This week I interviewed Hack The System, a name that has been featured on Metalectro numerous times with his tracks. Hack The System, is from Milan, Italy, but currently he is living and playing some shows in Australia. With his debut EP “End Game” being released on the 30^th of August, which is tomorrow, by Jet Set Trash, I thought it would be a good time to get hold of him for an interview… Let’s find out what he has to say about his EP, shows, influences and plans for the near future…

01. Hi Federico! Would you mind introducing yourself?

At first thank you to the Metalectro blog for this opportunity! My name is Federico Fogliata, i’m 22 years old and i’m from Milan, Italy! I’m the kind of guy that never says no, living day by day and trying to enjoy life as much as I can!

02. How long have you been doing Hack The System and how would you describe your music?

Hack The System started about 1 year ago. The idea was to make dancefloor tracks sweeping between different styles such as dirty electro and French touch but eventually I started working with other genres as well such as drum n bass or dubstep! My music expresses how i feel. It kind of describes my life, with its ups and downs!

03. Apparently I just found out you are also involved in a side project, New World Disorder. Would you mind telling us a few things about it and what should the readers who will check it out expect to listen?

New World Disorder is a new born project created exclusively for my electronic, glitch, ambient, experimental, chill out tracks! I’m coming out with a glitch remix for “Fake Art” which will be released by Touché Records on the 26th of September!

04. Back to Hack The System now and I have to say you have been producing some killer original tracks since the very beginning. It’s very hard for me to pick a favorite but I have to ask, where do you draw inspiration from?

I draw inspiration from everywhere really… From the electro classics such as Justice or SebastiAn as well as some of my favorite artists, which are Noisia, Netsky and Amon Tobin to name a few…

05. You are a big fan of classical music. Who and what would you say are your biggest influences that helped you shape the Hack The System sound and style?

I’m really addicted to classical music! Sometimes I spend whole nights listening to it! My biggest influence comes from Chopin, Vivaldi, Mozart, Debussy and also from a few modern a composers such as Ludovico Einaudi or Yann Tiersen!

06. What is your biggest music achievement/highlight so far and what would you say is your most embarrassing moment, in regard to music always…

Probably my best highlight was the party I played before living Italy, to say goodbye to all my friends back there, in October 2010… That night I played at the Amnesia (Milan) with Digitalism and Pink Is Punk! As for the most embarassing moment, it prbobably was a few weeks ago… I was playing in the Elsewhere club in Gold coast (Australia) and while headbanging I hit my face on the glass that surrounds the console! When I finished I had to go to the hospital where they had to make 3 stitches to my eyebrow!

07. You have come up with a few remixes recently, to be released on Dreieck Records and on Jet Set Trash and they all sound great! These were requested remixes I suppose, are you working on any more remixes at the moment?

Yes! I already finished the remix for The Destroy Squad “Brainwashing” that will be released on Woo Crew Records and I’m also working on a remix for Sexinspace‘s track “Glitter & Pain”!

08. You also have your debut EP “End Game” coming out on the 30^th of August, which will include some older but great tracks of yours, as well as some pretty awesome remixes. What are your thoughts on the EP and should we expect to listen to another Hack The System EP this year?

All the remixers have done a great job and I’m really excited about this release! I think the first EP to be released is always something special for a producer! I’m actually working on 2 new EPs… The first actually is collaboration with Aaren Reale! And the second one, named “No More Religions”, will be probably released in the beginning of 2012! I’m also planning to do a video for that!

09. Apparently you have been playing quite a few shows in Australia lately and you have a show with Barretso coming up as far as I know. Are you enjoying it and how many more shows have you already booked? How can someone book you to play a show?

Yeah, i already played few shows on the set coast and I’m going play with Barretso on the 8th of September in gold coast and also on the 10th in Sydney! I already have 4 other shows coming up on the set coast before leaving Australia to return to Italy! For bookings just email your request at Bookings@wearezero.net

10. Who would you dream of sharing the stage with?

Probably my dream is to share the stage with SebastiAn, Justice or Daft Punk! They’re my favorite French touch artists ever!

