Circus Records signee and Nova Scotia native CRaymak is as consistent as any other major player in the bass realm. From working with some of Canada’s most underrated producers such as Apriskah and Sam Lamar, to recently collaborating with the legendary Flux Pavilion on ‘Saviour,’ the talented artist has proven his ability to turn any genre of electronic music into a certified banger.
On June 8th, CRaymak will have the opportunity to share the main stage of Ever After Music Festival with the likes of Excision, Zomboy and more, proving that his recent come up is finally gaining the recognition it deserves. Ahead of his upcoming performance at Canada’s heaviest bass festival, we had the opportunity to catch up with CRaymak to talk everything from his origins, to his initial contact with the Circus Records, to keeping his sets fresh and fun. In addition, the Nova Scotian has blessed us with our heaviest guest mix to date. Featuring some of his heavy-hitting tracks and more from the industry’s finest, dubstep fans are in for a real treat with this one. So strap in, press play, and try to not break your neck as you dive into CRaymak’s mix below!
Tell us about the origins of the CRaymak project. How long have you been producing? Who were your early inspirations?
I first started playing around with production during the end of my high school years, not really knowing what I was doing at the time… Though, I never really made anything of it right away. I first discovered my love for electronic music through the “dubstep boom” during those 2010/11 years. Those early inspirations that fuelled me to want to learn how to produce electronic/bass music include Skrillex, Noisia, Feed Me, Kill The Noise, Flux Pavilion, Seven Lions and basically everything posted on the UKF Dubstep YouTube channel.
I’d have to say…I first started producing and using the name CRaymak to release all my productions back in 2012-ish, whilst studying my Bachelor of Arts, Major in Music (Jazz Studies) degree at Saint Francis Xavier University. So I’ve been producing for about 6-7 years, though I feel only seriously started considering CRaymak as a “real” project/brand within the past 4 years (where just under 3 of which have been working with Circus Records).
It’s good to see as a collective that even though we are all producing/playing different styles/genres, that we can still help each other and all see the scene growing as a whole.
What is the music scene like in Nova Scotia?
The music scene in Nova Scotia is at such a unique and strong developmental stage right now. There’s a huge crew of us right now that are all climbing up together, helping and supporting each other to the best that we can, yet all in our own musical lanes. It’s super cool to see and be apart of.
Another way to say…It’s good to see as a collective that even though we are all producing/playing different styles/genres, that we can still help each other and all see the scene growing as a whole, even the fans who continue to support each of these styles and attend.
How did you first get in touch with Flux Pavilion and the Circus Records crew?
A few years back I remixed Flux Pavilions track ‘Who Wants To Rock’ with my friend, Greater Than. We ended up putting the track up on SoundCloud and within the same day it was posted Flux found it and we received an email from the Circus Records team saying that they fully supported the remix and they asked us to send along any new music that either of us have been working on. After a few months, I sent over a new track of mine which ended up being one of my first releases with Circus called ‘Tesseract,’ and ever since we’ve been working together!
What impact has working with them had on your career?
The whole team has been amazing to work with and have helped me develop in every field as an artist. Having so much support from Flux and the Circus Team, throughout the past few years, has been hugely inspiring and I cannot thank them enough for everything they’ve done for me!
Working with Flux Pavilion was truly an honour and a huge milestone in my career so far.
How was working with Flux Pavilion? What is your main take-away from working with an artist of his grandeur?
Working with Flux Pavilion was truly an honour and a huge milestone in my career so far. He was one of the first dubstep artists that got me into liking electronic music. He’s always been someone I looked up to as an inspiration from the start of my production journey and throughout this path has became a great mentor and friend to me.
Our track ‘Saviour’ with Tasha Baxter was a fun journey together. It took just over 2 years to finish, pushing through multiple various base ideas of the track that kept evolving over and over. If you heard the original version of the track from 2 years ago, you would not believe that what was released now was started from that initial idea. However, there were times when we thought the track may not come together, and times when working with stem files got a bit painful… but in the end, I believe we all found it to be a fun and artistically rewarding venture and created something that the three of us truly came to love with a very unique flair.
