Texas based producer Bro Safari has been killing the game for years. After clocking onto my radar in early 2012 with the KRS-One sampling dubstep anthem ‘Mr. Nice Guy,’ Bro Safari proceeded to take over the year with some of the hardest and most impressive trap and moombahton records out (see ‘2012,’ ‘5150’). After setting the trap game on fire he connected with UFO! for Animal, an album which still stands as one of the most forward-thinking electronic projects out. The talent and buzz has landed Bro Safari spots on some of the biggest festivals around, from Electric Zoo to EDC, Ultra and more. We had the honour of connecting with Bro Safari to discuss his production process, keeping it weird, his next project with UFO! and the misconceptions around his name. Check out the full interview below.
You’ve produced across a lot of genres from drum and bass and dubstep, to moombahton and trap. How has exploring each genre helped to expand the Bro Safari sound?
I’d say every time I dabble in something it’s kind of like adding it to my arsenal. If I’m going to go into working in a specific genre of music I’m going to do so with the mindset that I want it to sound authentic. When I got into moombahton I wanted to put my twist on it but I wanted it to sound good, full, authentic and true to its roots. When I’m working on a new sound I embrace the genre as much as I can. In the process of doing so I learn a lot of the ins and outs of it, so when I move on and I’m working on newer stuff I look back like, “what did I pick up when I was producing Moombahton heavily? What are some tricks or ways that I can apply that to what I’m doing here?” I like to hop around and pick and choose from different things and I think at the end of the day it boosts up whatever I’m working on. It’s not something I’m doing consciously but I think it’s kind of natural that I absorb influences from the different genres and apply them to what I’m doing now.
If you can hear a song and say, “that’s a Bro Safari track,” that’s the biggest compliment you can give me…
Is it difficult to retain a signature sound when producing across genres?
That’s another I don’t really think about as I’m doing it. I think when a producer does finally nail their own sound it’s something that they’re not going to be able to escape necessarily. Like with a painter – they have their own unique style and their own way of doing things. If I do have have a sound, if you can hear a song and say, “that’s a Bro Safari track,” that’s the biggest compliment you can give me because that means I’m doing something on my own, outside of the box. I think that’s actually more attributed to actual production techniques; mixing, mastering putting the track together, picking your sounds, the sound design – things of that nature.
So it’s just ingrained in the way you produce and because you’re the one making the music it automatically possesses that signature sound?
Yeah I think so. It depends on what a producer is working with. A lot of times they intentionally try to replicate something they’ve already heard. I try to avoid doing that. I try to be influenced by the things that I like and not necessarily try to sound exactly like it. I think that’s why a lot of producers get lost in the fray because they are not putting enough of their unique stamp on something.
That’s constantly what I’m telling myself, “You can do better, you can be better.”
You’ve spoken about striving to push listeners beyond their comfort zone with the weird sounds you produce and play. Do you ever intentionally scale it back or is it always the weirder the better?
[Laughs] That’s like the entire process of writing a track – that. For me it’s chopping it away and making it a bit more digestible to the listener as I go and to myself obviously. A lot of times I’ll start a track and I’ll just go crazy with the sound design and make sounds that I feel are unique to what I’m doing and then, yeah, I’ll scale it back to make it easier to follow. It’s hard to be objective sometimes when you’re sitting in the studio listening to the same thing over and over for a week in a row. You have to take little breaks and reset your brain and come back and say, “okay, this is cool to me but I don’t think anybody else is going to be able to follow it as it’s happening for the first time.” That’s something I try to think about when I’m putting finishing touches on tracks. The first time hearing this, is this going to hold your attention? Is it interesting enough? Do I need to delete this entire part? Which I do constantly.
Right now I’m working on a new track and three days ago I was like, “Yeah this is dope, this sounds great” and 3 days later, it sounds completely different than it sounded then because after a day or two sitting with it I was like “ehhh, it’s okay but I could do better.” That’s constantly what I’m telling myself, “You can do better, you can be better.” That’s kind of a subjective thing but my definition of better is just pushing myself and saying, “this is cool but it’s not good enough.” Something can always be better but then you need to be able to figure out when enough is enough. Whenever I’m working on something I always turn it around and flip it into something better. My last single I put out ‘Follow’ I started in 2014 and it just came out in 2016. It went through 4 or 5 different drops that I created for it and every time I would think, “this is cool.” Then I’d sit on it for a month and say “this is not good enough,” until I finally hit a breakthrough and was like, “I like this one. This is cool. It sounds current, relevant and true to what I’m going for.” It’s a long process sometimes.
