Meet AshZone a music producer from London working his way through the dance/electronica music scene through the lens of his online animated persona.
How are you getting on this evening?
I’m really good, thanks for having me by the way
Of course!
Seeing as we’re now in 2023, a fresh new year… How was 2022 for you?
In terms of music, I released two singles and an EP last year. The first single was ‘Mirage’ which was based on this video game which I loved playing as a kid. It’s a racing game called called ‘Wipe Out’ really amazing game and it was one of those games that got me into electronic music. I literally wrote an EP based on it ‘Anti Gravity’. I went all out pushing the best that I can do with electronic music. It’s my proudest work of 2022, the best part of it was the opportunity to get ‘Mirage’ played on BBC radio.
That’s really amazing, did you know they were going to play it?
The thing is I submitted the track I didn’t think anything of it and then they messaged me to say they’re going to play my song and I just thought “wow that’s so cool”. The second single I released quite recently is called ‘Papaya’ and it’s a mixture of House and Lo-Fi music which I just call Lo-Fi House. The funny thing about that song is that I randomly made it on holiday. I was at Centre Parcs with my family and I just thought this track sounds fun. I imagined listening to it whilst driving because I do enjoy driving, I love cars, racing and all of that stuff. When I made the song I was like yeah I feel like making a house track. I put it on Tik Tok thinking nothing of it, I woke up the next day and found out that it was blowing up on there and I was like woah!
It’s interesting because nowadays Tik Tok’s actually quite a good platform to get music out there
Literally! Like it’s weird because I’ve been on Tik Tok for about two years and it’s only now that my music is starting to get picked up properly on there. When I put out ‘Papaya’ loads of people were saying oh my gosh this song is so good when are you dropping it? I’m like yeah it’s coming out in December, dropping it on my birthday but the thing is it blew back in November and so I was thinking ooh wait, what am I supposed to do in this situation? I don’t have a manager or anything and I’m not really good at promoting properly so yeah I had to get it out there all by myself, I’m hoping to follow that kind of formula in future.
Had you always put out music on Tik Tok or was it that particular song?
Yeah, but not as much. I only built like a solid audience on there when I did a remix to ‘Bad Habit’ by Steve Lacy.
Congratulations on that by the way!
Yeah it built a solid following for me, before then I probably had about 50 followers then after the remix dropped it went up to 2,000. A lot of people were genuinely interested to see the next few songs I was going to put out. I’m definitely looking forward to the songs I’m going to put out this year.
Are you planning on releasing any new remixes following the success of ‘Bad Habit’?
The weird thing is I’m not a huge fan of remixing music, I like doing original stuff. It’s weird though because when I first got into music I was known for doing video games remixes. So most of the songs I remixed were from Sonic games and everyone knew me for that and then eventually I started creating my own original stuff. I enjoy it because I always want my music to tell a story, something original. I want people to imagine stuff and because I do art as well I can give the listeners something to look at. So yeah… I think I’m going to stick to making originals for now but maybe I’ll go back to remixing stuff, who knows?
It’s basically a journey of your creativity and what I’ve noticed is that with a lot of music producers when they first start out they usually tend to make remixes and then build on their sound.
Yeah exactly, I remember speaking to another producer he’s really big in the video game industry too. He was telling me that the best way to build a following is to start off with remixes because you’re capturing an audience, so that when you start creating originals they are more likely to stick around. So that’s what I begun with and it’s definitely helped with my following. I’m hoping it continues to grow because I’m pretty excited for the next few songs I’m releasing.
Where did the desire for music stem from?
Before I got into music, I was really into art. Not so much graphic design but give me a piece of paper and a pencil and I’ll draw anything, I love creating characters too. Back in secondary school I had just seen the music department and although I love art I saw that not a lot of people in my school took up music and since I love creating in general I thought music was something I could get into and maybe it’s me being competitive but I wanted music to be something I could be really good at and something I could be known for. Once I got into it I realised I really enjoy it. Initially it started off with music for video games because I enjoy gaming, all of the Sonic games and the music was so good and I said to myself I want to create something like that. I mean I sounded horrible when I first started but if my 12/13 year old self could hear the music I create now I think he would pass out on the spot.
It’s good to notice your accomplishments from when you started to where you are now. You’ve also mentioned how you enjoy art and like to create and I think it’s really cool how you’ve assigned the face of AshZone to this animated purple character with long locs. How did that come about?
