Artist Feature 006: Bønfires

This week we focus on undiscovered talent in the form of ‘Bønfires’, aka Sam Walker. With a variety of well produced tracks already under his belt, Sam produces a variety of catchy tracks and remixes within a diverse scope of genres. Read the interview & listen to his tracks below!

How old are you & how did you get into producing music / how long for?

I’m 24 and I’ve been producing music (properly) for just over a year. It all started when I was stuck doing my boring job and I needed to find what I wanted to do in life. Due to my love of music, I decided to enrol in a Music Tech course at a local college and since then I haven’t really looked back.

Who are your musical influences?

My main musical influence is Outkast. The way that they can constantly reinvent themselves album after album is unrivalled. There is such an obvious growth from their first album in 1994 to their latest album, Speakerboxxx/The Love Below. I’ve seen them twice this year, at Coachella and Bestival and they were incredible. I’ll be the happiest man alive if they announce a new album.

If you could compare yourself to an already established artist, who would that be and why?

I still haven’t quite found my ‘sound’ yet and, as you can tell by the variation of tracks on my Soundcloud, I’m trying to experiment with different genres and tempos. But I really admire Bondax who are working around in that tempo that’s not quite house and not quite R&B. Their stuff is so well produced as well. I’d be chuffed if my tracks sounded as good as theirs! I don’t want to pigeon hole myself to one particular genre and I really want to show that I can work consistently over a number of genres.

Where do you usually gather songwriting inspiration? What is your usual songwriting process / software?

I normally use Logic to arrange but if I ever record or mix, I prefer to use Pro Tools. Ableton also has it’s uses but I haven’t got into that as much as the others. When I’m writing songs, I usually have some recently found artist that I really like. I usually just try something and see where it goes. Sometimes it will take me a few weeks and be pretty average, other times it can take me a day and be really good. It completely depends on how prominent writers block is!

What would you say is your signature sound or style?

I don’t really have a signature sound as of yet, I just really want to make lush music that’s well produced.

What do you think about online music sharing? Do you ever give your music away for free? Why?

If I could, I’d give my music away for free for the rest of my life. Unfortunately, you have to be up and coming or be really established and have shed loads of money to be able to do that (like U2 just have). All of my music on Soundcloud is free to download at the minute because I’m just looking to get my music out there for people to enjoy.

What do you think your listeners will get out of your music?

I hope that my music delivers all different types of emotions. I think a well put together album should contain upbeat music, contemplative music, music you can dance to, music for car journeys, a bit of everything. I think albums like Jamie T’s Panic Prevention or Kanye’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy do this perfectly.

We love your latest vocal house release titled ‘Girl I Need’ – what were you thinking about / inpsired you when this song was developed?

Girl I Need was a track that I put together as part of a project for college, which originally didn’t have any vocals. One day while I was working on it, I just couldn’t get this old R&B song out of my head. That song was Tyrese – I Like Them Girls. So I went home and played around for hours with the vocals, chopping them, layering them, adding different reverbs and delays and it all just clicked into place. It’s nice to know my teenage years listening to tonnes of old R&B have paid off! One of my favourite things to do is turning old R&B vocals into a completely different type of track, much like I did with my remix of Usher’s My Way.

What are your future plans / goals / aspirations?

Future goals? Well, I’m off to uni in Bristol this month to carry on studying music and honing my craft. Luui, who collaborated with me on Demons is also heading there so we’ll hopefully get some more tracks completed. I also want to try and get into DJing properly as I think it’s important that all electronic artists need to be able to DJ and produce. I’ve dabbled a tiny bit but not done anything of any real significance. I also want to get involved in radio as well.

But to be honest, as long as my music is getting exposure, positive feedback and people are enjoying what they are hearing, then I am happy. Although a life long dream would be to DJ in Ibiza or a festival like Bestival. When I went there this year, they had a stage called The Port where DJ’s such as Annie Mac, MK and Hot Since ’82 DJ’d ON A LANDLOCKED SHIP. I’m a sucker for a quirky stage setup.

Listen & download Bønfires latest releases – DOWNLOAD

Follow Bønfires:
Twitter
Soundcloud