Today we’d like to introduce you to Animalweapon, also known as Patrick Cortes.
Patrick, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
As a musician, I started out doing acoustic shows at coffee houses. Nothing special; mostly original songs that were alright at best, and a few covers here and there. No following to speak of, besides some friends and my girlfriend at the time.
Not long after that, I was trying to get a band off the ground with a friend, but it was really just me, that guy, and a revolving door of other guys on keys and drums and bass. We wrote some cool stuff, but we were all in our early 20’s, working different hours or in school and we just couldn’t get our schedules aligned to do much.
At the same time, I was getting more and more into electronic music. I was mostly listening to stuff from labels like Ghostly International or Ninja Tune, or stuff from the LA “beat-music” scene (Flying Lotus, Baths, Nosaj Thing, etc.) Eventually I gave up on starting a band, and being inspired by what I was listening to, started playing around in Logic with what I was going to call my “electronic side project” (as if anyone cared about my main project to begin with.) There wasn’t one particular moment where I decided to just make Animalweapon my “main thing,” it just kind of happened.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Nothing about this has ever been or will ever be smooth, ever. I was lucky to even have an idea of what I wanted to do, let alone being able to actually execute it as far as production and mixing, and fitting that in with the songwriting part of it. Even now, almost twelve years in, I still learn something new every time I sit down to work on something, whether I mean to learn it or not.
Beyond that, it’s been tough to find a scene here in Raleigh that I fit into. I’ve always been either too laptop-oriented to play with bands, or not “club-music” enough to fit in on the electronic nights around here where DJs are playing EDM/dubstep/drum and bass, etc. I’ve had to pave my own way here and jury’s still out as far as how successful I’ve been at doing that.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
That sounds like such a simple question but it’s always the toughest one. I always cringe a little whenever it comes up with someone new that I do music. If I’m with a friend and a stranger, and me being a musician comes up in conversation, that stranger will inevitably ask what kind of music I do and I always have to turn to the friend like, “I don’t know, what kind of music do I do?” It’s even worse when there’s not a friend there to defer to. There’s no quick, easy way to describe my stuff, and I hate saying that because saying it sounds incredibly pretentious when really I’m just not very good at describing it. I usually default to a canned response of “it’s electronic, but it’s not club stuff? It’s kind of pop? But also kind of experimental? I do it all in my apartment by myself, except for sometimes when I don’t.” Incredibly unsatisfying answer, I know.
Are there any apps, books, podcasts, blogs, or other resources you think our readers should check out?
The Bodega Boys podcast makes me laugh constantly. Desus and Mero have consistently helped get me through the toughest of times. If nothing else, Mero’s infectious laugh is always a breath of fresh air. There’s pretty much no way to hear that and not feel at least a little better.
Contact Info:
- Email: contact@animalweapon.com
- Website: http://animalweapon.com
- Instagram: http://instagram.com/animalweapon
- Facebook: http://facebook.com/animalweapon
- Twitter: http://twitter.com/animalweapon
- Youtube: http://youtube.com/animalweapon
- SoundCloud: http://soundcloud.com/animalweapon
Image Credits
Alina Patel and Blake T. Brady
