In an intense competition spanning over 3 months time, my boys over at !QUIET! made a lasting impression in the Fresh Face Friday competition. Beating out their competition with a go-getter mentality, these guys’ did everything they could to win.
With that being said, here’s a little interview we did, and make sure to check out their latest track down below.
• So let’s get the boring stuff out of the way. Where are you from?
Austin: Oneonta, NY – about an hour west of Albany, NY.
Brendon: Born and raised in Upstate, New York, living in Oneonta NY right now.
• When did you get into music?
Austin: I’ve always been a big fan of music. I grew up listening to a lot of classic rock with my family & seeing live shows so I think I’ve always had a lot of musical influence in my life. My first interests were bands like Pink Floyd & The Grateful Dead, I started listening to trance in high school in about 2004 – my favorite album was Tiesto’s “Just Be” or “In Search of Sunrise.” I loved the electronica sound, his productions were extraordinary.
Brendon: I honestly don’t remember. I must have been 2 years old when I started playing piano. I don’t remember beginning rapping either, I kind of always have. I always loved hip hop beats and how the verses correspond with the music. My first big influence was Canibus, his lyrical skills motivated me at a young age to be the best freestyle rapper you’ve ever heard. That was when I was maybe 10 or 11 years old.
• What caused you to get into music?
Austin: Going to a lot of live shows I was always inspired afterwards to create my own music. Eventually I started playing handdrums & drumset & now have moved onto keyboards & production software.
Brendon: My mother was a singer/songwriter with two complete albums and my Father was a DJ for over 20 years with his own business. When he took me along I would see the atmosphere of everyone having fun and it encouraged me to pursue music in some form. Having a studio in my living room probably had something to do with at well.
• Did anyone or anything push you in the direction your going now in your music?
Austin: Not really, besides my own dedication.
Brendon: Lets put it this way, sometimes life throws you curveballs and where you end up you need to adapt . I believe I gained a lot of music talent through past events in my life.
• Outside of family, who would you say your biggest influence is and why?
Austin: I wouldn’t say I have one single biggest influence. I’ve met a lot of people traveling around the country & have been influenced & inspired by many things.
Brendon: Like I said Canibus…. Sublime, Avenged Sevenfold, Shinedown, Kottonmouth Kings…. I listen to every genre of music and I could go on forever.
• Who do you do this for? I know for me I do a lot of things to show up ex’s, who’s your spiteful, “I’ll show you” person? – If you have one.
Austin: Myself, I’m enjoying creating music a lot & do not see myself giving it up. No spiteful “I’ll show you” person for me.
Brendon: To fulfill my dreams and to provide for my family. As for being spiteful, theres a few judges and a lot of cops that I wouldn’t mind seeing me get awards.
• What are your future plans for music? Is this a dream to do full time or are you just messing around at this point?
Austin: I would definitely like to have a full time career in music. Whether it is performing live, or having my own professional studio that generates income…. Some sort of musical career would be ideal.
Brendon: Full time. !QUIET! may be just a seed right now – but with every seed you’re trying to grow big. I think the fanbase we have gained in the little time that we have been a band proves that we are on to something.
• What can we expect from you in the near future?
Austin: We’re going to do a music video very soon. Which means we’ll be up on Youtube for the first time – going to try to build our internet presence beyond what we have established now. Of course, going to be releasing as much music as possible. Putting together an all original live show as well.
Brendon: We’re in the process of forming !QUIET! into a proper band. Which means we offer live shows and awesome original music. Like Austin said, the music video will be up in the near future with hopes of exploding our fan base and by the end of the year we would like to have enough in our press kit to approach A&R and record companies.
• Who is your dream collaboration with?
Austin: There are so many artists that I would love to collaborate with. The first that comes to mind would be Flosstradamus, their live show is crazy & very inspiring. Any of the Mad Decent / OWSLA crew… love all that stuff. I would love to sit down with members of Pink Floyd & create some spacy psychedelic stuff too.
Brendon: In the aspect of EDM, RL Grime, Datsik, Jack U… When it comes to collaborations with rappers you can basically name anybody & I’m totally down, but my dream would be Canibus.
• Will you sign my white T?
