#arkpatrol

Ark Patrol is an electronic musician is from Hawaii now based in Southern California. I reviewed his track sinner on Deafwork. He agreed to an interview.

Artist: https://soundcloud.com/arkpatrol Label: http://heroicrecordings.com/

What should I call you? My name is Brandon; you can call me Brandon or Ark.

Where are you from? I’m originally from Hawaii, I actually just moved to LA

Why did you move to LA? I’m going to UCLA, I used to go to Berkley in Boston but it didn’t work out over there so I ended up transferring.

So did you end up getting into the music scene back in Hawaii or did it start in college? Towards the end of high school I got a MacBook and started playing around in garage band, that’s when it really started.

Did you stick with Garage Band or did you move to another DAW [Laughter] I graduated to Ableton.

You make primarily electronica? Is it cool to call you apart of the chillout scene or is there a more specific term that you would use to describe your music? That’s always been the issue, figuring out what to call whatever I make. It’s probably best to call it electronica then add on whatever is specific to the track.

Did you start making music in isolation or did you learn from someone? I was pretty much alone in my bedroom.

Did you play shows back in Hawaii or did your scene live “in the web”? [Laughter] Neither, I would just play around with stuff then play WOW (World of Warcraft) for a week straight. There’s no music scene in Hawaii, [not] at least where I lived. The scene there is reggae and jazz. I was part of the Jazz scene but I never really was part of the electronic scene there.

So you didn’t really have peer influence, who where you listening to that prompted you to make electronic music? One night, I’m not sure what I was doing but I ended up on Bandcamp, I found all these websites that people had made. [These websites were] Setup your own theme and everything and they had their albums, I thought “wow this is really cool you can have your whole aesthetic and build your own album” I was like “oh I should try that”. I was on Stumbleopon and I found Xxyyxx he was super cool at the time. [I thought] Wow this is really interesting ,this is weird but I don’t dislike this, so I kept listening to his stuff. That was my first real big influence, the next one came the year after, I was in boston and I was on an internet chatroom. Peoeple were playing different music and flume came on - one of his totally instrumental songs. “This is great, what is this”. So I got into him, it was more of the production side of things, not the bangers, that was really inspiring.

Now that you’re in LA are you going to hit up the electronica and beat scene there.? Like Low end theory and those joints? Yeah definitely.

You said you were in school at Boston for a little while, how was the music scene there? Great, more of a live scene, at least the area I was in (Berkley near the bay). We have places like House of Blues where huge name acts come through like Martin Garrix and Porter Robinson as well as flume - they came later, there is not really a local scene as far as electronic [music] goes.

Lets get into more technical stuff, when you boot up Ableton what is the first thing yo do? When I open it up, [laughter] yeah the blank screen is staring me in the face. With any luck I have something in my mind like a melody that I’m trying to get out

Then you build off of that. Yeah either that or a beat.

Because Ableton is so open ended it can be hard to get into in the first place. Do you have a muse? Its like I get started then I just get out on a combo

Do you play a lot of Street Fighter? I wish I could say yes.

What games do you play now? I used to be big into WOW and league but I made the decision to stop playing those. I like to play story-based games like Game of Thrones and Telltale [productions].

Like walking dead. Exactly yeah.

WOW can be worse than cocaine, and I just stopped playing League [of Legends]. What patch did you stop playing on? League or WOW?

Both. WOW I stopped a month or two after Warlords of Draenor came out and league I stopped maybe three weeks ago.

We’re in the same boat as far as league goes, did you have a main in league? AD carry was my thing, what about you?

I played a lot of support for a while then I moved into the jungle, I main support though. With AD carry -  Kogmaw, Vayne? Who was your go to? Definitely hyper carries.

I’m a huge lulu fan so I like hyper carry ADCs, I’m glad you do more than live inside the DAW [laughter]. Do you have any formal music training? The most formal music training I had was piano lessons when I was younger. My curiosity carried me to wherever I am now. I did lessons with my mom first then a tutor, and then I had some help in high school. I also took classes in Boston and at UCLA

Do you feel like your still learning? Yeah I always feel like there’s something to learn

Are you working with anyone else right now? I’ve been working at getting some singers on some songs. I’m collaborating with people all over the US. I went through a bunch of singers with my manager and sent out promos, some of them are laying down demos.

