RB Exclusive Interview: Pierce Fulton Talks His Latest Single “Landmines”, Maintaining Artist Integrity, and How It’s Healthy to Emulate Your Heroes

Yes, TomorrowWorld hit some snags this year. Some that left attendees angry and taking action against SFX, but there is no denying that upon entering the festival, the magic was infectious. The show went on and the music was absolutely incredible. Day one of the festival saw performances from the likes of DJ Snake, DVBBS, and Kaskade, as well as stages curated by Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, The Magician, and Ferry Corsten.

Ferry Corsten’s Full On stage included a masterfully crafted lineup including Trance stars Andrew Rayel, Cosmic Gate, and Ferry Corsten himself. However, included on this Trance heavy lineup was Progressive house up and comer, Pierce Fulton, who provided a nice contrast to the euphoria inducing music the stage had become so accustomed to. Pierce has had a number of shows country-wide performing with Ferry Corsten under the Full On brand, so it was appropriate that the producer take this relationship to the next level at one of the biggest festivals in the world.

Relentless Beats had the opportunity to sit down with 23-year-old Pierce Fulton following his breathtaking TomorrowWorld 2015 set to talk about his latest single “Landmines” which was just released on Armada Recordings, the success of his massive track “Kuaga”, collaborating with friends, writing music in 30 minutes or less, and emulating your heroes. Check out what Pierce had to say!

You just performed TomorrowWorld. How was it?

It was crazy. Oh my god it was crazy.

What were the highlights of your performance?

Well for one thing it was like ram-packed at 5:30 when I went on and they started using the fire thing in front of the DJ booth right when I went on and I decided to wear a sweater today because it was kind of cold earlier. I decided that that was a very bad decision like 20 minutes into my set because it was like standing in a sauna. But it was crazy. It was so fun.

You’ve been touring with Ferry Corsten under the Full On brand, you just played the Full On stage and we saw you in Arizona a couple weeks ago. How did you end up doing this with Ferry being more of a Trance name and you being more progressive?

Mostly it’s that my European agent is really tight with his people and she put us in touch and I met a lot of his team and they just liked me or whatever. They liked my music and it worked out. It’s sort of a nice style blend because it’s not so much similar, but it’s also not too different.

The contrast is nice.

Exactly.

Your track “Kuaga” was a huge hit, how did you end up with “Kuaga” coming off of “Runaway”?

Well, with Kuaga, I mean the first name for Kuaga was literally “writing shit”, because it was just like an idea of me trying a different chord structure, I didn’t even plan on it being a full song. It was a days worth of work that I was trying to simplify my chord structures. Less voices and less inversions. It’s two progressions of the same chord structure but with one inversion on the last chord. I don’t know, it was really simple and it worked, and I guess it was an experiment that turned into a song.

And you mentioned incorporating fewer voices, how did you end up with the vocal edit, “Lost Time”?

That was pretty much the label it was signed to. They really wanted to do a vocal edit, and I didn’t really want to because I thought the song was over. It was a year later. It was pretty much either a choice of they do a vocal or I help and do my own vocal, and I didn’t really want someone putting a vocal on my song so I was like, alright I’ll hear some people out and work on my own vocal. Luckily I came across these two writers from the UK and they had a son named Reece who’s the 9-year-old kid who’s actually singing on it. There was a bit of back and forth, and I got some help from my friend Johnny, who goes by the artist name Eden, and he helped me really craft the vocal towards what it was. Between all that it was like just four guys working on a song and one of their kids singing on it. It was a pretty fun process.

Yeah, its important to keep artist integrity and not just hand it over.

Exactly.

From “Kuaga”, now you have your new single “Landmines”. Can you tell us a bit about the new single?

It’s so funny; all my songs sound so pathetic when I talk about them because Landmines was literally a song we wrote in the last 30 minutes of a session. So like JHart and I had done a session on another song and didn’t end up using it because like, it was alright, but it wasn’t incredible. It just so happened that we were packing up our bags and we played that piano riff and he started singing something and I said “Ooo”. I pitched some ideas vocally and he came back and we wrote the vocal in 30 minutes, then I went home and produced the whole thing. It took a little while because I didn’t really know where I wanted it to go, for a while I wanted to take it sort of more experimental, but it ended up being more dance/pop-y.

So it sounds like you’ve got a lot of songs you make in 30 minutes of less, do you have any that you’re crafting right now, that you’ve been working on for a while?

Well, the 30-minute or less thing, I mean like the general idea, the chords and the lead. The vocals for Landmines were written very quickly. But the rest is all just fine-tuning until you’re done. There are some other ones that I’ve literally finished in a day, where it’s like start to finish done, but most of the time I enjoy my ideas that come about in a really, really quick fashion because when it takes a while to get the idea going, I end up hating it for some reason.

You’re really good friends with Ansolo, and you’ve got a new collaboration coming out with him. They say it’s similar to Galantis and Daft Punk, what would you say about those comparisons?

Well, I mean it’s just us having fun, like playing some music that wouldn’t really fit in to our normal sets. We both love tech house, its just groovy music and old disco stuff. So it’s us trying that without having to put it on our own separate solo careers.

What is your relationship with Ansolo?

We lived together for like a year and a half in New York and then I moved to LA and he stayed in New York. We still talk all the time and I saw him for like four hours today. His room wasn’t ready so he just hung out in my room and we talked about music and stuff. He’s one of my best friends.

That’s awesome to be able to work in an industry like this with one of your best buddies and get to see each other all the time. Well, with that, do you have any final words for aspiring producers, people looking to do what you do?

I always say it’s healthy to emulate your heroes until you get to a point where you can take it in your own direction. So, its not bad to copy what you want to make, but you have to have that deciding factor of where you take it into your own wind and make it your own thing. Like I love Eric Prydz and I tried to make Eric Prydz music, but you have to reach a point where you say, “Okay, I’ve done it and I know how he does it, but I need to take this and make it my own.” It’s about finding your sound. I’m still finding my sound; I don’t know exactly what my sound is. It’s a journey everyday, but that’s what makes it fun. You don’t want to settle with whatever you’re doing.

You can download Pierce’s new single “Landmines” here. Keep an eye and an ear out for the release of his new collaboration with Ansolo, it sounds like it will be an interesting new direction for the two producers. You can catch Pierce Fulton playing a couple of college shows next month at Cal State Fullerton and at Syracuse University in NY or at Life in Color in Louisville, KY on October 23rd.

Stay Connected with Pierce Fulton:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PierceFulton
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/piercefulton
Twitter: https://twitter.com/piercefulton