11. 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?

I used to make melodies and arrangements also with my midi keyboard and i also make a big use of my synthesizers. I have a Virus TI and a Nord Lead 2. They’re like sons to me! About sampling, i have nothing against taking advantage of them as long as you don’t base your whole “sound” on them! Sampling was born in the 70’s and is largely used in the hip hop/break area but also by artists such as Prodigy or Beastie Boys. But nowadays even the big names come up with tracks in which they often use whole synth melodies and bass loops which are taken from sample packs. I just think that music has to express your own feelings and personality. To me, using or copying loops and samples created by others feels like playing with a sequencer and not making music at all!

12. You have been producing tracks in many different styles from banging electro to drum’n’bass and dubstep. Do you ever run out of creative ideas in the studio?

Yes, I love to produce a few different styles and genres depending mainly on how I feel at that specific moment. Creativity can depend on a few things actually. It’s a high-low kind of situation… Sometimes you are full of inspiration and ideas just flow but sometimes you are not in the mood to make anything at all and feel totally blocked…

13. So, what is music for you and what do you think about the way the music industry is changing?

Music is my passion! It’s my best friend and my best enemy! It’s hard not to notice though that the financial and commercial side of it overcomes the passion more and more each day. Business is the biggest cancer of music in my opinion but as we all know this isn’t true only in music. I still do like the fact though that with all the improvements and advances in the digital market and the internet, everything is much more accessible and you can follow or get updated with all the music you love much easier than in the past.

14. Any comments about today’s mainstream music? Do you agree with Haezer’s “Commercial Music Is Dead”?

Hmmm… Not really… Commercial will never die! As I said before everything is business related and commercial music is the proof of that… In that world everything depends on the image and the advertising of the product, so everything just revolves around money…

15. Do you believe that an electronic music artist can earn his/her living from music nowadays?

It depends on his life ambitions really! I’m managing to survive just by playing a few shows here in Australia and that’s more than enough for now! If and when I can earn my living by playing music I will be the happiest person on earth!

16. What are you listening to lately? Any tracks/artists you recommend?

I follow and listen to all genres, so nothing in particular to recommend… As far as electro goes I definitely recommend you to listen to Djston and Electrostorm! As for dubstep, you must check out Stereoliez! I also recommend The Glitch Mob and Gesaffelstein, great stuff!

17. If you could pick another artist to collaborate with, anyone you want, whom would you pick?

Noisia!!! No doubt…

18. What do you like doing when not in the studio producing music?

I love to play soccer, meet friends and of course partying!

19. What do you think about the Metalectro blog and the music featured on it?

We are lucky to have a blog like Metalectro around, keep offering fresh tunes and great news! You’re doing a really great job and I thank you for this!

20. Anything else you’d like to mention and we forgot to ask?

I just want to say thanks to all my fans and supporters!

This week i interviewed Quer4mat, a name that is just about to make some noise on this blog with a special guest mixtape they came up with, exclusively for Metalectro. Quer4mat are a duo based in Germany and have been coming up with some killer mixtapes and remixes for a few months now. Most of you will probably know Quer4mat from their mixtapes or their remix on NEUS “Blast!” or Dada Life’s “Fight Club Is Closed”. I intend to ask them a few questions now that I got hold of them and shed some light on their future plans. So, let’s out find what they have in store for us in the following months…

01. Hi guys, would you mind introducing Quer4mat?

Hi, we are two crazy guys from eastern Germany. Our names are Robby and Johannes and we are both 22 years old. Our passion is music, especially the hard electronic stuff like maximal, hard electro, nu rave, dirty electro, dubstep, drumstep and also fidget house a little bit and of course metalectro. *laugh*

By the way: Quer4mat stands for the German word “Querformat” which means horizontal format in English…

02. You have been coming up with a few remixes and mixtapes, or sicktapes as you like to call them, should we expect to listen to any original tracks as well anytime soon?

