POSR interview With Designer Drugs

illson:
Cool. You’re here with illson from your favorite band, POSR, spending time with the people that you really love to listen to. Right now I’m here with Designer Drugs. Why don’t you introduce yourselves, guys?

Theo:
I’m Theo.

Michael:
What’s up; I’m Michael.

illson:
They’re here to play this giant party called Mega Buzz this Thanksgiving weekend. It’s thrown by Massive Intent; you guys should keep an eye out for whatever they’re doing. So guys, we’ve got one hot minute in here and I just have a handful of questions to ask you…

Michael:
Sure.

illson:
… the first of which is: in your interviews, I’ve seen that back in the day you’ve run into some raves and listened to some rave music. From those early days, do you remember any kind of artist that kind of like, struck you, that you guys can mention?

Theo:
Bad Company. Drum ‘n Bass.

Michael:
Yeah, yeah, Bad Company was really good. They were awesome.

Theo:
Paul Oakenfold. Always. Umm… All the big drum ‘n bass d.j.’s. We used to both be really into drum ‘n bass.

Michael:
Like Dillinja, Bad Company and …

Theo:
Techtronics. Fresh from Bad Company. Adam Meth. Dieselboy, we we’re really into him, really early on…

illson:
He’s from your side of town, right?

Theo:
Yeah, yeah, yup. Just all those guys out there, especially the U.K. guys.

illson:
Does punk really figure into your music, or is that just something easy to say?

Theo:
Not from my perspective, no. Not much of an influence on me.

Michael:
Yeah, I think I listen to it more than he does. Some of the new tracks, though, are pretty heavy. They have more of punk rock vocals and stuff.

Theo:
I think a lot of it is we like a lot of high-energy stuff, and a lot of punk is high-energy. They’re kind of like a parallel universe.

Michael:
A lot of distortion and stuff, too.

illson:
I’d like to know how your original music is developing; not your remixes, but the music you guys make yourselves, and what should the public be expecting in  your upcoming releases?

Michael:
It’s coming along really good, actually. I’m really happy … I’m more happy doing the originals than the remixes, so we’re cutting back on the remixes a lot, and doing original stuff. The new originals, they’re very diverse. We have some really pretty songs, and we have some really punk rock songs – some really heavy, nasty distorted stuff, but we also have some really pretty songs with some singing, and rapping, and …

Theo:
We have some slow, uh …

Michael:
(laughing) … love songs!

Theo:
Yeah, we got some love songs! We got some poppier stuff. We got some, uh … just a little bit of everything for everybody, I think. As far as developing, our production skills are getting better, we’re buying new stuff. We’re just learning a lot from listening to other people’s music, and we’re trying to make everybody happy and still lean towards better quality product for everybody.

illson:
Always growing in technique, I’m assuming?

Theo:
Yeah. Always learning; for sure.

illson:
We’re all looking forward to those originals.

Michael:
There’s actually a lot more real instruments. We recorded drums for some songs, we recorded guitars, vocals; more analog stuff going on.

illson:
You’re playing piano again on it?

Michael:
Uh, yeah, yeah! We’re always playing piano.

Theo:
(laughing) Always playing piano.

illson:
Is there a song of yours that you two felt really good about, where you said, ‘hey, we did a really good job at this.’ Is there a song that holds a special place in your hearts, that you guys made?

Michael:
We just shot a music video for this one called ‘Through the Prism,’ which really came together really quick. I think it’s really fresh sounding and it’s a uh,  I think it’s a really solid song. I like it a lot. I feel the integrity of it is pretty good. Yeah. A lot of the new stuff I feel pretty happy about.

Theo:
Yeah. Some of the stuff that nobody’s heard of yet I feel pretty happy with. If I was gonna go back, I would say I really liked ‘Drop Down’ a lot; that was a good one.

Michael:
Yeah, ‘Drop Down’ is really good.

Theo:
It was a hard one.

illson:
We’ve looked at your discography a little and we can go back all the way to 2008. Amazing, isn’t it? We saw an early track from Warner Bros. How was that for you guys, since it was so early in your career and you were dealing with a major label, and how does that compare to being in a small, boutique label now? Working with I Heart Comix, of course.

Theo:
Right.

Michael:
It was cool for us; we were excited, you know? Because we always want to do big stuff, so it was cool to work with a big label, you know?

Theo:
It was our first experience with a major label, but most of our remixes are attached with a certain label; some are bigger than others, We’ve done stuff with, I don’t know – twenty other labels, maybe? I don’t know. A lot of labels.

Michael:
Maybe ten.

Theo:
Yeah, maybe ten, something like that. A lot of labels.

Michael:
Mostly smaller ones. They’ve all been cool. Everything’s been … good working with them.

illson:
And finally: Wes Anderson or Wes Craven?

(silence)

Theo:
(laughing) Who?

Michael:
(laughing)

Theo:
Wes Anderson? (laughing) Who’s Wes Anderson?

Michael:
Is that Diplo?

illson:
Rushmore.

Michael:
I don’t know, man. Honestly, I’m not familiar with either.

illson:
Ok. Finally …

Michael:
We’re more … I don’t know … what kind of movies? Oh, I like uh … Greg Araki’s movies.

illson:
Oh, cool! Yeah, ‘Doom Generation’!

Michael:
Yeah, been watching him a lot lately, actually.

illson:
He’s a favorite of mine, too.

Michael:
I like ‘Nowhere,’ too. ‘Nowhere’ is a really good one.

Theo:
Never seen him (laughing).

Michael:
Really? I think you might have seen some …

Theo:
Really? I don’t know.

illson:
You should try ‘Doom Generation.’

Theo:
I’d love to.

illson:
It’s a hot one.

Theo:
Sounds cool.

illson:
Well kids, that’s it! That’s a hot minute with Designer Drugs. Good luck with your set tonight. Four a.m., right?

Theo:
Four to five.

Michael:
Stay up.

illson:
Always good advice. Good night!