The Evil Orchestra
Evil Orchestra is no ordinary DJ, and as such has no ordinary sound. He is a Guitar and Drum Teacher, He is a qualified events planner. He is a producer and Record Label owner and he is completely independent and self-made. This goes some of the way to explain his unique sound and the variety in the songs he releases, in the last eighteen months he has churned out over 20 original songs, not including the remixes and bootlegs. HIs sound is a metal/dance hybrid, something different to everything else and his dedication and work ethic have seen his profile grow organically, which in the age of social media is also something totally different. We got the chance to hit Evil Orchestra with some questions to see how he labels his sound, how his approach has opened doors for him and his end goal of working with the world famous Barong Family one day.
For those that haven’t heard your music before, how do you describe your sound?
In a nutshell, my sound is a concoction of EDM & Hard Dance genres blended with my roots/earlier influences of Heavy Metal & Punk Rock, so for a lot of my tracks (but not all) you will have me on Guitar, Drums & Singing & then building up into EDM/Hard Dance Drops similar to Reverse Bass, Hardstyle or Jungle Terror. Another way of putting it would be that I love & am a fanboy of any Heavy, Hard hitting, fast & energetic music and so any type of music that shares these “Evil” qualities you will hear in my sound.
Tell us about your new song, the self-titled Evil Orchestra?
Evil Orchestra will be my 20th release on Evil Beat Records and so I wanted it to be a good example of my current sound. I wanted to make it as heavy & hard hitting as possible ,whilst really showing my roots & influences in the heavier parts of the track & so I had the starting point/idea and then suddenly my favourite drummer Joey Jordison from Slipknot died & I knew it had to be influenced by him & their music. It all started with Drums for me as a boy & that was my main thing for years when playing in bands so when Joey died & the fact that we were in a hard lockdown at the time I just felt it was best for me to get into the studio & really put together some big heavy Slipknot style drums with a heavy guitar riff & some angry vocals & it all came together nicely & then worked in perfectly with the electronic dance drop/ Reverse Bass part of the track I'd just written. Once the track was done it was onto the music video and so just like with the track, I wanted to give it the same influence & “Evil” qualities. It will be available to stream or buy in October 22/10/21 & you can also watch the official music video which will be released on my Instagram, Facebook & YouTube from that same day.
You have the ability to go from a hard-core dance sound to a heavy metal sound in the same song, which is a unique talent. What made you try to compact these two completely opposite genres into the same song?
Well, it’s been the plan to combine these genres ever since I started Evil Orchestra but my mentor helped me wrap my head around my brand as an artist & how I should go about producing things from a technical standpoint. I started out as a punk rocker and a heavy metal musician in high school & I actually played as a percussionist in a real Orchestra for a few years as well. And so after years of playing in many different bands from everything as a drummer to a guitarist to a bass player & a singer as well I, eventually got into recording & producing demos for myself & other artists & local bands whilst still trying to get a dedicated band together (as I had been doing for many years previous whilst also teaching Guitar & Drums ) In 2012 I heard Skrillex and was blown away by the production .It was like Heavy Metal & Electronic music had a baby in my books and I'd always loved The Prodigy & was frequently going to EDM Festivals, dance clubs & raves and at that same point I was really over trying to make a band work with a bunch of musicians who were just not as dedicated as I was to making music . The more I listened to Skrillex & heard his story of moving on from playing in bands to becoming an electronic musician & performing as a DJ ,it just had me captivated & gave me hope for my music career & most importantly, he could rely on himself & do it all on his own to some extent & so for me the lightbulb moment happened & I dedicated myself to becoming the best electronic music producer & DJ I could become. I knew I had many more years in front of me but I knew that when I had that figured out, I would be able to combine my love of electronic music with all of my past favorite heavy genres.
You have your own loyal fan base that supports you, that must be comforting, knowing you have so much support when looking to expand or experiment with new sounds?
