Evol Intent: Era of Diversion continued

BBS: How did you work with Cypher Linguistics on “Death, Lies, and Videotape”?

Gigantor: I think Nick initially started this beat (sounded a bit different in the beginning), and we sent it to CL. We knew CL through the hip-hop crew Dropbombz, whom we’ve all worked with at various points in Atlanta. CL wrote this awesome rhyme for the tune and cut his part with AJ in Atlanta. After dropping CL’s rhymes in the tune, it evolved some more and became what it is now.
 
BBS: Your collaborations with Ewun – “8-Bit Bitch” and “Odd Number” – how did these work?
 
Gigantor:  Spor did the fantastic remix of “8-Bit Bitch.” Initially the tune was released on an Evol Intent Recordings 12”.
 
BBS: How about Vicious Circle of London and “Odd Number”?
 
Gigantor: “Odd Number” came about when Andrew from Vicious Circle was in town and we started a collab with him, and then we sent it back and forth between the three of us, and of course, Ewun, as well.
 
Knick: Yeah, Andrew from VC was in Atlanta and he and I started on the tune. Ewun came into town shortly after that along with Gigantor and we cranked it out fairly quickly. Once AJ got a hold of it we were able to wrap it up fast. That’s one of my favorites on the album.
 
BBS: What’s the story with “Smoke & Mirrors” with Aaron Bedard of BANE?
 
Gigantor:  AJ started a loop with some heavy half-time drums and sent it to me and Nick. We started working on it, then Nick came up with a bad ass guitar hook. We recorded it into the computer, then loaded it up in samplers in Reason on top of the beat AJ initially sent. After we had more of the tune formed, we flew Aaron into town, and he cut the vox for the track.
 
AJ:  I’ll add a bit more detail about the pre-collaboration. I’ve always been a fan of BANE and one day on the DOA [dogsonacid.com] messageboard, Aaron posted in a thread about the hardcore punk bands and said he was in Bane. Turns out that he’s a huge d&b head and even spins d&b. We started hanging out when Bane came to play shows in Atlanta and formed a good friendship, and the idea for the collaboration developed out of that.
 
BBS: Who came up with that killer hook on “Dead On Arrival”?
 
Gigantor:  AJ came up with the killer lead. After exporting the parts off his machine, the tune was reassembled/rebuilt in Reason. We actually recorded the sample you hear in the tune ourselves. It’s a re-creation of the “A Man Fucked with My Father Tonite, I Put Hin In His Place,” thread on the popular d&b Web forum dogsonacid.com.  Since we’ve posted on this forum most of our career we felt this was a good nod to DOA.
 
BBS: “I’m Happy Your Grave Is Next To Mine” and “Maybe We’ll Dance Tomorrow” are beautiful, in contrast to some of your harsher tracks. What are the stories for these?
 
AJ:   Both of these titles came to me simultaneously in a dream on the night of June 25, 2007. I can’t recall if they were good or bad dreams. The only memory is a Post-it note with these two sentences scribbled upon it. For me personally, the vibe behind “I’m Happy…” is being completely helpless, like watching the world around you fall apart but you’ve already fought so much that you just give up and observe in a melancholy state of mind.
 
BBS: Whose idea was the CD graphic of the radio tower?
 
AJ:   Mike came up with the idea for the radio tower after we brainstormed on what would make a great image to convey media spin without being too obvious or cliché. So combining that with the hypnotic circular rays represents a corporate brainwash/hypnosis via their media outlets. I designed all the artwork. http://www.evolintent.com/hires
 
BBS:  What feedback have you gotten on ERA OF DIVERSION?
 
Gigantor:  We sorted a lot of people we look up to with the LP and it’s been overwhelmingly positive! When we posted clips of the non-d&b tunes on our Myspace page I expected more hating in the d&b community, but so far everyone’s been really into the different tracks.  
 
BBS: How did you come up with the monikers for your non-d&b projects?
 
Gigantor: I’m known as Computer Club for my electro-house project. This is named after one of my terrible nerd secrets: I was the president of my computer club in high school. I got named Gigantor because I’m a big dude. It was bestowed upon me during a radio interview with my first band when the station manager called me the Gigantor bassist.
 
Knick:  I do Ludachrist, a mash-up project, with another producer, Ewun, and we both just agreed on that for a name one day for some reason. It’s kind of stupid, but it’s awesome at the same time. That’s what I like about that project. We can just have fun with music that everyone knows and not take it so seriously.
 
AJ:  Treasure Fingers, my electro-funk alter ego, came about after thinking about how awesome it would be to have fingers made of treasure. I wish it had some deep meaning behind it.
 
BBS:  What are you most proud of about ERA OF DIVERSION?
 
Gigantor:  Wow. Hard call for me. I’m pretty proud of it from an engineering standpoint, making all of those songs flow together and nothing sounding out of place was a beast of a task. Songs I’m particularly proud of:  “Maybe We’ll Dance Tomorrow,” “The Curtain Falls,” and “Dead on Arrival.”
 
Knick:  I’m proud that we actually finished it!  Haha. I’m really proud of the fact that we didn’t restrict ourselves at all. We put together each song without worrying about what people in our niche scene would think. When we were able to relax and not let pressure be a factor, things just sort of came together and I’m really happy about that. It means that it’s genuine.
 
AJ:  My proudest moment would have to be the second snare hit in the 47th bar of “Smoke and Mirrors.” It took us months of takes to nail that and when we finally did, it was like the second coming of Christ. Everyone was just beyond excited. Even the Goth band in the next studio space came over to celebrate.
 
BBS: What new releases does Evol Intent Recordings have coming up?
 
Gigantor:  We released EI012 which has SPKTRM’s “Timeline” on it, along with a collaboration we did with Arsenic called “Real Talk.” After the LP we have EI013 which is a collaboration 12” with Dutch d&b master Eye-D, and after this is released we are going to release Ewun’s highly anticipated EP “Wun Nation.” Yes, it will have the long-awaited “Phonetap,” as well as a lot of new stuff. I’m definitely excited to see this one come out. All the tunes are huge!
 
BBS:  Is Evol Intent Recordings still intent on recording rock and hip-hop acts?
 
Gigantor:  We would love to get more into producing other acts. HELLO, WORLD!  WE CAN PRODUCE ANYTHING!

Tracklisting
1. Foreward, The - (featuring J. Messinian)
2. Era of Diversion
3. Curtains Fall, The - (featuring The Sound Of Animals Fighting)
4. South London
5. Death, Lies & Videotape - (featuring Cypher Linguistics)
6. Odd Number - (featuring Ewun/Vicious Circle)
7. Awkward Rhythm of the Dance
8. 8-Bit Bitch (Spor Remix) - (remix, featuring Ewun)
9. I'm Happy Your Grave Is Next to Mine
10. 5:30 PM
11. Reality Check - (featuring Ewun)
12. Smoke & Mirrors - (featuring Aaron Bedard)
13. Mutiny
14. Double Glock
15. Dean on Arrival
16. Gunpowder Plot
17. Middle of the Night
18. Oscine's Lament, The
19. Maybe We'll Dance Tomorrow