Photo courtesy of Maria Jose Govea.
Producing together since 2004, Zeds Dead is a Toronto duo that really needs no explanation. Founders of the super cool Bassmentality nights in their home town, the duo have risen to worldwide recognition as they continue to curate some of the tastiest, most widely acclaimed bass music on the planet. We recently had the chance to catch up with them via the kind folk at Trashbags Brisbane. We caught up over a meal, talked music, Twilight, dubstep, the scene and technology, before attending what turned out to be an insane Trashbags orchestrated event at the local Bowler Bar. Here’s what went down.
It was about 6pm and I was waiting eagerly in the Sebel lobby to greet the Zeds Dead boys, Dylan and Zack, before we shot off to Hotel Bravo to have a chat and eat some dinner. Before I knew it, we’d blasted out of the hotel and jetted over to the restaurant, sitting down over a few appropriate kangaroo based meals. We got talking, all of which you can read below. In no time we had made our way to Bowler Bar, but not before I tested the public drinking laws via my consumption of some vodka in the adjacent car park to the venue. Having completed my ‘pre-zed’ ritual, I made my way into the venue for what I knew was going to be a massive night. Noy was on, the crowd was amping up and things were in a typical Trashbag state. I’ve come to learn that the cult like following attached with Trashbag’s is rightfully theirs, with consistently good bookings and always an atmosphere to match. Once local hero Alex Terrell got on the decks, it was evident tonight was going to get out of hand. With 400+ people raving in awe, he whipped the crowd into a frenzy and perfectly plated them for the onslaught that was Zeds Dead. After some enthusiastic ‘Zeds, Zeds, Zeds’ chanting from the crowd, the duo had arrived. Bang. Their epic opening tune battered the walls of the venue, dizzied the punters and made the weak shit themselves. Trashbag’s threw another insane party and Zeds Dead killed yet another crowd. As they say, the rest is history. Here’s the interview I had with them prior!
Zeds Dead – Hit Me by zedsdead
For a lot of people it all started with eyes on fire. Why this remix ? Are you a fan of Twilight?
(laughs) We have still not seen Twilight. We actually got the song from a friend of ours and he sent me the tune and we just loved it. I (Dylan) showed it to Zac and we got cracking with it. It just has an awesome vocal you know and its got a cool sound to it. That’s really all it was, I don’t think we even realised it was from the Twilight saga at the time. At some point we did (realise) and we put it out, and it happened to coincide with the sequels release. It’s just a really nice vocal you know?
For sure, for sure! What was your first ever song? Has anyone even heard it or is it locked away in the vault of early bad productions?
It’s locked away, I mean, we have been making beats for ever. I’m sure my first beat is like long gone. We were making hip hop for a long time before we started all this. In terms of Zeds Dead first beat, I think the Panther remix was the first one. Basically, it takes awhile to get good doing this stuff and there is a lot of crap in building towards it. You don’t just get good off the bat unless you’re some kind of prodigy, so there is a lot of stuff that will never see the light of day. It’s sort of frustrating when you see someone get good right off the bad, like there are some really young guys who are like amazing, people like Koan Sound.
Collaborations? You guys don’t seem to do many, why is that ? Anyone you would love to work with?
Busta Rhymes. For sure. There are a few rappers who have just been so consistent over the years, guys like Busta, Ludacris, Redman, people like that. Aside from that, really like The Black Keys and of course we have some dream vocalists. Plenty that we couldn’t name off the top. We would like to work with more singers these days. Working with someone who was really well established would be cool, finding someone like that would be good. We have a few collaborations, like we did one with Dragonette, which was a remix. We stay in touch with them and try and pass things back and forth here and there, and there vocalist is really sick. We would definitely do another track them.
Zeds Dead – In The Beginning by zedsdead
Biggest influences in developing your sound?
For me (Zack), my love for EDM came from electro house, so guys like Justice and Boys Noize and stuff like that. On the dubstep side of things it was people like Rusko and Skream. Skream was a huge influence, and guys like Benga and stuff. For me (Dylan) it was the same kind of thing. Stuff with crazy sound design. We listened to a lot of drum n bass. Playing out, like having our own weekly party, helps us learn how to make stuff that people can dance to…
Oh thats right, you guys host a night don’t you?
Yeh it’s called Bassmentality. It was sort of our training grounds almost when we were coming up. It was the first place we saw people giving a reaction to our tunes. It’s like, we would play one of our tunes down there and actually get a reaction, some people were singing along and stuff and it just blew our fucking mind. You sort of learn a certain science to it. Some songs would have all the right elements, but they wouldn’t make people dance, so you knew it needed some work.
