+ (614) WYM AYWY AND fIGUERO
Producers are the creative minds behind every hit song, working behind the scenes to craft beats, sample sounds and piece together endless rhythms. AYWY, a producer, artist and DJ, with Boiler Room cred, and Figuero, a globally based artist and producer known as Audio Escobar are no exception. Both of Dravidian descent, they’ve made waves in Sydney’s music scene with their genre-bending sound – seamlessly blending South Asian vibes with Amapiano, Hip Hop and R&B on tracks like ‘BRRR!’ and ‘WYM’. We sat down to chat about AI in music production, the current loop economy letting AYWY and Figuero take the lead in discussing their musical backgrounds, the Drake and Kendrick Feud and their all-time favourite albums.
FRANCESCA: You blend South Asian Music, Amapiano and R&B so effortlessly. How did the idea for ‘BRRR!’ first come about?
AYWY: I'll be real. Like, there was no thought whatsoever put into this. When we met, we were kind of going through very similar experiences at the time. We just got to know each other, and then this one time, we all went to get Indian food with BOSS BEATS, who’s another producer. Right after that, we went to Figs crib, and I'm like, “Yeah fuck it. Let's make something” And at the time, MIA had just put out a new album, and I was listening to it in the car and it was vibes. Literally, within the span of 20 minutes, we made the entire bones of it.
FRANCESCA: Isn't it quite difficult to mix the different genres?
FIG: A lot of these sounds actually fit well together, but yeah you still need to finesse and have good knowledge of it.
AYWY: So basically, Baile Funk – obviously it's Brazilian Portuguese, and you have that Portuguese influence in the South Indian sounds so [makes beat] mmm, chick, chick, chick, kind of like that 3/4 6/8 rhythm. It just corresponds well with like, [makes beat] boom cha cha cha boom cha, everything just kind of melds. So in my mind, all these rhythms are playing together, they're like pieces of a puzzle. They just click.
FRANCESCA: Is that the same with ‘WYM’?
FIG: So we made a whole project before we made ‘WYM’.
AYWY: Yeah we made like, nine songs, and I told Fig, We need one more somewhat similar, but like a little bit different and higher energy.
FIG: So we were in Melbourne, and Aywy hits me up. “Yo, if you can perform, would you come down?” I was like, “Yeah, bet, I would.” I flew out that night and we met at studio ON3, cued up some vibes. A huge thing was the FIFA World Cup was going on, so the energy of the World Cup fed its way into ‘WYM’. It's very festive.
FRANCESCA: Honestly the song is so fresh, it’s sexy, it’s great. So with AI coming to light. What are your thoughts about AI being able to produce music now as producers or artists?
FIG: I think it's lit. I think it's interesting because you still need to be intelligent to use AI. You need to have an understanding because I guess you're manipulating the AI, right? It's not just like autopilot all the way. You still have to have great taste and good knowledge to finesse AI properly.
AYWY: Yeah, I've been using AI a fair bit since Suno, Udio, a bunch of different software that allows you to generate samples, like generate songs. And what I do is I take those songs and I use them as samples. So you can type in, like, psychedelic, 60s, Indian funk, and it would generate something akin to it. And when working with Billymaree, I've used AI to feed her vocals into the AI app, and it would generate new lyrics and new harmonies. It's just a cool tool. I feel like it will never, ever reach that point where it feels human, but it can generate all these ideas for you to expand your own creativity. So I love the fact that AI assists you in that regard.
Like I genuinely think that nothing is gonna overtake the human touch when it comes to music, because music is a spiritual thing. You do not hear that same thing when it's generated with AI, but you do hear some beauty sometimes, like some happy accidents. So yeah, I'm with it. I'm a fan of it.
FRANCESCA: So you’re not afraid of AI overtaking producers?
AYWY: No, never, never, never. What's that fucking Drake thing, “Anything that's built and made to last, it’s going stand the test of time”.
FIG: A person with good taste likes imperfections, they have an appreciation for it, the craftsmanship, the skill to it. AI is like, raw ideas, but you still have to curate raw ideas.
AYWY: Yeah, I'll tell you right now, yeah, all the songs that are blowing up right now, all the hits on the radio, most of those melodies are probably generated through AI. And these singers are going in and they're singing it, and getting software to write for them. It's been going on in the industry for a long time.
FRANCESCA: I read an interview producer Quincy had with Vulture, and he was quoted saying, “Producers now ignore all the musical principles of the previous generations.” So what do you think are the principles?
FIG: Musicality, right?
AYWY: 100%. We're just kind of throwing the basics out of the window. I feel that there's a loop economy now, so everyone's just making music from loops. It's real simple. Straight up, every second beat there's a hihat, there's a kick and then there's an 808. Like, everything's getting too predictable. We don't really have that affinity to musicality anymore, and real instruments and that's what's missing these days.
A lot of Afrobeats still have real strong musicality, which I love. Shout out to producers like P2J, TSB, like, all those guys. The basics. It's important, you know.
“A person with good taste likes imperfections, they have an appreciation for it, the craftsmanship, the skill to it. AI is like, raw ideas, but you still have to curate raw ideas. ”
FRANCESCA: He mentions that a lot of producers nowadays are very lazy.
AYWY: We're in this sample economy, where they'll pick a notable sample, like that song “How can I be homophobic? My bitch is gay” (Doja by Central Cee) and they just use it in a very kitschy, gimmicky way. It's not artful – the sampling.
