Knoxtronica Presents: NastyNasty Interview for Impulse Festival

Knoxtronica Presents (JT Smith)- I am very proud and honored to be doing interviews for Impulse Music & Arts Festival with some of the most talented and unique artists that will be taking the stage the weekend of June 15^th – June 17^th. This edition I have Nasty Nasty, and I have got to say when it comes down to west side artists or some unique bass sounds, you have got to be my favorite. Please introduce yourself and tell us where you are from.

NastyNasty- Hello out there internet, I'm NastyNasty. I live in San Jose California, go Sharks.

Knoxtronica- I am really excited to introduce west side bass and electronic music to the east coast. I wanted to ask how you come about creating your sound and what programs you use. When it comes down to listening to music from the west side, I have always looked to you for the freshest sounds.

NastyNasty- Thank you! I write all my music on this really old Windows XP tower in a program called Nuendo, other than the basic spread of plugins, I also use a few hardware synthesizers and effects processors. I also use the internet a lot, whether its mining for samples or watching movies for inspiration I'd say the internet is kind of like a tool for making music.

Knoxtronica- A lot of my readers who are not only musicians themselves, but avid music listeners, would love to know the influence and drive that pushes the sound that is so definitive to NastyNasty. I don't only want to know what influences you to make it but what gets you in the mood to do it as well.

NastyNasty- Musically I listen to a lot of different stuff, right now, I've been on a big nostalgia kick with my listening after seeing The Refused at Coachella this year.... listening to a lot of old Misfits and some some old hardcore. I like a lot of modern rap production right now, both mainstream and underground, artists like; Bangladesh, Just Blaze, 40, C-loz, Clams Casino, Tree, Beautiful Lou. As far as what gets me in the mood to write music, I try to start from a point that is not musical in nature, either watch a movie or read a book until I have some sort of emotional response and go from there.

Knoxtronica- I have been a big follower of west side music and love your project with So What called “Quitter”. It reminds me a lot of what Starkey does over on the east side side, which he likes to call Street Bass. Street Bass, to me, reminds me of a mixture of Grime and some of the newest Electronic music that the U.S. has to offer. I'd love to know your plans with “Quitter” are in the future? Any shows or releases coming up that our readers should check out and watch out for?

Nasty Nasty- So What is one of the only people I can consistently make quality collaborations with, quitter actually predates NastyNasty by a couple of years. Planning is not really one of our strong points... we just like to make tunes because we like to have tunes to play live.

Knoxtronica- With a lot of new music pushing out of not only both sides of the U.S. but all over the world, what have you been into lately? I have been into a lot of this new style of trap music that has been coming out of the wood works everywhere.

NastyNasty- I wouldn't say Trap is a new style at all... even T.I. had an album called Trap Music in like 2003, I will say though I am quite happy about modern electronic producers taking the style to new levels, folks like S-X, Rustie, Lunice, Hudson Mohawke, and Krampfhaft overseas as well as American producers like Distal, Baauer, RL Grime, LDFD as well as the Frite Nite homies Salva and Eprom. I also like a lot of newer, off genre, stuff like Holy Other, Actress, Lorn, Evian Christ, D33J, Matthew David and Dolorr.

Knoxtronica- You have been in the music scene for a hot minute and played a lot of shows and festivals around the states and from my knowledge Impulse Festival is the first festival you have played on the east side. Do you see a difference from the east coast to the west coast?

NastyNasty- Well this is my first festival in the southeast so i can't really speak on southeast vs west coast festivals, What I can say with some certainty is that the BBQ is better in the south and the tacos are better in cali. ;)

Knoxtronica- Every musician starts somewhere and has something that got them started into making music and I am very curious as to what started it for you. Was it a definitive event in your life that got you into creating music or maybe even another artist that moved you?

NastyNasty- According to my parents, when I was 3 I used to take all the pots and pans out of all the cupboards I could reach and build drum sets out of kitchenware. I'd sing all the time when I was a kid and started playing saxophone when I was in 4th grade. Music had always been with me but I guess I didn't really get serious about it until I was 25, I had a really rough year and lost my girl, my job and my best friend in the matter of a couple months... Losing all that music was kind of all I had left keeping me sane so I kind of had to either devote myself to it completely or abandon it for something else.

Knoxtronica- What are some plans for NastyNasty in the future? Are you experimenting with any new genres or projects you would like to fill us in on? I like to hear about artists pushing their boundaries and keeping the listeners on their toes.

NastyNasty- Salva and I did a collab with Foreign Beggars that's coming out soon. My sound has been changing pretty rapidly lately, that Lazerbrain mix I just released is only the tip of the iceberg... The only plans I really have for music is to keep experimenting, keep searching for new sounds and keep trying to impress myself.

Nasty Nasty Lazerbrain Mix:http://soundcloud.com/jaspey/lazerbrain

Knoxtronica- If you could narrow it down to your top three artists that you would like to collaborate with or play on the same stage with who would they be?

NastyNasty- I get to play and collaborate with most of the people i want to but if i could just sit in the back and watch some people work I'd choose: Timbaland, Aphex Twin and Richard Devine

Knoxtronica- Lastly, sense this interview is for Impulse Music and Arts Festival, do you have anything special in store for this festival performance? Or do you have anything you would like to tell your fans over here on the east coast?

NastyNasty- The thing about my live sets is I have some personal ground rules and number 1 on that list is never play the same set twice. I'm always making new music and testing it out live so at any given show it's likely that the crowd will be the first to hear the newest material and will most definitely share a unique experience. Also in festival settings I like to get weird...With a lot of people on drugs wandering around I find it a great opportunity to really play with peoples brains/perception...let's get weird in the paint!