Wednesday, March 31, 2010

A musical recommendation

In an effort to expand my musical horizons I have been scouring music forums,random websites and youtube to find all types of music. Recently while I was on youtube I ran into a video from an up and coming electronica/trip hop producer from South Carolina who goes by the name of "The Icarus Project". Upon finding the video I immediately started asking questions. The Icarus Project was nice enough to answer a few of them and what you're about to read is the exchange we had via e-mail.






1. How long have you been making music?

Actually, I started making hip-hop instrumentals back in high-school under the moniker Crys Coinz with a bootleg copy of Fruity Loops and a radio-shack microphone. I believe it was my freshman year so I guess I've been making music for a little over 5 years now. About 2 years ago, I experimented with electronica for the first time instead of hip-hop production. The Icarus Project grew out of that experimentation.

2. What inspired you to get into music?

I've always heavily interested in music, even though I hadn't taken a single music course until my first year of college. In high-school, I got into production because it was a creative outlet that did not interfere too badly with the hectic schedule of my school and athletics. Yet, about the time I started to look at colleges my junior year, my music had become something that I worked tirelessly on and there was nothing else in the world I could imagine myself doing otherwise. My inspiration is strange in that it was my own love and need to express myself that inspired me to do music professionally.

3. How would you describe your sound?

If I'd have to give it a genre it'd probably be electronica or trip-hop, but I concentrate on using ideas from a huge range of genres to get my sound. The Icarus Project as a whole concentrates on texture and atmosphere. In a sense, The Icarus Project is my emotions distilled into singular entities. Every track is meant to convey a place, emotion, or dynamic depending on the listener's own perception. In particular, distortion and the 'wall of sound' style used in the shoe-gaze genre of indie rock define the title track of this EP.

4. Besides from yourself who are some of your favorite artists?

I have quite a few artists that I absolutely love right now. Two of my favorite artists (M∅ke and Jordan Young) actually provided remixes to Wax and Feathers on this EP. For my particular sound: Flaming Lips, Nine Inch Nails, Modwheelmood, Blockhead, Aphex Twin, We Fell To Earth, RJD2, Daft Punk, Dan Deacon, DJ Shadow, Digitonal, edIT, Friend John, Dangermouse, IAMX, Ladytron, Lights Out Asia, UNKLE, Pelican City, Portishead, Massive Attack, Radiohead, Saul Williams, and Telefon Tel Aviv are my biggest influences right now. I am also very interested in what Arliss Parker and Park Avenue Music are currently doing. Both of them are fairly new to the industry but are crafting some quite beautiful music. Ohh and that T1 and Drebone duo is pretty damn good too *thumbs up*.

5. Why should my readers download your album?

Well, I feel that I'm doing something a lot of people are not used to, but the emotion behind the music is something everyone can relate to. This EP is for my single Wax and Feathers, and I feel that everyone can relate the sense of elation in it. Even though many of the sounds are distorted and imperfect, when brought together it makes for a sound that reaches upward and accomplishes something greater than the individual parts. I encourage your readers to turn it on, close their eyes, and let their minds wander. If my track doesn't take them somewhere special, any one of the remixes most certainly will.

Now that you've learned about him check out some of his music by downloading the EP to the first single off of his self titled debut. If you're into electronica,trip hop and all around trippy music or if you just want expand your musical horizon and enjoy something good this will take you on a short musical journey into synthesized insanity. Enough of me wasting time click on the picture below and download the 5 track EP "Wax and Feathers" which features the original rough copy of Wax and Feathers,a more mellow "grounded" version of it,3 pretty nice remixes and an awesome and upbeat bonus track.

Click the picture to download

1 comments:

Awesome interview!!! Kudos T :)