TWONK Originator Brillz Talks 2015, Trap’s Evolution and the Long Road to Success
Angelino Sami Diament is better known by his brand TWONK. Or, as you likely know him, by his production/DJ handle Brillz. Since getting the valued cosign by Diplo and Friends several years ago, Brillz has been one of trap’s workhorses, known for his playfully dramatic and energetic bangers and sets. And now he’s a mini streetwear mogul too, as his TWONK clothing brand has germinated into a life of its own, and its graphics—a mix of tribal graffiti, futurist glyphs and Keith Haring squiggles—can be found on snapbacks and hoodies the world over. In many ways, Brillz is the trap game’s Keith Haring: minimal but accessible, humorous, attention grabbing, and open-minded. He’s broad but idiosyncratic. At first glance, he might look intimidating, but he’s ultimately a friendly, mellow dude.
“I think what’s different about 2015, versus the years before it, is that the hype of one specific genre has kinda leveled out… now, it’s all about songwriting.”
In the new year, Brillz will be setting off for Asia, South America and Europe; but I caught up with him in Charlotte, SC, three weeks into his ambitious TWONK di Nation tour, which features associated acts like Party Favor, DOTCOM, LAXX, Ghastly and Jackal. Despite a tour bus malfunction that almost caused the D.C. show to get canceled, the tour has apparently otherwise gone off without a hitch. We spoke about the long journey to get where he is now, how the trap game has evolved in the genre’s short history mixing with dance music, how to avoid bullshit vibes online, and the club cuts of the year.
Can you tell me about the music you made before the Brillz project took off a few years ago, and what type of influences from when you were coming up helped influence your sound?
I was originally born in Israel. The family moved to Jersey. Grew up there, then I moved to L.A. in my early 20s. Early influences—musically, I always had a creative outlet. When I used to go to garage sales, I’d always want to get the cheap instruments that were there, not the toys and stuff.
I started playing drums and guitars and other instruments in high school, played in a bunch of bands. I was a drummer in a couple of bands. It was super hardcore. Two bass drums. Rippin’, screamin’ shit. Then I was in this other band that was a little bit more commercial. We’d play shows opening for Linkin Park, Staind, Cold Chamber, Machinehead, Limp Bizkit, Deftones, people like that. We were the openers in Jersey when that type of music was really poppin’ off. We had a really strong fanbase, so we had the chance to open for a lot of those bands that were coming through.
Right around that same time, I was also getting into the rave scene in New York. I’ve always had a lot of different friends and have been super open-minded with all types of music. While I was doing the band thing, I was also going out to raves to see electronic music. I had always been into hip-hop music, period. I actually got really into the dance movement that was going in the rave scene in the late ‘90s/early 2000s. There were a lot of dancers taking rave-inspired dance moves, like liquid, but incorporating it with hip-hop, traditional funk-style popping, cutting, robot styles. So me and a couple of my homies started a dance crew. That was a big part of my life. Our crew was called Liquid Pop Collective. We were like the first crew to put out a liquid dance tutorial. At that point, it was obviously huge all over the country—but this was before Facebook and YouTube—so there wasn’t really anything connecting it that way. There was no social media. You had to put up a website, and put out a video, and get into the message boards, and interact on that level. So it was cool—it was innovative in that way.
I got into producing a lot of my own music for the crew and for my own enjoyment. Eventually, it just led me down the path of producing my own music in general. Obviously, I ended up taking my early influences and gravitating toward an electronic platform. Ultimately, it resonated more with me—the rave scene and its culture—than the band culture. But I still love playing instruments. I did a thing a couple months ago where I remade Duck Sauce’s “NRG” remix with all live instruments. It was pretty dope.
How long did it take for music to become a full-time career?
I decided in 2004 that I was going to make music my full-time career, but I didn’t make any actual money until the beginning of 2013. So for those eight years, it was like I slept in studios, I slept on friends’ couches, racked up a ton of debt, took out loans, sold equipment, hustled random engineering jobs, and recorded random bands’ albums. I never worked on anything except music during that time. I just embraced the hustle of it all. I feel like paying those dues forced me to find a way to make it work. Ultimately, I just got the inspiration to start the Brillz project.
“One of my favorite artists is Keith Haring. He’s one of most famous in the world for drawing basic shapes that had a lot of vibe to them. I wanna do that with my music. How can I keep it that simple and create such an emotional effect?”
For a while, I think I was a little too concerned with making money and trying to get recognized and trying to get validated. It never panned out. Finally, I said, “I just wanna focus on my art, my music; that’s the most important thing. Whatever happens to it is not my concern. My concern is making it for me first.” When I shifted my mentality in that way, a lot of really great music started to come out. That was around the time I started the Brillz project, early 2012.
How have you and the DJs you’re close with—or just you individually—evolved in 2015?
I think what’s different about 2015, versus the years before it, is that the hype of one specific genre has kinda leveled out. In 2012 and the beginning of 2013, the trap sound in dance music was really the most exciting thing going on. It was uncovered territory, so there were a lot of creative things happening—a lot of different sound design ideas, a lot of tempo shifts. We started at 140 BPM, then 160 BPM, and then 100 BPM. It’s one of the only genres—or movements—where the tempo is all over the place. With any tempo, you can just trap it out. That was revolutionary in that sense. And as that came through 2013, 2014, 2015, a lot of the ground has been covered. Now, it’s all about songwriting. It’s not necessarily about one style. It’s about a really great song.
A great song has that melody or that vocal or that lyric or that emotional element that people like to sing along to it, people like to dance to it. And all the songs on this list—most of them—have that melodic vocal combination that just works. My list is really just about the tunes I’ve been playing out this year. Some of these have been the biggest tracks in my set. When I look at them and what they have in common, it’s not just cool noises. Like, here are some trap drums with a really cool sound. I look at this list and I see songs, songwriting. That’s the biggest difference coming from 2012 to right now.
