the first time and other bands that mixed rock/metal with electronic. Now I’m listening and taking in what a lot of the current producers are doing whether it be Dubstep, Electro or DnB. I usually switch up genres or sub genres to take me out of my norm to trigger inspiration.
Spled: Hanging out with Sonny Moore aka Skrillex inspired me, He took all genres of music and transformed them into hard bass beats and really inspired me to transform what I love which is metal/hardcore and turn it into a new evolution of music.

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F: Other than just other artists, has anything else in particular had an impact on your music? Or do you feel there have been any other particular inspirations to you and your music career?
Skyla: I think me relocating from the woods in mid-Michigan to Los Angeles years ago made an impact on my music not only in advancing my career in music but also inspiration. Sometimes a big change is what some people need.
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F: Do you have a specific genre (or BPM) that you like to work at/with?
Skyla: You know for me it’s always been about experimenting and trying new things. Sometimes I’ll start with a specific BPM and a song idea in mind but it doesn’t always work. So I’m always changing it up.

Spled: I love making Dubstep /EDM at 140 /130 bpm.

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F: What equipment and software do you use when producing?
Skyla: I’ve been using Cubase for years. I’ve messed with Ableton a bit but I keep going back to Cubase since I’m so familiar with it. Let’s see, The Native Instruments Komplete bundle keeps me happy a lot of the time. I have too many VST’s to list that I use. Each week I have a new fav and I always keep an eye out for something new.

Spled: I use Ableton Live for producing and lots of plugins such as Massive, Ampliltube, Wobble and I use a lot of the Sugar Bytes stuff too like Turnado.

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F: How about when DJing?

S: We were using Ableton for a while but now we just recently switched to using just CDJ’s. We prefer the Pioneer 2000’s and DJM 900.

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F: I know your “Drop Bass Not Bombs” album came out not too long ago. Do you have any other big releases in the works at the moment you can tell us about?

S:A version of Drop Bass Not Bombs was released digitally a bit ago been that’s now unavailable.   The new album will feature more tracks and will be released digitally Feb. 26th and March 12 for the physical CD.

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F: Do you have any funny or just generally good stories from the road you’d like to share with us?

Skyla: Always! Something is always bound to happen. Anywhere from people falling asleep on train tracks or should I say passing out, to being left and forgot about at truck stops. Also there are some stories that we could tell that would have to be censored. Always fun though!

Spled: Well our last show in Atlanta, GA, Skyla and I were partying hard with DJ Bl3nd after the show. Two handles of vodka later DJ Bl3nd spilt some of the vodka and Skyla said fuck it I’m not gonna waste it and so he started snorting it…lol

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F: Have you gone on tour with any artist(s) that you had a particularly fun time playing with?
S: Last summer we had the honor of touring with Industrial legends Ministry. We brought our guitars out for that tour and did some heavier sets. Amazing time! Last week we flew back from Atlanta where we partied hard with DJ Bl3nd which was awesome.
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F: Alright, so is the show with Savant your first gig here in Philadelphia?

S: Yes, this will be the first time Blackburner will be in Philly. We’ve heard nothing but great things from our other DJ friends about that area. We are more than ready to tear up the place.

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F: Alright guys, well thanks so much. Is there anything else you’d like to share with us; or any last words?

S: Blackburner has many more surprises in store for our listeners and for our live performances. We have plans for extensive touring and we will see everyone in their town soon! Check us out at Blackburner.org or Facebook us at facebook.com/blackburner.org AND Follow us on twitter to stay up to date @blkburner and individually @skylatalon and @xxspledxx

 

Funkadelphia Exclusive: Ecklipze – “Battleaxe” (FREE DL!) + Artist Interview & Album Announcement!!!!

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That’s right!! It’s time for the next installation of our artist interview series. This time, I was lucky enough to sit down and ask Canadian dubstep producer Ecklipze a couple questions. In addition, he was nice enough to also provide  us with a FREE new track, called “Battleaxe”. As you will read in the below interview, Ecklipze is working on an album, due to be released in the near future. You can find a couple of the songs from Ecklipze’s career, as well as the new track, below; and you can be sure at least a few of them will be making an appearance on the upcoming album. For now, just read and enjoy (you can cop the new track at the bottom of the interview)!!

