By Leasia Korbel
On Life The Universe And Everything (Related To The Upcoming Album) – A Most Serious Interview With The FiXT Resident Hype Man Himself, HIGHSOCIETY
This week I got to sit down with HIGHSOCIETY to talk about his track “Voices” any details he could share about his upcoming album expected later in the year.
Q: Really loved your last collaboration with Micah Martin. It’s one of my favorite tracks. How did you meet and end up working together?
A: Thank you! That is one of my favorite releases as well. I was actually familiar with Micah’s music for a few years before I reached out to him, as he’s something of an iconic voice in the
electronic/bass music scene. When I started working on my album with FiXT, he was near the top of the list for vocalists I wanted to collaborate with. I always thought his voice was super well suited for rock-leaning music.
So I cold emailed his manager with the “Going Under” demo, and ended up on a call with Micah. Instead of talking about the song, we basically spent 30 minutes talking about our favorite rock and metalcore bands, and discovered that we had similar histories of starting out in the rock world before establishing our careers in the EDM space. We were both really excited about bridging the worlds of rock and bass music, so the timing was perfect to put “Going Under” together. Plus he’s just an absolute BEAST so we had to get him on the album twice 
Q: Do you have any upcoming shows/appearances/tours coming up?
A: I do have some things planned for Summer & Fall that are not QUITE ready to announce yet, but stay tuned, I should be announcing a few things on my socials, etc. very soon. I’m also working on creating the “DATAMOSH Live” experience bringing some real instruments into my live show. I don’t think doing straight-up DJ sets is the best way to present my new music in a live space, so I’m working on ways to bring all of this new music to life for shows.
Q: Give me a history of how “Voices” came to be? Are you hearing them now? How did the track come about? Any funny stories you want to share?
A: I feel like the best songs are the ones that come together pretty quickly, almost like they are writing themselves, or you are just a “vessel” for the song to flow through. “Voices” definitely falls into that category – we wrote and recorded almost the entire song in a few hours.
Micah sent me a text out of the blue that he was going to be visiting San Diego and wanted to record another smash. This was a rare instance where I didn’t have any available demos lying around, so I scrambled to put together an instrumental idea sketch as fast as humanly possible so we’d have something to work on. I don’t even think Micah had listened to the demo at all when he got to my studio, but after a few White Claws, we jumped in and started writing/recording vocals line by line. I hadn’t recorded Micah in person when we did “Going Under” so I didn’t know what to expect. My jaw was on the floor the entire time, he is just an incredible singer and we were in such a great creative flow, bouncing ideas off of each other and “finishing each other’s sentences” about lyric and melody ideas.
And yes I am hearing those voices now because the chorus of that song is an absolute EARWORM that has been stuck in my head for 6 months! GET IT OUT OF MY HEAD!
Q: Who designed your upcoming merch? What was the inspiration?
A: I design all of my own merch! My merch designs are inspired by modern streetwear and cyberpunk aesthetics. With each merch drop I aim to create designs that expand outside of the world of just my artist project. My goal is to make awesome shirts that people would want to wear whether they are a HIGHSOCIETY fan or not. If someone is going to spend their money with me I want to give them something truly unique (dare I say, “fashionable”?) that is more than just a billboard for my logo. So when I’m starting a new drop, I always ask “would I buy this if I saw it in a streetwear boutique?”
Q: Favorite Summer plans when you aren’t on the road?
A: I function best when I am insanely busy, so when I am home I stick to a pretty strict routine. Even outside of shows there is so much to do to keep the project going, so I’ll typically be working on new music, merch designs, videos/content, etc. I also love to attend shows as a fan to stay inspired and remind myself why I got into music in the first place. I especially love attending metal shows because I sort of get burnt out on electronic music from playing so much. In the next 3 weeks I am seeing Born of Osiris, The Word Alive, and Escape The Fate back to back which I am extremely stoked for!
Q: How long did it take you to use that long extended stainless steel dinner for exactly? Are there classes that teach this for future DJs?
A: Unfortunately this is the level of elite knowledge that only comes with the experience of playing hundreds of shows and failing repeatedly. I do go out of my way to help up-and-coming artists as much as I can with guest lectures at colleges, feedback on their music, etc., but I think this specific technique is reserved for the upper echelon of ultra-famous mega-superstars.
Q: Anything you can sneak in about the album? What haven’t we been told?
A: I feel like fans may THINK they have an idea of how it’s going to sound based on the handful of tracks we’ve released already. There’s definitely a few curveballs coming and some insane collaborations both in & outside of the FiXT roster. We have barely scratched the surface of how insane the “DATAMOSH” sound can be.
Q: On a scale of “Nervous Karaoke Singer” to “Rockstar Riding a Unicorn,” how excited are you about this albums release?
A: I would say it’s like “Shrieking Dolphin Doing a Backflip” – basically a 50/50 mix of excitement and anxiety. Since it’s my first full-length album, I feel a ton of pressure to make a statement and present my music in the best light possible.
