Exposed Vocals just sat down to an interview with DJ (i)MG Beatz
Producing for over 5 years on my own now, I invented unique methods in producing music. High quality Trap Rap, Hip-Hop instrumentals and Electronic Dance Music since 2012.
26 years young producer (i)MG Beatz from Germany, DJ (i)MG Beatz is a young Producer, Mixing & Mastering Engineer DJ from Germany, who has been plying his craft for about six years now. He started out playing the drums at 11 and then moved onto the guitar playing Heavy Metal. From there move to starting a band and playing live gigs soon followed. A divergence of how the music should be recorded and the amount of time spent on production put the project on ice as the band split and DJ (i)MG Beatz started to explore his own avenues.
Audio quality became of prime importance to him and DJ (i)MG Beatz eventually found his musical Valhalla in Electronic Music as well as Hip-hop. So he kicked off with a band in 2012 creating two solo projects – one called CosmicSpherez (Ambient influenced electronic dance music), and (i)MG Beatz for the Hip-Hop part.
Right now DJ (i)MG Beatz is back with a brand new piece of work. It´s an official Remix of song entitled “Falsches Spiel” by popular German artist Fard. There are many different ways to produce remixes and many ways to achieve the end result, but the best for me is when the producer does not totally destroy the intent of the original song.
And that’s what DJ (i)MG achieves here. He sticks to the original script. He works mostly on the percussion, changing the string sounds and smoothing out the bass. On top he fits in a haunting choral sound which makes the track feel even more epic and cinematic than the original.
It really is a matter of respect to the original artist to use as many original elements as possible while still turning the original track upside down, and DJ (i)MG Beatz really succeeds at this, as I said earlier.
I ran both tracks at the same time, and “Fard – Falsches Spiel (Official DJ (i)MG Beatz Remix)” stood out from the original, not because it had become a different song, but because it had embellishments and subtle differences that stood out over the original mix.
A great remix is one that satisfies the artist, the audience and the remixing producer or DJ. That’s not always the case though, and many remixes that I have heard recently misses at least one of those elements, and in some cases even two – which is creatively tragic.
I myself know that two elements are present here, and this being an official mix confirms that the third element exists as well, hence we can officially qualify “Fard – Falsches Spiel (Official DJ (i)MG Beatz Remix)”, as a great remix!
Exposed Vocals: So tell us your story. Where did you grow up? What made you decide to become an artist?
I grew up in Penzberg, it´s a city with about 18.000 inhabitants near Munich in the south of Germany (Bavaria).
Since I was born I was surrounded by music, especially by Rock and Heavy Metal Tunes like Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Metallica, Rage Against The Machine, AC/DC, Iron Maiden, Frank Zappa, Nirvana and many more, or basically the bands, most kids of today wear shirts of, without even knowing or listening to their music. My parents loved a variety of music tho. I remember my Moms enjoying some Reggae tunes and R&B too, like Pony by Ginuwine for example and Milli Vanilli. Probably because they were hot. As I always had a sense of Rhythm, my Father decided to nurture my talent and to buy me a Drum Kit coming with lessons of a Drum Teacher for my 11th Birthday. As soon as I got it, basically all I did the whole time was practicing, practicing and more practicing, to become better and better. I looked up to Joey Jordison (Slipknot) and Lars Ulrich (Metallica) during this time, but already listened to Crossover Bands that combined Hip-Hop Elements with Heavy Metal, like Limp Bizkit for example besides straight Rap and R&B Tunes of German and US Acts, like Eminem and Nelly for example. After 3 years of lessons, my Drum Teacher Susi realized that I´m on her level now, so we quit and I started to learn how to play the Electric Guitar by myself with a program called Guitar Pro. I was heavy into Black & Death Metal at this time, basically a Satan Worshipper on a mission, so a couple of friends and me formed a Melodic Black Metal Band, and we got a couple of gigs, but they didn´t take it as serious as I did, so we split and I formed my first Solo Project. As I basically composed all of the music we performed with the Band, it was easy for me to write and record my own songs. At one point audio quality became important to me, so I found ways by myself how to achieve good sounding Music. Besides the basics I never watched any tutorials when it comes to Mixing & Mastering (or producing), as my focus was and is on creating my very own sound. To this day this mentality is part of my music. It was my first contact with processing audio on a computer. I prefered more and more Rap & Electronic Dance Music over Heavy Metal, as these two Genres gave me that special feeling that you get when you are listening to music that you really like. This change of my main Genre was certainly also a product of my surroundings, or better said the people I hung around out with at this time, no question. Some acts that I really enjoyed at this time was Eminem, Obie Trice, TDE, Young Dolph, Ice Cube, Snoop Dogg, and German Rap acts such as Kollegah, Farid Bang, Fard (Lately Released an official Remix), Haftbefehl, Favorite, Celo & Abdi, Bombenprodukt, 187 Strassenbande and many more in 2011. So I became interested in how to record or program Electronic Dance Music and Rap Beats and formed (i)MG Beatz for the Hip-Hop, aswell as former CosmicSpheres (Michel Geißdorf) for the Electro Part.
