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Week 16 and we're hitting up Washington on the hazy weekend with a track from party animal / egotistical troll, Boaconstructor! With a release out on here, TWG, tomorrow too, bring on the hype machine! Grab the track here!
WT: How
did you first come into contact with the chiptune scene?
Boaconstructor: Ah,
this one's a pretty good story actually.. chiptune really fell on my lap. I was
16, walking around Seattle's yearly Memorial Day weekend festival with a few friends.
Walk up on this semicircle of interesting looking dancing folks and decide to
investigate. Sabrepulse, Fighter X, Electric Children (Circles at the time),
McFiredrill, and Ovenrake are all getting their busk on. Asked one of the
dancing dudes wtf these guys were doing and was blown away. I was really
getting into dubstep and hardstyle (lol) at the time, and had only had a
Gameboy when growing up, so I was definitely intrigued to say the least. Find
out about the free "NW Chip Showcase" happening the next day and
decide to go. Got to see Sabrepulse, Trash80, and Fighter X play in a small
space with good sound. Turned into a fucking party. Sold for life.
WT: Who would you say are the main musical
influences behind your work?
B: To be honest,
the majority of the influence behind boaconstructor has come from non-chip bass
music. Guys like Caspa, Skream, The Widdler, etc. are the reason I got into
dance music at all. That's not to say that chip shit hasn't inspired me
though.. Early on, I was crazy into Homesweet, Fighter X, Shirobon, Sabrepulse,
Q330, JDDJ3J, IAYD etcetcetc. These days, my counterparts from the PNW 8bit
posse really get me goin.. Every time I collab with them, I learn. Every time I
hear a new track from one of the homies, I know it's time to step my game up.
Going to events and becoming deeply rooted in the club/rave scene here
(#sorrynotsorry) is hands down the driving force behind my style and live
approach. Being able to watch it explode over these last few years gives me a
lot of hope. Not to mention, I'm consistently blown away when I get to
watch/study some of my favourite producers mixing. My dream is to have LSDJ
tunes that have sound design worthy of being dropped by DJs & producers.
WT: So would you say playing live is an
important part of the writing process for you?
B: Absolutely.
All of the more recent tunes I've written have been made to compliment my live
set. Depending on the tempo, the structure of my tracks are all pretty similar
so they can be mixed between each other as seamlessly as possible. Because of
that, I try to keep as little repetition as possible in my songs (I've run out
of phrases and instruments in LSDJ with some 75% of them) as to keep things
interesting. The whole goal is to make songs and live transitions that will get
a good reaction out of the crowd.
WT: Could you explain the story behind your
moniker please?
B: Haha this one
will make me sound like a moderate pussy... but YOLO. When my younger sister
was 6-7 years old, she went to the zoo with my dad one weekend. She came back home
excited as fuck and told me all about the different animals she saw. She
couldn't get over how big the "boaconstructors" were. I thought it
was cute/badass so that was the first idea that came to mind once I started
producing.
WT: Rumour has it, you’re starting your own
netlabel! Could you divulge a little information please?
B: Ahh yes I suppose rumours of such things may or may
not be true ;) It's going to be called "thebasebit Recordings". The
idea is to have it focused around the low-end, bottom-heavy, BASE of 8bit
music. I'm doing it to support my friends and give a professional image to the
music that I love. Quite a few releases already lined up, but I don't want to
spoil anything..
WT: You’ve got a release out tomorrow here on TWG, mind
telling the readers a little more about it?
B: Turtlesaur and I are besties. We'd collaborated on
a couple of tracks over the last year, which we're both pretty proud of. Few of
the tracks are fairly influenced by Fighter X and IAYD, as Tanner and I have
been listening to them for a long while. We made sure to toss our own styles
onto them.. I couldn't release a tune that directly emulated another artist's
sound. EP consists of 3 collab tracks and a solo track from each of us, all 1
LSDJ + DMG. I'm mad hyped to finally get these out.
WT: From your point of view, what’s the
chiptune scene like in Washington?
B: The last year
has seen some weird ups and downs. Seattle is really the focal point of the
state's chip scene, though we've got a handful of other artists scattered
throughout the state. We've got some serious LSDJ talent here: Fighter X (who
we might just see a comeback from in this near future), Electric Children,
G-Diffuser, Turtlesaur (who also happens to now be one of the world's NL 2.x
heavyweights), and Orbital Strike, to name a few. What we lack is
organization/direction. We used to have three (usually) monthly chip shows.
They've all fizzled out. The majority of us actives (myself included) are flat
BROKE, so booking and promo are difficult to fund. I still love everybody involved,
though.
WT: What went into creating your
WeeklyTreat track, and what’s the story behind the name?
B: This is my VIP
(self-remix) of the first solo LSDJ tune I ever finished, Ft. Wenty. I spent a
few late nights reworking the song's tracking, and actually ended up layering
an 808 kick underneath it. First time I've brought a non-chip element into a
tune. It's a cute little "creative" way of spelling 420. I hate to be
that guy.. but weed is a huge part of my writing process and boosts my creativity
exponentially. I figured I'd dedicate a title to this without blatantly saying
something about getting high.
WT: Beyond tomorrow’s release, what are
your plans for ‘boaconstructor’ in the future?
B: Debut solo EP
to be released in the next couple/few months. I've got some of my
full-production artist friends doing remixes for it. I'm stupid excited for
them, they already sound super dope. I've got a handful collabs finished which
look like they'll be released on the other artists' EPs. Plans for more upcoming
collabs. Oh not to mention a SUMMER US TOUR. Keep an eye open for that :)