With that said I’m very confident in the songs and I am having an absolute blast creating this album. It’s been awesome to wave the flag for the “rocktronic” movement and I think I’m breaking new musical ground with every track. That is ultimately more important to me than reaching some kind of external milestone around performance or anything like that.
I want to tell myself that I will take a break after the album is out but we all know that is not going to happen (already working on demos for album #2 btw).
Q: Where can we get DATAMOSH Hard Seltzer™? Asking for a friend.
A: So I actually just got a rejection letter from Whole Foods because apparently it is “against the law” to combine alcohol with energy drinks? I’m sorry, I thought this was America? I am happy to announce, however, that I have retained one of the top law firms in San Diego to lobby the beverage industry and hopefully change this tyrannical law. If anyone wants a DATAMOSH Hard Seltzer™ in the meantime just come over to my house and I will happily provide a case if you’ve purchased DATAMOSH merch (must show receipt / proof of purchase) [I also have a pool at my house]
Q: What is the one thing you can’t live without on tour (besides your instruments and your fans)?
A: I honestly keep it super minimal on the road, the toughest part is just having basic human needs met. It is such a fun, fast-paced environment that it can be easy to forget to drink water, eat actual food, etc. so I try to go out of my way to prioritize health when I can. I’ve basically accepted that I will get little to no sleep when doing fly-out shows but if I drink a bottle of water every hour and maybe look at a salad I usually do pretty well.
I have heard from multiple promoters that I have “the most chill rider ever” – it is 24 bottles of water and 12 white claws (doesn’t matter what flavor but lime is preferred if possible).
Q: What’s the most awkward stage moment you’ve ever had? Did it involve a wardrobe malfunction, a forgotten lyric, or perhaps a rogue insect?
A: Ok this is a good one. I played my first big festival set way back in 2017 and I played pretty early in the day, like 1PM. ~8 hours after my set the promoter tapped me on the shoulder and asked if I wanted to play a 15-minute changeover set before the headliner of the entire show. Of course I said yes, because at this time there were at least 5,000 people at the stage waiting for the headliner to go on. Easily the biggest crowd I had ever played in front of.
Everything was going great until every DJ’s biggest fear happened, I hit the “pause” button on one of the decks with my elbow and stopped the music cold. A resounding “OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH” echoed from the crowd and my life flashed before my eyes.
Now as a more experienced DJ I know how to handle “trainwreck” situations like this gracefully, but this memory still keeps me awake at night.
Q: What’s your secret recipe for being awesome?
A: I would say it’s something like
10% luck
20% skill
A healthy serving of fear
One lock of Brian Skeel’s hair
4 metalcore breakdowns
621 memes viewed per day
Feeding off the tears of my haters Also please no one ask for the DATAMOSH Hard Seltzer™ secret formula, it is kind of similar to the Krabby Patty formula, i.e. it is proprietary information and distribution of said information is punishable by federal law.
Q: Which would you rather fight: one horse-sized duck or a hundred duck-sized horses? And how would you distract them with your music if they turned on you? (Can you turn this into a reel?)
A: I have thought about this a lot – I think I MIGHT be able to defeat 100 duck-sized horses. The horse-sized duck would just be impossible, ducks can be extremely vicious (speaking from experience). With that said if I just played the upcoming BVLVNCE collab in their direction they would all disintegrate either way because it’s the heaviest song mankind has ever created x 1000000. Oh wait am I not supposed to announce that yet my bad.
Q: Can you give us a time frame for your next album? Any surprises in store?
A: I would estimate it’ll drop sometime in the next 0.5 – 30 years. We actually just decided to add a few more songs to it to make way for some big collabs, so it’ll be a bit later than planned but ultimately more awesome. As it’s my first album, I really want to take the time to make it the best it can possibly be. We’ll be dropping music nonstop leading up to the release so hopefully that can hold the fans over while I finish this BEAST!
I think there’s something that fans will find surprising about almost every song we have left to release to be honest. I’ve pushed my sound to its absolute limits bringing in orchestral elements, synthwave stuff, basically seeing how far we can take this “DATAMOSH” style. NO RULES!
Q: Describe your upcoming album in three words, but you can’t use “lit,” “fire,” or “vibes.” (Get creative, I believe in you)
A: SONIC STOMP SQUAD!
Q: Is there anything else you’d love to get out to your fans?
A: YES! I want to say a massive thank you to everyone who has stuck with me as I’ve explored and developed this new direction for the project. I know this has been the longest album teaser campaign in this history of music, but I promise it is worth the wait. You guys are the absolute best and it has been amazing meeting and getting to know so many of you over the last year.
I also want to send a massive shoutout to all of my collaborators on this album, from the incredible featured vocalists, to Brian & Ant who have helped with production/mastering, and the FiXT team for fueling this creative insanity!