Happy Friday everybody! And for all the weed heads out there, happy 420! I’m sure you’re already knee-deep in glass jars and an assortment of delicious snacks, so I think I’ll just move along to today’s feature as I don’t think many of you will have much of an attention span, haha 🙂
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Over the past few weeks I’ve have befriended a young producer who has turned out to be a great influence of mine. The sheer energy that this kid has for life, his friends, and his family really makes you think about the things you are grateful for. His enthusiastic dedication to his music is something that I believe to be an absolute necessity to success with your music. I mean, obviously there is no correct/incorrect way to make music but, the way that each of his songs reflects a specific journey or interaction is just very fascinating to me. When he describes the influences for each of his songs to me, and then I listen to them, the songs seem to perfectly portray his words, but in an audible fashion. I am very confident that this man is on a path to great success with his music.
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It should come as no surprise that I am an absolute nut about the “tribal” style beats. Layers upon layers of hard-hitting, deep, and rythmic percussion. Maybe it’s the fact that it has been instilled in us over thousands of years of tribal culture, as Killawatt stated in his interview with us earlier this year, but, there’s just nothing else like in my book.
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Today’s feature is on 16 year old Dutch producer, Camu. I first caught wind of his music after one of my routine scans of Trusik a few months back. Instantly, I was HOOKED. It was the tunes ‘You Are’ and ‘Asmat’. I will never forget it because I distinctly remember thinking to myself, “this is the it!”. Camu’s incorporation of tribal vocals, spacious soundscapes, and powerfully taunting sub-frequencies is something to really watch out for. His music perfectly embodies one of the most prolific phrases among deep heads, “meditate on bassweight”. Every tune is a story, and you can really hear/feel the story progress into each of it’s different states of emotion. As he is still quite young, I am very anxious to see the ways in which his sounds evolve and begin to really blow people away. The man has been generous enough to giveaway THREE of his songs to you, the readers. I have listened to all of these songs, and they are absolutely beautiful, all of them. You guys should feel lucky too, as two of the songs have only been heard by myself, Camu, and MAYBE a handful of others. It was really a shock to me when he came back to me saying that he has three tunes for us, as I was only expecting to do a giveaway of one tune. It was nuts! I feel truly blessed and all of you should too. Please show the man some support by checking out his pages and shout him a personal message or something! Anyways, enough of my rants, let’s get to know Camu!
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BWS: Let’s get the formalities out of the way, give our readers a quick rundown on yourself.
Yo Kinman, I’m Shawnee from Amsterdam. I have produced music since 2008 and I focus mainly on Bass and percussive music. I’m a very peaceful person and I’m really honored to be interviewed by you!
BWS: 16 years old. Not going to lie, you seem to have a much deeper consideration for the spiritual side of life than I would expect. You mentioned visions that have inspired your songs in your Trusik interview not too long ago, can you tell us more about that?
Well I dream and think a lot, and the last couple of months have been very busy for me. So many things have happened and I’m not really good at expressing my emotions so I close my eyes and I just dream, think about what has happened and what’s going to happen. And with those things in mind I make music. The past few months have been very hectic, a lot of bad shit has happened but luckily things are starting to get better now. Much better in fact. I can finally find peace with the things that happened and put all the stuff behind me, which is something I could never really do before, and I could never do it without my girlfriend. She has helped me get through a lot of the difficulties in the past few years and she’s always very sweet to me. I truly love her with everything I got. She always supports me and always is there for me, and that means much to me.
BWS: I’m sad to say that I’ve never had the opportunity to visit Amsterdam, although hopefully soon! How much influence do your immediate surroundings have in your music?
Well in a certain way it does. When it is busy around me, for instance, my music is always a little harder and more filled with drums. And then at times when it’s quiet my music is more soulful, more emotional. The city itself also has and influence on me, there’s a lot of great architecture and a lot of creative people and there’s always something going on. Never a boring day here in Amsterdam. I love to walk and discover new parts of the city with my girlfriend, there are a lot of beautiful places here that many people don’t usually visit.
BWS: What is the “dubstep” scene like in Amsterdam? Are there a lot of good opportunities to see and hear the artists you love?
The scene here is mostly bro, of course there are a few good nights, Sonic Warfare, for instance, but unfortunately they stopped after 5 years, which is truly a great loss for the scene here. I personally don’t really like to go out that much though, so I don’t really have much information about the scene. I just don’t like being around all of these angry, screaming and moshing kids. I really prefer to stay at home and just relax. If there’s a night with really good artists I might go though, but overall I’m not much of a party person.
