Seth Drake is a mastering engineer, composer and producer. He has just released a huge track on Bassnectar's album Divergent Spectrum entitled Above & Beyond which hit number one on the American iTunes charts just hours after its release! Kmag caught up with him to learn more about him and what the future holds for this talented artist.

Tell us a bit about yourself and your background as a producer, how long have you been making music?
I've been making music for most my life, that's about 25 years now, as for electronic music I've only been doing that for the last two.

What production gear do you use?
Midi keyboard, headphones, laptop, Ableton and my ears.

Your productions have a beautifully symphonic vibe. How would you describe your approach to making music and what inspires you?
Usually events in my life, whether positive or negative. I'm not a believer in the fact that only good things happen and if that's not the case there is something wrong with you and / or your life. But I do think that if you can take something negative and turn it into something beautiful then you are the master of your own destiny.

Above & Beyond is an amazing collaboration with the extremely popular Bassnectar, How did this connection come about?
That's a really long story but the short of it is, the first release I ever wrote he ended up liking. We got in touch through the label the release went out on and when I wrote the original version of Above & Beyond I sent it to him first thing. He responded really well to it and so I offered it up as a collab which he jumped on.   

What was the thought process behind Above & Beyond?
I was pretty desperate and very poor at the time. I just had given up on living in Los Angeles and moved back to Philly.  I was contemplating what I was going to do with my life feeling a little defeated on the outside but empowered with this raging spirit on the inside. I just sat down at the piano one day and it came out. It's that thing in all of us which gets beaten down but gets back up.   

Collaborating can be great for inspiration. Do you find working with other artists a fun and easy process or is it a harder task?
I think it's always a tricky thing to work on art with other artists. I think the thing to keep in mind is to know when to pick your battles and be aware that it's not what you want which is most important but what will inherently make the song better.  I'm really blessed to have Lorin [Bassnectar] to collaborate with, his insight and experience really brought the song to the next level he is definitely a master of musical energy.

Bassnectar's new album Divergent Spectrum has had an extremely positive response via pre-sold interest and social media hype. You must be pretty happy to be a part of it?
Beyond happy! It's such a change from where I was less than six months ago.  I really owe the whole Bassnectar crew so much for how supportive and amazing they have been. It's a really great family to be a part of, and the fans are SOOO encouraging and active it's a constant inspiration.

Do you have any solo productions for release in the pipeline?
That's a really good question. I have two more collabs already in the works with Bassnectar, and a ton of more stuff written.  However, right now I'm really busy doing the mastering for Amorphous Music. I co-mastered Divergent Spectrum and now I work full time for mastering for Amorphous. I spend most my free time just writing little things and digging into programming more and more. I think if public pressure became great enough I could take some time off and flush out an EP, but for now I think it's going to stay slow, precise and very powerful.

Words: Megan

Related Links:

• Introducing: Seth Drake
• Free Bassnectar Mix
• Mastering Tutorial For Dance Music
• Bassnectar Interview
• Beastie Boys - Make Some Noise: Video

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