Open Mic with Man Cub
Intro: And now, Wolf Bait’s open mic.
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Intro WolfBytes DJs, and your favorite artists.
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Now, open mic.
DjWhtDaHek: Hey guys, it’s DjWhtDaHek here again, with another edition of open mic. Today, my guest is Alec also known as Man Cub. Thanks for coming on the show.
Man Cub: Yeah, thanks for having me.
DjWhtDaHek: So what’s going [00:00:30] on right now, man? You just kind of chilling out today?
Man Cub: Yeah. You know, just, it’s kind of the same old thing. Just make music every day. COVID life is kind of a producer’s dream. You just get locked in your room and make the best of the music, time that you have.
DjWhtDaHek: How’s it been with COVID? Have you been able to go out much at all?
Man Cub: Not too much. New Mexico has gotten kind of up and down, like most States, but we’re pretty strict. So, I thought it would be helpful [00:01:00] at first, but eventually your creativity is kind of like, it’s the same thing every day. You like to out of things and go out and do stuff to kind of break the habits.
DjWhtDaHek: Yeah, I’ve never been to New Mexico before, and I’m curious. On the chance that I do get to go, when everything opens back up, what do you think would be a destination, must go do?
Man Cub: We have the Sandia mountains. Breaking Bad was here. [00:01:30] So a lot of people like to go see the sights. If you’re a Breaking Bad fan, Walter White’s house or things like that, people like to go see. But yeah, the Sandia peaks are really pretty. So the tram yeah.
DjWhtDaHek: Tram. Ooh, that sounds fun.
Man Cub: Yeah.
DjWhtDaHek: What do you like to do in your free time outside of producing and all that?
Man Cub: So I’m a big exercise guy. So I like to run, workout. [00:02:00] I actually have a degree in exercise physiology. So I was a personal trainer for a little while, while I was trying to get going with music. And so yeah, definitely like to exercise and do stuff outside.
DjWhtDaHek: The personal training thing kind of sounds like something you can do in quarantine over zoom too. Like do a personal training zoom session or something with people.
Man Cub: Yeah. It would be, I actually stopped [00:02:30] doing that. I got a job working for Shutterstock making stock music. And that’s actually how I got better at making music was making these stock commercial songs that are just instrumentals used in YouTube or ESPN, Facebook, stuff like that. And so I do that instead now, and I just can work from wherever.
DjWhtDaHek: Nice. So that kind of is what got you into actually saying, “All [00:03:00] right. I want to do this as a career, producing and making music.”
Man Cub: Yeah, actually my friend, my freshman year of college got me a torrented copy of FL studio. I’ve since bought FL studio. But my freshman year of college, that’s how I got started was producing… I was trying to make rap beats and stuff like that. And then six years later, finished school and [00:03:30] I got a job wit Shutterstock. I just sent them demos. And I was like, “This is absolutely what I want to do.”
And eventually I submitted a demo to this website called, I think it was called, I don’t even remember. Some demo submission website and then Enhanced Music found it on there. And then they signed me. So that’s kind of how I got started.
DjWhtDaHek: What was it like signing with Enhanced? That must’ve been super exciting.
Man Cub: [00:04:00] Yeah, it was weird. It was like, so I was going through this weird time in my life and I just randomly went to France for a month. Just didn’t know what I was doing. And I was making pretty good money from Shutterstock at the time for me. And so I was like, “I’m just going to go to Europe for a month and figure my life out or something.” And then when I got back, I was like, “I’m going to start submitting demos.” And so I sent that one into [00:04:30] Enhanced and they got back to me and I was like, “I don’t think this is real. That was too fast and too easy. I just submitted this demo.”
And then I was emailing him and I was like, “Okay, actually, this guy seems pretty legit.” And he was like, “Yeah, we want to sign.” Is this for real? Like, I can’t tell if this is real still. And eventually it was like, “Okay, this is actually happening.” And so it was kind of, it was weird. It was like a weird thing. Because [00:05:00] I wanted it to do that for six or seven years. And then it finally happened and I was like, “What the heck? This is crazy.” So.
DjWhtDaHek: And where did you decide on the name Man Cub?
