Soundsystem Cultures LLC was originally started by my business partner Philip Irwin. We met through Infrasound Music Festival and various mutual friends. Initially, I was assisting him in acquiring some of the needed equipment for his original set up and during that process we decided that joining together as parters was a much more effective solution so we could build a bigger system. Living in separate parts of the country had a natural advantage because we both had a good number of established connections for bookings in our respective regions. Things kind of fell into place naturally from there. We’ve never come up with any kind official ethos or motto, but our general goal is to provide the highest quality audio experience possible for our customers, no matter what it takes. We’ll go to any lengths possible to ensure that everything has been set up in the most optimal way for the system to operate in the given conditions of the show. If that means re-stacking the rig multiple times to achieve the perfect configuration for the environment, we’ll do it. If we have to dig a 100ft trench in the mud to hide cables so the dance floor is obstruction-free, we’ll do it, and so on… We cut no corners and take everything possible into consideration to truly take our clients' events to the next level.

The Rust: What drew you towards a career in curating sound? What drew you to hi-fi systems in general?

I was a producer/DJ and musician before I was doing sound professionally. Growing up being involved with underground events and playing in various bands, I always had an interest in the production and audio side of things. Eventually around 2012 I met Antoine Kattar who had been working for the Funktion One US distributor in Chicago for a number of years. He was looking for someone to fill an apprentice type position to help him with permanent sound system installs around the region. Antoine has served as the front of house engineer for Tipper and many other prominent acts. He was also a member of the team responsible for a number of well-known installs around the city including Chop Shop, The Mid, and Smartbar which has been referred to as one of the best dance floor systems in world. Through working with him I learned how to tune and maintain these systems. After the first time I experienced a proper Funktion One rig I was certain I only wanted to be working with extremely high fidelity systems and I’ve been hooked ever since.

The Rust: The EasyJack project seems to encompass a number of styles and tempos. Can you talk about your musical output, and the influences that shaped your production prowess?

My early influences came from video games like the SSX series and number of others that feature quality underground music. Later on, I discovered the world of glitch hop through the likes of Tipper, Kilowatts, Opiuo, Vent, (early) Griz, and many others. But the main influence on my own personal sound has always come from my love of Chicago house music. I love incorporating subtle elements of classic house into my glitch hop and dub sounds and I think thats been the main driving factor of developing my sound over the years. Another key influence for me is the idea of making “music for sound systems”… basically producing music that can really show off the capabilities of the high fidelity systems that we work with.