Zac Carper of FIDLAR joined Audacy’s Emo Nite host Morgan Freed on the show this week as the two discussed his latest efforts as a producer and how emo music is kind of like Costco.
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It’s undeniable that the explosive surge in popularity of EDM caused it to seep into many music genres. Emo was no exception. Carper doesn’t view it as a bad thing though. “You know how I look at it, man?” He asked Freed.
“I look at it as, Costco made these surfboards right? Hundred, two hundred dollar surfboards. You buy them, everybody goes surfing. You have a bunch of kooks in the water, running into each other. But you know what? They’re surfing and they’re doing it! They’re having a good time.”
“EDM [is] nothing more punk rock than a f****** dude rolling in with a USB!” He added with a laugh.
Carper admitted that he first began to write songs in order to learn how to use a studio. It’s not until recent years though that he began to cut his chops as a producer. That all came as a result of one life changing event.
“So what happened was, we were on tour with the Pixies. We played this place called Massey Hall. I had a CD [of] Neil Young live at Massey Hall and I just listened to it over and over again. It was a huge deal for me,” Carper recalls.
“After the show, [I] met these guys and they’re like ‘hey, you guys want to play this place called Soybomb? It’s like a skatehouse.’ I’m like, ‘f*** yeah, let’s do it!’”
FIDLAR played the show on a halfpipe and afterwards Carper decided to give it a go. “I was wasted skating on the halfpipe [and] I fell,” he said. “All of a sudden I felt this weird pain going down my leg.”
“Then I had to continue the tour and it felt like I was dying. It was like constant pain. I was shooting smack at the time, basically medicating myself. After the tour, I was shooting some of the smack and it like wasn’t even working. I told them to drop me off at rehab. It was literally like, tour ended, dropped me off at rehab. That’s when I got sober for a little bit. That made me realize that I am not indestructible.”
Despite the trauma that stemmed from it, Carper said it’s “the best decision I ever made.”
“[I’ve] never touched smack after that.”
Related
Emo Nite is not a band, and they’re not your usual DJs – Host Morgan Freed throws epic parties and now has a radio show for the music they love. Listen Sundays from 7PM - 8PM on your favorite Audacy Alternative stations.
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