Today we’ve interviewed another amazing artist DJ D3C4Y. DJ D3C4Y EP was released on October 3rd, Redrum, and it has a total of 6 tracks. Tracks included are R3dRum (Redrum), Mir4 Mir4 (Mira), 4l4rm (Alarm), Trigg3r (Trigger), Purg3 (Purge_, and lastly H4nd5 Up (Hands Up).
“After my second ep was released, I released a second collaboration with Nikotine. We worked on Shotgun for a long time till we were ready to distribute it and send it out which was on October 16th. Then I wanted to make a halloween themed song (Jack the Ripper) and executed that with a single that followed up after my EP/Collab and was dropped on Halloween for Halloween. I will be having a new single dropping Saturday November 14th called Dice.I will then be releasing music every two weeks till the end of 2020. “
Lisa: What first got you into music? What would you be doing right now, if it wasn’t for your music career?
DJ D3C4Y: What got me into music was a trip my family and I took with our family friends. We went to Jackson-hole Wyoming and one night, I remember this vividly, my friends and I were hanging out in a separate room showing each other new music. I grew up listening to alot of Rock songs before I heard EDM. I used to listen to Guns n Roses, Green Day, Pearl Jam, ZZ Top, and many more. After I showed my good friend Matthew Guns N Roses, he then showed me “Dota” by Basshunter. After that moment of hearing my first EDM song, I thought it was cool hearing music that was inspired through technology and if it wasn’t for that moment I don’t think I would be enjoying edm as much as I do now. If i wasn’t focused on my music career i would definitely be working harder in school and doing a double major instead of one, i am already a full time college student as well so honestly it really comes down to finding out your priorities and time management and juggling social life, with college life, and my music career.
Lisa: How would you describe the music that you typically create?
DJ D3C4Y: If I was to describe it I would definitely say I get a lot of inspiration from Martin Garrix and Hardwell, However when I create the music I love putting a lot of “hype” into my songs whether it is the melody, or the sound I have made, or making new sounds. The end result It comes out very Party House in my opinion. My tracks usually are very genre blended so someone might say this is house music and someone else might say it is Progressive House, etc and overall I love genre blending when i make my songs because music is so diverse that everyone deserves to listen to music because at the end of the day were all human and music gives us feelings that sometimes we can’t put into our mouths, but we can feel it and to me I like making music people can feel too and have a good time too as well as get emotional too as well.
Lisa: What’s the inspiration behind your latest EP “Redrum”?
DJ D3C4Y: This is a great question. Honestly I’m a fan of Horror movies. I’m not talking about the new horror movies you see nowadays, but classic horror movies such as The Shining, Child’s Play, Halloween, Poltergeist, Exorcist and many more. I remember I was hanging out at home ahd was actually watching The Shining. And in one scene when Jack Nicholson went crazy swinging the ax into the bathroom door and said his catchphrase “Here’s Johnny”. That to me felt such a climatic moment that you would anticipate a high pitch like drop and to me the song Redrum came from that inspiration and from that climatic scene that the song itself starts off very calming/ominous then as you progressively listen it keeps getting darker and dramatic till the drop hits and coincidentally enough it kind of is how the movie The Shining is layed out.
Lisa: What is your creative process like?
DJ D3C4Y: Honestly just one thing really is to listen to new music daily. It doesn’t have to be the genre you like. What i usually do is i will listen to Rock or Pop or Rap or EDM even and i like to distinguish the different instruments being used and then figuring out in my head and saying to myself, Ok how can i improve myself around a new sound or around the sound I heard and I will try to make it, however most of the time it ends up becoming a better sound than I originally thought or it will just be completely horrible. But overall once I find that balance to make that sound the process repeats for another part of the track. If i made the melody sound already and distinguished it then my next step for me would be to work on the bass and make a bassline that goes hand in hand with my melody. Sometimes you just have to f**k around in the studio as well and try to make that sound your hearing in your head and honestly imperfection is perfection, there is no perfect way of making a sound its all about finding your vibe and feels with that particular sound.
Lisa: I really loved your latest track “Dice”. Can you tell me more about it? What’s it about, and how did you get inspiration to write it?
