This Friday, Your EDM is very pleased to bring all you bassheads out there a brand new track from the midwestern trapstep duo Moniker, to kick off your weekends with a bang. Rapidly rising stars in the world of bass music, Moniker has been on a whirlwind ride this year, with big shows and even bigger tunes leaving crowds nationwide wanting more. Their signature style of raw, powerful, and undeniably gangster bass music is guaranteed to bring out your best bass face as you proceed to lose your sh*t to their wildly addictive sound.
Their newest tune that we have the pleasure of premiering for you today is a banger of a grime remix of “Church Bells” by Dimples. Featuring distorted lyrics, crisply filthy synths, and a nuanced grime undertone, it’s no wonder these two are coming up so hard. This is most definitely a tune that every underground DJ & basshead will be wanting to get their hands on if they know whats good for them.
In addition to premiering this tune through our site, Moniker’s also just released a brand new mix for Beatlab Radio that’s loaded with all kinds of deliciously filthy unreleased goodies. Check that out below, as well as an enlightening interview with the boys about the world of Moniker that we think fans new and old will definitely find interesting. Cheers!
Who are some of the biggest inspirations behind your style of music?
Brandon: Definitely a fan of whats’ coming out of our home label Saturate!Records. G Jones is on the up and up, plus people like Drill Drill and Bleep Bloop are always pumping out inspiring music. I am also a huge fan of the envelope pushing that people like Outlit and Yheti are doing on a daily basis.
Jacob: My inspirations are pretty widespread from bands like Radiohead and System of a Down to Hip Hop acts like Wu-Tang Clan and more directly by guys like G Jones, Boom Baptist, Arca, and tons of other guys making awesome music. I think we’re probably most influenced by everyday sounds sounds or sounds we hear in video games or movies. All the time we’ll be together and hear a cool sound whether it’s a beer bottle or a trash bin or the volume noise on our MacBook haha, our ears will perk up and we’ll try to either sample it or replicate it.
How did you guys meet?
Brandon: We met in college at the University of Tennessee in 2009. Theres this little grate that pumps out hot air in the middle of campus and it was winter so all the kids who wanted to smoke cigarettes usually ended up there so we didn’t freeze to death haha. Neither of us were pursuing music at this point but we had both just discovered electronic music so we were essentially just a couple kids sharing Widdler and Joker tracks back and forth and the obsession kind of got out of hand and here we are. [laughs]
What qualities do you look for the most when choosing a track to remix?
Jacob: We usually want something that’s creative and stands on its own right but also leaves some room for interpretation and expansion on those same ideas. With grime its awesome because the vocals are usually very technical, very tough, and they lend themselves very well to wonky beats with lots of cuts and breaks so we feel like it fits our style well.
What inspired this latest remix?
Brandon: Honestly, we had already put together most of the skeleton of this new remix just on a whim one night because we were feeling so damn happy about being out west finally and being greeted by the most hospitable people we could hope for. Our buddy Evan was playing a lot of grime and we thought “You know what? A sweet grime acapella would go great with this tune.” I guess it went well enough because now we have the pleasure of chatting with you guys about it!
Is there a theme to your upcoming EP?
Jacob: Not yet. Conceptually we’re still in planning stages for a new EP and we’re kind of enjoying putting out singles at he moment. Very soon though I’m sure we’ll talk about what direction weant to take a new EP, how many tracks and what kind of tracks we want to put together, etc. We’re excited about it though!
Tell us about some of your favorite plugins.
Brandon: We pretty much stick to Operator and Massive. Jacob has a much better hold on Operator than I do though. Other than Massive though, we are completely in house with Ableton Live 9 Suite.
Jacob: Yeah pretty much from the beginning we’ve only used Ableton’s stock plugins and Massive. However, the majority of “Thousand Bit” was written using only Ableton’s stock plugins like Sampler and Operator. We tend to think people really underestimate how powerful and robust Ableton is as a stand-alone software and we usually don’t have much trouble getting sounds we like with Ableton alone.
How do you guys like to construct your tunes? Who does what?
Brandon: There’s never really been a formula with how Jacob and I work on tunes together. But if I had to say something about it, I tend to do more audio processing/manipulation and composition, and Jacob makes some damn dirty sounds and runs a majority of the effects/cuts. Like I said though, sometimes it’s completely the other way around. It’s also really cool how when we sit down together to make a tune, usually by the time one of us hits a wall, the other has been practically begging to get an idea out of their head and have their turn to work, which in turn inspires the other by the time their turn comes again. It’s fun. I love it.
Jacob: It really depends, when we first started, Brandon was much more melodically inclined and I had a better ear for sound design and structure. But as we’ve grown as artists we’ve both become pretty good at the other side so to speak. These days there’s no telling who’s written what haha. What’s usually the sam though, is that most our songs at their beginning are based on a simple one part melodies or two to four part harmonies. These are kind of the foundation for most of our tacks and the rest of the song from the drums to effects and master are built around and upon that central concept.
What’s next for Moniker?
We’ve got lots of singles, collabs, and compilations in the works and then we’ll probably get to work on a new EP soon. On top of that we’re starting work on another tour with a good homie that’s going to be really fire. Not sure we can talk details right now but keep an eye out for that.