Ecklipze - Soundcloud // Facebook // Twitter

F: Let’s start off just with some background info: where are you originally from? And where do you call home now?

KE: I’m originally from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and currently living in Vernon, British Columbia, Canada, a small retirement town about 40 mins away from Kelowna BC.

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F: Other than your music project, Ecklipze, what are you doing there now? Working, school, anything like that?

KE: Currently music is my full time job. In the last few years I’ve been focusing on my company (Track Star Productions), which I co-own with Chad Hector. It has opened up doors with working with some great artists and slowly making our name into this massive music industry.

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F: And what would you say first got you interested on getting involved with music?

KE: Family and the passion for music. My family always encouraged me to focus on music no matter where it would take me. As well, the reactions that I get from listener motivate me to get heard by the entire world. It has always been a goal of mine to be successful with music, but still maintain the passion for it and have fun producing [it].

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F: Awesome answer. Do you think growing up in Vernon has had any impact on your music?

KE: Growing up in Vernon has had a massive impact on my music. Inspiration is everything to me, and I live in a town where I can walk around and get inspired and gather new ideas that I can incorporate into my music. There are a lot of very talented artists in this town, and since it’s a small town it’s easy to meet up with different local artists and talk about music and new creation processes and we can all adapt into our music.

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F: I assume Ecklipze is your main project, but do you have any other music projects on the side?

KE: Ecklipze is actually a side project of mine. It started as challenge for me to try and produce dubstep so I could expand my multi-genre of producing skills. When I made my first track I swore to myself that I wouldn’t ever make another dubstep track because it sounded horrible. Dubstep is my favourite genre though so I gave it another shot and now have been working on my solo album for the past eight months. My main project right now is with an artist by the name of NOX. He is a rap/hip-hop artist with an insane amount of talent. I have been producing his debut album for the last two years, recording and mastering it. The album is set to drop very soon.

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Eckipze - “Bullet”

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F: Oh wow, that’s really interesting. That’s something else I’d definitely be interested in hearing when it drops. But I do want to try to stay on the topic of Ecklipze. Let’s get on to some technical stuff. As of now, what software do you use to produce your filth? And what software do you use when mixing it?

KE: Right now I’m using Ableton Live and Reason Rewired. I only use three plug-ins: Massive, Melodyne, and Izotope Ozone 5. I do all of my mixing and mastering in Ableton Live and just use the standard effects for processing. I’ve tried a lot of programs over the years and by far Ableton has been the the best tool.

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F: Awesome. Now, just for nostalgia purposes: what was your first piece of equipment, and what software did you first start producing in?

KE: My first piece of equipment was a turntable and dual deck cassette player. I user to record off vinyl onto the cassettes and then chop the samples onto to second deck on the cassette player; just mash sh*t together. It was kind of a messed up process but it worked. First software I started producing on was Fruity Loops and Cubase.

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F: Now I know you’ve got an album in the works. Who’s going to be putting that out for you? Or is it an independent release?

KE: The album will be released through Trenchant Records based out of Chicago, and I will be releasing a follow-up EP that will be released through Track Star Productions.

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F: Awesome. And what can we expect on the album? Plenty of good old Ecklipze filth?

KE: LOTS of filth! Also I will have a track that features [WobGobliN] that will be dubstep/electro/drum and bass/moombahton. I’m hoping to have a few other tracks on there that will be “different” in the world of dubstep.

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F: Does the album have an official title and/or release date at this point?

KE: The album will be called Movement and no official release date is set yet due to some unfinished tracks. I’m hoping tht it will drop late October.

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F: Very cool. So once the album drops, what are your plans after that? Anything big in the near future you can tell us about?

KE: After the album drops I will be working on the follow-up EP and hopefully hitting the road and playing some shows!

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F: Well thanks a lot man. Anything else you want to say before we go?

KE: Big ups to Funkadelphia….. And I hope I can get a igloo theme stage for my first show. Canadian filth!

Ecklipze - Soundcloud // Facebook // Twitter

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Ecklipze - “Battleaxe” — Direct Download [FREE]