[Digiview #7] An interview with MagentaSkull
When did you begin making mashups?
Well, I was mashing stuff up audio style in like 2002, I was doing mashup Wednesday way back in the day on a web radio station, but like I'm doing now with the videos and stuff, it's been since like November of last year?
I started up the show in Oct of last year, and then switched to a video about a month in
I had been messing with rave.DJ like barely, and she was already slaying at it and mentioned that there was probably no way that it would be allowed to live too long, and that kinda spurred me to like, see if I could grind enough bangers out to do a video show
That's very impressive, you put a lot of effort into your craft.
Your mash up's are unique
Speaking of mash-up Wednesday
I enjoy your mash-up Wednesday special twitch stream, what can the listeners expect for this event in 2022?
I'm gonna just keep doing what I'm doing, with weekly streams on Wednesday 8 PT/11ET on twitch and I do rerun streams on Monday with 2 past episodes b2b at 6PT/9ET
I might switch to making new tracks every two episodes or something like that this year, because the volume of tracks I've created so far is starting to get, astronomical I have something like 420+ tracks created for the show so far at last count, and this is just the like, cream of the crop stuff. So, I might be dialing it back a little ha.
Some of the weeks while I was going back recently on break cataloging, had like 10-20 new tracks. That's too much lol but we're gonna keep grinding, just starting to pick up a little steam after a year and a half!
That's amazing, you have so much new content. Can't wait to hear new material from you
What's the meaning behind your artist's name?
It's my name, it's short for "Magenta Skullperson" so my stage name is just Magenta Skull. I'm a goth woman with magenta hair so apparently, it's fitting too
It suits you very well
I think to date I've made like 48 hours of the original mashup? 29 episodes now! just recorded the first episode of 2022 and all video!
Wow, you're very consistent with your music.
I pretty much played every week unless we were getting ready to do a show at the venue, and I do have a format of the show called MASHUP WEDNESDAY HANDS-FREE that we do sometimes, where it's just a massive playlist of all the cuts and it plays RNG style and then dumps em off the playlist
so I didn't record a fresh ep every week, for good work/life balance, but I have SO MANY tracks that I think there's like 14+ hours just of the 1-3minute bangers made for the show, so it's a good way for people to hear more stuff they might not hear on the show I tend to play that one for longer, and I don't do any mixing. since you might know my show gets kinda wild with the noise/glitch chaos at times. Pretty much like, no matter what, there are gonna be some songs that I don't end up paying as much as people would like to hear them so it's sort of a different vibe from the regular show, I would suggest if someone is thinking about checking out the show but maybe they aren't into as hardcore a sound, watch for when I do an episode of HANDS-FREE and jump in and check it out
I'm starting to post my schedules but it's still very much fresh-construction vibe there rn
Hell yeah! I suggest everyone that reads this interview tune in
I know there's been a lot of great albums last year, what's your favorite album from 2021?
I don't know if maybe there was another one I was playing harder and can't think of it now, but my favorite record probably has got to be that new PSYCHIC SLIME record, I banged that shit hard since it's been out
I have been trying to share this one with everyone since it came out
Also, doctor's ULTIMATE CRINGE COMPILATION come out last year and I gotta shout it out real quick too
Doktorb Ultimate Cringe Compilation
Love that album! highly experimental. Doktorb is a very good friend of mine.
I know you said one but I couldn't help myself ha
Haha, I completely understand, there are so many great albums from last year.
Yeah absolutely, I am woefully behind on my listening.
How did the idea of the blood idol community show come about?
Well basically it sorta came out organically, we were originally running the radio station, and sorta looking for mixes from friends to put on the radio for like, blocks of the airtime, and the legend WAFFLE ASSEMBLY turned in an mp4 instead of an mp3, full ass video that shredded hard, and so we decided to start putting on video shows.
Yhis was in February, so I had a few months of twitch experience at that point, and we had already seen our radical homie ELIAS AND THE ERROR start their new digital venue HEADINABOX DIGITAL and so they were 100% our blueprint for our community shows. after we threw that first show, we started looking to collect a bunch of short sets from our friends and peers who were also doing music and looking at starting visuals, etc, we had a lot of us that we're learning at the same time and so we all thought it would be a really good idea to found a community platform. So we did our first community show in March
And then, looking back now, the timeline is supremely breakneck, I don't know what I was thinking as the organizer lol we were doing shows every like 8 weeks and stuff at first pretty much we did our second show in April and our third show in June.
We formed to give underground musicians a place to play shows and kinda like, make the transition to playing online shows like, in a place that wasn't about elitism or SHREDDING THE HARDEST, it was about everybody bringing different vibes to the party, everybody repping their styles and improving. since like, everybody is too overworked and tired to have to get to know a promoter and try to find a place that would "book you" everybody was too tired for that, so we made a place that everybody could play at and learn. It was a LOT of work at first, but the community has been supremely supportive and has come out to help us get established.
