HOUNDS and SENOJNAYR have been making names for themselves in trap music individually over the past few years. HOUNDS, hailing from Alberta, Canada, began playing music in metal bands but quickly began producing trap while still in his teens. His sound is grindy and clearly influenced by metal, but also has lashings of hip hop trap throughout. SENOJNAYR who is based in Virgina, on the other hand, has a style which is much more chilled out, almost downtempo trap with an R&B flavor. Both producers name Hucci as one of their biggest influences, however, and so both are thrilled to have their first collab track together released on the influential trap artist’s Veyron Arche label. Your EDM spoke to the emerging trap stars recently after the relase of “Wrath” to talk trap, style and swag in the current EDM climate.
The two of you have quite different styles when it comes to production and composition. How did you come to decide to work together on this track?
HOUNDS: I’m pretty sure I was the one to hit shoot the first message, I just love his sound and i thought maybe with my aggressive harder sound it would blend well with senos more melodic sound, I think it came out pretty rad
SENOJNAYR: Man, HOUNDS hit me up…begging to collab spamming every email I own! (laughs) I actually don’t remember to be honest, I just know we always loved each others stuff, so we always chatted here & there. Then out of nowhere he sends this fucking heater. (laughs again) 
Is this the first collab you’ve done together?
HOUNDS: Yep, and I hope to do more in the future.
Andrew, you say you’re largely influenced by metal, where Ryan, you have a lot of alt pop influences. What drew both of you to trap?
HOUNDS: Yeah I will always be a metal fan but I also listened to a lot of different music. I was listening to more rap as I was getting older and I heard trap for the first time and I was blown away. I was always more interested in the production of a rap song than the rapping itself, that’s why I grew to love trap so easily.
SENOJNAYR: Growing up I was always glued to cool melodic stuff, no matter what genre. At the same time though, I would primarily listen to a lot of Hip-Hop/Rap & some R&B. So the tempos & the ideas from the drums just naturally come from what I was so used to listening to. Over time, once you get used to the hip hop rhythms, you end up doing so much more and also begin to add your own style with the drums when it comes to trap. I love it.
So it sounds like you sort of come together on the hip hop and R&B aspects of trap. That said, both of you seem to go the route of experimental when making tracks. How do you think trap and halftime provide a good base for some of your wilder ideas?
SENONJAYR: Well it opens many doors for me, because I like tweaking the bass so much. It’s just over time you really get tired of the same sound regardless of what genre you’re considered to be a part of and you automatically try out new things.
HOUNDS: Trap/halftime electronic music is the perfect genre for someone who wants to experiment because you can literally produce at any tempo in range and it will work. Other genres are limited by tempo sometime and that idea frightens me (laughs), I like as much freedom as possible.
For “Wrath”, how did you come to release the track on Hucci’s Veyron Arche label?
SENONJAYR: Well Andrew and I knew it was a banger, and bangers only deserve to be on VA, nothing else! (laughs) Just kidding, we just sat on the track forever I was also too lazy to send all the stems back to Andrew, but I finally grew balls to finish it and perfect timing just came around for a super nice fit for Veyron Arche.
HOUNDS: Yeah, Ryan (Seno) was already close with that team previously and he shot it over to them and they loved it and I’ve always been a fan of Hucci and the label so I was happy to release with Veyron Arche.
“Wrath” opens with a sort of trip hop beat before launching into the more trap-style syncopation. Who of you is the trip hop fan? Do you see a correlation between the two styles?
HOUNDS: I believe that’s Seno! honestly I’m not quite sure what trip hop is, all the beats are influenced from what I used to play on my drum set growing up.
SENOJNAYR: Well honestly, I have heard of that genre but never actually listened to it. So I really can’t judge or say I fux with the “trip hop”. However. I did do that side of the production in the intro.
Sounds like if you guys were to listen to trip hop, you might really like it. The track takes quite a long time to wind from said trip hop intro into the dubstep/trap drop, and it’s a unique buildup. How did you create that effect of the two styles merging together?
HOUNDS: I usually always preview the drop synth in the build with it being reverbed out in the distance, I find that’s always a good way to merge from one style to the next.
SENOJNAYR: It honestly just came out so naturally (laughs), Andrew has these badass synths that he makes. I cant do that shit yet, but he sent me the drop synth and I just added textures and a few synths in the beginning to polish it up a bit so it won’t be as repetitive and so the drop could be pretty unexpected.
What were each of your favorite parts in making “Wrath”? What are your favorite parts about how it turned out?
SENOJNAYR: My favorite part of wrath was honestly making the bassline for the drop. It actually came out better than I expected to be because I’m so used to taking the bass a certain direction with a melodic synth and not a screechy metallic sound thing with a slight tone to it. It was harder to hear if the bass was in key because of the synth. The sad thing is, I love those synths and I can’t fucking make them! That’s why I love Andrew! (laughs)
HOUNDS: That goddamned guitar solo at the end by Ryan literally made the entire track. I’ll love him forever for that! (laughs)
Sounds like there’s a lot of love between you then and you really loved working together. Any more collabs on the horizon for the two of you?
HOUNDS: I have a Getter Remix I did with HEKLER coming out early June. Other than that I’m trying to focus on some solo stuff right now.
SENOJNAYR: Yes for sure, nothing in the works (for the two of us together), but I’m definitely gonna tug some cool hard hitting screechy noise synth things out of Andrew…so I can give this another go!
Any upcoming releases or tours?
HOUNDS: I’m just working on an EP right now trying to wrap that up, I have a couple singles dropping here and there soon.
SENOJNAYR: I will be dropping an EP this year, and I’m gonna give it my blood, sweat, & balls.
Anything you’d like to say to fans and followers?
HOUNDS: Thank you so much for listening! So excited to share all the new music with you all, and hopefully I have a tour date in your city! Come say hi!
SENOJNAYR: I’d like to thank each and every one of you MFs! Eat chicken and broccoli alfredo for life until you pass the fuck out!
“Wrath” is out now on Veyron Arche records.
