Deriving his name from the rare Ovoideocystidiata mushroom, Adam Ovoid has captivated the underground bass music scene with his unapologetically squishy and surreal sound design. The Ovoid name was not adopted by Adam until around 2016 when he decided to jump head first into the underground bass music scene. After releasing his first album, Life, Ovoid has been a unique presence releasing singles, EPs, and albums on multiple labels and collectives.
Originating from Tacoma, Washington, Ovoid has always found himself inspired by a beautiful, dewey landscape filled with tall trees, delicate mosses and steep mountains. While exploring the dense forests of the Northwest, he had been simultaneously exploring his own musical evolution. Traveling through melody and harmony, Adam hopes to expand his euphonic brain-child to other more quixotic horizons.
A self taught mad man behind the wheel of a synth, Adam has shown commanding prowess in sound production. Ovoid’s knowledge base bleeds through into his other-worldly, and at times phantasmal, sound design. His music is an adventure through genre, merging the worlds of harmony and melody with huge 808 anthem releases such as “Bangus Dang''on the Denver based Headroom Collective, and a downtempo psychedelic inspired album titled “Enigma” through The Rust. Beyond just his own individual catalog, Adam has collaborations with sound design aficionados like Hullabaloo and Shanti, transforming musical experimentation into community appreciation, driving that experimentation towards new heights.
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In his music, Ovoid transcends traditional musical limits by using texture and tone with his squishy and glitch-inspired sound. In such tracks as “Blocks In A Chain”, he focuses on reverberant mid-range bass lines, accentuating the twinkling highs of the melodies. In other tracks, he harnesses organic guitar tones to decorate the delicate phrases that inspire movement. “Mingo Mango (VIP)” is a song reminiscent of classic Americana and psychedelia in its purest form; long, echoing electric guitar screams, accompanied by squishy and repercussive arpeggios. It’s the liberating vibrations that move through the body in tandem with the cymbal crashes and synthetic textures, exemplifying the Ovoid ethos.
To get better acquainted with a long-time favorite of the Rust Team and the wider community, Adam graciously made himself available for a long-form interview, diving into the lifelong pursuit of his craft and his affiliate passions.
Alyssa Barnhill: Who is Ovoid? Where are you from?
Ovoid: I go by Adam Ovoid and I'm from Tacoma, Washington, and kind of the Tacoma/Seattle area, in my adult life. I have lived here my whole life pretty much but I'm planning on moving to Denver soon.
Barnhill: How did you like growing up in Washington state?
Ovoid: It was great honestly. It's still definitely one of my favorite places in the country, just because of the nature here, the mountains, and the forest. I definitely grew up loving the forests and mountains here and never really realized how special they were until I got older and traveled other places and realized that there’s not many others out there, like this. So I definitely have a really special place in my heart {for tacoma} but also I really want to get out and go live in other places for a bit. Kinda just explore other parts of the country and the world.
Barnhill: Have you ever played under any other names? Or has it always been Ovoid?
Ovoid: As far as this genre of music it's always been Ovoid but I was in bands in my high school and also had some hip hop and electronic projects too.
Barnhill: What instrument did you play?
Ovoid: I play guitar. Grew up playing guitar from when I was like 12 so that's definitely a pretty integral part to my production. I use a lot of guitar in my songs.
Barnhill: Do you sample a lot of your own guitar work?
Ovoid: Yeah! Yeah, pretty much all the guitar on my songs is me playing. Expect like, maybe one or two tracks where one of my friends played a riff or two.
Barnhill: What kind of guitar do you have?
Ovoid: Right now I have a Fender Stratocaster. I got it recently so it isn't on any of my released music but I am really excited about it because it's the nicest guitar I have personally ever had. I really love how it sounds. So it's definitely already made it into some tracks but not anything that I've put out. And I have an acoustic guitar and that's on Enigma. That's all that guitar.
Barnhill: What’s your first memory of an impactful musical experience?
