![Kill Them With Colour [INTERVIEW]](https://i0.wp.com/goodmusiccollectiv.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/KILLTHEMWITHCOLOUR_COASTAL-EP_3000x3000-RGB-1.png?resize=1180%2C1180&ssl=1 "Kill Them With Colour [INTERVIEW]")
Written & Interviewed by: Cory Callahan
Juno Award nominated producer, Wesley Marsh, otherwise known as Kill Them With Colour, just released his latest summertime vibes EP: Coastal. This project, boasting five tracks featuring lovely vocals from a diverse set of lyricists, incorporates a multitude of tropical, funk-inspired dance grooves. Marsh gave us the pleasure of sitting down for a one-on-one interview, and we were able to take a deeper look into the background of his career as an artist and shed some light on his future plans. Along with maintaining an active social media presence and working in the studio, Marsh has experience with acting, modeling, and graphic designing.
Cory: You just released your newest EP, Coastal, can you tell us a little bit about the production process that went into making these tracks?
Wesley: “Yeah! With this new work, I experimented with some new beats that I have been playing with for a while and at the same time I was looking for vocalists. I found some top-liners that I was pretty impressed with, so I had contacted them, got them on the tracks, and it went from there!”
Cory: How do you think this work that you’ve just released is similar / different than what you have released in the past?
Wesley: “In the past, what I was doing was a lot of sampling work. Meaning I would take a lot of old songs and remix them, or I would just sample different parts, incorporate them into songs, and then release them as my own version. On the other hand, Coastal was really just about making original beats and then finding the right singers/vocalists to add on top.”
Cory: Which comes easier for you: sampling and remixing music or being free to create your very own?
Wesley: “I think I’d have to say that sampling is still easier for me. It was really my first love and with remixing a song and vocals, I can fill ideas quicker than just having an original beat and trying to create a vocal on top of that.”
Cory: Each of the tracks on Coastal features a different artist such as Rahn Harper, Aishi, Lilianna Wilde, Jacob Cole Steele, and T.O.A… What was your favorite part about working with these artists?
Wesley: “Some of them are good friends who were close by, one of them was a student of mine that I was doing music lessons for and one day found out that she sang, and then a couple of them were long distance where I was contacting them through social media. I think maybe the diversity or the versatility of how they were all contacted is what made it interesting. I mean it’s definitely easier to work with people while they are in the studio and with you, but it’s always interesting to see what someone comes up
with when they are off on their own.”
Cory: Going back, you said that you did some teaching and had a student work with you on a track. How and when did you get yourself involved in that?
Wesley: “It was kind of during the whole thing. I started producing a while back and actually went to audio engineering school. So, I kind of teach music production but the teaching came maybe about a few years ago. I’ve had this student though since this past start of the year, so she was showing me a beat and I asked her who she was sampling for vocals. She was like ‘no, that’s me!’
Immediately I was like, ‘okay, well we have to do something together then!'”
Cory: While working in the music industry and producing music, what would you say are some of the biggest challenges that you’ve had to personally overcome?
Wesley: “I guess honestly that would be finding a good vocalist. It’s sometimes a chore, you know what I mean? With some of the stuff that you hear, there have been a couple different vocalists who have tried some stuff on it and some of it just works while some of it doesn’t. So yeah, I think it would be just finding good top-liners.”
Cory: How would you describe your music to someone who has never heard it before?
Wesley: “Uhh… a mix between like, Island sounds, and chill, kinda bass-y / house / funk!”
Cory: You said that you have been producing for a while, so at what age exactly did you start making music and what made you decide to pursue it as a career?
Wesley: “I started with just spending my time spinning at parties. Soon after that, I started producing with the intention of just dabbling, but then it started to end up being that music was the biggest thing I was interested in, so I decided that it was something I wanted to take it up. My parents were also like ‘Go for it!’, so I went with it. From there, I went to school over in Australia just to kind of learn the engineering aspect and further my knowledge of music. After that, I started producing with a friend who was from the west-coast of Canada, and that was what Kill Them With Colour was, the two of us together. Then, around 2013-2014, he split off and I just kept kind of going about it, producing, and mixing stuff.”
Cory: So, you went to school in Australia and then started the group “Kill Them With Colour” with a friend from Canada, but where are you initially from?
Wesley: *laughs* “Where I’m from… yeah, it’s a mess. I was born in France, but I moved to Trinidad when I was about 9 years old and grew up there. Then I came to Canada when I was about 15 or 16, then in 2006 I went to audio engineering school in Australia.”
Cory: It’s already half way through the year, but is there anything else that you have left in store for the rest of 2018?
Wesley: “Yeah, I’m actually in the middle of putting together another little project, so you will have to stay tuned for that!”
Cory: Is there a particular vision that you are actively pursuing for Kill Them With Colour?
Wesley: “I would like to be at the “Festival” level but eventually I would really like to turn it into a label or at least help developing talent. I mean, I have all of these producers and stuff sitting here that I’m teaching, and it would be the perfect opportunity.”
Cory: Throughout your career, what is some of the best advice you have received?
Wesley: “I would have to say that the best advice I have gotten is to is to never quit, and just keep producing. Perseverance is the key.”
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