Vane Magazine Issue 4

and Megan and I have worked together so much that at this point
when she makes something for me it’s just gonna be exactly what I
like, so for me fashion is really important, and the fact that Megan
is actually able to create clothing from scratch for us I think is one of
the greatest things about our band.The way the sounds are built on
your albums is quite fascinating with all the different layers and beats.
What’s your song-writing process like?
The song-writing process is really different every time, we don’t really
have a formula that we stick to. Sometimes it’ll just start with a weird
sample of something that I recorded and I’ll stretch it around and
pitch it up and down and make a weird loop and that might turn into
a song which eventually Megan sings on. Or there’s times where she
just comes with a vocal melody and nothing else and we’ll record
that and I’ll build something around it, when I’m just making music
on my own I don’t start with drums every time or synths every time, it
just can be anything and I think that’s a good thing to keep doing. I
found that working with Megan, pretty much anytime I find that we’re
falling into a habit or routine then we immediately panic and try to
switch it up.
You’ve said before that a lot of your beats are hip-hop influenced.
Who are some of your hip-hop influences, like different producers
and artists?
There’s a lot of producers that I admire, I think 40 - who does most
of the stuff for Drake is really incredible, he’s just kind of created a
whole new genre of hip-hop production. And also guys like Mike
Will (Made It) who have just from year to year made whatever’s
fresh and it somehow always stays ahead of the curve which is pretty
special.
You’ve worked with rapper Danny Brown in the past also, are
there any other hip-hop artists in particular that you would want
to work with?
Yeah there are definitely a handful of rappers that I would love to
work with at some point. Kendrick (Lamar) is I think one of the best
rappers of our generation so to do something with him would be
amazing.
Yeah that would be an amazing collaboration..
..Yeah so I’ll say that for now. In general if it’s an artist that I like and
they’re willing to work with me directly then I’m pretty open to it, I try
to avoid the other way that things happen where you have like songwriting
sessions with a bunch of different producers and writers and
you’re just trying to write catchy songs and pitch them to whoever,
I’m more interested in working one on one with the artist to create
a piece of music together, that way it just feels more like something
natural rather than trying to create results in a test tube or something
(laughs).
So Purity Ring are playing at Laneway Festival here in Auckland in
February, what can your fans here expect from that show?
For the Laneway show we’re definitely going to bring the whole
lighting production experience that we have been using lately, it’s
kind of hard to describe without seeing it but try to imagine a few
thousand little floating lights and stuff that kind of work in an almost
holographic sense together, and then mixed in with the light crystal
instrument that I play most of the melodies on. Yeah can’t wait!
Photos via online sources