My fan base is a mixture of people who either know me from seeing me play live sets as a DJ to those who have followed me since the beginning of Evil Orchestra when I started releasing my DJ sets on Mixcloud where I had a bit of success & built up a decent following & then everyone else that enjoys what I do has either heard my music online & follows me on a music platform or on a social platform. I’m very grateful for the support I have received so far & if I could attribute anything to even having a following or fans that support you, I would say that in my case it’s because I have always tried to be slightly different to other artists & DJ’s. I'm certainly not one to follow trends or play a cheesy song to make everyone happy or fill a dancefloor but instead I'd much rather let my passion be shown for what I do by playing & writing music that I love jumping around like a crazy man & headbanging whilst taking the audience on a journey whether that be in my live dj sets in my music itself or in the music videos. I would rather show something new & unique or a different version of something to an audience that they’ve never seen or heard before & play more underground unknown tracks that blows a person's mind rather than please a guy or girl requesting a popular song & then playing commercial garbage to make everyone happy & for those reasons I might not get all the fans but I will get the right fans for me because of approaching things this way I think I have more freedom & room to expand & experiment in my original music & my sets & I think people have come to expect that from me & because of this I think I will always have a few loyal ones.
Not only are you a successful artist in your own right, but you also own your own studio ‘Evil Beat Records’, do you find it difficult swapping the artist hat for the producer hat?
Not really, I see the two as the same thing for what I do with my own music as I'm coming up with the concept, writing & producing the track & 98% of the time I'm mixing & mastering it as well. I definitely do have to swap the artist/producer hat for the mixing & mastering hat & that can be hard sometimes because you’ve just spent possibly hundreds of hours writing & listening to the track over & over again & then you have to do that all over again in the mixing & mastering phase. But I also have to put on another hat for the business side of things & artworks etc. and I really enjoy putting on those hats & having other parts of it all to focus on so that I get a break from the music itself which in turns keeps my ideas & projects fresh & keeps me from getting creative burnout. I literally never stop working at all but having other aspects to focus on is what keeps the momentum going.
Evil Beat Records has been a successful platform for you to release your own music with full control of its destiny, does this add an extra layer of pressure or expectation?
Yes, I think it does especially in the current times we live in with so many releases constantly coming out on streaming platforms & every market battling online for peoples already short attention spans being an artist & releasing a single once or twice a year or putting out an album every few years as it used to be back in the day just isn’t enough anymore & it’s highly recommended even by Spotify to be putting out a release every 6 weeks. So yes, there is definitely an extra layer of pressure & expectation but I have always wanted to run my own record label for multiple reasons & so I’m happy to rise to the challenge & keep pumping out the tunes. I’ve enjoyed the journey it has taken me on so far & I'm really excited to watch Evil Beat Records grow & see where it takes me & other artists in the future.
Which do you prefer? Artist, DJ or Producer, as I imagine all would have their good and bad points?
Yes, they all have good & bad points as a DJ you can’t beat the feeling of playing live to a good crowd & it’s the same playing in a band it’s just awesome being able to share your music & your energy with a crowd of people & then get that same energy back in return & it’s a thousand times better & more rewarding when you can play some of your own music in your sets so for me, I can’t have one without the other. My musical journey has always been about writing, producing & performing. The bad points for being a producer is a bad back from sitting in the studio too long & generally slowly going insane from listening to a Kick Drum & track played over & over again. The bad points of being a DJ is being a DJ during Covid to be honest otherwise the bad points is just having to pretend to understand overly drunk people who try to request a cheesy song when you’re mixing Hardstyle at a Hardstyle event & they think it’s time for Beyonce lol there is always one.
You run your own events across the central coast including The Vortex and Circus and Church, what made you go into events management and does this enhance or take time from your music career?
Well, it hasn’t taken any time away from my music career for the last 2 years due to the pandemic but when things are in full swing and I'm running my own events or managing other music events ,it does take time away from the other elements of my career. I got into event management deliberately & studied it at a Diploma level because I knew the money in music these days is mostly from live events & so I felt it was a necessary step that would definitely enhance my career & work as an extension of my career as well because I still have to perform at these events & I'm involved in mostly every other aspect of the event. It’s so much better when I'm calling all the shots & running the entire event independently & with my own crew lighting & Sound Systems because I don’t have to abide by the way others want things ran & whenever I have those opportunities & get 100% creative control to run how I see fit that’s where I have my most success because ultimately I can put the show on how the show should be put on.
