Imperial Talks About Audio/Visual Collaboration "Amongst Wolves"

I really love your latest instrumental "Amongst Wolves." Would you mind sharing the inspiration behind the beat?

The beat evolved over a period of time. I had the beat sketched out a few months before Agnes&Lupus proposed the visual collaboration then thought it would be ideal for what we were planning on doing. In terms of influences when I made the beat, I didn't have any specifics at the time, but I look back and remember I was listening to a lot of Trip Hop; Portishead, Massive Attack, Tricky, Unkle. The darkness and lo-fi vibe definitely come out in the beat.

The video by Agnes&Lupus really drove home the concept. Can you describe the feeling associated with watching the finished project?

When we had finished the project we were super excited to share it. We view this project as an audio/visual collab and NOT a beat with a video. I might be wrong but there aren't a huge amount of producers (both music and video) doing concept audio/visual collaborative works. From my point of view I'm very excited by the final product and most people seem to 'get it', while for some the jury is still out, haha. It's pretty different.



In what ways can beatmakers benefit from audio/visual collaborations?

I guess there are 2 main areas that content can be created for; professional and personal. By professional I mean content that is made to enhance, sell, give visual bones to your music. By personal I mean behind the scenes insight into you and your life, your work etc.

There are some obvious output opportunities that fall into either category (a couple of which I haven't had time to do myself yet!) such as production tutorial videos, music videos, promotional videos, concept collaborations, q&a videos (google hangout). It's an area I know I need to do alot more in myself. Recently I have been doing short videos (just using my phone) of beats I have been making in the studio. People seem to be enjoying those.

You are signed to Illect Recordings, would you mind sharing how the relationship started?

It was a few years back after I did a batch of remixes that gained some blog coverage that I was beginning to get noticed. BIG shout out to Mr. J. Medeiros and Word Is Bond for posting my remixes it gave a big push for me. Josh who runs illect got in contact to see if I'd be keen to do some remixes for illect. One thing led to another and here we are, making history... or something haha.

What does Imperial have in store for the masses for the remainder of 2014?

It's a busy year! Myself and K.I.N.E.T.I.K. have been working hard on expanding our EP 'Pencils Not Pistols' ready for a CD release. We have some great features on it too. We are performing it live at Strawberry Fair on June 7th in Cambridge. I've also been working with Sareem Poems on an EP which is cooking very nicely and should be wrapped up soon. I am working on a remix EP also. I have a couple of secret projects that may or may not pull off as well. It's good to be in that place, working at that level.

I must shout out Praverb for interviewing K.I.N.E.T.I.K. a few years back! After I read that interview we connected and that led to us working together and becoming really good mates!