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This week sees the trailblazing release of Amtrac’s Why EP on Super Music Group. Amtrac is an electronic music Producer and DJ from Kentucky, who has shared the stage with Steve Aoki, Designer Drugs, LA Riots, Flosstradomas, Kid Sister and more. Catch him on tour this month (at times with pyrotechnics, lasers, and a snow machine), as he hits clubs in Miami, Orlando, Ft. Lauderdale, Tallahasee, and Gainesville, Florida.

Marcie gets the scoop from Amtrac on the eve of his debut album release:

MARCIE: Where does the name Amtrac come from?
AMTRAC: It used to be Amtrak with a ‘K’, like the train, but we decided to change that. I found it funny that the train broke down all the time, and I seemed to break it down from time to time. I found it fitting.
MARCIE: Well I watched an army video about the Amtrac with a ‘C’, the amphibious assault vehicle, and the video claims it never breaks down. So there could be that comparison too…
AMTRAC: (laughs) I haven’t really researched the vehicle much, but I’ve seen that it’s a military vehicle after I changed it to a ‘C’.
MARCIE: You are from Kentucky
AMTRAC: Yes ma’am
MARCIE: Charming. Are you there now?
AMTRAC: Yes, I’m in Moorhead KY.
MARCIE: When I think of KY, I always think derby. I don’t really think ‘electro dub house’. How did you start to like that kind of music?
AMTRAC: At an early age, I was introduced to Ninja Tunes Record label, (DJ Shadow, DJ Food…jazz & experimental breaks). I kind of just found that on the internet. I was influenced growing up on Pink Floyd, Tangerine Dream, Yes, and experimental rock more so than by southern rock. I started spinning drum and bass. One of my friends that moved here from Seattle [introduced me to drum and bass]. That’s when I really got into djing. He gave me another turntable, (I already had one).

MARCIE: Who are your mentors? You mentioned DJ Shadow and your friend. Who else are you inspired by?
AMTRAC: I’m really inspired by Adam Freeland who runs Marine Parade record label. Seeing him in Washington DC my senior year in high school changed my whole perspective on what I thought djing is all about. He was really a showman for how he brought his act on. I always imagined djs being almost like a computer. I’d never seen someone be so interactive with the crowd, and just really get everybody going as much as he did. Then I researched it and found out that he ran a label and manages some of my favorite artists, Evil 9 and Alex Metric. I really look up to [Freeland], and he’s inspired me through the years. I’ve been following him pretty hard core.
MARCIE: I saw your video of ‘Monday Night In Miami’. You’ve got the keyboard out. Do you incorporate a lot of showmanship and live performance elements into your DJ sets?
AMTRAC: I’ve sang on occasion in some of my live shows on original tracks. Every once in awhile, I might bring a little synthesizer along to do one little edit. Probably next year is when I’m going to implement a lot of live performance into my set. I’m still just djing for the most part nowadays.
MARCIE: What do you think of what Diplo has going on with Major Lazer and their live showmanship? I saw them at Electric Zoo jumping off ladders, and running around on stage.
AMTRAC: I think it’s awesome. The guy with the Mohawk, the little dude from Major Lazer has so much energy, it’s crazy.

