Dominating the festival scene and accumulating astronomical SoundCloud plays, Moonbase certifiably one of the countries hottest producer commodities. We caught up with him ahead of his Yours & Owls stint to chat festivals, beats and ~dream collabs~.
Hey Nick (Moonbase)! What are you up to at the moment?
Just been working hard you know! Working on new tunes, new collaborations and some new stuff for my live show, pretty much just keeping busy.
Speaking of your live show, are there any gigs in particular you’re excited for at the moment?
I’ve got a few festivals coming up which is always super exciting – I’ve got Yours & Owls coming up next. I’m originally Wollongong so it’s always good heading back down there with everyone. Overall, just heaps of other shows and festivals that’ll be fun but Yours & Owls was sick last year so I’m definitely excited to be heading back down.
Who are you pumped to see on this year’s lineup?
It’s so hard to keep track of lineups these days! The Presets are headlining so that’ll be great and Cosmo’s Midnight are always fun. I saw Bad//Dreems saw at Splendour and Bec Sandrige is fellow Wollongong dweller so I’m stoked for her!
How was Splendour? We caught your set and it was pretty damn incredible…
It was heaps of fun! It was the first time I’d ever done the live vocal sort of thing, I had Ecca Vandal come along to perform – we’ve worked together heaps over the last couple of months. I worked with DJ Ego and I had this full visual show and it was definitely different from playing clubs and bars for sure.
Take us through your graphic design aesthetic – you really stick out from the current crop of Aussie producers in that right.
Oh cool, thank you for saying! Aesthetic wise, it’s something I’ve always been very close to and something I’ve always had a very clear vision for. When I was in high school I played in heavy bands and then I kind of just made my way in producing. So it kind of just lingered from when I was playing in that realm of music.
Do you have a collab wish list?
I can’t really tell you because it wouldn’t be a dream list anymore! Everyone’s got their dream list but in making collabs happen, it works differently every time. I might know the person or might see the person out and we get talking and it just kind of happens naturally which is why I guess it’s so fun.
On the topic of wish lists…are there any festivals and venues you’re dying to hit up?
I started playing warehouse parties and house parties and I never really had a list of places to play because I didn’t think it’d apply to me, then I played Splendour this year and I never thought that would happen. I kind of just take whatever comes my way (laughs), I love playing bars but whenever a festival comes knocking I’m not gonna turn it down!
Who are your favourite SoundCloud and emerging artists?
Well in the last 6-8 months I’ve started up a record label, Trench Records and that pretty much started with picking out some of my favourite artists and giving them a platform to release and give them experience in the real world. X amount of followers doesn’t necessarily equate to sold out shows so it’s good to turn in it into something tangible.
