INTERVIEWS
![DVRKO Continues Meteoric Rise with Another New Single [Interview]](https://www.wazupnaija.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/dvrko-continues-meteoric-rise-with-another-new-single-interview-1050x600.jpg)
![DVRKO Continues Meteoric Rise with Another New Single [Interview]](https://www.wazupnaija.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/dvrko-continues-meteoric-rise-with-another-new-single-interview-80x80.jpg)
DVRKO Continues Meteoric Rise with Another New Single [Interview]
DVRKO seemingly appeared out of nowhere. The masked producer’s first release “This Is How” quickly gained millions of streams. His follow-up release “Lights Up” is following the same success and is a contender for song of the summer. We managed to sit down with the masked producer to discuss his signature sound, studio, and more. EDM.COM: We love your second single and we previewed it here, “Lights Up.” But we’re also still digging your first single, “This Is How” featuring Sarah De Warren! We see it on Spotify’s Friday Cratediggers and your Spotify streams seem to be gaining pretty quickly and the music video is a hoot! So we have to ask…..Who IS DVRKO? DVRKO: DVRKO? I was released without bond, I paid in false top lines with borrowed compression and stolen m...
Mike Shinoda Talks Making an Album on Twitch and Life After Quarantine
Despite being in quarantine for the past four-plus months, Mike Shinoda hasn’t only found time to stay busy, he’s managed to be productive. The Linkin Park/Fort Minor singer has used his time at home to hang out with his kids, jam on new tunes by Run the Jewels, Thundercat, Trash Talk, and of course, to make new music. But what’s garnered the most attention lately have been Shinoda’s Twitch streams. During these sessions, Shinoda, with the input of his fans, has managed to create new music, and sometimes, he might just drop a nugget (like this one about Linkin Park). The way the streaming schedule played out, four days were dedicated to making music, while one was spent working on visual art. And thus, an album was born. Shinoda is releasing that new solo album, Dropped Frames, V...
The Sword’s J.D. Cronise Talks New Compilations, Bootlegging Rare Clutch Tracks, and His Band’s Future
Modern stoner rock owes a major debt to The Sword. Formed in 2003 in Austin, the band’s propensity for Black Sabbath-influenced doom and desert grooves predated the subculture that suddenly emerged from the stoner rock scene in the 2010s. Suddenly, remote fans of bands like Sleep and Electric Wizard were connected by the familiar churning sounds of these bands. The Sword played a vital role in this movement, with their 2006 debut album, Age of Winters, and its lead single, the now legendary “Freya”, cementing their place in doom metal lore. It was a time of resurgence for classic rock, a new era of teenagers were discovering Led Zeppelin and Sabbath, and “Freya” garnered The Sword a cult audience of eager rock fans. Their music even reached Lars Ulrich of Metallica, who would eventually ta...
Ted Templeman Is the Most Interesting Producer in Rock
The ubiquitous advertising campaign featuring “the most interesting man in the world” got it wrong. The most interesting man is indeed a debonair gray-haired gentleman, but he’s real: Ted Templeman, record producer of classics from Van Halen, Van Morrison, stellar non-Van’s including Captain Beefheart, The Doobie Brothers, Bette Midler, and many more. The 77-year-old Santa Cruz, California, native was a revered record executive and is a multi-instrumentalist, avid history buff and sublime teller of tales. There’s the one about, how, in 1969, after a gig with his band Harper’s Bizarre [they had a hit with a cover of Simon & Garfunkel’s “The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy)”] their TWA flight to San Francisco was hijacked. Understandably, Templeman still dislikes flying. There ar...
![CHOMPPA on New Music and All-Original Audiovisual Set Ahead of SummerEyes Festival [Q&A]](https://www.wazupnaija.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/chomppa-on-new-music-and-all-original-audiovisual-set-ahead-of-summereyes-festival-qa-1050x600.jpg)
![CHOMPPA on New Music and All-Original Audiovisual Set Ahead of SummerEyes Festival [Q&A]](https://www.wazupnaija.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/chomppa-on-new-music-and-all-original-audiovisual-set-ahead-of-summereyes-festival-qa-80x80.jpg)
CHOMPPA on New Music and All-Original Audiovisual Set Ahead of SummerEyes Festival [Q&A]
The start of the new year brought a veil of promise and potential for many, but few artists were looking to ride the high of a new decade more so than DC native CHOMPPA. With a Deadbeats EP planned for this summer, which helped him land bookings at Shambhala and Summer Camp, 2020 was looking like the year the young bass producer was to make a name for his project. Already touted highly by his artist companions as well as those from Zeds Dead’s flagship label, his rise seemed all but inevitable. While pandemic-related hardships have derailed those plans, it’s not the first time the producer has pivoted his career in a new direction. When he was 16, around the time he began taking music production seriously, he became inspired by progressive house acts like Hardwell and Afrojack be...
![Asch Pintura on Her Livestream Series, Debuting on Anjunabeats, and SummerEyes Festival [Interview]](https://www.wazupnaija.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/asch-pintura-on-her-livestream-series-debuting-on-anjunabeats-and-summereyes-festival-interview-1050x600.jpg)
![Asch Pintura on Her Livestream Series, Debuting on Anjunabeats, and SummerEyes Festival [Interview]](https://www.wazupnaija.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/asch-pintura-on-her-livestream-series-debuting-on-anjunabeats-and-summereyes-festival-interview-80x80.jpg)
Asch Pintura on Her Livestream Series, Debuting on Anjunabeats, and SummerEyes Festival [Interview]
The conversation on American social injustice has caused ripples throughout America in recent weeks, but it’s also become a central topic across the globe. One person to witness this phenomenon firsthand is Asch Pintura, a New York-born DJ and producer currently studying at the University of West London. “For quite some time, the death of George Floyd kept my brain in a complete fog,” Pintura told EDM.com. “[But] I’ve been very moved by the outrage that I’ve seen over here in the UK.” Like she did during the COVID-19 pandemic, Pintura has experienced these issues entirely as an American living abroad. The sensation and call to action of protests related to Black Lives Matter in Europe, however, has helped her understand and cope with what is going on at home. “...
