Dirt Monkey b2b Jantsen at Basscenter
Patrick Megeath, better known as Dirt Monkey, is a seasoned producer and label owner with 51,000 and rising soundcloud followers. On Tuesday he releases his independent album Chroma, which is a versatile album that touches on everything from Dubstep to Hip-Hop. We were lucky enough to speak with the artist about his album creation process and where he’s looking to take his sound in the future.
When I first started listening to you around the time of your Imperial March remix you were really going hard with dubstep, and now you explore a wide variety of genres. How did that change come about?
I think it’s a matter of after doing this for a while I kind of needed some change. I really enjoy listening to the more chill stuff now, like I never really listen to hard dubstep in my spare time. When a lot of people started making the future bass stuff I got inspired to make some of my own, since I’ve always kind of dabbled with melodic stuff. The future bass/chill stuff on the album was meant to come out as a totally new project, but it never really got locked so I decided to redefine what the Dirt Monkey thing is, just to make a statement like “Yo I make all these different kinds of music, and I want people to know that you don’t have to pigeon hole yourself into one genre as a producer.”
Do you feel that since you were known for dubstep for such a long time it hurt your brand changing things like you did?
It did at first with some people, but I don’t know, I feel like the haters are the ones that speak up a lot more than the lovers. “Party Alarm” was the first song I put out that was, not to say softer, but not a nasty dubstep song. I definitely had some fans that freaked out, and honestly this might sound jaded, but I’d rather not have those people around if they aren’t open to hearing something new from someone. Since then I’ve just said “fuck it, I’m going to put out whatever I want”; I’ve put out some dubby stuff, some chill stuff, and have kind of created a new fan base from that. I feel like at this point no-one really knows what to expect, and I think that’s a cool spot to be in.
You’ve mentioned you’ve been doing this for a while, so I was curious how long you’ve been into electronic music, and how long you’ve been producing…on the album I definitely got an old school raver vibe from a lot of things, such as the house pads on “Combination Style”, or the think break in “Truffle Shuffle”.
I’ve been producing since I was 15, and I’m almost 30, so I’m going on like 15 years. I’ve always loved breaks, I used to listen to Sasha a lot, and I was really into nu-school breaks in the early 2000’s, so yeah that’s where that came from. On combination style the friend that I collaborated with is a total house head, so he was all about the old school rave sense in that one.
What was the process of putting the album together like? When you were sequencing the tracks did you have a specific vision for it?
I definitely had the idea of a musical journey, and to have it go through different styles but to be very cohesive and to make sense when you listen to it in order. That was one of the hardest parts, getting all the songs in order, AND selecting the right songs. I threw away probably ten songs that were going to go on, but didn’t really make sense.
You’ve been independent this whole time right?
Yeah, I was releasing a lot of stuff on Play Me, Reid Speed’s label – I love those guys, they’re homies, and the run a really good label – but I had the urge to be independent. It’s harder, but it’s definitely rewarding.
What do you think have been the attributes that have helped you to get where you are while still being independent?
I think it’s honestly work ethic, like I’ve always worked a lot, and I still work at a day job now. So I think it’s just always being hungry and wanting to do better, for me at least.
Cool, so I read that you were married right?
Yeah I just got married recently.
Congratulations! I read that she had helped you write your single “Work It”?
Yeah haha, one night we were drinking at my house and she was like “I wanna make a song with you” and I was like “fuck yeah let’s do it!”. She basically back seat produced the beat of it, and yeah I just made the most twerky kind of drum beat I could make. Her friend actually came over and we recorded some vocals for it where they pretended to be two drunk girls yelling at the DJ, but then I got Clinton Sly on it instead. But that version might surface someday…
Clinton Sly is someone who you’ve been a long time collaborator with, can you just talk about how that relationship formed and how it come to be what it is today?
It started with Jantsen and me making a song with him, and then I just stayed in touch with him after that because he’s really talented and I feel like he has the same work ethic as I do with music. I work with a lot of vocalists who just take forever to do something, but he’s very on it and quick and siked, and I think we just get along really well. He always tells me he has a super easy time doing vocals for my songs, so I guess it’s just kind of a natural combination we’ve figured out.
Speaking of Jantsen, you guys have been long term collaborators as well, especially with the label you guys run. I don’t know if it’s just me but it seems like you guys have been doing less stuff recently, I was kind of surprised when I didn’t see anything with him on the album.
Yeah we still tour together a bunch and hang out a lot, and we’ve been working on new music under a new project we’re going to start; I think if we make stuff together it’s for that, which is a little bit different of a style. We also have different life stuff going on, he has a three year old daughter that he’s been raising so that’s kind of put him in a different mindset during the last few years.
What has it been like running Kairos Audio with him? Have you run into a lot of challenges?
It’s the first label I’ve ever run, so I’ve learned how to run a record label, which has been a lot of work. It’s kind of been on the back burner recently, Jantsen and I kind of use it as a way to release our own music now, which is why we started it in the first place, so we didn’t have to be on anyone’s schedule. There were some bumps trying to figure it out, but now it’s running pretty smooth. It’s pretty nice to be like “I wanna release an EP” and do it whenever I want, and have it get on Spotify and iTunes and all that.
Read our full review of Chroma here
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