A shitty opening act can throw the entire vibe of a night off. Luckily, tonight's Zed's Dead show at Revolution is blessed some seriously strong energetic openers. The roster includes South Florida's best in bass: Juan Basshead, Jumanji, Caligula, and Soular, among others. One of the compelling acts performing is AbdeCaf. Armed with chill sounds, this FTLian will get the crowd tripped out while still grounded in beats.
We hit up the AbdeCaf about opening for Com Truise, getting some Diplo-love, and playing Revolution, a venue where he once worked as an intern.
New Times: Your foray into music was something that happened sort of recently, but is taking
off pretty quickly. What has it been like for you going through this
transition? Kind of a taste of zero to 60, yeah?
Abdecaf:
Well, I've been doing music for as long as I can remember, at least
attempting to do music. I used to have a pop punk band in high school
that played like three shows before disbanding due to the sheer fact that we
were awful.
I started an instrumental band near the end of high school,
Fight Like Animals. And that kind of worked out for a while but it
wasn't really taking off like this. It's definitely new to me. I don't
think I've entirely grasped the concept yet that my dreams are all
coming true. It's definitely keeping me busy. For the first time the
other day, I found myself swamped with things like collaborations,
remixes and etc. I can only hope it keeps going at this pace so I can
really see a zero to 60.
Dreams really do come true. What was it like going from a full band to a solo act?
It's definitely much better to me, I prefer not relying on anyone to
having any number of people that serve as things that could go wrong. I
will most likely expand into a full band once I have the resources, but
I'll hire professional touring musicians or go with extremely reliable
friends for that.
What was it like having Diplo publicly "like" one of your tracks? Did you get to speak to him at all?
It was pretty rad, The song got like 1,000 plays in 10 minutes or
something like that, and when it happened I was sitting in class losing
my shit. People must have thought I was mental or something because I
kept going, "Oh. my fucking God there's no way," under my breath. and then I
just ran out of class with my laptop.
We emailed back and forth a bit
and he said he "loved it" and it was "weird as fuck." I ended up
getting guest listed at his Valentine's Day show and we met up and
chatted a bit, the funny thing is, I had met him before at Mamushka's one
random night. Nothing ended up coming of it, but I still think he's rad
and if he wanted to put out a record of mine on Mad Decent, I'd be all
ears.
It's a pretty small world, so you
never know what could happen. Speaking of small worlds, I hear you used
to intern for the stage manager at Revolution. Is it going to be a
little bizarre for you to be doing a set there? What went through your
mind when you got word of the booking?
I
definitely did intern there for a while in 2010. It was really
enlightening and rad, I learned a lot about sound and show production
from their production manager, Chris. Super professional crew there.
It's not so much bizarre as it is one of my childhood desires come to life.
I was pretty stoked when I got word of that booking, and I'm definitely
going to make it a special set, being my only down home show as AbdeCaf
for the time being.
What's playing on your iPod at the moment?
I don't have an iPod, but my car has an Aesop Rock/Clams
Casino/Starfucker/Twin Shadow mix CD in it right now. Both Aesop and
Twin Shadow's new albums, Clam's new mixtape and B sides, and
Starfucker's Reptilians album.
Who would you like to work with most?
Top three would be Kanye, Drake, and the Weeknd.
Com Truise is one of my favorites, what was it like opening for him?
It was rad, I ended up with a really shitty engineer for that show so
they couldn't get my setup to work properly, I had to go directly into
my laptop as opposed to with my interface, and it sounded gross as hell.
But Seth (Com Truise) was cool, we exchanged some emails and some
pleasantries a the show. He's a nice guy, I'm stoked to see him again at
Counterpoint and kick it in the ATL.
What do you have planned while you're in town for the show?
Well, I live like 10 exits south of Revolution, so It's not really "in
town" for me. It's just another drive to Rev. I'm just trying to relax
and enjoy my remaining time before stuff starts getting real and my
mental health begins wearing away from being constantly on the road and in the public eye (hopefully).
What are some of your favorite local spots?
My favorite local spots in Broward are Radio-Active Records, Lazer
Wolf, and Revolution and Green Room, of course! In Miami it'd be Grand
Central, the park across from Grand Central is also rad, I'm trying to
think of fun Miami places but they're all shady as fuck. Wynwood's cool, and Panther Coffee is great even though I've only been once.
Are you currently working on an EP or LP? What kind of things or releases do you have planned for the rest of the year?
I am indeed working on an EP for release in September via Fluorescent
Records. It's going to be free and titled Rebuild. The guest features
are my favorite part. I've got Koda, BLK SMK, Soft Lighting, MMC Da
Click, My pal Matthew Hershoff, and Andrew WK on it. It's coming out so
perfectly. I'm gonna follow it up with a third EP that'll be out either
in November or December. I'm also looking at possible tours, and I've
gotta say the ones my agent's talking about so far are not only
exciting, but extremely serious bands that will be playing huge, huge
venues, so if all goes through and I can get on them, I'll be really
happy to be touring til the year ends.
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