MeSo is one of the fastest-rising artists in the underground electronic music scene. With roots in both house music and bass music, he is known for his eclectic and unforgettable live sets and wonky mixes. MeSo is also the brainchild behind Spicy Bois, a bass music collective full of rich personalities and hip-hop influenced bass music. I recently had a chance to chat with MeSo about his career thus far.
Chicago has been a blessing in regard to musical influences for me. Chicago definitely has one of the most diverse and rich music scenes, but I think everyone that resides in Chicago can agree that house music and hip-hop are the biggest music genres that are relevant in this city. These two genres initially helped me shape the kind of music “MeSo” represents and is still apparent in my sets/productions. I’ve been able to attend many shows of different genres run by many different promotion companies that Chicago has to offer and with this opportunity, I’ve been able to see and be involved with how the music industry generally functions.
I originally got into making my own electronic music all thanks to a rising Chicago rapper by the name “Heffy” who was initially a trap producer under cream collective and label releases on Daruma. We used to hang out all the time and he helped start me off by showing me how to create trap music.
The basses used in “Fleeek” were originally created by Cnopes. I added distortion/saturation along with proper EQing and compression to help me keep everything leveled.
I originally made Spicy Bois with a goal to offer talented artists a platform where they could share their music and be heard. A short term goal for 2020 is to be able to curate Spicy Bois takeovers or even stages for the upcoming festival season.
Honestly, I didn’t do much on social media and I still don’t do too much. I tend to keep posts short and simple.
As mentioned earlier, hip-hop had a big influence on my music. There’s just something about hip hop style drums that I find really groovy. However, I can’t really say that hip hop collectives have influenced the way Spicy Bois operates.
When I made the eclipse remix, I had no idea what I was doing. That was when I was still learning as a beginner. What helped me compose the structure of the track, being from Elohim’s soft voice to a bass drop, was the use of looping.
I think one of the main ways Spicy Bois are different from other collectives is the goofiness that is portrayed amongst members of the collective. We’re all funny and weird producers which helps form an unexplainable bond with each other.
So something that I think helps with crowd control is sound that is familiar with everyone. That’s what I was searching for when the vocals “everybody dance now” popped up into my head. This track was the first time I produced at the 50bpm range which is a style of production that I love to make.
I’ll get a few requests a day on Xbox from fans. I’m currently playing the new “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare” and I’m not sure if there’s a parallel between EDM culture and video gaming, but I do know many other producers out there happen to enjoy video games.
Scratching in my live sets is definitely spontaneous. What determines if a track should be scratched over is the feeling you get from the groove/bpm of the track and if there is enough space in the track to add the frequencies emitted from scratching.
I think one of the main elements that originally set me apart was the usage of hip-hop, house, and bass within a single track along with the usage of uncommon BPMs.
So Conrank had reached out to me out of nowhere asking for a remix to “Drum In Time”. I intended to keep the remix different from the original by putting a hard-hitting sustain as the main lead.
I love lo-fi beats, especially during long car rides. I also listen to a lot of tracks sent to me from friends and strangers.
This place isn’t somewhere I haven’t been, but Summer Camp Music Festival is somewhere I’ve been wanting to play for a long time because it’s a home festival for me.
I actually entered EDM with house music and was DJing a lot of tech and deep house before I became MeSo. I’ll always have a love for house music and would definitely consider some more house projects somewhere along the road.
If I could have anyone join Spicy Bois it would have to be ISOxo. He’s absolutely killing trap music with a touch of experimental sounds.
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