Going back to the Beginning of the World with the Space Kadets

Space Kadets Exclusive Interview

Hello Tim, Giovanni and Danny thank you  for taking time out to do this interview with us. Its such a huge pleasure : )

1.     To start of can you tell us a little about each of you, who is Tim, Giovanni and Danny and what does a typical day in each one of your lives look like.

My name is Tim Mitchell I grew up in Westchester, NY the suburbs just north of the Bronx. Ive been producing music since i was about 14 or 15 which was predominately hip-hop based until last year. A typical day in my life consists of waking up in the morning and handling emails, as of now we are pretty much self-managed so it takes some time to go through a lot of the things on the business end. The rest of the day consists of either working on new music, working on our radio show, or going over edits for our live shows, all depending on what day it is. 

Danny, I’m Mexican-American and grew up in New Rochelle, NY, a suburb of NYC.  My typical day usually goes check e-mail > work out > eat >  shower > do a little bit of computer programming >  create music > text videos to Tim and Giovanni for new track ideas and concepts > read > netflix it up > listen to music > sleep. 

Giovanni- 22 years old from Westchester NY. Self taught musician and producer.  My typical day usually consists of waking up reading emails, finding new music, looking for inspiration and ideas for our projects, playing piano, meeting up and working on new songs.

2.     We are from South Africa, and we ask everyone this what is the first thing that comes to mind when you hear South Africa?

 Nelson Mandela and Lions.

3.     Now that we know more about who the men behind Space Kadets are, tell us more about Spcae Kadets, how did the Three of you meet to the formation and of course the name.

Danny and Tim met in 10th grade through mutual friends and artists they were producing music with. Giovanni and Tim grew up in the same neighborhood, Giovanni was actually friends with Tim's younger sister. The name came from the way we all "zone out" while making music. If one of us is on the computer and others are trying to talk to them, the person on the computer doesn't hear a thing. Someone said "Space Cadet" we like the way it sounded changed the "C" to a "K" and ran with it. 

4.     What animals would you use to describe the Space Kadets music style

 Tim - Tiger

Gio - Snake

5.     Let’s talk Space Kadets and Todd Terry.. How did the relationship come to be and what is the most important thing he has taught you guys

 Danny did a lot of video editing a couple of years back and one of his friends introduced him to Todd Terry whom needed some of his videos to be edited.  At the time, not too many people were utilizing YouTube for this purpose believe it or not.  He sent a track he had worked on to Todd in his next edit, then got a call the next day because Todd heard so much potential.  The most important thing he taught us was keep making music.  Always have more music and more ideas flowing, you’ll only get better as time goes on.

6.     Do you guys ever go through periods where you suffer from writers block and how do you deal with it? Any crazy routines to get the creative juices flowing?

We definitely go through periods of writers block, when you have been producing music for such a long time you tend to fall into habits and procedures when working on a new song. This is usually a good thing because it allows you to work quickly and comfortably, but sometimes these habits can lead to lack of creativity and ideas. Thankfully there are 3 of us all involved with the production of the music so if one person gets stuck usually the next person will be able to bring a new idea and add something different to the track. We love bouncing ideas off of each other and having one another finish ideas. 

7.     You guys recently had the honor of remixing Lazy Rich “Beginning of the World” how did the remix opportunity come about and what inspired the remix?

 We had the opportunity to meet some of the people from Avicii's team and were able to play them some of the original music we were working on. After releasing 2 tracks on our own label they gave us a remix opportunity for Lazy Rich & Special Features. I believe we only used the vocal from the original track because we wanted to give the remix the "Space Kadets Sound." The original track was kind of electro based so we knew a more melodic-progressive sound was the way to go. We usually start all vocal based remixes with a piano and give it an acoustic sound figuring out the chords and building from there. 

8.     Beginning of the world is released on Avicii’s label Le7els a huge achievement we pretty sure. What does this mean for Space Kadets?

It is a HUGE achievement for us! We are happy that people are beginning to hear all of the work that we have been putting in at the studio. We have always been big Avicii fans and for him to like our remix enough to put out on his label means a lot to us. We want to keep the ball rolling from here on out with more remixes and originals lined up. 

9.     We probably wont understand but for all aspiring producers, can you guys take us through your current studio set up?

We all have our own home studios that we work out of independently and also all come together to work in all 3 of them, we will go our equipment below.

27 inch iMac computer, basic 61-key m-audio midi keyboard, Yamaha HS8 studio monitors, a Scarlett 2i2 audio interface, yamaha motif, recently had a 76- Key Korg Triton but got rid of it. We produce on a mix of Ableton and logic, however the final product is usually bounced through Ableton live. We have a lot of various VST plugins, but personally love the 3 Spectrasonics VSTs! 

10.  When producing where do you guys draw inspiration from, also who does what. 3 guys working together, do ego’s ever get bruised?

We all started out producing in other genres mostly hip-hop, RNB, rock based stuff so i think we always have a little bit of inspiration from those sounds in our tracks. We always want to keep our tracks very "Housey" we grew up in NYC where the dance music sound was always very groovy and tech based so we want to take that sound and bring it back to the big room. We are musicians above everything else collectively we can play piano, drums, sax, guitar etc so we love big melodies and using acoustic instruments when we can. Ego's rarely get in the way when we are producing, if 2/3 people don't like the way something sounds it gets scraped immediately. We always have to agree on the direction the track is being taken and how everything sounds before we move on. We all respect each others ear and a lot of times its hard to hear your own flaws so we take the others word for it in the studio. We also go to a lot of museum exhibits, shows, and travel.  We recently went to an exhibit on 3D printing at the Museum of Arts and Design in NYC and we immediately contacted designers to have our logo customized into a 3D printable character.  When attending shows, we don’t need to go to big festivals, we have friends that spin in the underground scene.  It’s usually deep house and tech being played in abounded warehouses deep in Brooklyn.  This is where we get a lot of our ideas for grooves to bring to the big room sound we’re trying to create.   

11.  Who gets to stand in the middle when Djing?

Haha, we usually switch it up! Taking turns on the deck and on the mic!

12.  All you guys know about us is that we are two ladies, crazy about fashion and music and love the good things in life. The brief is to write a song for us what would the lyrics be, who would you chose to feature on the track and how would it sound?

Haha, this is tough! Definitely would choose a singer who has some ties to the fashion world and try to bring music and fashion together on the track. Definitely a big feel good melodic record with a sexy groove! 

13.  Who are some of your musical hero’s and how have they influenced each one you and your music?

 Dance music wise we are all big fans of Swedish House Mafia. Not only their music but their visuals, live shows, the brand etc. We believe thats a big reason why they are so successful because they have done what 95% of other "EDM" artists have not. We are also big fans of Deadmau5 & Wolfgang Gartner. Some of the newer guys that we love to listen to are Sick Individuals, Kryder, Merk & Kremont, those guys have that groovy/melodic sound that we love. Outside Dance music artists like Pharrell, John Williams, Nirvana, Each one of these people have distinct sounds and create a euphoria when listening to their music. It’s timeless.  Artists like Carlos Santana, Stevie wonder, Earth Wind and Fire, they were all pioneers who helped create a specific sound.

Rapid Fire.

Danny

1. Favorite singer?

Selena

2. Blondes or Brunets?

Yes please.

3. Coastlines or City lights?

Coastlines

4. Peanut butter or Nutella?

Peanut Butter

5.  Justin Bieber or Paris Hilton?

Kate Moss

Tim

-Kurt Cobain

-Brunettes

-City Lights

-Nutella

-i dont think i have enough money to hang out with either of them

Giovanni

1.     Whitney Houston

2.     Brunettes

3.     Coastlines

4.     Nutella

5.     Linsday lohan

Thank you so much for doing this interview with us we look forward to what you guys have lined up in, in the upcoming months. We hope to catch you playing soon…

Head over to their soundcloud page for an exclusive mix..

Track List

1. Lazy Rich & Special Features - Beginning of the World (Space Kadets Remix)

2. Arno Cost & Norman Doray - Apocalypse 2014 (Tom Staar & Kryder Remix)

3. Simon De Jano & Bottai - Delorean 

4. Lazy Rich & Hotmouth - Flash

5. Promise Land - Vega

6. Sick Individuals - Rock N Rave

7. Dannic vs Merk & Kremont - Anubi 

8. Dyro- Sounds Like

9. Icona Pop - Just Another Night (Marcus Schossow Remix)

10. Galantis - You (Still Young Remix)

11. Hook N Sling feat. Karin Park - Tokyo by Night (Axwell Remix) 

12. Cash Cash - Overtime (Vicetone Remix)

13. New World Sound & Osen feat. Juanita Timpanaro - Colors (Original Mix)

14. R3hab & NERVO & Ummet Ozcan - Revolution (Chocolate Puma Remix)