Hola Beat Buddies! Chipping away at the backlog with this interview and background information of a battle from three weeks ago for Stones Throw Beat Battles, with battle winner defMute eager to answer some questions on his winning track.

The STBB is a weekly beat battle, where anywhere from 50 to 100+ participants from all over the world, are provided a sample to flip/chop/edit/screw, and make a beat out of it within just a few days. All the participants then cast out a vote, and the winner picks the samples for the next round. We provide a weekly report and an interview with the battle winner.

Samplepack: (provided by JoaGymshoe)

Rules:
Everything outside allowed
Objective:
Bring Borodin into the 21st century!

The Winnner

 

Interview with the battle winner, defMute

Congrats on your second win def!.. 415 and now 433.. this one not a shared first place though!

def: Thanks a lot Joa. I think the first one was 414. It was a shared one, so yes 433 is my first clean win. When I first started the battles I never thought that I could ever even come close to a win.

Anything you did differently to last time? ..because I can really tell your skills have improved over the last year..just natural progession or did you watch tutorials or get advice?

def: Thank you! I don’t really watch tutorials, I just listen to tons of beats and music every day so I guess its a natural progression. Submitting tracks for the Stonesthrow beat battles is also something that helped a lot and still helps me improve my skills. I’m planning on getting some basic music education sometime somehow.

Hey, you’re welcome.. and that can never hurt!

What Equipment or software (DAW, VST’s etc) did you use on this track?

def: My standard set up is Ableton Live, sp555, Novation launchpad and an old midi keyboard that I borrowed from a friend ages ago! I m not sure whats the brand of this one lol. I also use some vsts like massive,illformed glitch and some izotope tools. For this track I only used Ableton Live and launchpad.

Cool, will this friend be reading this interview too?:P

What was your idea for this track?

def: I had nothing particular in mind, just messed around with the sample,added the drums, bass, some 8bit synths, textures and an acapella at the end. The rest was compression-filter-sidechain-EQ-pitch-compression-repitch-compression-sidechain-sidechain-EQ-filter-repitch etc…. haha The usual stuff..

Right! 😉

How did you make use of the samples?

def: At first I tried some chops that didn’t work out.I wanted to avoid the obvious melody that reminded me of Prince Igor by The Rapsody featuring WarrenG and Sissel(remember that one right?)

Yep!

I ended up playing some simple notes from a pitched part of the sample.

How did you go about the drumwork?

def: I layered some percussion sounds and built a drumkit, played the drums with no quantization as always, added some wind chimes sounds and that was pretty much it.

Is there something you really want us to know?

def: It was funny because the first few tries with the sample was a failure.I gave up and decided not to participate.The next afternoon I opened Ableton and the track was completed in 2 hours.I thought it was a decent track so I uploaded it.Never thought that it will be the winning track though.

Cool!.. Oh, what does the title Homa mean btw?

def: Homa (χώμα) is the greek word for soil, or ground dust.

How are you experiencing battling on STBB?

def:The first beat I ever produced was for the STBB. That was about 2.5 years ago.My good friend CGKO introduced me to the battles. He was participating at the time so I joined too. Since then I have competed in over 20 battles. I discovered dope producers in the battIes. I’m really proud to be part of this family. It’s a great community! Very friendly, both to young talented cats and to old guys like me! 😀

Oh, may I ask how old you are then?

def: I am 32

That’s a good age to be!

Is there a hip hop beatmakers scene in Athens?

def: Yeah, actually there is, since the late 80’s. There are many talented producers, representing the boom bap mostly.

How did you come by your name btw?… and how long haven’t you shaved? :p

def: Haha,WTF? are u spying on me bro?! 😛

Yes, with zoomlenzzz like Redman!.. Na, just your SC profile pics over the years

When I do shave, I look really funny , like a scary 15-year-old.You don’t want to see that but maybe next time I’ll send you a photo and you will sh*t your gymshoes!:P

Oh shit! lol

Anything else you wanna say?

def:Thanks for having me Joa! I’ll see u around the STBB!

For sure!!

Oh, just thought of another question.. any tips or tricks you wanna share?

def:Yeah sure! If the beat u r making doesn’t make u nod your head, start a new one! 😀

Hahaha..can’t beat that! Alright, thanks for talking with me too Mr.Mute.. take care.. till we meet again..

 

Check out defMutes music on Soundcloud

 

Other beats worth checking out: