Artist Spotlight & Interview: Staggs

Following our release Staggs’ “Vibrational Swing” EP, we’re diving deeper into the sounds and the man himself. In a scene often dominated by singular styles, Staggs stands out by seamlessly weaving together hip-hop, funk, and even rock influences. Greatly inspired by the swirlmaster Pretty Lights, the first listen to the EP is enough to hook you in. it’s a sonic journey through soulful frequencies. We caught up with Jack, the  behind Staggs, to chat about the creative process behind the EP, his inspirations, and more! Be sure to hit that follow for any and all upcoming releases by the homie!

Where are you from and how did you get into Electronic Music?

I’m from Denver, Colorado. I grew up out here and I think that’s what’s really shaped my music journey. I was always going to shows at red rocks growing up. As I got into high school and started going to shows on my own my love for music really took off. My first concert I distinctly remember going to was Mac Miller at red rocks. Seeing the amazing production level he had blew me away. I was hooked on that experience and never looked back. I started going to any and every show I could get myself to.

As my love for going to shows grew so did my desire to make music. Growing up I had played guitar and piano. I always kept myself involved in music and art as I grew up. My first taste of music production was during my freshman year of high school. I was in a computer class that had us using a program called Audacity. It was pretty basic in its functionality. You could paste audio into the DAW and just cut and warp audio samples. It was basically me just bootlegging and making mashups of songs I liked. This was my first attempt at music production, but it wasn’t until about 4 years later when I was a freshman in college that I got Ableton. Once I had Ableton I really took my nose dive into the music production world.

My first electronic show was Global Dub festival back in 2016. It was all the heavy hitters in dubstep at the time. Cookie Monsta btb Doctor P btb Funtcase, bro safari, slander, ghastly, and….Datsik headlining haha (At the time this was well before all his scandals and was just getting big in the dubstep world). It was the biggest deep dive into huge production, laser shows, and low in your face dubstep. I was hooked I couldn’t get enough. I went to literally everything after that show.

We’re releasing your new EP recently. How did this EP come together?

This EP came together through a lot of diving into myself and my creative outlets. I really wanted to explore my capabilities with sampling, sound design, and over all cohesiveness of the music. I have been on a long journey and I am still diving deeper on what my music is and what it means to me and this EP is a peak into that world that I find myself playing around in.

I’d say my music pallet draws from a lot of influences some of my biggest being Pretty Lights, CharlesTheFirst, and Tipper. I love to play with concepts of blending genres together. These guys were some of the pioneers in doing that. Pretty lights really brought in a whole era of sample based Electro-Soul music. Tipper birthed what we now know as glitch hop. Finally Charles, he brought a whole new energy to the music world. He may be my biggest influence. He would fuse nature and just life experiences with lush soundscapes into his music for an other worldly experience. I aspire to push boundaries with my music just like these guys did and are doing. (Rest in power CTF)

Were there any unique challenges you faced during the production of the EP?

The whole process of making this EP had its ups and downs. I feel like me and every other artist go through bouts of creative blocks. I went through several along the way of making this journey. It was actually these tracks that really lead to my breakthrough. Just allowing the music to flow out of me and then taking what I made and learn from it grow with it and let it become a work of art that’s how this EP came to be.

Can you walk us through your typical workflow when creating electronic music?

A typical session with me can vary from time to time. I will usually hop in a blank session and either get straight to making a beat that I can groove with, or I’ll lay down something on the keys that sounds good. I tend to build out my melodic portions of my tracks first because that’s was resonates with me the most.

Once I have a good melody and a basic beat I then begin building on the complexity of my beats. Rearranging sections adding layers and layers of drums, hats, and percs till I have a lot more groovy and built out pallet of beats and rhythmic sounds that give the track the movement I like.
From there I like to take my beat and lay down the drop or thaw heavy parts. Building heavy bass drops and glitches. Something that’s can change up the track but also make flow nicely.

I’m the type to hop around to different parts of my track as I’m writing. When I find pieces I like that would work for intros and outros I pull them out and work on those parts. I like to have fun with it and take ideas, rearrange them, and give them more attention in different parts of my tracks. As the tracks come to gather they grow and evolve with each additional sound or deletion I make.
I also have days where I hop back in on a track and nothing else is coming to me so these days I tend to focus on mixing down. I am making sure that my levels sound good. I look to add simple push pull effects. Just let my music really have the chance to breathe.

Ultimately every session is different but the more I write the more I notice my attention to detail and really giving my tracks the time to become their own. I don’t try and force anything I write because that just comes out as total garbage and I scrap the idea. I let the art tell its own story.

Did you use any external hardware during the production of the EP? 

I did. I have a MicroKorg that I wrote a few bass patches on and melodic samples on. I sampled them and then chopped them up and took sections I liked the best and put them into my tracks.

Are there any synths, or effects that played a significant role in shaping the EP?

I tend to write a lot of my patches on the fly. I’d say a synth that has huge role in this EP was vital. I just picked it up after learning all the ins and outs of serum and gave it a try. I used a lot of the knowledge I learned from using outer wave table synthesizers and built out some of my favorite patches on it for this ep.

Do you have any tips for newcomers who would like to begin their production journey?

Don’t worry about spending so much time trying to hone in on “your sound”. Your sound is the cumulative results of all the time you invest in making music. It is the style and rhythm of your music that you chip away at making over time. It isn’t necessarily one specific noise, it is the whole journey of your music creation process. Let yourself find what you love. Find that pocket of music that resonates with you. Feel it, nurture it, let it grow, and you really come into your own from there. The “sound” will come with time and exploration. Let yourself fall in love with the music and the rest will follow. Stick with it!

How long did it take to develop your sound and are there any artists you draw inspiration from?

I would say that it’s taken me the better part of 4 years to even begin to start dialing in my “sound”. I would’ve say that it’s a finish line that you cross and you get a trophy for finding this “sound”. It’s a journey that continues to evolve with every track you make and every collaborate piece of music you work on. I would say now I feel like I’m in the pocket of music and sounds I love to work with. At the same time it’s constantly changing and growing with what I make every day.

My biggest inspiration has to be CharlesThe first and then pretty lights. Their music moves me in ways that I never thought were possible. The way they made me feel every time I saw them is the reason I’m out here making music. I make music for the person in the crowd that I can touch with my sounds. That person that needed that moment of awe, or the moment to just remember to breath and know it’s going to okay!

How do you see your sound evolving in future releases?

I currently see my music evolving to incorporate more styles than just halftime/80-95 bpm music. I’m really opening up to new areas like 140 deep dub, some UK garage and more fancy fun music.  I think that I’m really just having fun with it and letting the music flow out how it wants to. One day I’ll have a low slow downtempo track I write and the next day I bouncing around my studio to a super simple garage track that’s got 1000 hats and snares going crazy.

Are there any upcoming artists you’re really digging? 

I’m really loving chmura and his group called qualia. There’s a handful of guys on there that are really inspiring and are digging super deep into the underground scene. They’re pushing huge waves in Freeform organic bass and like vapor twitch style music.

What’s your favorite live music show you’ve seen?

Hands down 2018 Charles the first at the forest stage in Electric Forest. The stage no longer exists, but I have bumped into people here and there that were there for it. They all have the same response. It was just the right place right time and right vibe. I will forever be blessed to have attended that set.

Are there any upcoming projects or collaborations you have planned?