Yeah… we are planning to stop our mixtape/sicktape series in September, until Christmas (Sicktape No6 will be the last one in 2011). So we hope we will have more time for producing some original Quer4mat tracks then.

03. How did you get into doing mixtapes and for how long have you been coming up with those? How did it all begin?

Oh, that’s a long story, we’ll try to keep it short. We met each other in 2005 and started making our first mixtapes on the computer. Later we used turntables (Technics 1210) and now we are using two Pioneer CDJ 400 for making our tapes the last 1,5 years. The style was something between house and commercial electro-house (shit!) at first. The project “Quer4mat” started in 2007 and from that point on we changed our style a lot. It got harder and harder and last year we reached the peak of hard electronic music in our opinion (of course schranz and hardcore is much harder but not the style we are talking about).

04. What are your influences/music backgrounds?

We’ve both started to listen to 4 by 4 beats since before we can remember. So it was only a matter of time before we begun to make our own stuff.

05. Have you ever played in a rock/metal band?

No, not really…

06. What do you think about today’s mainstream music?

Well, this is a pretty difficult question. Commercial music is dead, isn’t it? How would you define “mainstream music”? Is Skrillex commercial? There are many questions without reply. It’s a strange feeling when you’re standing in a club and all the people are singing to David “Baguettas” next chartbuster you’ve never heard before! We don’t know much about today’s mainstream music because we do not listen to ordinary radio stations or something like that.

07. You’ve been DJ-ing and playing live sets in a few clubs/parties.. Are you happy with how all that has turned out and which would be your dream live/party? How can someone book you?

There could be a little bit more bookings at the moment but generally speaking we are happy with our momentary situation. Our dream is to play with prodigies like Cyberpunkers, Skrillex, Haezer and so on…

The easiest way to book us is writing an email to: quer4mat@freenet.de

08. What are your plans for the rest of 2011?

As we said before we’ll do a break with our “Sicktape” series. Now the plan is to come up with some Quer4mat shirts (with our logo on them) and while we’re on it, we’re looking for somebody who wants to design a part of that shirt so feel free to get in touch with us about it. Producing our first original track is also in the books…

09. What are you listening to lately? Any tracks/artists you recommend?

Hack The System, Bitredux, Darth & Vader, Drivepilot, Dead C.A.T Bounce, Blaster, The S, Redial…

10. How do you like spending your free time (when not playing music)?

Volleyball, skiing, windsurfing, working, studying, Battlefield Bad Company 2 (add wc3.zanex *lol*) and mostly looking for new great artists.

11. What equipment/software are you using?

Dj Equipment: 2x CDJ 400 and DJM 600 for our tapes
Software and hardware for producing: Ableton Live 8, Akai PLD 8 and LPK 25 and a lot of VSTis

12. Would you mind giving us a heads up about this mixtape you came up with for Metalectro? What should we expect to listen to when we press play, should we expect any dead bodies and broken necks?

Definitely and don’t forget the bleeding ears!

13. What do you think about the Metalectro blog and the music featured on it?

We love it. We found a lot of bangers on the blog in the past and we’ll find a lot more in the future.

14. Something else you’d like to mention and we forgot to ask?

Yes. We want to say THANK YOU to all our supporters and friends and we want also to thank Metalectro for this interview.

You can find us here

http://www.soundcloud.com/quer4mat

http://www.facebook.com/quer4mat

This week i interviewed SIRsir, our Spotlight artist of the month and a name that has been featured on the blog a few times already. SIRsir is from Brazil and his first official release was in March, with the track “Horse”. Now, with his debut EP scheduled for release in late July on BugEyed Records, he’s been making some noise on this blog and I am going to try find out what else he is planning for the near future. So…

01. Hi! Would you mind introducing SIRsir?

SIRsir is another side of my musical personality. It’s me producing, playing and singing on my own tracks, covering kind of all the heavy and distorted side of the maximal electronic music.

