SPRITZUR

Written and published by X

Trap has acted as a gateway between hip-hop and electronic music for many people, myself included. The fusion of southern hip hop’s hard-hitting energy with the freedom of arrangement and expression of electronic music results in a sub-genre that acts as an entry point for many into EDM culture. Today I’ll be introducing Tony Kurani, who goes by the stage name Spritzur. Tony produces hybrid trap (hip hop, trap and dubstep), growing interested in these genres after seeing RL Grime for the first time at the Chasing Summer music festival in Edmonton, Canada. “I loved the way his set contained a nice blend of high energy hip hop followed by hard hitting drops, I knew that I wanted to make music like that. After getting home from that festival the first thing I did was download FL Studio and started learning. I started following the biggest trap labels and further defined my style to be a hybrid trap, inspired by artists such as GAWM, VRG and Boombox Cartel.”

Could you walk us through your music making process?

“My music making process actually starts with listening to tracks from my Soundcloud feed. This is my favorite way to find inspiration. Sometimes I’ll find an interesting drop structure and take that idea to my DAW where I’ll play around with it until I come up with something I like. From there, I start building the drop and trying to pick a theme that the intro/breaks will follow. Music production, to me, feels like a big puzzle, where the drop is the foundation or the edge pieces. Once it’s finished, I start building and adding pieces as I go along until I have a finished track. My favorite way of beating writer's block is actually a technique that my mentor, Haterade, taught me; it’s to have a timed challenge, so give yourself 20 minutes per section of the track and try to put down as much of the section as you can. This can help get ideas down quickly and overcome the trap of sitting at your computer spending hours trying to find a snare sample.”

Having producers walk me through their music making process is always my favorite part of the interview. It’s so interesting seeing everyone's unique process. So far, everyone's answer has been different! I also think it can be extremely helpful to read for those who aren’t sure where to start on their own journey, and having a friend and mentor to guide you is a step up. As artists, we need all the advice we can get. Having support and getting the right guidance is everything, especially in a shark tank like the music industry.

What has been the best venue to play at so far?

“The best venue I played at would have to be Palace Theater down in Calgary. This set specifically was important to me because I was booked to open for Sickick, and the booking agent had told me that I can play whatever I like, (sweet!) so I crafted my set to have some lighter dancier type trap beats and sprinkled some heavy feeler tracks into there to see how the crowd would react. The crowd loved the heavy drops, which allowed me to confidently play the hybrid trap tracks that I love and create myself. This set was my first out of town set and it was at the biggest venue in Calgary, but what made it so special was that it made me feel confident in the music that I produce. It further defined my sound as an artist and now people usually know what to expect when they come for a Spritzur set.”