Meet Boston’s Wessanders, Hear His Futuristic Flip of “Too Original” (Interview)
–Written by Kevin Madert
On Tuesday, longtime friend of the blog and general musical wunderkind Wessanders put out a nifty little flip of Major Lazer’s “Too Original.” Clocking in at just over three minutes, it’s conceptually concise, executed with the calm and collected precision of a consummate professional. Sharply crafted, awash in lush nuances, and catchy as all hell, it’s the latest in a string of commendable releases from the Boston-based producer/DJ.
We got the chance to sit down with Wessanders to delve deeper into his creative process, career progress, and plenty in between.
Alternate Frequency: Your music, while often containing similar sonic components, seems to eschew any kind of genre categorization. Is this a conscious effort or just a product of your approach to production?
Wessanders: I’m still learning the basics, so right now I’m doing a lot of exploring. There’s no use in lying and saying I have any real idea what I’m doing. But I do think there are certain things my ear just loves, so there are reoccurring elements in my music. I’m also constantly honing my ability to make and recycle sounds.
AF: Take your most recent effort, a rework of Major Lazer’s “Too Original.” You took an arguably generic tune and morphed it into a unique, deceptively simple midtempo future track – deftly juxtaposing darkness and light with a roiling zipperlike bassline and wavy pulsating synths. Tell us a bit about your process in creating this remix/remixes in general. How does the approach differ from your approach to producing originals?
W: While I’m definitely trying to lean towards more original works, remixes are a lot of fun for me. When I really love an element in a song – and when it’s something I think I can augmented without destroying – it comes easily. For a while I fell into a trap of throwing vocals on top of my original tracks for the sake of attention; I’ve since learned to hold off unless they fit so perfectly you can’t say no.
I love working with Major Lazer vocals. They’re always upbeat and fun and make me wanna throw stuff at other stuff in a non-destructive way. Messing with those came pretty easily, and after that it became all about the bass sound. Once I had something steady bouncing around I got a little bored, and I didn’t want the track to lose its rawness. So I duplicated the sound and processed it. Panned that ho’ and there you go.
AF: You’re a part of the Friends With Robots collective, which we often feature on our site. Tell us a bit about your involvement with FWR. What does the group mean to you? Any unheralded names on the roster we should be watching out for?
W: All my homies have something to offer in the bigger picture of what we’re doing. Something different. That’s why they’re all my favorite people in music right now. We work off each other and drive each other to create real art. It’s one thing to watch someone from afar and try and figure out what they’re doing just by listening. It’s another to be able to ask a friend and have him show you the way to start perfecting it. You grow so much with forward-thinking people around you. You gotta spend time with the people who make you a better you, and when you find them keep them around. That’s why Friends With Robots isn’t just a place for us to stack plays; it’s a place us for us to develop our ideas and track our growth as both individual and collaborative artists.
We decided to make this edition of our mixtape series open submission because we have so many amazing friends that make music; I’m super excited to see what hits the inbox in the next few weeks. If you make music, we want to hear it.
AF: As a Wessanders listener for some time, I’ve noticed a steady, marked increase in your production prowess. That’s not to say your earlier works weren’t enjoyable and well-crafted, but with each successive release the sounds have become crisper and the hooks catchier. Is there a specific area musically where you believe you’ve grown most? Where do you see your continuing maturation as an artist taking you in the future?
W: I’m working on everything. Sometimes I see progression in my music, but that just reminds me I’ve barely breached the surface, which in turn drives me to work way harder. Right now my work ethic is shit, so I wake up every day and try and make it better. I’ve recently found myself obsessed with a whole new world of sound design in techno, tech-house, and minimal. The focus is on crafting different atmosphere, with a heavier emphasis on progression. So that’s what I see myself chasing for the next little bit – generally I’m trying to pay attention to sound better. I’ve also started working with a few producers on a vocal project called Kaiiak; that’s been fun and I’m hype to start making more and different tunes.
