Last week I had the pleasure of speaking with Max Hype, more commonly known as bass virtuoso Protohype, post-set on Friday afternoon at EDC Orlando. The Nashville, Tennessee native not only provided killer tunes for the crowd, but he also shared inspiring words. Check out the chat between Daily Beat and Protohype below!

Ariel DB: How was it up there?

Max: The set was really good. It was early so it was a lot different from what I normally do. I was the third one to play but a fair amount of people that showed up and the people that were there were going really hard, which was really awesome.

Ariel DB: Was it spur-of-the-moment or did you have something planned out?

Max: I kind of just did what I normally do and I thought it went really well. I had a blast, it was really fun.

Ariel DB: How was the vibe at EDC Orlando compared to EDC Las Vegas?

Max: Well they're complete different vibes because EDC Las Vegas is at night and EDC Orlando starts in the daytime. I played at 9 pm in Vegas and I played around 2 pm here. Even though they're both EDC's,  one's 1 pm - 12 am and the other is 6 pm - 6 am. It's also a lot hotter here because it's during the day and it's in Florida. I approached the set the same way.

Ariel DB: Do you feel like the energy is better in Vegas?

Max: I wouldn't say it was better. It's night-time there so people are ready to go out and party. EDC Orlando it's 2 in the afternoon so everyone is just really getting started but there was really awesome energy for what it's worth. If I was in the crowd I would've had a lot of fun too.

Ariel DB: When you're in Orlando, do you ever go to any theme parks down here?

Max: I haven't been since I was a lot younger. I was born in Nashville, Tennessee and I always went to Disney World when I was a little kid.  While living in L.A. I've never actually been to Disney Land and it's apparently way better than Disney World. If I had time I would totally go because that sounds really awesome.

Ariel DB: I see that you've had a lot of shows lately; Is this something you've been doing on your own or is it a tour?

Max: It's not a tour, it's just a bunch of one-off shows. I've played Friday's and Saturday's pretty much every weekend for the past 3 months. I'll play with a lot of different artists and I'm not on a bus or anything so it's not a tour, it's just me doing a lot of one-offs to try and get my name out there. It's been fun because I get to play with artists like 12th Plant or ETC!ETC!. We actually just hit Chicago.

Ariel DB: Which was your favorite stop?

Max: I don't even know if I could pick a favorite one. Chicago is always really really fun, I love playing there. I also love playing in Orlando. I've been to a lot of places - a lot of small towns, a lot of big towns. It's different everywhere you go but it's nice to see people you wouldn't normally see because you get to play with different artists. It's like a family reunion.

Ariel DB: Can you tell me about the inspiration behind your 'Encore' EP?

Max: A lot of the tunes, pretty much 3 out of the 4 of the tunes I made on the 'Encore' EP, I made on the 12th Planet tour bus. For example, the track "Playing With Gold," that I made with Duelle, was originally supposed to be a collaboration with Flinch but Flinch was busy so I just sent it to Duelle. They created the vocal, and it just became that track. Most of the tracks I did on that bus with the exception of "Fight To Hold," was the only one that I didn't do on the tour bus. The inspiration was pretty much drawing inspiration from everyone else, other artists and just people I'm surrounded by. I was trying to draw inspiration from other artists and learn new things, production wise, from other guys on the bus, guys I collaborate with and guys who remix my tunes. The guy Ras who did the vocals on "Encore" is a really great songwriter and musician, he's also a great engineer and recording artist so he just nailed it. Overall, it was not only about drawing inspiration from other artists but also my friends and fans.

https://soundcloud.com/dubstep/protohype-encore-ft-ras-edmcom-premiere

Ariel DB: Could you tell me about how the #puppycrew was established?

Max:I was about to take a nap and I put out a tweet on Twitter. I told myself that I was going to give a dollar to the ASPCA (American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals ) for every single retweet it got. I did the tweet, took a nap, woke up and there were DJs way bigger than me that retweeted it. Guys like Bassnectar, Paper Diamond, and Zeds Dead retweeted it.  When I woke up it was already at about 900 retweets so I was like "this is really awesome but I'm going to be broke as f*ck." I don't have much money, so I gave pretty much all of my money to the ASPCA. I had to cut it off pretty soon because it was starting to get out of control. It was amazing and I was really excited and happy about it. There's a way to feel good about losing all of your money and at least you're giving it to someone else. That's pretty much how it went; a tweet turned into a thousand dollars. What I found out was that $12 dollars saves 4  animals, so, in theory, that's already around over 300 animals I just saved.

Ariel DB: You love animals right? And you have a dog, correct?

Max: I do. His name is Jelly, and he's a beagle. So yeah, the whole ASPCA thing was really cool. I'm on my way to making it an official non-profit organization. There's a lot of paperwork and behind the scenes stuff but it's cool to give back to something, especially something I really care about like animals.

Ariel DB: A lot of artists are starting to contribute to and create non-profit organizations. What do you think about that?

Max: I think it's awesome. I think that anyone who gets the opportunity to make and play music, that's already a blessing in itself. If you can give the money that you earn from that to something that you really care about, it's such a great thing. Anyone who's working on any type of charity that they've done from money that they've made from producing music, that's really awesome and I support anyone who does any giving back at all. A lot people think that big DJs have a lot of money, but the reality is that a lot of those guys are broke. People that consider me to be a big DJ may not realize that we're not wealthy and rolling in money. We're still working our a** off, and the money that we do have, we give back. That's just the way I was raised. My mom's a social worker and a politician so I was raised to always give back what I had. I'd rather be broke and know that my money went to somewhere that benefits something good than have money and be sitting on my a** playing Call of Duty. As long as my bills are paid then that's all that matters.

Ariel DB: How has it been being a part of the Bassrush Experience?

Max: I'm new to the Bassrush team but it's definitely a family-type situation. I'm one of the new guys but you've got the OG's like Noisia, Planet of the Drums, and Dirtyphonics - these are guys that have been in the Insomniac family for a long time. The Bassrush thing is not really that new but now it's like a BIG thing. At Electric Forest I played the Bassrush stage, at EDC Orlando I played the Bassrush and EDC Las Vegas. If you look at the lineup for EDC Orlando, every single person on the lineup are all best homies, so it's really cool. I'm really happy to be a part of it and everyone has been awesome. I'm just lucky to be in this room here in Orlando because who know what else I would be doing. Bassrush does a great job at making it a family atmosphere.

Ariel DB: What's next for you? Is there anything that you'd like to tell your fans?

Max: I'm still working on music. I'm actually working on a tour for next year. I just want to say thank you to anyone that's ever come out early for a show like today. The guys in the front row were going so hard and you can tell how dedicated they were and I have nothing but the utmost respect for them. That's what really keeps all of us going, and it really means the world to me. I hope they know that without them it would be the worst thing ever.  Big ups to those people, they are such a blessing.