A set time at EDC Las Vegas‘s Stage 7 is just as prestigious a booking as a primetime slot at Circuit Grounds or any other blockbuster stage in the speedway for that matter. The only difference is that the producers are younger but still well established acts who deserve to be just on your radar as a big font act at a standard festival bill. At 2:30AM on Saturday of EDC, the U.S.’s Pierce Fulton came in to rock a crowd that was already spilling beyond the dancefloor and a sizable number of people on the balcony overlooking the stage.
The last you may have heard from Fulton was the sad news of his accident from a rope swinging adventure. Knowing this, it was great to see him at his first EDC weaving in and out of his own bangers to a firework display right behind him, lively as ever. The artist has good reason to keep trucking, riding on the momentum of an amazing and widely supported anthem “Kuaga” and coming into his own over the years with cutting edge releases that synthesize his wealth of production prowess and live instrumentation. We had a chance to talk to him about his recovery, what makes him such a unique addition to the Armada family, and his upcoming releases that are so daring it even makes him nervous.
How has the recovery been from getting hurt?
The first three weeks were really brutal, and then it got exponentially easier. I feel a lot better than when I was in the hospital.
Have you gotten any fan gifts or support?
A lot of people hit me up on Twitter and Instagram and stuff. But a lot of my friends from New York sent me stuff, my agent sent me stuff…Big Beat, a label I’m not even affiliated with sent me stuff. The funniest part is hat everyone sent me cookies, which I’m not mad about, but…when you eat that many cookies you start going “oh god I haven’t walked outside or done any physical activities,” because you’re sitting with broken ribs! I think just ate two too many boxes of cookies, but it was still great.
You moved to LA recently, How has the move been from East to West?
I miss my family a bit; I’m from Vermont, and lived in New York for 5 years or so…but honestly I’m loving the West Coast right now. It’s really good weather, I found a great house that’s a peaceful and creative space. I was getting pretty stressed out in New York…I love it and will probably go back at some point, but for now the West is where it’s at.
You’ve made a couple of releases on Armada, what is it about your influences and style that keeps you making unique songs on that label?
The first song I signed with them is “Landmines” and that was probably my first step toward this mix of live instruments and electronic music. So I’d say that probably helped. I signed with them right when I started figuring out my sound. I had the Kuaga sound for a while and I still try to pursue it but in a more interesting way; if I do the same thing for a while it becomes kind of uninspiring. I just try to do what I’m kind of known for but take it a step further every time.
I saw you had a video of you making a song with Botnek as the beginning of a series, can you tell me a little bit about that?
It was a spur of the moment thing, like I’ve had videos on my YouTube about how my songs were made, and those are cool but there’s nothing in the moment happening. I usually make them after the song is done. I’m trying to record that process happening, and if that moment happens then you have it raw on footage which is really cool. But it’s hard to plan for that so I made a series called “Hey, let’s make a song!” I invite a friend over and we just throw some drums into a project and jam on instruments and if something happens, great! [Botnek and I] actually done two other songs before the one that made it on the video. What I do is just press record on the GoPro, press record on the audio thing and go the whole time to see what happens.
You’re really open about sharing skills, and in this kind of competitive industry it can be difficult for producers to do that for fear of people stealing skills for themselves. What are your thoughts on producers sharing and not sharing a “secret sauce?” Do you think that’s nessecary?
To an extent, but at the same time it’s like a carpenter saying “I’m not telling you what hammer I use.” You’re still building a house. Doesn’t matter what nails, wood, or hammer you use. It might make you house a little more special, or stand a little longer or something like that. It’s not about the tools, it’s about the person making the product.
I’ve even sometimes found out a trick from some hero of mine and been like “Oh my god, he’s using that kick!? I’m gonna try to use that,” and it doesn’t even work, because it’s not my kind of kick. That’s really what it boils down to. It’s a non-phenomenon, you would think that the second you get your hands on some exclusive sound or preset pack that you’d make the next great song, but it’s all been done before.
What obstacles have you overcome to get to where you are now?
When I got signed to my management company and my booking agent, I had a couple releases; nothing crazy or official. They threw me on a bunch of tours and it was great, I had such a blast, but in that process I realized how much work it took to keep up a career like this and I was like 19 at the time, still in college. I was making music when I could, but not giving it the effort that I do now. Now I see it as an actual job where I have to do it every day. So I guess the obstacle is when it goes from being a hobby to being an actual career.
But you still find time to enjoy making the music, yeah?
Lately I’ve been enjoying it a lot more. The time I didn’t enjoy it is when people were asking me for similar sounding stuff. You can only replicate yourself so many times, and it gets really tiring. I find the most enjoyment when I’m just making music and not putting any restrictions on it. Even if it doesn’t come out, at least I did it and it’s on my computer. Sometimes those songs end up coming out– like I have this EP coming up that’s definitely a step in a different direction. It’s actually old ideas I wrote back in the day that didn’t make any sense before but now that my sound has evolved to what it is now, I can last 3 or 4 years.
What else can you tell us about your new EP?
Before I got hurt, I decided to sing on my own stuff. I’ve never sang on my one stuff, I’m not that great, but it’s been a personal journey exploring that side of me.
What is it that drew you to start singing?
Half because my great grandfather was actually a famous singer. And I always was like “why haven’t I tried this, this is stupid, I have it in my family.” And half because I got tired of waiting around for other people to sing on my music. Why am I putting effort into waiting for someone to sing on a track that may not sound that great with that person when I can just do it myself and sound alright; and I like the fact that it sounds alright, I like that there’s a raw aspect to it. This is the first body of work that I’ve sang on. It’s so fun to have a body of work that’s start to finish MY shit, you know?
It’s scary but I haven’t felt that kind of nervousness about my music in a long time. Usually I’m like “it’s another dance song and it works and I love it.” For the first time I’m like “This may not actually work.” One thing in particular is a duet between a friend and I…its just such a funny approach to a song.
I have this EP fully coming out at the end of July and some more music ready to follow that up. I have some dance tracks to put out just in case the EP doesn’t do well, so I can go back to making progressive house right away. If it does well though, I can start going down that path. Ideally I’d like to do both simultaneously so I can go play festivals like EDC, but I also have the freedom to play some live shows at hard ticket venues in New York or something.
You can check out the first single from Pierce’s EP below and get the whole thing on July 22.
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