Back at his tour stop in New Orleans, we had the chance to sit down and not only watch the Mayweather/Mcgregor fight with New Zealand trap legend QUIX, but interview him as well about stuff happening in his life. Read the interview below and show one of our favorite RTT artists some love.
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Run the Trap: So, you’re on a QUIX world tour right now. How’s it been going?
QUIX: Going well, man! Really digging the vibes of this tour so far. I feel like the last two weeks have been two months of work. Don’t get me wrong though, it’s the best work possible.
You’ve recently traveled to China and Australia, establishing yourself as a huge international presence. Can you just talk about how those stops were? The vibes, people, food, etc.
At the start of this year, I went on my first US tour. That was intense, but it also wasn’t like what it is now. Everything is so massive. I’m at the level where I’m doing bigger shows and having to perform longer and do crazy traveling.I’ve done China and Australia, but those are the only other two countries that I’ve played. China is a whole different ballgame. In terms of the people and the culture, the scene is still so fresh and new there. You experience their culture in full; it’s a 100% diet change. You start eating fried noodles for breakfast, like every morning. It’s weird but interesting. I’ve done Australia for a long time, and New Zealand is obviously my home; but, Australia’s also my home as well. I consider myself to be almost a local there now.
I hear the crowds in Australia are some of the best.
Especially Sydney and Brisbane. Crowds are absolutely crazy in those places. Melbourne is still coming up, I’ve had a couple cool shows in Melbourne; those are kind of the main cities. One of the places that tends to always go crazy is this club called Proud Mary’s on the central coast, about an hour north of Sydney. I have some good friends up there and it’s always insane. It’s almost as big as playing one of the main cities [in the country].
So why is Australia so different? Do you think people just go and give it their all?
People are really invested in the scene, building and supporting it. I think supporting your local scene is so important for having good shows all-around. Within New Zealand there’s a great bass scene. When people are pushing and pouring into the scene and investing in it by making it out to shows and supporting each other and listening to music in unity, it makes something really special.
Being at the forefront of the ‘trap’ music, where do you see it going towards in the near future? People will always say “oh, trap is dying,” but I’m curious where you stand.
There are a couple of new artists sprouting up and showing off their sound and their own flare. It’s a weird question because who knows really? For me, all I’m trying to do is make the weirdest stuff possible. Hopefully, everyone’s trying to push each other up. In terms of where trap is going, I think it will always evolve. I don’t think it will ever die. I’ve gotten a lot of support from Run The Trap, which has been amazing. Personally, that was kind of my next stage – having those types of collectives backing my music. Now, for me, it’s kind of holding off putting out as much music as I can, getting together really good content and releasing stuff strategically, the right way. I’m sitting on a lot of content, but it’s just about finding the right time to release it. It’s a monthly thing I’d say, where I’d be pushing tracks and trying to get the attention of other artists. It’s a playing field. You’re playing ball with all the other producers, labels, and managers.
What was one of the first songs you heard that made you want to pursue a career in trap and dance music? Flosstradamus’s remix of “Original Don” was mine. How about you?
Mine was “The Flood” by RL Grime. He recently toured in New Zealand and I got to open for him. We got a chance to speak before the show and I basically told him, “Hey you’re one of my heroes, ‘The Flood’ is the reason I make trap.” Trap will always be this weird thing that’ll branch out into many genres. It’s your first original love for the music that will always be consistent.
In your Reddit AMA, you said a goal of yours is to make the next release better than the previous one. Do you ever feel challenged to make music that’s new and different from what everyone else is doing?
Half of it is luck and about 90% of the time I write something, I end up deleting it because it’s boring. I feel like when I’m writing music, I have to be able to listen to it for five minutes straight, like five minutes of the same 32 bar loop, of the drop and not be bored. I’ve got to literally be positive that I like it after five minutes. When I first made the third drop of “Pokies,” which is quite renowned for its wonky sound, I think I listened to it for about ten minutes straight. I never stopped smiling when I was listening to it. It takes a lot of time. But then sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes I’ll get a drum loop going and I’ll have an idea in my head of what I want the song to sound like. A lot of the time, actually, it’s me walking around my house beatboxing, making the sounds with my mouth. Maybe if I get something I like I’ll voice record it on my phone and try and get to my computer and make it. I’d say about 85% of the time it doesn’t work.
I feel that. Having to replicate something that hits you really quickly takes some time and it’s hard to keep that original sound in your head while taking the time to make it sound good.
