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BingeNinja And The First Seed Release “Exude Me” (Interview + New Music Video)

BingeNinja And The First Seed Release “Exude Me” (Interview + New Music Video)

BingeNinja & The First Seed have recently released a psychedelic new video for the digital hardcore track “Exude Me” off their latest album “Selfish Gestures”. The song features a crazily trippy music video, meant to “visually represent the sometimes overwhelming, out of control feeling that you get when psychedelics initially kick in as it is analogous to the sensation of being swept over by modern life, which is what the song is about”. The song and video both givethe listener an almost overwhelming amount of emotion and is an amalgamation of everything that these artists were experiencing personally and socially due to the current state of politics, the music industry, social media and of course, the pandemic.  We had the chance to ask BingeNinja and The First Seed a few questions about the lyrics and meaning behind the song, the music video, how the two started working together, what they’ve got coming up next and more! Click below to watch Exude Me and keep scrolling for our interview with Binge Ninja & The First Seed!

You’ve recently released a music video for your single “Exude Me” can you tell us about the lyrics of the song and the inspiration behind them?

Shane: “Exude Me”, much like all the songs from “Selfish Gestures” is an amalgamation of everything that we were experiencing personally and socially due to the current state of politics, the music industry, social media and of course, the pandemic. With my own projects in BingeNinja, the lyrics are mostly derived from a very insular narrative. With “Exude Me” The First Seed and I wanted to paint a picture with much broader strokes, and ultimately encapsulate themes that were not necessarily literal, but open to interpretation. The goal for the lyrics were to convey the reactive emotions we were both feeling and allow the narrative to be somewhat abstract. That being said, the title “Exude Me” alludes to shared experiences that can sometimes lead to separate individuals channeling the same thoughts/beliefs/emotions/behaviours.

Adam: For me “Exude Me” is an exploration of individualism in our ever increasingly connected society fueled by entitlement to personal satisfaction above all while the illusion of upward mobility encourages people to worship money hoarding and democracy eschewing billionaires as the wealth gap expands continually wider and the ever pressing lie that happiness can be found through finance is perpetuated through our narcissistic social media obsessions.

The music video is trippy as hell, what was the thought behind the way the video was manipulated?

Shane: Because of the psychedelic nature of the song/record, and the use of psychedelics when writing, recording and mixing the record, we wanted to convey that visually as well as sonically. Basically, an art piece that could stand alone for any viewer, but could also be extremely enjoyable for someone who was tripping. Shawn Hook-Carleton had done a fantastic job on the video for the first single “Violet”, and I knew how talented The First Seed was as a digital artist, so our idea was to get some clean performance shots and then let him go nuts on the footage. I’ll let him explain the technical process as the finished product is all him. I’m blown away by what he created, he totally killed it.

Adam: I really wanted something that visually represented the sometimes overwhelming, out-of-control feeling that you get when psychedelics initially kick in as it is analogous to the sensation of being swept over by modern life which the song is about.

Do you have any behind the scenes stories from the shoot?

Shane: We had planned a livestream for the day after we released “Selfish Gestures” in which we would perform the record in its entirety. I came up to The First Seed’s place in Niagara the day of the release and in classic form we immediately started writing and recording new material with the help of a variety of booze, weed and mushrooms. (To be clear, I certainly wouldn’t glorify this type of behaviour for anybody, and definitely not for a prolonged period of time, but in a creative setting with someone you love and feel completely safe with, sometimes you need to let go of the reins and let the chips fall where they may). We ended up finalizing a brand new EP of material, much harsher musically and brash lyrically, watched some planet earth, filmed the clean shots for “Exude Me” in a forest behind First Seed’s pad and mixed the EP more before performing our livestream. It was a wild weekend…

Adam : We shot the vid the day after our first “live” performance together in over a year we were both a bit hurting and haggard hiking up muddy slopes trying to find a good spot for the shoot. Somehow we managed not to showcase us slipping and sliding while lip synching and narrowly missing impaling ourselves on broken branches. Honestly though, all the FX are just to hide how hungover we were..

“Exude Me” is the second single off your recent album “Selfish Gestures”, why did you choose “Exude Me” for the music video?

Shane: Our first single “Violet” was one of our proudest moments melodically, but because the record is so eclectic it doesn’t fully represent the many varying styles, especially the harsh noise/digital hardcore material that people know and love from us. As much as I can say we chose “Exude Me” because we didn’t want our fans to think we’d gone “soft” or whatever, I also believe it had a lot to do with the importance we placed on how the song makes us feel lyrically. Aside from my explanation in your first question, the bottom line is that the production is some of the heaviest we’ve ever offered. I’ve had comparisons to bands like Death Grips and heavy Autechre, so for us and how hard we fuck with bands like that, it was a no brainer.

