Read the Shiftless Monsterz Interview below and share it on social media.
Please tell our readers who you are and what you do?
Hey We are Nicholas and Viktor and we work together as Shiftless Monsterz. We produce Dubstep/Riddim, Trap, Hip Hop and all sorts of experimental stuff. We started to producer at about the same time. It was easier to learn together, since we live one street away from each other and could always see both work processes. It seemed evident that we would start working together under one alias, but back then we never thought about it. After a while we tried but it didn't seem to work: we had different ideas and flows, and we couldn't agree on genres. Despite these things, we had one collab project called 'Summertime Trapness'. We were amazed by Trap music and wanted to create something awesome, but that wasn't where Shiftless Monsterz was born.
After both of us worked solo for a while (But of course we supported and helped each other during this time) we found out about bass house. It was quite a fresh and hyped up thing in 2014, mainly because of Jauz. So we jumped on the Bass House train, tried some new sound design ideas and it finally seemed to work. The track is called 'Fat Bottom Baes'. We enjoyed this project and decided to create more together. We thought about artist names, had a few lame ideas and then we came up with Shiftless (which means lazy and stupid) and Monsterz (because we are sort of monsters but with a Z).
Since then we work mostly together and we hope it stays this way!
Of course our first tracks aren't the best in quality and sound design, but we were really happy with them, and we can't forget that the Shiftless Monsterz started here!
https://soundcloud.com/we-exist-official/we-exist-x-bonk3rz-summertime-trapness
https://soundcloud.com/the-shiftless-monsterz/shiftless-monsterz-fat-bottom-baes-1
How would you describe your influences and how have they changed over the years?
Of course! Every artist changes, or more likely, improves in taste.
But the main changes we went through, were the times we didn't even know each other. After that came the time where we could improve our skills together and because of that we changed together too. It was like from 2009 Electro House through the Classic Dubstep scene (Caspa, Rusko, Bar9 etc.) to the scene we belong to today. We are so happy that we got so many impulses from nearly everywhere.
When we start a new project, lets say dubstep, we have inspirations from Hip Hop and Techno as well. Even if Techno and Dubstep would never fit together, we can combine the love we have for both styles and create our own sound.
Of course the Hip Hop influence is easier when we work on Trap, but if you try something different, that really seems stupid, sometimes it can have a massive outcome!
Our main inspirations from back in the day to today would be Koan Sound, Noisia, Skrillex, Borgore, Dodge & Fuski, Alan Fitzpatrick and too many more to list.
What´s new right now?
Well we are really loking forward to this year. Typical "2018 is gonna be our time" kind of feeling. But we are positive, motivated and have loads of plans and ideas. A few new tracks wil be released in the next few month, but theres a major project with other artists.
We got lots of positive feedback on our last years two-track EP Bomboclat / Cyber Thugg.
https://soundcloud.com/the-shiftless-monsterz/sets/bomboclat-cyber-thugg-ep-w-btrk
We love working with BTRK (make sur to follow him) and he is a very good friend of ours so hopefully he will be part of our big big BIG summer plans.
Our latest release was a freebie for closing 2017, it's called 'Juicy Juicy'
https://soundcloud.com/the-shiftless-monsterz/shiftless-monsterz-juicy-juicy
So we really hope you like our music and that you'll follow us to see what we have planned for this year!
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Are you a superfan of anyone? How did you become a superfan? Do you remember how you become a fan and what turned you into super fan? Have you ever thought about why you´re such a fan?
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What was the biggest mistake you made when you started making music and what would be the number one tip you could give to a newcomer musician?
Well we are still sort of beginners we think. So it's strange, but we might be slightly more experienced than newcomers.
First of all: As a musician you don't do mistakes! Any mitake is something new and different, you learn from it, look at it that way, and you'll be more desperate!
The major tip we could give anyone, as we keep this in mind all the time, is: Never give up! Just don't. That's all!
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How do you get gigs? Can you share any tips?
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Do you have good promotion tips for other musicians?
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Do you have insights on how to grow your audience on soundcloud that you want to share with our audience?
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What has been your biggest challenge right now? Have you been able to overcome that challenge? If so, how?
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How do you personally discover new music?
We dig through the depths of soundcloud, bandcamp, youtube or just google. Mostly we find good, but not cutting edge stuff. But it's worth it, because if you find that 30 plays gem that has about 2 likes and the artist is a small bedroom producer, it is woth it. You download it play it out at shows, show it to people and after a while you can see that artist rise more and more, and that is the best feeling.
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Once you discovered new music, do you tell others about the new music/artist you discovered? If yes, how exactly?
“Sure! Only sometimes there are our "secret tracks" we don't want them to be played over at parties so we keep them secretly. But mostly we think it's important to spread music you like. Show it on your phone, send the soundcloud url to firends, exchange music with other great artists. Anything you can imagine. Networking with music is important!
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What is your number one tip to improve your music production or songwriting skills?
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What is your best tip for those who struggle with finishing their tracks?
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We meet again in one year. What has changed?
Hopefully a lot! A lot of amazing releases, a lot of awesome collabs, mind-blowing shows and major experience. We want to be always better than we are now, always reach higher than we can!
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http://www.soundcloud.com/the-shiftless-monsterz
https://www.facebook.com/shiftlessmonsterz/
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Enter your questions to the artist in the facebook comment section below.
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