Munchii Gets After That Cheese On New EP
Congratulations on the release of Your new EP, Get The Cheese! How much time did it take for you to complete the EP and what is the EP about?
Thanks! Get the Cheese has been in progress for the past three years and it’s a journey through the evolution of my sound. The name comes from a lesson that Dylan (ill.gates) gave one time about a promo strategy called “getting the cheese.” Basically, the idea was that in order to solidify your name in fans’ minds, you’re constantly switching up where your followers go to get a piece of value from you. It’s like telling everybody to go to your website to watch a VR version of your album release (which is what Porter Robinson did for his album, Nurture). Or if you’re a fashion company, it’s like setting up a pop-up shop in LA for one day. Suddenly, you have fans from all over the world gathering to your website or shop to get that new thing from you.
In Get the Cheese, I am the fan. I have been a fan of EDM forever, wandering this maze of music production for 15 years. Throughout it, I’ve gone through many distractions, such as drugs, money, sex and social media and it’s all wooed me away from getting the cheese, which is in this case, a solid, defined vision. I go through an insane amount of genre switch-ups in the songs on this EP, which is probably a nod to my ADHD, and I’ve battled through it to create 8 songs I am proud to release. I feel like I’m just a video game character and I’ve finally focused enough to create a finished product that sounds good.
How do you get ideas for your songs?
As you can probably tell, I get distracted by a lot of things. The first song, Chicken Wing, was inspired by a TikTok meme. There’s this viral video of a little girl singing a song she made up and someone else turned it into a shitty rap beat. Then an Arabic drum line group made a cover out of it. I used that cover for inspiration. I used to play drums, so I loved the syncopated beat. I turned it into a four-minute genrefest going from brostep to hardcore to trap to riddim. And that’s just one song. Temper Tantrum was inspired by the game Ancestors, where you have to play as a monkey and escape from predators in the jungle as you evolve into a human. Dry Eyes is about grinding in the studio until 3AM. Terra Cotta Soldier is about ancient clay soldiers buried in the tomb of the first Chinese emperor. I’ve had a vast imagination ever since I was a young child and the Munchii project was born to foster that sense of creativity and passion.
What other artists do you listen to for inspiration?
I have a lot of artists I listen to for inspiration and I dig through Soundcloud and music forums a lot to find new music. For this project, I’d probably say it has a lot of influence from TYNAN, Phlegmatic Dogs, Henry Fong, 808Gong and Icytwat. All bass-heavy artists but they make completely different genres.
How do you approach collaborations? Do you have any advice for others who are trying to collaborate?
The best way to start a collab is to have a solid foundation for your idea. All of the collabs I made on this album started out as almost finished ideas. I sent ill.gates a finished beat with room for vocals, Sharrol Kelby sent me a whole 3 minute song with two drops in it. I sent Petty Penguin an almost finished song and he chopped it up. Zila sent me these future bass chords with a riddim drop in the middle. Make sure you leave some room for your collaborator to play around with it too. And when they send you their version, don’t erase their idea and write over it unless you truly think it is necessary. There’s nothing worse when you send someone an idea you’ve painstakingly spent hours making and they send you back something that not only overwrites your idea but also sounds terrible. Work with the idea, not against it. “Be like water,” as Bruce Lee says. Fun fact: I was named after Bruce Lee.
Tell us about your new products on the Producer DJ Marketplace
So, I have a few products on there. One is a project walkthrough of Chicken Wing, which is the craziest, most ADHD song I’ve ever made. I thought people would be interested in how I made it. Second, I have different merch packages available. The first is called a Snack Pak, that includes the Get the Cheese album artwork, stickers, a pin of a cute fast food item (I got french fries, popcorn, soda, you name it) and an autographed picture. Then there’s the Secret Recipe bundle that includes a 6 month Livestream Subscription, Meet & Greet and Snack Pack (Stickers, Pin, Fridge Magnet, Cover Art, Artist Photograph). There’s another option called the Lunchbox that includes a Metal Lunch Box, T-shirt, Shot Glass, Pocky, Secret Recipe (6 month Livestream Subscription, Meet & Greet) and Snack Pak (Stickers, Pin, Fridge Magnet, Cover Art, Artist Photograph) The last item is the Food Tour, where you can come to my house for a weekend. We can make a collab, or play a set, or if you’re not a producer or DJ, we can go to this trippy aquarium in Baltimore where I live and I’ll introduce you to the underground raves around here.
What can we expect from you in 2022?
I have a lot of collabs in the works, one with Kermode, who’s an awesome DJ friend I made from Canada. I have other collabs I’m working on with Hubac, LO-2Fi (aka Shadow Gauge) and I’m thinking of releasing a bass house EP later this year. I’ve got shows with four different promo companies in the Washington, DC/Baltimore area set up for Spring 2022 and I’m thinking about doing a mini tour. I’ve also made it a goal to get on a festival lineup this year so that’ll be coming in one form or another.
Is there anything else that you would like to share with us?
I make it a point to uplift the rave scene wherever I go. I want to see great producers and DJs doing their best to perform and music lovers dance their hearts out when they spend money on a show ticket. My project exists because I want to share that sentiment with the world. So just know that if you follow me it really helps support that vision and I will be an advocate for making this world a better place where everybody gets to eat.
Stream/Download Get The Cheese EP here.