If you’ve been sleeping on Ducky, now’s your chance to get familiar. She’s a young producer with loads more talent than a lot of these guys on the main stage, and with OWSLA and Buygore behind her, as well as tons of support from bigger artists like Ghastly, she’s going to blow up in a big way in 2017. (We even put her in our latest artists to watch piece, how bow dah?)
Today, we’ve got a special mix for fans to dig into, with a metric f*ck ton of unreleased Ducky originals, and some of our favorites from her Rave Toolz series, as well. Listen to the mix below, and read on to find out more about this incredible up-and-coming producer.
Hey Morgan! First off – happy birthday!
^__^ Thanks!
So I want to ask about Rave Toolz first. The project started in August 2015 and for a long time, you were the only one doing anything with it. But after a while, the first new upload came from Mitomoro, and from there have just been so many guest producers. How did the idea first start, how did you decide when and who to allow to contribute? Would you ever want to do a Rave Toolz showcase at SXSW or something of the sort?
Honestly, none of it was planned! I had been making a ton of edits for personal use in my DJ sets, and people kept asking me for them – specifically, a breaks edit I’d done of a D-Lo track that ended up being Rave Tool 01, and my hyper fast edit of Vans by The Pack (Rave Tool 03). I asked some friends if they’d be into a weekly bootleg series and everyone said yeah, so Rave Toolz came about!
At first, I was doing a new edit every week to release, which was a ton of work. Mitomoro came into the picture last year when I was traveling between SXSW and WMC, running on about an hour of sleep and about to play an afternoon showcase. I tweeted that I just didn’t have the time for a Rave Tool that week, and they hit me up and said I could release this drum and bass bootleg of theirs that I’d been rinsing for a few months (Rave Tool 28). After I released the first Rave Tool that wasn’t by me, submissions started pouring in and it just… naturally morphed into a bootleg label, I guess! Mito and I both go through submissions, although they’re pretty much running it at the moment as I start to tour more. There are no rules for what we release, but we both share a love of hard, fast music and a sense of what we’re interested in pushing. I’d love to do a Rave Toolz showcase or even a tour one day, but that’s waaaay far off if it’s gonna happen!
How did it feel to be featured in both NPR and Pitchfork for your Lost Angeles EP, and “Rain Dance” specifically?
Yo, it was unreal. That was my first real label release. I’d been producing in some capacity since I was 13, djing in clubs since I was 14, and all of a sudden my music was showing up on the outlets I’d spent my whole life reading. “Rain Dance” also got a Beats1 premiere from Anna Lunoe and showed up on Skrillex Selects. It was one of those pinch yourself moments/days/weeks – I definitely cried a little when I heard it played on Beats1, lol!
Your story, dropping out of high school, moving to Los Angeles to pursue music, seems to align with a lot of other creatives. Did you ever feel like it just wasn’t going to work? What did you do to keep yourself motivated?
Oh, absolutely. I’ve known I wanted to do music since I was 12 or 13 and threw myself directly into it, so it’s been years of working towards this one singular goal with no real signs for a long time that it ever might happen. To be honest, I’ve never had trouble staying motivated – I’ve always had a ridiculous, hard-headed drive to charge exactly towards what I want most, no matter how small the chances are. I’ve always had other things in my life, though, and I think that’s important for maintaining that stability and sanity – I went to college after I dropped out of high school, did a minor in mathematics for fun, worked 4 nights a week for most of my time in college, and worked in tech for several years after. I kept my life full. Music was always my love and my priority, and I do spend nearly all of my time in the studio these days. But you don’t need fame or cash to enjoy the journey. If you love making music, you’re good – appreciate every second that you get to spend doing what you love most. Work hard, but keep it fun. The rest will work itself out.
You just recently played Exchange LA as direct support for Ghastly. How was that show?
It was incredible! I’m so grateful to him and his team for having me come out. The crowd was wild, and it was one of the first sets I’ve done where I played a lot of my own music. The response was unreal. But it’s rare to hear me say something different about any show – I love, love, love to DJ and I appreciate every chance I get to connect with a crowd and feel their energy.
Moving on to this mix you’ve done – just how many tracks are unreleased? Will they all be singles or do you have a new EP coming soon?
Yeah! So there are 22 tracks of mine total that are teased in the mix, 18 of those are unreleased. We’ve changed course a few times now with release plans – I started out with an EP and a full artist album on deck, but you know, no song is ever really *done* until it’s out. You just have the latest version. I’m growing so much as a producer right now, and I want to share my strongest effort every time. You can expect singles for now, released on my own new label. Those will start dropping real soon ^__^
What’s your biggest goal for 2017?
More shows, hella singles, more collabs. But above all I want to appreciate the journey. Every day I take a moment and ask myself: Are you taking this all in? Are you happy? Are you grateful? That’s the thing that counts most.
