In a genre that moves at an alarming rate, the search for something and someone new is never-ending. The electronic music community desperately awaits for the next fad, trend, or talent to rise up for the sake of infatuating themselves with never being left behind. Being late to the party is always a bummer, and that fear of missing out is what simply drives many to scour the internet for dance music’s hottest new attraction. The imminent search for new music is endless and today I’m here to help you find your favorite new artist.
VAMPA
During college, Emily Mucha met someone on campus that shared a mutual love for electronic music. He introduced her to his friends for a night out, and she was just enthralled by how knowledgable everyone was about DJing, production, and the local live music scene. This marked the birth of VAMPA. Once she was ready to play live, she was put on lineups supporting artists such as Dubloadz, Megalodon, Trampa, Blunts and Blondes, and more.
“I started out playing deep dubstep for the first two years because I felt that low end, minimalistic vibe captured the weird and otherworldly visuals I saw in my dreams for two years leading up to that moment (a big source of inspiration for my career). Over time, I grew into incorporating heavier and heavier dubstep into my sets.”
At only 23 years old, VAMPA considers her big break to be when she was invited to B7B with Calcium, Hekler, Marauda, Wooli, Whipped Cream, Brondo and Decadon on the main stage at Moonrise Festival last summer.
“It was the most thrilling experience of my career, being surrounded by so many great artists and having the opportunity to show a lot of new faces who I was. Up until then, I was used to playing solo sets or B2B’s, but never anything that huge.”
“I remember I was so nervous going up there but being able to throw in some ID’s and freestyle with the legends completely transformed my confidence. Moving on from that moment I felt like I was truly capable of tackling challenges and overcoming any fear of failure within my career.”
VAMPA recently released her two-track EP, Dark Matter, on Kannibalen Records. Of all of her past releases, she identifies with this one as her favorite yet. With “Dark Matter” she was shooting for a spooky vibe with its ties to darkness, contrasted with the emotional tug in “Masquerade.” The inspiration for “Dark Matter” lies in personal reflection, embracing uncertainty, and overcoming challenges. The sound design on this almost sounds like you’re shifting through space; something VAMPA did on purpose as the whole theory of dark matter is rooted in the study of cosmology.
“Masquerade” is about one’s connection to the people around them and the mystery that comes with knowing whether they are who they say they are. Consequently, “Masquerade” has a touching melody, as relationships are a highly sentimental part of our lives. In the drop, there’s a lot of tension created by the rising sustain, sort of exemplifying the push and pull of wanting to let your guard down with someone but also having that reluctance to open up and be vulnerable. Another highlight of the record is her own singing voice featured. VAMPA has been a vocalist ever since she was a child, and bringing the more melodic side with heavier drops allowed her to mix emotional and reflective aspects of music with heavy bass.
“It sounds cheesy but I cry every time I listen to this tune. The message behind the lyrics speaks to the biggest spiritual lesson I’ve learned in my life and forms the basis of my brand: embracing your darkness to create your light. Most of my life I’ve been afraid or ashamed of times when I haven’t been in the best place mentally. I drove myself further down the rabbit hole by beating myself up for being flawed or experiencing hard times, I felt like I just wasn’t doing anything right.”
“These challenging periods teach us so much about ourselves and what we’re capable of overcoming. By embracing the dark times and asking myself “what can I learn from this,” I could finally feel myself being affected by the hard stuff less and less. In this way, I sort of feel like I learned to create my own happiness in the dark, be my own driving force that gets me through. I’m a firm believer that we can’t truly know what our light is without the contrast of good times and bad times in our lives. All in all, I hold these lyrics incredibly close to my heart.”
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As VAMPA continues to dominate the bass music community with her powerful sonic bass goodness, she yearns to speak to the people, no matter what genre they like, and bridge the gap between old style and new wave dubstep. As she progresses in her career, she enjoys to see her releases as an opportunity within a set to relax for a moment, connect with emotions, and sit back into a deeper groove.