2020/21 has been full of uncertainty and change and for some the year came as a blessing for some a curse. How do you rate your Covid chapter?
Both, I've never endured harder times from a business & financial perspective & from an artist's perspective it’s been amazing .I've had so much time to get better at my craft & create music which has been an absolute blessing. In terms of performing & playing live to an audience that part has really got to me I miss it so much & I have over 20 originals & 10 Remix/Bootlegs that I have not been able to play out live in 2 years.
The Aussie legend that is UBERJAKD is your mentor, and in the world of local edm/dance music you couldn’t have been more blessed to have him as a teacher. How did this relationship begin and then develop to the mentor capacity?
UBERJAKD is an absolute legend .I first heard his music around 2013-2014 when I attended my first Electronic Music Conference in Sydney & met some other producers who were into Melbourne Bounce at that time & not long after I joined his Producers Forum on Facebook. 5 or 6 years passed by & I had spent just about every day teaching myself all I could from trial & error & Youtube tutorials & just when I was at maximum frustration levels & feeling I needed some proper help to move forward in my career Uberjakd posted that he was going to give a few producers an opportunity to send in some music for him to check out & then some of us would possibly get the chance to work with him & have him help us kick some big goals in our career. So I jumped at the opportunity & was blessed to have Uberjakd take me on & help me kick those goals but once those goals were kicked I knew from listening to Tony Robbins (The self-help guru) that if you want to get to your goals as quickly & efficiently as possible then get a mentor & not just any mentor someone who is at a level that you want to be at & so I mustered up the guts to ask if he could be my mentor & continue working with me & he was all for it & so I'm eternally thankful & grateful for the help Uberjakd has given me & so many other producer/DJ’s.
Uberjakd is also a producer in his own right, it must also be nice to have someone who relates to and understands the pressure of the artist/producer role?
Yes, it’s been great to be able to pick his brain about certain things & get insight into his processes & how he approaches different tasks as an artist/producer.
“ I’m eternally thankful & grateful for the help Uberjakd has given me”
— EVIL ORCHESTRA
You have supported some of Australia’s biggest names, such as Teddy Cream and Bonka, does being a support act lower the pressure for a tour? Who would your dream support act as your profile expands and will leave you as the headliner?
I have been able to headline more local/regional events before Covid and it has been great to have been involved in so many events where I've been able to support some of Australia's biggest DJ’s but my aim has always been to get thing’s to a level where I can tour all of Australia & eventually the world headlining my own shows. And to answer the second part of that question, who would my dream support be for a tour when I get to headline status is actually a really hard one to answer. I guess at this very moment I would say a big goal for me is to write a track that I feel is a good fit for the Barong Family & then get it signed with them & become part of that label/family. I would then love to play on their stage at a Tomorrowland event so I guess it wouldn’t so much be who would be my support act but rather I would love to be part of their label & perform alongside all those guys at a big event.
Is there a connection between you and Barong Family Label as you seem to be their go to, after touring with the cream of their artists such as Moxi, LNY TNZ and Dirtcaps? How was this connection originally forged?
I do know some of those guys on that label who I've spoken with a few times & I've let some of them know my ambitions to be an artist on their label but when I supported Moxi, LNY TNZ & Dirtcaps I was lucky enough to have been booked to support them when they headlined on the Central Coast & Newcastle.
“I am still setting new & bigger goals every other day”
— EVIL ORCHESTRA
What has been your favourite event to perform at or the person you have performed with? What's been the highlight in your career so far personally, and why ?
Even though I've played at bigger events & clubs & to bigger crowds I would have to say any event that was a local one when the club just got jam packed & the vibe was just perfect & I felt 100% in my element were by far the best, so probably some of The Vortex events I held at The Beachcomber & the events at Pulse Nightclub (RIP) were the most fun. As for the highlights of my career so far it would be hard to really say a particular one there has been so many awesome moments & I've kicked all of my goals so far but I do have a tonne to go & I am still setting new & bigger goals every other day. The overall highlight so far has been to be able to do what I love for a living whilst accomplishing the things I've set out to do & enjoying the journey along the way.
