Photos by Erez Avissar

As our lives zoom further into the digital realm of clicks and bits, physical virtuosity remains a powerful reminder of our collective humanness. And, thanks to virtual portals like YouTube, these feats are now more widespread than ever, whether it's an old guy balancing himself on a bottle, or a dude eating 14 Twinkies in one minute, or producer Abraham Orellana aka AraabMuzik hitting his MPC sampler's pads at speeds that dazzle the eye. Commenting on a startling recent AraabMuzik live performance video, Pitchfork's Nate Patrin wrote, "Every instrument needs its Buddy Rich." The comparison to one of the most inventive and renowned drummers of all time is apt: AraabMuzik uses the technology of today to inspire centuries-old awe.

But, without a proper frame, music virtuosity can easily fall into numbing indulgence. After making beats for a range of East Coast hip-hop acts including Dipset and fellow speedster Busta Rhymes, AraabMuzik's 2011 album Electronic Dream had him nailing an undiscovered niche. The LP found the producer ingeniously mixing his precision drums with airy trance samples and coming away with a haunting sound that was unique to him. That breakthrough has helped him graduate from the realm of underground rap to huge electronic music festivals; just last week he opened for EDM kingpin Skrillex at the 4,000-capacity Hollywood Palladium and he'll hit Coachella for the first time this April. And he's got ambitious plans for 2012, including an in-the-works collaborative album with A$AP Rocky, along with his Dream followup, Electronic Reality, studio time with Danny Brown, Theophilus London, and Skrillex, and hopes of working with pop's most elite players. And while the 22-year-old has left the hip-hop world behind him to an extent, on the phone he's an amusingly relentless self-promoter in the Diddy/Dame Dash mold, viewing the music industry as something to be conquered completely: "People are going to be seeing me a lot everywhere: TVs, music, movies, festivals. You name it, I’m gonna be there."

"I make stuff that's already hot even hotter.

I reinvent shit."

Pitchfork: How did you make the transition from hip-hop to the dance world?

AraabMuzik: I do it all. I'm not stuck strictly doing hip-hop. Songs from the dance/electronic scene are my favorite to make and remix, and I like that world. And they accepted me, which was big. I never thought I was going to perform at places like the Electric Daisy Carnival. I was doing regular clubs, beginner stuff, and then once I hooked up with a booking agent they got me in there. As a hip-hop artist originally, it's overwhelming for me to be on stage with these people and doing something that no one's really seen. It's a big step. And now, the game is pretty much merging into that style, so I made that move at the right time.

What's crazy to me is that people now assume I'm behind [hip-hop] tracks that other people are putting out. They're just sitting on the edge of their chair waiting for me to put out [rap beats]. But it's not going to happen. I've graduated from that. All that hip-hop stuff is like play. Right now, I'm just focusing on doing major stuff, like stadiums. All that other stuff I can do on my down time. You want a beat? Alright, I'll help you out. Take this. I'll be in Australia doing something crazy like designing my own sneakers or my own energy drink, so people can feel like me when they drink it. "Be like me on the MPC" or something-- we should advertise it that way. You sell it. You're selling a product.

Watch an Adidas commercial soundtracked by AraabMuzik:

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Pitchfork: A lot of hip-hop is incorporating dance music sounds now anyway.

AM: Yeah, that's all you hear. For a lot of people who are just starting to find out about this type of music, they're going to be like, "Oh, he's doing this because it's popular now." No, I've been doing it. I saw someone label me as a dubstep producer-- which, I mean, thanks, but I'm definitely not a dubstep producer. There's nothing wrong with that, though, because that's major. But it's like a school bus driver being labeled as a NASCAR driver. I would love to be a NASCAR driver, but I drive buses for a living.

Pitchfork: How did you originally think to start sampling trance and really upbeat dance music?

AM: [Alice DeeJay's "Better Off Alone"] sparked it. I used to hear those types of records on the radio. Then I just started digging and doing stuff with vocals and breakdowns and nice melodies, atmospheric-sounding stuff. Spacey music. If something catches my attention, I start chopping it up right there and then.

Pitchfork: Some of the dance songs you sample are really catchy but they can also be pretty annoying-- it takes a certain open-mindedness to flip those sorts of records.

AM: Yeah, 'cause if you play hip-hop people this other style, they're like, [disgusted voice] "What's that?" But when I do it it's like, "Damn, that was hot." If you were to play them the regular song by itself, they wouldn't be into it. People are scared to do stuff because they're worried about how people are going to look at them. But I liked [trance] regardless and just kept going. And look where I am now.

Pitchfork: You sampled the Deadmau5 and Kaskade song "I Remember" on the deluxe edition of Electronic Dream. Do you assume people listening to your version are already familiar with the original? Do you care?

AM: I don't. People in the hip-hop world won't really know, but most of the [dance] people know it because that's a big record in that world. People like my version of "I Remember" better than the original now. And that's pretty much what I do: make stuff that's already hot even hotter. I reinvent shit. There are a lot of people who have used the same samples I've used, but there's no way they flipped it the way I did. So, when I put my version out, people completely forgot that this [other] person did it. Everyone can have the same product, but it's more about the way you present it and put it together.