BWS: How did you first get into the 140/dubstep arena?
It came out of the blue to be honest, I had never heard of it before until one day, after my brother came home from a long holiday. He was in his room and played Bar 9 – Triple Drop, I had never heard anything like it and I was hooked instantly! After that I started listening to artists like Excision and Datsik and so on. Later on I discovered Dubstep Allstars vol. 4, and that completely changed my perspective on the genre and I started getting more into the original sound. Artists like Burial and Kryptic Minds became instant favourites of mine. Then in December 2009 I went to my first gig, which was Sonic Warfare, and DJ’s such as Youngsta, The Bug and Jack sparrow were performing and I didn’t know any of them until then. Was truly an amazing experience!
BWS: Each of your tunes is it’s own journey man, straight up. You have really created your own sound. Where or how do you see yourself progressing in the near future, as far as your sound?
Thanks a lot man, that really means a lot to me! Well I hope I get better at doing mixdowns and at making soundscapes and such. I just basically hope my sound will get better and better over the years, I want to leave people stunned when they hear my music, create a certain vibe that will make people happy and I hope my sound will always stay original. I don’t want to sound like anyone else haha. It would also be great if I could someday expand my sound to other kinds of music like Hip-Hop, Techno, Drum & Bass and Ambient music.
BWS: What is your primary means of production? Laptop? Hardware? Live instruments?
I use my laptop with Renoise and a lot of samples, basically. Then for the synths and the sub I use Massive, and sometimes I use my microphone to record my own samples. A bit of fieldrecording.
BWS: Do you any rituals that must be taken care of before you can hit the studio? If so, what are they?
Well, before I start any serious tune I always make sure it’s completely dark in my room. I have a nice big glass of water and I burn my favourite incense. (Nagchampa Agarbathi or Vidwan) That is all really. Before I start producing I usually read or watch something that is very inspirational to get me into the mood, to forget about this place and travel to the place I am going to create. I start a lot of tunes every day though, like when I’m at school or get a sudden burst of inspiration. But most of the times I end up leaving those tunes after a while. My best tunes really come from concentrating, being in the dark and being relaxed.
BWS: Now, you’ve been generous enough to give us a song today for the readers to download and enjoy, can you tell a little bit about the tune and how it took its form?
I have decided to give away three tunes, since I have reached 100 likes on FB, 200 followers on soundcloud and, of course, because of this interview. All of this really means a lot to me and I would like to give something back in return to all of you! The first tune is called “You Are”, I made it in December last year. I basically wanted to make something melodic and I found that vocal sample and just had to use it. It’s been one of the best samples I have ever found, really. I had thought for a long time for what I could have done with the second part of the tune, but after trying so many different things I finally made something that sounded good and that made me happy. The second tune, “Lying Entombed” Is a tune I made early march. I read an amazing book about the Aboriginal people and that gave me a lot of inspiration. I actually made a couple of tunes based on that book but this tune came out the best and I would love to share it with everyone. Nobody has heard it yet and I am really proud of the second drop. It was really so much fun writing this tune. Finally, the third tune I’m giving away is called “Visions Of Wings”. Monday last week I experienced something very unique and that is the whole idea and inspiration behind this tune. The tune runs at a 174 bpm, something I hadn’t really done before, but it really turned out great and I’m very pleased with it. This one is also brand new and only a few people have heard it.
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If somebody wants the WAV’s of these tunes feel free to get in touch with me!
Much respect to Bassweight Society and Kinman, I hope all of you have enjoyed reading this and are enjoying my music.
Peace and Love for my Girlfriend, my family and friends.
Take Care,
-Shawnee Camu Alltmann
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Many thanks out to Camu for this interview and, most importantly, his generosity! Be sure to stop by his pages, drop him a “hello”, and keep your eyes on this one, he’s going to be making waves very soon. Below you will find his contact info/pages. You will also find all three of the free downloads below, hosted on the BWS Soundcloud page. We all hope you enjoy the music and enjoyed the read. Until next week….
Camu Soundcloud
Camu Facebook
AIM: camusounds
Skype: camu_dj
Email: Shawnee_altmann@hotmail.com
Camu – You Are (FREE DOWNLOAD)
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Camu – Lying Entombed (FREE DOWNLOAD)
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Camu – Visions Of Wings (FREE DOWNLOAD)
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One love to the gods, ya’ll.
-Kinman
Bassweight Society 
