How did you get interested in music and djing?
Well, I’ve been doing stuff with music for the longest time. I was singing in my church’s choir in the fourth grade, that’s also when I started playing piano. I started playing base guitar freshman year of High School, I was actually in a band for a while, I don’t remember our name, but I’m 100% sure it was corny. I used to write a lot of music for that group. We all ended up quitting the group within like a couple months. I guess rock wasn’t really for me. I didn’t really get into Hip Hop seriously until I went to boarding school. Junior year me and like 4 of my friend formed a group, we were named Kool Aid Mafia and we literally just rapped about the stuff that went on at our school. I think it was more of a joke to most of my buddies, but I took it kind of seriously. When I realized that I was actually pretty good and got a lot of positive feedback from people I decided to actually pursue it and make a conscience effort to make good music.
Djing has been a relatively recent musical venture for me. Two of my good friends, one from school (DJ Jango) and one from home (DJ Nick Vanstone) are really into DJing. I’ve been watching them and noticing the effect they had on people. How playing the right song at the right time could change someone’s entire mood and make or break a whole party. I started getting really into it and decided that I wanted to give it a try; at the beginning of this school year me and my friend Matt Deluzio aka DJ Dartz created a DJing / Producing duo called Bootleg Fireworks and we been mixing dope beats ever since.
What’s your favorite type of music? Favorite artist?
It’s like impossible for me to pick my favorite type of music. As an overall music lover and now as a DJ you have to know and at least like all types of music. I’m obviously a huge Hip-hop fan. My favorite rapper is and always will be Lupe Fiasco. His album Food and Liquor kind of shaped who I am as an artist and the music I like to create. But I’m also a really huge Indie Rock fan. Like I love female vocalist, I’m really big on Regina Spektor, Lykke Li, Joanna Newsom and Kimya Dawson but Florence from Florence + the Machine is easily my favorite. Through Djing I’ve become a big fan of the top 40 stuff as well as electro music. House and Dubstep are becoming huge music genres these days. Skrillex is probably my favorite producer right now. But I’m also into a lot of other artist Dada Life, Porter Robison, Zedd, Zomboy, that list goes on for a while. But more or less I’m just a fan of good music. The only things I really can’t rock with are like Heavy Metal Screamo and Country really (I do mess with Taylor Swift’s 1st two albums though)
How did your group, Troll Toll, come about?
Well Troll Toll was around before I even met Travis Valentine, Matt Abel, and Derrick Aaron Cartwright. They were already Troll Toll, they had some songs and a mixtape idea and all that. I was more or less a solo artist back then. Travis and I became friends during freshman year at Pitt. It just randomly came up in conversation that we both rapped. I showed him some of my music and he showed me theirs. I loved their stuff and I guess he liked mine, so we decided we wanted to work together. He thought it would be best to just add me onto Troll Toll, and I was honored to be a part of what they had. Now were just tryna make it big together.
Where do you see yourself in 5 years in relation to music?
I have no clue, like ideally we’ll still be doing this just on a bigger scale. I’d love to still be making music with Troll Toll and DJing with Dartz, but who knows what the future holds. Right now I’m working as hard as I can to make it as far a possible with Troll Toll and Bootleg Fireworks, while still getting good grades at Pitt. Believe me its no easy task but if it was up to me I’d never stop making music. I’m just trying to reach as many ears as possible with our music.
Any upcoming events we could find you at?
Now that’s a touchy subject! Troll Toll recently booked a show opening up for Mike Posner which was a gonna be huge for us but, the show got cancelled due to scheduling conflicts on Posner’s end. We’re currently in talks with a couple local artist and venues to book a couple more shows in the near future. Were also trying get some shows on Pitt’s campus at fraternities so stay tuned that kind of stuff. As for upcoming projects Troll Toll will be dropping their second mixtape Building the Keebler Treehouse between the end of October and early November.We’ve been working on this mixtape since last April and were extremely excited about it. There’s a lot of really great material on that so we can wait to see the response we get it. I’m actually currently working on a couple of solo(ish) ventures as well. I will be releasing a solo mixtape titled Young and Unlucky and it’s going to be exclusively produced by Dj Dartz. There’s no real time table on that but I’m hoping to get it out by the end of the year. Bootleg Fireworks will be DJing a lot of local parties and events (If your in the Pittsburgh Area and need some DJs halla at us). We are planning dropping an EDM (electronic dance music) EP hopefully by the end of this year as well.
Want to hear some of their beats? Check them out here: http://soundcloud.com/troll-toll
Contact Troll Toll for performances or Bootleg Fireworks for DJ services!
trolltollproductions@gmail.com
bootlegfireworks@gmail.com