I was planning to post this Reddit Interview by Mr. Carmack since I started this site, but I haven’t had the time for it, but I finally managed to get all the questions that fans asked him, I also added only the Important questions and answers from the Interview, you can check it out below.
“whats up guys! its mr. carmack, ask me anything. yooo I just wanted to say hello, thanks for the support, and reach out here: I go by mr. carmack for my releases, but friends call me carmack, or aaron. whatever. A while ago i seen a post here that was called "sunday introduction" and i was taken aback at how intricate and in-depth his post was about my work, and i vowed if i ever do something like an AMA it would be on the same subreddit that man posted on. so, here i am! questions, complaints, suggestions welcomed, or not”
What was is it like working with Pharell?
nothing short of amazing. when i stepped up, the man came up with a verse, bridge and a hook so catchy i was repeating it for weeks, in 15 minutes! all with a contagious swag everyone in the room seemed to enjoy. people aren't that consistently held in high regard for nothing, and his methods are solid
Just like pretty much everyone on this sub I'm a huuuge fan, have a few questions to ask.
1 - Any information about the collab with TDE?
2 - Why is the sound quality on Dimebag not optimal? I've bought all of your previous stuff but I don't feel like spending 10$ on it, unless you lost the better versions of the songs that are on it.
3 - Will we see you in Europe in 2014?
4 - What is in your opinion the best song (or songs) you've made?
5 - Who is in your eyes the most underrated (trap) artist?
1 - No
2 - Ah, I'm still looking for some good versions, asking friends to help with tracks and such. once i have an all 320 zip file ready it'll be available for free. it will take a while, i only have about 6 of them. plus it was only meant to be a grab bag lofi tape to listen to in shit stereos with tanned girls in the back seat
3 - not sure! if not this year then before i die
4 - Shroomeries is my favorite one to listen to. theres about 25 verses from amateur and professional rappers in my computer, all of them very profound in their own way
5 - skrillex! though i want him to make more melodic stuff
What advice could you give to a young homie tryna get into trap production/Djing? Where do i start? Thanks bruh
start with yourself. read, get into uncomfortable relationships, be open to shit jobs and long hours, respect everything and everyone that crosses your path. when you feel you got a handle on that, then pick up your laptop and write about it. also, take a introductory music class. if your in grade school join the band
*reddit.com
mr. carmack, the drop from Roller (New Look) will forever be engrained into my mind, and i thank you for that. what was the moment when you decided to pursue music production full time?
i guess it would have to be summer 2011, when i moved to hawaii. i was already producing for my own sanity 6-10 hours daily and id just failed out of college. what the kicker was, however, was when i realized i was producing to escape my current situation, and letting real world things fall by the wayside, like budgeting and putting socks in hampers. so i vowed to grow up in hawaii, and not let my music control me.
NASA is such a good track. how do you do it man
I'm constantly underfed, undersexed, underslept, and sick of it. thats my motivation to move faster and better
You once gave me music advice a couple years ago over soundcloud right before you blew up, I just wanted to thank you for that - I was shocked you responded and I've always remembered that. You seem like a real down to earth guy who cares about his fans. My question is about the internet. As an artist who has had so much success releasing music on the internet, how has internet changed music, in your opinion?
I've always let the internet inspire me. I've been downloading shit illegally for years, i used to use youtube, soundclick, reverbnation to look for new stuff with the same vigor i use soundcloud today. it all comes down to how you use it, per se. theres certain things that can be controlled and regulated, the internet to me is NOT one of those things
First off you are hands-down my favorite producer right now, and DIMEBAG yesterday only exceeded expectations, amazing work.
1 - Does smoking herb affect the way you write music?
2 - Do you have inspirations for certain pieces or writing in general?
thank you!
1 - herb affects me in a way that allows me to get in a meditative state to work. its hard to describe it other than "zoning out", working when stoned. i can't respond to emails or package together organized zips and eps stoned though. scratch that, i suck at responding to emails period
2 - i draw inspiration from many experiences in my life. its hard to go any further than that, do you have a certain piece in mind?
