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Sebastian Carter has been steadily on the rise after his remix of Alt-J's "Breezeblocks" smashed all expectations and rocketed him to the top of everybody's "next big thing" list late last year. Since then, it's been a steady stream of well received tracks and remixes, and this Swiss native living in the UK has done wonders for the collective sound coming from the next crop of house producers. His music isn't particularly orthodox, in fact he often chooses to work with genres that don't normally make it into traditional dance discographies, but in doing so, he's crafted a unique sound, and forged a name for himself as one of the premiere new faces in the world of electronic music. With his star on the rise, we decided it would be a good time to talk with Sebastian about his origins as a producer, his love of all things music, and where he wants to go from here.
Your music sits pretty comfortably inside the house/electronic genres, but your songs aren’t exactly run-of-the-mill. What are some of the influences that make your music so unique and recognizable? I listen to a lot of indie-rock and indie-pop. I'd probably say that bands like Foals, Foster The People, The 1975 or Alt-J influence my writing a lot.
You seem to gravitate towards indie music when picking tracks to remix. Is this just because of your own personal taste, or do you feel the way tracks like Alt-J’s “Breezeblocks” and the Local Native’s “Ceilings” are composed lend themselves to a better remix? Clearly because I just love indie music. I don't like to remix songs I don't like.
You grew up in Switzerland but now call Brighton home. Do you feel you identify more with the music culture in Switzerland, or has living in the UK been a better fit for your work as a producer? Well producing happens on my laptop in my bedroom. It doesn't matter where in the world I am. I produced my remix for "Ghosts" by Emily Underhill back in Switzerland and it's the best track I've done so far I think. On the other hand I produced my remix of "Breezeblocks" by Alt-J in the UK and it's my most popular one so far. The music scene in Brighton is a lot better than in Switzerland no doubt, but I feel like my production is a separate thing.
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Do you have any non-music related activities that help inspire your music? I don't think so. I mean I produce music, write music, listen to music and study music. No time for too many other activities besides eating sleeping and spending time with friends and family.
Your first release, Angels, came out a year ago, but its polished sound hinted at an extensive background in music. Tell us a little about how you got started as a producer. It all started when I injured my left hand and couldn't play drums for a while. I sat down at my laptop (I had just gotten NI's Maschine Mikro) and started to produce some beats, since I thought, what if I get a permanent injury and can't play drums ever again? So production was kind of my backup plan. At that time it was more Porter Robinson/Zedd style, or at least that's what I believed it was.
Your music’s newfound popularity is going to start building demand for more live shows. Do you have favorite venues in mind that you want to play? I do have a few venues in mind yes, but most of them are probably rather far in the future.
You’ve seen some amazing success with your remixes, but unlike other producers, the quality of your original tracks is just as good. Do you approach remixes and originals differently when producing, or do you make both with the same methods? The secret to my music is that I don't have a method. I just let it flow. Whether it's the vocal sample of a remix of just a beat or melody or whatever. I start building up from different points and angles and it somehow gets there.
Is there any specific piece of gear you couldn’t live without? Pretty sure my MacBook and my Maschine Mikro. I heard from a friend who produces that he imports all of his drum samples into Logic seperately and makes beats by placing them in the timeline, which sounded impossible to me. For me as a drummer a drum machine is just essential.
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What do you do to get over creative hurdles when a song or composition just isn’t doing what you want it to? Take a break. Sometimes I just don't touch my music for a few days to a few weeks. It helps a lot. And listening to lots of different music. Time will heal the problem usually.
With so much success so early on in life, you have a ton of career options that other artists don’t have. Is your goal to continue to develop as a producer in the public sphere, or do you eventually want to work in music behind the scenes? I haven't actually thought about that yet. I think I will go further with this project and get as many people to hear my music as possible. I just like the feeling of people appreciating my music and liking it from all places of the world. It feels surreal.