Man Cub: So I was juggling a bunch of different names. And it’s hard to come up with something, because my name Alec Berve is like, when you read it, no one can say my last name. So I was like, “Well, I need to come up with something better than that.” And I’m a big [00:05:30] fan of the Jungle Book. It’s one of my favorites as a kid. I would… I just love those songs in that movie. And so I was like, “Well, Man Cub is a fun, catchy name that is easily remembered.” And I want my music to be… I don’t know.
Honestly, I don’t have an amazing story for it, but I landed on it. And here I am. So I’m sticking with it.
DjWhtDaHek: Influences from Jungle Book.
Man Cub: Influences from Jungle [00:06:00] Book. Yeah. Great story, I know.
DjWhtDaHek: Yeah. Well, if there’s ever a new new Jungle Book movie, maybe you can put some of your tracks in that at some point.
Man Cub: That would be awesome. We’ll hope for a new remake then [00:06:30] of something.
DjWhtDaHek: Well, let’s talk some music. We talked about signing with Enhanced. How about your track Breathe In The Moment with HALIENE? What was it like working with HAILENE and how did that track come about?
Man Cub: Yeah, so that’s actually a interesting story because I didn’t work with her directly. Usually when I [00:07:00] work with singers, it’s like, I have an instrumental demo and then I share it with them. And then typically I would like to work with the vocalist, writing the lyrics and everything. But with HALIENE, APEK actually sent me what he had been working on with her already. And then I completely changed everything.
I rewrote the entire song basically to the vocal and it was completely different. And so [00:07:30] it was really fun. It was almost like a remix kind of, because APEK and HAILENE already had it started. And so for me as a producer, other producers know this too, it’s so easy.
When you get a good vocal, it’s just really inspiring and it’s beautiful to listen to because it’s already there. And so it was really easy to make and fun to make. And yeah, her voice is beautiful. So obviously, easy to work with. [00:08:00] And I’ve heard she’s great. I’ve never actually met her, so.
DjWhtDaHek: Oh wow.
Man Cub: But yeah, so that was, yeah.
DjWhtDaHek: How long did it take to fully to remake that? Was that like a couple of days? Or was that more than that?
Man Cub: Well, I worked… Making music for me is kind of like, I like painting analogies for making music. So it was kind of like throwing paint at a canvas or a wall, seeing [00:08:30] what sticks. And then once you see the colors, you see what you like and then you can go back and paint over what you don’t like.
And so with her, with that song, it was pretty quick because the initial foundation was there. And so I was just throwing stuff at it. And then it happened in maybe a week, which is pretty fast for me. So usually songs take more like three or four weeks for me to get done.
DjWhtDaHek: Well, that was a great track. [00:09:00] We love it here at the station. So cool. Another one that was really awesome to see you work with Tritonal on Worth It All. What was it like working with them?
Man Cub: Yeah. So Worth It All. So whenever I signed with Enhanced, I was talking with Will, who was the owner of Enhanced, and he flew me out to LA to work with some songwriters. And [00:09:30] so it was my first time working with songwriters. And so I was super nervous because I can barely sing. I mean, I can sing in tune, but no one wants to hear me. And so I was in this room with songwriters trying to co-write and we did the first song that I ever did with other writers was Worth It All. And so it was a really cool process.
And I had the initial instrumental that we wrote to and everyone [00:10:00] was kind of vibing with it and really liked it. But then six months go by and I’m trying to finish this album. And I just can’t finish the song. I’m just super stuck. And then, Will from Enhanced was like, “Whoa. The guys at Tritonal loved the initial demo and they actually wanted [00:10:30] it.”
I was like, “Cool. Let’s collaborate on it.” And obviously I loved collaborating Tritonal. It was great. And so then they jumped on and then totally made it work. And it was a true collaboration. Because I sent them what we had, they sent me some, it was kind of trance-y. Initial more of [00:11:00] like a traditional kind of trance, 2014 kind of trance song. And then I did some stuff and then I sent it back. And they did some stuff. And so it was fun. It was like an actual collaboration.
