Exclusive interview with one of Vancouver's hottest up and coming electronic artists: SWAGBOT
My name is Troy Ounce. I am a music producer, singer & resident DJ @ Hard Rock Casino.
My name is Troy Ounce. I am a music producer, singer & resident DJ @ Hard Rock Casino.
I am most known for my Electronic music project SWAGBOT .
How'd you get into making music?
I was in a punk rock band back in jr.high that played fairly regular gigs up until high school. 2007 in my 2nd year of high school all of us started to change a bit from hanging out with different people. one of my friends in the older grade started attending raves and one day while we were skateboarding, he showed me some tiesto. I loved what he had showed me (the song was called "just be" if your wanted to know) and I am forever thankful cause it did change my life. Thanks to youtubes related videos I began discovering other artists & I remember clearly finding a video of Armin Van Buurens set @ sensation white 2005 & it hit me right then and there. I knew I wanted to become a DJ.
I didnt begin making electronic music right away as I had no clue where to begin. Luckily.. My father had got me this wicked Casio keyboard but I had no clue how to play it. I figured out a couple little riffs after school that day but thought to myself that maybe im not cut out for this. I tried to steer my focus back to the bands I was in. one day at a band practice I was hearing a happy hardcore bass kick blasting from one of the rooms in my friends basement. I asked him if we could go check it out and sure enough...his brother was a DJ!! suddenly there I was.. in a hazy fog filled bedroom, dance lights going everywhere & 2 of the cleanest sounding speakers blasting 175bpm jungle being beat matched with happy hardcore right before my eyes.. I remember his name was Dan & it was one of the most important moments in my life when he handed me his headphones and said "you see that little button right there". I said. "yes"., "what does it do"?
. he said. "push it". "Thats the flanger". I will never forget how stoked I was when I hit that flanger for the first time. It was a pioneer mixer too so it sounded great. I remember we hung out for hours listening to dans records and hitting the flanger! haha he even let me try beat matching two records but I failed horribly! haha I had a blast though & will never forget it. when I left that room I felt like I just had sex. It was the best feeling I have ever felt to find what I wanted to do with my life. Fast forward about a year and I am now known as the DJ of my high school. DJing almost every house party that happened. I was loving it but knew something was missing. It was the PRODUCTION aspect of it that I was craving.
playing the tunes just wasn't enough. I wanted to make my own music like tiesto & armin. One day I was hanging out with one of my friends who rapped and made hip hop beats. I asked him if he could show me a few things & possibly hook me up with a copy of the program he was using. he told me its free & that he is using a demo version of fruity loops. lol after we hung out and made a couple little beats I basically ran the entire way home & downloaded FL studio on my moms desktop. For the following 2 years after I had began releasing some of my trance stuff I was making on youtube. I felt I was on a great track with my sound until it was all halted by a drunk night of me spilling beer on my computer. By that time I was working for 5 different mobile DJ company's working 3 - 5 gigs a week. I was so busy with DJ work in my city that I almost lost focus on becoming a music producer. I just wasn't inspired to sit down and make any music. I remember one night at a gig a music producer in the city that I looked up to told me he really liked this one track of mine. I could tell he was being genuine and began asking him for advice. We chatted about making music most of the night. The conversation played a big role in getting me to take music production seriously.
When you develop a song concept in your head, how do you approach translating it into audio form?
most of my concepts just come from my own life experiences. I use music as a release. almost like a therapy. why tell some weird shrink my problems when I just make it into a song lol. I will usually wait till I get the feeling that I not only WANT to make it a song but I NEED to make it a song. I apply the same thing to remixes. unless its a paid job I only remix songs that mean something to me. If the emotion in the song I am creating is sad and angry then I usually go for a more in your face kind of sound. If the song is a happy song then I go more for a bright & bouncy kind of vibe.
Have you developed certain patterns that you've noticed in your songwriting?
kind of, I mean I never want people to know what to expect so im always trying to switch it up.
when I listen to music I like to be surprised. so I try to do the same for people in my music.
What fascinated you with the retro sounds that you incorporate with your modern styling of electronic music?
being born in 1991 I grew up on a lot of 80s music and great 80's films. some of the first music I ever really loved was van halen, def leppard & iron maiden. when I started making 80's influence music it just felt right.
Where does your fascination with robots root from?
Ive always thought robots where rad since I seen star wars when I was young. The movie A.I. really screwed me up when I first seen it though. it probably comes from that movie!
What synths do you use?
my go to synth would have to be the Jupiter-8 synth plugin DJ Poiboi hooked me up.
What's your take on the BC music scene?
Its great from what I've experienced. very welcoming. Just gotta be hungry!
Playing festivals vs. lightin up a dance club
I have been playing clubs for 6 years I would love to see what a festival would be like. I imagine festival because the rush I get from just 200 people on the floor is awesome. I could only imagine how awesome that would be to rock a full field of ragers!
Who are some of your favorite Canadian artists?
oliver the great, fall city fall, chromeo, tegan & sara, k-os , mc mario & deadmau5 to name a few.
Shoutouts: shouts out to the fans! DJ cruiz , DJ Poiboi , Rain Dragon Records & everyone that goes and checks me out!
Famous Last Words: NEW ALBUM COMING THIS SUMMER!