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The Megadrives

K-Rai: We started out in south Catonsville, where we had built up mutual friends that are musicians, and Joe had started using this program that I had opted to start using, called Renoise. My background with music was that I had been using a tracking program, which Renoise is, for some time, since 1995. This new program came along that had a lot more capabilities to it, and Joe had never tracked before, but he'd been DJing. And we were both pretty new to this program, even though I had a little bit of experience with a similar type of program, so we started showing each other tracks, and Joe was like, 'I've got a mixer, so why don't we plug it in an see what happens?'

When did the band first start, and how many records have you released? Press Start is the only official release, correct?

K-Rai: We started in 2005, and Press Start is the only official release as far as a full CD is concerned. We've made various incarnations of a demo CD that have gone around as well as continually periodically putting up some live recordings of shows.

DJ Sheephead: There's also the compilation.

K-Rai: Oh yeah, there's this compilation that's a sort of Intergone vs. The Megadrives. There's this band out of California called Intergone, and it's kind of a similar thing, like live electronics. Every year, we do this battle here in Baltimore, because I guess two of the three guys are from here and just moved out to California, so they come back every year during the holidays to do these battles with the bigger umbrella of people who know each other through music and other stuff.

At what point did VJ Chroma join the group?

DJ Sheephead: I'd say earlier last year.

K-Rai: I think it was early 2008.

What have you felt his contributions have done for The Megadrives in terms of the live performance, because he didn't contribute to the record, since the band is the two of you?

DJ Sheephead: Well, they enhance the show and make it more psychedelic, I guess.

K-Rai: It's something more to look at besides two guys with laptops, and they give it more of an arty feel.

Would you say that's the reason why a lot of groups in this style such as Crystal Method, DJ? Acucrack and the like include any kind of fascinating visual presentation?

DJ Sheephead: Well, it makes it more stimulating.

K-Rai: And makes it more of an experience.

There have been groups in the electronic scene that didn't necessarily do that, so do you think that it was any sort of retaliation to that idea? At what point did you realize that the visual element was that necessary?

DJ Sheephead: I think it was actually a house party that we played. It was at my house in Catonsville, it was a friend's birthday, and we were playing while he was in the living room showing some videos he had done. People were just complimenting it and saying how well the video worked with the sound and went along smoothly. It just added on to the experience of listening and watching.

K-Rai: I think it's also because a lot of the other bands like you've mentioned seem to have more of an actual live presence, like having somebody up there to do vocals and draw all the attention and focus, whereas we are not trying to be lead singers. We're just up there doing music, so the visuals provide a nice distraction and entertainment for people. Well, not really a distraction, but...

So it's just to give some good visual stimulation?

K-Rai: Something more to look at than our ugly mugs! [Laughs.]

Obviously there aren't any vocals in your music on Press Start, with the exception of occasional samples, but is it something that has ever crossed your minds to incorporate?

DJ Sheephead: It's actually crossed my mind a little bit, because I used to do vocals in a band before The Megadrives. I did a bunch of solo stuff, but before that, I actually did some vocals in a band, and there actually is one track on Press Start with vocals, but it's not anything I think I would feel comfortable performing live. Recording in the studio would be one thing. Maybe we could get someone else to do it. We've had people MC for us, before and that's always been really good.

What is the songwriting approach between the two of you? You do perform live, which was rare for some time but is becoming more common now as people are incorporating live electronics. But in the studio, how much of it is premeditated and written and how much comes from the moment?

DJ Sheephead: Most of our songs come from the moment. Really, we just sit down where I have something, or we start with nothing, and just jam out for an hour, pretty much, and record. It's the same thing for an hour, than we take that hour and figure out how to make it into five minutes, and that's where the premeditation comes in.

K-Rai: Either that or it will be a good 15 or 20 minute chunks of something figuring that one thing we had worked out well. And then there is hour of two of recording that might turn into three or four songs.

A lot of electronic groups these days are mixing genres, putting in a little bit of drum & bass, a little bit of rave, a little bit of house and what have you. What is the value in that as it pertains to your music?

DJ Sheephead: A lot of genres are tempo-based, and we like to change the tempo, slow it down to where you're dancing at a different speed; again, it's more of a different experience when you're on the dance floor. It gets so fast, and people tend to keep on dancing as it gets slower, so it gives you a chance to catch your breath while you keep on going.

K-Rai: It's a lot less monotonous, and it's a lot less repetitive; it keeps people on their toes (no pun intended) and it keeps things interesting.

You mentioned your primary use of Renoise. What other tools in the studio and live?

K-Rai: The thing with Renoise is that something that you couldn't do with old trackers was VST instruments; we use a lot of those, but we actually try to render as much stuff out into samples from those VSTs as possible.

