The QR Network
  • Interviews
  • News
  • About
    • Contact
  • Privacy & Cookies

The QR Network Presents

EDM Interviews, Experiences, and Everything in Between.

Urbanstep Talks Road So Far, Urban Stars Records, and RAVEĀ  Reborn

6/27/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
Tell us about your new album "Road So Far" and how you went about promoting your self-release. 
The Road So Far album is an accumulation of many styles I have adopted throughout this epic seven year long journey of making music. Last time I released a full length album was in 2014 with the "Victorious" LP. Looking back, I'm not proud of it anymore even though some tunes have still held up. With Road So Far, I wanted to present some collaborations with talented, up and coming artists who are mostly underrated and unknown. The goal was to help them by generating streaming hype by releasing through my label.

The story behind the album is more meaningful and conceptual than you might think. I view life as a constant battle. For the past five years, I have been fighting for survival in a very poor environment surrounded by alcoholics, drug addicts, and criminal elements. On top of that, I've been dealing with physical health issues as well as multiple deaths of loved ones in the past years.
Trying to chase an independent career as an artist in the western music industry has been a never ending struggle. Despite all that, I'm still alive, I prevailed, and that's one of two main messages I want to deliver to people.
  • How important it is to fight back when life hits you hard and never give up.
  • The ability to have freedom of expression.
While I respect genres, I love experimenting with them like releasing a deeper bass house tune with Dropheadz and then releasing a melodic dubstep tune with Soar. And of course the more electronic rock stuff with my good friend Micah Martin.
View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Urbanstep (@urbanstepreal) on Apr 23, 2019 at 11:46am PDT

What was it like to reunite with Micah Martin on "Where We Are?" 
To be absolutely honest, this tune started out as a more Marshmello-type tune but then I bashed the concept and passed it to fellow collaborator, LENNY. He made this darker trap banger out of it.

Tell us about the EDM scene over there in Latvia and your experience with event hosting over the years? 
I've been throwing events in Latvia since 2017 as part of the teams responsible for six RAVE Reborn events and two Next Sense event series. There are lots of cool DJs here, but not enough skilled producers when it comes to electronic music. With the RAVE Reborn series, I was trying to unite the scene and make it more open minded towards multiple genres of electronic music. I wanted to give people the freedom to play what is closest to their heart. Through this, I hoped to open people's minds to new types of music because in my opinion, the scene is somewhat divided into the drum & bass scene and house/techno scene. Also, the harder bass styles are barely present at all. I just felt like people were missing out. With both series, we brought out 250 to 450 people for each event which is great by Latvia standards. The country has about two million people under a difficult political and economical situation in general. 

What have been some of your most memorable moments from the events you've hosted? 
There have been so many of them! Things like girls dancing and raging with me on stage to the moments backstage where I've been able to talk with so many different, interesting people about all sorts of things. That's what I love about rave culture in general - the music is kind of aggressive in many cases, but people are so peaceful and cool.
View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Urbanstep (@urbanstepreal) on May 20, 2019 at 9:54am PDT

Walk us through a day in the life of Urbanstep. 
I exercise, play sports, write down my ideas and tasks on paper, try to eat healthy 90% of the time, and work towards a healthy lifestyle in general. I also listen to a lot of music, watch videos, tutorials, movies, and talk with people. I try to gather inspiration from everywhere and from everyone while sharing my own ideas with others. This communication is very important in my opinion.
From your perspective, what are some of the things holding producers back from reaching their maximum audience and potential?
There are many different reasons that hold people back. I know lots of them don't feel motivated enough, or they work hard for years and don't see any significant results. Expectations get fooled and they get depressed. Some live in countries where their surroundings are so depressing that it eats them and they just give up. A lack of resources can create tons of problems. Some lack knowledge, some lack discipline, some lack contacts, friends, or have picked the wrong people to be around. Sometimes it just comes down to not being lucky enough. Luck plays a significant role in being successful.