Inspiration-wise, the last two years would be so much different without dudes like Choppa Dunks, Sevnth Wonder, Encanti (ZebblerEncantiExperience), Nacho Marco (Spain) and especially all my Young Travolta boys. I’ve learned something imperative from all of them.
AF: Now just for fun; you’ve got a time machine and the ability to collaborate with any three artists, living or dead, at any point in their careers. Who do you pick, when, and why?
Jeez. There are so many dead that I’m going living…
1. Dave Tipper
2. Tigran Hamasyan
3. Kendrick Lamar
AF: Thanks for your time!
If you’re interested in submitting music for FWR06, all inquiries should be directed to contact@friendswithrobots.com. You can stream “Too Original (the lost flip)” below.
Connect with Wessanders: (Facebook / Soundcloud / Twitter)
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New Tune Tuesday (7/28/15)
–Written by Kevin Madert
Ludge – Void EP
Kicking off this week is Ludge, a new favorite here at AltFreq. With crisp, clean sound design and technical prowess that often escapes producers of far greater experience and renown, the Philadelphia native is flying criminally under the radar. Perfect example? His latest effort, the deep and dark Void EP – self-released today. The three track offering is rife with slow-churning dubstep phrases and abrasive, staccato synths, held together by the constant presence of ominous atmospheric undertones that serve to further flesh out each tune. “Light Speed” features pleasant builds and bridges juxtaposed by futuristic dub breakdowns (with bonus points for a Dr. Dre sample that isn’t from “The Next Episode”). The title track is dark through and through (as the name might suggest), sporting the heaviest moments on the EP. And “Limbo” is future trap played through molasses, with subtle horn and hi-hat accents that keep it oozing in a forward direction. In fewer words, we love this dude – and you should too. Head here to download the Void EP for free, and be sure to connect with Ludge on all relevant social networks: (Soundcloud / Facebook / Twitter).
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AltFreq Weekend Planner (7/16/15-7/18/15)
–Written by Kevin Madert
It’s nearly impossible to keep track of all the events going on in the area, so we’re here to let you know what’s happening in live music over the next few days. Watch out on Sundays for our “Weekly Planner,” where we’ll cover the remaining four days of the week.
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AltFreq Weekly Planner (7/5/15-7/8/15)
–Written by Kevin Madert
It’s nearly impossible to keep track of all the events going on in the area, so we’re here to let you know what’s happening in live music over the next few days. Watch out on Thursdays for the “Weekend Planner” where we’ll cover the most important 72 hours of the week.
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Warped Tour ’15 Spotlight: Six Veteran Acts You Can’t Miss (So Pray They Don’t All Play At The Same Time)
–Written by Kevin Madert
Vans Warped Tour, the well-established summertime mecca for all things pop-punk, metalcore, and alternative music and lifestyle writ large, is fast bearing down on the DMV. On Saturday, July 18th, over 70 bands will take to nine stages scattered around the Merriweather Post Pavilion grounds in Columbia, MD as a part of the single-day touring festival’s twentieth iteration. Over the next few weeks we’ll be highlighting a plurality of the musicians participating this year, starting today with a quick list of Warped veterans you’d be spitting in the face of history by missing.
August Burns Red
These guys are longtime AltFreq favorites. Their straightforward approach to metalcore & their often introspective, socially conscious lyrics have been honed to brutal precision since their inception in 2003. In the time since they’ve amassed a formidable following, which makes their fifth Warped appearance this year a pleasant non-surprise. Best of all, they just released their seventh studio effort Found In Faraway Places; this means you’ll hear a mix of new tunes and crowd favorites as your flailing body is endlessly subsumed and regurgitated by the roiling mass of sweat-drenched, dust-coated humanity otherwise known as “the crowd at an ABR show.”
