Fiasko Daniels has been on the come up for years now, releasing killer music, playing EDC on the regular, and now releasing his latest EP with Your EDM Records, just in time for Halloween. We got a chance to sit down with this young star on the rise and hear more about his new EP, his sound, synesthesia, and much more!
Your known for your signature electro style, but recently you’ve started exploring different sounds. Any other new directions in music for Fiasko Daniels?
Electro is REALLY fun to make, and at festivals theres no better feeling then dropping a heavy electro track that I’ve obsessed over or worked really hard on and watching the crowd jump in unison creating a beautiful pulse of hands in the air is the best sight on the planet. But I noticed that as soon as I threw formula, structure and genre out the window and just started making MUSIC that was beautiful to me, I reached a whole new level of musical freedom I hadn’t felt before. I will always make “dance” music, because I’m a dancer. I’m a groover. And I usually lean towards tracks that make you want to move, but on top of that I want my tracks to register with listeners on deeper levels than just something to fist bump or head nod to. So on top of creating tracks that can wreck a festival dance floor, I’m also focusing on having them depict feelings, realities, and ambiguous emotions through texture design, melodic work, and plenty of genre blending.
Playing 3 EDC’s is every bedroom producer’s wet dream. Could you talk about your experience at each one of these throughout your career?
My first EDC was EDC Orlando 2012. It was really interesting because I had just got back from a Jack Beats show in San Francisco at like 2:30am when i found the email in my inbox. And after being like “…..wut?” I freaked. But because of the time, I tried my best to contain myself and not wake all of Japan Town. Immediately booked a flight to Orlando and obviously the experience was amazing. Although the size of my crowd was less than impressive, the opportunity to play at the same event as GIANTS in the electronic scene was awesome. Plus, being able to be back stage and meet some of my idols was amazing. My second EDC in vegas i had a 15min talk with Kill The Noise about music, creativity and sound design. (I died after) The day before that I played at the discovery stage and had a FUGGIN blast. Had a much bigger crowd this time (as expected of Vegas) and my set went off without a hitch. By year 3 i was invited back by Insomniac to play at the discovery stage again. By then I knew the routine, playing EDC had become an annual thing and I was falling in love with that idea. My favorite part about it will always be the ability to bring my rage fam and loved ones back stage with me and we get VIP treatment all weekend. Cuz honestly, success isn’t fun unless you can share it with your loves.
Who would you collab with if given the chance? Who’s one producer the world should know about that doesn’t?
Honestly, I could go on and on and on naming my favorite artists like deadmau5, Feed Me, Kill the Noise and Porter Robinson. Ultimately, I would want to collaborate with an incredibly skilled animator. With every track I make contains a palette of colors, a world, reality, or scenario going on in my head in which I’ve attached the music to and being able to see these worlds, realities, or situations come to life through beautiful animation would literally be a dream come true. Plus… I’ve always wanted to be turned into a cartoon character… so watching a little animated Fiasko fight some baddies, explore universes, or live inside my music… that’d be cool too.
What are your plans for 2015? Anything big?
I think it’d be fair to say “I have NO clue!” Definitely getting some releases lined up for the end of 2014 and maybe the beginning of 2015, but in terms of plans and such, I never know ’till it happens. If things go my way, I’ll definitely keep playing festivals, will definitely be continually releasing music, and hopefully getting a good reaction from fans on this new direction my sound is taking. OOH and maybe an animation to one of my tracks. Yeah, maybe that.
Tell us about the EP your doing for Your EDM Records. How is it different from your previous releases?
Your EDM will be getting a nice little chunk of music from me because I think this group of tracks are a tiny step in my new direction. This EP is kinda like a bridge leading from my usual sound to my new little overhaul. Very formulaic and following the usual dance music structure but I really tried to push some genre boundaries to create something interesting AND fun to listen/dance to. Although these are a little darker and more evil then usual for me, this is a pretty accurate depiction of where the “Fiasko Sound” was when i made these.
Electro has changed a lot over the years. With EDM being the ever changing landscape that it is, what do you believe its means for artists to maintain their original style while evolving and maintaining their sound?
Hahaha yeah! I’d actually like to restate that because… Electro has changed A LOOOOOOT over the years. I believe there are like 3 types of producers in terms of this question. There are Purists, Adapters, Creators and Sell Outs. The Purists are the ones who make what they make. Always have, always will and will never give a shit otherwise. The Mau5 is a prime example of a Purist. Feed Me and Jack Beats as well. Their production continues to advance but instead of changing their style they find new ways to make that style interesting to their listeners. Staying pure while still continuing to make their tracks different from the last and interesting to those who have been listening to them for years. Adapters are the ones like Kaskade, and Kill The Noise. If you head back to the beginning of their music careers they sound VERY different then they do now. But not completely. Kaskade was making melodic progressive house, but heard potential in the big room progressive house movement brought on by SHM and Avicii and instead of copying it found ways to implement it into his own work. Leading to a sound that was undeniably Kaskade but with a new school twist of whats popular in dance music at that time. Kill the noise did the same but with the new breed of dubstep brought on by skrillex. Now Skrilly is a perfect example of a Creator, along with SHM, Porter Robinson. They started their OWN shit completely and created new trends for producers and fans to either hate or follow, and never looked back. Sell Outs on the other hand saw these creators or saw a trend that they see is currently popular and just TOTALLY threw their current sound out the window and started making shit that sounded like whats popular. Honestly having your own sound is so damn important in the music world. The DJ/Producer world is becoming more & more crowded by the millisecond and having your own sound unique to you may mean the difference between making a living out of music and keeping it as a hobby.
Where do you see electronic music in 5 years?
The Mau5 has been onto it for years but Madeon and Porter are taking it to where I think electronic music is really headed. Genres will continue to intermingle, styles will continue to rise into and fall out of popularity, but what I think is REALLY going to eventually set performers apart is how they perform. Are you just pressing play? Do you do live mashups? Do you sequence live on a launchpad? Do you play your synthesizers live on keyboards or drumpads? Live electronic music performances are the future, I think. I’m currently brushing up on my launchpad competence right now. Haha.
You have been open about your condition, synesthesia, with your fans. How has this condition impacted your ability to make music? What is it like if you could describe it? Would you say it gives you an edge over other producers?
Haha. Hi, I’m Fiasko and I see sound. Always an interesting fact to mention when asked by a college professor to introduce myself to the class. And quite an easy target for close friends to tease me about, constantly asking me what the color of their voice is, haha. Personally, my synesthesia is the reason I get lost in music so easily. Music and sound effect 2 senses instead of one so its very common for me to just totally blank out and create a past time out of analyzing the way the parts in a song look and sound. So when working on a track its easy for me to create worlds and places because all sounds and notes have specific textures, temperatures, colors, and shapes affiliated with them. So if I were to create a track based on an ice cave on a distant planet, I would choose instruments and melodies that were obviously cold to me, appearing blue or turquoise and having a smooth icy texture. I swear, sometimes I feel like I must sound crazy talking about this shit but I swear it makes comPLETE sense in my mind. I believe the main edge I would get over other producers if any is that synesthesia gives me the ability to accurately translate EXACTLY whats in my mind into song/production form. Its very common for me to finish a track, play it back and think to myself, thats EXACTLY what I wanted this to sound like, frequency to frequency.
Be sure to check out Fiasko Daniels’ new EP, Don’t Be Afraid, coming out October 20th on Your EDM Records.
