On stage, Liquid Stranger is an energetic animal, transmitting waves of undulating bass that echo through whatever venue he chooses to destroy on any particular evening. Off stage, however, he is a humble and dedicated producer, with a lot more to say than one might expect from his mysterious lack of interviews. I caught up with the artist at his hotel room before his show at BASSment Saturdays at Webster Hall to ask him a few questions before his late night performance.
Until recently, the self-proclaimed “anti-social” mostly kept to himself. In the past, Liquid Stranger wanted to remain completely anonymous, and have the music completely take the foreground. “You’re not sitting here because Martin is a cool person. You’re sitting here because Liquid Stranger is doing his stuff. So I don’t want to confuse the two.” Now the artist has decided that it is his responsibility to reach out to his fans, and “give back to the people: give them something real, and also something to inspire them.”
He continues “for me. it’s a duty. It’s an honor and a duty to be up there, performing flawlessly. I don’t fake anything.” That was incredibly obvious during his set that night. The same could be said for his set last October, also at the BASSment. The artist gets really into it; you can see the focus in his eyes and sense his unwavering concentration. Watching the man bring down the house is quite an event. He says a few words here and there, but his music does the real talking. “This might be my stronger way of communication … more so than me speaking english, which is not even my mother tongue. Music is really my best language.”
One thing is for sure: the music absolutely has a lot to say.
Webster Hall was a packed house. This event sold more tickets than any other BASSment Saturdays show, a weekly event at the venue that brings out a vast range of electronic artists, most frequently Dubstep or Drum & Bass. Although Liquid Stranger has explored many different subgenres electronic music since his emergence into the scene in the late 80’s, he admitted that recently he’s “kind of gotten a kind of a stamp now to be a Dubstep guy.”
His wide breadth of sonic creations touch upon Downtempo, Reggae/Dub, Drum & Bass, Breakbeat, and of course Dubstep, which tends to take the driver’s seat in his live experience. He explained that “some trends catch on, and Dubstep happened to be one of those for me,” and later added “Dubstep became the new Punk … it became the electronic Punk, where we can just really unleash our rage. I think that’s healthy.”
Liquid Stranger had mentioned before that he uses Downtempo music for meditation, and, when asked if his heavier music holds a similar spiritual weight, he replied, “Yeah, because a human has a lot of different walks of life within the life.” He added “the Dubstep people nailed it with rage. Rage is not anger. It doesn’t have an aggressive connotation. It’s just primal energy.” That’s exactly what Saturday’s event accomplished: it allowed those in the audience to release all of their tensions and let go. “It’s an important expression, especially today because young people are angry … they need to vent somehow.” There was an abundance of venting at Webster Hall that night.
The venue was crawling with Bass Junkies wall to wall, and head-banging was an absolute must. Liquid Stranger recently released a mix entitled “Infusion Vol. 2,” and several of the energy-infused crowd movers were played, including “Party Like Us,” a party anthem that instantly gave listeners the ‘filth face.’ “DO YOU WANT TO HAVE A PARTY? NOTHING BUT A BUTT SHAKIN PARTY!” blared through the speakers and the mob of unrelenting, sweaty fans, taken aback by the sheer sound, responded with the energy tenfold. There was hardly room to move and the audience was shoulder to shoulder, but the hips continued wiggling and Liquid Stranger’s set only got heavier.
Much of the producer’s Dubstep catalog contains collaborations with different Hip-Hop artists. One such song, is “Bloodsuckers,” a medley of disgusting liquid bass and entrancing synths off of his 2010 album “Mechanoid Meltdown.” The track features some verses from rapper MC Shells. Other songs included the downtempo wobbler “Hexed and Perplexed” off of the 2009 album “The Intergalactic Slapstick” and “Rise,” a collaboration with HDC from 2011’s “The Arcane Terrain.” Legendary MC KRS-One lends his lyrical talents to this beautifully engrossing rollercoaster of ebbing and flowing bass. Even from an undesirable location in the crowd in almost the furthest reaches of the actual monitor the rhythmic auditory vibrations were powerful, to say the least.
Liquid Stranger spoke in lengths about newly formed connections between Hip-Hop culture and Rave culture and how the Electronic music scene is changing. He touched on the fact that much of Rave culture is linked with “reborn hippy culture with peace and understanding.” and how Dubstep and Trap music, which heavily rely on Hip-Hop samples and often feature rappers, “did something else.” They’ve taken a page not only from Hip-Hop, but also from Metal, which Liquid Stranger commented “historically have been way rougher and tougher and filled with this gangster culture. I think that’s very good, I think we’re helping them because its still the same Rave people and now that the ‘thugs’ are coming in and saying, wait, hold on, the music is really awesome but the culture of trying to scare people or treat women poorly, its kind of primitive.”
He adds “this needs to disappear from this planet. It has no place here. I think this music could do a lot of good things, because its tough enough for people. It’s fucking tough – you can’t argue with that.” There’s no doubt about it – everything Liquid Stranger dropped that night was tough, rough and out of control. Even in a venue like Webster Hall that attracts all different kinds of people from all over New York City, everyone was moving and grooving together. Liquid Stranger came to Webster for one reason and one reason only – to make everyone dance, and he accomplished his goal.