Interview with Corbin Roof
“A most prolific and unique musician. Corbin Roof comes from South Carolina with his genre-jumper electronic music. Now transitioning into sleep therapy and ASMR. Part of the #WEATNU machine, promotional indie supporter and music lover."
Interview by Almark
Being one of the leading supporters, promoters of #WEATNU in a whole, you also write your own special style of electronic music. Would you like to talk about what it means to be a genre-jumper?
CR: It’s a term I coined as I started creating so many different types of musical pieces as a solo artist. I used to focus on just one type of genre per piece I was writing, but eventually I decided to starting putting two opposing styles together per song. Eventually I started writing more electronic rock music as it is easiest for me to produce with what I have readily accessible as far as instruments. The next album will also contain some electro-acoustic.
It’s a very cool concept. I hear all kinds of things, like a mid 90s sound, Fatboy slim, Dust brothers, NIN in your music, did you listen to a lot of those bands during that time?
CR: Fatboy Slim and his videos by Spike Jonez were a staple for me back in the 90’s. I saw NIN live in Columbia with the Jim Rose circus sideshow opening for them. I’ll never forget the level of stereo effects in that concert as sounds seemed to bounce from every sector of the crowd. I didn’t start wanting to create that kind of music though until after “The Fragile" album finally came out.
I hear a very NIN driven influence on Crowd Mover, along with a early 90s hip hop synth melody happening in the background.
CR: I bought a bass effects pedal that had great distortion patches. For some of my earliest albums I had would forgo guitars completely and just use distorted bass.
The album Sampler: ElectroRok is very speaker punishing, kicks you in your arse pretty hard.
CR: I LOVE DISTORTION (if you can’t tell)!!!!!!! I use the Scream distortion effects processor on Reason for literally most of my drums. Gives a more rounded sound quality to add distortion with some other clean percussion.
Are you using a heavy hand on the low EQ freqs in this album, really shakes the room on subs?
Though as you can guess, not everyone has access to subs. True, the distortion is very punishing on this album. How many instruments are you playing on the album?
CR: That’s that sub bass!!! I take it upon myself to listen to my music over at least three different sets of speakers before allowing the public to hear any piece. I usually start out with the Roland monitors while creating and mixing. Then playback on the iPhone6 to examine clarity over very small speakers. Then I have a small Bluetooth speaker that adds a little bass to it. Lastly, I listen to the piece over the car stereo; that also is equipped with sub bass, and test overall quality and peak volume.
Also, I’m playing seven different instruments over that album. Just bare in mind The Sampler albums span the last nine years, and I had a lot of different equipment back then.
So it’s a work as you go type album?
How did you happen to make all tracks sound like they were recorded in the same time period?
CR: That is due to a process I fine tuned for recording and mixing using Sonor and Reason. I had a PA system that I was running all the recorded instruments through. There is a faint hum or hiss in the background, and when I had an older DELL laptop I would occasionally get some bleed through of static from the computers audio processor. Something I couldn’t get a round with that recording process but now that I’m using a different laptop and recording process, I have lost that static.
You’re an advocate for the indie artist, what do you see happening in #WEATNU?
CR: I see a lot of unclaimed opportunity for those not understanding why promoting others works most effectively for artists not willing to pay for promotion. If we started charging for promotion packages, like the spam I get and disregard all the time on Twitter, our movement would implode in a short time as members decided to weigh other options. WEATNU is what we as a whole make of it and as more join in I’m seeing that there are more and more serious supporters that are willing to promote other WEATNU artists, and the radio helps as well.
What is missing from #WEATNU that could possibly be corrected to further the advancement of this movement? Allowing us to reach the masses as this is our goal?
CR: Well I am forgoing the video for UNSTOPPABLE for a little while to work on two promotional videos for the WEATNU movement. I was actually waiting until this interview to unveil this idea to you and the rest of our members: artists placement. In the second year of WEATNU’s existence I would like to get more involved with each of the artists that are willing to take part in artists placement. And by the third year actually put artists placement into effect. There are some extremely talented musicians and minds in our movement and those that are dedicated from the beginning of their membership until the very end should be given a chance to find placement in film, TV, and advertisement if they so choose. It will show a real commitment from the movement to find placement for their music and in turn if they truly understand why the movement works so effectively for those willing to support it they will be more inclined to donate their time and money to its cause.
That’s a great idea, how would you go about giving them placement in tv?
CR: Well sites like Music Clout make you pay for a subscription through them to get “opportunities" to submit to various movies and advertising. This would NOT be a subscription or membership… It would be an opportunity for those that have seriously donated time and or money to WEATNU. I would talk personally about this to each member that fits that criteria and work on outlets for them on an individual basis. Each of the opportunities that are on those sites are posted all over the Internet, if you know where to look or even more importantly have the time to look. Weatnu Records is where I would start. I may not always have the time, as a father of soon to be 2 little girls, to make music, I will still devote my time to helping others.
It seriously just depends on what the opportunities posted are looking for. Some are just looking to fill a library of music for whatever is needed at the time the agency needs it. The problem is that our members are sitting on a LOT of great music that needs to get out there, but they don’t necessarily have the time to put into finding where it can go and be heard or hopefully heard.
So you’re working on yet another album, this time under Roofy?
Yes, but not under Roofy, only Corbin Roof. It’s an acoustic electronic album, “I’m starting for next year." Roofy will have TWEAK YOUR PATH finishing out this year and then REWIRED next year & a few here and there collaborations. While I’m focusing on Corbin Roof branding next year to get into position for the children’s album 2017.
I figure shooting for a goal that far ahead will help to solidify the brand by that point as the sleep aid/ambient ASMR albums have been selling pretty well in comparison thus far.
You’ve also been writing on a new blog through tumblr called The Greatest Unknown musicians of our time, how is that going?
CR: I sometimes feel like I need a huge office with a cheap yet highly functional IKEA desk. Just got in all the musicians info for their spotlights on November’s blog, and already got the next batch of musicians together for December. So if anyone is interested, they can contact me and get on the waiting list. I have decided to contact Jordan Pier of Leaving Richmond at the last minute as his EP just came out (which is amazing) and really needs some exposure. “Just doing my job…" or something to that effect.
I have decided to just delve into everything I can possibly to continue the campaign for Roofy and start branding Corbin Roof with the goal of doing some “street" performances of my up coming album “The Semi-Hollow Box".
#WEATNU Digital Magazine – Oct 29, 2015