Oliver Tank in some respects bares similarities to Elizabeth Rose, also a Fresh Blood inductee (listen to her mixhere). Both are young Sydneysiders currently makng waves in the electronic community through crafting superb electronic pop. Both are also producers first, DJs second. Which, if your tastes lie in a variety of genres, is what makes their Fresh Bood mixes so refreshing. Oliver kicks things off with his beautiful cover of Simon And Garfunkel's classic 'Sound Of Silence' before settling in for a trip through glitchy and dreamy electronica with smatterings of hip-hop and pop.
To accompany his mix for us, we threw a few questions at Oliver to discover a little more about the producer who recently supported UK poster boy James Blake on his tour of Australia this year. Remember the name Oliver Tank...big things are on the horizon.
(download here)
Pulse: I read that the first album you bought was by Limp Bizkit, which some would suggest is odd given the music you make now, however most teenagers' tastes change at some point. When did this happen for you and what music did you start listening to after your nu-metal phase? Oliver Tank: Yes 'Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavoured Water' was the first album I ever bought, closely followed by 'Get Rich or Die Trying' by 50 cent. I went through a bit of a band stage when I was like like 11-12 where I thought bands like Blink 182 and Red Hot Chili Peppers were the be all end all and I thought hip-hop wasn't even real music. Then when I got into high school I started to really enjoy hip-hop but still listened to bands, then after high school I started getting more into different types of music and really fell in love with what was happening in the electronic scene at the time. It was all so new and exciting and I'd never heard anything like that before.
Did what your parents listened to when you were growing up have a big impact on you? I remember they listened to a lot of Michael Jackson and Simon and Garfunkel. I enjoyed it, they were all pretty classic tracks. I don't know if it had much of an impact on the music I make now though, I feel as though I'm mostly influenced by music form the last 4-5 years.
When did you start first making music and what did it sound like? Well I was in a few bands in high school and to be honest with you we were so terrible and the music we made was shocking. But it was a lot of fun and we thought we were pretty sweet at the time. I got into producing music at university which was only a couple of years back. Originally I wanted to make beats like FlyLo but it kinda just turned out the way it did. It's good though, I embrace it now instead of trying to sound like someone else.
How long had you been producing before you released the 'Dreams EP'? Not very long, maybe like a year. I finished 'Dreams' just as I finished my Uni degree which is where I was learning production. It all kind of came together at the end there.
Tell us about your production set up – what do you use? Well for 'Dreams' I used a program called Cubase but since then I've switched to Ableton. I found myself using it more and more and it's very easy to get an idea down quickly. However it can also be unbelievably frustrating and I still have a lot to learn about the program. Other than that I record guitar and vocals just in my bedroom and there's no real method to the rest of it, I just try and find interesting sounds and put them together.
And what about when you play live? How does that work? I don't use a laptop to play live. I have all my beats and my synths in a Roland SP-404 and I build on that with singing, a guitar, a drum pad and several effects. Its a good setup, I've tried to make it as live as possible which can be a bit difficult sometimes. I've made a few changes to it recently so it works much better than it used to, but it will keep evolving as I write more music.
Speaking of playing live, you recently supported James Blake on his tour of Australia. How was it? How did the crowd respond to your music? It was nothing short of incredible! It was a dream come true to support him on his Australian tour, he was a big reason I started making this sort of music and on top of all that I got to travel around Australia and NZ playing in some of the biggest and best venues in front of thousands of people. The crowd responded really well which i was stoked about. I was on pretty early most nights, about half an hour after doors but towards the end of my set the venue would be pretty full. It was a very intense week; lots of drinking, late nights, early morning flights. But I can't complain, it was great. I'll never forget it.
Did you get to hang out with James much? If so, what would you say you learnt from him? I did hang out with James a bit, he's the nicest guy and his band are really cool too. I probably spent more time with them because he had a lot of things to do and people to meet. I chatted to James about 'The Wire' a bit and how good it was, and I spoke with his band about how they met P Diddy one time which was pretty funny. I was very interested to see how he did everything live so I learnt a lot in that respect. Hopefully one day my live show can be something like his.
You’ve been working on a new EP is that correct? What were you looking to achieve with it and how does it differ from the 'Dreams EP'? Yes, it's called 'Slow Motion Music'. I've been working on it for the past year, but its really come together in the last few months. I was having a lot of trouble writing music a year ago and i wasn't really happy with anything I'd done, but recently everything just came together and it really took shape. I've gotten much better at production this past year so the sound is a bit more developed than Dreams but it still has the same charm. I guess I was just trying to follow up with something just as heartfelt and with a good story and theme.
When can we expect a release? Within the next two months I'd say. I don't want to give and exact date because nothing is locked in yet but I'm eager to have it out soon.
You’ve just recorded an achingly beautiful cover of Simon & Garfunkel’s ‘Sound Of Silence’. Why did you choose this to cover? Is it particularly special to you for some reason? Last year I did a crowd funding campaign to get 'Dreams' pressed on vinyl. It was really rewarding to have fans contribute towards getting my first EP pressed. The standard donation was $20 and it got you a copy, however if you decided to contribute a bit more I would cover a song of your choosing. That's actually how this cover came about. I do love the original so I was excited when the guy who'd made the donation chose this track. I wanted to make it quite different from the original, kind of along the same lines as my Snoop Dogg cover of 'Beautiful'. I'm really happy with how it turned out and the guy I did it for loved it too.
Who are currently some of your biggest musical influences of the past few years? Last few years I've been listening to a lot of Thrupence and Ta-ku in particular, plus a whole bunch of other electronic music and hip-hop. I've also been listening to a lot of mixes and I spend a lot of time on soundcloud listening to music as well.
Tell us a little bit about the mix you’ve recorded for us...This mix goes everywhere! I tried to put a wide variety of tracks in there. It's pretty much the sort of stuff I've been listening to lately. All the tracks are quite different and I enjoyed the challenge of trying to mix them together and make it cohesive. I also tried to include some music in there that people probably wouldn't think I listen to. It's just a little window into the sort of music I'm into at the moment.
What’s on the cards for Oliver Tank for the rest of 2013 and beyond? I'll be dropping that second EP soon, then I'll start work on an album, plus I've got a few other projects and collaborations I'm working on. I'll be keeping busy with shows for the rest of the year as well. I think 2014 will be a defining year for me. I'm excited for it.
Oliver Tank - Fresh Blood Tracklist:
Oliver Tank - Sound of Silence (feat. Fawn Myers)
Thrupence - Genie
James Blake - Footnotes
Mount Kimbie - Would Know
Lindsay TUC - Song for Holly
Bonobo - Prelude
Groove Armada - At the River
Friendships - SSLOWW
Roberta Flack - Gone Away
Gucci Mane - My Chain (Jonwayne remix)
Devin the Dude - Doobie Ashtray
Ta-Ku - One for Trey
Seekae - +Dome
Kendrick Lamar - Chapter 6
Javelin - Susie Cues
Les Loups - Elephant and Ivory (Vanilla remix)
Jurassic 5 - Concrete Schoolyard
Oliver Tank - I Can't Sleep
Kyson - Ocean Tides
James Taylor - Fire and Rain
Listen to Oliver Tank on Pulse Radio