So you’re making a transition to a wider appeal? Yeah, I have a love for vocals

I have a friend named Zetroc, and he does a lot of Rhodes, fuzzy, not really dance stuff. He said that you can take a loop and as soon as you put vocals on it it’s capturing. There’s something about the human voice. Yeah I can see that.

How did you move from bedroom music to blowing up on Soundcloud? I really don’t know. I started off with virtual instruments, if you go back to my early stuff it sounds like a really band orchestra. Which is cool, I might go back and use some of those novelty sounds. I wanted to stay away from traditional electronic music. I didn’t want to be hardstyle, The slower it is the more detail I can express. I guess with that [progression] comes thousands of Soundcloud followers.

So you were just learning and people started digging you. Yeah, I have some ideas but I don’t know why.

Do you mix and master your own work? I mix everything, there’s a friend on the label, the cofounder that masters my work.

You sound like you’ve been at this for a long time. Maybe it’s the subtle layer. You allow things to sit by themselves and it gives it a nice sense of detail. Sometimes I try and open up the space and add a lot more. With sinner my goal was to make a nice room for the melody. I really like that melody, I used it on another track but I don’t think I did it justice.

Any folks on your label you want to shout out? My manager Budi, [and] Tim for mastering all my stuff as well as all of the supporting crew [at Heroic Recordings]. 

What about artists outside of your label? [Laughter] I don’t know I don’t have a lot of friends. Ryan from real life, that’s about it.

So you’re more isolated as far as the scene goes, I guess that’s from not living in LA for the last 25 years. Well Hawaii is super isolated, there’s not many producers there, so I’m used to be alone.

Do you have a girlfriend? [Laughter] No I’m flying solo.

Dead solo, you go to dive bars alone, you club alone…. [Laughter] Pretty much.

What’s your favorite track of yours? Sinner, I got stuck into a loop of “it needs to have a hook and so on” sinner didn’t have any of that and its doing well.

I like listening to sinner because it’s a release from all of the other electronica I’ve been listening to. What’s your favorite track from Voyager? Super dream, it’s the most raw – it took 3 hours to produce and I’m happy with it. Some songs take a week and I’m still not happy with them.

Have you gotten to play live yet? I’ve had one show so far. I got to LA at the beginning of the year and just last month I played my first show on Hollywood Blvd. It was great.

What joint was it at? It’s a venue called King King near the Kodak Theater.

Is your management in LA as well? No, Heroic is in the Netherlands. My manager was in Vancouver then he came to LA for a bit.

Are you reading anything right now? Watching any TV? Definitely, the other night I watched “The Prestige”.

PTA (Paul Thomas Anderson)? Yeah it was great I had my mind blown, and then I watched “There will be Blood”.

PTA is amazing. Yeah, [and] Game of thrones, I was into better call Saul [as well].

Have you checked out “Punch-drunk Love” or “The Master”? No I haven’t seen those.

All of his subject matter is varied but his style is so distinct, it reminds me of Dev Hynes. He’s made a lot of stuff but in each thing you can tell that it’s him. Do you read any books?Yeah I was in the Kingkiller Chronicles, “The Name of the Wind”. I’m into Starwars as well.

Are you excited for the third book [re: Kingkiller Chronicles]? Yeah, I’m excited for the third book, I don’t know when it’s going to come out, probably a few years.

You started a job recently? I thought I was starting a job, didn’t get a call [laughter] I’m trying not to dwell on that.  I started a job as a cashier at a diner and it’s good money. It pays well if you smile a lot.

Eventually you’re going to have fans coming into the diner just to see you and…. You’re going to get fired. I’m just going to let you know now. [Laughter] I hope not.

It’s going to be brutal. Maybe at that point I wont need the job.

Well, LA is a big and scary place but you seem to be killing it. Is there any thing you would like for people to know? Do you have a Kanye moment? Yeah. To be honest I wanted to talk about the money side of music. I don’t know how it’s possible to keep afloat - working two jobs and spending so much time on my hobby - Its getting ridiculous. I really hope I don’t have to give up my music for a third job to pay off student loans.

Hopefully not, damn that’s cold. You seem to be at that odd place where you have notoriety but you’re not able to live off of music yet. I don’t want it to be about money [laughter]. I would love if I could just make music and someone feed me so I don’t die. But yeah, this market is so saturated, you have to keep putting out music and it all has to be great and unique.

You gotta get that sprite sponsorship. [laughter]