Zimbu on Music, Life & Plans for the future

Zimb-who? This guy has been making some serious movements this year & it hasn't gone unnoticed. Zimbu is one guy on everyone's radar.

This year the LA based producer has spawned releases on the likes on VALE, Danktroniks & Renraku. With him recently hitting his 2,000 followers mark, we thought it was only right to ask this guy a few questions.

Right... As a developer I have to ask... is your alias 'Zimbu' a reference to the Zimbu programming language?

“Well half of that is true. It was originally a nickname back in high school. I guess the more and more I was called that, the more attached I became of the name. Eventually it got me digging around looking for what it actually meant, and that’s when I came across the programming language. I’ll tell you what though, I couldn’t code a basic script for the life of me (haha), but I felt a strong connection to it's meaning.“

I see you're now at 2k followers, that's a real achievement man. How long have you been in the game?

“I’d say for about 7 years now. 4 years of learning how to actually make electronic music, and 3 years of really discovering my sound. I didn’t really take it as seriously when I was first making tunes. Started back in middle school when my brother and I would fight (and I meant fight) over the only computer in our room to use FL. Eventually that got me to switch over to Reason. When I was attending Berklee College of Music, I switched over to abelton 8 around 2012. That’s when I really began learning production and sound design. After I made my first track using abelton I knew I was royally screwed (haha). I was gonna have to put in another 10,000 hours in learning another 'instrument' that I was totally foreign to. Shout out to my college homies Base 2, Asteroids and Earthquakes, Jade Cicada, and Twisty knobs for helping me through that process so I never had to take a class on any of it (haha).“

So your track 'Nocturnal' on Renraku is out now, really cool track bro!

“Hell yeah thanks man. I really appreciate that like a ton of bricks. Shout to all the Renraku fam for putting me on the team and seeing my potential. Renraku to me is a amazing collective of individuals with similar interest and different backgrounds of Neuro, Halftime, and Lo-fi music that create this super group of 'High Tech/Low Frequency.' I feel like everyone on that roster has been inspiring me every since I’ve discovered them, and Nocturnal was directly example of that inspiration.“

What's the future for Zimbu? You got anything lined up?

“I got a huge Electric Forest gig coming up for being on of the winners of Insomniac’s discovery project during week 2 June 28, which I’m hugely stoked for. Definitely one of my dreams coming true. Shout out to Insomniac and the Electric Forest family. Wormhole in Oakland just announced some lineups and I’ll be providing sound for the legendary Reso with Asteroids and Earthquakes and Susp3c July 18. Shout out to Reso and Susp3c for making beast bass music.There are 1-2 Pig compilation albums coming out later this summer/fall that I have to be hush hush about unfortunately. Other that that's I'll be putting out more singles throughout the year.“

Favourite Zimbu track & why?

“As far as what I’ve released I’ma have to say “Monotron” off Vale’s weekly single releases. Shout out to the two Josh's running Vale. It was the first moment when I broke out of my comfort zone and discovered I can do more that just bangers in 85 bpm, and it was good too (haha). I think it’s important to do that so you don’t get stuck in loops. It too easy to stick to a desired bpm when most of your creations in that range come out good. I realised through my own experiences you can plateau yourself to writer's block and have a difficult time getting out of it. With that being said, I have some really cool tunes in different bpm I'm really stoked to share.“