RAC Let Go Ft. Kele & MNDR (Robert Delong Remix)

Quite possibly one of the most popular and well-known remix artists in the business, André Allen Anjos, aka RAC, is peaking at the top of his game, and there's no sign of him slowing down.  From DJing all over the country to pegging the #1 spot on Hype Machine time after time again with remixes of Two Door Cinema Club to Lana Del Rey to Bob Marley and more, there's no doubt that RAC has mastered the art of indie remixes.

Now embarking on a new chapter creating original material and touring with a full band, Andre Anjos is taking RAC to a whole new level, adding more originality than ever before.

I recently met up with Andre before his San Francisco stop to chat about the evolution and future of RAC, the release of his new original EP, and more.

How's the tour been going and how has it opened your eyes to a new future for RAC?

It's been awesome!  It's all been going really well. The whole tour is sold out with the exception of a few tickets in Philly.  So we'll definitely be celebrating a little when that happens.

This is something that I've wanted to do for a long time and finally have the opportunity to do so is amazing.  I love DJing, of course, but this is a whole other level.  This is what I grew up doing as I've played in bands my whole life, so being able to tour like this, sell out shows, play in front of awesome crowds, that's what I've always been kind of going for.

The idea first came up, because I was writing all this new material (the original stuff) and I was trying to write dance music, but it just wasn't happening.  I kept writing these pops songs, and then I realized that I am not writing a dance record and we can't DJ any of this stuff, like its not going to work that well. Then that's where the idea came, let's put a band together and play these songs live, which is the most appropriate setting for it, I think.

I made the mistake of thinking your first original track "Hollywood" with Penguin Prison was a remix.  It wasn't until later that I found out it was not a remix, but an original track.

Oh yeah, understandably so.  You know, I've been doing remixes for a long time, seven years or so, then suddenly one original track gets released.  All of the remixes have a certain sound, so I think it comes pretty natural that any other output that I come up with is along the same lines. 

Your debut EP Don't Talk To is now out after quite some time in the making.  How does it feel to finally have that out, and will there be a full length anytime soon?

It feels great!  It will feel even better when I have the full length.  So, the full length is all done, it's just legal stuff that we are going through.  There's just a lot of red tape when getting other artists to sing on your tracks and what not.  I'm just glad it's all done, and I'm really excited about it.  Obviously, I'm excited about the EP too, but it's just been a long time coming.

What finally spurred you to do the original album, or do the live band stuff?

I think I was getting kind of bored with remixing, and not that I'm done remixing or whatever, I still enjoy it quite a bit, but it was just something different to try out.  And immediately, the reaction to it was ten times as amazing as the remixes, and I just did not expect that at all.  It's definitely a new sense of satisfaction.

Photography and visual arts are another passion/hobby of yours; you've integrated a pretty slick audio reactive light display into you live sets.  How important was this element for this tour?

It was very important and I knew we needed something.  We had a real practical problem, which is the fact that we have different singers on every single track.  So you either have someone who covers it, which is fine, a lot of people do that, but on the other hand we can play the tracks, like when I DJ, and people still enjoy that.  So I am okay with playing tracks while we play.

I basically came up with this concept, which was loosely inspired by the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, and is a representation of "the vocal."  So the vocals from our tracks go into the machine that basically controls and reacts in real-time to whatever signal you send it to. Therefore it's kind of organic in the sense that it's not some digitally preprogrammed thing that's going to be the same each night, but rather it's wildly different each night.

Also, the form factor of it was kind of a big deal for me.  I wanted to have some physical presence, not as in a band member, but as in an iconic thing.  This is all hypothetical, and we had no idea if this was going to work or not, but at the first show I think it kind of worked!  Actually I think it worked really well.  Everyone seemed to get it and understand what's going on.

Do you see yourself elaborating on this and creating an even more stimulating visual show in the future?

Yeah, totally.  I mean, maybe making it bigger and adding a couple more for different elements.  I'm not really sure, I mean, we're still getting through this tour, so one thing at a time.

How do you decide what track to remix next?

Well, these days it's just a lot of requests directly from the labels.  On the original side of things, I work with Interscope, but I still pretty much work with all of the other labels when it comes to remixing.  It's kind of a weird system, but if there's a band with a new single that's coming out, then that label will reach out and ask if I am interested in doing a remix.  That's sort of what has happened as of lately, and I just take my personal preference and pick the next from there.  There is not a whole lot of seeking out other artists, but for example, I did a remix for the band Joywave.  I heard the original and I just knew I absolutely wanted to do a remix, so I reached out in that situation.  I mean, its not that glamorous or very exciting, but that's just how the business side of it works.    

Will you ever release remixes that do not originate from the indie genre? For example, Bill Withers or Metallica?

I mean, if it was appropriate.  I don't think I will ever get an email from Metallica asking for a remix, but Bill Withers could be interesting.  Sometimes I do like pop stuff, like I've done Kate Perry and Lady Gaga, that's fun.  Actually I have a lot of fun with that stuff, because I don't take myself that seriously.

Where do you draw your current musical influences from, and how do you apply that to keep your material fresh?

That's a difficult question, because I try to listen to as much stuff as possible. You know inevitably some remixes are going to sound like others, but that just comes with the territory of doing as many as I do.  It's also a pretty liberating medium, because I can try all kinds of different things.  I think part of the reason I got into dance music was because I started to do remixes.  For certain songs, it made sense to make them dancey, so then it became appropriate to learn the tricks of the genre and grow as a musician.  So in that sense, I think doing the remixes keep me on my toes and current by doing something different. 

Over the years, what artists have influenced you the most?

Um, just a couple.  In the most recent years, probably James Murphy and a lot of the DFA label releases.  Then there are the clichés like Radiohead and Arcade Fire, I mean everybody says that, but for good reasons -- they are highly influential.  But then there's stuff that I grew up listening to, this dude who is a crazy multi-instrumentalist and he basically puts out a new side project every other year.  He never really stays with a single project for very long and it's always completely different.  Like he was in the band Faith No More, but ever since then he's been doing this really weird experimental stuff, but it's very exciting and I just love that versatility in a musician.

Correct me if I am wrong -- you've said in the past that you are not really into dance music or into the club scene; however, much of your music is pretty dancey.  How has your musical taste evolved over the years personally and for the masses?

Well, you know, that was growing up.  I have, of course, developed an appreciation for it.  I understand it now, but growing up it was the mainstream and I just wasn't into it.  I definitely have gained a very large appreciation for dance music.  When we started DJing, I got into it as a more practical thing where people offered to pay us to play shows and I was like, "All right, cool!"  So the more I got into it, electronic dance music specifically, I realized that there was some really cool stuff here.

It was kind of just ignorance, where I didn't like dance music or understood it or the context of it, because the whole club thing isn't my scene.  But once I started to understand that, then I was like okay, this is completely valid and awesome.  The whole dancey feel didn't come till later in my style though.  When I first started DJing, I was against the whole dance music/club scene, which I think actually helped me set my self apart, not do what was already being done.  I still don't think I make dance music, but I guess some of it is danceable.