DJ Sheephead: What I like about the program is you can use a bunch of synthesizers that you don't have to have on stage, so it's a lot less gear to bring out.

K-Rai: Yeah, so you have these MIDI keyboards that sort of become these different synthesizers via these VSTs, so they're like personal instruments. I really like this free synth that this Japanese guy, Ichiro Toda, put up online called Synth 1. It's really versatile and gives me that basic analog arpeggio ability that I've always liked and admired. There's this company called Tweek that offers a lot of free VSTs, and some of them are really glitchy, and some are really experimental. There are bigger fat ones out there too, like Trilogy for bass lines, and then there's Absynth and V-Station, FM7, FM8...

DJ Sheephead: And we use Sound Forge to record and edit samples.

K-Rai: But Renoise is also really versatile and has a lot of built-in VST effects.

So it's fair to say that The Megadrives are primarily software-based?

DJ Sheephead: Oh yeah.

A lot of people these days seem to be going in the opposite direction, going back to analog and hardware, so what are your thoughts on that debate?

DJ Sheephead: Oh, hardware is great! I have an old analog Roland synth that I just recently acquired, and I will sit there and press record and make a bunch of noises out of it and just record samples from that.

K-Rai: One thing also is the simplicity and speed as far as setting up shows; the less you haul out, the less anything is going to break or go wrong. I would love to have more stuff in the studio to work with, as far as that goes, but it's all really expensive. Maybe one day when we have some extra cash. Right now, Renoise is pretty cheap compared to Ableton.

DJ Sheephead: It's also more complex. The thing about hardware is I have a big sequencer, and then I also have drum machines, but what I like about the computer is that it's more versatile than hardware. With software you can take one piece of software and multiply it as many virtual times as you want so you can have a thousand of one thing, but with hardware, you only have one of one thing. Also, with the drum machine, you have a tiny screen, and all of your menus are on that little tiny screen; with a computer, you can see everything going on.

K-Rai: You can delve into the matrix of the sound and manipulate everything as much as you want to.

You guys have recently done the Electronica Fest and have done shows with people like The Crystal Method and did the Acorn Benefit show, so what besides electronic music has driven the music you make?

K-Rai: Not obvious influences? Maybe Radiohead.

DJ Sheephead: Radiohead, definitely. There are some J-pop bands that we get into.

K-Rai: And not the cheesy ones, but stuff like the Boom Boom Satellites. They were on the Appleseed soundtrack.

Press Start was self-released, so what are your ambitions as far as finding a label? Do you think that's even a necessary step for The Megadrives at this point?

DJ Sheephead: We've been kind of debating on that, just looking and kind of doing research right now and trying to think about releasing some possible singles with some small labels and putting out DJ tracks and something possibly like that.

K-Rai: It would be great to maybe get on some compilations. We are looking into that, but right now with the way that things have changed so much and the music industry is evolving and changing so that you can do it yourself, we can get direct manufacturing and do our own label. That's what we're essentially doing at this point. It would be great for the sake of distribution, but in spite of that, we're on Amazon and iTunes and CD Baby.

What's next for The Megadrives?

DJ Sheephead: Right now we are working on tracks, instead of our last album, which we recorded live. We played everything live that was recorded on Press Start. Maybe on two or three of the songs, we actually sat down and wrote them out on the computer. This time, we are actually sitting down in front of the computer and combining what we do live with that and writing it all out and programming it.

K-Rai: It's a different process, and it takes a lot longer. Once you get it, you get it, whereas on the album, we did take after take. Now, we're just combining it all together.

DJ Sheephead: This way we can add smaller elements and we can do a lot more tweaking.

K-Rai: And better mastering, better quality of the sounds.

Who is responsible for the mastering? Do you do that yourselves?

DJ Sheephead: Yeah, pretty much. Now I've learned even more about mastering and have been reading up about it.

K-Rai: Fellow musician friends of ours have been a really great help as far s providing input and things like that. We've gotten some really good tips and discovered some good mastering VSTs so you can really analyze the sound and get a really good professional sound.

What are some of the newer artists or releases that you've either played with or that you've seen and heard that you feel represent where you think this music should be going?

K-Rai: Well, they're not a new artist, but The Prodigy, their new album Invaders Must Die. I was really happy to hear that. It really is a next step for them to be new school aimed at old school influences.

When can we anticipate a new album?

DJ Sheephead: Well, being our own label, whenever we want to do it. Our intention was by the end of the year. It all depends on how much work we've done by that time. It's the nice thing about not having a label: you're not too pushed to get things done as fast as possible. Sometimes things go on forever.

K-Rai: Yeah, so sometimes you need that push. Right now, we're trying to get into more electronic type shows and festivals. And keep an eye out for new releases; there are remixes we are working on, and we are constantly working on new stuff and getting our songs produced for the new album.