Paranormal

Artist: Voodeux Title: The Paranormal Two years ago, on the East Coast of America, a couple of highly technical production wizards joined forces and created their own genre of strange and creepy techno under the moniker, Voodeux. One from Boston and the other from Philadelphia, Tanner Ross and James Watts first released The Curse EP on mothership in 2008 with great success. With DJ support rolling in from everywhere Claude VonStroke soon commissioned them to record a full-length album of this new moody sound. Voodeux's debut album, The Paranormal is a concentrated vision of myth and mysterious beats, exploring the eerie after-life side of techno like no other artists have done to date. It is a 10 track vision of ghosts and goblins hiding in the closet ready to scare the daylights out of you. Using dark funk, ghoulish atmospheres and futuristic production, Voodeux is staking their claim as the next generation of American techno and The Paranormal is a techno masterwork for the modern underworld. AN INTERVIEW WITH VOODEUX - Tanner Ross and James Watts make up the creepy techno duo called, Voodeux. These east coast tech wizards are debuting their first album on mothership this June. -- Where did you guys meet and how did this project all get started? JAMES:: We met on a forum with musically like-minded folk years ago, and eventually began trading files back and forth to collaborate. I think the first thing we did was a ridiculously bass heavy grimey track. I'm not sure what happened to that, but I think I might laugh if I heard it today. TANNER:: To make a long story short... I stumbled upon a great producer named KiloWatts ( James ) and I contacted him just to say I really enjoyed his music and we built a friendship from there. When I was 20 I felt comfortable enough with my production skill to ask him if he wanted to collaborate on some music for fun. Fast forward 6 years and we put out a track on dirtybird called Kruger Fingers. This release is essentially what started the Voodeux sound. Fast forward a few more years and Mothership was born and we switched rosters and started fresh as Voodeux. -- How did you come up with the name, Voodeux? JAMES:: Our sound is focused on the eerie, dark and mysterious. We toyed around with a few names to suit that vibe, but settled on the idea of 'voodoo', a religion often based on the belief in mischievous spirits that interact with human affairs. We're into unexplained paranormal phenomena, and hypnotic trippy techno can often bring about such things in the minds of listeners. So, we changed the spelling a bit, to suit the 'two' of us, and Voodeux was born. TANNER:: We finished The Curse (on mothership) and we were trying to come up with a name for our new project. At the time I was watching this crazy ass video of Screaming Jay Hawkins doing I Put A Spell On You and he was dressed up in this wild Voodoo type costume and I thought. THAT'SHATS IT! VOODOO!. I searched to see if there was already an artist named that and there was so I was trying to figure out how I could switch it up and have it still sound like Voodoo and I came up with Voodeux... -- James, you already have an extensive production background with lots of releases under various aliases. Can you tell us about some of the things you have done in the past? JAMES:: All of my solo material is done under the name KiloWatts, and collaborations usually take another name. Most recently Bil Bless and I have combined forces to create Skeetaz, and I've recently finished an album with MC Amagine out of Philly under the name Super Galactic Expansive, which ended up to be some kind of futuristic mind-warping digital hip-hop. For my solo releases, I'm following some sort of evolving path, making whatever seems natural to come next. Most recently is a nearly all-ambient album on Somnia Records. -- Tanner, you are graduating from music school this summer. Can you tell us a little about the school, what you studied and how it effects your productions? TANNER:: I study Berklee College of Music in Boston. Basically I study