A Q&A With RAC

Photo via Laughing Fits

Recently, I sat down with the owner of RAC, André Anjos, over Skype. I had the chance to ask him a fair few things. We talked about everything from Skrillex and David Guetta, to water, and we even laughed about the Hot Girls Who Cant DJ article. In between, we had some serious questions answered. Before we get into the interview, for anyone who’s been living under a rock, I’ll give you a run down on who exactly RAC are. RAC stands for Remix Artist Collective, a group of three guys who have done so much music in their time its not even funny. Hell, they have 136 free downloads on Soundcloud and have worked with some of the best bands in the world. Keep note, this is all before releasing their own album. Their past is brilliant and their future is very very bright. With the combine power of Andrew, Karl and André, two living in Portland and one in New York, there is no shortage of creativity and inspiration for them. I’ll let the interview tell you the rest!

Let’s go basic. RAC. What’s it mean? Give us the who, what, when, where and why?
I was in college and I wasn’t really getting the job opportunities I was looking for, like internships and trying to make my way into the music industry. With two years left, I figured I might as well try do something. I’d done a few remixes of TLC and Madonna for example so I emailed some labels and managers begging them for remix work. At the time we had no name and no one knew us so it took us 6 or 7 months before we got our first remix duties. It was for the shins and they loved the remix and after that I could approach people and be like ‘hey i just remixed the new Shins single’. That kind of snow balled into what we are now. As far as the who part, it started with me. As RAC is Remix Artist Collective, I always had full intention to have more people, so my good friend Karl Kling and Andrew Maury came on.

I have been a long term fan of you guys and one thing that has kept me always wanting the latest RAC tune is the constant nature of which you produce them. How do you find the time to bang out so many remixes?
Well it helps that we are three different people, but I think I owe it to technology and recording technology like Ableton Live. Lots of things we use are quick, like you can prepare drum sounds and stuff like that so as soon as u start a remix. You don’t have to start from scratch you can throw it on there and you have a starting point. I guess a lot comes from a hard work ethic. I have noticed we tend to bring out stuff faster than others, but i think I owe it to all the things I have mentioned.

Kings Of Leon – Use Somebody (RAC Mix) by RAC

On the subject of remixes, has any other artist asked you to do one and you guys felt star struck? If so, who was it?
It has happened a lot, it’s kind of crazy how word spreads. A lot of it is probably industry people talking about the artists, but it’s pretty cool getting a call from Phoenix saying ‘hey, you want to remix this tune and kele from bloc party?’. Its kind of a weird thing because I still feel like some guy in a bedroom studio. I mean, I have a studio that is far from the bedroom now but I have that bedroom mentality when it comes to remixes, like I’m just some guy. I play it cool when I meet all these people (laughs). I think that’s a theme in the music industry everybody kind of plays it off to be to cool but deep down we all admire each other .

Now I know you guys love your toys. What would we be your favourite piece of hardware and why?
Well about a year ago I started building a modular synthesizer. Its incredibly nerdy and I clear the room every time i talk about it, but for those unfamiliar you find this box and you fill it in with standardised synthesiser parts that you get from other nerdy dudes from basements in Denmark. With the internet being able to communicate with small things like this I think there is more people making synthesisers then ever before. Like, people are saying the 80s was the golden era for it etc, but i think we are in a great time for it now. What I do for a living wasn’t possible 5 years ago. All these toys help me everyday!

On the road touring, do you find yourself listening to your own productions very often?
I do not really for enjoyment, its more for self critiquing. Your always thinking about how you can improve upon it so in that sense, I do listen to my music. For enjoyment, I’m a big fan of Spotify. I kind of enjoy just exploring new albums on a plane and that kind of thing.

What’s it like going from your bedroom producer phase to having worldwide recognition of your talents?
It’s very surreal and doesn’t feel real because it’s still on the internet. I mean, we play shows and we did one in New York and they had to turn away 400 people! You know, because to me I have been doing the same thing over and over again for 5 years, it didn’t happen in front of me it happened somewhere else, and now we’re starting to see it first hand, and it’s strange but so exciting.

Foster The People – Houdini (RAC Mix) by RAC

You have done a lot of work with other producers and artists and helped many, for example crew like penguin prison. What is it that is so rewarding about contributing musically to so many others? How do you feel knowing your knowledge has helped others make the mark?
It’s extremely rewarding. It’s always something I’ve really enjoyed. Seeing bands blow up, I mean, not because of the remix, but in some way i did contribute to that. Even more recently, like Foster the People, in no way am I responsible for their success – but I did the remix for Houdini a long time ago and its good working with upcoming bands. I did a remix for Ra Ra Riot for like no money at all and they were opening for Tokyo Police Club at the time, and no one knew them. They just put out an EP and now there touring with death cab, which is just amazing for them. At the time that we started going back to the Shins i think the reason we even got that remix was because no one had ever asked them. No one ever thought to remix an indie rock band. I’ve seen it grow. I don’t know if we were the first and I’m not claiming that, but it’s cool to see it happening all the time now

Do deadlines motivate you? Or are you a free spirit?
Deadlines don’t really motivate me. My own need to be finished with everything motivates me. I don’t sleep well until everything has been taken care of. I usually deliver stuff before deadlines. It’s just my own work that bothers me when I got something to do but I am sitting around. My own internal deadlines, not the actual deadlines (laughs).

You’ve got an album coming out with all original material. Can you give us some info on that?
Yeah well it’s something I have been working on for about 18 months, kind of more seriously in the past 7 or 8 months. The idea was, after doing remixes for so long, I have a pretty good relationship with a lot of these people. Why not ask them to be on my album? Everything started falling into place but my manager won’t let me say who will be on the album, but there’s a lot of artists I admire and people I’ve looked up to my whole life. Its very humbling and exciting and nerve racking because we haven’t finished it, so this is really big for us. I’m not just saying this it’s going to be really big for me, whether it makes an impact or not, I’m just happy I get to work with cool people. I won’t be singing on the album, I just got other people to do that and write their own lyrics. It’s kind of becoming this massive thing. Its turned out to be more of a pop album I guess. I started out wanting to do a dancey thing but they all kind of turned into pop songs.

…As long as you’re not working with Skrillex or David Guetta…
I can confirm I am not working with them (laughs). We will have a single out in the next two months

Super Mario Bros (RAC Mix) by RAC

Anyone we should look out for in 2012? Perhaps suggest 3 up and coming favourites?
I’ve been listening to a lot of dance music lately. It’s funny because I’m writing a pop album, meant to be a dance album, and I’m really into nu disco. Like really well known stuff, like The Magician. Classixx are coming out with a new album and I am really looking forward to that. Holy Ghost is writing a new album but everyone knows them. I don’t know if these guys will break out in 2012, but a band called The Step Kids. Its really cool stuff, I think there Alicia keys backing band. They quit and started their own thing, like physcedelic post punk. This girl Grimes on this label 4ad too, she has some pretty awesome stuff.

Lastly, plans for 2012? Goals, aspirations?
The album is the major thing we need to finish, we always have been talking about touring too. We have been touring as DJs but we want to step that up to something bigger, like a live electronic show. Obviously we can’t bring all these singers along, but it would be cool to do like a crazy visual kind of live electronic show. Australia even! We have been trying to come for a while. We want to tour there but something comes up all the time. We would really love to go. Its almost happened but there is lots of politics involved that sometimes makes it harder, but we would love to, hopefully make it this year!