Canberra's Very Own.

Up and coming music producer and artist, DREADEDWINTER, speaks to CBRRAP’s about his inspirations, origin story and more. 

This Canberra-based producer has seen a meteoric rise on Spotify, going from only 54 monthly listeners in July, to over 32,000 monthly listeners in just one month. His unique sound draws from an eclectic mix of hip-hop, indie, drum and bass and metal and more, an incredibly sonically erudite artist. Here he is, unfiltered:

1. Introduce yourself.

So my name is ‘DREADEDWINTER’ and I make music.

2. When did you formally start marking music?

I started playing around with music when I was around 14-15 with me downloading a copy of FL Studio, was usually stuck to making and uploading shitty rap and sometimes multi genre beats that weren’t the best of tracks with a flawed structure in each and every track, I then took a break for a couple of years to perfect everything and get some school stuff done and now I’m back into it, starting anew a year ago.

3. I see a lot of nature on your page, do you tap into nature as a creative force for your music, or do you just like the natural aesthetic?

The aesthetics of nature is something I hold dear and appreciate to the fullest extent, however it’s not the sole reason as to why I use a lot of nature. I also use nature to tap into a more life-like and sombre feeling in the more ambient and multi genre tracks.

4. Do you have any inspirations?

I have many inspirations spanning many different musical genres, however, I’m also inspired by other things like nature, art, sometimes video games and what have you.

5. You seem to like a lot of obscure genres, even referencing Dariacore in one of your skits. Would you describe your music as obscure or just the inspirations that you draw upon to be obscure?

I would say that some of the inspirations that I’ve drawn upon, whilst listening to a diverse catalogue of music, have been what could be called obscure or niche.

6. What are you currently listening to right now?

The Microphones, Ovlov, Leroy / Jane Remover, Eric DOA, Summrs, reptilian club boyz, Yabujin, also my guy Lil Timmy Turner and so much more.

7. What is the ethos behind your music? What are you trying to do/accomplish with your sound?

The main underlying force behind my music is derived from a need to improve, a need to improve the way in which music is going by pushing boundaries and trying out new ideas. This also goes into what I’m trying to accomplish in terms of my sound. What I’m trying to do is to basically try and motivate people to include a more diverse catalogue in their music as a result of listening to my music, which derives from diverse inspirations.

8. What is your musical origin story? What pushed you to get started?

Music to me is kind of a therapeutic thing to me, I do music whenever I feel blue or whenever I feel like it, I just make it for the love of it. I’m not motivated by the materialism or the gaudy luxury cars of today, I’m solely motivated by a love of music. As I got older, I wanted to be serious about showing the world my work so I got around doing that last year with ‘SKULLKID’ which went absolutely bonkers for a fresh new artist and is something I’m still proud of today!

9. You seem to have a lot of fans in the tiktok e-community!

I know, there’s a whole lot of them and they’re streaming the shit out of my Spotify as we speak! I don’t really have anything else to say, they’re cool.

10. Where does the name “DREADEDWINTER” come from?

‘DREADEDWINTER’ comes from a phenomenon that happens to me but not as much anymore. I always feel the most blue in winter and always winter, so I grew to love/hate winter, but the appreciation of the season would get overclouded by my hate of it due to me feeling so down for months on end. Despite the despair that I would occasionally go through in winter, I’ve grown to learn valuable lessons from those dark times, and oftentimes I would be grateful towards these dark times for giving me the time to learn something valuable. The name also represents a constant growth, a constant maturing process if you will, it is essentially me moving on from the bad days towards the good with the knowledge I’ve learnt from the bad.

11. You started building your online presence during a time when everyone was indoors. Do you think being at home helped cultivate your creativity?

Absolutely. It essentially gave me time to get my shit together and go for it. Being indoors helped me go back to the computer and I played around with the VSTs and Plug-ins again, giving me that feeling I had when I was a kid, this then motivated me to make music again. It surprisingly got my creativity back into me and I’ll be grateful of the fact for a really long time.

12. You have 3 wishes. What do you want?

My first wish is for a new sort of scene in Canberra and nation/world wide that emphasises the idea of not being afraid, not being afraid to experiment and not being afraid of constraints, both internal and external.

