Built from a childhood friendship, The White Panda is the mashup duo of Procrast (Tom Evans) and DJ Griffi (Dan Griffith). Their 40-track collection Pandamonium was released last week, and it showcases their appropriation of artists from Paul Simon to Cali Swag District. We chatted with DJ Griffi as The White Panda prepared for heavy touring with their new material.
Ian Doreian for melophobe:
In the past year, there’s been a growing White Panda buzz through New England. Any explanation?
DJ Griffi of The White Panda:
For sure, it’s been pretty intense for us ever since our show at UMass [Back to Stool]. That was our first real experience of Massachusetts; those kids were crazy and we had a great time! And we didn’t expect it at all. It was right around the time when touring picked up to three shows a week, so there wasn’t much briefing before any show on what we could expect. No idea that this was going to be 5,000 people.
melophobe:
The concept of The White Panda, did that evolve over time or was it more of a branding?
The White Panda:
We actually came up with the name in the summer of 2009, right before Tom and I headed back to college for our senior year. There wasn’t a list or anything, but The White Panda was the catchiest name we could think of. At that point we bought a domain name, and on a whim started sending out our music to bloggers. And it just kinda caught- people began writing us, requesting our songs. Suddenly there was site traffic when we would release more content. Then colleges started to hit us up asking for shows with The White Panda. The costumes just came out of thinking about what we could do to add some excitement to the performance. Uh, why don’t we dress like crazy pandas? When we first named ourselves, we didn’t intend, or think that there would be costumes, but it works.
melophobe:
How did you make the decision to trade stability for full time life in the music business?
The White Panda:
That was tough, I had graduated in May of 2010 from USC, and had already lined up a consulting gig in LA and was ready to settle in. This was happening as the site was taking off, as our name got out there. In early July we got an offer for a 35-city tour right that fall. Here I’m thinking, shit I have this job that I have been working really hard to get, working my ass off, and can I seemingly throw it away for some try at making music. There’s safety with a 50 hour a week consulting job that you don’t have with touring. At that time there was enough exposure of The White Panda, so Tom and I figured that was our chance to capitalize on the popularity. Looking back with how great the past 8 months have been, it’s hard to remember just how difficult it was to make that decision. If it hadn’t gone well, there’s no interviews, no touring, no idea what things would have been like.
melophobe:
Was there a place that gave you great support as you were starting out with mix tapes?
The White Panda:
Lots, really. Pigeons and Planes is a great music blog and Confusion who runs the site was favorable towards us, so our tracks got great visibility. We made sure to start up a soundcloud on our site to let people easily get our material. I think most of the exposure came from Hypemachine blogs, and it took off from there.
melophobe:
What does the spring and summer tour schedule look like?
The White Panda:
The big thing is a tour around Pandamonium; we just dropped the new album last week. We worked really hard on it, got good feedback from our fans so it’s nice share it with them. To finish out the record, I came to Chicago and we’re still out here now, in Lincoln Park, getting ready for shows. It basically looks like we will be playing through the Northeast and Midwest, heading through Canada with Vancouver. It will be a full few months ahead and very different from last fall. After touring from Sunday through Tuesday, I’d go back to LA and Tom went back to Chicago. Fall was a preview; there were times I had no idea what flight was next, just living out of a suitcase, no idea where we were. Still, it’s so much fun. I wouldn’t trade it for anyone’s job. Traveling to cites, playing to a really rowdy crowd, it doesn’t really matter all the stress with being away from home.
melophobe:
Are you ready for playing Cancun with Wiz Khalifa and Pretty Lights?
The White Panda:
I have no idea what the crowd will be like, mostly people flying in from the states for spring break and what not. We’ll bring our energy and be ready to go. It’s an exciting concept; when it was pitched to us, we were like “oh hell yeah; let’s do this.” We’ll see if it can compete on Ibeza level. With Wiz, we haven’t had direct discussion. That will come when we do meet up and throw some ideas with each other. That’s what we’ve been doing with other artists. He is a very talented musician and rapper, top tier for sure.
melophobe:
Tracing that transition from college to full time playing in The White Panda, do you see any connection between college work and your music?
The White Panda:
Not exactly; not in a direct sense. I was an electrical engineer, so there is a meticulous approach to my work. Guess I see hints of that, small flashes, in the use of sampling and being very careful with track arrangement. If you look at my spreadsheets and software program, Ableton Live, there are 1000’s of folders all categorized: Drum loops, kicks, snares, genre, and beat signatures. Live loops are pretty extensive; we need to understand it inside out if we’re going to play it. While I wasn’t a music major, Tom and I have do have do have a lot of music training in our background. We grew up together in a suburb north of San Franciso, trained at the same piano studio. So there’s also a classical foundation.
melophobe:
Since you compose mash-ups, it must be hard thinking about ever releasing or selling a proper album. Do you have any ideas of how you’ll continue to release music?
The White Panda:
With piracy it is so easy to grab music. We figured that with putting our music out there for free it would encourage people to at least give it a try, and for people spread the music. Right now it doesn’t make sense to try and clear samples; we might at some point want to get it on album, but for now it’s not really hurting us. Music is so upside down; in the 70’s bands toured to support an album, to generate music sales. It’s a weird development in the last decade that tours are where bands make money. Still, it’s worked in our favor.
melophobe:
At melophobe, we encourage people to listen to all kinds of music without fear. Is there anything that you fear?
The White Panda:
It’s been so good right now; hard to talk about any negatives. For a musician, you always want to be that hot artist. There’s always a fear of not being on that wave of popularity, and not being able to make successful music. The past months have been great, and I want that to last.
Official Site: http://www.thewhitepanda.com/
Listen to Pandamonium: http://thewhitepanda.bandcamp.com/album/pandamonium