02. You grabbed our attention with your track “Horse”, a heavy track that had a very characteristic “rock influenced” sound. Would you say that was the first Metalectro track you ever came up with and what was the feedback you got for it? 

Here in Brazil I’ve been long known as a rock artist. My band Fresno is pretty famous here and people, at first, were surprised with such news.

I’m always into side projects, like Beeshop (folk-indie songs in english) and Visconde. But for people really interested in electronic music, it was kind of a blast! With only one song I’ve got contacted by lots of people who really deserve all of my respect, such as DJ Zegon, FTampa, Dirtyloud, and got invited to play at the Crew party here in São Paulo, which is one of the best electro-oriented parties here. So with the other songs, things kept running really fine for me, especially in other countries.

Now I’m being requested for some good remixes and I’m planning some great releases in the next months.

03. What are your influences/music background and what or who might have played a role in shaping your sound and style?

As I said before, I’ve been very interested on electronic music for my whole life, but bands such as Prodigy and Pitchshifter really caught my attention when I was younger. But what really pointed me towards this musical direction was the french producers like SebastiAn, Justice and the whole Ed Banger crew that came along in 2005/2006. For me that was kind of a new approach to music and it totally blew my mind away. I’m a big fan of Drivepilot, Skrillex and Bloody Beetroots too.

04. Speaking about influences, I will assume you’ve had your share of rock/metal music in the past. Did you ever play in a rock band?

Yes. My main band is called Fresno. We love bands such as Muse, Anberlin and Emery and our sound goes towards that direction as well. I play guitar, piano and sing. But I’ve been in other bands as well like Dezembro, an instrumental quartet influenced by Explosions in The Sky and Mogwai.

05. What would you say is your biggest music achievement/highlight so far?

We won viewer’s choice on VMB, that is our VMA’s. And we played lots of big festivals around the country. Too bad we have never played on other places. We sing in Portuguese and that is a huge obstacle for sure. But our country is so big that we don’t think about that too much.

06. 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?

In the beginning I used to “play” everything but got stuck on my own limitations. Putting blocks on a piano roll can look and feel really boring but it enables you to get sounds that would be impossible otherwise. All of my guitars are heavily sequenced, and I like to do all of the automations by hand, as well as those ‘complextro’ basslines. It’s pretty heavy work, it takes hours but nothing compares to the faces of my friends wondering ‘how the fuck did he do this?’. I’m not that much into samples, maybe ’cause I’m much more a ‘player’ and not a sampler. Sometimes I use microsampling though, but most of it is unrecognizable when the song is done.

I think copyright laws are pretty obsolete and people in charge of it don’t have a clue on how people are making music today.

07. If your studio was on fire what would be the first thing to save?

Hm, I would run for my life. The rest we can recover somehow. But my preferred gear is the Apogee One. It is such a bargain for its price and it comes with a built-in mic that made me sell all the others I used to record with.

08. You have been doing quite a few original tracks and remixes, do you prefer working on one more than the other and why?

Maybe that’s because of my background. I’m a singer/songwriter, so I’m always writing music and have ideas to work with. I prefer to use my ideas on original material than putting them on someone else’s track.

09. I know you are currently collaborating with a few other artists on some tracks, would you like to give us a few more details on that?

My first collab was with FTampa. I wrote a song and recorded some synths for a track called ‘How’s Your Romance’, released on BugEyed Records. It’s a modern-electro track, with my vocals in it. I’m also working with a Brazilian rapper on a track, I hope it turns out great. And there’s an upcoming remix for a Turkish metal band that contacted me through SoundCloud, as well as some EP’s which are on the making. There’s some stuff ready to go, too… I’m just waiting for the right time.

10. What is music for you and what do you think about the way the music industry is changing?

May sound cliché but music is pretty much everything for me. During my whole life I knew I was going to do something related to it and when I first grabbed a NOFX album I finally realized that I was going to be doing it for the rest of my days.

