Chicago-based duo Autograf is all about taking their sound to the next level with deep house grooves that juxtapose breezy beach vibes.
On Monday night, they played for an intimate crowd at the Motor Room as the debut performance for Grooveshark’s new series, Grooveshark Presents. Grooveshark is a streaming service that boasts a loyal online community of more than 30 million users. By transitioning to event planning, the Gainesville born-and-bred company hopes to bring innovative acts directly to the fans, segueing from streaming tunes to showcasing these special sounds in the flesh.
Via: Facebook
Gainesville’s own Bells & Robes and San Francisco’s Happy Accidents were the opening acts that night. The laid-back vibe presented by all three acts is where electronic music is heading in the next few years, becoming more substantial, rather than being a repeated rage-balls metric cycle.
“It was like if you were at beach club at the Bahamas, and there wasn’t a roof on it, and it was dark out,” said Luke Sipka, one half of Bells & Robes. “You could hear the waves and see the stars, but a raging bass line kept you grooving all night long,”
Autograf first gained attention for their sexy remix of 50 Cent’s “Magic Stick” and have since put their own future spin on classics like Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition” and Marvin Gaye’s “Grapevine.” With thousands of followers, their tracks and sets have been played millions of times.
Their trademarked name Autograf has more meaning than audiences would think. Their bio reads, “It’s about leaving your mark on the world — it’s about leaving your Autograf.”
The crowd at Motor Room was small, but the atmosphere was intimate and anticipative. Everyone in attendance knew exactly what to expect from these inventive artists.
It was a nice change from the typical show in Gainesville. You know the drill: Hundreds of basics X’d out for a DJ they’ve never heard of but who they pretend to love anyway because #EDM.
Check out Autograf’s Grooveshark profile because you will definitely be hearing more of them soon and wouldn’t it be nice to say you knew them before the mania takes over?
Autograf took a few minutes to talk to me about their sound and what makes them so damn cool.
Via: Adam Not Eve
You describe your music as “future house.” What is future house? What makes it different from… present house?
The problem with assigning names or genres is you’re trying to describe something, in this case music, that can’t really be fully described in words. It’s meant to be described by listening to it in the same manner a picture can’t be fully appreciated by any other means except by looking at it. For example, we just got a marimba for the live set and have been incorporating it into our music, so now we’re making so-called “tropical house.” I think we’re all guilty of using genres. It’s just a limitation of human spoken word.
For us, future house has more to do with concepts of the future. Essentially the future is limitless and you can create and do anything you want in this future of endless possibilities. We’re all trying to create a future that’s all our own. We’re all trying to leave our mark in this world. In essence, we’re all trying to leave our Autograf. And we take this same mantra towards music and art-making.
When we first started putting music out, people were labeling it as deep house, which wasn’t entirely accurate since our songs had breaks, elements of UK garage, synthesis and instrumentation you normally wouldn’t find in deep house. Electronic music has been evolving and changing so fast lately with genres coming and going in a flash. So rather than thinking in rigid terms of genres, we just try to make Future Music under our mantra of concepts of the future which incorporates any and all genres. And to us, with these limitations of the human language described before, we like to call it future house.
How did Autograf first get started?
It started out as an art project. It was just a creative outlet for us to build and make whatever we wanted. It started with pop-art sculptures like giant 8-ft Future Soup cans, giant Autograf Brillo boxes, giant cigarettes and then large-scale stage production sets, to robots to street art and then the music came and everyone grabbed on to it.
Autograf’s sound is feels new, but familiar and sexy. What artists do you draw influence from?
We love the soulful classic vocalists like Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder. The guys from back in the day like Sammy Davis Jr. and Rick James had so much talent as performers, musicians and instrumentalists. I was watching this video of Sammy going nuts on the drums and then the xylophone back-to-back, and never mind him as a singer. These guys were so multi-talented. So we love taking their classic vocals and putting our future electronic spin to it.
Via: Pintrest
How do you collaborate as a group to come up with your killer remixes?
If any of us has a good idea, we just run with it. Our first one of 50 Cent and Lil’ Kim’s “Magic Stick” was inspired when I heard the song on the radio while in a convertible 300-ZX while cruising around in LA with the top down, wind in my hair and sun on my face. I could just feel the vibes and wanted to make a chilled out, sexy “Magic Stick.”
What vibe do you want audiences at your live shows to feel?
I think you just nailed the key word: Vibes. Just some good chill, future vibes. We do like using tropical instruments in our production. It just creates this sexy, cool melodic vibe that’s been lacking in a lot of this overly aggressive dance music as of late. So just imagine yourself chillin by the beach, or having a cocktail by the pool or dancing your ass off in the sweltering heat at a night club in Rio, that’s an Autograf show. Good vibes.
Feature photo courtesy of: White Raver Rafting
