A Sit Down With DJ Getter

If you haven’t heard of Tanner Petulla – aka Getter – I don’t know what the frick is wrong with you. Whether it be the OWSLA artist’s insanely well-produced music or his hilarious internet presence, the San Jose native’s wide range of talents has garnered him one of the largest and most loyal followings in electronic music.

Producer and DJ, Getter has established himself as one of the best rising acts in American-made bass music. He’s released a number of styles from dubstep to trap and drum & bass on Rottun, Firepower Records, and more recently OWSLA with the excellent “Head Splitter” single and a remix of Carmada’s “Maybe”.

You have years of experience as a producer and DJ. How did your career start?

Honestly it all just started for my sheer love for creating music. Before i produced or started DJing, I played drums and guitar for various metal bands with my friends. Just for fun. I later discovered I could make anything I wanted by myself on a laptop and immediately focused my energy on producing.

What elements do you think go into a good DJ set? I think when the DJ can work with the crowd and take them through a journey. I was a fan first, so I have a good idea of what people want at shows. If I have ten unreleased songs and mash them up with other songs and surprise the crowd, they go crazy. You can kind of tell how the show is going by how the crowd is reacting, so when they are mellow, you gotta bring ‘em back. How do you feel about genres? I feel like genres are necessary to classify what you like, same with certain sub genres. I'm just not a fan of sub genres that can not be put on anything. You’ve collaborated with the likes of Skrillex, Datsik & Borgore. Can we anticipate any big collaborations in the near future? I have a whole new huge EP coming out later this year with a tour and a bunch of shit. I’m focusing a lot on hip-hop and vocalists. I could collab with Tiesto, I could collab with all these big ass EDM artists… but at the end of the day I like hip-hop and I like female vocalists. I’ve got $uicideboy$ on one song for the EP I’m working on. Kodak Blackmaybe. I’m really trying to collaborate with vocalists and rappers rather than EDM people. Not that I don’t like it, it’s just where I’m going.

"Without any idea I have or a song, they’re automatically on board ‘cause they believe in me and my vision".

Can you tell us about the making of “Head Splitter”? I made it pretty quickly with no intention of release, and sent a rough version of it around to some artists. Next thing I knew, I got hit up to have it signed to OWSLA! I immediately went in and perfected all of it.

If you could choose one artist to work with, Who would it be and why?

Definitely Eminem. Like old school Slim Shady shit. He's my favorite rapper of all time and to have him on a track would be insane.

Why did you decide to start Shred Collective? I decided to start it because like, I came up the same way all of my friends came up right now where like you need to get handouts from people. Well, not handouts but help from people who are more popular than you. So I got to the point where I was like, I know enough people who are putting out music that I’m really close with, but they always go with labels and get f*’ed. They don’t get paid, or it takes forever for them to release something. So I’m just like dude, you will keep 100% of the money. I just spend the money I have and the money from merch sales and anything I do with Shred on the actual artists.

How is the dubstep scene different than what it was five years ago?

There were so many people complaining about shit back in the day. Now I feel like it’s gotten to the point where everybody’s finally stopped arguing. People just listen to the music. Everybody’s doing everything now, it’s a lot more diversified. But at the same time its changed for the worst. A lot of times, in my experience, I’ll put out one type of music and get a bunch of fans in that genre or market, but then switch and try something else and then those people, previously calling themselves my number one fans, are cussing me out. That’s why I always blow up the topic online, I think it’s fucking annoying that people can’t make up their minds about what they like.

Is there a right way and a wrong way to go about constructing your own tunes? I really don’t like it when people ridicule others for using samples. Most of the earliest beats were 100% samples. I use lots of different samples but only for drums and effects. It’s dope to find a good snare sample with a nice transient and then make a snare out of that; it saves time and a lot of the time can sound better. I don’t understand using samples for the main synth, though. It takes out the originality. Who can you attribute your success to? My number one mentor, the dude that got me to this point was Borgore because he’s been a big fan of my music and he’s super selfless. He cares about everyone else and he wants his friends to come up. I was hanging out with him a while ago and he introduced me to this guy Stephen that I used to know from back in the day, and then he started managing me. Shit just took off. He’s definitely one of the biggest reasons why everything is happening. He’s my biggest mentor and my best friend. Besides that, Flume is my biggest inspiration just because he does what he wants and he makes it fucking work.

Best advice for upcoming producers?

I feel like they gotta put their dicks away and stop waving them in front of everyone’s business. You just gotta let the music speak for itself. If you make good shit people will find it. Perfect example is Rickyxsan with his “Gettin’ That” record. He didn’t send it to anyone, people just heard it and then Skrillex and Diplo were playing it. People just need to stop sending so many emails and giving out USB’s and stuff.

https://soundcloud.com/getterofficial/sets/inhalant-abuse-the-remixes

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