Oh shit! Was just thinking this morning how dope it'd be if Carmack did an AMA
Your beats feel so organic, so natural. How do you makes your tracks sound so raw and not robotic? Do you produce without grids?
take a jazz course somewhere and ask the teacher about "pockets". theres a certain way each of us move time musically, and its never perfectly in time
Favourite producers? One trap, one none trap. Love your work an the latest release is great!
right now? all I'm listening to right now is What So Not and Tuamie
You ever coming to play in Colorado? If you had a show here I know I'd be first in line to see it. Not to mention that we have legal weed shops now haha. Also, what would you say is your favorite track?
i like the weed my favorite track ever is Red House by jimi hendrix. I'm a sucker for 6/8 blues
Who's your favorite producer to just hang out with.
colta maybe homo
What's your process for making those crazy synth patterns or I'm not sure if you would call them arps, in tracks like kick it up and your new rock dem track. Kick it up sounds like you recorded someone dragging a tin can down the street and it works so insanely well.
i like to generally delay synths about 10-50ms behind the beat. then add some random lead in notes to lead into the beginning of the bar, out of time, to accent certain strong hits. i also experiment with able ton's groove pool to get that "dragging a tin can" sound.
I lurked your profile a bit, whats up with the being homeless experience? Did you do it? Howd it turn out? Whatd you learn?
haha nothing, except being homeless sucks. don't do it, it was stupid and pointless
Mr. Carmack!! I hope all is well and you had a happy holiday. Few questions I wanted to ask you
1 - Did you ever find your laptop?
2 - How did you start getting into making music?
3 - What is your process to do a colab with another artist? Say another trap producer wanted to make a track with you. much love, looking forward to seeing what you have to bring to the table in 2014!
1 - no
2 - i was born into it. my father and mother are both lifetime musicians, artists, teachers, and cultural obsessives
3 - i ask! whatever works, from sending stems halfway across the world to working together, physically next to each other all for it! trap is fun to make, regardless of its current "halfway out the door" trend some of my friends seem to be at
What song are you most proud of? Are there any you're surprised people were into?
im most proud of "roller". i think i achieved a big sound no one can replicate on propellerhead's reason! heheh
Wow! Big fan over here. Some production questions:
1 - How do you mix your kicks/sub? Any tips?
2 - Do you tune your kicks?
3 - Do sample your 808s or synthesize them yourself?
4 - What DAW do you use?
5 - Favorite VSTs?
6 - Any other production tips/quirks you enjoy?
1 - try to saturate/maximize then limit hard. it'll give you bigger sound!
2 - yes
3 - both! they both give different tones.
4 - Ableton
5 - Anything by D16 and Addictive
6 - try new things, download things you know you'll mess around with. vocoders make great synth patches!
Favorite album of 2013 that isn't electronic?
black radio 2 is always a pleasure to listen to
Hey! I wrote that introduction (actually doing another one soon for Brillz) way back because you have inspired me like no other producer I've ever heard :) Just want you to know that if you EVER make it to North Carolina, me, /u/dogblood, and /u/Aarabi WILL make you a cake with your face on it. And several blunts as well. My question is what was the music you were listening to when you were around 18? For me that was the time that I began to really LOOK for music rather than just let it happen. Thanks for the AMA! Edit: hang the fuck on you've been on Reddit for 2 years?
haha salute! hope to step in with you someplace with great girls and grab a beer one day. i was listening to a lot of free jazz, a ton of electro house none of that jazzy shit, some trance, drum and bass, and electronic weird minimal and square pusher stuff. also 1983 by flying lotus. then i went to college and dub step came along
I just picked up dimebag and I'm loooooving every single song. do you or did you play any instruments?
thank you! i played french horn and drums in high school. i picked up a bunch of others throughout my life. did you play an instrument?
Would you mind speaking to how you compress your tracks so well? Your kicks and 808's slam and you still keep your output volume loud as hell. Any tricks?
you already said my number one trick in your question. now just take the time to learn to harness the loudness
i've just (begrudgingly) made the move from reason over to ableton. What do you think was your favorite part of doing so? what do you miss in reason? you have the old school trap feel alive in your shit and i love it. thanks for the ama bud.
workflow workflow workflow. things take a considerable amount of tweaking in reason for me. i don't find myself stuck on one aspect of a sound for an hour on ableton, things just seem to click real fast in my ear. thats a BIG plus for me. why not put the old school into your productions? haha
What is the smartest way to go about getting into and participating in various collectives? You've gotten the nod from members of Team Supreme, Soulection, HW&W, M|O|D, etc. that consider you one of their own. Now I've dabbled a bit in participating with Team Supreme's volumes, which has opened me up to contact some smaller collectives and internet homies, but I always want to get even more involved in the independent, internet music scene. Just put out dope shit and it'll all sort itself out? How do I make a submission email pop out? (let's be real, not all submission emails get read, at least in my experience with some labels and collectives).
