5 & A Dime, a well known mashup artist who has been making his name known in the EDM community has taken the time to answer some questions about his carrer, fans, and an exclusive surprise for you here only at EDM Sauce. Even though 5 & A Dime has been in and out of the hospital the past several days, he has kept his commitment to bring this interview to you all.
Born Greg Kantor, 5 & A Dime grew up with music continuously in his life. When he was only a few years into his life, he began taking piano lessons. Years later, he was in his early teen years and tried to learn to play the guitar and drums as well. However, with his inability to read sheet music, he was unsuccessful.
“Quite frankly, I sucked,” he remembers, “I eventually grabbed a major interest in music at around 14 or so.”
Throughout his life, 5 & A Dime has enjoyed electronically produced music. He noted that some of his favorite tracks were Adagio for Strings by Tiesto, Better Off Alone by Alice DeeJay, as well as Castle in the Sky by Ian Van Dahl. However, he became interested in our current form of EDM in 2008. After learning about his roots within music, we began to speak more about his music.
5 & A Dime is widely known for his ability to create seamless mashups and bootlegs. He explained to us here at EDM Sauce that he insists on creating continuous mashups with multiple songs rather than the standard of putting an a capella over an instrumental of another track. Alternatively, he is also producing his own original tracks as well. During our time, he had this to say:
“I have been working diligently on many tracks that I believe my fans and future listeners will love. They have their own sound to them. The way I've put it in the past, I think the sound that I have captured with many of my new originals and remixes is a mix between Electro House, Complextro, Trance, and 8-Bit.”
He has confirmed with us here at EDM Sauce that he is currently working on an EP as well as other remixes and originals as well. Also, 5 & A Dime has mentioned there are “some other secret projects that I cannot mention yet.” He will also be releasing tutorials on how to produce mashups correctly and efficiently within the near future and stressed to us that Spring of 2014 is going to be several notable months in his career to look out for.
Along with his new mashups and releases is his new “Tempo Series”. This new series acquired it's name because of the change in tempo, also known as speed, of the tracks within the mix. 5 & A Dime explained to us that he wanted to create something that was more engaging to listeners.
“I would hear a 1 hour mix with only 10 songs and all be at 128 BPM or 140 BPM,” he said to us, “I wanted to create something fun and constantly engaging.”
Currently, he has released two mixes within his Tempo Series, respectively Tempo I and Tempo II. Both of these mixes are a free download via SoundCloud.
We also noted how active his fan base was and how he engages himself with them very frequently. He quickly noted, “I enjoy talking to each and every one of them.” 5 & A Dime also reminisced on when he sent hand written envelopes with free stickers inside to the members of #BASSMOB. This surely isn't something that most artist take the time to do. However, he insisted that it was one of the most rewarding parts of his career.
“They are like my family and I always try to keep in touch with them,” he told us, “at the end of the day, it's completely and utterly worth it.”
This brings us to an interesting topic: #BASSMOB. What is it?
5 & A Dime quickly jumped at the question noting, “#BASSMOB are my true, die-hard fans. They are like a family to me.” #BASSMOB was founded in Summer 2011. It had begun with a simple question, “who cared about 5 & A Dime to sign up for a newsletter with updates?
He explained his feelings a bit more to us, “I never would've thought in a million years that I would have gotten the response I did. To date, I have over 2,000 consistent members who continuously rep me and show me love.” Most recently, 5 & A Dime was hospitalized for a serious infection and received hundreds upon hundreds of “get well soon” posts, prayers, as well as messages without him even acknowledging that he was away. As a response and act of loyalty to this extended family, he wrote each and every single one of them back, including us here at EDM Sauce.
He continues to explain that he believes that most, if not all fan bases should be like his and that artists should aspire to have what he does. 5 & A Dime continues to say, “I have the best fans in the world and they love me just as much as I love them.” He also stresses that his fans and fans of other artists are the reason for their success as well as why they are able to share their music that they love.
“My fans are my family and my firends, and they always will be.”
We asked 5 & A Dime to leave us with a bit of advice for aspiring artists.
“Always work as hard as you can and be PATIENT, he stresses, “make the music that YOU want to make.” He also explains that you should never let others persuade the music you make. Also, he points out that as long as you work hard on your music and be as creative as possible, then there is nothing wrong with what you are doing. He leaves us with one final remark:
“Someone very wise told me when I was just starting, ‘make the music you love, and the fans, fame, and fortune will come.' As long as you stay true to yourself and your music, and you stay patient, the rest will follow.”
Check out some of 5 & A Dime's hot tracks below and check out his SoundCloud, Facebook, and Twitter!
