CLASSIXX

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L.A. duo Tyler Blake & Michael formerly known as “Young Americans” were forced to change their name “thank god” to the more appealing “Classixx” due to legal issues & now signed to “So Sweet Records”! With the new name comes a digital release this month with 2 tracks “Dial 1” & “Cold Act Ill” plus remixes & a physical EP early next year!

“Dial 1” a you-can-count-on-me advertising dance crunch gimmick with embedded dial tones & enough electro glitch to crack your collar bones will be your perfect I-have-someone-to-rely on anthem & (my favorite out of the 2) “Cold Act Ill” is an absolute proof of their brilliance, the squelching electro bleeps & echoed Roxanne Shante sampled vocals plus the motor cycle engine generated bass that kicks a minute & a half in just makes the combination sound like a suburb marriage between Simian Mobile Disco’s “Hustler” & Justice’s “Newjack”!

DL: Dial 1
DL: Cold Act Ill**

Ohh & they will be playing Hard New Year's Eve in Los Angeles with Justice, Peaches, Steve Aoki, etc.

**Super Recommended, already on my Route Replay playlist.

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Interview: CLASSIXX

* So… how’s life treating you?

Right now I am actually drinking a Mojito on a chaise lounge chair on my roof overlooking the L.A. Skyline. That’s winter for us here in L.A., Life is so hard right?

* Are you ready for some Q&A therapy?

LET’S DO IT! Can I have a massage after?

* Ok, start by introducing yourselves with a short description!

We are ‘Tyler Blake’ 22 (3/8/85) born in ‘Boston’ & raised in ‘L.A’, Studied music at ‘Berklee College of Music’ & dropped out to make music. Some of all time favorite artists (Bowie, Prince, Peter Gabriel, Kate Bush, Paul Simon, Van Morrison, Bjork), favorite bands (Raidohead, The Smiths, Talking Heads, Depeche Mode), favorite new artists (Simian Mobile Disco, The Chromatics).

‘Michael David’ 22 (3/27/85) born & raised in ‘Johannesburg, South Africa’, Studied Classical Guitar & Palmistry. Previously worked at a books on tape store called ‘Talking Book World’ & currently turning knobs. In ‘Classixx’ he makes it rain when it needs to. All time favorite artist (Fela Kuti) & favorite new artist (Digitalism).

* How did you guys meet? Why did you decide to make music together?

We have been friends since we were kids. We played in bands together and apart since we were in middle school. The last bands we were in before this were pop bands and when they ended we got together to make the music we both wanted to hear.

* Bands Huh!

Yeah, but we don't have much interest in talking about our old projects to be honest. If we did we would probably still be doing them.

* Well, how long have you been making music?

We have been making music since as long as I can remember. I think us both got ProTools rigs about 6 years ago to make demos for our bands. At that time I think we were just sort of figuring it out ourselves. Later, playing in bands we were lucky enough to work with some great engineers and producers and watch and learn from them.

* Producers like who?

Mike's old band's got mixed by ‘Mike Shippley’. He mixed all Mutt Lange's shit. If you type his name into Wikipedia it will blow you away how many hit records he has produced or mixed.

* Do you limit yourselves to using selected Equipments/Instruments/Programs when creating your music?

We use pro-tools and a bunch of analog synths and soft synths. Guitars, basses, drum machines. Whatever is lying around, cap guns, bike chains, these sorts of things.

* I’m thinking about getting a keyboard or a Keytar but I’m really no expert on what’s good to start with?

Well for kids getting into this type of music I would just say to get a good midi controller and a bunch of cool software. Like ‘Reason’, ‘Ableton’, anything by Arturia… that should be a good start. I have always thought keytars were cheesy but, on the other hand, ‘Snoop Dogg’ plays one in his new video.

* Yeah I saw the video the other day & I thought it was cool (even though I really don’t like him)… Anyhow, let’s talk a little bit about your past as “Young Americans”. You were legally forced to change it, why, who did & what’s the whole story?

Um, basically there was an organization with the same name and when we were playing a show in San Francisco we got served with a lawsuit right before our set by 2 huge guys. I thought the club had gotten a fax and it was the bouncers giving us the papers but later I found out they were their cronies. It was bullshit but it’s over now so that’s good. As for the "whole story" I think we'd like to keep the past in the past and just focus on moving forward. It’s boring anyway.

