This week i interviewed The Destroy Squad, a name that has been featured on the blog a few times with their tracks. The Destroy Squad is from Italy and with a few tracks out there already they’ve been making quite some noise! The last few months especially, they seem to be taking things to the next level with some stunning originals and remixes. The “Squad” is currently working on a few new tracks and I hope to find out what else we should expect by them in the near future. So…
01. Hi guys! Would you mind introducing The Destroy Squad?
The Destroy Squad is the idea born from the collaboration of three boys with a dream to become part of the global electronic music scene. We are Andrea (aka Andrew Wight), Giovanni (aka Basstripper) and Omar (aka Ominox) and we formed The Destroy Squad about a year ago, in 2010, after having remixed “Harder Better Faster Stronger” by Daft Punk (just for fun). Surprisingly, the track had great success considering that it was made by an emerging group so we had to seriously consider carrying on with that project and here we are today.
02. You grabbed our attention with your “Enter Sandman” remix, a track you came up with almost a year ago. How did you come up with the idea for this remix?
Everything starts from our musical background. We’ve always been passionate about rock and metal music. In fact the night we decided to do the remix, we couldn’t choose whether to remix a track from Metallica or Slipknot. In the end we opted for Metallica’s “Enter Sandman”. It’s obvious, that starting with such a powerful original we had to keep a musical line that does not betray the expectations and that would sound strong even when converted into an electronic song. The results, in terms of number of plays and feedback have really surprised us because we never thought of having such a response from all those people. This was proof that we had a chance to create something that people really liked and gave us the motivation to continue to producing music.
03. What are your main influences/music backgrounds and what or who might have played a role in shaping your sound?
As mentioned above rock and metal are the basis for all of our music and large parts of our sounds come from these two styles and genres. In regard to electronic music, we’ve been obviously influenced by artists such as Bloody Beetroots, Boys Noize, Crookers, Deadmau5, Justice and the more than anything else Daft Punk.
In addition, there have been many people who’ve directly helped us to grow musically, such as the Italian DJ/Producer V@leric, Stereoliez and also Power Francers.
04. You have been doing quite a few remixes as well as originals. Do you prefer writing original tracks or remixing and why?
Certainly we have a tendency to prefer original tracks. The reason is simple. We like to give rein to our imagination and bringing an idea and a track to life from scratch. The remixes can be binding, because in any case you must use pre-existing sample(s) from the original track. Obviously this is not to say that we don’t like to do remixes.
05. There has been a shift in your style & sound between your earlier and your most recent work, with your latest original being a drum n bass track. Any particular reasons why this happened and should we expect you to go back to the electro trash sound?
It is true, there was a change in our musical style, but if you want to be more correct, we should not talk about change, but we should speak about evolution. It’s clear that over time any artist is looking to broaden their musical horizons, even by putting to the test new genres and new experiences. Now our style incorporates many genres and of course, we try to put all our experience in our tracks. In our last track “Time To Drum”, you’ll certainly hear a drum n bass mold but we can assure you that this doesn’t mean we have abandoned our “trash disposition”. We’re just working to make it better and we promise that soon you will listen to new tracks and we’ll come back to the trash mold.
06. You are all involved in other projects as well if I’m not mistaken, would you mind telling us a few things about them?
Currently the only active side project is Logitech. This project was created by Andrew and probably feels closer to ambient and melodic music. It is a very recent project and we all hope that it will grow as The Destroy Squad did.
07. What would you say is your biggest music achievement/highlight and what would be your most embarrassing moment so far?
For the moment we do not know with certainty which was our biggest musical success and achievement as it is too early to judge. Obviously we can’t deny that the track of which we are most fond of is “Brainwashing”, on which we were able to make two EPs.
As for awkward moments, for now (thankfully) we haven’t had any yet and obviously we hope it’ll stay like this. 😉
08. Back to your sounds, I will assume you’ve had your share of rock/metal music in the past. Did you ever play in a rock/metal band and which is your favorite rock/metal album?
Unfortunately none of us has ever had the chance to play in a rock / metal band. We have remained only fans of this kind of music.
