Article: Introducing… Tortilla Pass (+ Interview)

Tortilla Pass’ music ranges from electronic to ambient and from dreamy soundscapes to uptempo beats. He started playing guitar and bass at the age of 9, and three years ago he began making music digitally using Reason 4. Influenced by genres such as hip hop, jazz and IDM, this 17-year-old is an excellent producer.

I met Tortilla Pass on the music community SoundCloud. He’s a familiar name on that streaming service in the category Electronic / Psychedelic beats, with hundreds of followers. Within minutes of releasing his tracks on SoundCloud, he always receives a lot of positive feedback on his tracks. A lot of people will agree with me, when saying his music could work really well in movies. When I talked to Tortilla Pass about this, he said that he would like to do movies scores in the future.

I contacted Tortilla Pass about six months ago, telling him I really appreciated his music. I also questioned him about not having a album or EP out yet. He told me he wasn’t sure yet, but within a few weeks he told me he was going to release an EP. And he did deliver! He released a 6-track deep beat EP called ‘Dive‘.

The EP is really a mixture of spacey soundscape beats combined with sweet rolling Psychedelic beats. It’s a must for those people that would like to float on beats while relaxing, working out or do some homework.  I would consider some tracks on the EP as ‘Spacey’, while I consider other tracks as ‘Down to Earth’. I like the mixed sounds on these beats. Building up an atmosphere, then break it down again, with a sweet ending.

Cover of ‘Dive EP‘ by Tortilla Pass

Tortilla Pass is really worth looking into if you are into electronic beats. Check out the interview I had with him here:

What made you choose the name Tortilla Pass?

The name Tortilla Pass actually refers to an inside joke between me and my father.

What’s your production process? Do start with the actual drums of the beat? Or do you start with finding a sample?

As far as a production process, I don’t have any specific formula or order in which I make songs. Often I will start with a sample or some pads and eventually add percussion over it.

What other artists influence you in your work?

I do listen to many different kinds of music, so they all influence me in some way. There really are too many influences to name, but some cool producers I’m really into right now are Aether, Botany, Dak, Mr. Dibiase, Fat Jon, Jneiro Jarel, S.Maharba and UBQTS.

What influenced you to start making beats?

I first started making electronic music after my friend showed me Reason 4 when I was in 10th grade. I worked on stuff on that program literally everyday after school and on the weekends. As you can assume, this greatly took away from my schoolwork at the time. But it was fun so I kept at it. I eventually moved on to Ableton Live and thats what I use now.

What kind of equipment do you have?

I don’t have any equipment. I just make everything on the software. I used to have a sampler but it just made me feel limited and I ended up selling it. Now I realize that I’ll need one in the near future because I’ll need it to perform.

What are you future plans?

My future plans are to go to college, learn as much about music as possible, and take that knowledge and use it as a tool to be as musically innovative as possible.

Your active on the music community Soundcloud, is that a place you rely on, when you need fresh feedback?

Soundcloud is a very warm environment once you find the musicians you fit in with. You can literally meet incredible musicians halfway across the globe and network with them. I don’t really post my music on there in an effort to get feedback. People seldom give me advice or suggestions anyway. I mostly just post my material simply so that anybody can hear my music and to give myself exposure. Soundcloud is great for that.

 Bloom / Again by Tortilla Pass

If you could make a music video out of one of your tracks, wich would it be? and why?

I was actually just thinking about a music video for one of my tracks today. I think it was my most recent track, ‘Bloom / Again‘. I was imaging some sort of close-up of some translucent plastic about the thickness of a frisbee and the color changing of the plastic as the light of the sun shines through the plastic. Just an idea I guess.

Is there anyone known or unknown you want to collaborate with?

I only recently realized that I don’t really enjoy collaborating. I have trouble articulating what I’m thinking musically to people. So unless the person I was collaborating was really inside my head I’m not really interested in collaborating.

When do you consider a track finished?

I consider a track finished when I think it’s done. Plain and simple. I actually think I should spend more time really perfecting tracks but I usually just get to a certain point where I say its time to move on.

Do you still play any live instruments?

I have been playing guitar and bass guitar for nine years now. I started out playing rock music and as a freshman in high school became more interested in jazz and music theory. I started taking jazz guitar lessons from an incredible guy named Jesse Lewis from Brooklyn, NY. He still teaches me now. I apply a lot of what I’ve learned from him to my productions. I also played the oboe in school for 8 years but hated it, haha.

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Words by:  Niels v. Geffen
Free Download: Tortilla Pass – Dive EP
More info: Bandcamp / Soundcloud