The Art of Doing Weird S***

TESTING 123 CHECK CHECK

Welcome back to another yap sesh where I interview fellow creatives and challenge them with an unsampleable sample (Ik that’s not a word just pretend it is).

I introduce to you, my friend Loosh. He’s been making music for over 5 and a half years and that’s all the bio you’re gonna get for now so let’s get into the actual yap sesh.

*Loosh takes the mic*

The Yap Sesh

How did you first get into music?

Loosh has loved music his whole life. He got into it more seriously in middle school listening to rap and indie rock starting with Nirvana, Travis Scott, and all the mainstream stuff. When he was at home, his parents had him listening to Irish folk and Al Green. By high school he mentions it was impossible to not make music. “If you love something enough, you’ll eventually become part of it.” He later then got deep into Memphis rap & “evil-sounding” stuff like Three 6 Mafia, Dj Paul, Dj Screw who are huge influences on how he chops and manipulates sounds.

The earliest song he still has is from his Ghost Tapes era (rip to the laptop he had that died).

Here’s one of his early beats below:

Who is the best music producer working in the industry today, in your opinion?

He noted one of the best producer’s out right now is wegonebeok - “He’s hella versatile, and the way his beats hit your ear sonically is wild.”

He also shouted out:

• Fakemink’s self-produced tracks

• Lilfittedcap & smokedope2016 for reviving the cloud rap sound

• Salem = “important for music in general; made trap sound orchestral, artistic, and beautiful”

• Sopranx = bringing back glow trap from the Chief Keef era

• Cranes & Mag = key to the jerk trap/hood trap wave coming back

Here’s Loosh’s fav plugins right now:

• Mo-Ma (Analog Obsession) = go-to soft clipper

• ShaperBox 3 = for stutters and scratches

• Mouth of Sorrow = chorus & voice mod (free)

• Halo 3D Pan = “makes stuff sound like it’s behind you”

• Serum or Vital (free) = synths

• Purity ($50) = “worth it for keys & good keyboard sounds”

• Maim (free) = for gritty, bit-crushed drums

• RC-20 = to make anything sound sampled; adds vinyl flutter, dropouts, and tape noise

  (I may have missed a few because I type a lil too slow)
  

What do you enjoy and hate most about being a producer?

He describes it as “the pocket”. That moment when everything clicks & you love what you’re making and it just flows. Loosh says lately we’re seeing a lot of callbacks to earlier eras like Jerseyhouse, jerk, all that but what matters most is sharing what you love about music. “People are just doing weird shit and I love it. Making music not to send a message, but to have fun and people can hear that joy when they listen.”

What advice would you give to someone wanting to start making music?

He recommends to watch a lot of Youtube. “Listen to your favorite songs with the lights off and pick out instruments in the mix like where they sit, how they’re layered, where they are spatially. Then compare that to your own mixes and experiment from there.” He also recommended to check out Analog Princess on YouTube for great beginner to intermediate production tips that go beyond basic tutorials. (The vids are a bit overstimulating but think of it like Subway Surfers playing while also listening to a lecture with wild graphics).

The Studio Sesh

After the interview he opened up Ableton & got to work. I gave him a random sample from my songs to be sampled playlist which was Gabby by The Internet & recorded him making a beat with it. He also of course yapped his way through his process as he created the beat.

The full stu sesh process is here: Yaps on Record: Loosh

The first draft of the track:

3 Artists & Songs Recommended by Loosh:

• XxX_TALLER_XxX by DJmegan23

• Chore Boy by Shlohmo

• New Cash by tana

3 Artists/Songs I’ve been listening to this month (so far):

• Persian Rugs by Galimatias

• Nailgun by Sinjin Hawke

• SPACE INVADER by Kaytranada

(October’s playlist in progress)

And of course to be fair, I gave myself the same challenge. Here’s a very ROUGH flip I did of the same sample:

What we were listening to during the interview:

• Harm in Change (Instrumental) by Toro y Moi

• Music and Me by FakeMink

• Celebrity Deathmatch by FakeMink

• LV Sandals by EsDeeKid

Listen to more of Loosh’s music here!

Ok BYEEEEEEE have a nice day :D