Andy Petr is an incredibly prolific, nineteen-year-old, up-and-coming electronic producer from the Midwest, who released his first EP on Mixpak, ‘Rapper Turned Singer’, in May and is set for two brand new, free EPs in the next few weeks.
His sound is defined by dense, overdubbed samples, complex synth lines and a surprisingly sweet and eccentrically disjointed pop sensibility. I talked to Andy on the day before his relocation to NYC about what it’s like being one of the youngest producers in the game, Kanye West, Black Flag and how he sees himself fitting into the future of electronic music.
Reviews and interviews pay a lot of attention to your age, usually marveling at how savvy you are for a 19-year-old. How much time a day do you spend listening to music and also, how do you feel about being billed as a kind of child prodigy of electronic music?
I like it, I think it’s funny. It makes me think of Baby Mozart playing for the pope, or maybe more like Justin Bieber than Baby Mozart. Petr Fev’r Y’all!
As far as time spent listening, I’d say all the time, as long as I’m not asleep. I’m always working on something and if I’m not making music I’m listening to music. I didn’t start super early or anything, I come from a family that is not musical or artistic in any way, though they were always supportive of me when I decided I wanted to do music. I never had a relative that had instruments around or anything though, and my decision to pursue music was completely self-motivated, which I am proud of in a way. I had to do all the research myself.
What’s your creative process like? How do you amass the samples you use and how do you conceptualize your sound?
I’m trying to form this solidified aesthetic, like this vision I have, regardless of the source material which is mostly informed by listening to other people. I try to listen to a lot of music from the 20th century that wouldn’t be considered electronic music. I listen to a lot of classical music like Phillip Glass and Steve Reich. I like older composers too, 19th century nationalist composers like Bela Bartok and Mussorgsky from Russia. I want to have a sound that’s less temporal. I want to be viewed in a larger frame; I want to make something that will stand up to the test of time.
As far as samples go I mainly use a Roland SH-101 analog synth for bass-lines. Most of my polyphonic synth sounds are actually manipulated or pitched samples, which are recorded in Ableton. With Ableton, the sounds are instantly available to be fucked with infinitely. Basically everything you hear in my songs has been chopped up and processed and re-sampled 5 or six times. I think that’s an overriding theme in my sound, or what gives me my sound. I would like to record a guitar or a drum set but I got disillusioned with playing live instruments. I played guitar for 7 years and played jazz rhythm guitar seriously in high school but I haven’t really played since. I can still play a guitar solo but I can’t write anything original with the instrument. The structure of playing guitar chords in a band is totally ingrained in my mind. I like the sounds of a guitar so I sample other people’s but it feels limiting to play. I think that’s mainly because of the way pitches are laid out across the strings in Perfect Fourths. The layout is conducive to parallel fifths and power chords, which can get dull after playing rock music for so many years. Processing and cutting samples into something new is what’s creatively natural for me. Most of my samples are organic, I don’t use soft-synths because I don’t have any and the ones I’ve tried I haven’t liked the sound of.
I also take samples from records, weird old African records or YouTube videos. A year ago I started layering more. Like on one of my songs I used 8 different sounds layered together to get a hand clap, one of the sounds was from a video of someone eating a banana. I’ve also used vocal tones from the robbers in Home Alone yelling while they’re being smashed in the face, that kind of thing. Now I use that style of layering on most of my tracks.
Is there an artist or show in particular that made you want to make music?
I think I got serious when I was like 14 and I got this book called Our Band Could Be Your Life. When you’re in middle school stuff like that is really influential and inspiring. The book is about fourteen different bands from the early 1980’s to the early 1990’s all from America, ranging from hardcore punk to weirder indie stuff. Each chapter is about a different band like Sonic Youth, Minor Threat, Black Flag and Dinosaur Jr. The two chapters that really stood out to me though were Black Flag’s and the Butthole Surfers’. Black Flag is the band that made me get into music. I was so inspired by how intense they were. They weren’t like what “punk rock” was about, they weren’t the Sid Vicious type playing shitty bass and sneering and putting their middle fingers up and doing drugs. Black Flag was super serious about the music and they were the first band to do DIY tours and I feel like where other punk bands were bratty or snotty, Black Flag was just fucking angry and upset and deranged and insane. If you read Henry Rollins’ Get in the Van, I think that’s what I really identified with, just being a teenager and shit like that. In high school I was obsessed with that strain of American music and I just wished I was a kid from that era and wanted to make punk music and was playing guitar in bands. Then when I was fifteen I started making beats because I didn’t know anyone who wanted to play drums for the kind of band I wanted to be in.
