The aftermath of the two day Ultra Korea Music Festival was felt pretty heavily by all the participants. By far the best way to recover was to catch some sun and relax by the pool. This year was first Ultra Pool Party held at the Local Hotel and Casio, Walker Hill. A few acts got a second chance to perform in front of the Korea based electronic music audience. Elect Row was lucky enough to meet Louis Rich, Brass Knuckles international agent, and was able to get a good Q&A out of the guys of Brass Knuckles about their first Asian tour, Korean food, and their inspiration to get into music.
Elect Row: Love the name “Brass Knuckles” how did that come to be the official group name.
Brass Knuckles: In July of 2010 the group had ameeting at the studio. We decided to take a new approach in the production game. In order to get our work out there quicker, we decided to start making DJ friendly remixes. The new plan sounded great but we had no name. Anthony said “We need a strong name.” Then I (Danny) looked at him. He was wearing a T-shirt with a big Brass Knuckle on the front. I said, “How about Brass Knuckles?” It stuck from there. That meeting was the start of it all.
ER: How was your Asia tour?
Brass Knuckles: The tour went great and over all very smooth. Performing at Ultra Korea was definitely a highlight of the tour.
ER: What did you expect from the fans and how did everything turn out?
Brass Knuckles: We knew if it were anything like our past Asia tours, it would be an unforgettable experience.. and it was. The clubs and festivals are high energy and a lot of fun for us and the crowds.
ER: What did you think of Korea?
Brass Knuckles: We love Korea. We had the best BBQ of our lives here. We were very impressed by the nightlife
ER: Was there any hesitation coming to Korea after hearing about what happened to Nick Warren?
Brass Knuckles: Not at all. We always strive to play for the crowd never ourselves.
ER:Did you make any changes to your normal set for the Korean audience?
Brass Knuckles: From our past experiences in touring Asia we know to play nothing but high energy tracks and a lot of vocals.
ER: Any plans to come back to Asia/ South Korea soon?
Brass Knuckles: We are hoping to come back at the end of fall. If not next summer.
ER: You played a few new tracks at UMF Korea do you have anything coming out soon?
Brass Knuckles: We played our current single with The Cataracs called CRACK. We debuted our new single WATERGUN featuring John Ryan at Ultra Korea, that is scheduled to be released at the end of July, early August.
Elect Row: How many years have you been involved with UMF?
Brass Knuckles: About a year. Our first UMF performance was at UltraEurope in Croatia last summer.
Elect Row: Does being on the Ultra Label help with getting gigs across theworld with their various Festivals?
Brass Knuckles: Ultra Records and Ultra Music Festival are two different entities. Being on Ultra Records definitely helps in pushing our brand to their network of fans worldwide. We would like to thank our International agent Louis Rich The Rich Group, LLC www.WeAreRich.com for working hard and getting us gigs across the world.
ER: UMF’s birth place was Miami, are you guys natives to the city? And if so did UMF have any influence on you when you got started in music.
Brass Knuckles: Yes we are Miami natives! UMF and Miami nightlife had a big influence when we got started in electronic music. The best DJs in the world play in Miami on a weekly basis so living in Miami opened our eyes to the genre.
ER: Who are some of your biggest influences/ motivations?
Brass Knuckles: Our Mothers!
ER: Who are some of your favorite performers/ artists in the electronic music?
Brass Knuckles: Steve Aoki, Diplo, Skrillex, Justice,Daft Punk
ER: Who are some of your favorite performers/ artists outside of electronic music?
Brass Knuckles: Jay – Z , Radiohead, Sam Smith
ER: What kind of guitars do you use on tour?
Brass Knuckles: Tony: I’ve used a white ESP LTD EX-360 for pretty much every show.
ER: What set up do you use for the guitar? I didn’t see a marshal full stack in the back…
Brass Knuckles: Tony: I have a wireless system that routes through a multi effects stompbox into a soundcard into Ableton on Danny’s computer. A little more convenient than lugging all that stuff halfway across the world.
ER: Do you use a pedal board, or just run it direct into the computer for any effects.
Brass Knuckles: Tony: We use a Zoom Multistomp pedal which is basically a bunch of effects pedals in one stomp box. There’s also some more processing in the ableton channel such as compression, eq, delay, etc.
ER: When did you come up with the idea to use the guitar in live sets? Wasit something from the beginning or something that developed over time?
Brass Knuckles: We have a history in rock bands and live music. When we decided to perform out, it was natural to make the guitar a part of the show. We wanted something that would set us a part from other DJ’s.
ER: Did you have any other experience with other instruments besides guitars?
Brass Knuckles: Amongst the group we play piano, sax, drums andbass, and turntables.
ER: Ableton or Logic?
Brass Knuckles: Ableton
ER: What kind of DJ gear do you use for most live shows?
Brass Knuckles: CDJS, Pioneer DJM 900,Serato, Ableton Live 9, APC 40
ER: What do you use when producing in the studio?
Brass Knuckles: We use Ableton Live 9 plus a bunch of plugins and we always have a keyboard and guitar handy.
ER: Thanks for the great Q&A guys! Hope to see you in South Korea again soon!
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