TMN:Thanks for taking some time to sit down with us and for coming on board as our resident artist for this month. We’re stoked to feature you guys. Let’s talk about your latest EP, which is your second to date. Can fans expect what they’ve come to know and love, or are you guys switching things up at all?
Ben: I feel like it’s sort of both. I feel like we’ve never really stayed the same, as an artist. So, I feel like they’re expecting something different.
Dylan: It definitely sounds like us, but no song really sounds the same. So, it will be a good variety of new, better sounding stuff.
TMN: You’re also doing a tour in support of the EP, hitting up a few east coast and a few west coast spots. In three words, tell fans what’s in store.
Dylan (higher): For the Kids.
TMN: You guys have a beautiful balance with your music. It’s chaotic, experimental, but all comes together in a highly addicting experience. How did you initially start out with this sound?
Dylan: I think we got a lot of inspiration from Carmack and Penthouse Penthouse.
Ben: And Team Supreme.
Dylan: We started down that route and we had some cool tracks that we were ready to put out. Then, we realized we could do better and developed a more complex sound. It’s evolved into really detailed music.
Ben: We started out kinda playful, seeing what weird sounds we could make music out of – like animals and babies. We found our groove in making our own sounds and now we can use whatever sound we want. We’re not trying to be funny about it anymore.
TMN: You utilize so many different sounds in unique ways. How do you go about crafting your samples?
Ben : Sometimes we’ll be writing a song and we think it would be cool to have this kind of sound. Then we go on the internet and find it, play with it a little bit, and then we also have a few random folders of sounds. There’s not much direction. We’re usually just messing around until something cool happens.
TMN: Are you recording any of your own?
Dylan: We’ve recorded sounds in the past. We’ll do it again soon, but mostly, for now, they’re sounds we’ll find online. We have an audio processing we’ll go back to, which makes it sound like us.
Ben: I would say that most of the sounds we start with – you can’t really tell what they are by the time we put the song out. We could have started with pretty much anything, and until we tell you what it was, you wouldn’t really know.
TMN: Going back even further, you guys are both products of the Icon Collective. Talk to us a little bit about your experience there.
Dylan: I went to Icon without any production knowledge, at all. Getting to go to a place like that, where you’re learning so much from not even just teachers, but the kids around you and all your friends is a pretty invaluable experience. You can’t really put it into words. It’s a one-in-a-million kind of place for learning music production.
Ben: When I went to Icon, I had already gone to Berklee College of Music and studied electronic music production, so I kind of already knew what I was doing. For me, Icon was a really great place to start living in LA because of all these people with a similar mindset. Whenever you go out there are like three or four Icon kids. And, we can always go back there. It’s an awesome community. I’ve always told people, if you’re taking music production seriously, you should go to Icon. If you don’t do that for yourself, you’re kind of shooting yourself in the foot.
Dylan: Just to add to that, we’ve been making all of our music there for two years now.
Ben: They have a graduate studio, and we live right down the street. We usually get four to eight hours a week. It’s pretty much the only place we work because we’re so used to it, and we don’t have to pay for it.
TMN: That’s amazing that they continue to support you, even after you’ve graduated.
Ben: And, we met at Icon. um.. Wouldn’t exist without Icon.
TMN: You have a Spotify playlist that features artists that inspire you. Without giving away the farm, can you share just one with us?
Ben : Probably Tennyson. They’re teenagers from Canada that make awesome jazz electronic fusion music. It’s really next level. I’ve never heard anything that good. Like, ever. They’re a pretty big inspiration for us.
Dylan: If you haven’t heard them, I definitely recommend checking them out. They’re incredibly good in every aspect.
TMN: Your branding really stands out. From your song naming to your social media. Is that a persona you guys developed or is it somewhat on par with one or both of you personally? Or are you purposefully crafting the voice of um..
Ben: It’s kind of a combination. We’re not really that silly of people, but we’re trying to be funny, I guess.
Dylan: It’s in line with our sense of humor, definitely. Everybody has days where they feel differently, but we have to remember that we can’t just go off and be completely different. That’s where we’re kind of crafting the voice.
Ben: I had other projects before um.. and I always thought that branding yourself as an artist was contradictory to art. It shouldn’t be like a static project. It should always be evolving. So, I thought brands were silly. So, it’s sort of our play at a serious brand. We’re doing the branding stuff, in a really silly way.
TMN: We couldn’t help but notice a heavy presence of dogs all throughout your brand. Your cover photos. Your replies back to fans on Facebook. What is that all about?
Dylan: (Laughs) We really like dogs.
Ben: There’s no rhyme or reason to it.
TMN: Also, how many dogs do you personally own? We saw quite a few on your Instagram. Are those mostly ones you dog-sit?
Ben (deeper): We’re just dogsittin’. I actually just got a job at this lady’s house and there are like 10 dogs there. It’s like a dog hotel. It’s tight.
TMN: We typically ask, “if your music were an animal, what would it be?” We probably already know how you’ll answer, so we’ll go one level deeper. If your music were one particular breed of dog, what would it be?
Ben: Oh, jeez.
Dylan: A pug or something, where his eyes are fucked up and looking different ways.
TMN: You could also cross breeds too. There aren’t any rules here.
Dylan: Pugs are the ones with messed up eyes, right?
Ben: Maybe a little Pomeranian. Wait, maybe a blend of every breed. We’re a mutt.
