Producer, DJ and illustrator BLXK MNTN started producing around 2012, after seeing Skrillex perform on a live stream at Ultra Music Festival.
"Something clicked in that exact moment and I knew making my own music and performing it for thousands of people would be my mission," he says. "Before that, I played in metal bands all through high school and a few years after. Eventually I got burned out on waiting for other people to match my commitment and schedule, so I stopped making music altogether for a bit.
"When I discovered electronic production, it opened a whole new world. I could create everything myself and bring my vision to life from start to finish. I went through a few aliases, experimented, had small wins here and there, but I was still finding my sound and identity. During a break from producing, I built my career as a visual artist under the name BLXK MNTN, creating cover art, visuals, and music videos for artists like Kayzo, One True God and Vampa. That experience reignited my creative fire, and eventually I realized I could merge both worlds, the visual and musical, under one name. That’s when BXK MNTN as an artist truly began to take shape."
Regarding his sounds, BLXK MNTN says, "My sound is dark, cinematic, and heavy, kind of like if a metal show and a sci-fi film collided inside a subwoofer. I love combining distorted texture and aggressive energy with emotional melodies or eerie atmospheres. There’s a lot of storytelling in my music. When I make music it feels very visual to me, I close my eyes and imagine what visual story I can attach to each note, every bar and phrase, like each track could exist inside its own universe. I want people to feel like they’re stepping into that world every time they hear a drop."
His latest release is the SWEAT EP.
"SWEAT is my debut EP on HypnoVizion, and it’s built around a story of transformation, about losing your humanity to chase perfection, realizing what that costs, and then embracing what you’ve become," he says. "It’s three tracks that flow like chapters, 'Lost Her Soul,' Ghost In The Shell,' and 'Sweat.' Sonically, it moves from cinematic to mechanical to raw and industrial, like a human slowly becoming a machine. The artwork and music video expand that world visually, and it’s my way of blurring the line between sound design and storytelling."
As for gear: "I keep my setup simple and reliable. For music, I produce on a MacBook Pro 14-inch using a Focusrite 2i2, ATH-M50x headphones, and Ableton Live. That’s all I really need to get ideas out fast and keep the focus on creativity instead of overcomplicating things with too much gear. For visuals, I usually start on my iPad Pro with Procreate and the Apple Pencil. Sometimes I animate directly in Procreate Dreams, then move everything into Photoshop to do any post-production or prepping for animation. From there, I bring it all into After Effects to bring the visuals to life. That’s where I merge both Art and Music into one experience."
Looking ahead, BLXK MNTN has plenty planned for the coming months.
"Right now, I’m heading into my writing season, which for me is Fall through Winter," he says. "That’s the time of year when I usually lick in and create the bulk of my releases. I’ve got a lot of new ideas and sound I’m exploring, and this is when I get to fully focus on that. I also have three tour dates coming up with Riot Ten where I’ll be unleashing my heavy dubstep side on stage. November 20 - Jacksonville, FL November 21 - Raleigh, NC November 22 - Virginia Beach, VA."
Photo by Brian Rendon
