The music industry has been turned upside down by EDM over the past years, nothing is how it used to be, and nothing will ever be the same again. And the reach of EDM has become absolutely endless, we've got transplants from all over the music world relocating to EDM, having to adapt and learn the ropes all over again. And the results are fascinating, it's amazing what this diversity and far reaching talent has done to innovate and bring new ideas to the scene. As things grew to unimaginable proportions over the past few years, we've had new comers from Metal, from Hardcore, from Hip-Hop, R&B, and so on, and the spectrum of influence that can be brought to the table from those genres is huge. I am actually one of these transplants into EDM, for a good long while I was very involved with the Boston metal and hardcore scenes, and I was quite lucky since Boston has such a rich environment for both Metal and EDM. I got to watch both grow simultaneously and eventually begin to integrate themselves together. This meeting of the minds was really introduced by the weeklyThrowed parties, which combining bands and DJs into one show, it was a really revolutionary idea.
I met so many great people at Throwed, many of whom have gone on to successful careers in the Electronic music themselves. It seems strange that so many people can successfully make the switch from Metal and Hardcore to EDM in one way or another, but the success rate is phenomenal, and one of the shining examples of this transformation are the guys from The Bolivian Marching Affair. TBMA member, Joey Fisher, is an old Throwed veteran, and has since gone on to release two EPs on Play Me Records, including their newest release the Escape Reality EP, which showcases the next step in the exponential progression and sheer talent we've come to expect from the TBMA guys. Their past efforts have delved heavily into the dubstep side of things with great success, but Escape Reality is a sort of multi-genre melting pot that is exquisitely executed. Each track feels like its TBMA's home turf, there are no teething issues with new genres. It never feels like a Dubstep producer writing an Electro track or an Electro producer writing a Moombahton track, it all feels right, it all works just how it should. But strangely, they still manage to maintain an identity, each track feels like it was written by a veteran of the genre, but they all feel like TBMA tracks. Perhaps The Bolivian Marching Affair have occupied a higher tier with this release, they don't have a handle on any single bass-heavy EDM sub-genre, they just have a handle on EDM as a whole. This mastery is immediately apparent from the start of the album.“Moonrise” is a banger of an Electro track and is perhaps the standout track of the album. Even when most producers try genre-hop-scotch, their home territory ends up sounding the strongest, but “Moonrise” turned out to be at least as strong as their Dubstep track, the title track “Escape Reality”, which is a banger in its own right which has a supercatchy vocal hook and an amazing drop. This album is just serving as further proof, if it were even necessary, that the transition from Metal kid to EDM producer is a seamless one, as strange as that may sound. It makes me proud of all the other Metal kids out there trying awkwardly to mosh during a drop; we don't really know what else to do, but at least we have ambassadors like TBMA to show that we're good at something.
But who better to describe how this change took place, how they mastered the rapid progression from Metal to Dubstep, as well as talk a little bit about their newest album than the masterminds behind the multi-genre trip themselves, the guys from The Bolivian Marching Affair: Joey Fisher, Kyle Meagher, and Chris Curran.
Overkill: Tell us a little bit about yourselves. Who are you, where are you from, etc.
Joey: My name is Joey Fisher. I'm originally from Connecticut, currently living in the Boston area but soon am moving to LA. I DJ, Emcee and help write for TBMA
Kyle: My name is Kyle Meagher. I've lived in Brooklyn for a few years now but am originally from DC. I DJ and help write for TBMA
Chris: My name's Chris Curran. I'm from Worcester, MA. I produce and write for TBMA.
Overkill: How did you get your start in EDM? I know I met you back in Boston through people that were primarily from the New England Metal/Punk/Hardcore scenes, did you transition from one to the other, or was it always a bit of both for you?
Joey: I've always been into both but now have completely fallen off from most everything Metal and HXC. I still listen to some Punk stuff but have just grown out of the others. The transition for me was flawless and natural as I've gotten older but I still maintain some friendships with people from those scenes.
Kyle: I always say my first electronic album was Radiohead's Kid A in 2006. A year later I saw STS9 and thought that was the coolest thing I had ever seen, and then a year later I heard/saw MSTRKRFT and finally found the electronic music I was searching for. It was probably the first time I ever really bought into any actual "scene". It just looked like way too much fun to not get involved. At that time I was in my Junior year of college and was starting to get real tired of the same old parties with the Top 40 and shitty Hip-Hop playlists. So, at a school with not a single DJ, I decided to learn and start throwing parties where we literally played everything, but always at least half electronic. By the end of my senior year, people would get mad when we didn't play electronic.
Chris: For me, it was always a bit of both. I discovered EDM at a young age and was always big into Trance and House music growing up. When I was about 12, I got my hands on some music software and would always play around with writing simple dance songs. I always played in bands because all of my friends did but I always had a passion for producing EDM.
Overkill: Do you play any instruments or did you play in any bands? Did influences from your previous work or bands you grew up with make their way into TBMA's sound?
Joey: I can play the guitar, some drums and some piano but excel vocally. Sometimes in our writing process you can hear some influences from our youth of being into Pop Punk and HXC but I really try to keep it all separate. I personally don't really enjoy hard styled Dub. Kind of like metal and HXC it gives me anxiety lol.