The Animal LP that you put out with UFO! is one of the most forward-thinking and creative electronic albums to be released in the past few years. Will you guys be working on a follow-up?
Yeah. Well he and I work together a lot. I was thinking about it the other day and we have enough to music together to do like an hour long mixtape or something. Which is cool because you don’t usually have that many collaborations with one person. Since we’ve put out Animal he’s come out to Austin a few times for like a week at a time to work on new material. We have a few songs that are finished that we haven’t released just because we don’t feel like they’re strong enough on their own, so we’re figuring out how to approach that. Maybe we will do an EP of dance music stuff.
The thing that’s exciting to me right now is that he and I are working on a new album. But the album is not dance music. We’re working with a vocalist and it’s just really cool, forward-thinking (we think). It’s a strange adaptation of electronic music and then organic instrumentation. We’re playing guitars, we have a vocalist, live drums but then a lot of production. I can’t really compare it to anything at the moment because it’s still in the demo stage but so far it’s really cool. Very unique. It reminds me of Portishead/Radiohead meets Aphex Twin. I don’t know it’s difficult to explain but I’m very into it so far.
Do you have a release date in mind for the project?
We’re working on the demos now. When we first started working on it we said, “let’s give this some time, no one even knows what we’re doing.” Obviously I’m talking about it now, so I’m okay with people knowing about it, but we’re not putting a timetable to it. It definitely will not be out in 2016. We would probably launch this as a new project if we do it. It probably will be in 2017 – hopefully early. We’re working on it in between working on our own solo material. I know he’s working really hard right now on his own stuff and it’s all sounding really crazy…in a good way obviously.
If you don’t like the music that’s fine but don’t just say because my name is Bro Safari that this is what I am – that I’m some lame, mainstream, EDM, formulaic bullshit because that’s not what I’ve ever stood for in my music…
A few months back Vice mentioned you by name when trying to discredit DJs who create “basic EDM”. As someone who is clearly an innovator in the industry how did it feel to be named in the article?
I don’t remember the actual article, I remember something about it. I don’t know, you kind of have to let that stuff bounce off you. I know that I’m not new to this. I’ve been doing this for a long time, before Thump even existed within Vice, before they had an EDM thing, I was doing dance music. I’ve been doing this for close to 20 years. So I know that I’m not green, I’m not new in this industry and I’m not dumbing my sound down. I think the biggest problem with my project, and it’s not a problem for me, but a problem for other people, is the fact my name is “Bro Safari”. You know, there’s such a ridiculous stigma attached to it for people who don’t know anything about me. They see the name Bro Safari and they kind of fly off the handle like, “Oh my god what happened to the world, there’s somebody with the name Bro Safari,” when they don’t realize that it’s tongue-in-cheek. It’s not be taken that seriously. I’ve noticed this happening lately as a result of some of the bigger festival line-ups coming out. I’m playing Lollapalooza and immediately I was attacked by a bunch of hipster blogs saying, “Aw, Bro Safari, EDM blah-blah-blah…bulshit” and I’m like c’mon, do a little bit of research. Look at the person behind the project and then form your opinion. If you don’t like the music that’s fine but don’t just say because my name is Bro Safari that this is what I am – that I’m some lame, mainstream, EDM, formulaic bullshit because that’s not what I’ve ever stood for in my music and I’ve always made it a point to set myself apart from that clique within dance music. I’d be lying if I said that didn’t bother me but I just let it bounce off me and just continue doing what I’m doing in the studio. Shut em’ up with music – that’s the best way to do it.
If you could change one thing in electronic music right now what would it be?
That’s tough. I think it would probably be linked to social media. I think there’s too much of a rat race, (artists) trying to climb the ladder by essentially abusing their fans and followers and subjecting them to tactics to get their attention. I get this transcends how it ties into music but just on a personal level I’m not a fan of social media. Just overall cutting back on the importance of numbers of social media that don’t really mean anything. Let’s look at the content and the quality of the content. That’s what I want to see people focused more on.