I don't just strictly sample. I build. I'm a musician: I play piano and drums, I read notes, I write music. All of that's incorporated into Electronic Dream, but I just make it seem like it's part of the record I got it from. The world just sees me as being on MPCs, but this year I'm gonna start letting people know I'm like an orchestra: one hand on the piano, another hand on the MPC, another hand on the drums, another on the phone.

I've been producing since the age of 12 and got my first MPC in 2006. I'd been doing a lot of keyboard recording on tapes for years, just filling up the 90-minute Maxwell tapes full of beats. Then I started making a lot of beats on programs, but I always brought my own drum kit everywhere I went, so I could use my sounds instead of the stock sounds. I always try to find a way to incorporate my own sounds. And that's when I got introduced to the MPC. I've went through a lot of MPCs. I own five or six. At Coachella, I might perform with four.

"I want to produce with people that are going to be on the charts

and win Grammys because having regular old street songs

is cool, but I did all that already."

Pitchfork: Do you personally listen to artists like Deadmau5?

AM: Yeah, I've been listening to all that for years-- that's why it's so good when I do it. It's funny, I'm always blowing the speakers out in studios, like, there's smoke coming out of them. I found out that I'm not built for studio monitors. I record and mix down everything in the headphones and then I bring it to the speakers. People always wonder: What do you use to mix? I mix everything with MPC-- EQing, panning, everything. I don't use software.

It's always been live since day one. The way you see me now is the way I was doing it when I first got the MPC. Obviously, not as fast and accurate-- it took years to perfect the skill-- but I always had it. I'm a drummer. I've been playing since I was three. I was in college bands when I was in elementary school: you'd see all these older kids and then this little kid behind the drums creating this big sound.

Pitchfork: Do you practice with the MPC a lot?

AM: Definitely not. No, no, no. I don't practice. It's a gift. It's talent. Obviously, I do it all the time so it's like I'm practicing, but that's just what I do. Sometimes I'll be in the studio flipping through beats and I'll do something quick and people will be like, "What the?!" It's natural! I don't need to be nice like that, I just do it. When I'm in the studio with people who don't really know what I can do with the MPC, I'll pull the machine out and they'll be like, "Oh, damn! I haven't seen one of those in years! What are you about to do? You don't got no CDs in there?" And then: boom. That's how that video with me and Busta Rhymes in the studio came about:

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That was the first time I met him. He couldn't believe it! He literally just got up and put me in a headlock and was like,"What the fuck was that?" It was like he saw an alien. I am an alien. I start a lot of relationships these artists because of what I'm capable of doing with the machine and with beats. Anyone can just listen to a beat, that's boring. But when you actually perform in front of them, it's like: wow. It's undeniable talent. That's my advantage.

The first time I flew out to L.A. to meet 50 Cent, I went to go meet up with him in the studio and the first thing he said was, "Are you ready?" And in my head, I'm like, "Are you ready?" He wasn't ready! The beat I was playing was too much for him. He couldn't finish the record. Literally. He took the headphones off and was like, "Yo, this beat's too much for me. I'm gonna have to finish this tomorrow."

Pitchfork: What artists would you like to work with this year?

AM: I've worked with a handful of people, but they're pretty much all East Coast. So I want to get to the South: T.I., Jeezy, Waka, Lil Wayne. I don't want my music to stay New York, I want it to be everywhere. If I'm in Taiwan, I want to hear my music on the radio. I want to produce with people that are going to be on the charts and win Grammys because having regular old street songs is cool, but I did all that already. I want to be hearing myself on commercials for a new Mercedes-Benz. That's where I'm headed.

Watch AraabMuzik's mind-boggling take on Skrillex's remix of Benny Benassi's "Cinema" live at a show in Warsaw, Poland:

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Pitchfork: Skrillex is nominated for a bunch of Grammys this year-- that could be you next year.

AM: Yeah! I mean, that live video from Warsaw was the biggest clip I ever put out. Two days after it went up, it was already at like 300,000 views. I was like, "Damn!" It's the one that got everyone's attention. Now people want to see that for themselves. And since I'm chopping up a Skrillex record in that video, me doing Skrillex is what's going to be huge. People are gonna want to book us together. Same with me an A$AP. I sell out shows, he sells out shows. Us together? [laughs] There you go.

Pitchfork: The best part of that video is watching the dude in the glasses in the background react like he just saw his dead grandfather come back to life.

AM: [laughs] Yeah. People want to see more. For my next show with Skrillex I'm gonna give the people new techniques. You know how Skrillex got the little alien thing behind him when he performs? I might do a backflip or pull an extra arm out of nowhere. Who knows? Nowadays, all the people who are major are just DJs. The lighting and all that makes the show-- without all of that stuff, it's just a person behind a laptop. With me, though, it's an actual show. Like, I'm doing that. If I stop, the music stops. With me having cameras and projectors and all kinds of crazy lighting at the same time, it would be like too much for people to take.

Pitchfork: Are you talking to any big pop stars about producing their records?

AM: Not at the moment. I'm going to get there. I'm just one beat away. That's what I keep telling myself. But I'm good. It's all about timing. I don't rush nothing. I don't force anything. I still see myself as the underdog.

Watch AraabMuzik perform on Pitchfork.tv's "Surveillance":