What are the main musical influences in your upbringing?

Well, I grew up listening to Metal. A lot of Thrash Metal. Like Testament, Exodus and that sort of stuff. Then I moved toward more Jazz. I was listening to a lot of experimental Jazz like John Zorn. I was listening to stuff like Mr. Bungle. Frank Zappa. I guess from there I moved to the more IDM stuff like Aphex Twin and Squarepusher and that’s what brought me to here.

So when you first started producing, did you start by making breakcore?

Well I guess so, but I didn’t know I was making Breakcore at the time. I was just making music and some people in Europe got a hold of it.

Through the Internet?

Yeah, I put a lot of my stuff on my website for free and a bunch of people in Europe got a hold of it and they’re like ‘Oh. You make Breakcore.’ And I’m like ‘What’s Breakcore? What are you talking about?’ So they sent me all this stuff which was kinda along the same lines of what I was making, but a little more aggressive and harder. The stuff I was making was a little bit more experimental and intricate with moments of ‘hard’. But Breakcore is mostly a lot of hard stuff and that’s how I got into really making Breakcore. After that is when I made the ‘Girls Love Breakcore’ and maily ‘cause I thought it was funny. I did some tours in Europe and it was kinda weird learning about this Breakcore scene. So after that when I made the record, I got labeled Breakcore.

Then can you walk us through your journey of production style – where you started to where you are now?

Yeah, it’s definitely changed a lot. You know, I never made dance music that was even danceable until maybe like three years ago. When I started out it was definitely a lot more experimental and more like musician’s music I guess. Now my stuff is a lot more accessible, a lot more dancey, a lot more club oriented than it used to be.

So what made you start Daly City Records?

It started when a lot of my friends were making music and there was really nowhere to put out. That was back when everybody and their grandma was starting a record label so I was like ‘I’ll just start a record label,’ but I didn’t realize how much work it actually was. It’s just like ‘FUCK!’

Would you say that being in your sector of the music business is tough?

Any sector of the music business is tough. There are so many people doing it. I’m surprised that anybody cares about what I’m doing most of the time. I was actually just reading Forbes magazine on the plane and they had Jay Z and Warren Buffett in there. They were talking about the Forbes 400… the top 400 richest people in the world or whatever. Jay Z is one of them but he’s very low on the totem pole. I think they picked him because he’s such a contrast to Warren Buffett. Anyway, they interview Jay Z and he was talking about the music industry and how different it is. It’s a weird industry. Very strange and very tough.

When we’re watching Mochipet on stage, you’ve got your laptop and your midi controller. What exactly is going on back there?

Well I have clips and songs loaded into Ableton Live. I have a lot of effects linked up like the plug-in Effectix. I use that a lot. Plug-ins like Artillery. I have a lot of preprogrammed effects tha I assign to buttons and manipulate on the fly. I usually line up all my clips and trigger them off with different combinations of effects on it.

The costume is obviously a signature trademark of Mochipet… has it seen its share tragedy and horror?

Definitely! Not the costume I have now, but the original one went through maybe three or four European tours and some US gigs. It’s mangled and thrashed.

Do you still have it?

I still got it, yeah. I’m keeping it for keepsake and stuff. It’s all felt and originally I got it from my friend because the first thing we released on our label was called ‘Baby Godzilla’. It had EDiT and Daedelus on there and my friend had this costume in a closet that someone gave to her. She’s like ‘You should wear this, it’d be funny.’ I’m like, ‘Cool! I’ll wear it.’ So I wore it and everyone liked it so much I just kept wearing it. But yeah. It’s extremely hot and it’s not functional at all. It’s been through Belgium. It’s been through warehouse raves which are immensely disgusting… You know, very dirty joints with an inch or two of beer on the floor. Yeah, that thing was disgusting by the time I brought it back from Europe.
At one point, I think I was playing in Seattle and it was kind of last minute. They flew me up the day-of because someone canceled their appearance. So they called me up like ‘Can you come up?’ and I’m like ‘Yeah sure.’ So I didn’t even bring a jacket. I don’t know why, I guess I was just spacing. So here I am in Seattle in the winter time, freezing my ass off so I just ended up wearing the suit the whole time I was there. It was a strange night. The promoter’s girlfriend actually ended up crawling into my suit with me. At one point when I was sleeping in the costume… it was really weird.

What’s your taking on emerging scenes like the bass movement on the West Coast and which new artists have your attention at the moment?

You know what? I was just thinking about this question ‘cause everybody always asks me things like ‘What are you listening to?’ I was just listening to something too that I thought was really cool and I can’t remember for the life of me what it was. I listen to so much stuff…
Scenes are cool I guess, it kinda unites a force. But it’s weird because electronic music is so European, so having a west coast scene that rivals that is awesome. I don’t know that I necessarily want UK scene to have such an influence on the world. It seems like it’s always been that way. Drum and Bass, Dubstep… it’s always been that way. I wish it was more of a cohesive movement on the West Coast as a whole. Right now it’s a little bit scattered.

What about Glitch Hop? From Denver over it seems to be gathering a lot of steam.

Yeah, a lot of the Glitch Hop guys are combining Dubstep which is cool… But other than Glitch Mob I don’t know of any BIG, BIG Glitch Hop artists. But I hope it really happens for that scene. In San Francisco people are definitely getting tire of the same ole Dubstep. Some people are playing Drumstep and a lot of people are going back to hip hop with the bassy. I really hope some sort of sound develops from it all.

So you have an EP coming up… and album coming up too. Can you tell us what we can expect? Also, who might be featured with you?

You’re switching it up a little bit?

Yeah. It’s definitely switch up a little bit. I actually finished it a while ago and I wasn’t that stoked about it. So I wanted to add more variety to it because I didn’t want it to be a one dimensional type record. I wanted it cohesive, but I didn’t want it to be just one type of sound. So I’ve kind of been revamping it and I’m just hoping people will like it.

Have you gotten any feedback from any of the new tunes?

Is there anyone that you have collaborations in the works with, or is there anyone in particular that you you’d like to work with in the future?

You know, I’d really like to collab with somebody ‘different.’ Someone like Neil Diamond or somebody off kilter like that.

Barry Manilow?

No not Barry Manilow so much, he’s a little too soft. Maybe if Frank Sinatra was alive… that would be rad. But Barry Manilow… he’s from San Francisco or something right?

I have no idea. He might be.

What else is in the works for Daly City?

I am also starting a new label with Grassroots California Hats Company. We are gonna do one release a month with an Album and a Cap. Gonna launch early next year with my record and then move on to release some of our friends. That’s the way we wanna keep it, family oriented working with our friends.