FIG: Yeah that's not really sampling.
AYWY: The art of sampling is reinterpreting something in a way where you can barely recognise the original, but it still gives you that feeling, you know, that nostalgia.
FRANCESCA: So how do you know if a song that you create is gonna be good? Like, what is it?
AYWY: It's a feeling, really. It's a feeling, yeah. And also, it doesn't need to be like, oh yeah, this is gonna be a hit. It's never like that, like, it's just gonna resonate with you. That's it.
FRANCESCA: OK now over to you guys!
FIG: So how did you just start making music first?
AYWY: I grew up in a musical household. My dad played Tabla and percussion. My mom used to sing, like random playback songs, just in the house – nothing serious, but I was always around it. My dad would get these little beat machines so I'd play around with them. And then I saw the movie ‘Hustle and Flow’ with Terrence Howard. There's that one scene where they make that ‘whoop that trick’ song on the MPC. And then, yeah, I was like mad influenced by that – Soulja Boy, Ryan Leslie, just a bunch of people that just made music in the studio. I downloaded FL Studio, started making beats on it – Kanye style – like chopping up samples.
After a year, I just kind of stopped doing it, and I got more into learning instruments. I was in a bunch of bands. After high school, I started doing mashups and I got back into production, and this time I was just going in, you know? So it's like I had all the knowledge from playing in bands, like bass, guitar, keys, whatnot, and I just took that into making beats.
FIG: The Greatest Rap Battle that happened this year, which side were you siding on, Drake or Kendrick?
AYWY: Oh, no way [laughs] this is a question that you wrote. That's hilarious. I mean, clearly for me, it's got to be Kendrick man. I think it goes back to the whole musicality aspect. I'm a Drake fan. I like Drake.
FIG: [Laughs] Bro look at me when you’re saying this.
AYWY: You already know, I've said this to your face many, many times. Bro, this guy dropped that last song, and he literally just had the city on fire. And it's not been the same for Drake since. Bro, like, even when I saw the video, and he was fucking crip walking with his baby mama. I was like, Nah, it's done and dusted, bro. It's actually, he's actually just wiped the floor with him. There's no career left. People in Toronto are messaging me saying “RIP Drake”.
FIG: Let me show you something. Real quick. [pulls out phone with image of white singlet AKA wife beater] We don’t support that kind of behaviour.
AYWY: Oh, my, yeah. But you support pedophilia. Let's go. [Laughs]
FIG: [Laughs] nah, nah, nah, that shit. Bro, no, no, not that’s shit.
AYWY: This guy got the whole city singing, certified pedophile. That's wild. [Laughs]
[Continue bantering and debating about Drake and Kendrick disses]
FIG: Anyway, What's your most repeated song that got you hooked on music production?
AYWY: Jay-Z's ‘Dirt Off Your Shoulder’, produced by Timbaland.
FIG: What's your least favourite era of hip hop?
AYWY: I would say it has to be now, or the late 2000s like 2008-2009. That was when Hip Hop was EDM heavy, it just kind of lost the spirit. This was when T Pain was on his way out as well. The whole Konvict Muzik camp was on some bullshit back then.
FIG: Nah, that's a violation, bro. Konvict Muzik was on fleek.
AYWY: There were songs that came out of there that I enjoyed. I just don't love that era.
AYWY: Not a lot of people know that you go by another name, and it's something that you do, or I guess it's kind of like a pseudonym. Where does the name Audio Escobar come from?
FIG: So Audio Escobar is kind of influenced by my dad. My dad's audio engineer handle was called Music Tracks. And it was like this really funny, ironic nickname because he works with music tracks. So when I started making music, I just applied that same Music Tracks thing to Audio Escobar. Escobar was just like something I liked [laughs].
AYWY: A dealer of sound.
FIG: There you go. Type shit.
AYWY: You obviously lived around the world, outside of Hip Hop, what kind of music were you listening to?
FIG: I listened to a lot of different music growing up, I would say, mostly when I was younger, it would be Gospel music because growing up in the church, my parents listened to a lot of Gospel music. Around me was Tamil music, Arab music; Egyptian Arab music, Lebanese music, Moroccan and Ethiopian music, like so many different kinds of sounds.
AYWY: Do you tap into these kinds of sounds now?
FIG: Yeah, bro, I feel like none of my melodies would even exist without being exposed to them. I never stay in a categorised melody scheme.
AYWY: If you could pick only three albums to be in your rotation forever on a deserted island, what would they be?
FIG: This is hard. Um, I would have either Tha Carter III or IV, one of the Carters.
AYWY: Carter III is a good choice. Yeah, four. I don't know about that one.
FIG: Yeah, three, definitely. Three. So, like, I'll have Carter III, yeah, and Dirty Sprite 2.
AYWY: I'm telling you, this is forever, so you're gonna be listening to just straight trap shit for eternity.
FIG: Yeah? Okay, yeah, I'm trying not to die. I'm on a desert island, you know I need to stay motivated.
AYWY: [Laughs] Cutting coconut to DS2.
FIG: Yeah bro [laughs]. Last one. I'm gonna be crying if I put this one, I'll put Take Care in there, bro, so I can go to sleep at night.
AYWY: Lil Wayne, Drake and Future. That's crazy for a deserted island.