And I talked to Chad from Tritonal on the phone a handful of times and it was cool. It was cool chatting with someone that was as nerdy about the production stuff as me. Getting into all the nitty gritty details of [00:11:30] transience and low-mid. Too much low-mid frequencies in this section or whatever. It’s nice when someone’s speaking your language when you’re doing. And so that was cool.
DjWhtDaHek: Yeah. I talked with Chad and he is very, very detailed and in depth with things. He was awesome to talk to.
Man Cub: Yeah. And that song. Really nice. It was really nice to talk to him. Yeah.
DjWhtDaHek: And that song in particular, I definitely… I was listening to it, I was like, “This sounds like Tritonal.” [00:12:00] And then I was like, “This definitely sounds like Man Cub based on what you’ve been putting out.” So I was like, “This sounds great put together.” It was awesome.
Man Cub: Yeah. Thank you. Yeah.
DjWhtDaHek: [00:13:00] Another track that I’m really enjoying, which is again with APEK, is Wrong To Let You Go. What was it like putting this one together?
Man Cub: Yeah. That one was, I’m [00:13:30] trying to think how that one’s… That one was actually really difficult. So Worth It All and Wrong To Let You Go were both probably the two most difficult songs I’ve ever had to make. So Worth It All took I think 13 months before it came out.
DjWhtDaHek: Wow.
Man Cub: Since we wrote it. And then Wrong To Let You Go is about the same. I think it was like a year since the writers wrote it. And I made [00:14:00] this initial version that was more of like an Illenium kind of drop and it was cool. And I sent it to the label and I sent to APEK and April and everyone and they all liked it. And they’re like, “This is cool. Let’s run with this. Let’s just change a few things.” And then I was like, “I just, I hate this.”
I went home to my parents’ house and then a month went by and I was like, ” [00:14:30] I just hate this.” And so I was like, “Guys, I’m just going to redo it.” And so I just threw the whole thing away and started over from scratch. And then I sent APEK and April that little vocal chop lead, the main drop or instrumental section. And they were like, “This is amazing. We love this so much.”
And then I was like, “Okay, well this is, I like this a lot too. This is much better.” So anyway. Yeah. And then I made the guitar [00:15:00] for the intro and I was like, “This is just, I just really like this.” So it paid off though. The process.
DjWhtDaHek: The long wait and the process paid off. So you do play guitar.
Man Cub: I do. Yeah. I’m not an incredible guitarist by any means. But what’s good about having a good ear is you can manipulate the audio and do things that you know what you want it to sound like. And so I can play well enough.
DjWhtDaHek: [00:15:30] Is there any other instruments you know how to play? Or would like to learn maybe?
Man Cub: Yeah. So I play guitar and piano and I play well enough to play some live. And so I would love to do that one day. I played drums, percussion in middle school and that was a fun thing. So I would love to learn how to play the drum kit. That’d be really fun.
DjWhtDaHek: You could almost be like a one man band. Drums, [00:16:00] piano, and guitar.
Man Cub: That would be great. A little too much work probably. But…
DjWhtDaHek: I know.
Man Cub: That’s true.
DjWhtDaHek: I mean, if it took six months, maybe you could put together something in six months. [inaudible 00:16:12] maybe.
Man Cub: Yeah.
DjWhtDaHek: [00:16:30] Let’s talk Better Now.
Man Cub: Better Now was… That one’s funny. That one was actually written for… There’s a track on my album called East of Eden, and it’s a melodic, dubstep kind of track that was just a fun song. [00:17:00] And Better Now was written to that song actually, because they’re both in D major. And I didn’t like it for East of Eden and neither did my label.
But I was like, “Jen has an amazing voice.” Her and SVRCINA, Molly SVRCINA, they probably have the two best voices that I’ve ever worked with. They’re just, they’re so good. And Jen is unreal, which is why [00:17:30] I was stoked to have her on Better Now and Good Enough.
And Good Enough actually went through seven or eight vocalists before we finished on that one. Anyway, so Better Now, I had the vocal for that one and then I rewrote a whole new song for that vocal, which like I said before, when you have a good vocal like that, it’s just so much more fun. Because you just have a foundation and you’re ready. I [00:18:00] mean, yeah. You can just write a song to it. And so I wrote the guitar for that one too, and that’s how it started was with the guitar. And it was like, “Sweet. I love this little guitar riff.” And so yeah, that’s how that one started.
