A Chat with HDYNATION’s Flosstradamus [Exclusive Interview]

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A Chat with HDYNATION’s Flosstradamus [Exclusive Interview]

Without doubt, one of the first names that comes to mind when associating trap music with a producers is Flosstradamus. Chicago-bred trap duo Flosstradamus, made up of Curt Cameruci and Josh Young, have not only been spinning for over 10 years, but have also made a huge impact on the scene with their loyal HDYBOYZ/HDYGRLZ fanbase. Every festival I’ve attend, whether it’s EDCLV, Moonrise Festival, or Lollapalooza, the number of attendees wearing Flosstradamus gear is unbelievable. Known for trappy festival bangers like “Mosh Pit” and “Soundclash” and dirty remixes such as Rihanna’s “Bitch Better Have My Money” and Fetty Wap’s “My Way,” the duo has worked with heavy hitters in the music industry such as Travis Porter, Waka Flocka Flame, Yellow Claw, and 4B. As their highly successful Hi Def Youth Tour comes to end, we caught up with the guys before their set in DC to get to know them a little more. Check out what they had to say.

SR: At what point did you guys say to yourselves ‘I’m definitely making it in the music industry, this is what I want to do’? Was there a certain show, did a specific person contact you…

Flosstradamus [Josh]: There’s a series of moments. At every level there is new stuff that happens and that’s really awesome for us. Whether it be a good show or meeting an idol. But for us, the first big turning point, that I can remember, was when we got on the cover of URB Magazine, which isn’t around anymore. At the time, it was a big dance music and electronic culture magazine. We were on the cover and it was a physical thing, so we could show our parents and show it off. It really felt like we made it, you know. That’s about the earliest memory I have of us making it.

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SR: What year was that?

Flosstradamus [Josh]: I wanna say 2007 or 2008

Flosstradamus [Curt]: Yeah, something like that

SR: When it comes to producing, are you guys on the same page or do you bump heads? Go with the flow and agree?

Flosstradamus [Curt]: We both have different styles, so we will bring two separate things to the table. Usually he [Josh] will start something and I’ll finish it, or vise-versa. So it’s like a ying and a yang thing going on

SR: So generally you guys come to a general consensus of ‘yeah, this is good.’

Flosstradamus [Curt]: Yeah, pretty much

Flosstradamus [Josh]: We had a rule a while ago that if we both agreed something was done, we would see it through. If it gets two thumbs up, then it comes out.

SR: What’s the longest amount of time it has taken you to make a track?

Flosstradamus [Curt]: Both releasing and making a track is a long process. We take forever to make stuff. The fastest song that we ever made was the “Original Don” remix. That seriously took less than a week to do it. It just happened naturally. But there are ones that we are still working on now that still haven’t been released yet. It’s weird, you can get super meticulous and fuck it up

SR: And it’s hard too. You guys do have lives outside of working on music constantly…

Flosstradamus [Curt]: It’s hard. When we come home, we just don’t want to do anything and just want to relax

Flosstradamus [Josh]: You’re always editing yourself. The thing that makes it difficult, is sometimes your taste level is not where your skill level is at. You want it to be something and you have a very clear picture of it in your head of what it should sound like, but getting it there is a whole different journey. Sometimes that road takes a lot longer than you thought it would. And like Curt said with OG Don remix, other times it happens immediately, you know?

SR: Yeah sometimes it’s more natural and just comes to you

Flosstradamus [Josh]: I love the times it happens quick. That’s always the best shit I feel like. The stuff that happens right away, it’s like lightning struck and you’re in the right place, the right mindset, and something good happens.

SR: That’s what a lot of artists seem to say, but I guess when you take too much time on something, you can over analyze

Flosstradamus [Josh]: Yeah you can be a perfectionist. That’s why it’s good when there are two of us, so someone else can come in and be like ‘alright, this song is done.’

SR : Very true. What artists do you listen to on a regular basis that might surprise us?

SR: ….TAYLOR SWIFT!? Biggest inspiration!?

Flosstradamus [Josh]: Ha, I don’t know if there is anyone I listen to that would really surprise you. I do like a lot of 70s rock like Cat Stevens and Fleetwood Mac. That’s something that kind of comes in rotation every once in awhile that I feel like is the opposite of what we do.

Flosstradamus [Curt]: I’m going to say, since we are out here in DC, I’m really into this band called Future Islands. They’re from Baltimore, so it’s close. Josh and I have been doing stuff for 11 years and Future Islands have been doing it for just as long. They are actually getting their second rebirth. They’re dope, you should definitely check them out!