Chris: I play guitar, drums, piano and sing and have played in many different bands growing up. I pull inspiration from all different styles of music when producing. I think all artists naturally pull inspiration from many different sources when creating. You shouldn't limit yourself no matter what genre of music you play.
Overkill: How did your influences from both scenes impact your production work with TBMA?
Joey: I just write what I'm feeling or what sounds good. I think for me it's more about what works over anything. Being musical my whole life def has made this easier for me. I think that goes for any style of music I would choose to do.
Overkill: You seemed to skyrocket pretty much from the start. How did you go from just starting out to working with big names like Play Me Records so quickly?
Joey: Honestly it was a combo of a few things. 1. We wrote the best music we possibly could at the time. We still give it our all when we put out tunes. 2. Terravita. Matt and Chris have played a huge part in our success. They def put us in touch with the people we needed to work with at the time. I also had made relationships with people through Boston's THROWED dance party which I used to be very involved with. Once we started putting out remixes and stuff I would send them to people who I had started relationships with to get them to drop the tunes in their sets so we could get exposure. Lastly we seemed to get in good with the blogs and they were posting our tunes regularly. All of that seemed to aid in the success of this group.
Overkill: Tell us about your new album. Stylistically, its a bit more diverse than your previous work, it definitely shows some serious progression. How did that progression take place, were the new styles a natural evolution, or were you consciously trying to do something new?
Joey: EDM as a whole is expanding. People don't just like Dubstep or Electro etc. People want some of everything so we gave them a buffet of tunes. I feel like Escape Reality shows that we're capable of writing numerous styles. We don't want to get pigeon holed into one specific style. We want to be able to grow in whatever direction EDM does and Escape Reality shows that we can write everything.
Chris: I think it was a little bit of both. Just as any artist naturally progresses, you try new things. We definitely wanted to experiment with other styles on this EP and we plan on continuing in that direction with our future releases.
Overkill: Some of you are located in Boston, and some in NY, how does that factor in to your production work and playing shows?
Joey: Chris and I are located in Mass and Kyle is in NY. It really doesn't effect anything when it comes to us. Writing wise I go over to Chris's studio and we bang out what we need to. Most of the time it's just us sending the tune back and forth between the 3 of us getting it where we want it so it doesn't have any impact on our writing. As for shows, we (Myself and sometimes Chris) fly out of Logan and Kyle just flies out of NYC. It doesn't make any difference at all.
Overkill: How does it feel to now be a part of the EDM scene which typically has a rather different mind set than what we're used to?
Joey: I love it. I don't think I would want to be anywhere else and I look forward to moving up this ladder and meeting more people as we grow. There is nothing I miss about other scenes I was previously a part of. The people I meet now-a-days are much more appealing as people to me over the people I was meeting in other scenes.
Kyle: I never really considered myself to be part of any scene before the electronic scene so it was just kind of like, whoa, I really like this world a lot. I want in. I was and still am very much into the whole 90's Emo thing with Braid, The Get Up Kids, etc. I'd still rather see one of those guys play live than any DJ. I kind of avoid all the big only electronic festivals unless I have friends playing. But, I really don't see a big difference in any scenes in general. Everyone in the electronic scene has come from another world so it's just really cool to recognize everyone's influences before they became electronic artists. The scene right now is just a huge mesh of all the prior electronic and non-electronic scenes and you meet someone at every show that listened to the same bands that you used to so it's really not that much different. Except for the go-go dancers. And furry boots. And adults with pacifiers in their mouths. Those are different hah. I'm a DJ in the electronic music world but often forget about the rave culture that surrounds us.
Chris: It's amazing. This scene is so welcoming to new artists and ideas. There's such a wide fan base and everyone is super supportive. We wouldn't be where we are now without all the help of the fans and other artists in this scene.
Overkill: What are your plans with the new album? I know you did a lot with the release of the album, with your Escape Reality mix, and some remixes to promote the album. But now that its out, do you have any touring plans, any new mixes, anything of the sort?
Joey: Well We have the Play Me Bass Monster tour coming up which will be announced very soon. After that We have a bunch of other stuff. We just started working with Jake Bernstein at Bond Music Group (shameless plug. Promoters hit him up!!) who is trying to completely book our touring schedule full all the way into the spring. Music wise we have A LOT going on. Our Escape Reality remix E.P. came out Oct 8th for FREE through ourselves and Play Me Records. After that We have a remix we just did for Sydney Blu, Christian Falero and Lea Luna for theirtune "Chemistry" coming out on Black Hole Recordings. After that we have another free E.P. coming out which is a collab E.P. with our closefriendFantasadon. It will be 4 tunes all of which you can just download, 2 Trap bootlegs and then our 3rd E.P. for Play Me which everyone can expect early in 2013. We are SUPER busy right now lol.
Overkill: Thank you very much for your time, anything you would like to add in closing?
Joey: I want to thank everyone who supports us. Thank you for making this my daily reality. Without you awesome people this would never have worked. I want to give a special thank you to my Mom, Matt and Chris Terravita, our family at Play Me, Jill Curran, My best friends and roommates, My family at Route 9 tattoo, everyone else who works for us and is helping this beast grow and lastly my 2 partners and 2 best friends Kyle and Chris!
Kyle: We aren't from Bolivia.
Chris: Thanks so much for the interview and we hope to see all of you out on tour!
TBMA Escape Reality EP
