Recognized as one of the most promising producers of 2018, Kompany kicks off 2018 with an all-original, boundary-pushing Revolt EP forthcoming on Never Say Die. The six-track project is nothing short of a massacre, showcasing some of his best work to date while offering a sneak peek into what Kompany is bringing in the coming year.
Graduating from the infamous ICON Collective, Kompany has been working tirelessly at mastering his craft over the past few years and has certainly made an immense impact in the bass music community. It is impossible to ignore the talent he brings to the table as he is taking over the scene with each release. With his unique take on bass music—married with his impeccable sound design and a knack for bass heavy music—the sky is the limit for Kompany!
Having wrapped up 2017 joining Bear Grillz on his Freakshow tour, tons of releases on some of the biggest labels in bass music like Firepower Records, DIM MAK, and NSD: Black Label there is nothing he can’t do. In the midst of the madness, we caught up with Kompany to chat about all things regarding his first bus tour, his Revolt EP, and what we should be looking out for in 2018. Check out the interview below and make sure to preorder your copy of the Revolt EP before it hits the streets this Friday.
This EP is epic! Tell us a little bit about the inspiration behind it.
Thank you! I was aiming to get really aggressive with the sound design for this EP, but also wanted to dip back into trap stuff a bit. I think I found a really good balance of that for the Revolt EP. Some of these tracks are almost two years old so the inspiration was definitely stretched out over a long period of time.
Do you have a particular track you are excited to share with fans?
If I had to pick one, it’d definitely be “Sucka.” I love the crowd reactions the track gets live and it was also one of my first tracks that got a bunch of DJ love.
You have a few collaborations on this project, how did those come to be?
I met both Far Too Loud & Tascione through SoundCloud DMs. I hit up Tascione as a fan when I had like 300 followers and sent him some of my unreleased [tracks] and he loved it. From then we just became internet pals. Fast forward a year or two and we met up in LA for a studio session and smashed out “End All” in almost one day. There was so much creative energy and back and forth in this session and we were both beyond stoked on the final product.
For the Far Too Loud collab, he had sent me the idea of “Fuckstorm” years ago, and we had been sitting on it half-finished for quite some time—until we heard that Never Say Die wanted it. Oli (Far Too Loud) had sent some really crazy sounds over in the stems, so I tried to make some interesting sounds to match the vibe. Seeing as my music is very sound design driven, I had a lot of fun working with someone so well versed in sound design.
What are you hoping fans take away from this project?
I want my fans to notice that this EP will be a big turning point in the overall quality of my production. I have been putting a crazy amount of time into the studio lately and have been improving more and more every day.
How did your relationship with Never Say Die come about?
I’ve worked with Never Say Die a few times here and there in the past. I believe the first time I had released something on Never Say Die was a collab on Adair’s Roots EP. I also did a remix of “After All” by Slander & YOOKiE and a VIP of that same remix, but knowing that I have a full EP with them is insane. Some of my favorite producers are signed to this label, and I feel like my sound is a great fit for them.
I want my fans to notice that this EP will be a big turning point in the overall quality of my production. I have been putting a crazy amount of time into the studio lately and have been improving more and more every day.
2017 was a huge year for you and 2018 is off to a great start with Revolt hitting the streets! How does it feel to be referred to as one of the biggest up-and-coming producers for this year?
It’s honestly unreal. There are so many up-and-comers in the scene right now so it’s such an honor to hear that. I hope that 2018 is amazing as it is looking up to be!
Let’s take it all the way to the beginning. What got you into producing?
I think I’ve been producing for almost four years now. I had been a DJ for a few years already and had been playing some pretty cool local shows until I came to the realization that it would be a lot harder to get any good traction going without any original music of my own. Shortly after I acquired Ableton and fell head over heels in love with it. I had known I wanted to pursue a career in music when I attended my first big electronic show in 2010, which was HARD Summer. I also attended ICON Collective from 2014-2015 which was huge for me. Shortly after graduating there I was able to make a full time living off of production from doing freelance sound design and YouTube tutorials.
Where do you generally pull inspiration from when it comes to producing?
I tend to get a massive amount of inspiration from watching tutorials or other producers’ livestreams, especially if they’re messing with some enticing new plugin that I’ve never seen, or demonstrating some cool new technique. Usually seeing stuff like this gets me really fired up to get into the studio. If I’m having writers block, these things are very likely to help me have a breakthrough.
Take us through your writing process.
I tend to switch up my approach here and there, but mainly start with the buildup and drop and then shape the rest of the track around that. My songs are very sound design driven so I almost always lay out a skeleton with the kick and snare and some minimal effects, and then have a crazy sound design session where I resample a bunch of different timbres of a certain patch and then arrange the audio to create a flow. Sometimes I’ll have an idea for an intro and will lay that out first. It all depends on what I’m inspired to work on first.
How did you come up with your name?
I used to be in a duo called MiseryxKompany back in the day with my buddy Nate. This was before I had gotten into production at all, but we played some pretty fun local shows. When Nate moved away and I decided to take the project solo, I wanted to keep the name Kompany but change the branding.
What do you have in store for 2018 that you can share with fans?
So many tunes! I’m hoping to be playing a bunch of shows this year so hopefully I will be able to meet as many people as possible.
Any special shouts before we go?
A huge shout out to my roommates Blake, James, Will, Bear Grillz, Phaseone, Dirt Monkey, and everyone else on the American Freakshow tour that we just wrapped up. Those guys are incredible. I also want to give a shout out to my managers, Mike and Nate, my agent Max, as well as all of my producer friends that put up with me bombarding them with private SoundCloud links and WIPs—and obviously the fans. As tacky as it sounds I would be nowhere without any of you guys. I hope you guys are ready for what I’m bringing to the table this year.