Funkadelphia: "So you're currently based out of Colorado, correct?

Have you always live there, or where else have you lived?"

Vibe Street: "I have actually only lived in Colorado since December of last year, so just over 4 months now. I am originally from Connecticut and spent 4 years at school in Boston. I moved back home to Connecticut for a year after graduating, and then moved out to Wisconsin (everyone asks why- I wanted to get away from the North East and live somewhere that the cost of living would allow me to focus a good deal of time on music). Come November 2013, I could do no longer resist the awesomeness that seemed to exist in Colorado, so I packed everything up and drove out here to stay."

 

 

Funkadelphia: "How has living in these different places affected your music, if at all?"

Vibe Street: "It wasn't until halfway through my education at Tufts University in Boston that I even started making music. I had gone to Bonnaroo for my second straight year- 2010- and was introduced to Bassnectar. I returned home from that trip and Googled 'how do I make beats on my computer?' I started to teach myself the very basics of production in Ableton Live and delved into the world of interesting electronic music, slowly training myself to learn from the music as I listened. This was all while taking on a rigorous course load and finishing my degrees in philosophy and entrepeneurial business.

The more I learned, the more I also realized how deep the rabbit holw was and how much I needed to learn in orded to actually make anything worthwhile. At the start of 2012, I decided that when I graduated I would move back home to Connecticut and take the Master Producer Course at Dubsport Music Academy in New York City, where I met a lot of inspiring people and most importantly, fine-tuned my understanding of mixing. This was also around the time I released my first song, 'Purple Stuff', and was was covered by my first music blog: Funkadelphia!

I then moved out to Wisconsin where I was able to get some performance experience, playing alongside Artifakts on the main stage at Infrasound 2013. I also got to be involved in the pre-party for the Pretty Lights Red Rocks show and played an afterparty that weekend as well. It was during these shows when I noticed the different type of reaction the people had to my Railroad Eart remix, and I decided to focus my energy towards this 'grass-hop/future folk' style. I started the album in Wisconsin and finished it in my first few months in Denver, just in time for my Snowball [Music Festival] set. Cannot say enough about Denver, though, the music scene along with the weather, mountains, and people are truly inspiring and motivating creatively."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Funkadelphia: "Do you have any sort of backgound with music- either other

musicians in the family, music lessons growing up, or anything else?"

Vibe Street: "I played guitar until I was 13, but quit because I didn't enjoy practicing. Didn't do anything else musically until I opened up Ableton just over 3 years ago. Had to learn every aspect from scratch, but at least I was able to learn it in a way that was relevant to what I was trying to accomplish."

 

 

Funkadelphia: "Have you learned any instruments since starting the Vibe Street project?"

Vibe Street: "I really want to learn to play the harmonica well enough to have it on stage with me. If only there were more hours in the day."

 

 

Funkadelphia: "Have you always been interested in electronic music as a medium?"

Vibe Street: "I was always into rap, and it wasn't until I got into more instrumental/electronic hip-hop that I realized I was way more excited about the beats than I was the lyrics, even though the lyrics were all I used to pay attention to. I was hooked on the idea of hip-hop beats with all the intrigue and attitude of a great rap song, but without the rapper- just using funky melodies and vocal chops to make the music interesting."

 

 

Funkadelphia: "Who are some artists that have been big inspirations to you,

both inside and outside of electronic music?"

Vibe Street: "Well, 'Nectar introduced me to the scene, so gotta give him credit. But what really hooked me was Pretty Lights and Michal Menert, with a little Opiuo, GRiZ, Gramatik, and a touch of Emancipator...and then bands like STS9, String Cheese [Incident], and Railroad Earth really opened my mind to creating something new and different."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Funkadelphia: "In the past, you've released a lot of single track and remixes, with this being your first full album, your debut. How was the process of putting together a cohesive piece like this different than when you're just working on these individual tracks?"

Vibe Street: "I really felt like I was ready for an album when I had a collection of songs that sounded cohesive production-wise and also represented a meaningful period in my life. 'The Road To Something Perfect' was started after I packed up my car and headed out to Wisconsin to simply see what life would bring, and then continued as I kept on that journey to Colorado. I finally felt like the production was tight enough on all of the tracks to release them together."

 

 

Funkadelphia: "Were there any particular elements you were

trying to keep consistently present in the record?"

Vibe Street: "I wanted every track to have some relation to bluegrass, folk, or jam, because that is what I feel like really sets this apart from everything else I have heard. Whether it's just a vocal sample or mandolin track, I wanted to give each track at least a hint of that flavor while still keeping each one unique."

 

 

Funkadelphia: "Did you have any particular goals you

wanted to achieve when working on the album?"

Vibe Street: "Not really... it started as an EP, but I wasn't satisfied with 3 of the 6 tracks, so I just kept working and built upon the 3 I really loved. By the time I really thought about what I wanted to do with it, I had 9 or 10 tracks with a couple more in the works and figured, why not make it all a debut full-length album. Then it was just listening to each track over and over again to make sure I was satisfied with all the tiny details. I mixed and mastered everything myself, so this album was produced from start to finish in my basement."

 

 

Funkadelphia: "There's a lot of audible instrumentation on the album.

Was any of this live instrumentation?"

Vibe Street: "As of right now, all samples. I used all pieces from bluegrass CDs from all eras and a handful of other genres. I am very excited to start working with live instrumentation in the future, though."

 

 

Funkadelphia: "Thanks so much. I really love the album and am looking forward to more Vibe Street releases i the future. Anything else you would like to say?"

Vibe Street: "Nothing more than thank you for the support as always! Funkadelphia has been with me from the very beginning. I see my music and this project as a grass roots movment, spreasing across the country and hopefully the world one happy fan at a time. Thank you for the contribution, and I cannot wait to swee where everything ends up."