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Taking him in a bold new direction, Brooklyn based producer/songwriter The Kickdrums aka Alex Fitts, recently dropped the fresh new EP ‘Breathe Again.’ The project really shows off Alex’s encyclopedic knowledge of the past 40 years of both mainstream and underground music. One can pick out traces of Beck, J Dilla, Modest Mouse and LCD Soundsystem over the course of a careful listen, to say the least- this EP is sonic goodness.
GroundSounds recently caught up with Alex to talk about his latest record, musical inspirations and more, check out the exclusive interview below.
For those just discovering The Kickdrums, can you tell us a little bit about your background and how you got started with music?
I grew up outside of Cleveland, Ohio and started playing instruments pretty young. I messed around in garage bands with my friends in middle school until i discovered programming beats in high school. Then I switched to producing mostly Hip Hop.
What made you decide on the moniker The Kickdrums?
It started from a joke a long time ago about the hard hitting drums in my tracks.
What was it like growing up in Cleveland? What is one thing every visitor should see or do?
Growing up in Cleveland was pretty cool. I grew up in a small town on the outskirts so all we did really was party and listen to music. Then it slowly became all we did was party and make our own music.
Can you tell us about working on and bringing your Breathe Again EP to fruition?
I had a bunch of different songs from different sessions on my hard drive that I loved but hadn’t finished. I was going through one of those times when your direction as an artist doesn’t seem very clear. I had some beat based demos and then I had some live session demo’s with my drummer Chris Wall. The title “Breathe Again” became my person mantra sorta meaning “stop thinking so hard” and finish the tracks lol.
Can you tell us about the writing and creative process involved with your track “Better?”
I made the music first on that one and had sketched out all of the melody ideas but didn’t have a clear path for the lyrics. I called my friend Aaron Weiss to see if he wanted to work on it with me. Him and I have made music together since we were in high school but we had never actually written a song together. Actually, I don’t think either one of us had ever co-written a song with anyone else haha so it was interesting to try, but with his help I love how that song came out.
What bands/musicians are you currently listening to?
On An On, Wavves, Joey Bada$$…
What was the inspiration for your song “Melted?”
Basically what I was going through while making these songs where I wasn’t sure what was right or wrong for me anymore. In the tracks themselves but also just in my life in general.
What has been one of your career highlights to date?
There’s been a couple I guess. For hip hop it was making songs with RZA and getting an XL rating on my production album “Follow The Leaders”. For indie it was seeing one of my videos on Television for the first time or opening for great bands like Miike Snow and The Walkmen.
What’s next for The Kickdrums? What can fans look forward to?
Im working on writing/recording a new Kickdrums album to follow up this EP and I have a hip hop project with a rapper named Duckwrth from Los Angeles that I’m really excited about dropping August 21st. Fans of my production should definitely check that out.