Who are some new names in 2015—and some names from years past—that you think are leading the way?
As far as new guys that I’ve found out about in 2015 that have blown my mind, I’d say Wax, Ghastly and Diskord are dudes who I met this year. Those are three of my favorite producers. I’m super inspired. Great skills. Great sound design. Killing the game. Play their tunes in my sets.
As far as the best, I just have to take my hat off to Diplo. He has it nailed. He understands how to sit on that line between the underground and mainstream and nail it every time. A song like “Lean On,” you can hear on the radio, the highest song on Spotify, but you could also play it at a rave anywhere, and people will love it. Between Jack Ü and Major Lazer, he’s just #1. Don’t know who else is going that hard.
“I keep my zone filled with positive, high vibrational artists and people—because a lot of that negative gossip and shit-talking and fucking negative commentary, it’s like a waste of space in my brain.”
Diplo’s like a real DJ’s DJ. He is an extremely knowledgeable encyclopedia of music. He’s listening to all types of stuff and being exposed to all types of stuff. When he thinks something is dope, he goes after it. He’s able to bring these deeper influences to a broader space.
As far as songwriting goes, it seems easy to try to load a billion ideas into a song. Then you hear an early Chicago track that has four elements. Is it easier to simplify sometimes?
Simplicity is the key to a great song. The human brain can only really digest a certain small ratio of different elements at the same time. The more you stack in a song, the more all those things really have to tell one story. The kind of music we do—with the volume that it gets played at—there’s really not a lot of room in the frequency range to put all these different things in there. So the songs that are simple and have a lot of energy and a catchy vocal, those songs win at the end of the day. I knew that at the beginning of this project and based all my productions on that. So, if you listen to all my earlier records—the “Roots” remix, “Bueller,” “Swoop,” the TWONK album, “Rvtchet Bitch,” “Smash It Up”—there’s just one sound in the drop. Here are the drums, here are the sounds, here’s the sample. That minimal approach inspires me. One of my favorite artists is Keith Haring. He’s one of most famous in the world for drawing—not stick figures, but basic shapes that had a lot of vibe to them. I was like, I wanna do that with my music. How can I keep it that simple and create such an emotional effect?
So I look at this list and I see, let’s say, “Prison Riot”—the Floss/GTA jam. The song is so simple. It has so few elements. But I think it was one of the songs of the year. A lot of these songs—the simplicity—that’s where I think the real artistry is in songwriting. Being able to communicate a lot of depth in a simple way, to me, is highly attractive. If you need 20 things to communicate one idea, maybe that thing isn’t working.
Have you thought about incorporating more live elements or live band setups of full-on club music? Or do you see that’s something dance producers are leaning toward in general?
You look at a group like Keys N Krates, or how a group like Disclosure does their live show. Or Odesza? Obviously, it works, and it’s really, really dope.
I’m super interested and excited to work on a project like that. And I’ve started one. I’m not going to do that for Brillz, because my whole inspiration for Brillz is really weird, hype electronic music. I think the furthest I can take that is if I work on a full album; maybe I can get a really dope violin or string player that could come in and play, and I could chop it up. Or maybe like a distorted bass guitar or a guitar element. I’m working on another project, though—it’s a bit early to talk about it. It is gonna be a hybrid DJ/band type thing. Some time in the next six to 12 months, I’ll probably announce that and put out a few songs.
What about DJs saying inappropriate stuff online in 2015? Have you experienced dumb stuff from people in your world on social media?
I don’t chase after the drama. I keep my zone filled with positive, high-vibrational artists and people—because a lot of that negative gossip and shit-talking and fucking negative commentary, it’s like a waste of space in my brain. I haven’t noticed it, because I’ve learned to tune a lot of that stuff out. I have a quote that sums up this whole entire thing: “Opinions are like assholes; everyone has one.”
That era of “I’m a rock star, I’m a fucking asshole, I can do whatever I want, I can tell everyone to fuck off, I’m moody, I’m depressed…” I think the days of that character are numbered or over already. There’s just no room for it. People can just see right through it. If you’re a dick, people are gonna say, “I’m not going to your show.” We’re all connected now on a personal level. People play themselves out on Twitter and say all this random stuff or post up on Facebook and say stuff that offends people. Sure, you have a right to say it. But, I mean, the result is that people see what kind of person you are and what you think. If you’re not a good person or selfish or self-centered or racist, or the thing you said about the gay comments was horrible—people will see that. If I were a promoter, I’d think: “He’s a good producer, but I don’t agree with that.” I feel like guys that are real, genuine, down to earth, and speak from their heart and care about the world and their fans and preach positivity, those are the guys and artists that I see around more and more. And I see less out-of-control, depressed, “I hate everybody” type of dudes.
Year In Music tracklisting:
Lil Boosie “Crazy” (Brillz Snails Remix) [January]
Jack U ft. 2 Chainz “Febreeze” [February]
Flux Pavilion “Exostomp (Jump Up High)” (DISKORD Remix) [March]
Flosstradamus ft. GTA & Lil Jon “Prison Riot” [April]
Zomboy “Terror Squad” (Bro Safari & Ricky Remedy Remix) [May]
Major Lazer “Lean On” (NGHTMRE Remix) [June]
Moksi “Dopest” (Cesqeaux Remix) [July]
Snails & Herobust “Pump This” (VIP) [August]
UZ “Bubbles” [September]
Kill The Noise “Lose Ya Love” [October]
LAXX “Twitch” [November]
Nymz & Party Favor “Baddest Thing” [December]
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