—-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Interview with halfpipe:

Belle: How do you make music as an independent artist?

HP: the way I make music as an independent artist is fully out of my bedroom, you know its never a case of booking studios or rooms or whatnot unless we are really trying to refine something but the majority of stuff is coming straight off of our home computers and all the stuff we have just accumulated over the years I guess. I think we have been doing it long enough now to get it working and get it sounding you know to a professional standard without having to use professional equipment, which is pretty sick if you ask me.

Belle: Ahh nice okay so how did you / when did you learn how to make music? What taught you?

HP: I started with making music as a little 17-year-old playing guitar into my ableton and I think from there and kind of realising I could loop stuff I just naturally got into the hip hop side of things and got more into beat making you know I taught myself everything through YouTube really. Refined those skills at university. 90% of it is from YouTube tutorials, obviously trying it and seeing if it works is a different case but yeah you just got to keep going until something sounds good I guess.

Belle: I love that mentality haha, what advice would you give to newcomers, people your age?

HP: I mean im a newcomer myself, I try and tell myself not to lose sight of why I make music, I have a crazy love for music and I know so many people who are the exact same like countless amounts of new artists that are still underground that aren’t as out there as others. But yeah, just don’t lose sight of why you started making music and you’ll be cool. Obviously, it depends on the music but for me if I can stay as true to myself as possible then it just benefits the outcome and the music, that’s a preference for myself though.

Belle: So why did you choose to stay true to yourself and be independent?

HP: I mean I feel like being independent gives you a lot more freedom and takes a lot of pressure off, personally, it goes back to the last question really, I would rather surround myself with people I care about and you know invest in myself and them rather than giving a cut to somebody I might meet like three times in my life that’s just what works for me. I mean personally I feel without that added pressure you can’t lose sight of what is important I guess.

Belle: Who inspires you? Who would you like to be around?

HP: I could go on for 45 minutes not going to lie haha but um production wise J Dylaknowldge, madlib, Pete rock, Dj premier. Mc wise obviously you got people like DOOM, Lord apex in the UK you got all my guys my friends are my influencers, they’re probably the reason I push myself further because I’m just surrounded by likeminded people innit, that fucking Erica Badu, D Angelo, King Krule, ahh I could go on for ages. Why do they influence me? In terms of Dyla, man he just tapped into something that no one had tapped into before, the way he flips a sample and swings his drums he just keeps everything off the grid its just it blows my mind. You know I try and test myself and test my production skills by trying to make things inspired by him you know in terms of the Erica Badu, D Angelo, I just love soul and I feel like If I can incorporate soul into my own music I can really make it my own I can make it different. In terms of the UK artists and my friends I don’t even need to speak on them they’re just too sick.

Belle: Seeing the success of other independent artists, does this inspire you to go further?

HP: I definitely think seeing independent artists succeeding and popping off it really makes me and my mates think oh shit like we could really do this. Like we could really do this and like once one door opens 20 doors open kind of thing. Yeah so it definitely inspires me to go further, especially seeing other independent artists do bits really inspires me yeah.

Belle: Finally, do you make music for fun? Or is it something that you want to do in the future?

HP: I definitely make music for fun without a doubt, I spend the majority of my time surrounded by it you know whether it is producing something, writing a verse, finding a sample, just sitting down listening to a record. It is just a constant you know what I mean. It started as a hobby and if I could in the further be able to purse that hobby and be able to make it into something more, obviously that’s the dream isn’t it that’s what we all want to do. Um but yeah.