We are happy to welcome RZJ with his first release on phuture collective! His track ‘Lotus‘ is part of issue eight | LUST, HEARTBREAK & RECOVERY which comes out on 3.15! As you discover our interview with RZJ below, don’t forget to press play to hear his addition to LUST.
Interview curated by Soba & Floret Loret of phuture.
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phuture: Hey there RZJ! Welcome aboard phuture collective <3. Tell the world a bit about yourself!
RZJ: Reb is the name that I go by amongst friends. My artist name is just my initials. I’m 18, based in Melbourne, Australia (was born in Bangladesh). A student at the University Of Melbourne hoping to major in mathematical physics and work my way up to a PhD (Dr.ZJ sounds nice). My interests, well…I have plenty, but aside from music I love my sciences (Chemistry and Physics), programming and am a chess fan. I’m a pretty absent minded and clumsy person generally. I can say I’m really fulfilling all my childhood dreams, the very first thing I ever wanted to be was an artist, followed by being a paleontologist (this one didn’t happen as I came to detest biology) and then a physicist/inventor. Life’s pretty great right now. Happy to be on phuture too, great community!
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phuture: What inspired you to create this track? What are your general creative influences?
RZJ: I mainly draw my influences from other genres. I genre hop a lot. I started from actual writing (sheet music) to hip hop to dubstep to house…and so many other things afterwards haha (glitch hop, future bass, lofi etc). When most people say that they produce into a lot of genres, they generally mean they sloppily put together some track, but I have my own particular style which I can execute with proficiency in each of these genres. Outside of production I’m a huge, huge jazz fan (and player). So it kinda just started with a melody like such and worked it’s way up to some new things I wanted to try out. My most general inspirations come from non electronic influences and musical improvisation.
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phuture: What instruments do you play? How long have you been playing music?
RZJ: My main is guitar been playing for about 6 years now. And my second is piano, for about a year now. I can play enough violin and a few ethnic wood and string instruments to add to my production. I’m entirely self taught however.
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phuture: What are your goals for 2017? (Keep in mind to reach for the moon because even if you miss you’ll land among the stars <3.)
RZJ: My goals, ey? Sign a few tracks with some big labels, getting started in gigging. And being able to cope with University at the same time haha!
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phuture: If you had to lose a body part, what would it be and why? Personally, I would give up my appendix. Who needs it!
RZJ: Body hair or perhaps wisdom teeth (when they grow).
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phuture: Why did you get into music in the first place? What birthed your creative ingenuity?
RZJ: The fact that I do not consider myself special or talented is what drives me to do more. That’s when I started breaking boundaries. A lot of producers will just go sit there and wait for an idea to come to them…and this works sometimes but is very time consuming and a lot of good ideas wasted in the process. I value my time, as I have so many interests, and through hard work and dedication I came about to be what I am, not some special talent that everyone told me about or complemented me regarding such. I took a similar approach to learning as I did with my sciences and my musical improvisation skills added to this…all in all. I came up with my own learning methods and adding technique after technique. As I mentioned before, the addition of new genres definitely add to my inspirations. THEORY DOES NOT LIMIT CREATIVITY PEOPLE! A lot of people need to realize they are not special..and when you do realize, it opens up doors. Be extremely critical to your own music, compare them to other similar tracks, be hard on yourself.
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phuture: Give us some shoutouts of artists who deserve more recognition.
RZJ: Hell…Savant…I don’t even know man.. that guy…can do anything. From phuture I give a shoutout to sesh and refractor, they’re both in the process of evolving(?) And it’s very exciting to hear them. Oh and I wanna hear more vocals from Sofasound <3
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Explore more RZJ here:
Soundcloud: @officialrzj
Twitter: @officialrzj
Facebook: @officialrzj