The young Belgian that is Faisal, is one of the most exciting young producers at the moment. His remix of Soulwax’s hit E-Talking was huge, and he followed it up with a monster remix of Erol Alkan and Boys Noize’s Death Suite, which I think I’ve played in nearly every set since I heard it. So, I’m pretty excited to have this exclusive interview with the wonderboy.
Hey man, so good to chat with you. First off, you said you had some new releases coming up, could you tell me a bit about them?
Well, my remix for Shameboy’s latest single Battery Acid just got released on East Records (sublabel of N.E.W.S.). Next up hopefully is a remix for The Sneekers and I’m currently working on a remix for Serial Chillers new project called Bongo.
Sick. Looking forward to them! Your first release was back in April right, how long before that had you been producing?
Well I’ve been producing for a pretty long time (from when I was
about 14 years old) but mostly hip-hop mashups (some beats and pasting the
acapella of one track over the instrumental of another, that kinda
stuff), I think i’m producing electronic dance music for about 2 years
now.
You’ve done pretty well in those 2 years! For the tech nerds, what is your production set-up? Favourite DAW?
My favourite DAW just recently changed from FL to Logic. I’ve made
all my tracks and remixes in FL up to here but I’m making the big
change soon because I’m starting to feel more comfortable in Logic now
and I find it much more flexible. Maybe I’ll do it like Benga and
combine the 2. In Logic I use a lot of the built in synths but in FL I
like to use the TAL series plugins (they’re free), Samplemoog and NI
Massive. For drums I just sample other records and I downloaded this
pack with all drumcomputers ever made, very useful. I also first make
almost the entire track in one pattern before I start structuring it,
gets quite hectic at times.
Those TAL plug-ins are some of the best free plug-ins around alright. A quick search on Hype Machine will tell you that since your E-Talking remix you’ve blown up during the year. Has much changed for you, or are things still the same as the were before you got noticed?
Things pretty much stayed the same, I get a few more gigs and a
shitload of remix requests but I i can’t finish them all, which sucks
because I like remixing. It did give me the courage to start a musical
education though. I’m now learning to work with Logic in school and
learning about mastering and recording techniques, all very
interesting! Keatch (from Keatchen records) and Bongo (Monkey See
Monkey Do records) are 2 of my teachers! Keatch is a living
encyclopedia of synthesis and hardware. Great to have them as teachers
:)
Aside from your own obviously, what upcoming releases are you most excited about?
I’m waiting for that new Zombie Nation coming out 8th November!
Also excited for the new Shadow Dancer.
Two big releases alright! What, let’s say 5, releases have been your favourite this year?
There’ve been so many good releases!
in no particular order:
Dam Funk – Adolescent Funk
Boys Noize – 1010 / Yeah
Screendeath – Packback EP
Mount Kimbie – Mayor
Girl Unit – Wut
Thanks! Finally, have you got anything to give away to the readers?
I’m working on some new funky edits so I’ll pass you those as soon
as they’re finished! Until then I can give you a remix of an infamous Boys Noize track,
hope that’s cool!
Of course it is man, nice track! Looking forward to hearing more from you again! Thanks again for chatting!
Boys Noize – LL (Faisal Remix)
You can follow Faisal on Twitter here, check out his Soundcloud here, and read his posts for the wonderful Truants blog here.
Forward/Slash 