Fade
The Beat Strangler
Administrator
illest o.g.
After pulling off a rare feat with back-to-back wins in both the Beat This! Competition and the Warzone Beat Battle, I wanted to know what Muszolini's secret was. Starting out with a broken-down computer and learning the ins and outs of beatmaking has gotten him this far in the game. Let's find out more...
Sup, Muszolini, tell us about yourself.
Sup, well I'm a 30 year old male from London England. Growing up was hard and rough, but fun and exciting at the same time, which I can never ask for anymore than a great humbling experience in my lifetime.
You recently won both the Beat This! Competition and the Warzone Beat Battle. What's your secret for battling?
I never go into a situation underestimating the competition. I always think to myself all the time that someone will/want/can outdo me. So that keeps me fired up to not slack off and not disrespect the opponents' abilities. And if I can, I would study each members' style and formula and analyze where I can zone myself out of them but keeping them interested as it may have a familiar sound to them that they can relate to.
After checking those winning beats along with some of your others, your style is straight up solid. How do you put together a typical beat?
I start of with a melody, then work around that basically. The melody has to spark my core, then I'll feel more comfortable continuing making a bridge and a chorus. I seem to always put my bassline last, I don't know if it's a habit of mine or it just feels more easy to figure a good swing around my melody and drum pattern.
What do you have in your studio setup?
I dont really have a so called "studio" setup unless a Macbook Pro notebook and a Sennheiser basic earplugs headphones, a mouse pad is certified. And I use FL studio 10.
You're based in London, so what kind of influences do you get towards your music?
Grime. It's a genre that started in East London, but before that it was all about Biggie, Wu-Tang, Nas, Michael Jackson, Rass Kass, Jedi Mind Tricks, Big Pun for me. I was heavily influenced by Rap and Hip Hop in the late 90's, and somewhere between 2003 grime music took my love away from Hip Hop for a long time. I love the fast, aggressive melodies, and lyrical word play that grime generated.
How did you first get into beatmaking anyway?
I found a broken down PC on a trolley. I took only the desktop, plugged it in still worked but it kept shutting down every 30 minutes. I installed FL Studio 6 the demo. I was bored and started messing around with it and made my first sound. Kept on loop feeling all proud of myself lol, my boy dropped by and heard the sound that was playing out my desktop, asking me who's tune is that? I replied it's mine - what do you mean who's tune is this? I thought he was being funny. He started rapping over it and getting excited and was suprised that I can make a beat firstly, and to make one out of a constantly breaking down desktop, he noticed before me that I had some passion for this. so I took it more seriously when I grabbed myself a decent notebook as something to start around with.
I would describe your style as being somewhat on the Trap side. How would you describe it?
It's Trap, I've been messing around with Trap for 3 years now. I would want to master my style on Trap, but as soon as I feel I'm good with Trap beats, I will jump back into grime and Hip Hop asap. I'm already missing it.
I think it's important to spend a lot of time on basslines because they really fill out the beat. What's your favorite part of a beat to work on?
Deffo bassline, because it can actually make or break your beat. You have to study how much bass you can use around certain instruments and sounds, it can clash so right or so wrong, you have to respect the bassline! LOL.
If you had the chance to go back in time and start making beats again, what mistakes would you correct?
Ah man, my biggest mistake is not learning or knowing anything about mixing down beats. I would deffo of started with learning how to mix a beat first before making an instrumental and posting it to the world.
Styles come and go but there seems to be a resurgence of new beatmakers nowadays. What kind of advice would you give them?
Stay hungry, keep learning, keep listenning to new and old music, never limit your creativity. Keep your passion and love for beatmaking away from the business side of music.
What can we expect from Muszolini in the near future?
A lot of work with my artist Martian and myself, we have dropped 2 EP's for fun, on the works of a 3rd EP, then some singles and an album. Born2Achieve is our brand. We started last year.
Thanks for doing the interview. Any shoutouts you'd like to give?
Hell yeah, shout out to God, my Mum, and all the IllMuzik producers. And my boy Martian, my artist that got me back into beatmaking.
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