#DENTradio Exclusive: Meet “Ethereal”
November 14, 2010 2 Comments
With an eclectic sound and alluring personality, I got a chance to talk one on one with on of my favorite people, Atlanta producer Ethereal via #Skype. Chatting for about an hour, Ethereal shared some of his personal insites with me about his music, his inspirations and his mother, Glenda. Meet the wheel-chair boy wonder, (which he calls himself) Ethereal.
Who and what is Ethereal?
Ethereal is Obie Rudolph, and that is me, Ethereal is more like an alias, its like a deep music spirit that lives inside of me. I’m always thinking about music. The word ethereal, broken down means being or existing from the heavens, or from outer space, something supernatural and I really feel like that’s where music comes from. It comes from a really crazy supernatural place from my mind. I picked that name when I just turned 17 and I just got into music. I had started making beats and I needed a name. I ran across “Ethereal” in the dictionary and the definition its self just hit me. I thought, damn I’m trying to be and accomplish that, I want to be on another level.
Where are you from?
I’m from Atlanta, GA I was born and raised on the South side and I always went to school on the North side, so I guess you could say I’m a cultured person. I’ve lived in Atlanta most of my life, but I’ve been to many places, pretty much every state.
What High School did you go to?
I went to North Springs over in Roswell, GA. That high school is fucking awesome. It produced so many music veterans and so many talents. We have Lazy Mane and Kosher beats, me, Micha Freeman, I think even Raven-Symone’ went there and I think even Usher went there. I really enjoyed my time there.
Did you play any instruments in school?
I was involved with music heavily since the sixth grade. I played the saxophone from sixth grade to ninth grade and then I found a love for drums. I played drums in high school at North Springs from my junior year and senior year. I’ve always been an avid fan of percussion. If you listen to a wide range of my music you can hear and feel that I put a little more focus and energy in my drums. I program all my drums. Even the samples and I take those, cut them up and reposition them.
Where do you get some of your inspiration from for some of the concepts of your songs?
It really stems from a lot of things. If you know me personally, you know that I love “Funny”. I love laughing I love jokes and I think about funny stuff all of the time. I feel like some of the things I think about, no one else thinks about. I think song concepts come from hidden chambers of my mind that house different events that I may have seen or thought about in life. “Organica Relaxer System Engaged”, that’s a track on my “Electric Kool-Aid Acid” mixtape, that was actually a hair kit. It was one of those kits that you use to relax your hair and I saw it just sitting in my house. I’ll finish a beat and I’ll look at something or the next person I set eyes with I’ll ask them to say something funny or say anything and that will probably be the next song title.
But how does that work for you? Your music is not funny and I mean that in a good way.
Its not all funny, it comes from other places and serious things too. Anything that not only makes me laugh or smile but makes me think or makes me angry. It just comes. Most of the longer songs that I make have a deeper meaning like “Blue Dream” which is eight minutes and “Lets have a séance” which is about 13 minutes. With all of the longer songs I guess I was trying to create a soundscape. When I named those, I put a lot of thought into them, but most of the time I just try to think of whatever comes to my mind first.
What is the process like of creating a new song and what do you feel like is necessary to do before you make a new beat?
It depends. If I’m using a sample, I’ll go digging for some old shit. I really like to sit and listen to every sample and pick about three of them. I’ll honestly make a beat out of all three but if I don’t like two of them, I’ll just throw them all away. That’s just how I am with sampling. I feel like there are so many samples out there and a lot of artists who use them so I’m really leaning toward composing my own shit. I used to sample heavy because that’s what I learned how to do first and that’s my first love. No disrespect to it because that’s a big influence on my style but, If I’m going to track out a beat (by playing it all out on the keyboard) I’ll generally open a symph and listen to about 100 and find that right sound. That’s the longest part of my process. I can knock out about five beats every two days when I have good days.
What was the point in your life in which you decided, “Okay, this is what I’m going to do”.
When I was about to turn 18, during my senior year in high school I was going to get expelled but before I did, I just withdrew myself. I went and got my diploma online and what not but, when I got kicked out, I went home and when your that young, you think dropping out of school is cool, but the reality was I didn’t have shit to do everyday. Then I just got into music. I pirated a couple of music programs and I sat there and taught myself. I would sit in my room for hours and just make music. When I did turn 18, I started hanging out with a lot of people who did music and I learned a lot from them. Just being in that environment I would be going to studios and people would be like “oh you’re a producer, check this out” or they would give me a tutorials. It was just like a sense of, for what I’m trying to do, (producer/lyricist) when I figured out that I was actually good at it, I started to take it serious.
How did you become so open minded about your boundaries of music? 
When I was younger, I liked the way everything sounded. I don’t have a bias, well I don’t enjoy country but the sound of it isn’t bad to me. I feel like I can enjoy everything. I grew up around such a wide variety of music I can listen to anything and like it. I feel like that’s what separates me from others. I can find a diamond in a song that no one else would listen to and I can figure out how to flip it and chop it. I usually listen to 88.5 which is here in Atlanta, Georgia State University’s radio station, they play anything you can think of. I try to listen to as much music as possible in all honesty.
Who has been your biggest musical influence to date?