If you had to personally classify your style, what would you call it?
Right now, bass music. A lot of people like to use that term, but its probably the most common theme throughout our music. We got big off the dubstep stuff, but we never only made that. It was just sort of a stop off on the musical journey.
How do you feel about the changing Dubstep/EDM scene? Is it for the good or is it for the bad?
It’s cool, amazing really. It’s a phenomenon. Everything is always going to change and nothing is ever going to remain stagnant. People are always going to be thinking of new ways to do things and if music didn’t change it would just be boring. Sometimes it doesn’t change in the direction you want, but you can’t stop the change. Right now a lot of people are focused on the really hard energetic side of dubstep, and thats cool, but that kind of stuff will probably end up dying out. Think you just need to take it where you want to take it and how people are likeminded.
Zeds Dead – Adrenaline by zedsdead
Is there anything you miss about how the scene used to be?
We are kind of like babies to the scene. We were never in the rave scene before when we were doing hip hop and stuff. We sorta just dumped in when we started doing Zeds Dead stuff like three years ago. As far as dubstep goes, there was an element that was just entirely different. Our shows are like, high energy parties, but it used to be sort of this chill out, smoke a joint and have a couple of beers kind of thing. It’s just not the same thing. We did like that, but you can still do it. There was this party in Toronto that was like the core dubstep party that was going on way before we started ours. It was really the only one going on and its been going on for like six years. Me and Zac used to just go there and smoke a spliff, and it was just a tiny reggae bar with like a 60 person capacity. One of the walls was just an entire sub and it was just pure deep stuff. You would see people just hanging out next to the speaker bopping their head, getting in the zone. It wasn’t that crazy vibe and it was the first place we heard dubstep live, and that makes a big difference. For a lot of people, that’s what breaks them…
Yeh you can’t be playing on shitty speakers huh?
(laughs) Exactly, like ‘check this on my laptop’. Thats a downside to be honest, that a lot of people listen to it on their laptops. You can’t listen to a Benga tune on your laptop or say ‘yo check this out on my cellphone‘. Its going to end up sounding really hard in the high ends and you can’t hear a sub on that at all.
How does changes/improvements in technology influence the music you make, if at all?
Different software and stuff comes out, which means you can create different textures in sound. We are always experimenting with different plugins. We have kept our bass strong for a pretty long time. It’s just things here and there. DJing with Ableton is what we do and obviously discovering that technology was just great. With regards to technology, the fact that computers are getting a lot faster just really helps out. It seems like if you were a producer in the 80’s you would have to buy all the gear. Last night we were talking and listening to a Biggy track and I (Dylan) was like ‘man I wish I grew up in 1994 in a cooler age of hip hop‘, and Zac was like ‘yeh but you would probably work at Burger King’ (laughs). With DJ’s too, everyone can be a DJ now. Back then, you really had to be the sort of person that would go to a record store. So many people spent their life savings on records.
Zeds Dead mix for Rob Da Bank’s show on BBC1 2011/12/2 by zedsdead
As your Adrenaline EP just dropped can you give us a run down on how long that took to create roughly?
Some of the tracks are actually quite old, we have had them for awhile. The track ‘In The Beginning‘ was our set intro while we were touring for the last year. ‘Adrenaline‘ was also around for awhile. We were just slowly collecting these songs, and we were always making tonnes of stuff, but we found those four tracks just fit really well together. It’s an EP rounded in dubstep, even though there are variations like ‘Hit Me‘. It’s all 140bpm. We finished a bunch of it off while we were on our last tour. It was a good fit for the label and it all worked well.
… and what gear did you use to create it?
Uhhh… tambourines, bongos, Playstation 2. Oh, and we used a Knife and a glass (laughs).
What would be your biggest stand out moment in your careers so far? Probably a hard one…
When we played our home city at Toronto at the Kool Haus, its this venue we had both seen a tonne of concerts there with big name people. We played there and sold it out, just after been on tour. It was really triumphant (laughs), like a huge epic moment. We never thought we would be on that stage.
Ok last question, about food. Would you prefer pavlova or cake?
Pavlova?
Shit. I knew you guys wouldn’t know what Pavlova was. It’s like an Australian desert.
Yeh we have never had it. We have never had Vegemite either. See if you can get some for after the show…
Well we will need to get a toaster then too. You can’t have that shit by itself. Fitting ending but, it was good talking to you guys and best of luck tonight!
Cool, cheers man!
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