Fire and Festivus: Sein Peaks Brings Seinfeld to Twin Peaks
I Saw It on the Internet is a new monthly feature that explores the fringe side of online pop culture. Today, Editor-in-Chief Michael Roffman speaks with graphic artist Jesse Brooks about his popular Instagram account Sein Peaks. Two men walk into a diner, order coffee, and discuss the world at large. What’s the show? For many, Seinfeld. For some, Twin Peaks. For Jesse Brooks, both. As the mastermind behind Sein Peaks, Brooks has spent the last few years forging an unlikely bridge between the iconic New York comedy and the groundbreaking Pacific Northwest drama. Through myriad memes, Brooks has proven there is a strange and wonderful symmetry to the minds of creators Larry David, Jerry Seinfeld, David Lynch, and Mark Frost. It’s in the iconography, the themes, and the aesthetics that Brook...
Carl Reiner on His As Yet Released Book: “The Finest Work That I’ve Ever Been Involved In”
“The most serious films are comedies. They look easy to come by, but they’re hard to come by. Even Shakespeare knew that. For the most part, comedies are done by people with great senses of humor — and you can’t fake that.” Carl Reiner was always busy. Even in December of 2019, months from his 98th birthday, Reiner showed zero signs of stopping. At night, he spent time with his best friend of 70 years, Mel Brooks. But during the day, he was always writing. Always. If he wasn’t working on a new book, he was tweeting — and he tweeted nearly every day. About his life, about his work, about the work of those he admired, and, of course, about Trump. He tweeted about his disdain of Trump so much that he was able to take all of those tweets and turn them into a book called The Downing of Trump. S...
Nahko and Medicine for the People Fight for Progress on Take Your Power Back
When singer and songwriter Nahko Bear wrote “Dear Brother” for Nahko and Medicine for the People’s fourth album, Take Your Power Back, it wasn’t to charge up the masses to fight against racial injustice and police brutality in 2020. It was written in 2014 — a year after the Black Lives Matter Movement was born and during the time of civil unrest in Ferguson following the death of Michael Brown. “I wrote that song the day after Ferguson happened,” Nahko told SPIN about “Dear Brother.” “It’s completely directed at injustice, inequality, racism in the country, and the authoritarian system. And yes, it’s just literally directed at that.” [embedded content] Nahko and Medicine for the People is a collective of musicians, led by Nahko, from all over the globe. And wi...
![Shaquille O’Neal Aims to Make “Huge Impact In the World” with Forthcoming Livestream [Interview]](https://www.wazupnaija.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/shaquille-oneal-aims-to-make-huge-impact-in-the-world-with-forthcoming-livestream-interview-1050x600.jpg)
![Shaquille O’Neal Aims to Make “Huge Impact In the World” with Forthcoming Livestream [Interview]](https://www.wazupnaija.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/shaquille-oneal-aims-to-make-huge-impact-in-the-world-with-forthcoming-livestream-interview-80x80.jpg)
Shaquille O’Neal Aims to Make “Huge Impact In the World” with Forthcoming Livestream [Interview]
When two of the most venerated athletes of all-time in their respective sports team up for a project away from the game, the venture is met with both question marks and nervous excitement. Throw in the fact that those athletes are also two of the most charismatic and magnetic personalities in the entertainment industry, with deep ties to electronic music, and you have a bona fide fever pitch and a can’t-miss spectacle. Enter Shaquille O’Neal and Rob Gronkowski, who have coalesced their resplendent event brands into a virtual party called “Shaq’s Fun House vs. Gronk Beach.” The three-hour virtual fundraiser this Saturday, June 27th, which is directing donations to NAACP Empowerment Programs and the Boys & Girls Clubs of America,&nbs...
10 Years, 10 Questions With David Koepp: On Jurassic Park, Indiana Jones, Spider-Man, and Stephen King
“I love the idea that you can go into a house and your grip on reality starts to loosen,” says director and screenwriter David Koepp, who confesses, “I feel like I’ve been telling that story for 25 years, but what can you do? You like what you like.” Over Zoom, the Hollywood veteran weighs in on the parallels between his latest film You Should Have Left and his previous directorial efforts, particularly 1999’s Stir of Echoes and 2004’s Secret Window. He’s not wrong: All three films revolve around troubled male protagonists left to their own devices as they dig deeper holes for themselves. But Koepp is also being modest. After all, you don’t become one of the most successful screenwriters of all time by telling the same damn story again and again — and, to be frank, he hasn’t. For 30 years ...
GWAR’s Blothar: Oderus Urungus Wouldn’t Have Wanted His Statue Next to a “Row of Losers”
Over the past week or so, a petition to replace a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee in Richmond, Virginia, with one of late GWAR frontman Oderus Urungus has garnered more than 55,000 signatures. While it would be cool for scumdogs everywhere to see their fallen leader honored, current GWAR singer Blothar the Berserker tells us that Oderus wouldn’t want a statue of himself alongside a “row of losers.” As controversial statues continue to get toppled amid worldwide protests, the petition calls Robert E. Lee a “failed war general that supported a racist cause” while touting Oderus as a “great local leader.” While Oderus may have come from the planet Scumdogia and settled in Antarctica, his alter ego, Dave Brockie (who passed away in 2014), called Richmond his home. Blothar beamed in...
