Life is busy for the Moving Castle collective. They're taking over the internet with an unending hot streak of future-flavored rhythms that run the gambit from juke to R&B to Jersey club and back again. Enter Vices, who rep heavy on the Jersey club side of the collective, who discuss their beginnings and their near future with shared and refreshingly candid attitude. For dudes who don't bat an eyelash at discussing their full plate of upcoming releases, they also seem to have more than just a few tricks up their sleeves. I sat down with the boys from Orlando, Dylan and Jared, for a Skype call to get a sense of what their world is like these days.
Tell me about how you guys first linked up. How did you get together, musically?
Jared: Both of us were in other projects before. I’m actually still in another project called DVNK SINATRV, and then Dylan is on a project that’s not doing as much now but called Gold Mob. We were just both making trap and we decided to link up that way because of mutual interests, and then one day we just decided to start a side project, and now it’s lots more than that, I guess.
Did you guys from the jump that you were going to steer Vices more towards Jersey club?
Jared: Yeah.
Dylan: Yeah, definitely started more like real Jersey–gritty, dirty jersey (club), and it progressed almost to future-style, taking elements from the sort of “future bass” wave that’s coming through.
Yeah, how did you guys first get that Jersey club influence? Where did you find it originally?
Jared: We’ve both been really big fans of DJ Sliiink for a while and Cashmere Cat, and then Trippy Turtle came out, and then we kind of just started digging for more artists from that point. We were just both like “wow, we really like this shit,” so we wanted to start making it, too.
How did all that lead into you guys linking up with Moving Castle? And what exactly is Moving Castle?
Dylan: I was just searching SoundCloud one day and came across Manila Killa and AO Beats, and just heard one of their songs and messaged them. Just said, “yo, this is sweet,” and started talking from there. Became friends and then kind of gave us this concept and idea of Moving Castle and asked if we wanted to be a part of it.
Jared: And we just said yeah. Basically it’s a collective of AO Beats, Manila Killa, Robokid, and Hunt For The Breeze are the four founders… They just recruited us and a few other guys at first, and we just all have like a common goal of working within the same genre and concept, and [we] just wanted to have a bigger outlet [with which] to put our music out. Right now it’s a collective, but eventually we want to get it to a label. It’s a brand more so, a bigger way to push our music with all of our powers combined as Moving Castle.
What major projects do you have cooking?
Dylan: We have a lot of collabs coming out that we’re pretty stoked about. Dave Luxe, we’ve got one with Jailo and WRLD, too.
Jared: We’ve got a whole bunch with the Moving Castle guys all wrapped up…. We’ve got one with Dirty Chocolate in the works, a few other ones I can’t even think of off the top of my head. We’ve been working on a collab with DJ Essentrik, too. That’s one we’re really excited for, not sure when it’s coming out. A few original tracks coming, too–less sample-based. That’s what we’re moving towards right now.
I think the whole Internet is. That actually raises a really interesting point–how has the recent crackdown of sorts on sampled material on SoundCloud altered your approach? Does that have you guys put under pressure at all? Have you had any take down notices or are you concerned about your artistic process at all, as a result of all that?
Dylan: I mean, so far we’ve been pretty lucky. I don’t know how we’ve missed them...
Jared: Yeah!! We’ve not gotten shit yet, we’re under the radar. We probably have 20-something remixes on our SoundCloud, and mixes as well, and no one has hit up yet about anything.
Dylan: We decided before the whole crackdown and everything that we wanted to start moving towards original sounds and get more into sound design, making our own synths and stuff.
Jared: Getting vocalists on it. So really, it’s whatever. We’re still going to be doing sample-based remixes and if they flag us, we’ll probably chill on it, or at least do the research before we do certain people. We got some official remixes coming to and hopefully we can just move towards that kind of shit and originals.
That’s solid. Do you guys have any tour dates coming up?
Jared: We’re going to be in New York, playing Webster Hall on August 7, playing the Brick Bandits Basement with DJ Sliink. And then we’re confirmed for Philly on August 8 at Goldilocks Gallery for the Moving Castle Showcase with AO Beats and Manila Killa. Then we’re locked in for August 11 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. So a little weekend-tour. And then we’re playing with Wave Racer in Orlando the next day, on the 12th.
Any last thoughts to add?
Dylan: That’s always my least favorite question. (laughs)
Jared: I think you’ll be seeing a lot more of Moving Castle shit soon. We’re definitely going to be doing Volume 3 very soon, and then we’re going to start doing compilations pretty steady. We’re also gonna start doing different shit too, singles and EPs and stuff.
