Redbull Check Your DMs Series is Making Mexico, South Korea, and More Go Music Crazy
Red Bull crafted an innovative series called, Red Bull Check Your DMs. The series uncovers what it means to collaborate in the digital age, taking three artists who have never met, from three different countries and three different musical backgrounds to work together on a brand new track.
Entirely online.
The series shows that despite the distance between them, all you need to make great music is talent, inspiration, and good WiFi.
Red Bull Check Your DMs is an innovative, one-of-a-kind series that boasts a truly global roster of artists, featuring musicians and producers from the UK (Ms Banks, DJ Q, Flava D, Berna), Japan (tofubeats), The Netherlands (Gaidaa), South Korea (CIFIKA), Mexico (Girl Ultra), Austria (Phil Speiser, Palazzo), USA (Wow Jones) and Puerto Rico (Yartzi).
The final episode in the popular series features an all-female line-up of powerhouse artists including soulful, Mexican R&B songbird, Girl Ultra, South Korean electropop artist, CIFIKA, and one of the most versatile producers and DJ’s in Britain’s dance scene, Flava D.
I was honored enough to sit down and speak with Girl Ultra about her experience crafting music with Red Bull! Here's how the conversation went down:
Nia Rice: For all the people on Apple who don't know who Girl Ultra is, let's get into it a little bit. Give us a taste of who you are and your background.
Girl Ultra: Well, I am a Mexican singer, songwriter from Mexico City, born and raised. I've been making American music in Spanish, mostly for about four years now.
I got two albums out and it's been a wild ride just discovering and incorporating my mother's language and these genres that we actually like grew up with, but we never actually had. So basically, I've been developing that in myself, and it's been very interesting.
NR: Awesome. So, when you first heard that you were going to work with Red Bull, what was your reaction?
GU: It was very nice to hear about a project that was manifesting while all these crazy things were happening at the beginning of the year. I think it was March maybe when I found out.
So, at these times of uncertainty collaborating and connecting in different languages with two very talented artists from the UK and South Korea was actually very refreshing, especially because they're women. There's something about collaborating with women, it just sparks up everything and it was such a nice experiment.
It was challenging at times because I was by myself with nobody around. It was very insightful.
NR: What was the experience of making a track entirely online with the artists you've never met, which is something that I think was coming back into the forefront.
Sending over tracks to record was starting to die down, and the artist was realizing the benefits of recording tracks within the studio again. So this was, back to making tracks online. What was that like though, being "forced" to do it?
GU: I don't feel like we were forced to do it because it works that way now. Like the future it just grabbed us. I actually have done songs with people I don't know before through the internet and then we get to meet each other somehow, so I don't know.
I feel like a lot of human connections are just like translating into the web and into the Dm's; like reaching out to somebody in their Dm's is a very human thing now. There was a lot of communication between us and we had a little brief of who we were and what we did.
We did a little research about each other, and I feel like it was pretty natural; even though we were locked down in different parts of the world. So it was a very organic result.
NR: Awesome. So, what's been the reaction from your fans?
GU: There's a very heated but big club scene here in Mexico. A lot of people were surprised that I was making a UK garage song.
It's something that you don't listen to a lot in Mexico. So they were surprised and I'm also a DJ at times, and I've always been thrilled by the UK's legacy and garage music and its influence on pop music and the whole spectrum across the world.
In the last maybe 20-30 years to now, from UK garage to drill to grime house, its relationship with Hip-Hop and RNB. I really love how they sometimes incorporate up-tempo melodic RNB melodies.
I really love those two conversion universes the way they mingled together. So, it made sense to me to incorporate RNB melodies into a UK garage song.
It was special because it goes from Spanish to Spanglish to Korean, and it feels natural. So it was nice, and I really hoped my fans liked it.
NR: Oh, I love that. I feel like I could talk to you all day because you seem so sweet...
GU: Thank you. I talk a lot like you can stop me. haha
NR: Honestly, I love it because it helps the conversation. Other than Redbull's newly released single, talk about the current projects that you have on board for 2021, or how are you ending off the year?
GU: Well, I am ending off the year. I'm going to work on some major projects I cannot talk about, but you can expect a lot of music from me next year.
There's going to be a single in February, we're going to record a video and everything. So, it was a very insightful year and a lot of work, like personal work and getting shit done. But everything's going to come out in 2021.
NR: Awesome. Thank you so much for your time.
GU: No, thank you for real. I know this is pretty hectic times and situations all around the world, but I really love talking to people and this kind of connection. Thank you.
Check out How Flava D made the new single 'Watching You' with CIFIKA & Girl Ultra | Red Bull Check Your DMs
Check out more details:
Official Website: www.redbull.com/CheckYourDMs
Facebook: /RedBullMusic
