credit: Keven Fedirko

Hertz Donut’s profile has recently been raised by the news that they’ll be headliners at Awakening Festival 2015, and not to over-exaggerate, but it’s likely you’ll see the duo listed prominently in many festival guides this year. They didn’t miss a beat during our interview about their “Fresh out of the Oven Tour” in Western Canada, and their life and musical style.

So your name, Hertz Donut. Is that when you ask someone if they want a hertz donut and when they say yes, you punch them in the shoulder and say, “Hertz, donut?”

ApatchiSound Mitch: We get that all the time. People ask if we stole it from Family Guy. We play a lot of different styles of music, but its mainly bass heavy kinda stuff, you know, that bass that hurts? And, hertz as in the frequency range, we play a lot of different stuff along the spectrum. And, we think doughnuts are fun. It’s all about having fun.
Crash Course Tim: And they’re delicious.

If you were a doughnut, what kind would you be?

ApatchiSound Mitch: I’m a maple or maple bacon kinda guy.
Crash Course Tim: I’m a good old fashion glaze kinda guy.

What brought you two together?

ApatchiSound Mitch: Tim lived in Kamloops at the time and I lived in Revelstoke and we had a lot of common friends between us two.
Crash Course Tim: It was pretty much bound to happen sometime. I was like, this kid is awesome, he makes great tunes.

credit: Keven Fedirko

Tim, you keep calling him kid. What’s up with that?

Crash Course Tim: Well he’s four years younger than I am. I’m 25.
ApatchiSound Mitch: I’m only 21, so I’m the young … gun?

Do you guys live together?

Crash Course Tim: Yeah, we do.

Are you related?

Crash Course Tim: Ahh, no.
ApatchiSound Mitch: We met through the Internet. Classic thing to do nowadays.
AYNIB: Plenty of Fish?
ApatchiSound Mitch: Yea, no Tinder really [Hahaha]. We met through a mutual friend that goes by the name Subclaim who I grew up with in Revelstoke. He moved to Kelowna and he started doing shows in Revelstoke and met Tim. We just added each other on Facebook. We made a song before we even met each other.
ApatchiSound Mitch: We both have very individual tastes on our own. Especially in our solo work. I’m more chill kinda ambient almost where Tim is really kinda funky, mid-tempo based, but when we come together it has a fusion of both so it’s a nice touch on each other’s minds.

You guys have exploded onto the scene. What started the ball rolling with your success?

ApatchiSound Mitch: We banded together and have been just been playing shows the past year, going to festivals promoting ourselves and putting our name out there.
Crash Course Tim: We had a pretty big end tour season with FozzyFest. That was a real big breakthrough for us. People are like who are these guys? New blood into the scene. It feels good that people are biting into it.
ApatchiSound Mitch: Biting into the doughnut. Yum.
Crash Course Tim: Hahah, yea, it’s really good.

credit: Keven Fedirko

There’s a lot of competition out there, what sets your music apart from others in the same genre?

ApatchiSound Mitch: I think it’s the combination of our two different styles. Mine is melodic vibey, almost 80s style synth and he’s got a really good funk influence and hip-hop style beats, and we both have really like heavy bass.
Crash Course Tim: We don’t really try to be competitive out there, but the one thing that easily sets us apart from a lot of the other producers and DJs is our energy. And free styling, we don’t follow the same format, we don’t plan it. We share a brain on stage. It’s definitely a real cool thing.

Are you collaborating with anyone else right now?

ApatchiSound Mitch: We’ve got a few collaborations in the works for our EP that’s coming up. We’re working with Timothy Wisdom on the title track called “Glazed”. Also with a couple of locals from Calgary named Rapture. And, then we’ve got Abstrakt Sonance from Salmon Arm, B.C. We’ve been sticking our noses in different areas and each producer we work with creates different types of music which is cool.
Crash Course Tim: It’s really important to dip your pen in different ink so-to-speak.
AYNIB: Or, dip your donut in different glazes?
Crash Course Tim: Yeah, trying different glazes on your donuts if you will. It’s important to work with other people who are doing different things. Every producer has their own individual sound and signature and when two different sounds come together you can get something really special sometimes.

credit: Keven Fedirko

When is the Hertz Donut EP coming out?

Crash Course Tim: Before festival season for sure. We’ll dive into the studio and get that done before April or May at the latest.

Tell us about your month-long tour.

Crash Course Tim: We left to the interior on Thursday and played Friday, Feb .6th in Vernon where we were direct support for the Funk Hunters. That was a really good night. And then, Salmon Arm the following night. It was a great crowd and people really liked us. Sunday we went to Big White at a little bar on the hill and they sold out to 450 people, people dancing on picnic tables. Big shout out to our boy Carlos, a.k.a BAG-O-BEETZ, for hooking that up. Then we had a couple of days off and drove out to Alberta in the middle of the night after some last minute bookings. We had a real big catastrophe with some of our bookings that were supposed to be in Calgary and Edmonton, but it all worked out. We ended up with more gigs than we had originally.
ApatchiSound Mitch: We went from one, to zero, to three, which is pretty good in a couple of days to turn it around like that. Red Deer is next opening up for JFB, then head out to Kamloops and Fernie. It’s a pretty big tour.
AYNIB: Is it your first tour?
Crash Course Tim: Yes, first tour. We were pretty fortunate to have so many stops and so many people getting behind us on it.

credit: Keven Fedirko

You live together, you work together every day, and you travel together. How is that working out?

Crash Course Tim: We bicker all the time like we’re brothers or something. At the end of the day though, we are traveling and living together it’s more than just for music, we’re buddies and we get along. We never go to bed angry.

What are you guys doing when you’re not on tour and not producing music?

ApatchiSound Mitch: I play a lot of Zelda.
Crash Course Tim: I’m not really ever off my computer. We don’t work jobs. This is our job so we are both dedicated full-time to make sure that things are in order.

Is there anything you want your fans to know about you?

Crash Course Tim: I open mouth kissed a horse once.
ApatchiSound Mitch: I’m never going to cut my hair
Crash Course Tim: Ever?
ApatchiSound Mitch: Never.

If your in Victoria, check out Hertz Donut this Friday!!