The Industry is changing a lot on the last few years, and most of it happened thanks to the electronic music scene that has been always much more forward-thinking and smarter than the other ones.

11. What do you think about today’s mainstream music?

There’s always those 80% shitty stuff but that ain’t news. On the other hand, the mainstream revealed to the world very talented people, like Jack White, Alex Turner, Josh Homme, the Strokes, Muse, Foo Fighters, etc… These are people who really believe on what they’re doing.

12. Do you believe that an electronic music artist can earn his/her living from music nowadays?

I think it’s easier to get some money DJing/producing than being on rock’n’roll bands. In Brazil most venue owners prefer hiring a DJ than a band, due to the obvious lower cost and the technical aspects involved in a band concert.

I have lots of friends that have bands and do some DJing just to get some extra money, so I think this explains it all. I love electronic music but it’s kinda sad to see stuff like this happening.

13. You’ll be releasing your first EP through BugEyed Records in late July, would you mind giving us some a heads up of what we should expect to listen? What’s the title of the EP?

It’s a pretty straight forward mid-tempo indie electro/nu-disco danceable music. I used some orchestrations and tons of micro-sampling on ‘Immo’, the main track of this EP. ‘Down’ is going to be the first single, it has got a catchy distorted synth riff all along the track, matched with myself rappin’ and singing on a Kanye West style. It kinda reminds of Justice’s ‘DVNO’, a track that I definitely love. And of course ‘Horse’, a noisy Marilyn Manson-ish shuffle bass-driven banger with heavy metal guitars, war chants and tons of epicness. It could be a Muse track, I think…

With these three songs I tried to translate precisely what comes to my mind when I think of club music. It’s an ode to the artists I like. People who know my influences will be able to detect them on my songs.

14. How many original tracks are there going to be on the EP and will there be any remixes? If yes, by whom? Give the readers something to look forward to…

I’m sending remix packs to people I admire. Brazilian DJ Chernobyl is kind of an oracle of ‘bailefunk’ music, and I asked him to remix ‘Down’ his way. I can’t confirm the other remixers yet because it is still being negotiated but I hope to hear different approaches to my tracks. It’ll be fun.

15. Any other plans for 2011? (live shows, releases, videos, remixes, etc)

I’m already doing shows here in Brazil. I’m resident at my own party, called ‘Crunk It’ where we cover everything from dutch house to dubstep and everything in between. There’s a strong scene here in Brazil. I’m travelling around here, trying to get enough experience so I can start touring abroad. It’s not too expensive to book some dates, due to the fact that I’m only one person touring. I hope to visit lots of countries with my music and I’ll be doing everything in my reach to do that!

16. Whom would you dream to share the stage with?

Tough question… It’s hard to say but I think one of those Ed Banger incredibly packed crazy parties would be more than awesome.

17. What are you listening to lately? Any tracks/artists you recommend?

I’ve been listening to Lazer Sword a lot. It’s trippy, old school dubstep/grime. These guys are the greatest. And I’ve been digging the works of Drivepilot, he is pretty consistent and heavy.

18. What do you like to do when not in the studio producing music?

Besides going to parties, I like boxing. Really love it. I don’t have that much free time, but when I get some days off I like to try some new restaurants, riding my BMX, and playing vintage videogames like 3DO and Neo Geo. I have a huge old videogame collection back home.

19. What do you think about the Metalectro blog and the music featured on it?

It was the first website about it that I visited, thanks to my friend Dirty Noise that sent me the link. Me, Dirty Noise and Udek talk about the blog a lot. It’s a very cool place to discover some new earbleeding music!

20. Something else you’d like to mention and we forgot to ask?

I have 2 more EP’s done, so you guys will be hearing a lot more by SIRsir soon and I hope you enjoyed this interview! Sorry for my rusty English, let’s all have fun and dance to extremely loud noisy music!