Austin: Two or three times.
Brendon: Send it, I’ll sign it.
• What do you do for fun outside of producing?
Austin: Attend music festivals, traveling, longboarding…. Hiking…. Drink Guinness, smoke bud… Beat Brendon’s scores in TitanFall.
Brendon: I have a three year old son named Maddex so in recent years going out with the family to Chuck E Cheese & spending time with him, teaching him things and watching him grow. In my personal life I enjoy smoking mad weed, video games, hanging out with friends, fishing, seeing a lot of bands, snowboarding…. you know, Upstate NY shit
• Tell us a little more about yourself?
Austin: I’ve become dedicated to the idea of learning how to travel the country comfortably by going from music festival to music festival.
Brendon: Personally I work in the restaurant business. Just trying to get a handle on this whole being an adult thing.
• What do you use to produce? Any controllers or are you click and drag at this point? – Go into some detail if you can.
Austin: FL Studio Signature Edition. MIDI keyboards, Launchpad. Some knobs from my DJ controller for automating…. Dual monitors for extra software space… Nothing crazy.
Brendon: I play the piano/keyboard and I am the lyricist.
• Do you have a go to place to produce?
Austin: My living room is our studio. It’s pretty great to have it in the house at all times.
Brendon: It’s kinda far for me. I have to roll out of bed, open my door and walk through a little hallway to finally get to the living room/studio.
• How do you start a song? – Certain template, loop or are you scatter brained, meaning you just start with whatever?
Austin: No specific way. Sometimes I’ll have a synth pattern in my head & sit down to try to recreate it, or I’ll have a drum idea… sometimes no ideas at all – just toying around with effects & odd arrangements will inspire me a lot.
Brendon: We go in with a set of rules, we’re not going to repeat ourselves so every aspect of the song has to be new. With that said we kinda just start and see what we come up with. Picture it like a block of clay – we just start molding it until we get something cool. It usually ends up being something amazing.
• Ever done any live shows?
Austin: Yes, outside of !QUIET! Some DJ shows, & some band stuff as a drummer.
Brendon: I did school performances all my life. I did a hip hop show recently , but never any !QUIET! shows.
• Who would you say is the biggest fan of your music?
Austin: I’m really not sure. Perhaps some of my family members. My personal friends that I attend shows with….
Brendon: Theres this guy out in California named Chris Wood… I think he likes !QUIET! a lot.
• How did you like your experience on Fresh Face Friday? – Give me some detail.
Austin: I enjoyed it a lot. It was intense at times, we were not sure how close the rounds were going to be at first. It was nice to see our band get some publicity, especially on a website that I read everyday. Thanks so much for featuring us!
Brendon: I think this is a fantastic opportunity for a new growing band and we are honored that we got the opportunity and we impressed ourselves when we won.
• Open comment to the world or mom and dad.
Austin: Hey guys, hope you enjoy our music. If you read the interview, awesome! Hit us up sometime, we’d love to chat. If you’re from the Albany, Binghamton, Utica, Syracuse, Rochester, Ithaca or NYC area definitely get at us!
Brendon: We’re trying to make !QUIET! to the level it deserves to be, we need help help from the fanbase. So if you are reading this, check us out and if you like us show it to the world. As for my family I want to thank all of you for supporting me through everything. I recently lost my Grandfather and I have this strange feeling him and my Mother are making some moves from above so this becomes a reality for me.
• Another open comment.
Austin: I wanna shoutout my family for having a lot of support for !QUIET! during this contest. I also wanna shoutout all my friends that I send my music too before we release it publicly, their criticism is infinitely appreciated. Shout out to my friend Josiah for the great artwork & shout out to my friend Ben, AKA Viberous, for bringing Dubstep to Oneonta when he was around – a huge inspiration in my earliest days of production & discovering what kind of music I want to be a part of.
Brendon: I wanna shoutout 3 Kings Entertainment, they got some amazing artists out. And I wanna shoutout Heavy-Set, check out his youtube videos the kids a monster.
Boom there it is. Your 3rd quarterly Fresh Face Friday winner. Give it up to them and their newest addendum to the catelog, “Demon Part 2”!
!QUIET!
