What advice would you give to your younger self or aspiring artists who are just starting out in the industry?
Don’t go to college. Aside from some amazing friends I made there, I really only got a useless degree, a bunch of debt, and some mild alcoholism. And when I got out, I was four years behind a lot of my peers when it came to music. I say “got out” like it was a jail sentence but that’s not really fair, my college had much worse food than jail. Shout out Fredonia State!
What could Grimes have done to avoid the Coachella disaster set?
Well to start she could have done like most of us and ground it out in the local EDM bar scene for years playing for exposure and drink tickets. Slowly she could have learned the intricate nuances of DJing as a craft, honing her skills over time both in front of small groups of friends in someone’s basement somewhere where the people were more fixated on an episode of Rick and Morty than a casual slip up here and there. Overtime as her confidence grows the crowds would grow in unison allowing her to take more risks as an artist and fully dive into making her sets into a full experience of the senses that people would remember for the rest of their lives. Or… she could have just turned off the sync button.
Do you read the comments on your music?
Every once in a while I like to see what SoundCloud thinks of my music but it’s mostly “your snares are trash,” “you should quit,” fun stuff like that. But recently I did get this gem: “Bouta crash tryna comment on this but MY GUY 🤯 So if you are ever driving but want to leave me a comment, just steer with the knees and send it.
EDM culture is known for its energetic atmosphere. How do you stay grounded and connected to yourself amidst all the excitement?
I’m two years into skateboarding and I still can’t kickflip, so anytime I start to get too full of myself I just think about all the smug nine year-olds at the skate park who can kickflip and I’m immediately yeeted back to earth. I even wrote a song about it called “Bully”.
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