AHEE Takes Us On A Trip Into His ‘HyperMind’ [Exclusive Interview]

You may know him from his plethora of bass music, long green hat accessories, online producing tutorials, and immense love for science, physics, and all things alien but do you really know him? We had the pleasure of speaking with AHEE at the top of the new year about his new EP HyperMind, upcoming tour stops, and the phenomena that is AI music.

3. 2. 1… BLAST OFF

Nix (Electric Hawk): So, to start off the new year, you released the Hyper Mind EP. What story does this EP tell us? 

AHEE: Ooooh, my HyperMind EP is the story of my hyper-active mind, my passions in Bass Music, UFO technology, & Alien encounters. Each song on this EP was composed to feel like a chapter of my life’s interests.

N: What was the process of creating these songs? You have said you tend to make music very quickly, what was it about these songs that made the cut compared to others you made during this time?

AHEE: These 4 songs came from 40+ songs I’ve made in the past year, and were chosen for the EP based on how well they’ve performed live and how memorable they’ve been to fans that have been to my shows. Sometimes my best songs come out super fast, they then sit in semi-finished states that I’ll tease out live and see what works and then add new parts that I wish were there or made the song work better.

N: How about the collab with Runnit, Sauce Party?

AHEE: The collab with Runnit started when he asked me to send him a prompt for a song: a conversation between myself and an AI (with Runnit playing the role of an AI).

The prompt I gave him was “Touching a bottle of hot sauce and having it teleport you like a Harry Potter Horcrux, arriving at an Alien Party.”

He then made the first drop idea then sent it back. I added in the vocal story elements and then composed the drops. I sat on the track for a bit of time after that and thought the song might have been dead but then we linked up and had a breakthrough session in a hotel room. This was all while I was on tour w/ TVBOO in Washington DC.

After we met up, we finalized the direction of the track –  we wrapped up the writing and mixing of the song and it was finally complete! Such a fire tune, everyone go check out Runnit!

N: How does this selection of songs reflect you as an artist currently?

AHEE: I wanted to share my interests in Aliens, UFOs, and fantasy themes and combine them with a fun and creative vision of Heavy Dubstep & Trap style tunes that make people compulsively scream live! 

N: How has the reaction been to the release?

AHEE: People are loving it! I knew “Alien Invader” would do well with the Riddim enthusiasts and “Sauce Party” for the folks who love sound design, but I was pleasantly surprised by how well “Glitch Wizard” has been doing as well! We almost didn’t include it on the EP, but it was Jesse’s (Subtronics) favorite from the demos. I think it’s very creative and wild so people enjoy that.

Shows, Tours, And Festivals Galore!

N: I see you are also going to be supporting Big Gigantic’s BRIGHTER FUTURE VOL 2 TOUR starting in February! How stoked are you for this?!

AHEE: Yes, I remember meeting Dom of Big Gigantic at Lighting In A Bottle 8 years ago. After I had won 2nd place in a Big G remix contest, we hit it off and years later after I grew as an artist It’s great to see that we’re touring together! They put on an epic show that inspires me to expand what the AHEE live experience is!

N: How about Lightning in a Bottle, what’s your favorite memory from playing at this festival?

AHEE: When I first went to LIB back in 2011, I thought I’d discovered a real Hogwarts, where all the magical and creative people gathered and shared their creativity together. It was partly where I grew as a person and as a performer. From playing stages in Live Bands such as The Herbert Bail Orchestra, to making music on massive stages for Lucent Dossier, and a Burning Man-styled Circus Act set to World Bass Music. I participated so much in those communities in various ways, so to be playing the Bass Music stage as my own act, has been over a decade of anticipation and effort to achieve. So you can say I’m very stoked!

N: Now I’d like to take a little turn to talk about your online tutorials.

When you look back at these tutorials from 2, 3, or 4 years ago, what are the biggest signifiers to you that you’ve grown as an artist?

AHEE: Ah, I definitely think the feedback from fans, the growth of the shows, and the overall combined techniques I’ve shared put together into each new release have all signified growth to me!

N: Which tutorials would be most helpful for those beginning their sound design journey?

AHEE: My video on “How to Make a perfect Wub” apparently has helped thousands of producers to start their journey into sound design, which is very cool to hear! Also, many of my track breakdowns contain very interesting sound design tips.

N: Which tutorial helped you learn the most while making it?

AHEE: Number one is my video on learning how to use Voxango Span. Looking at my favorite producer’s tracks in the spectrum analyzer, and then comparing them to my own mixes was the single best thing that helped me improve as a producer. Number two would be my video called How To Make Any Beat Ever. The act of recreating other tracks I love allowed me to get my creative memory to recall patterns and concepts quickly off-hand when trying to capture an idea.

Picking The Brain of a Science Enthusiast

N: I know that you have an immense love for science and all things physics. How has it been exploring those avenues and hobbies lately, any new developments?

AHEE: Yeah, I had an epiphany just yesterday on how UFO tractor beams could be explained by the same physics that could explain how UFOs work, according to the current observations and lore. I’m planning to make more video content to help explain these ideas. However, I need to bounce them off a few other people to see if they hold up. I think it’s so funny despite being a dubstep Dj, as I’ve been speaking to engineers, Fiber Optics specialists, and physics majors –  we can all understand each other by translating phenomena observed in waves (whether it be sound/ light/ gravity waves). Very fun stuff!!!

N: What is AI music?! I’ve heard that you have experimented a bit with it, what is that process like?

AHEE: Yes, I have used ChatGPT to come up with some lyrics for a few new songs, and chord progressions, as well as for Synthesized vocals in EMVoice One and some vocal extraction on some projects of mine with lalala.ai.

N: Would you consider it to be a useful tool?

AHEE: Overall I think it could be an option to spark ideas, achieve tedious actions, and complex spectral editing, though so far I haven’t seen anything “perfectly” musical without additional edits or changes. There is a “blurry” quality on many of the AI music generators that I’m not a fan of yet, but we’ll see if that changes.

N: What is one science/physics fun factoid you would like to share?

AHEE: Fiber Optic cables are tubes of phase-canceled light surrounding phase-coherent light (AKA Laser), this laser light passes through “doped” or infused sections of Erbium, (Element 68) that then amplify the light to send it further down the line. We currently don’t know why this phenomenon happens, but we can measure it to confirm that it happens. After talking with a Fiber optics specialist, I’m curious if there is a similar phenomenon with an element that could amplify gravity! That would be really cool to see!

N: And my last question… Is there anything else you would like to share with us at Electric Hawk that we did not ask you or that you wanted to talk about? 

AHEE: I just recently released one of my best Ableton instruments for electronic producers yet! It’s called AHEE’s Magic Rave Stabs! I tried to create the last Rave Stab instrument any producer would need and I feel like I’ve succeeded, this thing sounds so clean and has so many classic rave culture sounds, the most valuable product I’ve made! Dillon Francis bought it recently and he hit me up saying how much he’s loving it, I’m very appreciative to be in the space to help my peers and musical idols alike.
If anyone wants to hear a preview or buy it, you can find it on my website here: www.Gumroad.com/ahee

Listen to Hypermind in its entirety below!

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