Menu Magazine

MENU meets: Faster Than Light

MENU: First of all, it’s a question a lot of people are asking - what’s the story behind the name Faster Than Light?

FTL: Well I guess it was a number of things. After I started showing friends what I was making the responses always came back telling me that the sound was melodic and almost celestial. So when I started talking to some of my friends about a name it ended up deriving from the thought of deep space, comets, stars, big supernovas, sonic booms and black holes (have always been a bit of a space nerd). From that, Faster Than Light just emerged. People tell me that the name fits the sound, so that’s cool.

MENU: Your debut was at the Easter Weekender, didn’t you feel like you were being dropped in the deep end touring New Zealand on your first gig?

FTL: Yeah, absolutely. For me I was surprised at just how exhausting touring can be regardless of how enthusiastic you are. It’s not like it’s stressful at all, but it’s the constant travel I guess I’m not used to. All the other guys were obviously well seasoned and knew exactly what they were doing, so I took a page out of their books and generally just went with the flow. But you find you’re back in the hotel every night after 7am, usually after attending an after party dedicated to the locals enjoying the company of traveling internationals, and then you have 4 hours sleep, if that, check out of the hotel, eat something, into a shuttle, check your bags, get on a 1pm flight, land a couple hours later, an hour to get your shit from the baggage handlers, another shuttle, another check in, drop your bags off in your room, then it was usually sound check, eat something if you get a chance and then you’re on! It turns out the moment just after your set starts that things start to get easier, and by the end of it you’re ready to finally relax and enjoy the night. You get to basically party for the next 9 hours, meet awesome people and have great times before you do it all over again. So yeah.. I wouldn’t say I’m seasoned now by any means, but I guess I know what to expect on the next tour. Haha!

MENU: You must’ve met some big names - including Skrillex, Nero, Skism and the Foreign Beggars. Were they at all like you would have expected?

FTL: They were all just awesome people to hang out with. Really they were. Skrillex was unexpected actually as I had only seen him as himself in an interview, online in New York, and he seemed quite reserved and quiet spoken, very focused and just your regular kinda muso in black. But when we spoke, he was 100 miles an hour all the time! Naturally when you get that many people on tour there’s bound to be clashes, but this actually ended up like one giant family reunion as they all knew each other and had worked together variously.

MENU: Any good stories come of the tour?That many internationals .. Surely there’s one or two!

FTL: Ha! Don’t know where to start. Certainly a few! To be honest, there’s probably too many that should stay on tour like one artist I won’t name, who didn’t realise the girls he was talking to were porn stars! There are a number of things I could say, but raiding Music Planet on Queen St with everyone and basically re-creating Nero’s “Me and You” with everyone playing an instrument was pretty unforgettable. Skism bought a kazoo and I’m pretty sure, could’ve written his next EP with that thing. Between him and Skrillex, they covered just about every Foreign Beggars, Nero, Skrillex, Shockone, and Trolley Snatcha tune. Might as well call it the Skizoo.. Or in Sonny’s case, the Skrizoo! We have a video somewhere, I’m sure..

MENU: Now that you’re back in the Studio - what can people look forward to?

FTL: I have so much to do! I guess I have a few goals I want to achieve and there’s no substitute for hard work. Getting some new stuff done for the Easter Weekender tour were quite full on, so now I would like to think that with more time I can really focus the beam and create some amazing tracks. I certainly learnt a lot from the guys on tour, so a few new methods and techniques to try out. Not to mention a few collaborations to finish!

MENU: Production wise, the general consensus is that your music is uplifting and musical, have you always written this way?

FTL: I like that feeling when I hear a good tune and it gives you goose bumps or makes the hairs on your neck stand up. I find it’s usually an amazing melody or dramatic chord sequence that does that, so I try and write my music to do similar things. I think the 140 tempo is perfect for this. There is good opportunity to build around space between big drum hits. Kick. Snare. Kick. Snare. That entire gap can either build anticipation or fill with melody. I would like to think that a good track tells a story.. Cliche much? I know. Haha. I try to, but I’m falling even more and more in love with fat heavy dubstep so, I can already feel my style and more traditional dubstep merging even more.

MENU: When can we next see you playing, and what tunes should people look out for?

FTL: I’m playing the Smirnoff Ice Mid Winter Rave on the 21st of July, which should be wicked. I’m gonna be busting out a swagga of new shit along with some of my new tracks. Fully digging Trolley Snatcha’s new EP just about to drop, so watch out for “Make My Whole”, such a sick tune. Also loving Xilents “Choose Me II”.. huge synths! Tune wise from me, just check out my Facebook page for the latest - and make sure you catch me on Twitter too!

facebook.com/fasterthanlightnz
twitter.com/FTLNZ