* But you already have official remixes under that name, what will happen to them? Did they allow you to keep them? Did you have to pay?

The only official remixes we did that were going to be released under that name had already been released & the money we got paid for them has probably been spent & it’s all over now. We were lucky actually. Pretty much the only thing we lost was our old name and our old MySpace page.

* Why ‘Classixx’?

I guess it was just the first thing we came up with that we weren't sick of a few minutes later. I feel like there are a lot of electronic acts out right now trying to replicate whatever sound is popular RIGHT now. We don't just want to be another flash in the pan electro act. Classics seemed like a fitting name and it just looks better on a flyer or CD spelled CLASSIXX. (Laughs)

* Oh yeah, I couldn’t agree more… believe it or not some people thought it stood for “Class Six” or “Class Ixx (X)”!

Ha, yeah we had a joke that if we ever got sued again we would just say that we were called CLASSI XX like "Classy 20" but with roman numerals.

* Did you deliberately choose this style of music to build your career around?

I think it sort of chose us. We were asked to do a remix by a band mike had toured with his old band. I think we ended up liking the results more than a lot of the music we were making with our bands at the time. We have always wanted to make forward thinking music and I think electronic music is the most forward thinking music there is.

We just want to make relevant, important music. We are not trying to appeal to any one scene. We are making the music we would want to hear so hopefully the people that will be interested will reflect ourselves.

* Who are you talking about?

Kill Hannah & Shiny Toy Guns.

* What influences your music though?

We're really into early analog electronic music like ‘Kraftwerk’ and then bands like ‘Depeche Mode’. I think one of the first people that really brought us to dance music was ‘Stuart Price’ (aka Jaques Lu Cont, Paper Faces, Man With Guitar, Thin White Duke, Les Rhythmes Digitales…etc.) that was one of the first artists that made me realize not all dance music was cheesy & the ‘DFA’ too. Right now we are really into ‘Simian Mobile Disco’ because their sound seems a lot more timeless than a lot of the other producers right now. That’s what we're striving for.

* Ohh, I definitely caught the ‘SMD’ influence, especially in ‘Cold Act Ill’… I even called it in my review “a suburb marriage between Simian Mobile Disco’s ‘Hustler’ & Justice’s ‘Newjack’”!

Ha yeah it’s funny if you have a girl rapping on an electro track now it automatically gets compared to SMD. We are still happy with the comparison though as long as people aren't saying "this sounds like a shitty version of SMD." (Laughs)

* There’s really no shame about being compared to another artist, especially if it’s a successful one! But why do most artists RESENT being compared to another publicly when they actually admitted they’re influenced by!? Conceited maybe?

I think it’s the whole "sounds like" thing. People don't want to "sound like" someone else. They want to "sound like" themselves and have OTHER people "sound like" them. And if they DO sound like someone else they want them to be old artists rather than current artists. My friends and I were actually just joking about that last night because it’s funny when people say "we sound like Joy Division" instead of saying "we sound like Interpol." because either way its the same description but somehow one is more acceptable. For me, if we are being compared to Simian Mobile Disco, I think that is great because their sound is so timeless. They could have come out with "Attack Sustain Release Decay" ten years ago or ten years from now and I think it would still be a great fucking dance record. I don't think that can be said for everyone who is blowing up right now. I think it might bum me out if we were compared to something that limited us.

* New name & new music! So far I’ve heard 2 tracks, tell us about them in detail please?

Yeah, those 2 songs are being released properly by inStereo on Jan 18.

Dial 1: Is basically a punk rock song to me. The distorted guitars have just been replaced with distorted synths. Its one if the first original tracks we ever made and I think we were still trying to figure out how we wanted to sound.

Cold Act Ill: I found this a capella sample of ‘Roxanne Shante’ from a track called "Def Fresh Crew" that she did with ‘Biz Markie’. She is known as "the first female rapper of all time" and is something of a legend. The vocal inspired us to build a track around it. The track took us a while to finish because I think we sort of realized our sound making it.

* Now the first kind of goes down the line with the rest of the vocoded vocal, geek electro rock likes of Hellogoodbye!, while the other is a brilliant piece of distortion disco that is an immediate dancefloor killer? I’m curious, which style between the two should we expect more in the future?

