Richmond has been a little something like this recently: 102 by day. Storms from hell by night. Shriveling temperatures, 90mph winds, and golf ball sized hail have harassed the capital city since last Thursday, leaving a majority of the metro area without electricity. Somewhere in the middle of mother nature’s madness, Josh Gard (Figure) found his place on stage at The National Friday night, where hundreds of salivating bass heads relied on him to electrify a dance floor – He did so with ease and precise control of the crowd.
The humble Indiana native rose to the occasion, seamlessly blending his eerie transgressive dub sounds with other crowd connectors like his remix of ‘Wonderwall’ by Oasis. The same man who has seen stages at EDC Vegas, Paradiso, and Starscape this summer kept the sardined floor at bay, dropping trademark filth like ‘Dominate‘ and ‘The Werewolf‘ along with heavy hip hop influences. His dubstep rendition of Jibbs’ ‘Do Your Chain Hang Low’ was nothing short of magnificent in the moment.
As Gard’s set continued to develop and the night grew older, the mobbed dance floor began to thin out. This is attributed to the all ages aspect of Dub Nation which caters to a number of underage ravers who eventually have to be picked up in order to make curfew. Some may criticize an all ages show – I say let ’em dance. The party continued regardless.
Supporting acts included local favorite Mammals, an underage dubstep duo with an impressive sound and stage presence. The Killabits set was held down by a solo Biz Davis who opened up with the best Drake ‘I’m On One’ remix you’ll ever hear.
The bass music scene in Richmond is flourishing. Due in large part to the established Dub Nation brand developed by Steez Promo, Virginia’s capital seems to be a microcosm of the Baltimore dub scene -which in my opinion is unlike anything else you may experience (attend Starscape Festival if you have any doubts). There is not a profound electronic following in the Richmond area. If this was true, acts like Beats Antique and Neon Indian would turn over the same packed house as dubstep/drumstep acts. Richmond shows up in numbers thirsting for bass music.
Figure Interview
How has your summer been so far?
Hot. Sticky.
What has it been like playing these massive festivals?
Awesome. This is my first time. Like last festival season I played some festivals, but smaller ones. This year I hit like 3/4 of them and the major ones. They were all awesome. No complaints with any one of them.
So what is your mentality when you come into a smaller more intimate venue like this [The National]? Is there a different mindset in regards to working the crowd?
I feel as though I can probably use a bit more koy tracks, you know? Unless I notice that the crowd might know me. Say at EDC, I play a couple of my songs that if you know me – I’ll hear that noise in general come from the crowd. If that doesn’t happen from playing typical stuff, then I can’t play tracks like ‘Beetlejuice’ or ‘This is Halloween’ or any of those monstery things without maybe freaking people out, which I enjoy.
With that said, I am a huge fan of ‘Michael Myers is Dead’. Where does that eerie vibe come from?
Literally last October my manager and I were like, “let’s release a song every 5 days” up to the release of Monsters Vol. 2 which was the first release on my new label. We wanted to launch it big, not just like “check out this release.” We had to lead up to it and get them wanting more. We needed one more song. I was watching the new Michael Myers, which is something I wouldn’t normally sample, like a new horror movie. And then the dude just started making this speech.
I read an interview you did with Vinyl Penetration last August where you stated that you don’t normally pull inspiration from EDM, rather avant garde and hip hop. Does this still hold true?
I mean, I like dance music. I really love dance music – but I don’t roll around listening to dance music because I don’t want my shit to sound like their shit. Their as in anyone else but me.
I don’t want to say dubstep has gone mainstream, but It’s slowly becoming the generalized face of electronic dance music. Can you speak on that?
Yea, it’s crossing into this river that might swallow itself whole. Honestly I could worry about all that, but I don’t like any of the shit that’s going mainstream. When I hear it on a Pitbull song with like an 8 second breakdown just to do dubstep, that shit is just bitch. That’s just bitch shit.
How do you go into production and continue to separate your sound and distinguish it from others?
I don’t want to sound like everyone else. The easiest way to not sound like anyone else is to not really know what everyone is sounding like now. You shouldn’t check the charts to get influenced. You shouldn’t listen to what is “the shit” or “what’s next.” You should just do whatever is your next.
I honestly do not check the Beatport charts. I love Beatport, but I don’t really play other people’s music. I don’t check what’s charting until I release something because I will get obsessed with listening and catching up to all of this new music. How they mixed, how they mastered – if I can call out what they used for certain things. That’s way to much time. George Lucas probably shouldn’t watch a bunch of f***ing space movies if he’s feeling weird about things. I don’t study my peers.
I don’t think Gangstarr was listening to Eric B & Rakim trying to pull lyrics. I don’t think Mobb Deep was listening to these other New York rappers and trying to find syllables to put together just like they did. Just stay away from peoples’ style and do your own thing.
Any collabs or original work we can expect soon?
Collabs that I can’t mention yes. I think I’m just going to drop EP in like a month or two and continuously put shit out. Going to put some songs out and keep peoples’ interest that I think are awesome. I hope everyone likes it.
I really appreciate you sitting down with us, thank you for that.
Thanks man. That was good.
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