Conro’s originality is something that isn’t found in a part of his music, but entirely across the board. From arrangement, sound design, creative strategy, and everything in-between, his dance tracks have had labels chomping at the bit, most notably Monstercat. The label has most recently made him a member of the Monstercat: Instinct saga, one half of the shift in brand Monstercat has been showcasing for several months; the other end being Monstercat: Uncaged which represents the heavier side of the label.
Having climbed to nearly one million monthly listeners, charting in the top 10 on US radio, and a full scope of releases for 2018, Conro is genuinely set up to be one of the fastest rising DJ’s of the year.
“Me” is his next single coming out on March 30th and I know I’m not the only one waiting on it.
Over tacos and beer with lime on a outside deck in South Beach, Conro and I discuss a swath of subjects. From music background stories, to dream projects, and much more. Check out the interview below.
It was one of the few times I’ve left an interview positively surprised and excited to see what’s going to happen next.
RR: Are you from Canada?
Conro: Yeah, I was born in Saskatchewan, and later made my way to BC, and I have moved around since then.
RR: What led to the creation and execution of Conro?
Conro: I think it started off because I was listening to a lot of music when I was a kid. I played violin, not by choice, forced…I moved on to doing band stuff. I was in a band but I ended up saying goodbye and I focused purely on Conro…couple years later, few songs, signed, and now I’m here. This has been a kind of musical journey to get here.
RR: When did Conro start?
Conro: I first released this on Wolfgang Garner’s label in 2010.
RR: Oh really?
Conro: Yeah, but I was doing electro…
RR: Was it under the Conro alias?
Conro: Yeah, it was Conro, but…it kind of evolved and changed. It’s been a crazy, crazy journey.
RR: I mean, yeah – you know. Excuse my ignorance, but I thought Conro was pretty new, like 2016, something like that.
Conro: Yeah. Well, I think that’s when it kind of like, I started gaining the most success. My big thing was, I was doing electro, and trying to get my voice heard, and I switched up the genre a little bit, and I started just playing music that I really was into, and then it kind of translated for me career wise.
RR: Gotcha man, that’s a cool story. Yeah, the next question I had was…I was listening to the last five or six releases you had on Spotify, and I was kind of curious, do you plan a set of songs, and execute the ideas on out, or is it kind of one song at a time, and things happen spontaneously, as far as how the songs develop, or maybe different cadences for each song –
Conro: Depends on the song, but it usually starts off with a guitar and a piano. I’ll sit down and I’ll play on the piano. The melodies go around that, and now my project has changed when I have more vocals and a lot more live instruments. So it feels a lot more live. It usually generally starts on the piano.
RR: Gotcha man. I was listening to your music and I genuinely and firmly believe that you consistently are making great songs. All the pieces are there. You know, all artists want to make great songs. I want to ask you, are there factors in making a song that are more important than others, to achieving that goal consistently? For example, maybe you put a special focus on the singer, or the drums, or the arrangement of the song?
Conro: I don’t think it’s a conscious effort that I make, it’s just…with any craft, you naturally get better at it, and you find the things in a song that kind of stand out, and you emphasize that on the production side. So, it basically…you know…I haven’t done too much, I just get some work down, figure out some things, and then I sit back and sit down with the record, and write something that works around the production, and then I’ll spend a lot of time with the music.
RR: How would you say that you ended up finding the path that became your sound now, you know what I mean? Like you said in 2016, you ended up being the Conro that you are today? How would you say you ended up on the signature sound, where it was like “Okay, this is it”?
Conro: I think it just took some time. I actually moved out to a farm, and I was helping with chores to pay rent. I was at a weird place. I just really wanted to just write music and find a situation where I could write music, and clear my head. I was at this place where, if nobody, if I was living outside of this world, or in a forest with trees for five or ten years, without influences of anybody else, what would I write? That kind of started that. I still change…this music is even different from the music that I released in the past three years. It just keeps changing and growing, and I just have to make sure that I am always writing music for me, and not for anybody else, or comparing, and to stay original to my brand.
RR: What are some dream ideas or cool art projects that you would like to one day pair with the Conro brand, you know? Most artists want to maximize the expansion of who they are and what they represent, the brand, that type of thing. Do you have any cool art projects that you would want to one day bring to life?
Conro: For sure, for sure. I’ve always wanted to have a – when I was a kid, I wanted to be the dude who just orchestrates multiple musicians. It’s crazy telling this to people but I can sit there and read it, and conduct, basically. I can read my vocals off the guitar and piano and a couple of things live, but to have a full freakin-band, I got drummers, and… to have THAT, that’s what I was doing originally. I was playing with bands and stuff – to get back to that, but on a bigger scale, 100% I would absolutely kill to have one of them.
RR: Sick! How are you hoping 2018 will differ from 2017?
Conro: I think the music alone sounds a lot different, including my vocals. That’s changed a lot. Pretty much done for the year already, I’ve done 10 or 15 songs that are done, that are signed.
RR: That are signed? Wow.
Conro: This year is booked in terms of releases, so hopefully we can potentially…work on a full-length album, that would be really cool. I’ve done shows, but what I’m excited about last year to this year is the music. I feel stronger than ever that this music is going to be exciting.
RR: Anything in 2018 that you are most excited for?
Conro: One song, but I can’t say it, though. There’s a song that I think it’s going to be out by the end of July. It’s so tight. When I wrote the song, I was literally in the studio – I wish there was a GoPro in my studio so you could literally be watching my reaction when I am making the song. I was standing up, I was freaking sweating, I don’t know how many calories I burned writing that song. I was just jumping up, I was so pumped!
RR: Good!!
Conro: This is a song that I had some labels fighting over the record. I made a good decision about who to go with, but that’s my most successful thing.
Check out Conro’s latest tracks below, and get ready for what’ to come in 2018:
Connect with Conro:
https://www.facebook.com/conromusic
https://twitter.com/conromusic
https://www.instagram.com/conromusic
https://soundcloud.com/conromusic
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