Casablanca Sunset was recently able to catch Sam Lassner, aka Prince Fox for an exclusive interview in LA.
One of our contributing editors met up with him before his show, in fact, he bought dinner. Always nice to know that there are still artists out there who are genuine and humble.
We were curious about his background and future plans, and Sam graciously divulged exciting information you’d probably like to know. Read below:
Have you always lived in New York?
“Yes, I was actually born and raised in New York. Pre-k, high school, college, everything.”
So you recently graduated from NYU. How did you manage to balance your debut tour with school?
“Luckily it wasn’t a consistent leg of touring, but a lot of weekends I’d be away. So, some of my work was a little bit early or late, but most of my teachers were really accommodating. I was definitely blessed to be in the program and with the people that I was.”
What are your immediate postgrad plans?
“Music full time, playing a lot of shows. Right after I graduated, I left for Austin, San Antonio, and L.A. to play a big string of shows and some sessions.”
Any long-term goals?
“Basically the same thing. Eventually, once my brand is established enough, I plan to delve into other things. My first Merch-line will be a full line of clothing, more extended than just T-shirts. I am really interested in becoming a part of fashion. I have a couple of ideas for other things, but right now music is the focus.”
How’d you get into making music?
“I used to be really obsessed with singing and songwriting; I just wanted to be the next John Mayer. But after a series of events leading into my freshman year of college, my focus became more production-oriented. So, it started there, the fever grew, and here we are three and a half years later.”
Who are your main influences?
“Definitely still John Mayer in my songwriting. Definitely Flume and Disclosure. Then melodically thinking, I really like Max Martin and Mark Ronson as producers and writers. I’m constantly drawing influences from stuff around me, so if I hear something that I really like, I’ll think of ways to incorporate certain things stylistically and mesh it with my own. I find ways to accomplish the same goals, but do it in my own way.”
You’ve recently been all over the Hype Machine through numerous blogs, and you just dropped your remix of Kimbra’s ‘Settle Down’. You really changed up your style for that song. Can you tell us a little about the track?
“Going forward, I really am trying to brand my music as ‘Future Pop’. Essentially using pop or really catchy vocals melodies that you’d commonly find in Pop music, and producing and arranging them in a slightly more avant-garde way. By maintaining the same song structure, but surrounding it with a sound palate and groove that is not as common on Top40 radio, I’m trying to change the way people approach Pop music. Because, it has the potential to be pretty much anything you want, as long as people can sing it back and it can be appreciated by the masses.
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So with that said, I decided to switch it up for this one to establish a little bit more of an expanded palate. That way, when I put out my originals and some of them are a little bit more House-centered, diving into a few different pockets of genres, it wasn’t such a shock. I kind of wanted to establish that diverse approach to things before I release my originals.”
Should we expect more future music from you?
“I’ve got a lot of Future Bass originals that I’ve been playing in of my sets. On February 24th, I’ve got a mix coming out that has about 11 originals in it. Some Vocal House, some Future Bass, and I snuck in some other originals from my side-project Mr. Ghost. So definitely expect a lot more Future sounding music, both in the House and Bass realms, with a couple other surprises here and there.”
Can you tell us a little about the plug-ins you use?
“As far as synthesizers go, I’m pretty well versed with Massive and Nexus. But the largest part of what makes my sound mine are the Logic stock plug-ins, and how I use them. A lot of my Future Bass sounds that I get are actually done through Logic’s Compressor and Tremolo, a chain that incorporates those with some reverb. That’s my bread and butter for Future Bass.
And for the Deep and Future House that I’ve been doing, I’ve been into classical instruments and modifying them, combining them with Future House basses. For example, in the ‘All of the Lights’ remix I did with Hotel Garuda, I used a music box.”
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So can we expect an EP anytime soon?
“I’m sitting on a lot right now, figuring out the plan on when to release everything. I think if I had to guess, it will start off as some singles leading into an EP. But I’m kind of figuring that out as we speak.”
Is there anything else you’d like to add?
“Thank you to everybody for supporting me. All the blogs, it’s just been super crazy. Over the summer before I went out and played these shows, it just felt like numbers on a computer screen, never feeling real. But now I’ve met all these people, and everyone has been super awesome and nice. I’m incredibly appreciative and I hope that I can keep all of you entertained going forward, continuing to grow together.”
Be sure to check out his social networks in order to stay up to date with all the latest news!