SiteOfSound

[Photo by Emily Ibarra]

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1. Your music seems to go across a wide spectrum of genres, from producing your own beats to going over songs by the XX, Grizzly Bear, and Magnetic Man. What songs have you have been playing on repeat this summer?

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“Oh man i’ve been playing ‘Wildfire’ by sbtrkt, ‘Babies Are The Future’ by Kids & Explosions, ‘Motivation’ by Kelly Rowland (which is my JAMMM right now), ‘Swear’ by inc, ‘BTSTU’ by Jai Paul, ‘I Can’t Go For That’ by Hall & Oates, and a little Britney for good measure.”

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2. What are the influences that drive you to write the lyrics that you do?  Tell us the process you go through when making a song.

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“My lyrics are driven by two forces — the musical backbone i create for a song & my state of mind that day.  Lately i’ve been in a very introspective and sardonic place, so i think my songs reflect that.  When i’m writing i’ll start out by getting a 16-bar loop going, with drums and a basic riff.  then i’ll put that on repeat for like an hour and just write, allow the idiosyncrasies of the track to nestle in my brain and help inspire different rhythmic and melodic patterns. For the most part, though, i like to write when i’m feeling sad.”

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3. Tell us about your hip-hop origins – what was your first album and when did you start writing/rapping?

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“The first hip hop album that i really got into was ‘Doggystyle’.  my brother bought it on cassette when we were 8 years old and i remember thinking it was so dangerous, so raw.  I listened to a fair amount of hip hop growing up, but i didn’t start writing & producing until i moved to california for college.  Writing my first song was this totally capricious thing, but it blossomed into something real once i figured out that (1) I liked making beats (which were, admittedly, incredibly shitty at the time) and (2) I could rap very fast.

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4. What was running through your head when you made “Less Than Zero”?

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K. Flay – Less Than Zero

“I was actually super hung over.  I had just puked twice and was trying to stomach some toast so that i could drive my car to Oakland and work on music. It was one of those mornings where you’re actually like ‘it might be ok if i died with my face over this toilet.’”

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5. What program(s) do you use to produce your music?

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“I compose all my beats in Logic & Protools, but i run my live show with Ableton. I use Logic for all my midi stuff, export it, and then fuck with it as an audio file in Protools. Ableton is great for structuring songs in an on-the-fly way but i also love all the midi mapping capabilities, since i use a couple different controllers in my live set.”

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There you go. I’m sure you’ll agree K. Flay is one of the most original artists out there right now and is definitely one to be watched. Check out her website HERE and download her music.