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Broken-frog-stomping-funkadelic-hippo-hop-monkey-crunk-chunky-bouncy-stomach-morphing-bassdolloping-scrumptious-bowl-of-glitch. He’s a prolific producer with released titles such as ‘Slurp and Giggle’, ‘Slappy Cans’, ‘Squiggle’ and most recently the ‘Butternut Slap’ EP trilogy. I pulled up a chair with the adjective-happy OPIUO [oh-pee-oh] in his new studio to talk about his music and his rising popularity.

It must be a challenge to describe your sound in words without being boxed into the broadness of a genre. However, some say you have defined what “Glitch Hop” is, how do you feel about that?

I feel good about that, if people want to call it that. This whole genre name thing, I leave it up to people to make up what they want. I’ve never classed my music, which is probably why you have all those names. I don’t want to be pigeonholed. I’m doing remixes at the moment from 86bpm to 130bpm and they’re in completely different genres. I know I am in the glitch hop category. That’s just the hook because that’s the closest to my sound. It’s why I make up those words; so people can associate the words with the music instead. You know, slurps and giggles, slaps and tickles. [chuckles] That’s my late night album.

There is an international glitch hop scene and no doubt you have influenced many upcoming producers. Do you have any sonic irks with current glitch hop?

To be honest, I don’t really get involved in too much of what’s out there and that’s purposely so I don’t get too influenced by it. I don’t usually listen to anything like my music. I don’t have a passion to trawl through music like mine because then I’ll just end up getting bored of what I’m doing.

I get sent people’s stuff all the time, and I sometimes feel bad I’m not listening to their music. It’s not anything against them, it’s just by the end of the day when I’ve spent 8-12hrs making music, I can’t be fucked listening to more, especially if it’s like what I’m doing.

For me, I listen to new music if I stumble onto it or if I meet someone along the way and they’re cool so I check them out, but the music I listen to outside of what I make is more organic or hip hop, soul or funk, etc.

Nearly 27k likes on Facebook, 14k followers on Soundcloud, dominating download charts, Beatport loves you, Kimbra wants you to remix her, played in international sporting events, amassed fans worldwide. All this must be validation of your art and a royal ego massage, how are you coping with your popularity?

Without all that, you do get bored. You need people to appreciate your shit. You can’t just go on your own satisfaction forever. At some point you have to have someone liking your shit without you force feeding it to them. So yeah, they will find your music – if it’s good. I guess that’s what’s happened to me. I didn’t do any real promo at the beginning and it just started growing. Sure people may look at it as stroking your ego, but every artist needs some sort of fuel and reason to do it.

I don’t sit here and think I’m the shit by any means, I just have a skill I’m using and people are satisfied with what I do. The coolest compliment for me is when they say that their whole entire taste in music has changed or they have an ability to listen to electronic music now. That’s fucking cool. I didn’t do it for you, I did it for myself and of course it helps to know people are enjoying it.

Quite often I’ll write a song, and I’ll stand at the back of my studio, I’ll dance around and visualise playing it live and I’ll imagine people getting down to it. If I couldn’t imagine them getting down then I guess it wouldn’t work.

I was scrolling through the hundreds of blog reviews and interviews you’ve had, and I haven’t come across a bad one, you’re seemingly untouchable (and believe me I was looking for a bad review). The accolades just keep rolling in. How thick is your skin when it comes to criticism?

I’m open. People don’t have to like my music and I don’t really care if they don’t. I haven’t really had any negative feedback. There might be someone who does like what I do and might say “but I hate that sound there” and that’s cool if something constructive comes of it. I don’t sit and read forums and get involved in the politics. When you read something someone has written that sees you in a bad light or they wish you were dead – that’s crazy. Fuck, we’re not killing people! If you don’t like it, don’t listen to it.