i never was one to send out promotional emails for myself. I know this is a used method by a lot of aspiring "artists" out there to spam and plug constantly after every new track he/she makes, and I'm sure more times than not its worked favorably for them. but personally, i think the amount of time spent clicking "send" after "send" is better spent writing a new track. what if, instead of focusing on building relationships now, you spend the next years listening to every kind of music you put your hands on, going and taking music / music related classes (audit a community/college/online class, do NOT pay those LA /NY recording music institutes) and developing an ear and a solid base of work for yourself. then you have more leverage in your relationships other than "i make computer music and i made this track yesterday"
What/who are your biggest musical influences outside of hip-hop and electronica?
Hendrix, Tatum, The Meters, Bach, Rachmaninoff, Dvorak, Liszt, Charles King, Na Palapalai, Bill Evans, Miles Davis, SF Taiko, Sambasia, my dad, The Strokes, SOAD, Necrophagist, list goes on
Hey Carmack! Needless to say, you've got a huge fan over here. First heard "Pay (For What)" and "Fire (No Payroll)" in RL Grime's Diplo & Friends Mix last March. Bought Bang, Vol. 3 right there and then on a whim, and I've been hooked ever since. As mentioned earlier by /u/ghostmacekillah, we will definitely come thru to any show you put on in NC! I'm also in the ATL when I'm out of school and back with the rents if that helps with show planning haha. My main question for you is what makes the labels you work or have worked with so special and unique (TeamSupreme, Soulection, and M|O|D specifically). It seems like there's such a laid back and organic way to how you all make music and share creative ideas. From the weekly beat cyphers to the way you all banded together in support of Penthouse Penthouse's bond $$ for their arrest, you guys seem like a true community. What differentiates all the artists who produce for those labels? Any in particular that you plan on collaborating with? Also, what's Djemba Djemba like to hang out with in person? I always get a kick out of his Vines. He seems like a hilarious guy, plus he's from Iowa which is tight since my mom was born and raised there and went to Iowa. EDIT: I hate to fanboy even more haha, but you and Djemba Djemba's Diplo & Friends Mix is seriously out of this world. The double-drops and mixing were out of this world and a refreshing step away from typical "one track to the next" mixing. Big ups.
good people make good friends, no matter the field of work they are in. all those fools, and i mean every single one of the members in TS, Soulection, MOD are driven to make the best music they can and have fun doing it, and it was to my surprise that all of them are naturally great folk. just young producers, man. i want to do more work with Arnold, Lakim, and Dane, and do a reality 2 Djemba is an idiot, and a genius, like me
Who should we be watching in 2K14? Besides you of course :) Seriously so cool you are here doing this please come back soon!
watch GANZ.
Hello, The synths in a lot of your tracks are amazing. Could you talk a little bit about your synth creating process. Especially your shimmering pads on tracks suck as Trigger (Feat jacuzzi), happy labor day, or noodling with papi. Also, what's the biggest lesson (production, music, or just life in general) that you've learned from another producer as a result of collaborating with them. Thanks.
try this: take a nice saw chord patch, something easy on the ears for you. now take any reverb effect plugin and turn the dry wet all the way to 100%. you'll get a muddy sound, but if you turn the space/size/delay/room knobs to a minimal level then you should get a very airy and spacious modeling of your chord synth. the rest is all eq-ing and compressing!
What would be your best advise for producers looking to get a release on a label?
release it yourself, and keep releasing
Where did the "move like lions do" sample come from? absolutely unreal song
my boy geoff had written to one of my tracks, and i didn't like any of it but that one line was gold
Thanks for taking the time to do this man. You're a huge inspiration to my music! When you are writing music how long do you normally spend in one "session" - also, how much time went into Vibes Vol. 2? (My favorite album!) What was going through your mind when you began work on Shroomeries?? That's the dopest fucking track I've heard and it's definitely taken my mind to another world... ;)
i always loved keep it g by asap rocky and space ghost, and i know every line by heart. so i flipped the sample for a TS week and that was that! not much more existentialesque thought complex process space out i just wrote a song called "insanity" today, and spent about 6-7 hours from beginning to end on it
I have thoroughly enjoyed watching your production steadily evolve and improve over the past little while. Your beats have an element of musicality that other artists in the genre miss. This is kind of an oddly specific question, but how do you go about achieving those really fat saw wave type of leads like in PYP and the very beginning of Blackbirds? I can never manage to get that same level of harmonic content out of my sounds. Anyways, thanks, and keep it up.
a basic saw patch in massive vst, and a lot of eq-ing! work on ambience, putting slight reverb and delay
Youre currently my favorite artist, thanks for everything
1 - Are you coming to New England anytime soon?
