Opia • "Falling" (Wheathin Redo) + Q+A
Chicago artists of all genres have been pushing the bar in recent years. Vocalists Eryn Allen Kane and BJ The Chicago Kid have given us great projects already this year, The Orwells, Twin Peaks & Whitney are holding it down for guys with guitars, and anyone who has spent a few minutes on our site knows how well our hip-hop talent is doing. On top of all that, our historic electronic scene has started to see some youthful energy behind the talented duo of Louis The Child.
Turns out LTC isn't the only one in that musical realm of the city worth paying attention to. Producer Wheathin lands on our radar this week after triumphantly taking on Opia's "Falling", a gem originally produced by Color Thought. Thus far, the released work of Wheathin is limited to a set of five remixes living on his SoundCloud page. The most popular of which, his turn of Mssingno's "XE3", is coming up on four million plays. However with this redo of "Falling" currently climbing the Hype Machine charts, we wouldn't be surprised to see this one quickly match that play count. We caught up with Wheathin to hear more about what's going on in his world.
TheseDays • Talk to us a bit about how you got started - we've heard rumors of iPad apps & Wheat Thin commercial remixes...
Wheatthin • To begin, when I first started creating music, the first software i ever used was garageband which happened to be on my only available electronic at the time which was my iPad. Not to long after using it I wanted to upgrade to something with more abilities to which then I bought a Mac and started using Ableton Live which is what I still currently use. I was making house music for a year or two when someone at my school gave me the idea to remix a Wheat thins commercial because it sounded like my name Ethan. I didn't see it being cool going along side house music so I stepped outside my box and made a hilarious trap remix to the commercial. Everyone loved it and at that moment I decided to start the making music under "Wheathin".
TheseDays • Electronic music has really redefined itself in the last handful of years, what's it like being a young musician coming along during such cutting edge time for your genre?
Wheathin • Electronic music has definitely redefined itself in the last couple of years. With me being so young it's really amazing to be apart of it all. One thing i've noticed is that there are so many young talented musicians out there and they are the ones who are changing the game. Electronic music is at a point where anything can happen, the possibilities are endless and that's a good thing. Artists like Skrillex who were able to bring electronic music to the mainstream and work with artists like Justin Bieber worked in electronic music's favor.
TheseDays • So not only do you and Louis The Child share stages pretty often, you guys also share a manager - can you talk to us about your relationship with Louis The Child?
Wheathin • I have a very good relationship with LTC. I've become really good friends with Freddy and Robby both. A few times a month I get in the studio with Freddy because he still lives in Chicago where we work on tons of music. They are some of the best and most talented kids I know and I'm thankful they support my projects. I don't have a lot of people I know who make music that are near where they are at. We are pretty close in age so we understand each other really well. It's nice to have friends I could go to for advice because they've been in this business a long time and know what they are doing.
TheseDays • Thus far we've only heard remixes from you, can we expect some originals coming soon?
Wheathin • At the moment all I have out is remixes as you know but I am constantly working on originals. I have a few that could potentially come out this year but nothing is 100% ready yet. I'm taking my time and making sure I am ready to put out original music. For the future you could for sure expect Wheathin originals but you will see a few more remixes come out before that. Currently I have some really big remixes coming out soon including a Blase remix coming out next month which is a bit different from the typical wheathin sound, so be on the lookout.
