Rock the Yacht is Out Now
- Hey Steven, welcome to HMP Records! How have you been? Hey thanks! I have been doing well, coming off a busy year DJing private events in the DC/Baltimore area! - Can you talk to us more about your latest single "Rock the Yacht"? Absolutely, so this track sort of began as an idea. I wanted to take the formula of 70's and 80's "yacht rock" music (which I love dearly) and translate that into house music. In order to do that I felt like the most obvious pieces to that puzzle were electric piano and a funky bass line! Which I think I incorporated into this track successfully - Did any event or experience in particular inspire you to write this song? Growing up my dad would listen to lots of music from artists like Pablo Cruise, Steely Dan, Ambrosia and things like that. That sound stuck with me, has a very specific nostalgic effect on me and I also genuinely just enjoy it. About a year ago I recorded a "Yacht Rock DJ Set" on Youtube playing remixes and edits of 70s and 80s soft rock and R&B. It was a pretty big hit, in fact, my first set is currently approaching 7K plays! After seeing how much people enjoyed the mixes, and after I enjoyed recording them so much myself, I figured why not try and channel some of that sound into my own music. - That’s a hefty mustache you have going on in the cover art. How have people received the ‘stache? Thank you kindly! It has been pretty well received, I keep telling people that I aim to make Sam Elliott proud. On Thanksgiving with my family it received endless comments haha - Who are some of your musical influences? I could write a book on my musical influences, but on this track particularly I was influenced by an artist named Felipe Gordon. They incorporate a lot of their own bass guitar recordings in their music and I really think it gives the work a unique sound and touch. They made me want to pick up my guitar and put it to use! In addition to that, soft rock and R&B artists from the 70s and 80s. They wrote much of the music with the keyboard as the lead and would always have a nice tight/crisp rhythm section. So I strived for that in this recording - How was the creation process for you? I laid down the keyboard riff and then pulled some notes out of the chords for the main bass groove. After that I recorded the slap/pop bass breakdown that you hear. Once I had all of that laid down, I came up with the title "Rock The Yacht" The next thing I wanted to do was add vocals. I went digging into my record collection and pulled out an acapella which had the lyrics "No stoppin', that rockin'.." which I felt was a perfect fit! The rest is history as they say.. - What else is happening next in your world?
I am currently DJing actively in the Baltimore and DC area. I play at a venue called "Italian Disco" in Baltimore regularly and am working on making my way into the club scene in DC this coming year.
- What does the future hold for you, both in the immediate short term, and over the next year or so?
I hope to make 2022 a big year with releases of original music. I got behind on a lot of the releases I wanted to drop this past summer due to such a hectic DJ performance schedule
I plan on more releases and continuing to write and grow/improve my production and skills as a musician as well
Also, I did one remix this past year for an artist named "Kade Young", I definitely plan on doing more remixes in the future!
Soundcloud - https://soundcloud.com/furredt
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/stevenhartkamusic/
Twitter - https://twitter.com/StevenHartka
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/Furred
Bandcamp - https://furredturgeson.bandcamp.com/