5 Minutes With: Engine Earz
29 April 2016
DJ, producer and multi-instrumentalist Prash Mistry is probably best known for forming UK bass collective – the Engine Earz Experiment, which has been fusing dubstep styles with sounds from the subcontinent since it began in 2009.
For the last couple of years however, Mistry has been focussing his attention behind the scenes, bringing down massive acts like Skrillex and Major Lazer to India, and running VH1 Supersonic’s bass stage – Arms House with frequent collaborators Ali Sachedina and Pavan Mukhi (a.k.a. Orifice Vulgatron) of rap collective Foreign Beggars.
The producer recently came back to the forefront with an unexpectedly cinematic, James Blake (almost slightly Jai Paul) esque new track called ‘Channeling’ (released here via i-D). It’s a rich, beautifully designed piece that's gotten us all the more excited for Engine Earz's forthcoming solo album ‘Symbol’.
We got in touch with Prash soon after the release of ‘Channelling’, and talked to him about music, dream collaborators and... his fridge:
How’s it going?
Pretty…pretty…good!
What’s the worst thing in your fridge right now?
There’s some bacon that doesn’t belong to me that’s pretty rank.
Describe the upcoming album 'Symbol' in a sentence.
A cinematic search for patterns in the noise.
What’s the best part about hosting gigs in India?
Watching people’s reactions for the first time to the music that raised us.
And the worst?
Sorting out artist’s Indian visas!
Name 3 dream acts you’d like to tour in India.
Bjork, Lauryn Hill, Amon Tobin
Who are your dream collaborators, living or dead?
Jimi Hendrix, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Quincy Jones
If you were embodied as a superhero, what would your name and super power be?
Sound-Man - I would have the wondrous ability to stand at the back of concerts and with only a mixing console, miraculously ensure the ultimate audience live experience. Lurking in the shadows, anonymously, night after night… sound engineers, the real super-heroes lol. (Shouts to Fali)
A sound you dislike intensely.
Feedback at a gig.
Weirdest incident that’s ever happened at a gig?
Nerm from Shiva Soundsystem...
3 festivals on your bucket list?
Afropunk Festival in Brooklyn, Gilles Peterson’s Worldwide Festival in Leysin and the Trinidad and Tobago Carnival
If you could go back in time and give your younger self one piece of advice, what would it be?
Quit shaving your head, one day it won’t grow back.
What’s your spirit animal?
Nerm from Shiva Soundsystem.
Best music video ever?
Best album cover of all time?
Rage Against the Machine - Rage Against the Machine
THE SAME 3 QUESTIONS:
3 most inspirational artists:
Aphex Twin
Wu-Tang Clan
Bjork
3 favourite albums of all time:
Music for the Jilted Generation – The Prodigy
The Score - Fugees
Beyond Skin - Nitin Sawhney
Favourite 3 artists of the moment:
Paul Institute
Anderson Paak
Laura Mvula