Bringing your head to your computer is one of the craziest talents out there. It’s so hard to do. I’d say 85% of the time I wouldn’t get the track idea down. 90% of the time, it will turn into something else that ends up being cool though. As I’m trying to find the sound in my head by scrolling through Serum or whatever, I’ll be like “oh wait a sec, this sound could work here” and it could be a different type of drop based on the sound I find.
I want to talk about the Gucci Mane collab for a sec.
[Laughs] It’s such a good story.
Ok, so why don’t you give us a refresher?
Young Sidechain is a beat producer from Atlanta and he makes beats kind of alongside guys like Lex Luthor. He was producing for Gucci Mane and the whole Bricksquad crew or whatever. One thing that you guys all should know is that I’m not rap affiliated, if that’s the right way to say it. I have got very low knowledge of the rap scene. It’s probably because I’m from New Zealand and there are barely any rappers there, and everyone is a rapper in the US. So my managers got hit up by this Young Sidechain guy and they told me “Hey we got some of the best news ever. You should sit down, because Gucci Mane wants to do a feature.” And I straight up said, “Who’s Gucci Mane?” I had no idea who he was. I was like, “Great, we got a rapper.” My managers insisted I knew who he was but I truthfully had no idea. We wanted to get the track out during South By South West, and I got hit up about it a week before South By. They kind of said, “If we could just get this out as soon as possible, it would seriously just kill everything.”
So, I worked on that track for a week and it just wasn’t good. I made one demo, and to me it sounded cool. I was obviously working with Young Sidechain, the other collaborator, and he had to be okay with what it sounded like in the end. He came back with a “yeah I’m not really feeling this,” and then just straight up told me in the email: “Can you make it like ‘Purple Lamborghini’ by Rick Ross and Skrillex?’” So just thought to myself “Alright I’ll just try, I guess,” and I figured it out. During South By South West was when we wanted to release it but we didn’t even have a proper demo. I went back to try and make it better and after a week, I had a pretty similar demo to what it sounds like now. I thought it sounded great so I sent it back to him and he fiddled with it a little bit and then we had the full song ready. After the weeks went on as I was waiting to release it, I kind of figured out just how big Gucci Mane is. Like he’s probably three times the size of Diplo or whatever.
That’s one of those stories you just have to hear to believe. After that experience do you want to work with more rappers in the future?
Obviously being from New Zealand and not having rap be a huge part of our culture, my honest first thoughts are no, I don’t want to. And then on top of that, when I hear how much the cost is to get a feature, I don’t really want to pay that money to have a guy yell over one of my tracks. But, being involved within the scene in America, especially in LA, I’ve seen the culture and seen how things go, and how it would definitely be a good idea to, in the future, get a proper feature. By the way, the Gucci collab, we could only release that for free on Soundcloud due to Gucci’s request. Kinda sucked we couldn’t sell it.
So you recently released a dope EP, you’re traveling the world playing music, what are some goals that you have? What’s the next step?
Music will always be in my blood and I will always be making music. I’ll always try and be playing shows. I just love traveling the world with Mrs. Quix.
Mrs. Quix?
Yeah yeah! My Wife! She’s on Instagram and twitter also. She’s the best.
How cool. Does she travel with you?
We travel together, the last few shows the routing has been really weird so I had to do it just by myself. But yeah, I’m just trying to do as much as I can right now. Later in life I want to have a family, and I can’t wait to have a little Quix Jr. running around. But for right now, yeah, we’re just trying to do as much as we can. The main thing about being married in the industry, which I’ve found is quite rare, is music is a big part of the relationship, but the relationship always comes first. If it meant that I had to stop doing shows to focus on the marriage, the marriage would take priority.
Always need your priorities straight.
Always. I’ll still make music but doing shows is what takes more time and energy. I’ll make music till I’m 50. If that’s me just releasing music and not doing shows… it sounds like this is me quitting and planning my retirement but it’s not, I swear. I’ll be going as hard as I can until I’m in my 30’s at least. Maybe then I’ll slow down.
Any last words for your Quix fans or the Run The Trap readers?
Make sure you keep out Run the Trap! [Laughs] But seriously, they’re posting gold. They’re tastemakers, they see what’s happening very clearly and they set trends.
‘Interview: QUIX Talks Trap Music, Touring & Working with Gucci Mane
The post Interview: QUIX Talks Trap Music, Touring & Working with Gucci Mane appeared first on Run The Trap: The Best EDM, Hip Hop & Trap Music.