Adam : Binge wanted to go soft on the first single Violet to show how much we’d matured or something and then we’d drop Exude Me to let em know we’re still ridiculous DGAF noizy bastards.

“Selfish Gestures” is one of many collaborative pieces between BingeNinja & The First Seed. How did the two of you start making music together and how has that relationship grown into what we hear today?

Shane: I play in another project called NO BRIGADE. Both NB and The First Seed release projects through a Toronto internet label D-Trash Records (Check them out). In like, 2008 or something, D-Trash was doing a showcase and that’s where I saw The First Seed perform for the first time. He was doing a noise/thrash/glitch set and to be completely honest I was absolutely terrified of him. I couldn’t talk to him that night cause I was too scared, but his music was so profound that eventually I reached out in hopes of collaborating. I met him at his place when he was still in Toronto and he was a complete sweetheart. We connected on every level and making music together came very naturally. We developed a friendship, as well as a musical kinship and eventually released our first joint record together “Kissing at Summer Camp” in 2011. We’ve worked on projects together in some way, shape or form for more than a decade. He’s been involved in NO BRIGADE and BingeNinja releases, I’ve been involved with his releases with Ero Guro. We’re always sending each other stuff, showing each other mixes and new ideas. Aside from being one of my best friends, The First Seed is someone I hold in high regard artistically. From visual art to music, I truly believe he is one of the most slept on geniuses in southern Ontario.

Adam: I met BingeNinja through the Toronto breakcore scene; his digital hardcore project NO BRIGADE was tearing it up on stage at a D-Trash records showcase show and their performance and energy blew me away. We connected that night and soon after I saw BingeNinja’s live band play and it really opened my eyes and ears to his dynamic musicality. Dude could sing AND scream AND wrote dope lyrics AND was fun to watch live! We started writing together shortly after as well as with No Brigade and the sessions were always productive and fun. Binge is the kind of musician/singer you can throw anything at and he’ll come up with something super rad and unexpected and that in turn inspires the next section or verse and it is a really enjoyable process to create with someone inspired in the moment like that. We still approach new music with the same vigour, the only difference now is we tend to create with a bit more of a direction in mind. We said “our next EP is going to be full on digi-thrash insanity” as we were finishing Selfish Gestures, and the initial sketches are just that, and we’ve also discussed a more melodic collection following that release.

What can fans expect next from both of your projects?

Shane: Because we are unable to perform the material from “Selfish Gestures” in the current climate, we will continue to release music videos to promote the record until we can get onstage. Ontop of that, we are in the mixing stages of a very noisy and aggressive EP that we will be releasing through D-Trash Records, so stay in touch for details about that. The First Seed will also be involved in a new NO BRIGADE record that we are in the midst of recording. The 3-Piece, live incarnation of BingeNinja is also working on new material, so expect a release from us sometime in the future. Huge thanks to Jesse, and everyone at Dropout for always having our backs. We’re so proud of how far you guys have come, and honoured that we got to be there from the very beginning. Also, everlasting love to our fans and anyone who supports us by showing an interest, buying records/merch, attending a show, subscribing to our social media and spreading the gospel. New music video coming soon…

Adam: BingeNinja & The First Seed already have our next digi-thrash EP roughed out and the melodic leaning follow up to that is being formulated. The First Seed has an EP dropping in May featuring his electronic-grunge-pop alter-ego “A.DAMN.DISASTER.” Also, new NO BRIGADE tracks are in the works as well as collaborations with folk punker THE MIDWIFE CRISIS and his joke rap side project THE AFFILIATED PARASITES.

 

Todays Song of The Day (March 30th) is Exude Me by BingeNinja & The First Seed. Every weekday on Dropout Radio at 10AM, 1PM, 4PM, 7PM & 10PM ET we’re showcasing some of Canada’s best independent music, from artists of all genres and all across the country. Stay tuned ’til the end of The Song of The Day on Dropout Radio to find today’s Secret Code and for your chance to win free Dropout merch!

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About The Author

Jesse Read

Jesse Read is a videographer, writer and editor for Dropout Entertainment. As a musician as well as a videographer, Jesse has travelled the country numerous times, playing alongside and listening to the stories of hundreds of artists. A few of those are documented on this site. For video's, interviews & features follow the contact us tab!

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