I had to learn how to bring the best outta Key! by learning what's going on with him. That's how I approach every artist I work with, period.
I was working for Johnny Shipes in New York when I was 17 years old, getting beats off.
I started a group called Loudpvck, which I do by myself now, and toured the whole world.
I've been doing music in some form since I was seven years old.
I started making beats in high school.
Key! is the greatest rapper alive. I honestly, truly believe that no one is as effortless, weird, and creative, and themselves as he has been for years and years.
I think a lot of people make a big misstep when they assume what an artist is going to be interested in, so I try to just take that out of the equation and make sure whenever I'm talking to people about their music, I'm getting all my context clues from that - and then we go to work.
I'm a very self-sufficient person, much like a lot of people I work with.
There's a difference between a beatmaker and a producer.
I never was able to pay any type of bill doing the music that I was instinctually was making 'cause I loved it. I had to kind of pivot into doing the stuff that someone had taught me about to really get on my feet.
Being in the EDM world taught me that nothing's impossible.
People will go through 50 beats from a producer and pick the best ones, go make a song on that beat. That's cool, but someone coming to me and hearing what I've been working on, picking out pieces of all of that, and then adding some of their own ideas is way more exciting.
Idles are the best band in the whole world.
Making assumptions taught me a lot as a producer, because it's something I never do now.
Greedo taught me a lot. I don't say that about every artist. Some artists might teach me stuff musically, but Greedo taught me stuff about being a man and being a musician and being a creative, and being different from other people.
You don't have to be best friends with people to make music.
I am friends with the most amazing musicians that can do pop, rap, punk and jazz.
Many times you make music and someone decides to try and pick the best of everything. But if you wait, you sometimes fall out of love, or a song doesn't speak to you anymore, so you lose the moment.
Being genre-bending doesn't really cross my mind. I don't consider anyone I work with a specific genre.
You need to make people think about society in a less literal and more primal way. It's about using the least amount of sounds to make the most amount of noise and energy, and making a bass stab really feel like you've been punched in the face.