DjWhtDaHek: That’s another great track too. And yeah, amazing voice on that one as well. My goodness.
Man Cub: Yeah. I love the theme of that song too. Because it’s very helpful. And everyone can…
DjWhtDaHek: Yeah.
Man Cub: Everyone goes through a heartbreak at some point, you know?
DjWhtDaHek: You mentioned your [00:18:30] album. Let’s talk about it. You’ve got your Impressions album.
Man Cub: Yeah.
DjWhtDaHek: Is it, I don’t know, impressions of other artists you’ve done? Or is it… What do we got?
Man Cub: Yeah, yeah. No, that’s a fair question. It’s kind of two fold. So, initially the idea started with every artist… As an artist, you make an album, it’s just kind of what you do I guess. Just kind of create a body of work. And [00:19:00] so that’s how it started. And then my label was like, “Well, what do you have inspiration wise for the concept of the album, the cover, the title?”
And so I’m just scrolling through stock photos and different images on Pinterest and mood boards, creating a mood board. And I found this image of this guy and he was standing in front of these paintings hanging on a wall. And if you see my album cover, it’s obviously… [00:19:30] It’s supposed to be me standing in front of these paintings. And I was like, “It would be really cool.”
I mean, that’s a really cool idea because it’s this guy that made these paintings and he’s kind of looking at the body of works that he’s made and they’re impressions of… They’re impressions of his interpretation of art. We make art because [00:20:00] of the impressions that have been left on us. And so we do our best impression of art.
And then at the same time, it’s like, I feel like as an artist, it’s so hard to be genuine and authentic. You guys. I mean, honestly that even now, that are really truly authentic. And so it’s hard to be authentic. And so I was like, “Well, it’s kind of also just me doing impressions of other producers [00:20:30] and I’m okay with that.” And so that’s where the album concept came from. I know that was wordy, sorry.
DjWhtDaHek: No, that was cool. Knowing that now makes the album cover that much more interesting to look at and see. That’s really cool.
Man Cub: Yeah.
DjWhtDaHek: And you also, you did, I think it was an Instagram where you’re like, “Hey, message me some artists and I’ll do impressions of them.”
Man Cub: Uh-huh (affirmative). Yeah. So I did, because of the album, themes, concepts. I [00:21:00] was like, “Well, I might as well just go full sand and do legitimate impressions of other producers.”
DjWhtDaHek: Right.
Man Cub: And so I’m pretty good at doing different ones. And so I did a Gryffin one. It sounded just so much like every Gryffin song. I really liked it.
DjWhtDaHek: Yeah. He’s great.
Man Cub: Yeah. He’s so good. And then I did an Illenium one. And then I did a deadmau5 one. And I’m very good at Illenium [00:21:30] and deadmau5. And deadmau5 especially, because him, Avicii, and Scrillex were… I’m sure a lot of people that like EDM, those were three of the like, Oh geez. You know? Yeah.
And so anyway, then I got a bunch of messages and they’re like, “Dude, you have to release this, like bro this is sick, like this, you got to release this.” And I’m like, “Yeah. Okay. Maybe.” And so actually the Illenium, the one that started as an Illenium impression [00:22:00] is probably going to come out in January. I’m not a hundred percent sure. So I’m not going to say what label, but I’m pretty sure it’s going to come out in January. So that’s cool that something came of it.
DjWhtDaHek: Awesome. We’ll look forward to that one in January. Maybe a Man Cub and Illenium collab one day.
Man Cub: Yeah.
DjWhtDaHek: That sound would be really good. Because Illenium [crosstalk 00:22:23].
Man Cub: Talk to Nick for me and let him know that I’m.
DjWhtDaHek: All right. We’ll see what we can do.
Man Cub: Yeah.
DjWhtDaHek: [00:22:30] Well you have the Impressions album, but you also have the Impressions albums, the remixes. So those, are those more of you impressing other artists? Or are they the other way?
Man Cub: I know it’s like a weird circle. So that one came about because the label Enhanced was like, “It would be great if we did this remix album.” And I was like, “That sounds kind of strange to me because I’ve always been on the other side of remixes.” [00:23:00] But it was really cool. And then as soon as we got the first set of remixes back, it was for In A Dream, I’m pretty sure.
