After releasing a handful of tracks, it was a Kill The Noise “Roots” remix on Craze's Slow Roast Records that really established BRILLZ among the elite producers in the world. His remix of Zedd’s mega-hit “Clarity” kept things moving. The track premiered with BBC RADIO 1XTRA – one of the UK’s most popular and cutting edge stations. But Brillz is also a brand ambassador. He made a bold move within the DJ scene – he released a full-length album.
“I wanted to do a full-length,” explains Brillz. “I think like a painter or a fashion designer. I wanted to created a body of work and I wanted to make an impact.”
The album was titled TWONK, breaking into the iTunes Dance Music Chart – and the remix album, “Re-Twonked,” released in December, broke into the Top five with remixes from BRO SAFARI & UFO!, JACK BEATS, LOUDPVCK, and more. Three years after Brillz made his breakout appearance on Mad Decent’s free imprint Jeffree’s, the Twonk originator has inked a deal with Diplo’s Record Label proper.
What is TWONK?
“Twonk is a human weirdo, and twonk team is the movement of the weirdos. Twonk is about creativity, it’s about individuality, being weird. It’s about self expression.”
EDM Sauce had the opportunity to have a sit-down, face-to-face interview with one of the best trap producers in the EDM community before his recent stop at Webster Hall – the fourth date on his 40+date, TWONK Di NATION Tour where he'll be accompanied by his homies Party Favor, Jackal, DOTCOM, Ghastly, LAXX, Kayzo, Party Thieves, Willy Joy, Y2K, Aryay, Dr. Fresch, and Infuze amongst others. The Twonk boss will showcase his bevy of forthcoming Mad Decent material.
On the upper floor in the VIP room, we talked about his new tour, collaborations, vape juice, and the future of Brillz.
Brillz’ Twonk brand – a lethal cacophony of rattling percussion, twisted vocal chops, serrated laser synths and high-octane bass – has permeated dance floors the world over. After performing more than 150 shows within the last two years including sets at Lollapalooza, Electric Zoo, EDC Las Vegas & Orlando and Nocturnal Wonderland, Brillz is ready to once again serve up a hearty helping of barreling beats on his TWONK Di NATION tour.
New York City is one of my favorite cities to play especially at Webster Hall. It’s an epic venue for me. I met one of my good friends Kill The Noise here. Starting off the tour doing Webster Hall New York in the first week is just magical”.
Traveling with buddies PARTY FAVOR, Aryay, Dotcom, Dr.Fresch, Ghastly, Infuze, JACKAL, Kayzo, LAXX, Party Thieves, Willy Joy, and Y2K shouldn't be a snooze, either.
“It’s probably the dopest part of the whole tour. Usually everyone is on different flights and you meet up at a festival or (a) show but we're kind of squading up in the TWONK Di NATION tour bus.
It's just endless jokes, everyone is working on new music, everyone is playing each other’s tunes, and we get to smell each other’s feet, and we get to clean up after each other. It's a lot of fun. We’re shooting a really fun tour diary, so we’ve been shooting a lot of scenes for that. We vape, listen to music, and go buy snacks. A lot of snacks, got to have a lot of snacks!”
“These are the first shows I’ve done since the GEEKIN’ EP came out, so seeing all the homies, all the kids singing the words to it and kinda know the records really well. It's just really inspiring. It amps me up, makes me go crazy on stage so it's really super, super, super dope. I push myself really hard, I just turn that reward into more motivation and I get back into the studio and make more records.”
He got to do a live collaboration with hip-hop rapper Que as well – who he worked with on the “GEEKIN' EP.”
“He (Que) is one of my favorite rappers. this year at Webster Hall were gonna do GEEKIN' live. Its next level – I really wanna do more collabs like that.”
Brillz has come a long way in the past two years. Between creating unbelievable remixes and getting signed to some of the biggest record labels in the EDM industry, there is no stopping this talented producer. Even though he has only been around a few years, putting his art first was able to help him evolve.
“When I started Brillz, trap wasn’t really like a thing that was big or happening. So when I started making Brillz records I was just doing shit that I thought was dope and I think that was the magic ingredient into where I am today. If you make music, you gotta make it because you love it first and foremost. You can’t have this big grand plan on how you're going to be successful. That’s not the right way to get inspired. I look back and I’m just grateful to myself just putting my art before everything else.”
So what is it like at a Brillz show?
“One time I saw what I like to call THE TWONK TOWER OF POWER — you got one person and then another person gets on their shoulders. Then the other homies lift that person up and he stands on the bottom person shoulders. So it’s three people high in the crowd raging – that's pretty wild. I don’t know how they get up there. People have mad talent.”
But TWONK is much more than elevated perspective.
“We are dropping our TWONK Vape Juice, for the vaporizers. If you vape you, gotta go to The Drip Club and get some TWONK juice. There are a lot of really dope videos coming out for that. I'm working on another EP that is going to be out early next year. Finishing off the second half of the TWONK Di NATION tour, and then with TWONK the Clothing line were gonna be working on a new drop for the spring and a new drop for the summer so we will have a bunch of new gear. If you want to keep up with the TWONK Di NATION tour, we're gonna be posting up tour diary videos so those will be pretty dope.”
His advice to future producers: “Fuck shit up and no regrets!”
Brillz was a kind, and hilarious DJ to interview, he had some of the most creative answers and comments a journalist has ever interviewed. After the interview of course he played an incredible and wild show. Some of his homies like Que also joined Brillz on stage to perform GEEKIN’ live. Also Party Favor and Willy Joy joined Brillz as well to amp up this wild and crazy show. Throughout the entire show, Brillz had one surprise after the next, performing some of his well known tracks. All of Brillz’ fans were jumping up and down, banging their entire bodies along to the music.
I have been to Webster Hall for years and I have never seen so many people go that wild. The entire nightclub was filled wall to wall with trap fans, from when the show started to when it ended there was not a sad face in the crowd. Everyone had a smile on and raging out their favorite songs. Brillz is a talented producer that is not slowing his journey down anytime soon. The new year is right around the corner, and who knows what surprises Brillz has up his sleeves for 2016.
“All I ever did was make music that I love. The fact that it became a genre was completely out of my hands. I’m glad it did (become a genre) because all the other producers contributing to it and all the fans that love it built it (Twonk) into what it is. Ultimately, society and the audience decide what's going to be popular. That's what happens in dance music. There's different phases of different things and so you know no matter where those phases go I’ll always be making music. I’m not one to predict the future, I couldn’t predict that Trap was going to be huge. I’m just gonna keep making music and just take it one step at a time. That’s the fun of it all, you don’t know what's going to happen.”
Listen to TWONK DI NATION TOUR MIX VOLUME 2
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