Introducing PROBLMS and his silky smooth debut single, One

PROBLMS is the solo project of Melbourne-based electronic producer, Tyson Kraft - a dude we've spoken about a couple of times on the blog previously. After a motorbiking accident that left him critically injured, Kraft decided a production change was needed, and under his new moniker, Kraft is evolving, particularly with a focus on songwriting and drawing inspiration from the future-bass movement, contemporary R&B and more. One is the first release under his new name, and we sent him a few questions to find out more about the name change and what's been going on:

Tell us about about yourself?

I’m a Filipino German/Australian and I live in Melbourne. I go to university here in Melbourne, study communications and would one day like to work at a university too. I used to be a lawyer, but that was definitely not my thing. I’m a creative soul and making music is where I feel most at home. I started songwriting and making beats when I was about 17 and haven’t stopped since.

What kinda music are we talking?

There’s an R&B downtempo vibe going on here I guess. I think that comes from a long love of hip hop and R&B. It’s a genre and a sound that has always felt nice to my ears. I’m inspired by the production and songwriting of artists like Bryson Tiller, partynextdoor, Kaytranada... I really like listening to jazz and classical, too.

I wanted to make music that counteracted some of the music I used to think was dope but have since outgrown. The noise and excitement of a lot of contemporary EDM and future-bass music is something that I enjoy much less these days. I wanted to make music that would be smooth to the ear, and would suit mellow moods, like driving alone late at night, or being somewhere, or with someone special.

Production/writing process:

I typically start projects by building melodies around drum patterns. I then leave a project as an instrumental and then I'll come back to the project a day or so later and start humming a vocal melody until those humms and utterances become words. I produce and engineer everything myself, something I find very challenging but it has been a rewading learning experience.

I like to write music wherever I go, so I take my laptop with me everywhere. I write the best music I’ve found when I’m back at my family home. Here in Melbourne, I live in a musical house. My housemates are all musically amazing - way more gifted than me. We have a jazz guitarist, vocalists and a bass player, so that mutual love of music in our house also helps with generating creativity.

Can you tell us about your new single, One?

PROBLMS is my first vocal and production project. I created the pseudonym after having a motorbike accident (the day in fact that I started writing One) and feeling pretty bummed by the whole thing. I couldn’t walk for quite a long time after and so I started exploring this project. I do produce music under my own name but I wanted to use a pseudonym so that I could produce the music I wanted without feeling so self conscious and without having so much of a personal brand attached to the music. I wanted to create this project so the music could speak for itself, without having my name to it.

This is the first single of this new project. Thematically, One is an introspective song which explores an anxiety around love and long lasting relationships. It’s probably inspired by a few heartbtreaks and setbacks along the way.

What’s the rest of the year have in store?

More collaborations, more shows, and a lot more music to release!

Where can we hear more of your music?

SOUNDCLOUD / SPOTIFY / INSTAGRAM / TWITTER / WEBSITE

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