Q & A with Fort Knox Five

How would you define the "Fort Knox Sound" that has come to define your unique sound and remixes around the world?

The “Fort Knox Sound” consists of a combination of organic live instrumentation and classic electronic music production. We structure, and produce all of our music using Pro Tools LE 7. We tend to record lots of strings, bass, horns, and percussion. Then we rearrange it in Pro Tools. We produce all of our own beats and sounds and are essentially sampling ourselves. We use our own instrumentation as if it were samples. We love chopping it up, and rearranging it. This helps gives it that classic Fort Knox Sound while maintaining the organic feel of live music.

The band has an exciting tour lined up with dates in Canada, Miami, Denver, and others... what are you most looking forward to by being on the road and hitting up new venues?

The current dates that are lined up for Fort Knox are very exciting. We are hitting up a lot of new regions, and territories. It is always great to get into new areas.

This year we are concentrating on our new 5-piece live performance for the festival circuit. We signed with PGA Music last year for bookings. We just missed festival submissions for last year. This year Hunter and Dan have been busy booking our band into the festivals. So far they have gotten us great slots at Joshua Tree Music Festival, Wakarusa, All Good Music Festival, and several more. These performances will give us a chance to really make an impression with our live performance.

The Colorado dates are going to be great. We are touring as DJ’s with Heavyweight Dub Champion. We have been big fans of theirs for years. We are also performing as DJ’s at the WMC. We have been booked as one of the main room headliners for the massive Future Sound of Breaks party.

We are very stoked how this year is starting off.

There's a great remix you recently posted on your Facebook page, a mash-up created by DJ Shmix of "Sao Funky" by Fort Knox Five with "Can I Have It Like That" by Pharrell. Are there any artist collaborations or new remixes that your fans can look forward to either in concert or online?

We have made quite a good name for ourselves as remixers and mash-up specialists. We love making exclusives edits for our sets. The live performance incorporates loads of edits, remixes, and mash-ups. We are going to recreate these using live instrumentation such as guitar, sitar, bass, synths, and drum programming. This way people are always hearing music that sounds familiar, but in a new light. We are constantly listening to new and old music for inspiration for our various live, DJ, and audio/visual performances. The options are endless.

What projects are currently in the works with your independent label, Fort Knox Recordings? What are you looking forward to accomplishing with the label in 2010?

We recently released our new compilation, The New Gold Standard 2. It features all of the artists currently releasing music on Fort Knox Recordings, such as  International Velvet, Nappy Riddem, See-I, Empresarios, Speedy Consuela, Liftoff, and of course Fort Knox Five. We are going to start releasing the remixes of this album as well. Our comrades such as DJ Sabo, Nickodemus, J.Boogie, Fuzzbox Inc, Mo’Horizons, DJ Dan & Mike Balance, Kraak & Smaak, BadBoe, and Malente have all submitted SLAMMING remixes!!!

On another tip, we are preparing to release full length albums from Empresarios and Nappy Riddem. 2010 will mark the year the FKX is kicked into full gear thanks to all of the artists releasing music, and of course the unsung hero of Fort Knox, Andy 2Tuff. He has helped develop a solid online presence for us, as well as helping manage the label and its artists.

As the final question, I have to ask - What makes ya dance?

Anything with a funky beat!!!