A silky smooth voice combined with competition-grade turntable skills makes Oliver Love, AKA Asian Hawk a truly unique live performer. Combining the live raw energy of DJing with finger drumming, scratch cuts and vocals, his music performances always deliver. So, we were super excited when Asian Hawk agreed to get involved in creating his very own, exclusive and free sample pack for BandLab Sounds.
BandLab Sounds lets you download your favorite samples from world-class producers and artists like Asian Hawk and more. All for free, and free to use whether personally or commercially. We speak to Asian Hawk to find out more about his brand new Loop Pack on BandLab Sounds.
Read more: Introducing BandLab Sounds: Royalty-free samples, unlimited and free
Tell us about yourself and how Asian Hawk the artist has developed?
Well, it’s a pretty long answer so I’ll try summarizing it as much as I can [laughs]. Growing up I had always wanted to be a singer. As a child, I was massively influenced by the likes of Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson. However, when I reached my teens, my music taste had somewhat changed. I actually started as a drum ‘n’ bass DJ but was quickly inspired by hip-hop and specifically turntablism. Turntablism seemed like the highest level of skill to acquire as a DJ and I became hooked. Around the time, I started studying music technology and ended up moving to Reading. That’s where I met a pair of DJs who shared the same interests as myself.
Shortly after that we formed ‘The Disablists’ and entered our first national DMC competition, which amazingly we won. We followed up that initial stroke of luck with three more wins in the preceding years in which time I also took the UK solo crown.
My natural progression would be to make beats, compose music, and eventually start recording my vocals. I generally try to live my life striving for the betterment and evolution of humanity, so with practice, combining the skills of turntablism and singing seemed like the best way I could do that.
What’s your current performance rig?
I currently use a Technics turntable, Native Instruments Traktor Kontrol Z2 mixer, NI Kontrol F1 and a NI Maschine all running Traktor, basically all the Native instruments gear! [laughs]
The sample banks have such amazing potential with up to 64 one-shots or loops that I can scratch. There are times I compose a song in Logic, then break the parts down and play them, or other times where I just grab a few different drum samples or tasty musical digs and play them together.
I generally try to live my life striving for the betterment and evolution of humanity, so with practice, combining the skills of turntablism and singing seemed like the best way I could do that.
Tell us about the fantastic sample pack of signature Asian Hawk sounds you’ve created for BandLab and our new BandLab Sounds free sample site…
Creating the sample pack was so much fun. I basically broke down snippets from my DJCity tracks for the most part, in addition to that, there are a bunch of vocal lines I’ve recorded especially for you guys at BandLab, as well as some percussive bits and an array of cuts and scratches.
I hope there are enough tasty bits that all types of producers, beatmakers and songwriters can get creative with. I can’t wait to hear what people come up with! Make sure to tag @asianhawk001 in any post you make with the pack!
Any tips for people looking to take their music live?
Honestly, I still think I’m learning new stuff every day, but, practice practice practice, and make sure you are having fun.
What’s coming up for you?
Fully itching to get out of lockdown restrictions in the UK and back into some venues. Have got an album coming out in May which features some very talented people, including ‘Matt Owens’ of ‘Noah and the Whale’, and ‘Press1’ who is a three-times rap battle champion. Have also been training a band during lockdown to tour the material, hopefully coming to a city near you soon!
If you’re inspired by the samples and Loops created by Asian Hawk, you can download them and use them for free, for both personal and commercial use. Tap the button below to explore Asian Hawk’s sample pack and more.
Read more: Behind the Loops: Youngr