Exposed Vocals: Since everyone was a start-up once, can you give any smaller or local bands or artists looking to get gigs and airplay some tips?
Well I think all you got to do is having fun and being good at what you do. I know it sounds cheesy, but basically everything falls into place for you, if you work hard and never lose sight of your dreams. For us it started with people enjoying our music in the rehearsal room, which was part of a youth center called Don Bosco Club in Benediktbeuern, having couple of beers. We started to perform at Birthday Partys in the Club and went from there.
Exposed Vocals: Do you ever make mistakes during performances? How do you handle that?
At this moment I barely have had gigs in the Genres of Hip-Hop and Electronic Dance Music, as my main focus of me being a Producer was on creating great music that can be performed by me or others. Actually exactly now it´s the time for me to perform the Tracks of my first studio album called “Michel” that was released on the 2nd of March in form of Live DJ Sets in the Clubs, so hit me up y´all haha. I straight went on Position 5 of the French iTunes Charts (Electronic) and #93 worldwide of all Genres on the day it came out, so it´s big things happening, be prepared 😉
But when I think about gigs in the past, I remember that all the stage fright went away as soon as I was sitting at the Drum Kit or got the Guitar ready. Basically like something took over me banishing it. I suddenly was totally confident, focused and can´t remember making any mistakes…
Exposed Vocals: Do you tour? Anything interesting happen on tour that you think our readers would enjoy hearing about ?Any planned studio upgrades? What are you working with now?
I plan to invest in a whole new Live setup for the DJ Sets, I will perform in the near future.
As soon as I got my first real big check, I will build up my own studio coming with a big ass Soundboard, massive hard hitting Speakers and typa stuff. Probably in my mansion located somewhere in The United States.
At this point I work for the most part from home with a basic setup (My Laptop, a MIDI Keyboard, some Controllers, good Monitor Speakers + Headphones) and bring the prepared projects to the Big Studios located next to the artist/s I´m working with, aswell as to get myself recorded rapping under the name of Plug Pablo.
Exposed Vocals: How do you find ways to promote your music? What works best for you?
When it comes to promotion I got a loyal Fanbase on my Social Media Channels.
Have a look: www.twitter.com/iMGbeatz, www.instagram.com/iMGbeatz_, www.facebook.com/iMGbeatz
I also love to use Hashtags to reach new people, especially on Instagram.
Depending on the project, the label I´m working with takes care of the promotion for the most part, besides me keeping my Fans entertained and informed about new releases of course. I´m still independent. I also love to give away Freebeats. Especially on special events. This can either be the death of an artist I felt inspired by or just because I feel like giving something back.
Exposed Vocals: If you could perform anywhere and with any artists (Dead or Alive) where and who would it be with? Why?
I actually would love to perform at The Grammys 😛
Exposed Vocals: So, what’s next? Any new upcoming projects that you want to talk about?
A lot I can´t talk about yet. But VERY soon the next big thing will hit the stores.
Follow me everywhere @iMGbeatz and subscribe to my YouTube Channel @iMGbeatz2012 to stay posted! 🙂
Exposed Vocals: If you weren’t making music, what would you be doing?
I would probably be the youngest black belt coming from Germany in Taekwondo of 2009, giving Lessons or being an actor / stuntman, who knows? 😉 But for the main part I think everything happens for a reason.
Exposed Vocals: What should fans look forward to in the next year or so?
To hear and see a lot of me.
Exposed Vocals: Any Shout-outs?
I wanna shoutout moms and dads for giving me birth, my Drum Teacher Susi, Everyone who believed in me and didn´t (I made it), Alexander Jakob for selling me my first Electric Guitar (B.C. Rich Warlock Bronze) for 20 Bucks, Goar Biesenkamp (Mambo No. 5) for being patient with me, Matze (B-Case) Zürkler and finally Boumqueur Edition for doing a great job so far on my latest Project, the first studio album of mine called “Michel”! Again, we charted in the iTunes Charts of France and the World! My first time ever! 🙂
Get The Album Everywhere Here: https://boumqueureditions.lnk.to/Michel
