30 Apr [Int 13] Half Empty Talks About Working With Borgore, Upcoming EP, and What’s to Come in 2016
If you have yet to have heard the name “Half Empty”, that’s all about to change. With currently a Borgore and Terravita collaboration under his belt, this up-and-coming bass producer is taking 2016 by storm with upcoming debut EP, Hearts, Lies, and Friends, dropping this Friday, May 6th and yet another collaboration with the Gorestep king himself. See what it was like to work with these huge names, learn more about his EP, and what’s to come in 2016 below:
Since Terravita’s new EP The Fallen just released, what was it like working with them on “Bad Boy?”
Terravita are really good friends of mine and the track had kinda just came about in like a 3 hour session at my studio one night! We had a couple other ones together we wrote but that one just seemed more appropriate and fitting for their EP and gave it a good amount of diversity in my opinion.
When did you first start producing for your first EP Hearts, Lies, & Friends? Which is your favorite song off the new EP?
Well this may be my first EP being released but I think I’m sitting on like, maybe a little over 60 ish songs? Or something like that but some of the songs on the EP are pretty old, like maybe a year ish and I had just revisited them and cleaned them up a bit. As far as favorite goes, I hate almost everything I make haha but I’d probably either have to say “Black Clouds & Underdogs” mainly just because I had spent so many nights alone, chain-smoking and working on it in my studio and it went through about 20 different versions and alterations until it finally ended up as the one on the EP. Or “Keep It Weird”, which I did with one of my bffs Borgore, and that one holds a high place in my heart because Borgore and I work so smoothly together on everything we do together and nothing seems forced, it’s so easy for us to just bounce ideas off each other and have fun together in the studio just creating. We also have a bunch of others songs together we need to finish up and release soon!!
How would you describe the EP in a few words to listeners unfamiliar with your production style? Is there any
Well, I feel like any style or sound producers and artists have, if it’s genuine, isn’t necessarily something they set out to create or chase, it’s just kind of natural and comes from the depths of their mindset of creativity and expression. But with the EP I kinda tried to comprise it of a bunch of different styles of music I like to make so I wasn’t seen as just like, a one specific genre artist because I enjoy making so much music of all different genres and would hate to be categorized into one specific niche or format. Style wise, the only real emotion or theme I try and emphasize is just the focus on emotions. That I just want to create something from inside me for other people to feel something, like if I could get through to even just one person and make their lives a bit easier with my music or even just to make them feel anything at all or distract them from whatever problems they may be facing for a couple minutes, even if it’s just one person, then it’s all worth it.
Following your first collab with Borgore on “Goddess,” what was it like producing “Keep It Weird?”
“Keep It Weird” was a track Borgore and I had been sitting on for a while. He had came up with the hook for it so quickly and it was one of those things where the music, his vocals, his additions, everything involved was so seamless and gelled together so well between us two. It’s funny, I actually remember getting a text or email from him out of blue and it was just him super stoked saying “Keep It Weird” over and over again haha it was awesome. He had recorded it with his head in his shirt on his iPhone at some pool party or something he was playing in Vegas. It was at that moment I knew Borgore and I were destined to be great friends hahaha. We, for obvious reasons, had re-recorded it together when he was back in LA, but that’s something I’ll probably never forget and had made such a huge impact on me and spoke volumes about his character. Just the fact that he was more focused on this track he was stoked about rather than this party around him, I really related to it and was the first of about a thousand similarities between us two.
What are you looking forward to in 2016? Do you have any plans for festival season?
Honestly? Haha. Apart from supporting and going to see some of my best friends play like Getter and Borgore, the only real set in stone plans I have for 2016 is to sit on my couch with my dog, play super smash brothers with my friends, watch crappy B-rate horror films with my amazing girlfriend, and sit in my studio for hours on end with more friends and try and keep myself as busy as possible and out of my own head.
Check out “Happiness In Self Destruction” and get ready for Half Empty’s upcoming Hearts, Lies, & Friends EP dropping May 6th!
Follow @HalfEmptySucks
Photos: Ryan Hadji
Interview: Emily Hall