H4nt Interview

modrNation: What inspired you to start making music?

H4nt: My second piano teacher. I had to take piano lessons because of my parents who wanted me to play any instrument I liked. My first two teachers weren’t the best, so we changed the teacher a third time and then he taught me that music is way more than playing ten bars of a song till next week. He taught me the fun and creativity behind music. I loved that guy. Film music was also a big part for me.

modrNation: Was that piano teacher your first introduction to music too?

H4nt: No, I had two teachers first and they were my first introduction. To be honest, they weren’t the best introduction though. I often was scared of lessons, because I never felt like I did enough and I never felt like I was prepared. That one teacher showed me what music actually means.

modrNation: Who are your biggest inspirations?

H4nt: My first inspirations for electronic music were Spag Heddy and Skrillex. So, I first started to make dubstep, although it was really bad. With artists like Albakore, Qwince, and Mr. Ours, I got into glitch hop which was then the main thing I did for like five years. Now I take my inspirations from people like Underscores or Joji. I also take inspirations from a lot of rappers like Aminé, Tyler, the Creator, or Rocky.

modrNation: You dropped your first single in 2018 titled “Glitch the World”. How do you feel you’ve grown as an artist since then?

H4nt: I’d say I have grown a lot because back then I tried to copy the glitch-hop I heard then. I’ve gotten a lot better at mixing and mastering, as well as sound design. I also think I know much better about what I want from music and what kind of music I want to make. I think my electronic music peaked with my first album that I released in summer last year. I want to get more into vocals now- like actually singing and saying things on my songs like things that happened to me or things I think about. When you compare “Glitch the World” to songs like “Rain N’ Something” by The Cosmic BangerZ, you can clearly hear the influence. Combine this with sound effects like neuro-basses and bass fills from Albakore, and you got what I did back then. Now I feel like I have an actual style.

modrNation: How would you describe your current sound?

H4nt: I would say my current sound happens when you combine glitch-hop, trap, and melodic vocals. Although, the songs that will come out these coming weeks are completely different. I feel like I don’t copy other people’s music anymore. I just start and suddenly there’s a song that sounds like one of my songs. People like Richdropkick and Lostpoolboy (Twitch streamers) always keep saying that I got my own sound and I don’t really know how to describe it. I do what comes into my mind. I often use similar techniques in my mixing process that I rarely see other people doing, and I often use similar chords for certain moments.

modrNation: What are three words you’ll use to describe your music?

H4nt: It’s hard to put that into three words because it can differ from song to song so much, but I’ll say glitchy, dumb, and hard.

modrNation: You just dropped a single titled “Let’s Just Pretend”. What does the single mean to you?

H4nt: I am what people might call a massive over thinker. I think about people so much to the point where I create a “fake dream” version of them and I get lost between the actual person and my own thoughts about that person, and it goes both ways. Sometimes, I like a person so much that I imagine fake scenarios with them and create 1000 versions of that and this goes so far to the point where I sometimes don’t know who I am and just pretend to be what other people know about me. I wrote this song during a time where I was pretending to talk to people while in reality, I was just sitting in my room thinking about it.

modrNation: What was the creative process behind it?

H4nt: I started by just making music - adding and creating sounds, writing chord progressions and melodies. And after a short time, I got the main chord progression and the melody. I found a free VST plugin called Detuna-Synthedit and what it does is detune things and make them wider, so I did just that to the chords. I had so much space after that I sang to the chorus, then I wrote for about a week on the different verses and recorded them bit by bit. About five months ago, there was a second part to it similar to the section after the first refrain, but I deleted that and Rosie from notthatloud sang over it and that was it. At the end, I felt like I needed something big and wild, so I experimented around until I came up with that huge dubstep/trap section.

modrNation: What’s next for you after this single?

H4nt: Releasing my next single next week Friday. I currently want to do a lot of collaborations so I’m looking for rappers and singers to work with. It’s fun working with other people.

modrNation: What artists are you hoping to collaborate with?

H4nt: Currently, I want to work with my homies from Twitch like Triphophatesmusic, EraWadi, and Khaki_creations. I want to work with Summet one day. Underscores would be an insane collaborate. There are so many I want to collaborate with but they’re obviously too big right now like Joji, Sub Urban, and Amine. I really like Reggie and Vince Staples too, but I think it’s better to work within my range right now.

modrNation: Where do you hope to see yourself in the next five years?

H4nt: Living alone would be a big upgrade so I can separate my bedroom from my studio lol. I want to get up to 100k monthly listeners too. I don’t know if my music is made for performing live, but hopefully that will happen too. Also, most of my listeners are from the US and not Germany and I’ve heard its kinds hard touring there without anything but I’m hoping it works out.

modrNation: What would you say has been the most stressful part of being an artist?

H4nt: Getting out there and getting people to actually listen to your music. I hear so often that my music is good, but a lot of people aren’t listening to it. I get that there’s a lot of artists and music though. I also feel like everything I do is kinda cringe at some point but when I show it to people, they’re like “wow that’s sick” so just doing what I want to do is kinda hard because my brain is always in the way. I felt so weird about the first song I ever sung which was “Workplace” from my album until people told me it was cool.