I got into electronic music a little later. When I was young I wrote off electronic music, I thought it was kind of lame. But then I figured out that I really liked Daft Punk and that they didn’t suck. I accidentally downloaded an album by Arthur Russell off LimeWire in middle school and I was like ‘what the fuck is this shit?’ And then five years later I realized how much I liked Arthur Russell. Summer of 2009 was around the time when Warp was coming out with a bunch of artists like Flying Lotus and Hudson Mohawke who were doing really good new electronic music. That’s also around the time when HyperDub 5 came out and Zomby was making some really good stuff too. It was all before dubstep developed a kind of dirty connotation in my mind; it was when you could still look up dubstep and find a lot of new and interesting music. For me, it was before high school kids in suburban Milwaukee found out that “dubstep” was shit music like Skrillex and Bassnectar. That’s when I decided I wanted to just make electronic music and not try to write lyrics or record any other traditional instruments like guitar, drums. It was an exciting time. It still is and all those artists are still going but it seems less unified, in my mind at least. I’ve never lived in London, I’ve only lived in Milwaukee for 9 months, before then I lived with my parents because I was still in high school. I’ve never been part of an electronic scene. I think it’s maybe important to my sound (maybe) that I’m not part of a scene, everything I make is going off of what I think is going on in London and LA. I think my music might be a weird mutation. I think nature has some bearing on my music too. I’m not an “outdoorsy” kind of guy but I like the woods and the massive amount of natural life you see when you live in Wisconsin.
Kanye West is a big inspiration to me too. I think Kanye is the 21st century pop genius. He’s a superstar but I still think he’s underrated. He gets on any track and everyone just starts copying him. For example just listen to his tracks “Kind of Like a Big Deal,” “Live Fast Die Young,” and “H.A.M.” He’s so versatile. People play him down as a rapper but I think he’s really sick at that too. He’s not super fast or lyrical but his articulation; something about his rapping has so much depth to it. I think his last record was at least the best major label pop album released in a really long time. I want to make an album like that I guess, Kanye is what I work towards. Shout-out, Kanye! I want to work with you!
As far as shows go there was one show Terrior Bute, Juiceboxxx and Health played at the Borg Ward [small Milwaukee DIY space]. There were a lot of people there and after that I realized that there was an audience for noise bands. That show single-handedly kept me inspired through high school. I don’t think I’ve seen another show that lived up to that one. It was crazy, I don’t think Juiceboxxx touched the floor the entire set; he just rode on shoulders and clung to rafters and PA’s. I eventually linked up with Juiceboxxx and as far as Milwaukee goes and any artist I know personally, Juiceboxxx is the most important. I see Juice trying to do something bigger than playing in a basement every couple of months which is what so many bands in Milwaukee do. He’s been playing shows and working and being Juice for a long time, just constantly touring and making new music and trying to get people to hear it. He was the first person who fucked with my music, and that’s pretty important. I’ve done some co-production on his upcoming album. Juice is a long time companion. He’s an idol to me, I guess.
That’s one of the problems with living in Milwaukee. Juiceboxxx realized I think that if he wanted to do something with music, he couldn’t stay here. The weird thing is that there used to be Wisconsin electronic music and obviously Chicago and Detroit had scenes that were really momentous. Wisconsin used to have these farm raves called “Even Furthur,” Aphex Twin and Daft Punk used to play here too. Daft Punk’s first North American show was in the woods in Wisconsin which is crazy. I’ve also been finding out about these weird little pockets of electronic producers in Milwaukee that have disappeared. Like there were some acid house producers that were around in the 90’s that have disappeared, like the Drop Bass Network for example, but it’s all pretty much gone now.
They still have an audience for the sort of wobble bass dubstep type stuff or Tiesto but beyond that, there isn’t a whole lot of new electronic stuff that any significant portion of Milwaukee knows or actually cares about.
-You’re planning to move to New York soon. Are you familiar with any artists out that way (besides Dre) and what are your plans for the move, more live shows maybe?
The only person I know is Dre Skull but I know of a lot of artists that I’d like to get in touch with while I’m out east. All the stuff on DFA records, also the label RVNG and groups like Oneohtrix Point Never, Blondes, and Teengirl Fantasy (who’s actually from Oberlin). Especially Teengirl Fantasy, I’d really like to reconnect with them if I could. I’ve been following them for a long time and played a show with them in high school when they toured the Midwest with Juiceboxxx. I figured moving to NYC is something I have to do, something I have to surmount and survive, not like become a star but just live and make a career out of making music.
Why “Rapper Turned Singer?” Did T-Pain’s record have a bearing on your release?
The title was a long term subconscious thing, I had it in my head when I made the song, I must have heard the name of T-Pain’s album somewhere years ago and it was embedded somewhere in my memory. All those songs were made about a year ago and are the most club accessible tracks I’ve made. They all have this idea or theme that pulls them together. I didn’t really think about it when I made the song, I just called it “Rapper Turned Singer” and was done. I look back and realize I was working with a lot of vocal samples; I was trying to make pop music. I was listening to a lot of Katie Perry and Ke$ha and Lady Gaga. I was trying to focus on clubby music, to try and make the clubbiest shit I could. All I listened to was hits.