Connect with August Burns Red: (Facebook / Twitter / Official Site)
Family Force 5
Remember “Love Addict”? It was one of the formative songs of my late middle school/early high school musical awakening, counting itself among the lucky 500 that could fit on my first generation iPod Nano. The half-rapped, half-screamed vocals and heavy post-production were a perfect cross-section of Family Force 5’s unabashed, crunkcore style. Lyrical content and religious affiliation aside, the band’s music spoke to me simply because it made me move. Seeing them perform live – on Warped a few years back, appropriately enough – rekindled that feeling with vigor, and it’s why they made this list. Based on sheer energy and stage presence alone these guys should make your Warped 2015 schedule.
Connect with Family Force 5: (Facebook / Twitter / Official Site)
Senses Fail
Another entrant under the “I grew up on this shit,” banner, the New Jersey post-hardcore outfit known as Senses Fail are making their sixth Warped appearance (and their first since 2012) this summer. I can picture myself in my darkened bedroom with Still Searching whirring quietly in my bright orange Walkman, saving my parents plenty of money on therapy by self-diagnosing my “issues” and then self-prescribing daily doses of emotionally-laden music as treatment.
Yep, that’s the one
Both the band and myself have come a ways since then. They’ve released four more full-lengths – including their latest, Pull The Thorns From Your Heart, out on Pure Noise Records as of this week. I’ve misplaced my Walkman and concluded somewhere in the interim that life’s not as bad as I thought it was at 13. Everybody’s happy, right?
Connect with Senses Fail: (Facebook / Twitter / Official Site)
Silverstein
One of the more intellectual and sonically diverse acts to come out of the post-hardcore/emo wave of the early to mid-2000s, Canada’s Silverstein has long been on my To-See list. They roped me in with When Broken is Easily Fixed and Discovering the Waterfront then kept me onboard by keeping it interesting – whether that meant ditching most of the sheen to record a straight rock record (Departures and Arrivals) or crafting albums with overarching concepts (three of their five most recent records fit this bill). If (read: when) you catch their set this summer, expect a little of everything from this quintet of seasoned, talented musicians.
Connect with Silverstein: (Facebook / Twitter / Official Site)
The Wonder Years
These guys are responsible for some of the most-played pop-punk in my music library, and with good reason. Their combination of no-frills, technically sound instrumentation and lyricism that hits home rather than skims the emotive surface makes it pretty hard not to bang your head and sing along. Much as some of the earlier bands on this list spoke to me at a younger age, the more mature thematic content present on works like The Greatest Generation connects with me now – songs about first loves realized and first loves gone awry are replaced by ego-bruised musings on expectations vs. reality and the looming uncertainty of the future that any 20-something can relate to. Of all the bands playing this year’s Tour, The Wonder Years owns most of my anticipation.
Connect with The Wonder Years (Facebook / Twitter / Official Site)
We Came As Romans
Blasting pure adrenaline through high-powered speakers since 2005, melodic metalcore band We Came As Romans round out this list for no reason other than because it’s ordered alphabetically. Calling Troy, Michigan home, the six-piece outfit has toured and released extensively in their ten years of existence, and have a new full-length self-titled album due out at the end of July. I’m running out of steam here, so I’ll make it simple: see We Came As Romans (and the other five acts previously listed) this summer at Warped Tour. Colloquially speaking, “they real good.”
Connect with We Came As Romans: (Facebook / Twitter / Official Site)
You can grab tickets to the 2015 Vans Warped Tour @ Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, MD on Saturday, July 18 right here. All other Merriweather-specific info can be found on the event page.
Connect with Vans Warped Tour: (Facebook / Twitter / YouTube / Official Site)
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AltFreq Weekend Planner (7/2/15-7/4/15)
–Written by Kevin Madert
It’s nearly impossible to keep track of all the events going on in the area, so we’re here to let you know what’s happening in live music over the next few days. Watch out on Sundays for our “Weekly Planner,” where we’ll cover the remaining four days of the week.
Read More