BradElectro’s night of heavy metal house

BradElectro’s night of heavy metal house

11 November, 2008 | 2.06PM

• Written by: Eighth Dimension
• Filed under: Music News : bradelectro, tarantic

BradElectro is a new San Francisco-based electronic artist making waves with beat-heavy tracks and blazing live shows.

Coming from a background of art schools and funky radio signals, BradElectro’s influences are sonically diverse.

This is evident on his debut album Pinstripe Late Nite, recently released on the Bay Area imprint Tarantic Records.

The album’s tracks deftly teeter from rousing breakbeat to reggae-electronica, to deep and dark tech-house. No telling what genre section a music store would place this in.

Intrigued by BradElectro’s eclectic musical taste I asked him to relate a story of when even his boundaries were stretched to a near-breaking point. He told me the story of his night of heavy metal house music.

Says BradElectro: “On a Sunday evening a few years back I got a call from a promoter I knew from playing East Bay warehouse parties. He needed a last minute performer for a benefit he was throwing that night at a dive bar in San Francisco. This guy was better known for harder, more aggressive electronic music but I think my housey sound was his guilty pleasure. The benefit was to help pay medical expenses for some dude who was recently paralyzed and now wheelchair-bound. I thought it was a noble cause and I was stoked he thought of me so I packed up my live gear and headed out.”

It seems the venue was hardly the expected San Francisco nightclub known for hippie vibes and housey beats. It was a notorious biker/rocker joint. BradElectro continues: “As soon as I walked in the joint I knew I was in trouble. The room was full of big, beefy dudes looking rough in full on biker gear. Most of them were hanging around the pool table drinking, smoking and looking intimidating. Lots of dark aviator shades, faded tattoos and leather. This venue was in San Francisco, so the big gay handlebar mustaches many of these guys had weren’t out of place, but I was pretty sure these dudes weren’t gay or even from San Francisco for that matter.”

Things got a bit stickier. “As the club PA blared Aerosmith, I looked around for the promoter, but he was nowhere to be seen. I stuck out my chest and casually strolled over to the pool table, where I put my heavy flight cases down ... right on the big guy’s big black boot! ‘Watch it! What the fuck is that?’ he yelled. I apologized profusely and explained that I would the musical guest for the evening and tried to explain exactly what it was I did. I must have won big guy over with my humble, vague explanation because he barked at his henchmen to clear the area for my set-up. After I was done I was still nervous because I knew I had to win over the rest of the gang - or at least pass the Pabst Blue Ribbon test and not get any beer bottles chucked at my head.”

Finally the promoter appears and explains to BradElectro that he shouldn’t be worried as the guys in the club dig all sorts of music, just not ‘rap and techno’. “At the last minute I had an idea: I tailored my sound by avoiding the more poppy elements and sending all the basslines to a crappy metal distortion preset I found. Suddenly I was playing a grungy version of my live set that was kinda like Heavy Metal House.”

“It didn’t really sound quite like Aerosmith, and I’m not entirely sure if my audience of bikers dug it or not .. but no bottles came near my head so I was happy.”

BradElectro‘s album Pinstripe Late Nite is out now on Tarantic Records

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• 'Pinstripe Late Nite' on Beatport