Trap Sounds and Beyond With Gladiator

Los Angeles-based Dan Goodman and Ian Johnson, otherwise known as Gladiator, established themselves in the trap world two years ago with the release of the blippy and catchy “GameCube Nintendo.” Since then, they’ve signed with AM Only, released on labels like Fool’s Gold, and collaborated with everyone from Stooki Sound to LOUDPVCK, leading to newest side project GLADPVCK. Through it all, they’ve maintained that same hint of nerd-driven quirkiness that was so apparent with “GameCube Nintendo,” while still creating crushing trap. Dan took a moment to geek out and wax poetic about Slurpees, John Cage and Selena Gomez.

You had an awesome Reddit AMA session earlier this year. Is there a particular reason why you’re so active on it?
I’m just a huge nerd, and it supports my nerdiness, so I’m about it. I like that there’s the ability to talk to fans, even if that’s not what it was made for. It’s fun to talk to people.

You mentioned John Cage’s “4’33”” in your AMA, a piece that’s composed entirely of silence. It’s also a reference you used in a previous interview when asked about the musicality of trap.
Everything is relative, all art is relative, and to nitpick something based on musicality to me is just ridiculous. Music is all about communication and making people feel something. If it happens to be something simple like a kick drum, then so be it.

What’s the difference between nitpicking and giving feedback?
There’s a big difference between hating and being honest and having an opinion. Sometimes your homie makes a song, and it’s not one of your favorites; but people are afraid to say that. There are people who hate on our music all the time. There are so many people who are afraid to admit that their song might not be for everyone or it’s not their best. There’s so much sensitivity in the game. That is a big problem. It feels like right now, anybody who has an opinion is a hater, and anybody who doesn’t hate is just thirsty, so it’s a catch-22. That’s why I like talking to people on Reddit—because there are people who have opinions. Anybody who’s really a hater has just never made a banger. That’s the fact of the matter.

You’ve mentioned making more non-trap music in the future, so what is the music that Gladiator wants to make at this point?
It’s a little bit of everything. I think the most important thing is that it’s going to be fun music. I’m definitely working on a lot of different kinds of music right now. There’s a drum & bass tune that’s sitting on my computer, partly done. There are about eight or nine trap songs, a bunch of house tracks. I just want more of an electro-techy sound.

Speaking of, your song “Touch My Ass” probably came out of left field for a lot of your fans.
The other guys on the track, the Most, brought the project to us first. I was so down, but I wanted to do something dark and dirty—dip our toes in another direction and see if we can make something grungy and different. I think to a certain extent we accomplished that, and then again you’re probably right. I think people weren’t necessarily ready for it.

You also released the music video for “Tony,” part of your GLADPVCK project with LOUDPVCK. Why did you decide to do crazy crystal meth zombies
(Laughs) Yeah, that was some good old rock-candy right there. There’s this whole thug irony business. The video starts: There’s a bunch of these hot girls, and they’re very clearly serving us food. We’re sitting there at the dinner table, we have our plates, we have our napkins; obviously we’re about to eat something. They bring us all this food, then the trap side of our actual identities kicks in, and then it turns into this cavalcade of trappy references and images that are related to the scene that we’re a part of, even if it’s not actually who we are. That’s evidenced at the end when the policeman comes by and we’re like, “Brah, what are you tripping on? We’re just goofing.” Bam. “Tony.”

Random Gladiator fact: You DJed Selena Gomez’s 18th birthday party.
It’s kind of locked away in our history, but we did do that. I promise. It was fun. Ian’s mom works at Disney Channel, and Selena’s mom was tripping in the office about how she couldn’t find a DJ for the birthday party and how everybody was trying to charge her $10,000. Ian’s mom volunteers us, says we’ll make a demo, then calls us both up for a very serious talking-to. She’s like, “You’re going to make this fucking mix right now, and you’re going to send it here. She’s going to love it, then you guys are going to DJ Selena Gomez’s birthday. Do you understand? That’s what’s going to happen.”

And that’s what happened. We played every kind of music—every style, every genre—and she was down. Selena was very appropriate and very proper. Leighton Meester was there; she got a little tipsy and asked to hear “SexyBack” three times.

“There’s so much sensitivity in the game.”

How did you guys form Gladiator?
We met in high school, in ninth grade. We’ve always been nerds, so when GarageBand came out for Mac we made a lot of beats, and our friend David came up with the name Gladiator for the three of us. He went off to become an actor; Ian and I kept going with it. We went to different colleges, and then when we graduated, we got really serious about Gladiator.

Was there a moment when you realized that it was actually a thing, that it wasn’t something you were doing in your spare time?
When we got picked up by AM Only. There were definitely things before that: We played EDC. We won the Discovery Project. But they still felt like gifts we hadn’t necessarily earned until we got on AM Only.

So when you aren’t touring, what’s your perfect way to spend a day off?
It definitely involves a Slurpee, for sure—maybe like a 90 percent Coke, 10 percent blue Slurpee. At some point, a Frisbee toss in the park, and then chill with the homies, eat a fantastic dinner, play some video games, get some bros over. Done.

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