You were born as Oscar Davey-Wraight  in 1984 and raised at the very tip of the South Island in New Zealand, in a valley 15mins upstream from a country town called Motueka, you lived on a farm not only known for having livestock, but more significantly your parents provided their land for early ’90s NZ electronic music festivals. Is this where your musical seeds were planted?

It was from about six years old when those festivals were happening but I was even younger—about two years old—when I was first around music. Mum and Dad used to have parties and bands playing at our place. My folks were fairly young when they had me, so I guess they were still partying and living their 20s out.

They encouraged me to learn piano in primary school, then I played drums all through my teenage years, which helps me today. Being around those parties and early days electronic music festivals I guess subconsciously shaped me. Among them there was Entrain, a festival that became The Gathering and some of the acts back then were Salmonella Dub and Pitch Black, etc.

Living in the country, I used to go to this music shop in Nelson, and they’d have only 15 electronic CDs or something. I had to hunt out music like trance. The one event that did change my life was the year 2000 Gathering. At the top of this hill, it pissed down with rain, it was a crazy party and I do remember suddenly clicking with full high energy electronic music and a fucking huge sound system. I don’t remember who was playing or where I was exactly, but I remember the feeling. I have this memory of seeing people freaking out over big tunes and big drops. The whole festival, the mash of five days and walking around seeing a shitload of people getting down.

Were you on drugs?

Nah, I would have been too young. Oh hang on, Um, how old was I then? 15, yeah I would’ve been partying [Laughs]. Oh hang on, that would have been before 2000. Shit, I can’t remember! [Laughing]

Some conservatives might argue that electronic music, the hype machine surrounding it, is only exacerbating the drug culture. Let’s loosely generalise, that the shows and festivals you clock up, are merely breeding grounds for drug use and overall debauchery. Does that mean your music appeals to mainly drug users? Or perhaps only people on drugs will like the music?

I 100% disagree with that, but I’m glad you asked. I’ve had someone send me a letter saying I make the devil’s music. They used religion as a reason to criticise. I see what religion is there for, but I don’t go out there and passionately protest people living their life like that.

I make music for my own reasons, I’m not on drugs when I make my music and I’m still getting down. People use drugs to enhance many moments of life. That festival I went to was the first time I saw people euphoric as fuck on that music. I want to make that music. Music is a drug. When you take it, it releases some drug or chemical that’s already in your body, without you having to take a substance. Substances just heighten that.

So, there’s a notable and seamless transition from your youth then, into your festival lifestyle today. From Motueka, you moved to Wellington, then onto Melbourne in 2005 and have since been clocking up many spots on bills worldwide and counting. The first time I watched you, it was from back stage at the Shine On Festival. I’ve never seen someone so comfortable in that world and it does feel like you were born to do this. Do you get nervous?

I don’t get nervous when I play. I guess I over confirm everything before I play, like making sure it sounds good. I’ll go out the front and check that the sound system is right, the stage is fully set, mentally prepare for what’s about to happen. It’s easier when you’re playing with a band, too, and everyone knows what they’re supposed to be doing, and then it’s all sweet.

It must be hard to maintain relationships of love and friendships outside of the mistress that is music. How are you balancing this act?

The beauty of the people I surround myself with that I have known for most of my life, my true friends, they get me and they understand. Often though, when I’m hanging out with friends, and I’m having a conversation with someone, I blank out, I start thinking about music and walk out of the room in the middle of the conversation.

Some would say that’s pretty selfish?

Totally, but I have no idea I’m doing it. I don’t mean to do it. I just get so deep thinking about what I need to be doing with music. When you’re in that zone you can’t break out of it. I can’t get rid of the anxious feeling in my stomach, so I just keep moving and finish things I need to do. It’s refreshing to talk to you about it actually, because I don’t think about it, I get lost in it.

Speaking of balance, music and business, what have you learnt?

I’ve learnt shitloads. I’m lucky now; I’ve got a team of people working with me. I think of something and hand it all to them. I’ve now got a manager based in LA who’s got an assistant, PR people, three agents, business manager, and a lawyer. It’s all pretty fresh, they’re all super pro. I don’t have to read hundreds of emails a day anymore and just put my energy into the music.

You have proven internet success, you have the loyal support of the beat scene globally from DJs to producers alike, you have a steady rise that makes you essentially sustainable for now. Is the Opiuo sound ready for mainstream crossover? Is the world ready for Opiuo?

It’s kinda scary. Sometimes I think that I don’t wanna go down that path. I get mainstream offers every now and then, and I’ve done remixes for pretty poppy people now. But I’m not only writing music to get to that point. I don’t always sit at home thinking I wanna be more mainstream.

I do think I wanna play to a million people though. I could write a pop album because it is kinda fun but I find that word, ‘mainstream’, funny. It has a negative connotation for some reason. I mean, when someone says to you, ‘I’ll give you a million dollars if you write me a mainstream album that I want under your name’, that would be a tricky decision to make. I’d like to think right now that I wouldn’t do it but you can sort a lot of shit out with a million dollars [laughs].

You could redeem yourself with a million dollars after the shit album?

Yeah, fuck it, alright I’ll do it. Sign the contract, whatever, get paid the million bucks. Then write on the internet, ‘sorry guys, I just did that for some cash’, and I’ll spend the next six months writing an album I wanna do.

You could lose your street cred though?

I try not to think about that. It gets me in that negative space and then you’re not writing for yourself.

Being a drummer has given you a vantage point in production and you’ve said that the ‘feel’ is a key component of building the Opiuo sound, what else is under the hood?

It’s all about rhythm. I first established my sound by the groove, the way I accented the groove. It’s changed now and I’m using more live sounding drums, but I used to use fuck-all hi hats and have all these different noises that made up that space that was going on for those hi hat noises.

Space is important, when it builds and it drops, the gaps in the sound seem to be the most drastic. I’m a Mac user, I use Logic and its plug-ins, and I use my Virus synth a lot. My Novation Xio synth when I first started. I got a bunch of UAD plug-ins. I keep it pretty simple and I master those things instead of having a million options. I also mix and master as I go along as well. I don’t make a song, then mix it, then master it because I find at that point I don’t have the song’s energy anymore.

You live and breathe music – an impulsive hybrid music machine, living the music dream. You state “there’s no sign of slowing down”, you must have downtime. What is involved in Opiuo downtime?

Partying with my friends [laughs]. The only time I have proper downtime is a day after a party or a show and I’m tired, but usually I feel guilty if I have a day off, it’s pretty strange. I can’t go on a holiday. I have tried, but at this stage of my life I don’t wanna go sit on a beach and drink fuckin’ margaritas. I get bored of that shit. Give me something to do. Where’s the fucking jet ski or something like that? That might entertain me more. Otherwise, I really just want to be making music.

Someone said to me once, ‘you’re like a kid who’s scared to put down the ball because you think it’s going to roll away’. I guess that’s a good analogy, but I’m not scared, by any means, to let it roll away. I just feel right now, I need to do this.

Divine motivation, is that your driving force?

I suppose I have this one element that might relate. I’ve had problems with my ears my whole life and I’ve had major surgery a number of times in the last few years, and that’s been something that has played on my mind – that I could go deaf at any point. My ears change a lot. I’m pretty deaf in my left ear, always have been, but I’ve just got used to it and I don’t let it get me down. When it comes to making music, you don’t have to hear something to feel something. It’s all about energy, at the end of the day, it’s the feel.

I remember when I was younger, hearing bass from miles away and thinking, ‘dude, I got to get to where that is’, and running to the stage and getting excited. The last few years my life I have been dedicated to the music, everything revolves around the music. What probably makes me so motivated is that I don’t think that far ahead. It’s like, fuck it, I’m doing it right now. It’s the beauty of not having a massive expectation of myself. I’m just a rolling stone. It’s all about now.

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