His musical palette ranges from Progressive and Tribal House to EDM and Electro.
With over 20 years in the music industry under his belt, along with successful releases such as ‘BroSis’, ‘Daft Batida’, landing support from Nicky Romero, a popular radio show called ‘FST’N’FWRD’, and internationally touring, Sonic Snares is the epitome of a true artist. Below Sonic Snares talks us through how he created ‘Adrenaline’.
T.H.E – What was the inspiration behind ‘Adrenaline’?
Sonic Snares – I wanted to create a record to launch my brand new show called Colours’n’shapes. I tried to find a nice mix of heavy tribal percussion and a big sounding lead. I listened a lot to my favourite progressive and electro tracks and I actually drew some inspiration from trance melodies too. I started to write the tune almost a year ago, and finalized it after the summer.
I tried to go harder and stronger than I did in the past without sounding too harsh or aggressive – trying to make something epic would describe it pretty good. Inspiration came from the big room groove movement that’s really strong at the moment, but also from Swedish/progressive house tracks – big kicks and a lead that can breathe.
T.H.E – How would you describe the track?
Sonic Snares – For me, it’s a classic show opener – an epic, uplifting big track with lots of signature drum fills, a unique sounding and catchy fallout melody which leads into a strong buildup with an even stronger second drop – very energetic and uplifting!
T.H.E – What are your top 3 plugins when creating music?
Sonic Snares – I use vengeance Avenger a lot, it’s such a powerful synth with a detailed opportunity to redesign the presets to give it more of a live character, I use the native instruments libraries very often and for mastering purposes, I can’t live without the UAD Shadow Hills mastering compressor.
T.H.E – What do you do to overcome writers’ block?
Sonic Snares – I rarely have writers’ block – sometimes I’m a bit lazy which results in less effort in the studio. If that starts to happen I need to get out of the house, go for a run, breathe fresh air, listen to great music from my favourite artists and that motivates me again to spend days in my basement.
T.H.E – You’ve had many years playing the drums, what’s the secret to creating a good drumbeat?
Sonic Snares – It’s what happens between the downbeats. In 4 to the floor dance/house beats you always need the kick on every beat and a snare/clap on the 2 and 4, hi-hat on the offbeat. But what happens in between makes your beat groovin’ or not.
A good trick is to work with lots of different elements, rim shots, foley sounds, unexpected hits, swipes etc. Just bits and pieces that keep the beat interesting and flowing and of course you need to shuffle the groove – sometimes I achieve a shuffle feel with just lowering the intensity on some notes instead of quantizing the whole beat to a swing pattern.
T.H.E – How long did ‘Adrenaline’ take you to make?
Sonic Snares – I did a first raw sketch in February 2018; the draft was way more of an electro house vibe. After that I didn’t touch the project till August –I wanted to finish it but got inspired in a different way, and so I changed the sounds and the beat to a more progressive and rave feeling – with a walking and knocking bassline, a big but mellow kick. The last part was writing the chords in the middle – I chose a fresh-sounding chord structure that reminds me of trance anthems like Above & Beyond would play. I wanted to give the track a euphoric, anthem-like feeling.
T.H.E – ‘Adrenaline’ will be part of a trilogy of tracks, could you give us a sneak peek of what they will be like?
Sonic Snares – Adrenaline is the opening track for my new show; I also will use it as a live show opener. After that, I’m aiming for something more melodic and uniting, with a vocal feature in it. The third track will be more energetic again, but with way more synths to round up this whole future-retro idea. I like to produce in concepts – as rock bands did with their albums in the past.
Releasing an album isn’t a good idea cause people won’t listen to the whole album; they listen to the strongest track. With 3 consecutive releases, they listen carefully to each of them and hopefully connect to the sound like I do in the studio.
T.H.E – When can we expect the other 2 tunes?
Sonic Snares – The next tune will drop soon after New Year’s Eve, with another performance video. This will be a double release – first the instrumental, then the vocal edit. The third track should be out in the middle of February.
T.H.E – What have you got planned for next year?
Sonic Snares – There are already two more releases in the pipeline after the colours’N’shapes trilogy. There’s a great tune with a super talented singer, which I can’t really talk about yet, and there’s another anthem-like song on the way. At the moment we are busy scheduling a tour in the Asian region – I’ll perform in countries like India, Thailand or Indonesia but there will also be a lot of shows in Europe as well.
T.H.E – Where can people purchase ‘Adrenaline’?
Sonic Snares – Adrenaline is available on all platforms – stream it on Spotify or Apple Music, buy the extended version on Beatport, Traxsource, Amazon or check out my social media channels for some special giveaways – Maybe you’ll find a private mashup edit soon as a free download! Till then, download it here.
