Bro Safari Reveals His DJ Secrets and Speaks About The Safe In Sound Tour
Photography by Patricia Brochu
Bro Safari, Zomboy, Datsik, Figure, and Terravita Started The Safe In Sound Tour During Day One of Produktworld.
Bro Safari, formally known as Nick Weiller, is a staple name in the electronic music scene. The producer and DJ’s status is reverred by those who know his prior drum’n’bass tracks and trap bangers.
He’s recently worked with artists such Dillon Francis, Zomboy, Boombox Cartel, and countless others. Bro Safari’s love for remixes and collaborations is easily apparent from one simple scroll through his Soundcloud.
I caught up with Nick during the premiere date of the Safe In Sound festival in Montreal at New City Gas. The following discussion unfolded between the two of us.
CanadaNightlife: How does it feel to be starting the Safe in Sound tour in Montreal? Do you have an expectations or goals for this upcoming tour?
Bro Safari: It feels really cool to start in Montreal because it’s a tour based in the United States. So starting it off in another country is a big step.As far as the rest of the tour goes, I think it’s going to be non-stop bass in your face all night long.
Bro Safari: I’ve only been to Montreal one other time, which was last year for Osheaga. I didn’t know what to expect at Osheaga and I was really nervous going into it. It was one of my best shows ever though, so coming into tonight I had high expectations for Montreal. The crowd here is definitely a rowdier crowd.
CNL: Do you expect to come back as Bro Safari sometime soon to Canada?
Bro Safari: Well I should clarify that I’ve been doing dance music for a lot longer than Bro Safari. I had a drum’n’bass group called Evol Intent since the late 90’s and we came to Canada many times. For some reason I never made it to Montreal though. I have a lot of experience in Canada between Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, and Winnipeg.
CNL: Does a Bro Safari set change night to night or do you try to keep the same schematic sounds for every performance?
Bro Safari: Well or the most part I keep my sets very similar night to night. I spend a lot of time making edits, whether of my own music or other people’s music. I like every song in my set to have a unique touch to it. I’ll spend hours and hours making edits of songs and piecing them together based on their key and tempos.
Bro Safari: I make sure everything feels like it all fits together. Once a month or so I’ll get all my songs together and plan a rough set. People send me tunes over the course of that month that I’ll add in and take stuff out. It’s constantly evolving, but it’s based around a core set.
CNL: So are a lot of these edits songs that you keep exclusive to your live performances?
Bro Safari: Yeah, 100%. I keep them exclusive because it’s my take on my music. I want it to be very clear to my fans that I put A Lot of work into my DJ sets. It’s really important that when someone comes to see me there is something for them in my set, it’s not just the same thing over and over.
CNL: When you first started making music, do you initially know it was something you wanted to always work towards as a career?
Bro Safari: DJing no, but making music yes. In one form or another I’ve been making music since I was a little kid. I started off playing violin in the fourth grade, moved into guitar, drums, bass, I even sang in a band. Then I went to college and started producing/DJing. Music is all I’m good at, besides video games.
CNL: Does the success of singles via Soundcloud affect the way you arrange music whether on an EP or album?
Bro Safari: That’s tough to answer because I built my whole brand of Bro Safari off of free Soundcloud downloads. However, over the last year Soundcloud has become a bit of a headache for upcoming artists. Lots of people rely on their audience finding their bootleg remixes or edits. We’re all always looking for new music to play and say there is a really great remix of Drake for instance, it might get pulled off of Soundcloud now. Before that wasn’t happening.
Bro Safari: Moving forward, there is a place for an EP and there is a place for a single. If I put something up on Soundcloud as a free download, I’m eventually going to sell it. My song “The Drop” is a really good example. I put that up for free originally, but last year I decided to put it on iTunes with a couple other downloads as an EP. Low and behold, we sold a ton of copies and I didn’t expect that. There is a whole audience that aren’t using Soundcloud to find music. If people see me live and don’t know about me, they might try to look for me via alternative platforms.
CNL: Soundcloud seems like such a good source to find new music to those in the scene.
Bro Safari: I feel conflicted talking about it, but it’s not their fault. They must have signed a really bad contract with a couple of major labels. They’re in between a rock and a hard place, they can’t fully function as the source of media they originally intended to be. That has to be really hard for them, but if you get in bed with a major corporation, that’s going to happen.
Bro Safari: Then their base users, people like me who built their career off this platform, are going to leave it. If my audience can’t find my music or if I upload a song that gets deleted because of some strange copyright infringement that I didn’t even know about, the less I’m going to use it.
CNL: It’s a difficult future for artists it seems.
Bro Safari: It is tough, but it’s already working itself out. Four or five years ago, nobody had any clue how they were going to make money off digital records. The music industry is booming again because people are subscribing to streaming services and record labels have found their place in the market again.
CNL: Working with new musicians online offers easier access for any collaboration. What do you loose in the process in terms of having an synonymous form of feedback?
Bro Safari: Well lately I’ve been using a website called Splice, which offers instantaneous production. Essentially what it entails is that I can start a song, upload the file and it’s there and the other artist can open it instantly. There is no compressing the file, flattening sounds, as long as you’re working on a reliable platform, we can have an instantaneous exchange of ideas.
Bro Safari: I recently worked on a track called “Flip” with Boombox Cartel. We made the whole track via Splice. They started the original idea with an awesome drop that became the second drop. They uploaded it, I saw it within a minute and did what I could in just half an hour.
CNL: How can electronic music transfers change how we ultimately create compositions all together? Not just for collaborations, but downloads, pirated versions, mp4s, etc.
Bro Safari: As far as electronic music goes, there is so much more room to do more than just one song together. I’ve always flirted with the idea of doing like a 30 minute composition, that’s a mix, but also a song. It’s become so easy to open up your laptop, jump in, and start creating. It’s only going to become easier for people to get ideas out of their head immediately.
Bro Safari: People are moving beyond just the music, it’s now more about the show, the lights, visuals, it’s a whole package. Every artist needs to have a narrative and an identity for the entire project. When you come see the Safe In Sound tour you’re going to get the experience and vision of what it should be.
Bro Safari: People that stand out make you think, “that was a Zomboy set or that was a Bro Safari set.” You can tell when you leave that you got the experience that artist intended for you to have. We all have something to say with our music and I’m stoked to be touring with these dudes who all have their own thing going. They all have their own audience, own fans, own vision, and we all come together perfectly!
CNL: Did having an iconic image help build your reputation as an artist? What made you choice that particular icon?
Bro Safari: It may have helped me, but it wasn’t intended at all. I had a guy make a logo for me, he made three versions and I picked that one. Back when I started this project no body was talking about branding; now it’s all everybody ever talks about. I was just thinking back to my punk rock days growing up to something similar to the Misfits.
CNL: Where do you see yourself taking the Bro Safari project in the next 5 years?
Bro Safari: In the next five years we’re going to see changes in this industry that no one can predict. That being said, I’m very open minded to what’s coming next. I know I want to continue pushing myself musically. So if that means my audience isn’t going to follow me, I have to make the decision of whether to do it anyway or to work with my fan base.
Bro Safari: I have really dope fans! I think they all understand that I’m doing this from a place of sincerity. I’m not doing this to make money or to be cool, this isn’t about anything other than what I do. If anything, I want to take it further and launch some new projects along the way.
Bro Safari: I grew up performing in bands and playing guitar. I’d like to get back to that, but there’s not really a place for that in the music I’m known for. I need to figure out how I want to present it to people, because regardless It’s going to be me making music.
CNL: Awesome! I look forward to hearing what you make next man.
You guys misspelled Evol Intent