Datsik is an artist that needs no introduction; so far his brooding sounds of dark and bombastic energies has developed him into a favored dubstep artist. Now, Datsik is not only switching his sounds up for the sake of artistic progression, but is reigniting the house-like spark between himself and more house-orientated partner, Bais Haus.
The combined effort and genre-bending duo known as Ephwurd emerged in the summer of 2015, and the rest has been history. thatDROP was more than happy to sit down with Troy Beetles and Haus, the masters themselves, in the middle of their Summer 2017 tour to get to know them better.
Ephwurd has undoubtedly left a large impression, musically, as two very diverse artists who make their unique styles work in harmony on the finished track; how did you make your different styles work in complete unison?
I think it has come down to the fact that we are just really great friends. We don’t take anything to heart so that makes the writing process easy. When working together if one of us doesn’t like a certain part of the tune we have no problem dropping it, there is never any argument and it really makes finishing songs so much easier. We can always bounce ideas off of each other and when you have two sets of ears in the studio its a lot harder to get stuck in a musical rut.
Before releasing that fateful “Lean On” remix that put you as a duo out in the open, how did Datsik and Bais Haus originally come together as a collaborative effort?
We met through Steve Aoki in 2009 while we were both on tour. Troy was touring with Aoki and I was working under Steve doing a lot of different things for him and his label Dim Mak. We ended up hitting it off then we collaborated on the tune “Closer To The Sun” on Troy’s Let It Burn LP. After that Troy and I started touring together and writing a ton of music. We eventually had to put a name to it and thus Ephwurd was born!
As artists with distinct personas and musical styles, how do you normally work over creative differences [if you have them]?
This kinda goes back to the first question. We are just straight up with each other and we never really argue about anything so making stuff is a much more fluid process.
You guys are fresh off of your appearance EDC Vegas 2017, is there any specific experiences on and off the stage that you walked away with from this year?
Yes always! EDC MainStage was an insane first experience for both of us. When you are dealing with a crowd of that magnitude you really see what works with the music selection, mixing styles and of course… stage antics lol. Some tunes that we thought wouldn’t have been as hype ended up being the most hype… Oh, and of course, playing Backstreet Boys is always a win, now we know this 🙂
Aside from your Summer Tour that is already in full swing, do you have any new material in the works you would like to tell us about?
Yes we do and we are super pumped!!! We are in the process of working things out with the label right now and that’s all we can really say at the moment on that front. We spent the first half of the year writing about 10 new tunes and we are just trying to place all of them now. Some of them have been surfacing in our sets and mixes but we want to find the proper home for all of them to be released on. We aren’t in a hurry at this stage in our lives, we really want to make quality music vs dumping out songs just for the sake of maintaining some sort of image. Stay tuned though, they are coming!
With full-time efforts going into both the “Datsik” and “Bais Haus” names, how do you usually find the time to get together and make music? Can an Ephwurd collaboration come out of blind inspiration, or do you set times during the year to focus on the duo’s work?
I (Bais Haus) have put my “behind the scenes” life on hold and have been fully pursuing Ephwurd. Since Datsik is such an established name, running two brands is a nearly impossible job to do and for me Ephwurd has been way more fun than any of the Bais Haus stuff I’ve done which was mostly Film/TV/Ghost Producing. With that said we have periods where Datsik will be writing his next EP or playing on his legendary Ninja Nation bus tours. When that happens I go into full writing mode to pump out as may ideas as possible. Then once Troy is free we link in the studio to really dial in the ideas with the mixing and sound design. It’s pretty much a job that never has an end. Once Datsik ends, Ephwurd begins and the cycle keeps on chugging along. It works out for us even though we’ll have moments like “OK, time to turn off our phones for a week and binge watch like 5 shows.
What has been the most interesting aspect of combining your efforts to build Ephwurd musically?
Learning stuff from each other. We are always bringing ideas to the table and once one of us absorbs information from the other person that becomes a tool we can use in the future. It’s great… It kinda reminds me of playing a video game where you are constantly upgrading your inventory, only with this its our production knowledge inventory.
Are there any artists in the future that you both would like to collaborate under the Ephwurd name?
Everyone is asking for a JoyRyde collab which we would love to do one day. We are all busy people though so getting all of us in the studio for a week is a task. We have also been really interested in pop music lately so working with any vocalist who has mad chops is a goal for us. Getting a great singer who knows how to gel with our vibe is difficult but we are up for the challenge!
Once again, we want to thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedules to answer all our most burning questions at thatDROP.com; is there any last words you want to leave for your Arizona fans out there?
Cant wait to come back and get wild with you guys again!!! Also stay tuned for more new music!!
Enjoy a playlist of Ephwurd originals below:
