Funkadelphia: "You originally started out as a hip-hop producer and DJ.

What prompted your transition to more dance-based music?"

Figure: "It was kind of a slow rise to it. I started liking more electronic stuff about three years before I made the full switch. I started really liking Prodigy and some early drum & bass mixtapes that my old roommates were showing me. Then I saw a couple sets at the first few electronic festivals I went to. I remember one of them was an all vinyl Evol Intent set, and the whole group was there. It was the first and last time I took a lot of acid, and saw that, and I remember every moment. I woke up and I remembered everything and something clicked. I was just like, 'that sounds like hip-hop, but way harder and way cooler.' I still reference that day. Just that feeling; I was so excited. I like understood something else. It wasn't like reading a book and learning something. Something inside me just clicked, and I moved on. Like making hip-hop beats wasn't enough. It wasn't really a swith; it was more of a progression. I just so happened to do it right when this stuff blew up. It was kind of timed well. I got in right when the door closed on pioneers and people defying sounds. That was just chance."

 

 

Funkadelphia: "Do you still try to maintain that hip-hop influence in your music now?"

Figure: "I don't think about it; I just consider it instilled in me. That hip-hop from that era, what you could call backpack hip-hop, like just beatmakers and stuff. That and old punk music is just instilled in me. I listen to it to get influence, but I'll find myself doing simple kick and snare patterns that won't work as much on the floor, but I'm used to it. Everyone can still vibe with it. Just kicks right up to the snare and making it busy. That's what I'm used to, people drumming with their fingers on MPCs. There's a pattern that's instilled, but it's not in my head. I was just raised that way."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Funkadelphia: "You've collaborated with plenty of hip-hop vocalists, including Del the Funky Homosapien, Cas One, Mr. Lif and Khadafi Dub.

Are there any other hip-hop vocalists you have plans to work with or would like to collaborate with in the future?"

Figure: "Yeah, everyone I haven't work with now. There's so many people, and I know that they all want in. But they charge so much, like $20,000 for a verse from some dude that hasn't put out a record in like ten years. But then I hit other really good people up, like Del and Mr. Lif, and people I grew up on, and they're just down. They're down for the sake of the music. There's a lot of people who still purely just look at it as business. That was a huge milestone for me though [working with Del]. A lot of people in the industry didn't get it. I put that material out on OWSLA, and I don't think it really registered with their crowd that much, who Del was. That was the most important thing to me. Cause I grew up on that. When I was 15/16 I was stealing CDs from Borders because I couldn't afford them. Last money on gas, jack CDs, run out."

 

 

Funkadelphia: "Is there any chance we could expect to see any appearances

from live hip-hop vocalists at any future Figure shows?"

Figure: "Yeah, we talk about it all the time. It's just, he's a really busy guy. When he's not busy, he's a big homebody. He's always just locking himself in his house and reading books and working on stuff, being crazy. Then going out on the road for months, doing the new Deltron 3030 tour with the new album. He's mad busy, and when he's not, he likes to chill. Our schedules are opposite. He wants to do it, and I want to do it; it just has to be the right time. [Summer Camp 2014] would have been a good one. Most of the entire corwd would have known what was going on."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Funkadelphia: "Do you try to further incorporate the horror element of your music into your tracks beyond just the sound design and sampling?"

Figure: "Yeah, if I can't find a sample, I'll work on some of the drops. If I can't find something to match with the drop, I just leave the session. I don't mess with it until I find the sample. So the sample helps the song develop through. It could be like a hit sounding song, but if I don't know what to put before it and it just sits there for a couple months, I'll just delete the session. I like breaking it up using samples, stopping it where they don't think it's going to stop. Just helping everyone, ADHD kids. I think making music sporadically, with things randomly happening, will keep your attention better than predictable 'sick' drops. You know, sixteen bars, sixteen bars. You know, just mess with people. Be weird. Use time changes. "

 

 

Funkadelphia: "You recently had a Twitter rant about getting back to your roots.

How do you plant to incorporate that idea into your future production?"

Figure: "Well, for a little bit, and even right now, the industry is changing. Bass music is not that cool at festivals that help people develop and help develop people's careers. I'm not booked on like half the festivals I had a main time slot on their main stage last year. They're not even interested in me this year. You don't get booked because of things like trap and everything changing. So I look at that, and I consider: 'should I do something else to fit with what's going on, and everyone know that that's what's going on? Or should I say f*ck everyone else and do exactly what I was doing six years ago back in my mother's basement that made me what I am." Just f*ck my career, f*ck making money, and just make music that I think is dope. And if it works, then it's going to work. And if not, I'll get a day job, and I'll make better music because I'm stressed out from having a day job."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Funkadelphia: "Can you pick out a favorite horror movie?"

Figure: "Not a favorite, but my comfort movie, which my fiancee recently pointed out was a little weird. But if something will happen, and I'll get really pissed- maybe a show will get cancelled- I'll always watch 'The Shining'. It's my comfort movie; it's like my 'Powerpuff Girls'. I feel so comfortable."

 

 

Funkadelphia: "Might we see a 'Shining' Figure track in the future then?"

Figure: "Maybe. I'm on the radar with some of those movie companies now. I'm working with them in a way. One thing I can say for sure is I'm doing the thing at Universal Studios in California again this year. Two years ago it was just a few songs, then last year I made all the songs for this crazy Halloween maze haunted house. It was a dubstep haunted house. So I'm doing that again this year, but there's other stuff as well."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Funkadelphia: "Do you have any upcoming releases you can mention?"

Figure: "I have a single on OWSLA. It's just a single. As a two release contract, I put an EP out- it was the one with Del on it. This one is just one song. No remixes, nothing. It doesn't really sound like I made it. It sounds like Seven Lions and Bassnectar collabed or something. I'm musically inclined, and I never really stretch that muscle. I kind of did on this one. So we're just getting someone to sing on it now. And then 'Monsters Volume 5' in October, and a whole bunch of free stuff in between. But all I really care about is 'Monsters'."

 

 

Funkadelphia: "Do you have any special plans or surprises for the next 'Monsters' release?"

Figure: "Well it's already almost done. Normally, I would have just started it, and instead it's almost done. It's like 6, 7 or 8 tracks. There's one that I'm not sure if it's going to be on there. It's already like half of an album. So I might just keep going and see how long I can make of  an album. Or I might just polish these seven tracks and make it this ultimate thing. One of my main focusses is just making that really good and going back to the roots a little bit. It's not going to be all drumstep or whatever you want to call it, but it's that sound. It's that and focussing on the universal thing."

 

 

Funkadelphia: "Alright, well thanks so much. Anything else you'd like to say?"

Figure: "Thank you guys, that was great. Hope to see you soon."