MARCIE: Are you performing the vocals on your original songs, “In Love” and “Why You Look So Blue”?
AMTRAC: Yes, I was probably influenced by a girl on most of those, I imagine. It was about 2 years ago when I made that EP.
MARCIE: I found “In Love” to be danceable, but also heart wrenching. I think a lot of people can relate to the idea of going out to get their mind of someone, and spending the entire night thinking about that person anyway.
AMTRAC: That’s definitely the gist behind it.
MARCIE: What type of vocals do you normally like when you’re playing out? Would you still drop “In Love”?
AMTRAC: Yes, I drop that from time to time. It kind of depends on how the crowd reacts, and what I’m feeling at the moment. I never have a prepared set or anything, but I always have all my stuff with me.
MARCIE: Who is Arug?
AMTRAC: He’s one of my friends from Maizeville KY. He has been freestyling for years. “Tabasco” is a wacky, crazy track. He was freestyling, and he said, “it’s hotter than Tabasco”. I said we can use that as a hook…and it went crazy from there with cut up, chopped, & glitched mayhem.
Arug wrote the verse for “Off The Wall”, and I autotuned some things, and did some sequencing to his voice and chopped it up a bit. It was a lot of fun.
MARCIE: When you are writing, do you prefer to work with someone else?
AMTRAC: When I am working with someone else, I enjoy it. I work by myself most of the time, but it’s nice to have someone else’s views and opinions coming into it. I’m pretty open to what other people think about what direction they would want to put [a track] in. It’s always interesting to see what comes out in the final product.
MARCIE: Do you write every day?
AMTRAC: Yeah, pretty much. If I’m not writing a song, I’ll write a sequence part of a track, or vocals. I’m always trying to be productive in any sense.
MARCIE: What usually influences your writing and desire to perform?
AMTRAC: A lot of the influence for getting out and travelling has been living in a small town. [Here] I don’t have a really tight knit, huge group of friends. It’s been hard always going away, playing shows away from town. [Travelling] is a different way of seeing things.

MARCIE: What has been your favorite place to DJ?
AMTRAC: I opened up for Aoki in Florida. It was a crazy show. I enjoyed it because the energy in that room was insane. It so packed. It was the most fun I’ve had at a show.
MARCIE: You are going to be playing a silent disco coming up Friday. Have you played one before?
AMTRAC: No, I’m interested to see what that’s all about. I’m anxious about wearing headphones the whole time while not having monitors. It [seems] kind of weird.
MARCIE: Your September mix is an hour long, and your August mix is only 20 minutes. Is there a reason why they have different lengths? I would think making a shorter mix would be harder.
AMTRAC: No, for me it was easier because I didn’t have to pick as much music. I’m pretty picky about what I put out.
MARCIE: Do you try to have an overall concept for each hour mix?
AMTRAC: I try to keep it in the same spectrum. It definitely has my taste showing through it.

MARCIE: Do you plan to focus more on production in the coming years?
AMTRAC: Production has always been way bigger to me than djing. I’ve just been djing live for two to three years. I’ve been producing for close to eight years. I was in bands before….I play keyboard, guitar, and I can dabble on the drums.
MARCIE: You really tweaked the vocal on your remix of ‘Might Like You Better’. What were you trying to bring to it that was different than the original?
AMTRAC: I’m really big on the sonic of how things are produced. I probably changed the vocals because I thought it sounded better after what I did to it. For me, a really good remix is when a song sounds completely different, and is in a completely new context. When you’re not just trying to keep it at the same tempo and mildly change it, but more so dissect the whole song, see what you can bring out of it to create a completely different hook to drag somebody into the song. I always find it interesting when people remix a track and they really get into it. You can tell when they put a lot of time into it. That really inspires me when I’m working on remixes.
MARCIE: To look for the essence of what speaks to you most in the original?
AMTRAC: Yeah, very true.
MARCIE: What about ‘Everybody Pops’? Do you consider that a mashup?
AMTRAC: It’s two acapellas that I made all the music for. I cut DJ Bam Bam’s “Everybody Put Your Hands In the Hair” with Diplo’s “Make You Pop”. I made it into “Everybody Pop”. I molded the vocals to say what I wanted it to say.

AMTRAC: The Why EP drops November 4th. It will have 3 or 4 tracks including “In Love”, “Why You Look So Blue”, and “Distant Heartbreak”. Super Music Group is releasing it, (run by Brandon Kessler and Derek Walin).
MARCIE: When will you make some country music electro tracks?
AMTRAC: Haha. Maybe someday. There’s a lot of bluegrass influence around here, for sure. I’ve thought about remixing a bluegrass song. I like the essence of bluegrass. Maybe one day.

Check out AMTRAC HERE

Posted in: Interviews | Posted on November 4, 2010 by MarcieJoy