Who better to discuss music and future projects than two friends who’ve been together since the beginning?
On his latest release, Aerolite joins forces with high school mate PZMST for a journey into complex sonic and vibrant groovescapes that get you dancing. It’s very rare to find collaborations that are smoother than silk, and Times Like This certainly doesn’t disappoint.
Fresh off the release, the pair sat down for a quick chat about the track and their plans for the future.
PZMST: What is the first song/artist you can remember hearing that made you say “this is what I want to do for a living!”
AEROLITE: RL Grime. I’ll never forget sitting in my room listening to his Love Sosa remix thinking… I’ve never heard anything like this and I’ve never felt this way about music before. I had been into electronic music my whole life but when the trap scene came around, led by artists like himself, Baauer, and Rustie, something was ignited and has only grown ever since.
PZMST: What was your creative process like when you start making Times Like This?
AEROLITE: I had just gotten back from two months travelling Europe (partying with you in Mykonos, funny enough) and it was the longest I had gone without touching Ableton since I started. The time away was the biggest wake-up call to me realising how much I lived to sit in front on my laptop and create, which is exactly what I did for as long as I could when I got back. I think I got the structure of Times Like This down in a day and poured all my inspiration and built up eagerness into it. Then I just sat on it until I sent it to you many months later.
PZMST: Describe the music you create in three words.
AEROLITE: Celestial, diverse, animated.
PZMST: What is your most useless talent?
AEROLITE: I can make the sound of a cicada. Not useless if people are deathly scared of them.
PZMST: What made you want to work with me for this particular song? Seeing as it’s not exactly a hip-hop track.
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AEROLITE: You just ticked all the boxes. Had an outstanding voice, smooth and meaningful lyrics, great work ethic, and a level of professionalism that made you stand out from the rest. I sent this song to you with good faith you would bring some heat but I still get chills just thinking about the first time I heard you rap over the instrumental. You blew all my expectations out of the stratosphere and I couldn’t be happier with our track.
AEROLITE: What was your first impression when I sent you the instrumental?
PZMST: I just thought it was so clean, like, way too clean. I instantly started freestyling and messing with flows that I wanted to try over it and, for me, once the cadence and delivery comes to me, I know it’s something special. I always love it when the beat brings the creative process out of me.
AEROLITE: What’s the main message in your lyrics for Times Like This, what are your thoughts when you say “I’ve been thinking about the life that I’ve been living?”
PZMST: The idea of the entire song was to kind of run through the stream of consciousness on a night out. That kind of yin and yang feeling of “man, I don’t want to take another shot, but whatever I’m just gonna do it anyway.” You basically put the consequences in the back of your mind. That’s why it starts out with “I’ve been thinking about the life that I’ve been living,” because it’s that initial contemplation, but I’m chasing the high and I’ll do whatever it takes to get there, whether that’s chasing success, partying more, drinking more, talking to God, it’s completely random, but that’s how your thoughts are when you’re in that state of mind.
AEROLITE: Rap has changed drastically over its short lifetime, has it changed for better or for worse?
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PZMST: I absolutely love seeing hip hop evolve, I don’t necessarily know if it’s always for the better, but it’d be foolish to say rap has gotten worse over time. It’s always changing, which makes it so hard to compare. There are a lot of new artists trying different sounds, different flows, and just different stuff in general and it keeps the game fresh, which is why hip hop is built to last. Each decade has its own unique sound. The one thing that will always be consistent is the lyrics, any rapper that has longevity in mind has to say something, otherwise, they fall by the wayside and become “that rapper with that one song.”
AEROLITE: When PZMST has a sold-out world tour, who’s in your entourage?
PZMST: Tough question – definitely LaVine for sure. I can’t do much without him. I really don’t think I want to be surrounded by anyone except those people that are with me right now, I have a strong support group and when we get there I’ll be bringing them all with me. They have seen the vision from the very beginning.
AEROLITE: Apart from Aerolite X PZMST (obvs) which other artist are you most keen to collab with?
PZMST: I would love to collaborate with Anderson .Paak one day, he influences our sound heavily and I think we could cook up some magic. I would also love to work with some other Aussie artists, but I really don’t like limiting myself to any person or sound. If you wanna make some heat the DMs are open.
Pre-save Times Like This here.