Some don't see trends, don't want to follow them or know how to implement elements from hype music to make themselves sound more fresh. Most importantly, some people just don't feel influential enough to actually set trends. The fact is that we work together as one scene to create them. Some don't understand that we are actually inspiring each other. I would also say that it takes a solid character in general to be successful in the music industry or anywhere for that matter. You have to be a warrior.
Looking towards the rest of 2019, what do you have in store for the Urbanstep, Urban Stars Records and RAVE Reborn?
I've been strongly considering moving to the USA for the past few years and am currently in the process of trying to get my visa. I'm also participating as a judge for Panda Battle, which is a local rap battle that has been around for a few years. If you are in Riga, Latvia and like rap battles I heavily recommend attending.

We had a break after the last RAVE Reborn event in October 2018, but now we are coming back on July 26th in one of the biggest and most solid venues in the country, Studio69. This is going to be an entirely new level for the series and a fantastic resurrection.
View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Urbanstep (@urbanstepreal) on Feb 18, 2019 at 10:06am PST

Not too long ago, we released Urban Stars Compilation VOL. 1 featuring Puffin, Dropheadz, Misfit Massacre, bassReaper, Frepz, Prismatic, Papercut, and so I heavily recommend listening to it!

Thanks so much to Urbanstep for taking the time to answer our questions. Be sure to follow him on social media using the links below!

YOUTUBE SPOTIFY FACEBOOK SOUNDCLOUD

RECOMMENDED

Picture

PREVIOUS

Picture

OTHER INTERVIEWS

Picture
Picture
Picture

Chris W. Lao

Writer, DJ, and Student.

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Interviews:

    Adventure Club
    Axollo
    B3RROR
    Birthdayy Partyy
    Cat Dealers
    ​Chad Kowal 
    Chester Young
    Chocolate Puma
    Conor Ross
    ​Corx
    D'Angello & Francis
    Dannic
    Damien N-Drix
    Debris
    Declain
    Dirty Ducks
    DJ Brooklyn
    Drop Department
    Fabian Mazur
    Folded Dragons
    Foxa
    Herobust
    High 'n' Rich
    ​Husman
    Ibranovski
    ​Jex Jordyn
    Jimmy Clash
    ​Jonth
    ​Jordan Jay
    Justin Mylo
    KAAZE
    Kage
    Kompany
    Krimsonn
    ​Kris Kiss
    ​Leah Culver
    Loca Recordings
    ​Loris Cimino
    DJ Luane de Lima
    Luca Schreiner
    Lucille Croft
    Maddix
    Magnificence
    Marauda
    Maurice West
    Merzo
    ​Micah Martin
    ​DJ Natalia Moon
    NEVERGLOW
    Nino Lucarelli
    Olly James
    ​OUTRAGE
    Pessto
    Peter Rijpkema
    Pharien
    Pro​tohype
    Retrovision
    Riot Ten
    ​Roy Orion
    RudeLies
    SaberZ
    ​
    Salvo
    Sativ Records
    Seth Hills
    Sophie Francis
    Steven Vegas
    Stisema
    ​Sunday Noise
    SWACQ
    Syzz
    ​TBR
    Teminite
    TNO
    Todd Helder
    Tom & Jame
    Tom Wilson
    Tommy Jayden
    Triple M
    TV Noise
    Valy Mo
    Wasback
    Yuki-San
    Zubah
    9lives

    Tags

    All
    Armada Artists
    Axtone Artists
    Bass House
    Big Room
    DJs
    Dubstep
    EDM Adventures
    EDM Industry Professionals
    EDM News
    EDM Spotlight
    Future Bass
    Future House
    Imagine Festival
    Interviews
    NCS
    Progressive House
    Quartzo Artists
    Revealed Artists
    Site Updates
    Spinnin' Artists
    STMPD Artists
    The Music Elk
    United
    Vocalists

    Archives

    March 2025
    October 2021
    June 2021
    March 2021
    September 2020
    July 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018

    RSS Feed

Ventures

FACEBOOK
Instagram
ITUNES
​TWITTER
​MiXcloud
Soundcloud
Youtube

QR Network

About
​Privacy

© COPYRIGHT 2021
. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
  • Interviews
  • News
  • About
    • Contact
  • Privacy & Cookies