INTERVIEW: FTC Project

 Hey everyone!

I recently decided to interview Michigan based rave producer FTC Project for this blog. For those that don't know, he is becoming a popular name in the underground tracker music scene with his eclectic taste for sounds and interesting production. For now, I'll let him do the talking.

Q: For those that don't know, what music do you make?

A:  I make a mix of jungle and breakbeats with a bit of gabber and speedcore.

Q: What got you into making music in particular? Are there any particular artists that have inspired you?

A: In around 2021, I started listening to acid house and hardcore hechno and I also knew a few gabber tracks before I listened to a few pirate radio mixtapes that had jungle/breakbeats on there.

Around this time I was already experimenting on FL Studio making acid house when I discovered the jungle genre and then I started to make jungle music in FL Studio which resulted in the first dreaded Fritz The Cat EPs later in 2022. Eventually the name was changed to F.T.C Project around the summer of 2023.

Now for artists that inspired me to make jungle and breakbeats, I would say Nasty Habits (Doc Scott), Genaside II, Noise Factory, Aphex Twin, Force Mass Motion, 4 Hero and the list can go on. When I started to listen to more Amiga tracker productions I stumbled upon a band called 'Nasenbluten' which played a good part in inspiring me to starting making music on trackers like other artists such as Syndicate, Delta Nine, and Disciples of Annihilation.

Q: What do you make music with?

A: When I started making tracks, I used FL Studio 20 and sometimes GarageBand. Then I got more interested and wondered how music artists used trackers back in the golden age of jungle and techno so I started using Protracker 2.3 and Fasttracker 2 on a PC and have been using those ever since to make hardcore/breakbeat tracks.

Q: Bit of a random one, but what's your favorite food?

A: I like to have a nice burger with a drink of pop whether it's Pepsi or Coke or a traditional American meal with some French fries on the side too.

Q: What have you been listening to lately?

A: A bit of a mix of hardcore and breakbeats with a little bit of gabber as always like 4 Hero, Nebula ii, Wedlock, Globex Corp (Tim Reaper and Dwarde), Nasenbluten, Neophyte, Qbass, and Nookie. I've also been listening to a lot of old school hip-hop andrap recently with such artists like Public Enemy, Ice Cube, Cypress Hill, Sir-Mix A Lot, NWA, and good old 2 Live Crew haha.

Q: On the flip side, what music do you not like?

A: Now music that I don't like, anything that's on the Top 40 Charts radio at the moment. It's bland and has no variety and is the same six songs of prep shit. Oh yeah also I dislike any Rotterdam Records and XL Records release after late 94. What the hell happened there guys?

Q: What have you been working on lately?

A: I've recently pushed out two hardcore releases on cassette called Michigan Hardcore Volume One and Two, it's a mix of your typical breakbeats, hardcore, sampling and speedcore thrown into a 60 minute cassette and these tapes were released to prove that hardcore and jungle exists in Michigan, USA and not just London and other popular places for the scene around the world. I'm working on some more stuff on Protracker that might result in a couple more releases over the summer or into fall-winter of 2024 that might also get another cassette on Deep Extreme.

Q: Tell us more about your label, Deep Extreme.

A: Although it's a small independent label based in the suburbs of Flint Michigan, no studio time is bought for any of these productions. 99% of the stuff you'll hear out on the label was made just when I was bored on a weekend or weekday noon, or was up all night and had no idea what to do. Then some of this music eventually leads up to a release if so like how MHV1 and 2 did over the months of December 2023 and the first few months of 2024 were bedroom music tracker productions.

Q:  Have you got any tips for any people that want to start making music?

A: I don't know at the moment.

Q: Anyone you want to greet?

A: Greets to Hackurr, XSM, Paula Haunt, Snakebyte, Witch Dagger Records, My Parents (for having to put up the racket of me making music and records for my growing label), and Greets to the Amiga Wafflers.