Carnage On The Reign Of Trap: “I Don’t See It Going Very Far”
Long before “Harlem Shake” and the run of half-measure trap offerings that have taken root in dance music, producer Carnage successfully emerged as an unsuspecting powerhouse from the quieter realms of small-town Maryland. A self-professed hip-hop junkie and mixtape beatsmith, whose journey has taken him from his birthplace of Guatemala to his current home in LA, this country-bred hopeful has not been shy of testing the waters across electronic music’s vast skyline, with festival domination close to mind.
Now making waves with big-room house music, laced liberally with the 808s he mastered in his youth, his juxtaposition of Spinnin Records homerun “Incredible” with Borgore matched against high-profile trap takes for Fools Gold and Musical Freedom has left this unlikely country boy wholeheartedly unsympathetic to those chiming in at his unwillingness to be pigeonholed. With a manic tour schedule that is sure to set him in high stead for the summer festival circuit, Beatport News pulled up a chair with Carnage to set the record straight on his beat-savvy bravado and his reservations about the future of trap.
It was pretty clear at the outset of 2013 that things were falling nicely into place for you. How are you feeling about the way things have panned out?
It has been unreal. Everything happens really fast at the moment, when everything is sparking and everything is moving so positively. It is pretty overwhelming sometimes. There have been some challenges, like dealing with constant travel and people hating on me every time I try a new fucking genre, but the journey remains a positive one for me.
Word is that your studio exploits began at the age of 16, courtesy of a few self-help books and a love for hip-hop. What inspired you to start making music given the circumstances?
Living in the country, there was nothing really to do. I used to rap, so I thought making my own beats would both be cool and pass the time. I started a group with my friend Bruce, who also rapped, and I started hosting his mixtapes. He would push me into sampling music and pulling eclectic points of reference into the music I was making. From here I got into making beats and developing them into proper tracks, and as time passed, the platform for this music became more and more relevant.
Flash-forward to 2013 and the hype seems to be unprecedented. How do you interpret the industry scenario you have landed yourself in?
It’s hard to digest the extent of this whole thing. As I said, the whole industry has moved so fast, meaning, we have no choice as artists but to get running with it. You have to just take it all in and not let the hype distract you. You can never be satisfied or too comfortable with where you land, but at the same time you can’t take any commotion that you make too seriously. I see people getting distracted by their own shadow and then before you know it the momentum has died. Times are fast upwards, but just as fast on the way back down.
In spite of the likes of Afrika Bambaataa and his early electro/hip-hop peers, you would think this is a fresh union of sounds by the recent global reaction. Does this bother you at all?
Nail on the head! I think this time around it was more the pop world digging its claws into the dance world really hard. A lot of rappers and the urban community saw how crazy that was and all the money that was being made. Who could blame them for going for it? That seems to be how it sparked up in mainstream America, and now so many new faces are involved that there is not that knowledge of where it all came from. But you can’t get mad; these people still love the music for what it is.
Your sound has scaled everything from big-room house to trap along the way. Where do you see your sound progressing, and do you see diversity in genre as a key driver to your career?
I’m honestly not sure yet. What I’ve always been a big fan of is really huge, big-room stuff. All my music was always big in sound, even when it was hip-hop. When you hear it, the sound is a little overwhelming, more so than your traditional hip-hop, anyway. I always aim for that shock factor with the sounds I use, especially in the bass and the 808s. With the trap tracks, it was second nature because I was a rap producer before anything else, and at the end of the day, trap is essentially hip-hop in instrumental form. Having a good knowledge of using 808s and making my drums hit really hard was a huge help. Incorporating those big elements that hip-hop taught me has translated really well into the modern game.
Legally tainted Baauer breakthroughs and promising remixes from yourself aside, do you think that trap has already exhausted its shelf-life?
Seeing how trap is headed now, there isn’t a lot of originality now as there was. When moombahton and dubstep started sparking, everything sounded and felt new and exciting. Now when you listen to a trap song, you kind of [know] what is going to happen. There is a lack of originality and it is sad to say it. I hate to be the guy who says it, but I would also hate to be the guy pretending it isn’t happening. Nothing really changes in that genre; people are sticking to their guns and thus I don’t really see it going very far.
This interview alone has dropped a considerable slew of genre terms. Is pigeonholing something you have had to combat within your career?
Of course! Nowadays people are being pigeonholed in every little thing they do. It is really annoying. The thing that really hurts me is when I get people snagging at me when I am playing a show on the house stage or making big-room music. They seem to hold this “Hey, you’re a trap DJ, man” mentality—like I signed on the dotted line for it back in the day. It sucks.
We have already been privy to news of your collaborative single alongside Martin Garrix, but what else can we expect from you for 2013?
Word travels fast! The single is called “Tomahawk” and it will hopefully be dropping very soon. Martin is like my little brother and it is insane how talented he is, and so young as well. My next Spinnin single, “Signal,” drops May 3, so that is one to watch out for—I am extra-proud of that number. I’m also doing my first international show, in Amsterdam of all places, which is a crazy first for me. There are a bunch of shows set for all over the UK, too, so I am excited to do a long-overdue run over there. From there, the plan is to work on a lot of house music and really trying to take over the festivals—I want this year’s ultimate festival anthem that everybody knows. I am really excited about working on house music now, and it feels like the perfect time to unleash it all.