Flosstradamus [Josh]: The singer is like a mix between Morrissey and a like a hardcore singer

SR: What’s the most memorable moment you’ve had on tour thus far?

Flosstradamus [Curt]: We brought Benny the Bull out in Chicago, who is the Chicago Bulls mascot. It started off with a joke. On the bus, we have this kid Whethan, he’s from Chicago as well, and we were joking with his tour manager and talking about bringing people out and we just said “oh yeah let’s get Benny the Bull.” His tour manager just called someone and he came out. It was dope. The joke became a reality.

Flosstradamus [Josh]: And then on the other end of the spectrum, another viral thing, you know the mannequin challenge that has been going around? We got to do it in Portland with Rae Sremmurd which was a really fun.

SR: What has been the highlight of 2016?

Flosstradamus [Curt]: Uh, it involves ending. It being over *laughs*. I wanna say that’s the highlight.

SR: I feel you, on to the next

Flosstradamus [Curt]: But onto some positive shit, we played in Chicago again this year and headlined at Lollapalooza. We were one of the first DJs that ever performed Lollapalooza. The Perry’s Stage is like the DJ stage and the first time they did it, they just set up folding tables on a stage and that’s what the DJ stage was. There were no lights really, just the basic lighting. So coming from being the first DJs to play to headlining, that was definitely the biggest highlight of 2016.

Flosstradamus [Josh]: The best thing about that too is that there is a picture of that moment and there isn’t even a skirt on the table, so you can see our legs and so you can see that our entire fashion, which is very much that era and it’s hilarious to see. But yeah, that Lollapalooza show was dope.

flosstradamus-at-lollapal

Flosstradamus [Josh]: It’s weird, this year has been brutal as far as people dying, the presidential election, and all that shit. But personally it’s been a really dope year. My wife got pregnant, I’ve been running, and for me it’s been a year of self discovery.

SR: Can you give us deets on upcoming projects?

Flosstradamus [Curt]: We have a song with Dillon Francis, aka Dillstradamus

SR: I actually saw the first Dillstradamus set at Mysteryland in 2014

Flosstradamus [Curt]: Nice, so you’ve been there since day 1

Flosstradamus [Curt]: You didn’t catch a t-shirt when we threw them out at Mysteryland, did you?

SR: I did!

Flosstradamus [Curt]: That’s sick!

SR: I got the one with the warning sign drawn on it with “Dillstradamus” right below it

Flosstradamus [Curt]: And it was the hand drawn one?

SR: Yup! And I got 9 bucks when you guys made it rain so kept the money and put that and the t-shirt on this Mysteryland board I made. That was seriously an AWESOME set that night. So wild!

https://www.instagram.com/p/BNlzjsHApLn/?taken-by=ashleynmarro

Side note: I think they only made 5-10 shirts that they threw to the crowd that night. *Victory dance*

Flosstradamus [Curt]: It was funny too because we share management and they were like ‘what do you guys wanna do? We have a budget’ and we couldn’t decide on what to do. So they gave us a budget for the show and we were just like ‘let’s throw the budget out.’ So they gave us the budget for the show and we just threw it out at the crowd.

Flosstradamus [Josh]: We had a lot of fun taking pictures with it too. We pretended the stack of money was a telephone, stuff like that

SR: How much was it? A thousand bucks or something like that?

Flosstradamus [Curt]: I think it was a couple hundred bucks. But it felt like a thousand bucks, it was so many ones!
SR: It was literally raining, it was so awesome.

Flosstradamus [Josh]: We were trying really hard to get one of those money guns that shoots bills, but it was back ordered, so it didn’t happen.
SR: How did the warning sign come about?

Flosstradamus [Curt]: It started because we did an EP on Fool’s Gold called the Jubilation EP and we were working with person who designs everything for Fool’s Gold. We googled the Internet for a bunch of hardcore house records. There was a genre of house music a long time ago called “Hardcore” and all of the record covers, the physical records, they all looked like construction and were filled with warning signs. So we ended up borrowing some ideas from old hardcore, re-purposed it, and made it our album cover. Once we put that out, people starting tweeting at us with a warning sign and then it just started from there.

Flosstradamus [Josh]: Then the emoji really set it off, because before that there wasn’t really one associated with us. The first year after the reinvention of us, between 2011 and 2012, there were all these coincidences and just stuff that was a happening. So HDYBYZ and HDYGRLZ, and all that stuff, just fell into place.

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