A quick chat with Arylith & Baldie

 Massive sat down with Cameron Fox aka “Arylith” and Ethan Baldy aka “Baldie”, two electronic musicians from Massey, to learn how they came to make their music and the process behind their latest collaboration effort, Collision. 

Lets start from the beginning. How did you start making and playing music? 

Arylith: I started playing guitar from primary school and I learnt keyboard in intermediate for a few years. 

Baldie: We had a school band I was in for a few years playing different things. I started off with the flute, because when I started, I had baby teeth so, apparently, I wasn’t allowed to play the trumpet. I decided that wasn’t manly enough for me, so I moved to the bass guitar, which was a poor move considering I didn’t already play guitar. I then moved on to saxophone, drums and a few other things. 

When and how did you guys meet? 

Arylith: We both study music, I’m doing the practice major under the Bachelor of Commercial Music, while Ethan is doing the tech major. 

Baldie: I remember just chatting to you going ‘What do you study? Oh music! Oh shit, you produce music?’ And then you talked about how you have a lot of dubstep stuff and I was like that’s so sick because I listen to a lot of dubstep. It was the first time I had met anyone who produces, let alone produces on the same DAW I do, so it was a big moment for me meeting Cam, and super sick just talking about music stuff together. 

Arylith: Ethan always gives me great feedback. He’s always pretty critical as well as very supportive, so it’s a good mix. Not just supportive in the music, very supportive in the personal life as well, so I’m very thankful for that.” 

So how did you guys come up with Collision together? 

Arylith: I think I started working on it around... January? I just made a drop or something and thought ‘yeah this is pretty sick’. I then made a bit of an intro and a build-up and sent it back to Ethan, because I was stuck on one part. 

Baldie: I thought ‘yo this is fucking sick!’. It sounded kind of similar to something I had been working on as well, because I’d been working on some drumstep, high tempo 170+ bpm halftime vibes. He asked if I wanted to jump on and I was like ‘yes, yes of COURSE I wanted to jump on’. 

Arylith: Ethan added some stuff in the build-up, then he added some stuff in the post-drop breakdown that was pretty cool and sent it back over. I fixed it up a bit, cherry picked some sounds. Made the second drop after that, then just kept sending it back and forth to check and see if it sounded cool. 

Baldie: Pitching up, it felt like a drop, but it was also a build-up, like the energy just kept building during the drop, cause usually there is a build-up and then the drop comes and the energy is all downwards, but this one keeps going up, which I love the whole concept of. Then I made the bit after where it goes down in energy a lot (laughs). 

Arylith: “Nah, but it’s vibey though, it’s so sick because the contrast is really cool, it gives it a really dramatic feeling.” 

Baldie: Yeah contrast is super important. I do a bit of DJing as well, and I think that having sets that have different energy points is essential. It’s like song dynamics, if everything is loud, nothing is. You want peaks and dips and troughs and crests and all the other pointy words. 

So what now? Any plans for the future? 

Arylith: “The plan is this year to make a full album. A similar style, really bass heavy. I also want to mix in some influences from metal and metalcore as well as trap and stuff. Really just make it big, heavy, dramatic. Crunchy.” 

Baldie: “I’m working on an album which is towards my major project as well, pretty handy. I’m also collaborating on a major project with someone in Creative Media Production, a friend of mine called Thomas. Super, super awesome, super fucking smart as well, he knows exactly what he’s doing. I’ve been wanting to set visuals to music for a long time now, because as you listen to music you can see visual syncs to it. 

Collision is available for free on all platforms, “even Tidal”, according to the artists. Elevate your next flat party and chuck these boys a listen.