It’s a real tough call, honestly I would have to say it’s between MF Doom and Flying Lotus. With MF Doom I started listening to him when I was about 17, Micah (@freemansaid) was 16 and he got put on my some older heads and he put me on. I was in it hard, I downloaded every song I analyzed all of his versus. I would just listen to his music and it was so dope. I would just think about how I wanted to do that so badly. I love Doom’s disposition and his character, he’s just a great musician. He’s pioneering because he’s just in his own lane. That’s what I’m trying to do. Flying Lotus is a really big inspiration to be because I feel like he is one of the greatest musicians in the world. He’s on some other shit and he has a team of monsters behind him. He’s got TOKiMONSTA, Sam I Am, all of those people are genius when it comes to sound production. I want to be like that. I want to innovate something and have a team of killers behind me. I feel like that’s pretty much the nicest label in what I’m trying to pursue. All of that came from Flying Lotus submitting a song to Adult swim. Actually I heard that his mom submitted it because he thought his music wasn’t good enough. To hear that and see where he is now, that is so inspiring because I’ve felt like that a million times.
Do you ever wonder what your music makes people feel?
I do, but I try not to dwell on it. I try not to dwell on if people don’t like it. It’s just an indifference and it’s always on the corner of my mind, but I try to just push out music and be positive. I just know in the back of my mind that people are feeling what I’m trying to do. I’ve read some negative blog posts, but it makes me feel good and brings me back down to earth. I know not everybody likes it. You can’t think about it because that shit will kill you.
What do you want them to feel?
I want my music to be universal. I want people to have dinner to my music, I want people to smoke a blunt to my music, watch TV with music in the background, drive to work with my music, listen to it on the bus. I want them to enjoy it. When they listen to it I just want to give them a reason to listen to it again.
How do you think you have developed over the years as a musician?
I’ve gone through so many changes and I’ve noticed them. Growth is the best thing. I try not to think I’m the best because when you’re the best you can’t get better and I’m trying to get better… forever. I want my knowledge to grow exponentially. When I look back I do notice that I make big jumps. I’ve definitely grown over the past two years. I used to do things my way, but I’ve learned so many things from so many good people who really know what their doing. Managing yourself, keeping yourself in order, being proactive. I’ve learned all this and I know because I can look back and I remember from 2008 and see where I am now, I know I’m headed in the right direction and I’m happy with that. I have these periods where things get rough, but you just have to think about the end of it and that’s what helps pull me though.
Each of your EP’s on your bandcamp have its own theme. Is there a specific idea or concept that you try to get across to your listeners?
Yes. The cool thing is that the three major ones that I have released, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Mixtape, Illetric and Illement (illement is not out yet, sorry to those who have been asking) I thought about those themes when I was younger and they just stuck with me. I’m glad that they have because I feel like they make great albums. With “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Mixtape” it’s a psychedelic album and it’s just trippy. At that point of time I was heavily into electronica, drum and bass and odd tempo signatures. I thought about this concept when I was 17, but back then I couldn’t make the music that I wanted to. For that name you need something epic but back then I couldn’t make it. Last December when I dropped it, I was on a roll. I was just coming off of one of those periods I mentioned in an earlier question and I was just making music. I was making some really trippy stuff and it was just perfect. Illectric. I put the word “ill” and “electric” together because I’m ill at electronica. That album is more chill than The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Mixtape. It does have some crazy stuff on there but it has that Brittany Bosco song on there, a T-PainETHERMIX on there, that concept was just really chill. Illement came from the words “ill” and “element”. By element, I mean the elements of Hip-Hop. On that album the concept is mostly sampled music. There’s some Madlib type shit on there, Hieroglyphics type shit on there, that’s what I really enjoy because that’s the type of stuff I grew up around. I grew up around skateboarders and they were into Souls of Mischief and that West coast bounce. Illement is really based around that raw sound.
Speaking of Illement, One of our favorite songs from all the ladies here at #DENTradio is “Glenda”. Can you explain this song and the emotion behind it?
Glenda. I made that song in late November of 2007. This was around the time my mom started getting sick. I had just made a song called “Ed Freeman”, which I made for Micha Freeman because his dad passed away when he was younger and I knew my mom was sick. We were listening to Vince Guaraldi, that’s the sample its actually “Christmas Time is Here”, the Charlie Brown song. I wanted to make a song for my mom to show her that I was serious about music. I knew she was sick and I really wanted her to know that I was going to be okay and if I didn’t go to school, because at the time I told her I wasn’t sure about school and I wasn’t sure if it was for me. I just wanted to show her that I was going to be straight if anything ever happened to her. So, I downloaded the sample and I flipped it. It was weird, her name just came to me, so I named it Glenda. She heard it and she liked it. My mom is a big influence on me because I know she struggled a lot, she went through a lot of difficult shit for me, and my sisters. She passed in late April of 2008 and I think that’s when I started conceptualizing for illement and I knew I wanted to put that song on there. I do want to re-master it but I feel like I should just leave it untouched. At that point of my life I don’t even know how I was making music. I was in a different place in my mind. My mom had dope ass taste. She had a huge vinyl collection. She would listen to so many different things and she would always tell me the name of the song and who it was by. One memory I’ll always have is I remember just riding around in the car with my mom listening to music. She would play The Isley Brothers, Luther Vandross, all of that. She played it for me and I fell in love with it when I was young. She passed of various cancers that spread though out her body. It was tough on my family but it was a really tough time for me, and my sisters. It was a tough time for me musically, I couldn’t think about anything and I didn’t have any inspiration. It felt like everything was going down the drain. I started listening to this band called Phish, and if you know me, you know that’s my favorite band. They are an inspiration to me musically because they got me back into music. I would just think about music again and they helped me get back on track. I was out of it for a little while. I didn’t have a computer, my hard drive crashed and everything I made before my mom passed had gotten destroyed. They helped me get though it because it gave me something to think about.**
More on Ethereal check out his music here and hit him up on twitter here.
#HashtagMag 