So now we're entering our 2nd year, we have a new group show on JAN.29th on twitch and we have ALL OF OUR CONCERT TAPES online [except the original WAFFLE ASSEMBLY concert which is coming soon] at magnetta skull venue
Wonderful back story, I love the live show. So many talented artists from across the world coming together amazes me
I'm very grateful to be a part of it
And I wanna say that if anyone is having trouble with logistics and is wanting to run your venue for your homies and you have questions about how we do things, feel free to DM us at @BLOODIDOLRADIO
Yeah! I feel like we're creating a good place that people are free to express themselves without having to worry about "would someone like ME fit in there??"
I loved your last set, the visuals were outrageous ofc, but I was loving the sonic styles you brought to the show! looking forward to the next set!
Thanks so much! Happy you enjoyed it, shoutout to tess for the visuals
Which artists have influenced you the most over the years?
Oh word that's a good question
Dang I might have too many I'll try to keep it short
< entirely sure I'm skipping huge swaths of meaningful artists ha >
so my big influences as a kid were stuff like Hendrix/bowie/dick dale/Robert johnson and stuff like that, and as a kid, I was a grunge/riot grrrl, so nirvana/l7/babes in Toyland/meat puppets, and like a steady diet of bad brains/Ramones/misfits.
obviously the IDM pioneers, I'm big influenced by luke Vibert, PLUG and WAGONCHRIST are just huge influences, along with ofc James/music/Squarepusher, that whole cadre put out a ton of mind-bending stuff that got us where we are, along with the digital hardcore fam, atari teenage riot/alec empire/shizuo and then im influenced by grind and crust, then napalm death and agoraphobic nosebleed/pig destroyer, snares, shipment, DJ scud, and the other breakcore classics. I am really into roots and ska and dancehall, and pretty much will pull influences from anything quality. I'm big into delta blues, punk, surf, and grindcore. I'm a complicated lass I guess I've been excited to see cyber grind come back gayer, and less "overly serious core dude"
Can't forget the classics like diesel boy/Dillon JA/lime wax/etc basically if it goes fast, hits hard, or is dense complexity I'm probably into it.
I'm all about sick fast polyrhythms.
Eventually, I got to a point where it just felt like bands couldn't do the job anymore. mostly when a band starts playing, and the drumbeat starts I'm like, I know what the beat is gonna be the whole song, with fills. I got that shark brain I need new food
Excellent list of influences, I've listened to a few of those artists myself.
Atari was one of the first groups I heard that got me into digital hardcore
100%
They changed up the way hard electronic music went, they ended up discovering that breakbeats from like 70s funky/swingy hits sounded way more aggressive when sped up than the regular stuff that people were using, which ended up sounding more like cheesy and. well, you've probably heard what I'm talking about if you've spent time manipulating breaks. when you speed up something that's too regular, it sounds too like techno-y at high speed.
For sure, I love there technique they used
If you could travel anywhere where would you go?
I would probably like to tour the zen temples to Guanyin/Kannon who is like the trans buddha, but I would settle for visiting all my family in Texas, it's been a while with all the stuff that's been going on, plus also I'm mad poor being disabled/on a fixed income so it's not like I can just hop on a vacation ha
In a lot of ways I started the venue to like, give back, since I'm doing ok in life now. like a lot of trans women I spent a lot of time homeless and not doing super secure in life. so now that I'm past that in life, Idk if it's survivor guilt but I wanna try to give back as much as I can to other artists still in the struggle, that's sorta what you see me grinding for.
That's heartwarming, you deserve the best. Hope everything goes smoothly ❤
One final question I like to ask everyone I interview
If you were stranded on an island which 3 music-related items would you take with you?
Would it be cheating to say a drumkit, a laptop powered by pure ADHD and a sampler-sequencer similarly powered
I'd make new instruments on the island no doubt I will make patch cables from coconuts
Thanks so much for interviewing me today! I had a blast! this is my first interview, I appreciate the support so much! thanks for helping get the word out about my show!!! ππ
You're very welcome! Had a blast interviewing you
oh! you can find all the episodes of MASHUP WEDNESDAY online! https://www.magentaskull.com/mashup/HELLO-OPENME.html
You can download them, copy the links to stream from your vlc/media player, and if you give the page a couple of minutes to load you can play the newest episode right in your browser!
Have a good night! ♥️
You too!! ttyl and I can't wait for the next COMMUNITY GROUP SHOW on Jan.29th! I'll see you in chat π
cough blood idol for more info
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-VDMR
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