.png)
WT: What was your first experience of
chiptune?
ABSRDST: It's actually funny; I didn't really realize that
there was a scene for chiptune. I had plugins that sounded like 8 bit, so I
started making 8 bit music. I posted some of them to 4chan, and the good people
on 4chan pointed me to chiptune.org,
where I found Eric Byrnes (who happened to be running an 8 bit radio show out
of my school) and the rest is history.
WT: Did you have any experience producing and releasing music before ABSRDST?
A: Yeah. Before college I couldn't really decide on a
decent name. I went by ABB which stood for Angry Brown Bear. Dunno why. But I
had a YouTube channel and a couple of my songs went pretty far. One of my RnB
jams stands at over 500,000 hits!
WT: What was the inspiration to being writing as ABSRDST?
A: I
was starting college and I wanted to debut something new. I had a collection of
new songs (now known as Home Sweet Home) and I needed to call it something.
WT: Where did the name ABSRDST come from?
A: I've
always been a huge fan of David Lynch, who helped pioneer of absurdist art. I
consider my music to be absurdist, so I just dropped the u and the I.
WT: Musically, who are the biggest
influences on your music?
A: “My
biggest influences... I really love Aphex Twin, I listen to a lot of hip-hop. I
like the production styles of Madlib and Flying Lotus. I also consider
Videogame music from the Super Nintendo era to be essential to my sound. The
soundtracks of Megaman 2, Donkey Kong Country 2 and Earthbound are all
essential to the sound I've been building towards.
WT: Do
you mind divulging some of the themes of Xhip Quim musically, what inspired
them and how you went about creating them?
A: Regarding
the themes in Xhip Quim, the album is a story. If I divulged exactly how I felt
about it, it might ruin the experience for others. I firmly believe that one's
own interpretation of a piece of work is most important of all. I will say,
though, the album is meant to evoke childhood rage.
WT: Could
you tell us a bit about what went into creating ‘Get Real’?
A: That
track was great fun. I'm not really sure how to describe it, I went in thinking
it was going to be a chip track. I was at a studio that had these massive KRK
monitors and a couple new vst instruments. I wanted the lead to sound like it
was glitching in time so I gave it these gnarly pitch bends. Then came that
bouncy acid bass line, and it was a hip-hop studio so I decided to throw in
those "woah, yeah" samples from It Takes Two. That song came out
really satisfying. It will definitely be on my next album.
WT: How
did you become involved in World 1-2? Could you describe how your track came
into being?
A: World
1-2 has been a great adventure. Basically, when Sugarblossom and the Space
Cadets came out I got a rush of attention from the Chiptune world. I went on a
local chip radio show to promote it (Seaking's Seaglass) and it got picked up
by DJ Cutman. Muhammad, who had already asked Cutman to release the album on
his label, caught wind of me via Cutman's blog and the rest is history.
WT: What
lies in store for the future of ABSRDST?
A: A
lot. I haven't been releasing much but I've been making music even more than I
was before. I'm trying to create a new sound that hasn't been heard before. It’s
kind of this hip-hop sound, but very atmospheric. Lots of melody. There’s that and a couple of projects that I'm
not at liberty to discuss, but trust me they're very very exciting. I'm working
with Cutman some more, as well as Muhammad, and the elusive Mega Ran has
expressed interest in some of my production. No promises though. I also have a
show coming up in August in Salem MA.
