Atlanta Artists Weigh In On Imagine Music Festival & ATL’s Booming Electronic Scene

Where the epic festival line-ups call, the masses will go. They will descend upon whatever destination the festival gods so choose, and this Labor Day Weekend 2014, that destination is Imagine Music Festival in Atlanta, Georgia. As you trek through the many reaches of the country in search of filthy beats and timeless memories, you may be passing through mini-epicenters of musical genius that you will never even get a chance to discover. The artists who run these focal points help make your favorite fests possible with line-up suggestions, working closely with planners, and of course nurturing the local scene into a haven where these events can thrive.

So while we could easily talk about our favorite big names to see hitting ATL this August 30-31, (Adventure Club, Seven Lions, Fedde Le Grand, etc.) we thought you might be more interested in hearing what the Atlanta famous DJs and producers of the Imagine line-up had to say about things. Eddie Gold, MK Ultra, Ployd, and phil.harmoniq were kind enough to take a break from holding down the city to chat with WhiteRaverRafting about the fest, the evolution of the Atlanta EDM scene, and much more.

Eddie Gold

In just two years on the Atlanta EDM scene Eddie Gold has managed to climb from playing the side stages to landing gigs at TomorrowWorld and Counterpoint and gaining residencies at ATL hot spots Opera, Prive, Kingdom Rave, and Iris. Eddie will be one of the only big room house DJs appearing at Imagine alongside Fedde Le Grand, who he as opened up for right here in Atlanta. Other acts Eddie is excited to see making the Imagine Fest roster include Destroid, Infected Mushroom, Rusko, Shpongle, Archnemesis, and Adventure Club.

With the event in it’s inaugural year, Eddie helped answer a lot of questions as to what we could expect of the festival grounds.

I went on site the other day to help film the trailer for the festival, and the grounds are really cool. The location is right behind the Masquerade in the outdoor music park. I don’t want to tell you numbers of how many people it fits, but it holds a lot. There will be one stage back there. Right next door to the Masquerade, in the (Old Fourth Ward) park they are going to put the main stage, and at the very end of the park there is an amphitheater where they will have a local stage. The VIP guest room for the artists will be inside of the Masquerade. It will be a whole other room with turntables set up in there so that artists can practice before their sets or just play music.

It was interesting to see just how close Atlanta’s EDM family really is, starting with the guys on the tables. It turned out that Eddie was actually roommates with one of the other local DJs we interviewed, Ployd. Eddie had nothing but love for all his local counterparts in the business, thankful for their part in his success.

I’m lucky to have the right support system like Mayhem, Iris, MK Ultra, and all these people around me that love me and help me. Without these guys I would still be a lower level tier DJ. I’ve also put in my work though. It’s really close knit. We all work together.

We have a lot of upcoming talent coming out of Atlanta right now. In the next five years it’s going to be crazy to look back and count how many people just came out of Atlanta. You’re going to see a lot of names.

Connect with Eddie Gold:
https://www.facebook.com/EDDIEGOLD
https://twitter.com/Eddie_Gold
https://soundcloud.com/eddie-gold

Ployd

One of the founding members of Atlanta dubstep, Ployd got into drum and bass around the late ’90s, and his positive attitude shaping the scene has taken him a long way. He has been ahead of the percussion trends starting out as the only dubstep guy at drum and bass shows to the only drum and bass guy at dubstep shows, never limiting himself to the softer side of things and always playing a whole gambit of percussion. Don’t bother trying to predict a specific set style to come from this guy.

You’re never going to catch a set from me that’s one style of music. I might start off with dubstep, like slow, grimy, sludgy stuff, lead into possibly some trap. It will progressively get more aggressive into really heavy dubstep. Then I will go back to heavy trap and probably drop in a little switch tempo to drum and bass. I’ll maybe run one or two drum and bass tracks, then straight into twerk music. My style is usually a progression of sound. I start off a little chill then just get more and more aggressive.

One of Ployd’s favorite spots to play in the city is Terminal West at King Plow where he has played with Exmag, Kil Paris, Zoogma, and Borgore. His closing set for Borgore actually still receives praise from local fans. As far as Imagine Music Fest goes he is most looking forward to hosting Caspa, Shpongle, Rusko, and Document One on his home turf, and if you were ever wondering why this city in the south is getting so much attention in the festival world, look no further than to Ployd’s insight on Atlanta’s booming EDM scene.

