Apashe's musical career is that out of a dream. From an exploding record label to touring opportunities at clubs and festivals worldwide, there's no doubting the success of this Canadian artist. Whereas most DJs might spend their time perfecting their image and appearance, we could tell from the get-go that Apashe had a different approach. His music showcases crisp production qualities with a cutting edge sound design approach. The balance between musical excellence and gritty synth knowledge is what has made Apashe dramatically stand out from the rest. We were lucky enough to sit down with him before his bone-crushing performance at Havoc Thursdays to talk a little bit about his opinions on music production and the reception for his latest viral hit.
Are you still working as a sound engineer for Apollo Studios?
I quit 3 months ago but honestly I wish I could go back. I don’t have the time anymore it was getting a bit difficult with touring schedules. Luckily my boss let me know that whenever I have more time I would be welcomed back to it.
I really do miss the studios I was working in. It’s not the same having to produce in a shitty home studio haha. But I’ll go back there once in awhile since they still let me use the studio for mixing, mastering, and recording.
In the past year what has been your biggest discovery production wise? Either general advice or a specific tool you began using.
Honestly I don’t think that the tools I use really matter because it was more about the discipline. Being able to work non-stop and not giving up has been a constant learning experience. I still use really old plugins mainly because I came out of a studio recording environment. I see new kids out there making music with synths like Serum, but in reality you don't need new tools to get the job done. It’s more about your own determination and how you want to work with it.
It comes down to developing your ear. If you know how to use a tool on top of having a trained ear then you’re naturally gonna fall towards the sounds you’re searching for. When you decide that you want something to sound a certain way then you will go out of your way to find a plugin that can achieve this. There is no magic plugin that will make you sound good, you need to learn these things on your own.
How might you compare working with Kannibalen Records in comparison to if you were completely on your own.
We are really like a tight family. Everyone kinda has their own role and they really helped me marketing wise whereas I helped them with the engineering side of production. In addition, they’ve definitely inspired me on a creative level, there’s always something to learn from when working with others.
Where would you have imagined yourself having not teamed up with your label?
I would be totally lost on the business side. I’m not the best at managing a brand through social media and things like that.
In reality I’m a nerd haha. You can put me in front of a computer and I can make you any track you want but ask me to blow up an artist and I can’t help you there.
You describe your music as epic trap, do you imagine it expanding beyond that? What have been some recently influential styles of EDM?
It’s difficult for me to relate with EDM, I see it like commercial pop club stuff, whereas I’m more into classical music and hip hop. When I want to make music for myself, stuff that I don’t want to release, I’ll usually make some epic classical arrangements. Often I can use those and bring pieces into my EDM tracks. For example, the last track I did with Tha Trickaz called Trap Requiem started with a classically influenced intro.
How big of a Backstreet Boys fan are you?
Haha the Everybody remix started as a joke and the hype around it grew so much that we had no choice but to release it. I’m just hoping that people won’t come up to me saying “hey I know you! you did that remix of Backstreet Boys.” We’re all glad that it went viral but we’re confident that it won’t be my biggest release!
