POINT OF VIEW INTERVIEW #54

PRODUCER/DJ: UMRU

New York just may be hosting some of the most talented up and coming artists on SoundCloud, but trying to find these artists can be quite a task. What a person can do is scroll through the SoundCloud Discover tab, check out what Spotify is thriving off of, or seek out what the music blogs are picking up. Unlike the common, Twitter gifted me with an unusual individual that swarms under the noses of festival producers today. This fire starter under the covers is named umru. You might know him from his memorable remix of Lido's "Citi Bike" or as the so-called ultimate critic of meme usage, however, this New York-based producer is launching music that trickles with mind-boggling sound design ideas. Whether it's collabing with another producer friend or remixing one of his own inspiration's tracks, umru uses some of the most peculiar beats, and heart-wrenching bass one will find. If the track is horrifically captivating, you know it's a one of a kind treat you won't encounter very often. Today you can find him playing shows in various parts on the East Coast or retweeting from his umrubot, but you will most likely catch him dropping music that expands his exceptional musical portfolio. Below read Point of View Interview #54 with umru! Enjoy!

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Question 1: What got you into making music?

My dad's a musician who, among other things, literally plays clarinet with whales, so I've basically had music around forever. I've played drums, some piano, and had a laptop with Ableton to mess around with for an embarrassingly long time considering how bad I still am, but I really only started taking making my own music more seriously when I got into stuff on Soundcloud about 2 or 3 years ago I guess.

I definitely experimented with making a lot of different stuff, but I was drawn to the SoundCloud trap world or whatever probably because it was a) really interesting music and b) something I felt like I could make since it didn't necessarily involve a lot of music theory. It was my dude Tiam who basically showed me like EDM trap music, and from there we found people like Woolymammoth and Dabow and everyone on Courteous Family.

I gotta give Courteous a huge shoutout because a lot of the stuff they've put out still goes very unheard which is a crime. It's kind of weird that I only ended up finding people like Mr. Carmack, Sam G, and Mura Masa later on, but yeah at some point I was hooked on wanting to make music like all these people, and it was all a downward spiral from there.

Question 2: What people intrigue you or inspire you to pursue music?

I have this IGLOOGHOST tweet up on the wall in front of my desk, and it's honestly the only thing that keeps me going every day.

Also, I'm of course super inspired by hearing everything made by my friends I've met through music and by seeing how well they're doing. Let me just rattle off some names in no particular order: william crooks, Verzache, zotti, quickly, quickly, inimicvs, VALENTINE, blake skowron, Chuck Sutton, sophie meiers, Vide, samsin, west1ne, Holly, Michael Mason, player dave, sumthin sumthin, SLEEPYCATT, everyone in Midiboyz, Rauthentic, Stems, and even Anh.

Question 3: How would you define your style of music?

It's pretty tempting to say something like my music doesn't abide by genres, but I mean I make trap for the most part. I don't know, my end goal is to make music at the perfect point between being catchy and appealing to the masses without sacrificing the interesting sounds that come out of wonky SoundCloud trap or whatever. I'm definitely not at that sweet spot right now, but I actually think nobody quite is yet. (After Coachella came pretty damn close though)

Question 4: What influences your style of work?

It's mostly just hearing new sounds. I've already named too many people in this interview, but right now it's definitely the Sinjin Hawke and Cashmere Cat albums that are rubbing off on me the most.

Question 5: What is your favorite track that you have produced so far?

Probably my remix of Lido's "Citi Bike". I'm not totally happy with it, but I'm not with anything. I definitely like my remixes a lot more than my original tracks because the starting point is already a good song. Of my original songs, my favorite is probably one of the ones I haven't released yet ;).

Actually, I lied, I am totally happy with my remix of Y2K & lil aaron's "DAMN" like that's the only one of my tracks I regularly bump (but really it's just because the vocals are so good).

Question 6: Any goals or plans in mind for you as an artist in the future? Anyone who you would love to work with?

The goal right now is to become, Estonian rapper, Tommy Cash's resident producer (I actually got kind of close). Otherwise, I just want to keep making stuff, I have an EP or something that's been in the works and probably still will be for a while, but there's that and then who knows. Maybe in 2018, I'll leave the memes behind for real. Maybe one-day X&G will allow me to step out of the shadows as their ghost producer and actually let me collab with them on the next The Zoo. Maybe I'll go to LA for the first time and play a Melting Of Age show on June 29th nah jk that would be crazy who am I kidding.