Jake Stanczak, better known as American DJ and producer, Kill The Noise, channels influences from his youth to create some of today’s hottest heavy electronic releases such as “Roots,” “Kill Kill Kill,” “Black Magic” and “Occult Classic.” He’s played numerous live shows and major festivals including Coachella, EDC, Lollapalooza and HARD. When it comes to creativity in the studio, he is no stranger to producing dubstep bangers with the likes of Dillon Francis, Deadmau5, AWOLNATION, Skrillex and many others.
Fresh from his performance at Bassrush’s Bassmnt Saturdays, Kill The Noise proved that he knows how to keep the crowd going with his wide spectrum of EDM tracks from house to dubstep. For those who missed out on the face-melting fun, we caught up with the producer to get a glimpse of the future and a taste of what’s behind the scenes.
Can you tell us a little bit about your background and how you got into producing music?
I started DJing when I was just a kid. First I was playing mainly drum and bass but I was also into scratching. I was a huge fan of turntablism and DJ battles. I was 15 so that was a long time ago! By the time I was out of school I was starting to get interested in making my own tunes, because of course I was curious how the songs I were playing in the club were made. That moment snowballed into where I am now; just lots of curiosity and determination.
Who are some of your biggest musical influences?
Off the top of my head…Pink Floyd, NIN, Prodigy, Pendulum, Deadmau5. More recently I’ve been really inspired by the people I work directly with like Mat Zo and Seven Lions. I am always inspired by people, though, and I’m very thankful that I find myself inspired regularly by music I hear. There’s so much great stuff coming out across the board.
If you could collaborate with anyone dead or alive, who would it be and why?
I have no idea. I think most of the people I admire I would just want to meet, any of the people mentioned above (some I’ve had the opportunity to work with) I’d just wanna hang and talk about music and see if that turns into something.
You recently did a collaboration with Snails, Sullivan King and Jonah Kay on “Shake The Ground.” Can you tell us more about the track and how all four of you came together to create such a hard banger?
Yeah, Snails and I had been talking for a while about working on some shit so that came together very organically. He happened to be in LA and he came over to my place to meet my son, who was still just a tiny baby, and just hang out. We ended up just sketching out a basic idea that we re-worked over the course of the year. Sullivan came into the mix somewhere in the midst of us tweaking. He was also a guy that both [Snails] and I wanted to work with for a long time!
[Sullivan King] was actually working out of a studio down the street from my house so getting him to do vocals was pretty easy. Jonah is an old friend of mine from outside of Toronto and he did the guitars on the track. All of it was just a bunch of friends fucking around. It came out great, we are all really proud of it! I think the coolest final touch was recording crowd vocals in Chicago. Snails and I were out there for a fest and spontaneously decided to record some the crowd chanting the vocals. We layered those in there to give it more of a live feel.
You’ve played everywhere from big festivals like EDC Vegas to more intimate shows like Bassrush Bassmnt show in San Diego a few weeks back. Which type of setting do you prefer and why?
Probably a pretty common answer but both of course. It’s good to have both perspectives. I came up playing just clubs so that’s where I feel most comfortable. Festivals are definitely rewarding as well but they are much more nerve wracking for me and a lot more stress for a number of reasons.
You’re currently in the midst of your Killumination Tour. What is your favorite and least favorite thing about being on tour?
Easy—I miss my kid so much being on tour. I’m hoping somehow it will get easier but it doesn’t seem like it will. As for my favorite thing? Meeting new friends. On this tour I’ve become good friends with everyone that’s traveling with me not to mention getting to say hello to fans at the shows, too. It’s a blessing being able to travel and I never take it for granted even though sometimes it’s a pain in the ass.
What are some upcoming projects that you’re currently working on that fans can look forward to?
Lots of shit; a new remix I just did for Snails and NGHTMRE, [which] should be dropping soonish. More collaborative stuff with Seven Lions, more collab stuff with 12th Planet, actually. I teased some of this stuff in my EDC set at the bassPOD this year. There’s other things too that are quite a lot bigger in scale that are coming up, but I’m not gonna spoil it. Just really busy on the studio mode tip.
Tell us something we don’t know about you.
I share most of my life on social media soI think people know quite a bit about me. [Laughs] But maybe one thing people might not be super familiar with is I make videos and post them on my YouTube of me playing and talking about games like Dark Souls, Bloodborne, etc. I think at the moment it is my hobby, even though, believe it or not, I do think of it as related to my music work. It’s a lot of fun. In some cases, I’ve turned these into music related YouTube vids. It’s kinda hard to explain, but maybe people could check it out here.