It’s a bit of a long story but I’ll cut it short. So basically the way AshZone came along together was when I first started creating my online personality I wasn’t too comfortable with showing my face on the internet. I’d always hide behind my art work. So with AshZone I based the character on me minus the facial hair, I’ve created an entire cartoon world based off real life. I did get the inspiration from Gorillaz and it’s something that not necessarily I’ve always wanted to do but something I really like doing. I’m very imaginative with my art work, for example if I wanted to be on the streets of Tokyo I can draw myself in Tokyo. Or if I wanted to be behind a wheel of a Nissan Skyline I can draw myself doing that too which I actually did for my 2020 EP ‘Nightingale’. I wanted to capture animated characters into real life shots again quite similar to Gorillaz. I really want to have an artist gimic with my music even the colour of AshZone he’s purple and that’s my favourite colour. It looks really cool and it’s fun.
If you were to start creating music videos, would AshZone be the centre of it all?
I’ve actually started that with my latest single ‘Papaya’ although it’s not a music video it’s a short video clip of an animation where I’m sitting in front of a white Mazda RX-7 one of my favourite cars. I also captured live footage of me driving which my friend helped me with. A mixture of real life and art. With the entire process I got screen grabs of the car then drew over it and animated in the after effects. I wouldn’t say it looks realistic but in terms of camera work it looks cool with the character.
When I listen to your music, I want to know what goes through your mind? I usually think of 90’s anime, literally a compilation of night time clips in Tokyo. I don’t know if you’ve ever watched the music video ‘Easy’ by Porter Robinson the electronic DJ but the entire music video is animation and when I was listening to ‘Papaya’ that’s what I was thinking of.
I’m familiar with Porter Robinson but I’ve never seen that music video but I can imagine what you’re saying. Most of my music and artistry does take inspiration from video games and anime. More so video games but you know the whole night time driving feel in the streets of Tokyo. I was very inspired by Japanese culture and you can hear that in my earlier work it’s not as much anymore. I’d say with my current artistry I draw inspiration from western cartoons so shows like ‘The Regular Show’ and a bit of ‘Adventure Time’.
In three words describe the music you make
Energetic
Catchy
Rhythmic
Explain the transition from upbeat electronic to the Lo-Fi house you make now?
It’s funny because when I started making music I started out with Rap and Hip Hop beats.
Is that because it was the music you were listening to at the time, so it felt more comfortable?
Hmm, not just that I mean I wouldn’t say it was easier but i felt like I could go extremely hard with this music. Each EP that I’ve released over time has different phases. I released my first EP ‘Bedroom’ back in 2016 and that was heavily influenced by Rap and Hip Hop including a song by Kaytranada. Eventually after that I moved onto electronic music, drum and bass, house.
What made you take that leap from Hip Hop to Electronic music?
So during the time I was watching a lot of anime and I had started creating a web comic, like a manga. The setting of this manga was based on a futuristic city in Japan, so whilst creating this web comic I decided to make an EP to go with it to capture the scenery and the environment. Electronic music captured it so well and I had a blast doing it which birthed my second EP’ XENO’. With the following EP ‘Nightingale’ it was a mix between electronic and Hip Hop, there were a few trap beats even a bit of drum and bass too. At the time I was trying to find a target audience. I already had Sonic gamer fans who were listening to me but were unfamiliar with my Hip Hop stuff then I had people who are more familiar with my Hip Hop stuff but unfamiliar with my electronic productions. I really wanted ‘Nightingale’ to target both audiences and it went really well, it started off as a university project but went onto to be something really good.
Are there any producers or artists you would like to collab with in future?
I honestly would like to make a song with Knucks, he’s my favourite rapper. Definitely would like to create music with Todd Edwards because he’s my favourite producer of all time. The way he uses sampling in his music, he’s definitely one of my biggest inspirations. I would enjoy working with more UK artists, there is this producer called Scruz and he does house, rap and garage music. He even recently released a Headie One remix on spotify but yeah he’s a sound guy. I’d also love to work with a British DJ Sammy Vurji he makes the most absolutely amazing garage music ever.
What is your current favourite song and what is your all time favourite song?
That’s a tough one. I would say… Scruz’ remix of Headie One’s ‘50s’ because it sounds like something you’d hear on Mario Kart. It’s a fun, bouncy garage song and very different from the original. My favourite song of all time has to be ‘I hear him’ by Todd Edwards. I just love the sampling, my favourite sampled melodies of all time. It’s completely timeless.
As well as producing I know you also DJ, how did that all come about?
I actually didn’t have my first DJ gig until Summer 22, I’ve always wanted to DJ I just didn’t know that many people who could get me into that sort of scene. It’s funny though because I was actually invited to DJ in Paris by someone I know – Marie for her show. She had heard my ‘Anti-Gravity’ EP and she really loves my music so she wanted to give me the opportunity to DJ for her. I’m still gassed to say that my very first show in Paris.
Catch more of AshZone on:
Instagram @ash.wav
Twitter @ashzonewav
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