And they were so cool, like Outwild and Murtaugh, I think. I’m not sure how you say his name. But they were so good. And then Au5, obviously it was insane. Because I’ve watched his production tutorials on YouTube. And so to have [00:23:30] him remix one of my songs was so cool. And then Awakend did a great job. Caslow, I don’t know. They were all really good.
DjWhtDaHek: It’s interesting as an artist and then you have another artist remix your song. Was there any nervousness about it? Like, “Oh no, I hope this is good and it’s not something, Oh, what’d you do to my song?” Type of thing.
Man Cub: It’s weird. It’s weird. Because part of you is saying, ” [00:24:00] I don’t want Au5 to just stand me up on this song.” Because he totally could [inaudible 00:24:07] make a way better version of my song that I made. But then at the same time, it’s not like that at all. It’s just like, this is a beautiful take of… And that’s, what’s cool about remixes is just your interpretation of that original form of that original work.
And so after it happened, I was like, “This is just [00:24:30] so cool.” And I’m just a fan of these guys now. And it’s just really fun. And there was no… There was none of that like, “Well he just showed me up.” Or whatever. It’s just really cool. So yeah, it was fun.
DjWhtDaHek: Started with you doing impressions of other artists. Now they’re doing it of you and it’s full circle. That’s really cool.
Man Cub: Yeah. [inaudible 00:24:53] that way.
DjWhtDaHek: Awesome. Well, in terms of new stuff coming up, you mentioned a potential Illenium [00:25:00] sounding one coming January.
Man Cub: Uh-huh (affirmative). Yeah.
DjWhtDaHek: What else could be in the works?
Man Cub: Yeah, so that one’s called Enough. So I’m pretty sure it’s going to come out. I don’t want to say for sure, but.
DjWhtDaHek: Right, right, right.
Man Cub: Enough. And I’m pretty sure it’s going to come out early January. There’s one with Maggie York and I co-wrote a song with her, the lyrics, that’s going to come out end of January with Enhanced. And [00:25:30] that one I’m really excited about. I worked really hard on that one.
And then there’s an Ocean Eyes cover that Molly did. And I actually just bootlegged it for fun. And so I just made… Because it’s an acoustic version of Ocean Eyes that she did. And her voice is just gorgeous. And so the cover that she did is just acoustic guitar and vocals. And [00:26:00] so I was like, “This would be super easy to make a bootleg of because you would just, I could just add all my stuff in on top of this vocal that’s already there.”
And then I shared it with them and they were like, “This is amazing.” And I was like, “Cool, I’m glad you liked it.” And then they were like, “No, really. Let’s really release this.” And I was begging them to release it. Because I loved it. At that point I was like, “Well, now we have to, don’t tease me. We got to release it.” So [00:26:30] eventually they agreed.
And so end of February, that Ocean Eyes remix is going to come out. And I get messages about that one more than most of my songs, honestly.
DjWhtDaHek: Really? Wow.
Man Cub: I get messages like… Well, because it’s not out on Spotify. They’re like, “When’s this coming to Spotify?” And so, yeah. So now it’s finally coming out. So it’s really exciting for me.
Yeah. And then besides that I have lots of instrumentals [00:27:00] that I’m trying to find singers for and stuff. And so it’d be really fun. It’ll be fun to see what comes of 2021 and yeah. Hopefully lots more new music.
DjWhtDaHek: So you’re going to be busy in the next two, three months.
Man Cub: Yeah. Yeah.
DjWhtDaHek: Oh, well that will be exciting. We’ll be looking forward to new Man Cub music coming in and we’ll see what we can do about Illenium.
Man Cub: Yeah.
DjWhtDaHek: Well Alec, thanks for doing this, man. [00:27:30] This was awesome. And we’ll definitely be looking forward to all the new tracks you got coming up.
Man Cub: Yeah, man. Thanks for much for having me, it’s a pleasure.
DjWhtDaHek: All right. Well guys, that was Alec Man Cub here on this latest edition of open mic. I’ll see you guys next time.