Our favorite metal album is definitely IOWA by Slipknot .
09. Do you prefer working only with computers/sequencers or do you get your hands dirty playing and recording instruments? Do you use samples and what’s your opinion on sampling and copyright?
Usually the way we work is to study the rhythms and melodies and then play them on our computer. We don’t feel ready yet to record directly with musical instruments.
About sampling, we firmly believe that creating sounds from scratch is always the best way to produce a track of good quality. It’s obvious that some samples can be copied from other tracks but if it stays within the limits of plagiarism, we don’t think that this is a serious problem.
10. If your studio was on fire what would be the first thing to save?
Surely our external hard drives! They contain all of our projects!
11. What is music for you and what do you think about the way the music industry is changing?
Music is mainly a passion for us and it is the best way to express ideas, concepts and emotions. In the industry the main concern is the profit and if you are not able to sell and make money you probably do a lot of effort to enter the world of music. Only we, young producers, can change this by taking the situation in our hands and protesting loudly.
In fact, we have created the WOO RECORDS CREW which a small independent label that seeks to help young artists in search of opportunities. Besides ourselves there a few more people involved in it, Giovanni Guerrini (owner of the label), Luca Albino (dj/producer also known as Luke dose) and Manuele Nerucci (Disease Between Stars – the band).
12. Do you believe that an electronic music artist can earn his/her living from music nowadays?
We think it is very difficult. Today an artist must be able to offer something bigger than the other artists. We know many artists of great quality and they fully deserve to make money from music but still can’t do it.
13. If you could pick any artist to share the stage with, whom would you pick?
Obviously we’d like to share the stage with artists that we have always regarded as legends, on top of all being The Bloody Beetroots. But we’d love to play with friends as well with who we never had a chance to share a stage, such as Hack The System or Kisbeat!&Chemical.
14. What do you think is the best thing about working with each other and what the worst?
Strangely enough the best and the worst thing about working together is the same, diversity of ideas. This sometimes causes clashes between us, especially when we are producing new songs but in the end, it’s this diversity of ideas that allows us to create something innovative and in its own way unique.
15. You are currently working on some new material, should we expect a release by The Destroy Squad in 2011? Give the readers something to look forward to…
We are currently working on the release of “Brainwashing Pt.2” which will contain 13 remixes and a new original track and will be called “No More Brain”.
The remixers on this EP will be Analphabeth, Bogusdank, Boylerz, Disease Between Stars, Hack The System, Hate Mosh, Krftkds, Mads, Nobe & Laptop Invaders, Noisepill, Scorned Society, Sevar and Vecho.
We are also working on an album made up of our original tracks, where you can hear sounds ranging from electro music to dubstep and drum and bass but this album will probably come out in 2012.
16. What other plans do you have for 2011? (live shows, releases, remixes, etc)
We recently started the winter season of the discotheque “Bolgia” (located near Bergamo) in which we are part of the project “Medicina: The Electro Terapy” (for more info visit the facebook fanpage of the event)
17. What are you listening to lately? Any tracks/artists you recommend?
We are very impressed by the latest release by Drivepilot and of course don’t miss the latest releases of our friends The “S”!
18. What do you like doing when not in the studio producing music?
We are people who are easily amused. Usually we are spending time together hanging out in some bar or playing soccer.
19. What do you think about the Metalectro blog and the music featured on it and should we expect a track by The Destroy Squad for the Metalectro Vol.02 Competition?
We are very much tied to the Metalectro Blog. Is a long time now that we work with Metalectro and we are very happy to do it. Your blog has always believed in The Destroy Squad and it’s thanks to you that many young artists have managed to get noticed in the music world.
Regarding the competition for Metalectro Vol.02 we are preparing a surprise for you, so stay tuned on The Destroy Squad fanpage for more news!
20. Something else you’d like to mention and we forgot to ask?
We just want to say thanks to Metalectro for giving us the opportunity to tell a few things about us and for letting people know our point of view on music and everything.
A big hug by the entire Squad!!!