Las Vegas-based rising act – OVE fires off strongly with his debut EP Negligent Driving.
Written by:
Monsoon Season’s Content Creator: Brandon Rafferty
curatorpresents@gmail.com | Facebook | Instagram
OVE – SQR$
Rising talent OVE has been paving quite the path for himself, especially over the last two years. That’s why he continues to be under Monsoon Season‘s radar as a rising star, and today is no different. We just finished having our first listen to his forthcoming E.P. “Negligent Driving” and are here to give you an in-depth look at the track “SQR$”.
SQR$ starts shortly with what you expect to be a melodic lead, however, it quickly transitions us into a trap-styled intro where the beat is railing and the vocal chops are on full display.
The intro sets a vibe that is abruptly interrupted by this old-school dubstep-sounding bass, slowly fading in. A brief radio interference dialog plays, and then, OVE destroys his audience with what comes next.
When SQR$ begins to drop, its listeners are mesmerized by the blend of old-school sounds, arranged and mixed into a modern riddim-styled track. It is the ultimate blend between new-school techniques and old-school sounds, and as a producer, I am all for it!
The kick and snare create the ultimate backbone for this track as the bass arrangements continuously switch up yet also create a cohesive rhythm for us to bob our heads to. When the second half of the drop kicks in, it tends to have a more wonky and dancey vibe as opposed to the first half, and I find this section to be much more creative and fun as a listener.
The second drop of SQR$ is arguably more impressive than the first, The sound design choice lends to the basslines feeling like rapid firepunches to the gut which is always fun, especially in a live setting. The second half of this track goes off, giving almost no breathing room for its listeners as you are obliterated by insane basslines and pumping sublines.
OVE never fails to impress us with not only his heavy signature sound but also with how he is continuously challenging himself and trying new things on a track-by-track basis.
The entire Negligent Driving is set to release on all platforms Friday (2/16) and I can confirm, that this is a zero skip EP, and that’s rare to find these days if you ask me!
▼ STREAM NOW | SQR$ by OVE
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FOLLOW OVE
linktr.ee/itsovemusic
[INTERVIEW w/ OVE]
host:
Brandon Rafferty
Q1) Brandon asks: Let’s start from the top. Tell us, the audience, what and who “OVE” is.
OVE: OVE (pronounced ahh-vee) comes from a Danish boy’s name, roughly translating to terror or fear — which I thought was fitting for the heavy stuff I like! My family is mostly Danish and the heritage I most closely associate with, so this brand is very personal to me! I’m very excited to continue sharing the artistic vision I have for this brand!
Q2) Brandon asks: On the new EP, titled “Negligent Driving”, did you purposely improve on any aspect specifically from your prior releases?
Any new approaches /methods you took while crafting this?
OVE: Absolutely! A couple of things come to mind actually:
A) All of these tunes, aside from ‘ROAD RAGE’, were produced since my move to Nevada and on my new Mac! I’ve had a lot more processing power, which lent itself to smoother workflows, and some flat-response headphones, which helped with my mix-downs!
B) I wanted to focus on creating a cohesive body of work, which comes across in the car/phonk theme that presents itself throughout! And…
C), I wanted to title the EP as such to pay homage to the years when I was first coming onto the scene — I got a negligent driving ticket for drifting in an empty parking lot in a snowstorm near a venue where I used to play at (RIP The Pin), so I thought this and the theme I have would work well together!
Q3) Brandon asks: What track was your favorite to produce on the EP, and also which one is your favorite to just kick back and listen to?
OVE: My favorite track to produce has to be ‘MiSFiTS.’ because of getting to work with the Blvsh Boys! Half of them and I grew up a few miles down the road from each other in little old North Idaho so it was really cool getting to work on something together!
As far as just to listen to, I’d say that’d have to be ‘SQR$‘ (square money)! This was the latest addition to the EP and what I feel like is the best representation of the heavier, riddim-centric vibe that I’ve been on lately! It’s everything I look for in a riddim tune when I’m digging, so I definitely find myself coming back to this one most frequently!
Q4) Brandon asks: When writing a track from scratch, tell us the process of how you decide it’ll be a track played out live. What decisions get made to make sure your tracks are seamlessly played out
OVE: It depends really on one thing for me the direction of where I’ll take a track, whether it’ll be a “song” or a “track”. What I mean by that is that I feel like a track is structured around and focuses on the drops (think ‘FLASHBACK’), whereas a song has a strong theme and has a more cinematic or — adventurous, for lack of a better term — feel to it (think ‘BLADE’)! If it’s a track, I’ll usually just start with an 8 or 16-bar drop loop then just structure the rest of the tune around wherever those drops take me! For a song, I’ll find or record a sample I like — usually an atmospheric or cinematic sound — then create the tune in chronological order like a story! Both ways of course follow traditional structure to maximize potential playability!
Q5) Brandon asks: What big plans do you have in store for the rest of 2024? It’s already been a crazy year and we’ve only just begun! We are thrilled to know what to expect.
OVE: Today, I also launched my brand new merch line with a couple of complementary pieces to this EP! This has been a long time in the works and am extremely excited to present this drop to everyone! I aim to bring a streetwear feel to my merch and have some clean designs you’d be able to wear out with the homies at the brewery on Friday night, to lunch with your parents on Sunday, or to the afters from the show you attended mere hours before! Keep your eyes out for a lot more new music and some show dates that we’ll be announcing soon!
Q6) Brandon asks: Any final plugs you wanna toss out as we wrap up the interview? There are things you can’t discuss but, maybe perhaps, there is something?
OVE: I unfortunately can’t speak on much… HOWEVER, there are some Big Things Coming Soon
that not only I, but the entire Rage & Recover family are very Excited to share with y’all in the coming months!
that not only I, but the entire Rage & Recover family are very Excited to share with y’all in the coming months!
WAIT!
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