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To find out what tricks they’re pulling onstage, Wired sat down with Flossy D (aka Josh Young and Curt Cameruci) to get a behind-the-scenes look into the gear they bring on the road.
“We’re running a new system now,” Cameruci says in the video above. “It’s all Ableton-driven with a MacBook as the brain.”
During live sets, the pair rock two different tools that get mixed into the MacBook — Young is tweaking and twerking an Akai APC40 Ableton controller to cue up sounds and beats while Cameruci is using a Novation Launchpad, which also controls sounds made with the Ableton Live software. Cameruci adds effects, filters and echoes using an iPad running the touchAble app.
To monitor what they’re playing, the pair rock Aiaiai TMA-1 headphones that were made specifically for their label, Fool’s Gold. The headphones’ rubbery design makes them almost indestructible, which is essential.
“Studio headphones are great,” Young says, “but they’re not designed to be beaten up every single night, checked in luggage or thrown in a carry-on or whatever.”
Rocking parties since 2006, the members of Flosstradamus also pull some clever tech tricks when making records (like free EP Total Recall, released in February). They craft their music using Logic Pro, then swap it back and forth between Brooklyn, where Cameruci lives, and Chicago, where Young lives, using Dropbox and ShareTool.
Tech also helps the duo collaborate with other artists on remixes and other projects. “It’s a good tool for this day and age because everyone is making music all over the world,” Cameruci says.
Check out more from Flosstradamus in the video, conducted during the South by Southwest Music festival, and find out just how the pair coaxes jams out of their wonderful toys.
