DeeJay, deejay or DJ, makes some wonderful music. His beautiful collages are essential listening and his latest drop can be heard in full on his Soundcloud. Enjoy the interview and if you like his stuff, go cop something!
1. You just dropped a new project, Revitalized 0.5. It’s a collection of beautiful instrumentals, plus one dope collab with SeKwence. Can you tell me anything about how it all came together?
It all came together because I originally was going to release Revitalized but then my computer crashed and I lost access to all my beats. I decided I still wanted to release a project and luckily had some beats on my Google Drive and threw them into a project. Some of them are from this past year, and then there’s the song with Sekwence which is probably over a year old. Atonia V2 is gonna be on Revitalized 1, same sample different beat with a bit of a surprise on there.
2. Your previous efforts include the BlackHeart EP, which I think perfectly displays your grasp of melody. Who or what inspired the sound you deliver on these tapes?
My biggest inspirations when it comes to beats are Dilla and Alchemist, but I try and make a whole bunch of different sounds. I would say a lot of that tape sounded like how I was feeling at the time, my life was kinda shit at that point but music helped out a lot.
3. Some of your beats are pretty off the wall, ‘mnstry’ comes to mind. What moods do you attempt to convey when making beats?
I love trying to make something that seems out of my realm of music. Sometimes I’ll challenge myself to try make a beat using some completely random song that wouldn’t typically be sampled. Or sometimes, like mnstry or lvndr I’ll take a song and remix it in my own way while still sounding similar to the original. 5 Oh is another good example of something way different than what I’d typically make, and it took maybe 15 minutes to throw together. I don’t always go in making something with a specific mood in mind but lately I’ve been making more uptempo/upbeat beats.
4. As your beats sometimes have rappers guesting on them, would you ever do a project of different artists going over your beats?
I’ve definitely been wanting to do a full project with just a bunch of my favorite rappers and producers and just make a good album with artists that I fuck with.
5. Who would you most like to work with, be it rapper or producer, that you haven’t already?
For rappers, I’d really want to work with Freddie Gibbs or Wiki, I would’ve loved to have worked with Mac Miller. For producers, I don’t really work with a lot of other producers unless I’m in the studio with them but I’d definitely say Killer Kane and No Face.
6. How long have you been producing for and do you have any plans for your career in the future?
I first downloaded FL when i was in the 6th grade but didn’t know what I was doing, and then moved onto another music software that was used in my band classes to make music. I made a full music piece for a high school in 6th grade and thought it was the coolest shit. I’ve always been interested in making music, I remember wanting to start a band with some friends in elementary school. I didn’t really start getting into producing until my junior year of high school in 2015. I started on my brother’s old laptop and pair of cheap speakers, then moved up to a MacBook and studio monitors. I just hope to get my own place where I can make music 24/7 and get some more placements.
7. Who else is killing the beat game right now? Put me on
I don’t think I’ve got anyone secret that you haven’t already heard of. Some of my favorites right now are Kane, No Face, Thelonious Martin, V Don and my friend Nino $kull.
8. Finally bro, is there any shoutouts you’d like to do or anything to say? People should already know to shop with this man cos he’s killin it and if you don’t, you sleep.
Shoutout to the homie Ezra aka Nino $kull, his duo ManMeetsBeat with KTB, they’ve got a project coming soon and Nino has a solo album in the works too. Follow them at @ninoskull @manmeetsbeat @kwizz72 Him and the homie Marcus aka Pie are the reason I produce. Shoutout to every artist I’ve met thru Twitter that fucks with me, there’s too many of you to name. Revitalized 1 hopefully comes out next year. I’ve got an album called Third Coast Connection that’s also in the works but might not come out for awhile. I’ve got a tape planned for before that album too. As always I’ve got beats for sale on my Traktrain and hopefully I can update that eventually.
Listen to DeeJay on Soundcloud. Follow him on Twitter at @deejay075.
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