2 - How exactly did your laptop get stolen?
3 - Do you regularly play shows at low end theory?
4 - What are your ambitions in music? Anyone in mind you want to work with?
Again, youre the man.
1 - most definitely!
2 - i was drunk and at the shittiest bus station in LA at 4am. stupidest situation for me to put myself in. i blame myself 100%
3 - No, but id love to play another. i think i have one in a couple months!
4 - to make a shit ton of music with a shit ton of people until i can't make anymore.
Hey Carmack, I'm an aspiring electronic/ hip-hop music producer from Illinois. 1,What was your biggest obstacle in your earlier years as a producer?
2., What are some of your favorite plugins/vsts?
3. Any tips on keeping organized and having an efficient workflow?
4. Self promotion is my biggest weakness, any tips? You're my number one source of inspiration. Keep doin big things -Krucial.
1. i was for years never satisfied with my mixes. my old homies will object to this, but shit didn't really start sounding good crisp and album ready until about 2 years ago, when i started using band camp and sound cloud.
2. anything by d16 or addictive
3. i can't help you there. I'm a very unorganized dude
4. undersell and overproduce! especially with art. the more quality shit you make, the more some unsuspecting fan will come along and say "i like this, let me find out more" and you already have a shit ton of music available, tried and true for them to check out.
mr carmack, I love your stuff with all my heart. I found DIMEBAG leaked and I'm so stoked for it's release! For anyone looking for the album leaked, its on my soundcloud here. Thanks again carmack, keep spitting out good music!
yee! keep leaking and listening! its gonna be a long year
What does your summer tour list look like?!
spending hawaii with my girl, but I'm working on dates
What collaborations do you have coming up? -who are YOUR favorite trap artists as of right now? Thanks for doing this, Dimebag is incredible!
a bunch :) my favorite artists that make some trap besides the homies are what so not, raf riley, tropkillaz, skrillex, uhhhh thank you!
Huge fan and I'm always impressed with the diversity you bring to the table with every new track! Keep switching it up!
1. What are the specs on your new computer?
2. When did you first start producing and did you ever take music/production lessons/classes?
3. What's the deal with jb's Memphis track? Diplo posted it on his soundcloud but then I saw your jb flip track a little bit after! Who produced what? The track is stellar. Thanks for your time and keep pushing the envelope!
1. 2.2 i7, 16gb ram, 1TB external storage
2. no production classes, but i grew up playing instruments and in bands
3. the mad decent team made that track, it was pretty much a djemba beat called siriusmo that i had heard about a year ago, but it evolved into something workable for the biebs. i know nothing else
Hey Mr. Carmack, glad you could do this AMA!
1) If you could give out some production advice, what would it be?
2) How do you stay inspired when you have a writer's block (if you have them)?
1)keep producing! not just in music but in other aspects in life as well. make your living situation better, your transportation situation better, etc
2) i haven't had writers block in a really long time (knock on wood). but if i do, i go running, or drinking with friends. sex helps a lot
How many songs do you start that go nowhere? Because I know I have hundreds of tracks that vary from full length to little snippets that just sit there. Do you ever go back to old projects and revamp them?
thats the next step bruv! you got a whole bunch of loops, now expand them! 16 bars with bass, 16 bars no drums, 8 bars only chords, 16 bars everything, fade out bam done
just wanted to say you are by far both my favourite producer and my idol. no other music inspires me as a producer more than yours! i look forward to what youve got in store for this year. if you did a masterclass that would be the dopest thing ever! keep doing what you do man! edit: or even an ama on /r/trapproduction
I'm thinking about using google helpouts or something deadmau5-esque to stream while i work. ill figure out as i acquire more resources, but until then just ask me here
whats your opinion on fans pirating your music?
i don't care!
sativa or indica..?
blunt or dab?
im loving dat vaporizing right now. blunts make my teeth yellow and dabs render me a vegetable
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