Austrian producer Filous is a reminder that age is not a factor of stardom; now a recurrent theme within the musicsphere. He has an impressive repertoire under his belt, amassing nearly 100,000 Soundcloud followers and well over 6,000,000 plays on his catalog. For anyone, let alone an 18-year-old, that is impressive.

For those of you who haven’t experienced his live show, know that the multi-instrumentalist plays effortlessly on stage mixing a combination of backing tracks with several instruments he taught himself. His first tour ever, with RAC, Big Data, and more, is also his first time playing for the public, with his NYC stop being his 6th live performance ever. We had the chance to catch up with him after just that performance, at the legendary Webster Hall.

TMN: How has tour been going so far? I hear this is your first time both on tour?

It has been very surreal for me. It’s my first time touring and playing in the U.S. Touring in a tour bus has been pretty incredible. I’ve been watching music documentaries and following artists for a really long time so now to be in that position myself is completely surreal. It has been awesome too because I’ve been traveling with so many professional people with so much experience and advice to offer, it’s be a really great opportunity.

’RAC – 3AM ft. Katie Herzig (filous Remix)’
Soundcloud

TMN: Tell me about your roots, how did you shape your particular style?

I’ve been learning instruments since I was 10 years old. The first instrument I [learned] was bass and then after that guitar, keyboard, flute, harmonica etc. We were thinking about how were could do this live, I had the idea of just doing it the way we created the songs, me jamming on the guitar and then creating a beat to it.

TMN: You mentioned in another interview you learned a lot from Youtube videos?

Yeah, I never really had the urge to get a teacher. It cost a lot of money and I didn’t have that money. I just looked up stuff like “how to play the guitar,” or “how to play the harmonica” and such. To have the accessibility to learn those from people who know what to do through the internet was pretty amazing.

TMN: Obviously your age and early success is cited often, did you always see yourself becoming a professional musician?

It has definitely been a learning process. I try to progress all the time and to do better. It has also [been] a lot of learning from other such as everyone I’m on tour with. I try not to think of my age that much because a lot of people are seeing their age as an excuse, like ‘oh I’m 18 I still have all this time left.’ I feel like ignoring that and focusing on where I’m at right now, what I can do, and what my possibilities are to try and cherish that. That’s my goal right now.

TMN: How did you initially distribute your music?

We initially just put the project out on Soundcloud. We didn’t do anything else. One day, we got the idea that there are so many youtube channels out there like Mr. Suicide Sheep, so we just wrote them emails and eventually Le Belle Musique posted a track of ours. Mr. Suicide Sheep showed us that they can give you so much exposure in the internet world. Hypem blogs such as The Music Ninja also started posting our tracks, we then saw Hypem and having blog support is so important as well so we tried to actively pursue that area.

TMN: Where or whom do you draw inspiration from?

I have a lot of inspirations coming from electronic music and acoustic music. Electronic music would definitely be Daft Punk, Deadmau5, The Glitch Mob, Flume, all those people who try to do something new and do something fresh. Those are the people who got me into electronic music.

Before that, I was mainly into acoustic music. Metal before that. I was listening to a lot of Metallica and really dark, dark like death metal bands. After that I got into Jazz; Herbie Handcock, Dave Brubeck, and then big bands stuff. So, I kind of did the reverse music journey by starting with recent music and then going back into time. Then I got really into bluegrass after that like John Butler Trio. Now I’m really trying to combine those influences like with the harmonica and electronic beats and the dance feel.

TMN: I’m a big fan of James Hersey, how did you guys link up?

’How Hard I Try ft. James Hersey’
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’James Hersey – Coming Over (filous Remix)’
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Crazy coincidence. My sister is like my music scout. Half the remixes that are online are found through her. One day she sent me over like 100 tracks as usual, I listened to them all and they were all really good but nothing was really standing out to me. Then, last track that I listened to was Coming Over, by James Hersey. I got goosebumps, it was a really magically moment. So, I tried to bootleg remix it and after I finished it I sent it to him and found out he’s from Vienna too! Also we found out that my brother went to the same university classes as his brother and they knew each other so eventually we met in Vienna for the first time. We put the “Coming Over” remix online and then started working on “How Hard I Try,” which was the first original we put out.

TMN: Any other collaborations or people you want to work with in the pipeline that you can speak on?

Well, people I really want to work with are Bobby McFerrin, he’s been an amazing inspiration for me. The way he performs on stage and deals with people and music and positivity that comes with it is really amazing. I really love Daughter. Also I just found Melanie Martinez. She’s amazing.

TMN: Anything else big you’re working on / want to share?

I’m just really thankful for the support from you guys and everyone else. I really appreciate it.

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