The title though comes from an idea I have about pop music in general. I think in pop music you’re either a singer or you’re a rapper and to determine which category someone falls into, there are very specific stylistic things a vocalist does. I wanted to mess with that, I wanted to take parts of syllables, some that were like rapping and some like singing and some that were atonal in the liminal space between rapping and singing and I wanted to put them all together to get some new weird idea of pop music that doesn’t have labels for rapper or singer, just vocals or voice.
I generally like music that makes me uncomfortable, that’s also part of why I went for the title. I wanted people to be like ‘what the fuck?’ I want to make music that sounds like there’s something wrong with it. But I’m not trying to make completely alienating music, it’s just my weird interpretation of what “pop music” should be, which I think should scare people sometimes.
You’ve done some tunes with Dro Carrey. How did you get in touch with him and how was working with another producer? Also does your creative process change when you work with him and other artists, if so, how?
Yeah there’s a funny story to how I got in touch with Dro. Dro isn’t signed I don’t think. I first heard of him, just heard his name through The Trilogy Tapes label then I found him on Lil’ B’s tumblr “Dior Paint.” There was a message that Lil’ B had posted that was from Dro to B that said something like “hey I’m an eighteen-year-old producer and I feel like I can really identify with your [B’s] tracks.” He had just released an album and I found it on YouTube and was just like ‘man I need to talk to this kid; I need to see if he can do a collaboration.’ Then I emailed him and he was into it. He’s a year younger than me (I think though I’m not really sure) and he’s probably in a really good position because he’s putting stuff out on a bunch of labels. I think he has released music through Ramp that Zomby has released some stuff on and Templar Sound out of Australia. It was basically just a coincidence though, everything we’ve done.
As far as our process goes, I’ll just send him stuff, he adds some, sends it back, I take some stuff out and add some more and then master it and put it on SoundCloud. I’ve never met the kid; I’d like to though sometime because he’s a really good producer.
You mention J-Dilla as one of your major influences and favorite artists. Would you consider or are you now working on any more hip-hop influenced sounds or would you consider working with rappers?
I’d love to work with rappers, as many as possible. I’ve been emailing a lot of MC’s lately; Fat Tony and Juiceboxxx are the only two I’ve worked with at this point. Fat Tony is actually in NYC right now making his new album, I just met him the other day and I think I’m going to be hanging out in the studio with him soon and maybe producing some extra bits so keep an eye out for those. I made some beats for Lil’ B too and Juice passed them along to his manager so I know B has them but I still haven’t heard anything back.
My goal is to try and make some pop music. I want to work with artists like Lil’ Wayne, Kanye and Busta Rhymes. I’d also love to work with Mariah Carey too or people like Ke$ha, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, completely mainstream top 40 shit like that.
With that, what’s next? What’s next for you and where do you see electronic music going in 2011 and beyond? (Thinking about cutting some Moombahton trax?)
I think Flying Lotus had a big impact on music in America and in the rest of the world. I think tons of copycats have come out, copping that sound and I think that will probably dissipate soon. But the East Coast groups I mentioned earlier are doing a lot more loose hardware stuff. They don’t sound finely tuned or overly produced. I would lump Mahjongg from Chicago in with that sound, and Teen Girl Fantasy, Oneohtrix Point Never, Light Asylum, Blondes, Gavin Russom, stuff on Not Not Fun Records and 100% Silk. I don’t know if that’s a scene at all or if those artists know each other but it’s all electronic stuff from America I’m really into. I think that’s where the sound is going; Animal Collective I think had a really big impact on that kind of music. They’re all hardware driven and have a kind of cloudy texture.
Beyond that, I’m not sure where it’s going as a whole but I’m just trying to stay separate from a sound. I want to know what’s going on but I want to stay ahead of it and keep my own voice in it all.
I also want to resist the distinctions of “high” and “low” art. To me high art is based on quality, my personal taste is all I got. I just think Raekwon or House or Hip-Hop or Juke is just as smart as a composer who went to Julliard. I don’t want to build those barriers. I don’t want to generify it. I hate genres. I think it makes scenes inbred. I try and stay away from genre names at all cost because I think they end up being really limiting. I want to take Jimmy Hendrix into account and at the same time take in, I don’t know, Gucci Mane and Rozay.
Anything else you want to throw out there?
For sure; shout-out to vocalists, rappers and singers, anything in between, get in touch with me. Also I don’t know if I’ll make any Moombahton but I’m starting to slow my songs down some so you know, at least shout-out to Moombahton!
Watch this space for the free EPs, dropping next week and next month right here on the Mixpak blog.
