QUIX on his latest ‘Arpeggio EP’
Continuously shaking new ground with his unique sound design, QUIX has played some of the biggest festivals like Coachella and supported the legend Steve Aoki on his Kolony tour. He tells us about his latest EP, his collaboration with The Chainsmokers, the best advice he’s received from long-time collaborator & friend Alison Wonderland and more.
Hey QUIX, thanks so much for taking the time to chat to us - we have been fans of your music for a very long time! First of all, we'd love to know about your musical journey from when you first started making music?
Thank you so much! Yeah so I've been a lover of music and musician ever since I could walk. I started lessons & playing drums at the age of 9 which then evolved learning bass, guitar and piano. At the age of 14 (I think...), I got into digital music production and my love for electronic music started to grow. Being able to orchestrate an entire music piece rather than playing individual instruments was so much more fulfilling to me, and I started to put all my time into learning audio engineering. I first heard the legend "RL Grime" and that converted me to my love for Trap music and from there I've never looked back ... or well I've ventured out into different genres BUT I've always moved forward! Not backwards!
Amazing! And congratulations on your new incredible EP ‘Arpeggio’! Did you have an idea of what type of EP you wanted to create going into writing this?
‘Arpeggio’ consists of 7 tracks that were created over the last 5 years, a lot of them being demos on my laptop for so long! ‘Arpeggio’ is a musical term that basically means a bunch of notes that play one after another to create a chord, and so I'm using it as an analogy to show my creations over the last 5 years that all coexist together to make one sound! My sound, the QUIX sound. I did want to go super dark and deep on the EP, go back to some of my roots with music production and also hit the commercial side. But overall I'm SO happy with how it turned out - I am very proud of the EP and how all the songs flow together, and it brings back lots of memories of when I initially started each project all those years ago!
We absolutely love it too! ‘Grenade’ is an INSANE track and one of our favourites! What was writing and production process from the first sonic idea to the final product?
‘Grenade’ has a great story ... it's kinda long though. BUT the quick wrap of the story goes, The Chainsmokers hit me up for a collab start of 2018 and we tried to get a playable ID for their Ultra Miami headline set! We got something really sick and they played it (I was also in the crowd for it too which was INSANE). Basically over time it was tough to finish the track with them as they were extremely busy and I was ready for the track to just "never come out". Then covid happened ... more time went on. Then middle of 2022 I thought I should reach out and ask if it would be possible to release the track by myself. Expecting a "nah bro" THEY SAID YES! And even better they allowed me to use Drew's vocal! It's one of my strongest streaming songs online and I've had so much positive feedback, it's one of my favourite songs I've released!
Such an crazy story, we’re so glad you were able to drop it! What were your some of your favourite moments working on the EP?
To be honest, the moment when everything was 99% finished was the best and worst moments. Because there were just countless hours of mixing and mastering and small problems trying to get the .01% details correct (that probably 99.9% of you guys won't even notice haha!) BUT when it all came together and I played it fully through I had this beautiful sense of peace and fulfillment.
That’s so awesome. And we know Alison Wonderland has been a long-time collaborator of yours! Has she given you any pieces of advice that have stuck with you over the years?
Alison is a beautiful person haha, she's one of my best friends, even outside of the music world we've developed a beautiful friendship! Also the fact we now both have kids we have hilarious parent chats ha! One of the best things she said to me years ago was to "break the rules and stop doing things the usual way audio engineers would work, because worst you can do is "fail" and best you can do is BREAK THROUGH INTO A NEW SOUND AND CHANGE THE WORLD??" Yeah that was a great piece of advice ... don't be scared to fail a few times before you strike gold.
Yes, super inspiring! Who are some of your favourite NZ artists right now and are there any songs in particular that you especially love?
Yes so NZ is just cracking out with new artists and some extremely talented people. To just throw some names out there off the top of my head but Cortr and Emwa have been making some amazing music lately. But a kid that needs mega hype right now is my little bro DJ Shredder from Christchurch. He's about to turn 13yrs of age and is one of the most talented DJs that can spin any kinda genre and also is always in front of the game with the latest ID's and tunes! He's actually playing his first show with me down in Ashburton very soon too!
DJ Shredder tearing it up in Ashvegas, let’s gooo! What have been some of your career highlights and what are the biggest lessons you’ve learnt so far?
I feel like I've learnt so much since becoming a dad, just the perspective on life and what it means, my values and where my time goes. I've been amazingly blessed to have had the opportunity to play some of the biggest festivals in the world, and be on the road with some of the goats in the industry! I think a stand out moment for me was when Alison brought me out on stage in Denver at Red Rocks in front of 10k people to play our new collab that had just been released!
Wow, I can only imagine what a surreal moment that would have been! Lastly, we end every interview with this question - if you could say one thing to every person in the world, what would it be?
I love this question! What I would say would be, "it's okay to fail after trying many times, that's life, the world around you is filled with snapshots of people’s WINS and you're not seeing how many times they failed. I've failed many times, wasted time, money and resources ... but if you give up then you’ll truely 100% fail and that's not an option.
You need to keep trying, try a new way, sometimes it takes years and years before anything happens, be patient and remember that MUSIC ISN'T GOING ANYWHERE ... you have so much time! I feel like one thing I've learnt recently is that we have so much time, people love music, it will always be a joy in people’s lives, you don't have to be a teenager and 'blow up' in 6months or you suck. No, I’m 28 and still think I've got years to go before I "make it". There's always more, you keep working and working and getting better, practicing and upskilling, you will see results no matter what! And then also the Lord loves you, may he bless you, keep you and give you peace."
Wooh amazing, thanks so much QUIX! Make sure you keep up with him on Instagram, Facebook, Spotify or Apple Music.
