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Throttle talks shaking his Money Maker
House | Wednesday 19th October 2016 |
Young Australian producer Throttle burst into the global scene with his James Brown-sampling hit 'Money Maker', accompanied by a very NSFW no-holds barred video. We caught up with the producer to chat about dirty disco, jock straps and why he's not as violent as his name might suggest.
Firstly, what was the inspiration behind your latest single 'Money Maker'?
Well, it started out with the James Brown sample 'shake your money maker' and this piano beat that we had going on. Every time I worked on the track it kept levelling up into a full song. I wrote the song with a friend of mine and then we got got LunchMoney Lewis and Aston Merrygold on board. It kept evolving over about a year but the first bit was the James Brown sample.
How did you end up working with LunchMoney Lewis and Aston Merrygold?
That was actually through the label. The track was written and ready to go and then last minute they sent it out to Lunch and Aston. The guys loved it and they came back with nearly the final result on the first try.
So were they quite easy to work with?
Yeah they were both brilliant to work with. Like I said, they sent it over pretty much ready first time, so I got in touch with them individually and tweaked a few things to make it perfect.
You describe your sound as 'dirty disco', how did you come up with that term?
It started as the name of a podcast that I was planning on putting out. I guess the collection of music that showcased all the inspiration for my music and all the stuff I loved at the time and grew up with. It was a combination of everything from disco to a lot harder EDM at the time. It had a little bit of everything in there and it kind of evolved into what my sound is today. It stayed true to the stuff I'm making now.
So you're obviously from Australia and there seems to be quite a big wave of Australian producers making it at the moment. Do you think growing up in Australia helped to shape your music in any way?
It's a tough one, I'm not sure. It definitely helped me being away from the big American scene that was going on. I was following dance music from around the world, which was kind of nice as it allowed me to do my own thing. There are a lot of pockets of different music in Australia, tons of the Flume sound, but I don't channel that too much in my music.
Moving back to 'Money Maker': the music video is pretty memorable and you make a little cameo in it. What was the atmosphere like on set and did you have any say in the creative direction of the video?
It was incredible to be on set, interesting to say the least. The director came to us with the idea and my team and I loved it. We had to tweak it a little as we were going along just because there was a porn thing in the opening. So I said we had to bring that scene down a little bit and I sort of gave them the direction for a PG version. Well, if you looked at it now you wouldn't call it PG but we've toned down the opening, and then had feedback from the editing team. Mainly they did their own thing.
Were those actors actually wearing anything on set?
No, they weren't fully nude haha. They were wearing a little jock strap, but as you can imagine it didn't hide that much!
What plans do you have coming up now? Any touring or musical projects?
Yeah there's lots of touring. It's going to be pretty packed for the next couple of months. I'm going to be heading over the Amsterdam for ADE, where I'm doing a full live showcase for the first time, me and a live band. Then I will be back to Australia and then touring the US. There's also a lot of music in the pipeline too. It will hopefully come out before the end of the year, but we're just going to ride the 'Money Maker' wave for now and then put out the next single when it makes sense.
How did you come up with your name?
It was something I came up with when I was around 13 years old. It was the only cool thing I could come up with at the time. Back then, I was making a lot harder music and it was very fitting to the stuff I was doing then. Obviously it's not quite fitting to the disco stuff I'm doing now. But the name is something that my music will grow into I think, and I see it more as a brand now than a full reflection of me which it did when I started.
Have you ever thought about making another alias for a different kind of music?
I have actually. About a year or two ago I kept thinking that I wanted something closer to my own name actually. So I was thinking of Robbie something but everything I came up with was a 70s or 80s funk singer so I gave up after a couple of weeks. I'm going to stick with it for now and I'll probably do another alias at some stage to be able to do other things creatively. It will be music under Throttle for the next couple of years for sure.
