DEBASER EXCLUSIVE: Coralcola Interview + New Track

There's been murmurings across the blogosphere that America finally has an answer to Europe's sample-happy IDM prodigy The Field, and that this artist goes by the name Coralcola. While the comparison is certainly easy to make, Coralcola demonstrates a talent for crafting euphoric tracks out of creatively employed samples in ways that defy comparison.

If the 9-minutes-and-change opus Heath Ledger is any indication, then the hype surrounding Coralcola is to be thoroughly believed. DEBASER has been grooving on that track, and the other demos from Coralcola's myspace for awhile now, patiently anticipating his responses to our questions on his inspiration, methods, and opinions. Our wait is over, and we can now share a glimpse into the rising star called Coralcola, in this exclusive interview...


DEBASER: What are the primary influences on your sampling style? Is it fair to call you America's answer to The Field? I'd say your style is a little more idiosyncratic than that…


CORALCOLA: I would have to say sampling-wise, my biggest influences would be Daft Punk, and the Dust Brothers. Particularly the Beastie Boys' Paul's Boutique record. Obviously The Field records are a huge influence on me. When I first heard the track 'Over The Ice', something just clicked in my head. I recognized that Kate Bush sample immediately. I was making tunes composed of really tiny looped samples of old new wave tunes that were more glitch influenced than anything, but they didn't have any drums. I never thought anyone would get it....until I put 4 on the floor.



DEBASER: You have an EP scheduled to come out in the near future, and I know you're currently in the process of mastering it; could you speak briefly about the process of 'polishing' the demos that have been circulating?


CORALCOLA: I've got a lot of tunes that are like 90% done I would say...I like to let them sit and marinate for a while and go back to them. Listening to them after they've been chilling out for a while, you start to hear things that aren't there, but probably should be. Covering up little mixing mistakes as I go along.



DEBASER: Can you give your growing fan base any indication of when we can expect the EP or a proper album?



CORALCOLA: Growing fan base? Really? Hello growing fan base!! Haha. I have to keep pushing back stuff. I feel like a jerk, but I don't want to put out something people will listen to once and be like "ehh". The majority of the tunes are finished. It's just a matter of getting the artwork done, which I'm also doing myself. If all goes according to plan right now the records are gonna be available to anybody who wants them free of charge. The 747 EP will definitely/(finally) be out this summer, June or July the latest. That'll be a bunch of remixes and older stuff that wouldn't really fit on the other EP, which will be ready for the fall. I think it'll just sound better with leaves falling around and hoodies and pumpkins.


DEBASER: "Heath Ledger" is an interesting track. It makes me feel like I'm high on a sunny day in the 80's. And it feels really upbeat and optimistic, until you think about the title, and then it becomes this kind of bittersweet thing—a pulse where there isn't one anymore. Was that what you were going for, or was the title more of an arbitrary thing?


CORALCOLA: I'd say that's a pretty good feeling. I was too young to be getting high in the 80's. The story about the 'Heath Ledger' track is that I made it right after I found about his death. He was one of my favorite actors, and I was really bummed out. He was really young, had a kid, and what was sure to be an amazing career ahead of him, and it all just went away overnight. The track to me feels so neutral when I listen to it now, so I guess it could go either way when other people hear it. Truth is, I was just trying to make something beautiful out of something broken. It was my mourning song.



DEBASER: I like to think that we're in a sort of "golden age" of sampling, with Girl Talk, and guys like you and The Field…it could just be a matter of perspective, but do you feel like there is/you are a part of a kind of upswell in innovative modes of sampling?


CORALCOLA: I've always been fascinated by sampling. The first cassingle (damn I miss cassingles) I ever bought was Kenny Dope presents The Bucketheads - The Bomb. I wore that tape out. My Dad heard it and he was like "Why are you listening to Chicago?" and I had no idea what he was talking about, and then he played me the "Street Player" track, and my eyes just lit up. I thought it was so cool. There's definately a new wave of crazy sampling happening and it really excites me. Like Prefuse 73 stuff, there's so many different little pieces. Put them together and you've got something really amazing. Someday all the chord progressions, riffs, and lyrics will have all been used. Most of them already are. And I think people are getting excited about hearing older familiar things transposed into something fresh and different.



DEBASER: If you don't mind, I'm pretty curious about your method—how these very short samples are manipulated into these epic, evolving tracks. What software/technology do you use?



CORALCOLA: The demos on the myspace and all that stuff was made on a crappy old PC. I'm really fond of Ableton Live and have been for a few years now. At first I couldn't afford it, but the demo is fully functional except for saving and exporting. So I would record an arrangement, and then press record on Audacity, a nice freeware recording app, press play on the arrangement, and I would be able to get mp3s out of it. How's that for bootleg? I finally got the real deal for my 21st birthday and it's been no turning back since. You can't rip me away from my computer now. All day everyday, I rarely leave my room. But it's probably been the most educational couple years of my life. Teaching myself the software. Way better than anything I learned in that semester of college. I just spent every penny i had on a new Macbook. So I'm really psyched that I can play shows now. I was thinking about doing shows before and lugging my big old PC down with a giant CRT box monitor but that problem's solved now. Just a matter of getting used to the Mac, which is getting easier everyday.


DEBASER: How do you like to work? At what time of day or night, and in what frame of mind?


CORALCOLA: Late nights. Always. With a little green, if that wasn't obvious from hearing the tracks. I'm totally nocturnal and I'm living in the middle of nowhere so it's all peaceful and shit. Crickets all night. I feel a lot safer at night, like no one's looking over my shoulder. All the normz are asleep and I can do what I want. Usually when the sun's coming up I'll take a stroll around the neighborhood and listen to what I've made.



DEABSER: How significant is your source material in the music you create from it? Do you tend to cull from songs you have specific attachment to?


CORALCOLA: Oh for sure. Most of the stuff I sample is from the 80's because those are the tunes I grew up hearing. I love how even just a snippet of a old song can trigger memories. Like the second I hear Hall & Oates - I Can't Go For That, I get swept away to the cookie aisle of a certain supermarket that got torn down 15 years ago.



DEBASER: You've done remixes for Crystal Castles and experimental/noise group Astronaut, and it sounds like you have more on the way; do you have connections to any of the artists you've remixed?


CORALCOLA: I'm friends with the Astronaut guys. I like doing remixes, it's fun to put my spin on something that sounds a lot different to begin with. I'm doing some remixes right now for friends' bands, but I also like doing my take at tunes I'm just really feeling at the moment. The only connection I have to Crystal Castles is that I think Alice is a babe.



DEBASER: It seems like in the current climate of electronica music, the record label "sound" is always a big part of the buzz surrounding up-and-coming acts; Warp, Bpitch, Kompakt, Ghostly, etc. Do you feel like your sound 'belongs' on any one label, or any aspirations as to where you'd like to end up?


CORALCOLA: A girl on myspace called my tunes "dreamglitch" and I really liked that term. I guess the tracks wouldn't feel foreign on any of those labels, but I don't have my hopes up. If a label comes along that's interested in doing something together, I've got open ears and an open mind. But for now it's the last thing on my mind. I just wanna chill out, smoke some doobage, dance, and have fun.




Coralcola's debut EP 747 is due out soon, and he was nice enough to hook DEBASER up with a brand new "more dancefloor friendly" exclusive track.

Coralcola - Cleaner Than Dirt / (ysi)

All of his (thus far) available tracks also come highly recommended. Stream them on his myspace, and, for the love of God, download "Heath Ledger".

Coralcola - Heath Ledger / (ysi)