DJ D3C4Y: Yea of course. When I was working on my single “dice” I honestly wanted to make a new sound that was heavy on the melody but not on the song itself. Overall the song was a play on my new sound design that was introduced in the beginning of the song.I remember when I made it I was very skeptical of how everything would be laid out in terms of my sound design because i wanted to introduce the new sound, follow up with my signature sound till it built up to the drop and then combine all the sounds made and used in the drop. This was overall a challenge I took up upon myself while making this however I definitely felt confident once the song was completed. Overall i think the song can have a lot of different meaning but for me it really was about the game of life. I dont mean it in the sense of the board game life but the games that take place in your life. One’s love life can be a game, ones journey through college can be a game, and an individual’s milestones can be a game. If you can play the game and roll your dice there will be multiple probabilities the outcome can be. So if one thinks about it, yes I did play a game making this song because it is about the different outcomes and how those outcomes all go back to that one chain reaction and thats really what the song spoke about in the sound design, the layout, and the transitions as well as the drop.
Lisa: What types of change do you feel your music can initiate?
DJ D3C4Y: Personally I feel everyone is their own worst critic, the type of changes that my music can initiate honestly would be the sound design, yes I have experience, however I always try to ask myself Ok how do I compete with my fellow artists with the sounds I create. Everything in our world is competitive and it’s the only way I can be heard more is to compete with myself and my conscious as well with my fellow competitors because I know it will make me stand out as an individual and will speak for my songs itself.
Lisa: How did you document the music while it was being formulated?
DJ D3C4Y: Honestly i am not sure how to answer this question, however when it comes to me documenting my music while it is being formulated i feel it really comes down to your approach and how you wanna execute what your trying to make and take notes on the side while your working, for example what key is my song in, what should my beats per minute be (bpm), do I want vocals and answer these questions while your working on your song because it really give you a better idea and insight to what you want and also ask yourself this major question which I know I do “What do my fans want” I know when i’m making music i don’t think about what I like, but rather what do my fans like because to me I wanna give back to the world for so many opportunities that were and came into my life that it’s my turn to give back. It makes you stand out from the other artists because if you make music for yourself, i mean to me that selfish and speaks majorly on your part and tells me how big ones ego is and that is not the way to do it, because people will see past you and see who you truly are as an individual.
Lisa: What advice or philosophy might you impart to other musicians, be it in forms of creativity, technical stuff, the business side of it, or anything else?
DJ D3C4Y: Wow haha this is a really difficult question, Honestly there really is one philosophy when it comes to everything and that is “Imperfection is Perfection”. I say this because we all start somewhere in life when we are pursuing our dreams and goals, and we expect to master something over night, but you will not master anything if you dont fail and see the imperfection. One way to come back for that is to try to work on it or improve it, however do NOT perfect something, because what even is perfection to our world, to our society, or to ourselves. We can not answer that because even when you look that word up “Perfection” the definition is “the condition, state, or quality of being free or as free as possible from all flaws or defects”. Regardless flaws come up everyday so in reality perfection is a window that closes and opens consecutively and daily and can be enjoyed for a limited time, but not forever. I remember when I first started making music, my beats and mixing and melodies was complete utter s**t, but I worked on it more and more and still am to this day because nothing but improvement can really define who you are and your definition of perfection, because to me perfection does not exist, and I know me as an individual and I am not perfect in any way whats so ever and if someone can’t make that statement you know they can’t grow as an individual and admit their flaws because no one is perfect in our world and no one knows the true meaning of perfection, but yet claim the word without evidence.
Lisa: What is your view on technology in music?
DJ D3C4Y: Personally I think it really defines what we are expecting in our near future. This can go for studios, how we produce music, how we stream music and many more technology related products involving music. Today we live in the future, I mean we are on our phones, instagramming, facebooking, twittering and many more so technology overall can be a good out come or it can be a weapon and it comes down to how do we wanna use it, do we wanna better ourselves, or worsen ourselves so in way yes music and technology go hand in hand but in reality it comes down to how do u utilize your use of technology upon yourself and what are you doing with it ?
Lisa: What are your plans for the future?
DJ D3C4Y: My plans are to finish college within a year and a half window, I am a fulltime college student at Kean University with 3-4 roughly semesters left till I graduate. Then after my priorities are completed I am going to approach different labels such as Spinnin Records, Dim Mak, NCS, Revealed, Musical Freedom and try to get signed. But overall I’m excited to see where my journey takes me into this life and all i can do is live my best life and live it to the best of my ability and what I know how to do and do it better not for myself but for my fans and my family and those who support me on this journey.
Thank you!
Follow DJ D3C4Y:
