Quix Talks Music, Being Married, And New Zealand's View of Donald Trump

Quix Talks Music, Being Married, And New Zealand’s View of Donald Trump

Recently, Respect My Region had the wonderful opportunity to interview one of the biggest up and coming trap artists from New Zealand. Jono Schnell, also known as Quix, has been a fan favorite of the Pacific Northwest, playing three different shows in Washington State this year, starting out with the Wreckage Stage at Paradiso, then to Foundation Nightclub in Seattle, and finally Washington State University’s EDM hotspot, Stubblefields.

With collaborations under his belt from the likes of Boombox Cartel, Party Thieves, Gucci Mane, KRANE, and gLAdiator, Quix is certainly establishing himself as one of the industry’s most respected talents. He even has major remixes for Skrillex, Rick Ross, UZ, Future, and Chris Lake to name a few.

Here is the transcribed interview after his set at Stubblefields:

RMR: So what do you do to get rid of your stage fright before your performance, if you have stage fright?

Quix: It comes in levels. What I just did, I had no stage fright, because it was a club of just three or four hundred people, and it was so much fun. Everyone had my back and was having a good time. Recently I just played my first mainstage slot at Nocturnal Wonderland, and that was about 10,000 people. I guess that was a little scary, but I just have to remember to “do the formula”. I have to play all the songs, have to queue them up at the right time, be on the mic at the right time. When I see a crowd, or a sea of people, it almost doesn’t feel real. It kinda just feels like you’re DJing in front of a massive TV.

RMR: What do you do outside of music that you think contributes to your creativity?

Quix: I’ve thought about this before, “what do I do other than music”. I love to eat, I love to sleep, I love to hang out with friends. I’ve thought about this question but I look at it in a different perspective. If I can’t figure out what I like to do outside of music, I know I’m in the right business. I know that I’m doing exactly what I love because there’d be nothing else, that I can think of, that I want to do right now. Music to me is not just DJing, and Electronic Dance Music. Music to me is something that’s intertwined in me.

RMR: Oh most definitely, I understand that.

Quix: Yeah! It’s who I am. I mowed lawns a couple years ago. I didn’t like to do that but I feel like that, if anything, that gave me a little creative kick because it was therapeutic. While mowing lawns I’d get a beat stuck in my head, and I would sing to myself a drop or a lead or something along those lines. Doing stuff for me that’s therapeutic, like walking, it could stir up my creativity.

Quix’s most recent original track with artist KRANE in “Next World” 

RMR: How did you and Boombox Cartel become friends/collaborators?

Quix: Just on the internet, on Facebook. Boombox is a duo, Jorje and Americo. I became friends with Jorge online. He just kept sending me songs. I kept sending him songs. By the end of it, Their song Aftershock with NGHTMRE came out, and had a remix competition with it. I asked them if I could grab the stems and try to do a remix, they said “go for it”. I started doing the remix, sent it to them, and they were like “Why is this a remix? we should just make this an original.” That’s how Supernatural came to be. Supernatural kind of became the catalyst to our friendship. Now my wife and I are really close with Americo.

RMR: Oh wow, you’re married?

Quix: Yep! a year and about three months actually.

RMR: Does she help out or attend shows?

Quix: She is amazingly smart. She has gotten a degree in communications and helps grow the Quix brand whenever she can, when I’m not doing crazy tours and stuff like that.

RMR: What are some rookie mistakes that you’ve seen other people do in the music industry that leads to their downfall?

Quix: I think the biggest that I’ve seen is that people lose focus on what it’s all about. For me it’s all about people. At the end of the day, it’s all about the people. It’s all about creating an experience for people, and music is how you do that. So if you start going about it the wrong way, it can reflect badly. I reckon some people lose their focus on music, and being genuine, and creative, but still can appear to be well known and looks like they’re “killing it”. For me it’s all about staying true to the music, true to what you’ve grown up with, that’s what’s super important. Stuff that my parents told me, when I was young has stuck with me even until now. 

RMR: If you could trade lives with one person for an entire day, who would it be and why?

Quix: This is going to sound so funny, but I’d be very interested to see what a day of Donald Trump’s life would be. (group laughter). Obviously, I don’t want that to be offensive in any way, because it’s such a sensitive topic. But in a New Zealand point of view, when “DT” became president, we as New Zealand kinda just had a laugh. We were like “what’s going on??” New Zealand is so far away from everything, and I guess that’s a positive thing, because nobody wants to go to war with us. 

In terms of music, if I could be in someone else’s shoes for a day, I’d love to see what Skrillex is up to. He plays shows every once in a while, but he’s so busy doing things. I think that since his show, he closed out Webster hall, I think he just started loving playing agian. He did a set at Burning Man, and he does little club shows here and there.

RMR: Anything else you wanna say?

Quix: Peace and love!

Check out Quix’s socials here:

Soundcloud

Facebook

Twitter

Youtube

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