I think Atlanta is a good, already established, but emerging market. We have a huge slice of the film industry that’s coming here, as many TV shows and movies as New York just about. We’re the emerging Hollywood of the East coast. The city is youthful, and therefore the youth like to party. That great party scene and strong electronic music scene are why Counterpoint and Imagine are happening here. As far as TomorrowWorld, I think it’s a logistic thing because we have the biggest and busiest airport in the U.S.

Connect with Ployd:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ployd/149268388447648
https://twitter.com/ploydATL
https://soundcloud.com/ployd

MK Ultra

MK Ultra jumped on the scene in 2011, stemming from more of a metal background, but greatly inspired by her older brother DJ. What started as a hobby has quickly escalated to a promising career.

I’ve been making music for as long as I can remember. I always would be singing and writing lyrics. As soon as I was able to I was writing lyrics to songs, making every one in my family get in the living room and listen to my songs even as early as eight years old.

As a part of the Iris family, MK Ultra is especially excited for Imagine Music Festival and even threw out a lot of ideas as to who to bring to the fest.

I actually got a few of the people that I was hoping to bring. I’m really excited for Crystal Castles, Destroid, and I love Seven Lions. I’m excited that my friends Adventure Club are coming back to Atlanta. I did a few shows with them, and they’re really good people. Neon Indian, they were one of my suggestions; Purity Ring, Infected Mushroom, and RJD2; I love RJD2. It’s just such an amazing lineup, and they did a great job putting it together with everything that they had to do to make this happen. Fedde Le Grande is amazing…Araabmuzik. It’s going to be a great show and great turn out.

Leah (MK Ultra) is currently finishing up a song with Trinidad James called, “Tantrum,” but her creative reach doesn’t end when the track wraps. Like most great artists, she prefers to have her hand in all aspects of the art she is creating.

I love creating art in general. I’ll picture a video idea, then sometimes I’ll write the music after I’ve written the video concept. Other times I’ll write the music, then I’ll write the video. That’s my favorite part of all of it, creating the imagery for the music and getting to process my ideas and share them with people. I think this year is going to be a really good year and I’m really excited about the music I have coming out soon.

Connect with MK Ultra:
https://www.facebook.com/sheismkultra?ref=br_tf
https://twitter.com/sheismkultra
https://soundcloud.com/sheismkultra

phil.harmoniq

For Phil it all started at 15, with his first electric guitar and bass. His love for music, like most of us, was solidified after his first few music festivals, thus beginning his relationship with dance music.

I’ve been making music under my most recent project, phil.harmoniq, for about 4 years, and have been performing locally for 2 years. I acquired my first synth, Moog Little Phatty, in 2010, leading to a major turning point in my musical journey. That was when I realized that the sounds I’ve been craving could only be found in the gigantic world of synthesizers.

Imagine Music Fest headliners, Crystal Castles and Neon Indian have been major influencers on Phil’s style of music, and he’s also looking forward to seeing Emancipaor Ensemble, ill.Gates, Shpongle, and Adventure Club come Labor Day Weekend. As the rest of us will probably be hoping for 75 degrees and sunshine for the weekend, Phil might be off rain dancing away, looking to relive one of his most memorable sets from last August 2013, at Activation Festival.

It was an all outdoors festival, but we got heavy rains the first day causing the main stage to collapse. They had to shut down all music until the storm cleared up. By that time it was already 11 p.m., and the crowd was restlessly craving the music that had been missing all day. I got selected to play right as the power came back on, people from around the festival started flocking to my stage, and everyone was having a blast. The crowd’s attitude was amazing considering all the craziness at the beginning of the festival. I had so many people come up to tell me that I was their favorite performer of the entire festival. That made me all warm and fuzzy inside.

Next up for phil.harmoniq includes a new CD release and monumental task of setting up a fully reactive projection light rig to bring along to shows. The first few tests are looking up so look out for this sensory pleasing addition to the phil.harmoniq set in the near future as well as plenty of new tracks.

Connect with phil.harmoniq:
https://www.facebook.com/phil.harmoniq
https://twitter.com/phil_harmoniq
https://soundcloud.com/philharmoniq

 

Connect with Imagine Festival:
https://www.facebook.com/imaginemusicfestival
https://twitter.com/imaginemusicfes

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