Back in November, Joey and I had the opportunity to get face to face with the Canadian basshouse duo, Datsik & Bais Haus. We asked them a few questions before their show at Foundation and tried to stay away from the typical questions most blogs tend to ask. Hope you enjoy what they had to share!
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Q: You guys have spent a good amount of time performing as Ephwurd, What would you guys say has been one of your favorite moments together? Is there anything that really stands out?
A: “I would say my favorite moment together so far probably would have been earlier tonight cause we ate sushi. Each and every time we go to a new city we have our new favorite moment: trying a new different sushi restaurant. It’s one of those things where we’re sushi addicts, we’ll go four times a week.”- Datsik
Q: So you guys have performed in Seattle before and have been in the North West. What would be a favorite festival or again another moment that stands out from a time you performed around this region?
A: “Paradiso!”- Both
“Paradiso is fuxking special to us. We played this summer. Datsik played as himself on the first night then the next night we played together as Ephwurd. When you play paradiso first of all, you land at the airport, then drive two hours out there & then to get back from the festival is an extra half hour drive. We were gonna play two days which made things difficult with constant back and fourth. We were like alright, we’re not gonna stay at the hotel, we’re gonna take all the money we could have paid to stay at the hotel for like 3 rooms each for each night, and we’re just going to rent a fucking RV. So we just roll up to this festival next to main stage & like the biggest fuxking trailer there is in the whole festival, and we’re like yo, is that ours? Our tour manager is like YUP! I fucking booked that shit! It was legit, he killed it shout out to Lou.” – Bais Haus
“It was funny because we got there and were like damn, I wonder who is staying there and Lou just gives us the nod!” – Datsik
“We saw The Chainsmokers dressing room & were like yo dude you guys suck. your guys dressing room sucks this weekend.” – Bais Haus
“We went into their room, stole some pizza then went back to ours.” – Datsik
“It was tight, it’s amazing being able to go out there, & fuckin’ chill for two days. Like waking up and going outside from where you were sleeping & seeing the fucking river, everything & the Gorge. You’re just like holy fuck.” – Bais Haus
Q: Was this your first time out there?
A: “No, that was my third time. first time playing there, but third time out there. Being able to just chill there for two days and not having to go back and fourth from hotels and deal with all the bullshit, it was super awesome. We got to go check out everybody we wanted to see, party all night, wake up, drink mimosas & hang. You can’t fucking beat that.” – Bais Haus
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Q: Festivals, So you guys said you really enjoyed Paradiso.. Was there another experience this year that was similar to that elsewhere?
A: “Shambhala” – Both
“If you’re talking about full on experience, Paradiso was amazing and I love it because Seattle crowds go fucking crazy. But Shambhala is where I came from & it’s one of those festivals that I’ve been to nine years in a row. I will never miss it ever again until the day I die. It’s one of those things where like we go there, we have all my friends from Canada that roll up & we have such a big posse. We get treated like royalty there because we’re friends with all the staff and the birth of PK sound is at Shambhala, so it’s all PK people as well. It’s just like our whole posse. Shambhala as a term means paradise so that’s what it feels like to me. Like every one that goes there, it changes their outlook on everything, it’s crazy.” – Datsik
Q: Is there any other genres besides what you’re known for prodigally that you really enjoy playing? Some of that stuff that’s kinda off the wall…
A: “Well, when we play an Ephwurd set, it’s hype as fuck. We always try to keep it that way.” – Bais Haus
“So basically as an act, as Ephwurd our dominate genre that we play is house. But from there that is like our home base. So if we’re playing a set we’re always gonna end up at 128. Where as with Datsik I’ll always end up at 140 or 150, dubstep. So 128 is kinda our stomping ground with Ephwurd. But then we always go up to 150, we’ll play 140 a little bit, play little bit of trap and play a little bit of dubstep.” – Datsik
“If we’re playing an after party, I feel like every after party we play it gets deeper. It’s usually either the deepest of house music or fucking dubstep. Obviously, Troy with Datsik is so dominant with the Ephwurd sound that whenever we get to play an after party it’ll always be like we’re playing house. Then all the homies tend to show up, so it’ll be like Ephwurd and 12th Planet, then it’s like I guess we’re playing dubstep.” – Bais Haus
“So, if it’s with the homies.. it’s more bass music dominate. But if it’s like a house party and people are vibing and chill, we play deep house.” – Datsik
“If we ever play an after party just as us, it’ll start out deep & then we always like to build it up then go into dubstep. We try to keep it separate as Ephwurd & Datsik but when we’re at the after party, those lines are completely blurred” – Bais Haus
Q: What are some words of advice you might have for that next generation of producers?
A: “For the new generation of producer, definitely take inspiration but don’t imitate. Take Skrillex for example, if your copying Skrillex, by the time you caught up to where he was, he’s already miles a head of you. So you’re better off doing your own thing and following your own path. Basically, being your own, and having your own sound. The cool thing is by trying to learn the skills of someone else, you learn things on your own. I think the problem is some kids will focus too much on trying to get to what Skrillex was doing instead of when they’re making. Something really cool and different instead of following Skrillex. They’ll be like, no I need to make what he made and I think it’s more important now then ever in the dance music industry that you have your own sound and mastered your own craft. On top of that, stay passionate. Passion is what drives this industry and is what will always drive this industry. Music is an art and if you don’t have that art then all the commission, all the fun, touring will never follow. It all starts with you in the studio making stuff that you love, and if people love it too, as much as you love it, then you probably have a good chance at being a touring DJ. But, it doesn’t happen overnight and persistence pays off.” – Datsik
“Mixdowns are key. Instead of focusing on making the tightest craziest track, just make sure you write a simple track, with a tight mixdown. Without it, it doesn’t matter if your track is the craziest ever because if it sounds like shit, nobody’s gonna play it. You can have a simple ass track, that sounds super dope and people will play it. Next to that, patience. Patience is a fucking boulder in this industry because if you’re starting out, you hear all the people you’re inspired by and you want to make a track that sounds even remotely close to that. And it’s gonna sound like shit, then you’re gonna make another one that sounds like shit, and 6 months will go by and it will still sound like shit. But if you keep up with it over a course of a year or two years, it’ll sound tighter and tighter and tighter until your finally honing your craft. If you really wanna do it, stay patient and persistent. You’ll eventually get there. It’s not rocket science.” – Bais Haus
“It’s funny too, a common thing kids will do is as soon as they make something that they think is the best thing ever, they’ll send it to their favorite producers and then they’re favorite producers will actually take their time to listen to it. But they’ll notice that it’s not even close to there yet and then that producer who made the track and sent it to them will look back at that track 3 months later & be like what the fuck was I thinking. That’s the thing, before you send your shit to you’re favorite people ever, make sure you feel like you’re actually ready. That you’re able to look at your tracks subjectively as opposed to thinking it’s the best thing.” – Datsik
“Being realistic is a huge part of it. You can totally get in your own bubble about it.” – Bais Haus
“But you need to be able to take it as criticism and take it as a positive note as oppose to hating someone for thinking your track isn’t that great. Look at your career as chapters. Each chapter the story evolves for your career in the music industry. So, when you basically spend a bunch of time on music, then stop and release it, you put it out there. It’s a very good time at that point, or even a month after to look at it and compare it to other tracks out there and look at what your tracks are lacking versus what your favorite tracks have. Then apply it on the next track you make. Also..mixing is fuxking key.” – Datsik
Featured Image By: Turk Photos
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