Fade
The Beat Strangler
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illest o.g.
Hailing from Switzerland and recently winning the Beat This! Competition, Easily is a big fan of the Boom Bap style of Hip Hop. I always found it interesting that countries outside of the United States are still heavily influenced by the golden era of Hip Hop music, and Easily is a perfect example of this.
Sup? Tell everyone about Easily.
Easily is my producer name. It is derived from my real name that is Iseli. It's as simple as that. I was a DJ back in the days and my DJ Name always has been DJ Easily as well. Recently, I just focused more on producing and therefore it is just 'Easily'.
Your beat in the Beat This! Competition was really dope. Did you have trouble working at 88 BPM? Or is that a normal BPM for you?
I am still very much in love with Boom Bap Hip Hop. Therefore, producing at a BPM of 88 felt really natural to me. All the Boom Bap beats that I am creating usually have a BPM between 87 to 95 BPM. As a standard for new projects, I often use 90 BPM... and then maybe later adjust it to something else, if necessary.
How did you put together that winning beat?
I love sampling. So that is what I did for this beat as well. Recently I sampled a lot of Soul tracks, because I love Soul Music and therefore I am also kinda in love with soulful Hip Hop tracks. I have a lot of Boom Bap drums, so I just chose some nice drums out of my huge drum library and put everything together. I used my MPC Renaissance for sequencing. I love chopping shit on the MPC Ren, as it is so fast and effortless, once you get the hang of it. I usually chop whole tracks in about 250 slices and then I see what I can do with all that stuff. Before I started sequencing, I actually ran everything through my ASR-10, as I love the sound of that awesome machine. For the horns that are part of the beat, I used a recently purchased plugin called 'Echoboy'. I really like that plugin.
You're from Switzerland. What's Hip Hop like over there?
In the 90's, Underground Hip Hop has been pretty huge in Switzerland. And till now, Underground Hip Hop is very popular here. We just recently had a huge festival called 'Royal Openair' in my city, where a lot of famous old school rappers performed. Really big names like Pete Rock, Bootcamp Click, R.A the Rugged Man, Onyx and even Nas. I grew up with old school Hip Hop here in my hometown (Biel) and we have lots of DJs, rappers, graffiti artists and breakdancers here. Of course nowadays new school Hip Hop is more popular here as well, but there are still a lot of people here that have some love for old school shit.
I always get the impression that a lot of countries outside of the United States have stuck with the old school Hip Hop style. What do you think?
I guess I already gave all the answers to that question already in question 4 :=) and yea, I do share that view as well. I can't really speak much for other countries than Switzerland, but old school Hip Hop is really still alive here and lots of people still like that kind of sound. I guess it is the same for Germany and most of the other countries in Europe at least.
Are most of your beats sample-based? Do you work with any VSTs and composing any pieces of music?
That's right. Most of my beats are sample based. I do work with VSTs as well. I love using Omnisphere and Trilogy from Spectrasonics. Those plugins are just amazing. I am not crazy about Native Instruments plugins to be honest, but one day I might purchase the Komplete bundle and see what all the fuss is about :=)
What do you normally look for when browsing for samples?
That's a tough question. I really love grimey and dark stuff. So I often find myself looking for dark samples in soundtracks and any kind of songs from the 70s. I love the 70's, so I usually focus on browsing stuff from that era. I specifically love strings and horn sounds... and some scary shit too... :=)
Are you currently working with any artists?
I just recently produced a track for a Swiss artist called Raboose. The release of this track will be in a couple of weeks. I am looking forward to that. Moreover, I am working on a track with Ruste Juxx. That's gonna be a tough one. Some hardcore Hip Hop shit. However, I am not 100 percent sure that this track is ever gonna be released, as I am having some trouble with Ruste at this moment. Hope we can figure it out. Most of the vocals have already been recorded though. And it was originally planned that this release will be on his new album called 'International Juxx'. We will see how it turns out.
I am working on some other projects too. Tomorrow, there is another release from a Swiss rapper called Tilt. I've got a beat on that album as well.
A lot of your beats are really smooth. What inspires you to make beats?
I love to be creative. Making beats really enables me to be creative 100%. Making music gives me infinite possibilities, as there are endless ways how you can put beats together. I started making beats at about year 2000, when I got my first MPC (MPC 2000XL). Since then I have been hooked making beats. I just love the feeling that creating beats give me. When you are banging out hard shit, that feeling that comes with it when you put some ill samples on your drums, it's just priceless
What do you have in your studio setup?
I currently have an MPC Ren, MPC 60, MPC 2500 and an MPC 1000. Moreover I have some MIDI keyboards and some turntables. I would love to get some analog synthesizers in the future..... ohhh, and I almost forgot, I recently got myself a violin. I used to play the violin when I was younger, and now I would like to get back at it. I am planning to integrate my violin playing into some of my new beats. That's gonna be tough, but I am really looking forward to that!
What is the main part of the beat that you enjoy working on the most?
I love every part of beatmaking. From the beginning to the end. I am not crazy about making too many variations to my drums and stuff. I love to keep shit simple. Boom Bap style. But of course that does not mean that I don't care about how my stuff sounds. When starting a beat, most of the time I already know how things should sound like. And I am willing to tweak stuff until the beat sounds right. Shit needs to be knocking at all times, if you know what I mean.
Can we expect anything from Easily in the near future?
Hopefully that feature with Ruste Juxx that I mentioned earlier. Moreover, I am definitely going to participate in some battles here on IllMuzik. I would love to do some more features with artists from New York, but I will see where that is going.
Thanks for doing the interview. Any shoutouts you'd like to give?
I would like to give a shoutout to all the beat makers out there that are doing their thing and stay true to the sound that they really like. To people that are banging out beats for pure passion, not for money or to be famous or whatever. A special shoutout goes out to all the beatmakers that are still banging out Boom Bap beats. Let's keep that shit alive ! :=)
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