My second wish would be to work with more people.

My third and final wish would be to expand both my online and my IRL presence.

13. Where are you from?

Canberra, Australia.

14. Message to the fans?

I know this is going to sound cliche and pretentious, but here it goes.

Don’t give up, no matter what please don’t give up. When you give up you miss out on a lot of opportunities, some that you may never conceive of if you give up all the sudden. Keep going, don’t ever stop. If you want to talk about music stuff like collabs, art and what not or you just want to talk to me for the sake of talking to me, feel free to message me. Keep going fucking nuts with the streams, new music coming soon <3

TRIVIA;

What’s your favourite colour?

Black.

2. Favourite childhood memories?

Playing at the park, playing with music and animal toys, and so on. 

3. Favourite animal?

Don’t really have a favourite animal but cats are cool.

That concludes our interview with one of Canberra’s finest, DREADEDWINTER. Support him on the following platforms, (linked below) and stay tuned for more of his music, and upcoming shows! 

linktr.ee/DREADEDWINTER

DREADEDWINTER’S ‘FANCYPANTS MAN’

A single from Canberra’s very own, DREADEDWINTER that slaps like no other track. This is indeed a huge step up in production quality from his last single, ‘SKULLKID’ and carries an infectious sound. DREADEDWINTER is an underground musician who has very recently kicked his music career off and it seems things are looking quite good for the freshman.

His newest track ‘FANCYPANTS MAN’ demonstrates his versatility with different sounds and how he is not afraid to break away from sonic constraints. Let’s take a look at some of the main aspects of his sound: 

PRODUCTION:

A very crisp and well mixed song. The beat is a hybrid between trap and drill, being mellow with the tempo as opposed to a regular drill beat while retaining the same flow of a standard trap beat. The melody is catchy, and the reverb takes it to a whole new dimension (literally). Quite a great step up in production value from ‘SKULLKID”. 8/11

HYPE FACTOR:

A great song for vibing to. Nuff’ said. 9/11 

- Waschie

FANCYPANTSMAN is a track that makes you feel like a Newgrounds character.

It has this real energy and life to it that just makes it so addictive. It’s mixed surprisingly well for such a new artist as the drums have a real groove to them and the reverb is added tastefully and not abused like what’s found among a lot of upcoming artists. It all centres around this slightly left-field loop that has a bit of a Whole Lotta Red vibe to it while remaining in a unique lane.

It’s springtime and Canberra Native Lil Timmy Turner has given us an awesome remix of a classic titled ‘I LOVE IT WHEN THEY RUN’. Dusk and I (Waschie, pleased to meet you) have given our reviews just below. 

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IN THE WORDS OF WASCHIE:

I LOVE IT WHEN THEY RUN (REMIX). A CBRRAP REVIEW ON 10.31.21

A fierce track from one of Canberra's very own, Lil Timmy Turner who has spent a considerable amount of time in Canberra's underground rap scene. This one has some insane bars and cold beat switches.

CBRRAP SCALE:

PRODUCTION:

A crisp and clean production style. The beat is nicely mixed in with the melody and vocals. The melody is minimal but it’s perfect that way. The star of this show are the vocals, and the backtracking gives room for them. 11/11.

LYRICISMS (FLOW FACTOR):

The songwriting is through the roof. Every single line is better than the last and you can physically hear Lil Timmy clutch his jaw to snap every rhyme into place. His shifts between fast and relaxed give a suspenseful twist with his pitch changing at keys points in the song for extra character. 10/11

LYRICISMS (PHILOSOPHY FACTOR)

The overall style of the lyrics are quite, ‘braggadaccio’. And thats exactly as it suggests, bragging. While personally I’m not a fan of such styles, the way in which he’s so articulately rapped about his great feats is undeniable. However, there is not much in the way of ‘philosophical’ or ‘deep’ songwriting. The flow holds up, but the philosophy does not. 5/11

HYPE FACTOR:

If you want to get hype, this mans got you. 9/11 - Waschbär

IN THE WORDS OF DUSK: