Alternative rap duo Mod10 stopped by to speak about their writing process together, what’s in store for the rest of the year and their new release ‘Blank Canvas’.

To anyone new to your music, name 3 words that best describe your sound.

Dynamic, intricate, thought-provoking

What’s your writing process like? Do you write the music or lyrics first?

Mod10’s writing process varies, but it typically starts with verse ideas or a general melodic/rhythmic idea. By the time I have a basic 4 bar loop made in Logic, Matt will have 4-8 lines of a verse done. The song will keep expanding in length until we start coming up with new sections like choruses or bridges, or even individual lines within a verse that could be its own section. We love to keep a song dynamic and ever changing, opting to never truly repeat a part the same way twice. Once we have a structure made with rough demo recordings, we’ll go through and re-track most vocals, find new samples and “sound design” some ear candy and additional parts to take the production to the next level. We go into the mixing process and then from there we send it off to master with Ryan Schwabe who makes us sound loud and crisp, ready to hopefully compete with all the other great sounding music out there!

Give our listeners some music recommendations that we should check out!

Normandie, Elley Duhe, NF, Above Waves, Nothing Nowhere

What’s in store for you for the rest of the year?

As both of us individually continue to grow and strive to better ourselves, our themes and styles of music will evolve as a group. I want to sing more, branch out into other genres and perform the songs live to an audience. You can expect more diverse and interesting music projects in the future. – Matt

Tell MoggBlog viewers about your latest release! What’s the inspiration behind that?

I started writing a lot of these tracks with the intention of figuring out my path in life. I utilized the music we were creating to ultimately transform fears and doubts into confidence in myself. I imagined that others who were striving to better themselves may also be going through similar circumstances and experiences. To start, I dive deeper into an idea and expand on different thoughts or limited beliefs I have about it. We wanted the sections to evolve with an underlying goal that as the songs expanded further, so would my grasp on figuring out ways of overcoming those challenges. For me it was important to face things because the only way out, is through them. I also found that discomfort can liberate us if we hold it from a place of equanimity. That’s why we incorporate themes of presence and mindfulness throughout the EP. – Matt

You can find Mod10 on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

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