We interviewed Croatian electronic group, Natural Chemistry.
Fresh off the heels of their free Natural Chemistry EP, we caught up with the pair from Croatia to talk about there musical origins and who’d they’d love to work with.
When did you start making music, separately and together?
We were both making beats for few years before we met about two years ago at college through a mutual friend who is an MC. We produced a track together for him and that was the start.
What sort of music did you listen to growing up?
Mostly Hip Hop, later we got into Jungle and that’s when we started discovering other routes in electronic music.
What was the first hip hop track that caught your attention?
Cold Is: Eminem – Way I Am
Moz: The High and Mighty – B-Boy Document 99 off THPS2 soundtrack
Who influences your style?
It’s hard to say because we listen to lots of stuff. Hip Hop is the backbone of all our influences I guess. Beats you can nod your head to while chilling are the best.
Do you think it is important to have a musical background, whether it be classically trained or just learning an instruments?
Yeah, it certainly gives you an advantage if you know some theory about it, although we don’t have any musical training. We both started dabbling into instruments some time after we started making beats, so it’s kind of an opposite advantage of what I said earlier. You pick up instruments much faster than people who get straight into it.
Describe how you approach the making of a track.
First of all, we make some coffee, the most important liquid in the universe. We usually start off with a melody, or just an idea, like looping a sample and messing it up until it sounds like something completely different, and then we build around that.
What equipment and/or instruments do you use?
We both use laptops. We had a Midi keyboard which broke, that was a sad day. Bunch of cables, mobile phone mic, that’s basically it. We like to experiment with field recording, and recording sounds in general. There are loads of recorded samples on the EP. Bank alarm in Hostage Situation is probably the most obvious one.
What are your fondest musical memories?
Musical happenings are very rare in the town we were living in. One of those was this techno rave we attended with our friends. We’re all usually a chill crowd and don’t even listen to techno, but after that event it became a tradition to go there every year. Now that we’re not living there any more we will do our best to attend this year and continue the tradition.
What’s your biggest musical accomplishment and why?
We played a couple of DJ sets together which was really fun. It was kind of a personal accomplishment because only our friends were there, but that isn’t a bad thing when you’re on that level. Getting a chance to play your tracks, or the tracks you like to people who care, on a decent system, that’s a great feeling. Sharing what you love with people you love.
Favourite label?
Probably Warp. Hyperdub is great too.
Favourite producer and MC?
That’s a tough one. Flying Lotus is a great producer. An MC, someone from Wu-Tang, we can’t decide. 🙂
Who would you most like to work with and why?
The Underachievers, Flatbush Zombies, someone like that. Basically anyone who is open to musical experiments, and bunch of those rising artists are not afraid of it. We really like their take on Hip Hop, it’s evolving.
What are your thoughts on UK Hip Hop and is there anyone in the UK you’d like to work with?
Lots UK Hip Hop artists are unique and experimental. UK has certainly developed it’s own sound when it comes to Hip Hop, mixing it up with Grime and other styles, it’s fun. KC Da Rookie and Roots Manuva are dope.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
Always try to smile, or something along those lines. Also, don’t overcompress your tracks. 🙂
What advice would you give to beginners starting out?
Don’t waste your time doing things you hate.