As for the main take-away…I would say that Flux always fully encouraged the thought that simpler is always better. Trying to find the simplest approach to an idea is the best solution for connecting with an artist. Such as stripping down those first ideas of the song, back to nothing and restarting to make something even simpler.
The biggest piece of advice I could give anyone is to have MAD PATIENCE.
What advice would you give to a young producer in your shoes 4+ years ago trying to make it in the industry?
The biggest piece of advice I could give anyone is to have MAD PATIENCE. Patience in all aspects of music, whether its working your craft, collaborating with other artists or waiting for releases. Generally, everything takes WAY more time then you will expect, and you just have to deal with it! Which over time you will get used to… AND for the most part, there aren’t many shortcuts you can take that won’t hurt you in the long run, so patience is definitely key.
Going back to the music side…One thing I will say is that I do regret releasing a lot of my earlier works when I didn’t know at all what I was doing way back at the start of it all. Instead, I could have waited and really taken my time to hone in and develop my knowledge of the scene and production skills.
Congrats on the Ever After gig! How does it feel to be sharing the stage with some of the greatest names in the game?
Thank you! It feels pretty surreal to be up here with a lot of the heavy-hitters who have inspired me along my career. Being a part of the Ever After Festival lineup was definitely a big goal of mine, and I’m super stoked to be able to play it this year!
What do you do to always keep your live shows fresh? What should fans expect from a CRaymak set?
There are a few things that help me keep my live shows fresh. I always love to try out mine or my close friends newest unreleased tracks to see how they play out live. I’m definitely always looking for new tunes to throw in my set…a lot of underground SoundCloud mining is done where I find some really amazing producers and crazy bass tunes! The last thing is that I make a lot of live edits/mashups that I keep strictly for my sets, and that helps keep my sets from sounding to similar to the next bass artist.
I guess what fans can expect from one of my sets would be a very fast paced, high energy, and heavy-hitting bass set that evolves throughout to build out into an epic yet nicer melodic ending segment.
What can we expect from you as 2019 progresses?
Definitely a lot of new music! Some of my favourite tracks I’ve worked on to date. A couple of bigger collaborations that include some real heavy tracks for the dance floor to some more vocal and melodic driven songs…both of which styles I’m super stoked to put out there!
Tracklist:
CRaymak & Sam Lamar – Sit Bak
ID – ID
Pelikann – OMFG
Dodge & Fuski – Back With A Vengeance (Gentlemens Club Remix)
Algo – Shake Hands
12th Planet, Barely Alive, PhaseOne – Bubzstep
> Dubloadz – Necronomicon
>> Chibs – Frog Ting
>> Dodge & Fuski – Exposure Ft. Laura Lux (Samplifire Remix)
Graphyt – Upside Down
> Figure & Protohype – Backhand
Qoiet & Code Pandorum – CHV
> Nitti Gritti – Crack
>> ID x ID – ID
Ivory, Yakz, Codd Dubs – Dirty Dogs
> Ablaze – No Time For You
>> Subtronics – Wook Laser
>>> Dirtyphonics – No Mercy
Virus Syndicate & Bandlez – Juice
> Fransis Derelle – Bankroll Ft. Born I (CRaymak & Awal Remix)
Knife Party – LRAD (CRaymak & Pierce Remix)
Seven Lions – Lucy (CRaymak Remix)
L.U.X. – One With Death
DMVU – Trunk
Zetta – Keep Up (JOOL Remix)
ID x ID – ID
BVSSIC – Singularity
Algo – The Button
K-Nine – Hounds
Kill The Noise – Talk To Me (CRaymak Remix)
Killrina – Necromancy
Guillotine – Disaster
Sharps & Moore Kismet – Mutant
Dog Blood – Turn Off The Lights (Grabbitz Flip)
Hekler – Excommunicado
Joyryde – Damn ft. Freddie Gibbz
> Must Die! – Chaos
Gladez – Shinobi
Effin – Lettuce
Voltra – Instruction Set
> Graphyt – Smashing
Oddprophet – The Devil
PhaseOne – Crash & Burn ft. Northlane
Flux Pavilion – Symphony (GLD Remix)
ID – ID
Illenium – Pray (Sam Lamar Remix)
Doctor P – Something To Believe In (ID x ID Remix)
Note: “>” and “>>” signify double and triple drops, respectively.
