This year at Lost Lands Music Festival, Figure was kind enough to have a sit-down interview with One EDM and get an insight on his thoughts about the layout of the festival. He was sincerely one of the most insightful people. A genuine human being with such talent. With inspirations from old horror movies, real-life people, and even animals, his raw talent shows on the stage, in his music, and in the interview. Now surely will never miss a live set from Figure.
OneEdm: We’re here with Figure right now, he’s about to go on with Midnight Tyrannosaurus.
OneEdm: Have you ever done a back-to-back with him before?
Figure: Yea, three or four times actually.
OneEdm: Oh wow, so how does it usually go?
Figure: It’s great. We don’t plan anything and we just try to do a three to three because normally when someone goes back to back they go two and two. So we try to out double drop each other.
OneEdm: Sweet so it’s like a straight-up battle between the two of you!
Figure: Yea exactly.
OneEdm: So do you have any pre-show rituals that you do?
Figure: Make a drink. Smoke a cigarette, and kind of just watch whats going on beforehand ya know like, kind of be around.
OneEdm: Yea we saw you were doing the meet and greets which is really cool because a lot of artists won’t do that they just show up play their set and then leave.
Figure: Right I mean I only exist as Figure the career because of the kids. I mean there’s a point where you can only stay there so long.
OneEdm: We saw the meet and greet you were doing here at Lost Lands was at the Scummy Bear merch tent. How exactly did you get involved with them?
Figure: They actually run a lot of Excision‘s merch. Like everything from what I know, but they were doing it on the Paradox tour when I was with them, and we just became very good friends. Actually Devin the owner did my first shirt like nine years ago like this random one-off shirt. He owns this brand called “Shrapnel”, and he used to send me free stuff. But anyway two months ago they called me up and they were like, “Hey we have an entire pitch for you”. They didn’t even tell me they were designing things for me or anything and then he just sent me the entire line you saw at the merch tent and he goes approve this and we’re done. So that was it.
OneEdm: Was that your first large merch deal?
Figure: Yea, because normally I handle…*looks at phone*…my mom is always texting me beforehand and she’s like, “Do a great job honey and don’t drink too much and don’t say anything on the microphone you won’t regret”
OneEdm: I was going to ask are you parents supportive of everything you do?
Figure: Yea my Dad was a DJ and used to run a haunted house. That’s how my mom met him. So it’s really weird.
OneEdm: Wow so it’s gone full circle now with your career.
Figure: I bring mom to a lot of shows. If it’s somewhere she hasn’t been that she wants to go like I should’ve just brought her here because she could’ve just been chilling in here (artist trailer)
OneEdm: What do you think of the whole layout of everything?
Figure: It’s great. I mean the thing about an artist like Jeff (Excision) throwing a festival is that he’s played so many and seen the ups and downs of hospitality and transport and everything. He knows exactly what he needs to do
OneEdm: Absolutely, logistically this festival is being run so well.
Figure: Yea. There are so many people…*Insidion walks into Figure’s artist trailer to say what’s up and wishes us luck*… but anyways yeah he just knows what things need to be. Like when I look back on certain festivals I remember how good the hospitality was how good the catering was how comfortable it was how they didn’t just give us a chair in the sun. Like rooms like this that are nice. ‘Cus in a little bit when everyone gets here it’s just gonna be a squad of homies that are just chilling. We get to see each other all the time but it’s hard to relate to other people that don’t travel and play out so when we all get together we can all relate.
OneEdm: What I think helps that at Lost Lands is the similarities in all your music.
Figure: Yea there’s a couple of people that aren’t heavy, but you sometimes need that to balance.
OneEdm: So, we’re from PA, and the song “Monster Mania” you had that in ‘It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia’. How did that happen?
Figure: My manager got an email and it was just like, “Hey we think this is the contact for Figure. We want to license this song it goes perfectly with a fan” I guess a lot of the actors write and produce a lot of that stuff and they make a lot of musical decisions so I was like yea absolutely I don’t care what you want to do with it. I love that show and I love how they used it in the scene where Frank is on acid.
OneEdm: Monsters 8, can you tell us about it?
Figure: It’s 11 tracks, album length. There’s an intro and interlude and an outro, but it doesn’t flow like an album. The past couple Monsters just started going back to all the movies I really like instead of creating my own Monsters.
OneEdm: So you get inspirations from old horror movies and monsters?
Figure: Yea so I just grab the stuff I’m a massive fan of and I just try to adjust it.
OneEdm: Can you give me a few examples of those?
Figure: Fantasm, The Fog, like for those I completely recovered the theme songs. Those are my two all-time favorite theme songs. So I was intimidated. So the intros are these long not for a show intro it’s like an ode to the original. And in some of them like, I have a tarantula at home. I don’t have a spider song.
OneEdm: What’s your spider’s name?
Figure: Buzz. We also just got two rats. Mines name is Gein from Ed Gein like he used to eat little kids and shit. And my girlfriend’s rat is Shouto which is some anime shit I guess. But yea Buzz because in Home Alone remember the ass**** older brother? He had a tarantula so that’s the origin of that.
Figure: The most important song on the album to me is the first one it’s called “Werewolf Returns” and it’s out now I did an early release for it. And I used the piano that’s been in my family since 1908 and I finally own it. So I recorded all this piano on it and cello and stuff. A lot of people think it’s just sampling but it’s me. Now, my career in general really took off when I did the original Werewolf song so I wanted to relive that and use tons of my old sounds and shit. It was sort of an old ballot to anyone who still gives a **** about where I came from.
OneEdm: Since this is a dinosaur themed festival which one would you be and why?
Figure: Stegosaurus. I don’t know why. That was my favorite as a kid and I had a toy. It was super sharp. It just kinda looked like a gimpy Godzilla so yea I guess stegosaurus.
At the end of the day, Figure played an amazing set. With samples from his latest release “Monsters 8”, and even old-school Figure tracks. Besides from having an incredible interview, he was extremely humble. Definitely, watch his set if you get the chance. Fans can catch him at his fifth leg in Nightmare Music Festival in Camp Ramblewood, Maryland.
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