∞ The Brown Noise ∞

Hot Sugar is one of my favorite producers in music today. The New York-based beatmaker, real name Nick Koenig, creates super summery, organic instrumental hip-hop that is perfect for blasting on a sweltering July day. His recording process, an inventive method he calls Associative Music, culls sounds from our everyday lives to weave an incredible canvas of sound and texture that just isn't possible with traditional recording methods. It's a lot of work, but it shows: I've been bumping his instrumental EP, Muscle Milk, since around early this year. It's that good. Nick has a full-length with a bunch of rappers that will be released sometime in 2011, and he's working with crooner Aaron Livingston in a band called Young Vipers, who recently made their live debut at The Roots picnic. Nick Koenig recently spoke to The Brown Noise and shared with us the secrets of his sounds, and some tips on making it in the New York City music scene.
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THE BROWN NOISE: The way I first heard of you was through your track “The Seagull”, which got quite a bit of internet attention last year. Did you know it was gonna be a big track?

 
NICK KOENIG: Nope. Im glad it did, though. I got really sick while making it. I recorded a piano to a cassette tape, then tried to microwave the cassette just enough to warp the plastic a bit and make it wobbly. The tapes kept catching fire so I had to do it more than 20 times using different cassettes until it melted just right. The burnt plastic fumes in my apartment really hurt my throat and eyes that week so im glad it was worth it.

 I recently saw this pretty incredible video of you making a song. You describe your process as “Associative Music”. What exactly is that?

 
Its when you record non-musical sounds and transform them into more traditional or accessible musical voices. Its kind of like “sampling”, only instead of sampling another piece of recorded music, you're sampling the sounds of the universe around you. Ideally, the listener shouldn't know what you recorded. Its important to disguise the origin of the sound so as not to distract from the composition you've created. Its all here in this internet pamphlet:www.AssociativeMusic.com 

<p>HOT SUGAR: MAKING MUSIC from Creative Control on Vimeo.</p>
"I wouldn't record something that didn't look cool being recorded."

 
You came up in New York City, where everybody and their best friend has a “sound project”. How did you work to separate Hot Sugar from the competition?

 
Thats a weird question. Im a fan of any artist trying to innovate in the sound world, so I never saw other “sound projects” as competition. Its a pretty small network and I'm always looking for new talents. If anything, the music producers that don't have a “sound project” are my competition. Anyone in NY trying to do something genuinely new is family to me.
 

One of the things that separates you from other producers in my mind is your drum programming. How do you make sure that your drum sounds are just right?

 Most of my drum samples aren't drums. I record stuff on the streets of new york with my portable recorders and then process them, or tighten them until they sound like drum samples. Anything is percussion if its short and tight enough, even silence.

You have a lot of crazy visuals to go along with your music. How important is the visual aspect of music to you?

I wouldn't record something that wouldn't look cool being recorded.

Recently Izza Kizza jumped on a remix of your track “Fuckable” with Baghdaddy. How did that remix come to fruition?

 
Kizz heard some of my beats before Muscle Milk and got really excited so he came over and I showed him how I made stuff. He got really inspired and then he got really high and started smacking all of his pieces of jewelry against each other. I think he smacked his watch against his chain against his belt buckle, so I whipped up a quick beat from those sounds and he went nuts. We've been friends ever since.

 
NYC has a million scenes and anytime you fit too much into one of them, you'll end up compromising your work to fit that scene's demands. Also New York's all about diversity so if you're only sticking to one scene you're missing out on everything else. Also, there's a different between O.G's and dinosaurs. Just because someone's been in a scene for years doesnt mean they know whats up or you should trust them. Don't shoot or push for just anyone. Also, never get high on your own supply.

You say on your Facebook page that “studios are the cancer of the music industry”. Why do you think that is?

 
Studios are prisons for instruments. They're intentionally designed to isolate an instrument's sound from the rest of the world. I treat my sounds with respect. On any given track, my guitars could be recorded in a moving subway car while the drums get to play on a mini-golf course. Would you rather hear a violin recorded in an oppressive audio-quarantine with no windows, or in a Ferrari, a Jaguar switching four lanes (with the top down screaming out money aint a thing)? 

You gave away your recent EP, Muscle Milk, online at your Bandcamp page. Was it important that you give fans your work for free? Do you pirate music?

Yes very much so. Mp3s got popular when I was in elementary school learning how to use computers so ive been downloading music my whole life. I owe all of my musical knowledge to the facility of Internet pirating. Producers used to brag about spending their youth at record shops buying 5 records at a time, but whats that to a kid downloading an artist's 20 album discography on a whim? When youre spending money on records youre liable to make safe, familiar decisions to avoid potentially expensive mistakes. Every purchase is at the expense of another, but if you're stealing stuff, there are no repercussions to exploring new territory. I want to listen to every conceivable instance of recorded sound and I would never have been able to afford my self imposed education if I had to pay for it.

We've been working as Young Vipers since way before the Muscle Milk EP, in fact Color Wars is a Young Vipers track. Aaron's one of my favorite singers, dead or alive. When we make a track together his vocals become the lead instrument and everything I do aims to support them. There's a creepy quality to his voice that delivers something beyond the lyrics. His voice itself almost sounds like an associative instrument. 

You have an upcoming EP called Moon Money. You’ve said on twitter that the new music owes a lot to Nyquil. So are the new songs like chopped ‘n’ screwed versions of old Hot Sugar? How else will the new tunes be different?

I can't talk too much about Moon Money. I guess I can reveal that one of the tracks features Sarah Michele Gellar..

The actress?

No. Its a rat named Sarah Michele Gellar. She makes cool sounds... kind of. At her best she sounds kinda like Ronnie James Dio but on a bad day she sounds like Dispatch. Either way, this'll be my first collaboration with a rat.

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Support Hot Sugar and download his Muscle Milk EP free from his website.