Interview with Spacetosha
Torstein Strand (a.k.a spacetosha)
I’m from Stavanger, Norway! Tasta 4028 represent.
What genre of music do you make?
I make a variety of different genres. Mostly instrumental Hip-Hop.
What are your inspirations, and how do they influence your music?
My inspirations are artists out of for example Brainfeeder, where FlyingLotus is the founder and one of my biggest inspirations. I’m also very influenced by jazz and funk, and I try and incorporate that style in my music making. Gotta also mention Onra, Dj Shadow and Wax Tailor, who were my biggest inspiration for my track Liuqin.
So, you study music. Where do you go and what has your education done for you?
I go to Dubspot (google it). Haha, nah it’s a music-production school, amongst other things such as DJ’ing and sound design, and it’s located around Meatpacking and Chelsea in Manhattan. At Dubspot I’m surrounded by talented instructors, who are in the business, and aspiring students who are willing to learn and produce. We have weekly presentations (we keep ourselves busy), where we get feedback from the instructors and my fellow students, and I’ve learned so much. My understanding of music, as well as the program I’m using, has just gone from pretty good to insane. I’m basically living in music, and I’m enjoying every moment of it!
What was your first step towards producing beats?
Growing a pair of balls and thinking that I could actually make stuff. Haha, and I’ve played guitar and drums for a while, in bands, so I’ve always loved music and I’ve always wanted to create. (Create more than you consume; there is the key to life) And downloading a cracked version of Ableton, which eventually almost destroyed my computer.
Right now my set-up is my laptop and headphones + Maschine and Akai LPK25. That’s all I really need at the moment. Except for a good microphone. That would be nice.
My goal is to produce music as an artist, and play shows where ever people want to hear my shit. I don’t have to get really big, it wouldn’t hurt of course, but I would just love to play shows from time to time, and actually live off of what I love to do, and what I’m meant to do: make music.
If you could play in one place, where would it be?
I would love to play a show at Terminal 5. I just love the spot, how it’s like a warehouse. Anywhere in New York would be awesome. And Berlin of course! Anywhere really. I don’t think I have a favorite. Where ever I CAN play, is where I’ll love to play, if that makes sense. I just want to create and share, and experience music with others. I want to give people that feeling I always get when I’m at a festival, or at a concert. You forget about time and all your worries, and you just enjoy and feel the vibes of the music
Any words of advice for upcoming artist trying to do the same?
If you got the taste for it, you know what’s good, you know what that little extra is supposed to be or sound like, then you will get there eventually. Just put yourself in a lot of work, constant work, and never give up. Keep a positive attitude, even though that can be extremely hard sometimes, and just look forward! I’m not even there yet, but I’m on my way and I’m never going to stop.
What do you think of #poorlymade?
I think #poorlymade is a genius concept, where you can create art without having the whole shebang of people investing in you, people promoting for you etc. You just create whatever you feel like expressing, and people will take it for what it is, which is art: YOUR art. There’s so much more to art than what sounds the best, or what looks the best, if you ask me. If you put your soul into it, people will know, regardless of how expensive your equipment is, or how many classically trained musicians you had involved in your project.
to hear more of spacetoshas work look him up on sound cloud or just follow this link!!
https://soundcloud.com/toshaaaa
to see this weeks feature!
http://youtu.be/Y8GlXUjcagU
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