Collab’s are huge these days, is this an avenue you want to explore? Who would be your dream collaboration partners?
Yes, it is and I actually have not mentioned anything yet BUT I am just putting the finishing touches on my first big collaboration with my relatively new favourite rapper that I've come across in the last decade or more, I've known of him for 2 years now from the time Uberjakd released his track RVERSE with him if you don’t who I'm talking about yet it’s the main man himself Bigredcap. When I first heard him on RVERSE with Uberjakd i was blown away it’s such a good track & Bigredcap’s performance is second to none. I was lucky enough to be able to do a Bootleg/Remix of RVERSE & I sent it to Bigredcap to say hi & show him my version & get his approval & he loved it & said if I ever want him to lay down some vocals for a track, he would be up for it. So about a year & half later I felt I had written the perfect track for him to work on & let's just say he far exceeded my expectations. This track will be out either early to mid-next year. To answer who would be a dream collaboration for me I have to say I would really love to do a track with my Sensei Uberjakd at some point & when the time is right it because I'm still very much the student & it would be an honour to eventually release something with him or on his label & I would love to collaborate with all of the Barong Family label artists & even with artists from different genres that I admire & from the bands I grew up loving THAT WOULD BE SUPER COOL .
Will we see Evil Orchestra delve into the festival scene anytime into the future?
100% YES! This is by far one of the biggest goals I have & I was hoping to have had the opportunity in the last 2 years but obviously we’ve had no music festivals due to everything but as soon thing’s return, I will be trying to get onto a festival line up.
Where was your first gig? Was it a success or flop?
My 1st gig as a DJ was at Woodport now known as The Sunken Monkey in Erina on The Central Coast N.S.W. It was a success & I didn’t flop but I was absolutely filled with anxiety & didn’t think I was going to be able to play, I hadn’t performed in a few years & when I had I was on stage with another few guys in a band but this was me just me & DJing for the 1st time ever in a crowded club BUT once I started my set all the anxiety went away & loved every second of it & I was hooked!
In your journey as a producer/musician, have you changed? Is life much different for you from when you started out?
Yes it definitely has changed in every single way when I started out, I was really just a punk kid who played Drums & Guitar & aspired to one day be able to hear my own music on a CD & play to a crowd of thousands just like my favourite bands did. And since then, everything about the old music Industry has changed. My Music teacher at Tafe once told me when I started out “make sure you stay up to date with the changes in the music industry otherwise you will get left behind” That was some really good advice for me especially when I started out. You just don’t realise that being a producer/musician this day in age actually means non-stop work & you have to really love it if you’re going to be able to continue doing it & you have to be good at multiple things besides just the music so being good at business is essential, being good at marketing, good at booking shows, good at promotion, good at writing music, good at producing music, good at mixing & mastering & good at least another hundred & fifty things that is unless you have the money to pay people who are a good at all of those other things. So yes, life is much different these days it’s non-stop work to get to my goals but the overall goal is still the same.
Who in your crew or team deserves a shout out but never gets one? And what do they do that keeps your world turning?
I’m going to give a shout out to my 2 kids & my other half. They have to hear my music all the time coming from my studio & I guess you would call them my quality control, so if something isn’t good in their opinion, they will let me know & if something is on point, they will let me know it’s decent.
What's next for you? What can we expect in the next twelve months from Evil Orchestra?
I have 6 tracks coming out before the end of the year, 3 originals & 3 bootlegs & I have another 4 Originals set for release in 2022 & one of those is the track with Bigredcap so I'm super pumped for all of those releases. I’m crossing all my fingers & toes & hoping that we can all return to normal life in the coming months & years ahead so I can return to playing live & if that looks promising, I will be looking at trying to get a slot on a festival line up & playing as many clubs as I can up & down Australia’s East Coast.
Interview by Michelle Symes
October 2021