This week we interviewed Hijack Da Bass, a name that has been featured on Metalectro a few times with their tracks. Hijack Da Bass are a Producer/DJ duo from Almada, Portugal, who departed for their adrenaline-charged sound adventure in February 2011 with one and only promise: a dance-floor mayhem that is going to make you sweat. Since then they have already produced remixes for Beatbender, Tom Deluxx and FetOo among others, a number of originals and their debut EP “Krypton”, out on Jet Set Trash. Lately we’ve been hearing rumors that they’re busy working on new material and so i thought i’d get hold of them and find out what’s really going behind the scenes with Hijack Da Bass. So, read on…
01. Hi guys! Would you mind introducing Hijack Da Bass?
Hi! We are Deadboy and Dr6fingers from Almada, Portugal.
02. How did the Hijack Da Bass project come to life and how did it you two meet?
Well, we met a long time ago, in 1997, after a long night of jamming in Alcatraz, a spooky house used as a rehearsal place in the middle of nowhere. That night we started an industrial synth pop band called Hatemachin and we played together for about 3 years in that band.
After several twists and turns in our lives, including living in different countries, in the beginning of 2011 we started hanging around together again and felt we were on the same page regarding what music we wanted to create, it was a natural step to get together again, so Hijack Da Bass came to life.
03. How would you describe your music and who have been the main influences would you say that helped you shape your style and sound?
That’s pretty hard to answer. We love all types of music really and hope to reflect that in our sound, until now we have been making mostly electro tracks, but we are no strangers to throw the occasional curve ball and in the future expect that to happen even more.
04. You have already produced a few originals as well as remixes, do you prefer working on one more than the other for some reason and if yes why?
Different things altogether, we love to get in the studio and start something from scratch, we can do exactly what we want with it and we also love making remixes, we can give our input to someone else’s creation and make something new out of it.
05. What is your biggest music achievement/highlight so far and what would you say is your most embarrassing moment?
Our most embarrassing moment was when we were playing live and the P.A. died briefly for about a minute (longest minute ever) and our biggest achievement until now was releasing “Krypton”, our first EP on Jet Set Trash and also winning a few remix contests for the likes of Jet Set Trash, Shax Trax and Freakz Me Out.
06. Recently you have been coming up with some great tracks, originals and remixes, with your “Animals” remix for Beatbender’s EP “We Are Animals” and “Start An Earthquake” being a couple of my favorites. Would you say these last months were just a warm up period for Hijack Da Bass?
Definitely, we are just starting … Every day in the studio is a learning experience and we are having more fun than ever with the whole creative process, so we feel this is just the beginning.
07. Your “Krypton” EP was released a few months ago on Jet Set Trash. A great EP I have to say, featuring a collaboration track with Backyard Bully on “Start An Earthquake” as well. How did you come up with the idea for this collaboration and are you happy with how the track turned out?
We had that idea a while ago because Deadboy plays in another band called Teratron and Backyard Bully already had collaborated with them, so as soon as we thought of an Mc to spit some lyrics on “Start An Earthquake” it was a natural step to bring Backyard Bully into the process since we both love his work and we are really happy about how the track turned out in the end. It definitely brought another flavor to the “Krypton” EP.
08. What feedback did you receive in general about “Krypton” EP and are you happy with it, being your debut EP and all?
We think that the feedback was good and we are proud of the “Krypton” EP although we think it doesn’t represent were we stand right now in production terms since it’s been almost one year since we wrote those tracks.
09. What are you currently working on and what should we expect from Hijack Da Bass in the near future? Give us some exclusive behind the scenes news and give the readers something to look forward to…
We have some remixes getting released this month for Queen Of Vandalism, Uncode, Hot Shit, 1000 Dancers and a few collaborations with some producers that we can’t disclose for now.
We are also really excited about our new tracks, we have been working hard to refine our sound and find our true identity and along the way we found out that we are kind of bipolar, so expect two different approaches to the Hijack Da Bass sound, resulting in2 new EP’s coming out in the next months.
10. Do you have any live shows coming up and how can someone book you for a show?
We had some interesting invitations to play some stages around Europe but had to turn them down since we are really focused on finishing our new tracks and started putting up a proper live show that is consuming a lot of our time. We wanna bring something new into the scene, not the plain PC/ Controller live act but by December we will be “alive and kicking”.
Booking contact – hijackdamail@gmail.com
11. Who would you dream of sharing the stage with?
Most of them are dead, nowadays maybe The Subs…
12. Out of all producers/artists you can think of, who would you dream of collaborating with and spend a few days or hours in the studio with?
For different reasons, Noisia, Skinny Puppy, Svidden, Haezer to name a few… but then again, this list could go on forever…
13. 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?
We started using only computers, but as time goes by we are using more and more hardware and recording our own vocals and guitars and so on. It was always our intention since the beginning to also add an organic feel to our sound.
Sometimes we use samples and we don’t mind if someone else samples some of our sounds as long is not a blatant rip off. Like Picasso once said: “Bad artists copy, great artists steal”.
14. Any comments about today’s mainstream music? Do you agree with Haezer’s “Commercial Music Is Dead”?
It all happens too fast nowadays. Everything is pre-fabricated, packed, ready to be consumed and forgotten the next week. At the same time we think it’s the most exciting of times for underground music, mostly electronic music. After the advent of punk, we are witnessing the next revolution in music with the way technology has given everyone access to create music in a cheap way, just a pity that most of it has no soul.
15. Do you believe that an electronic music artist can earn his/her living from music nowadays?
That happens only to a small percentage of musicians, the ones with talent, dedication and a bit of luck.
We would love to make a living out of it but we don’t lose our sleep over it. It’s the passion (or obsession) for the music that drives us.
16. What’s the best and worst thing about working with each other?
We have been through a lot of ups and downs together. The best thing is that we have been friends for ages and that’s essential because we both have very strong personalities and that is usually is a recipe for disaster. But in our case we think it works to our advantage because we push each other to better ourselves every day.
17. If your studio was on fire what would be the first thing to save?
Our hard drives…
18. What are you listening to lately? Any tracks/artists you recommend?
Lots of things really, we can name a few like Hypomaniacs, Svidden, Vegamoore, Dj Antention, Black Tiger Sex Machine, Tim Ismag, Megastrom, KroyClub, Macrowave, FUKK UP!, Hantise, South Central, Trumpdisco and other stuff outside EDM and we highly recommend everyone to keep an eye on Silent H! We listened to some of his new tracks and got blown away.
19. What do you think about the Metalectro blog and the music featured on it?
We have been loyal electroheads for a while now, always counting on Metalectro for our daily fix of good tracks from mostly upcoming producers. So, keep up the good work, the underground scene needs it!
20. Anything else you’d like to mention and we forgot to ask?
Not really, thanks to everybody who supported us so far, support your local scene and we hope to see you all of you guys and gals in a live show real soon! Dance till the morning breakz!!!