Ha well like I said I think if you are into "Cold Act Ill" you will be into the stuff that will come out in the future although we aren't limiting ourselves just to "dancefloor killers" or electro bangers. We want to be able to do tracks that are deep and emotionally rich, tracks that are more groove based...along with more "dancefloor killers." (Laughs)

* Sounds like you know where “CLASSIXX” is heading even though it’s still early! Oooh, you should totally rework “Sade - No Ordinary Love” & make it all glitchy & super electro with massive amounts of compressed synths! (Laughs)

You should tell her to hit us up (Laughs). Mike loves Sade. R. Kelly pronounces her name phonetically.

* Last year you were talking about an EP to be released in the first quarter of 2008! How’s that coming?

Well that is still in the works but you can probably expect to see "Cold Act Ill" on it and some of the new tracks we are working on that no one has heard yet! It will most likely be put out by ‘So Sweet’ and there will probably be 5 or 6 tracks on it. The artwork is going to be dope. I don't know if a remix will be on there or if those will be put out separately. We’ll see. There are some good remixes though. I can't really say by whom just yet.

* Great! Who’s doing the artwork? & Are there any plans for a video?

We have some ideas and we have a lot of friends here in L.A. that are great graphic artists that will probably help us realize them. We actually are planning on making a music video for ‘Cold Act Ill’ quite soon. I don't want to say too much about the concept except that its dope and I don't think anyone has done it before.

* What about remixes? Are you remixing any track at the moment (officially or un-officially) under the new name?

We have been turning down some remix work lately to focus on making our own tracks but there will be more soon. Right now the only one we can talk about is an official remix for this hip-hop track called ‘Buzzin'’ by ‘Shwayze’ for Suretone Records… that should probably be done in February I think. We're pretty happy with it.

* I heard you played New Year’s Eve with Justice & Peaches, How was it?

It was a blast. I think we started with ‘Discopolis’ by ‘Lifelike & Kris Menace’. ‘Surkin’ just sent me some of the new ‘Institubes’ stuff so I think we probably played some of that. I don't know... good shit (laughs). We closed with ‘New Year’s Day’ by ‘U2’ which was actually totally unplanned.

* Did you get to hangout with Justice?

Not for New Year’s Eve because they played on a different stage and the whole festival was really hectic. But we hung out with them and everyone else who was in town the night before at Steve Aoki and DJ AM's club ‘LAX’. Our paths have crossed a few times and we are friendly.

* Hush Hush, tell me everything about it!?

We started ‘Hush Hush’ as a DIY house party. I went to school in Boston where the scene was a lot of basement parties. we don't really have that out here on the west coast so since I live in a basement loft I thought it would be cool to bring that vibe to L.A., we got ‘Royal Rumble’ to play one and we became really good friends with them. After a few of those we got shut down because of an eviction notice and even a death threat from a gang member that lived up stairs because of the noise and all the people causing a disturbance. Since then we have been throwing them once a month. We have done them in mainstream clubs like ‘Cinespace’ all the way down to seedy downtown warehouses. its fun because there are no rules except to throw a dope party every time and I think all the kids that come seem to know that no matter where it is it will be good because its HUSH HUSH. We are actually planning a Hush Hush Tour with Royal Rumble and The Cobrasnake. It’s called "THE THE THE HUSH HUSH COBRASNAKE TOUR TOUR" (Laughs).

* Ahh, wish I lived in L.A., we never get any good parties here (except for G.Unit) which suxxballs… anyways, I realized you don’t really have Any cool press photos after the name change… Isn’t it a good time for a fresh Photoshoot?

Yeah, actually, we have a few coming up. We'll see what develops.

* Finally, could you briefly sum up Classixx future in 2008?

Well all that stuff I talked about... the release of ‘Cold Act Ill/Dial 1’ with InStereo on Jan, 18th and then the EP soon after. We have some scattered shows, a couple parties at ‘Sundance Film Festival’ then the "THE THE THE HUSH HUSH COBRASNAKE TOUR TOUR" which is in March and will be down the west coast probably starting in Vancouver and ending in Mexico. After that we will be playing the ‘Beatport Showcase’ at ‘WMC’ in Miami. From there I don't know, we'll see. World domination?