Ovoid: Hard to say like the first but probably hearing my dad play drums. It was like the loudest music I had heard at the time cuz I'm sure he was doing it from the time I was born but I remember being a little kid and hearing my dad play Led Zeppelin on the drum, crank out stuff like that. He would play a lot of funk too like Parliament Funkadelic and Rick James. I remember being stoked on that music and I still love all that music. Then kinda growing up and getting into live music was probably listening to Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon. Which has pretty much always been my favorite album.
Barnhill: What was your first festival/show?
Ovoid: The first show I ever saw was actually The Rolling Stones. Kinda funny because they were already so old at that point but I think I was like 12. My parents kinda just brought me there but I was still excited to see the Stones. The first concerts I really remember going to, that I really wanted to go to, was metal bands like Megadeth and Slayer. I liked that stuff a lot. Then getting into psychedelic music I think the first electronic/psychedelic festival I went to was Gem and Jam, in like 2014 maybe. After that I got super into the bass music scene and kinda wooked out for a few years.
Barnhill: Yeah totally. I think we all have our wook years, at least at some point. You have to go through that. Where is your favorite place to play so far?
Ovoid: Definitely, most consistently I love playing at the Black Box. It’s always great. But it really just depends. Sometimes I'll go to a random show and I really don't know what to expect at all. If it's like somewhere I've never been before or even like a state I've never been before, completely foreign to me, but then it will be like such a great crowd. But it really just depends on if everyone is just feeling it, even small crowds in a random venue, with maybe not even the best sound can be pretty awesome.
Barnhill: Do you still get like pre show jitters?
Ovoid: Sometimes, but it kinda just depends on the show. A lot of time, if I’m just feeling good about what I am going to play and feel that I've been in the studio enough, then usually I feel pretty good about it. But then sometimes if I'm not too confident in something that I’ve been producing lately then I get a little more nervous for sure.
Barnhill: How long have you been performing sets?
Ovoid: I probably started playing shows like 6 years ago? Or maybe 7 years ago.
Barnhill: So about 2013 or so?
Ovoid: Yeah. I'm pretty sure that was my first show. Then like, more shows though in the last like four years. After that I played Tipper & Friends. After that show it has been a lot more.
Barnhill: What year was your set at that Tipper & Friends event again?
Ovoid: I'm pretty sure that was 2015. Or no, I think, 2016? I always forget, I even though there is a poster on my wall!
Barnhill: How was that? I love tipper and friends events.
Ovoid: That was amazing. The Tipper and friends crews, they just do it so proper. It's just always such a good production all around.
Barnhill: What's your background playing shows? Did you start in smaller little venues locally? Did it all kind of just all jump off at once for you?
Ovoid: I definitely started in a lot of super small venues in Washington and Seattle. Underground shows, sometimes they were not even like really venues. Like tiny apartments and stuff. After the Tipper & Friends show I started to get bigger bookings, but still a lot of smaller stages and small clubs. Which I kind of prefer. I like having a more intimate audience usually because it feels more personal.
Barnhill: Everyone wants to play bigger venues, but you prefer that more intimate stage. I mean the Black Box is definitely that way, it is very intimate.
Ovoid: Yeah the black box is perfect. Enough people can fit in there but it's still very intimate.
Barnhill: This may be a little left field but I have to ask, am I pronouncing this properly? Bang-us DANG?
O: Yeah! Haha
Barnhill: Where did that come from?
Ovoid: It's just gibberish really. I can't remember what sparked it but something one of my friends said.
Barnhill: What do you have planned for the future?
Ovoid: I definitely am trying to get a full length album together and just really put a lot of effort into making sure it's super detailed and really how I want it to be. That's just a main goal, I want to be playing more shows and stuff like that. Mainly I am just finishing up a solid album, I have a good chunk of stuff with such potential. Like with my last, longer EP I did on The Rust, some of those songs, I worked on them for like three years before I released them. My process is just pretty slow on the downtempo stuff, I like to take a lot of time with it usually.
Barnhill: There is no harm in that. I saw that you are doing mastering services and wanted to ask about that. What does that look like for you, what do you offer people? What track are you most proud of mastering?
Ovoid: Mastering has been great for me, it's honestly what's been keeping me afloat. And I have been mastering everyday, at least a little bit. Hopefully I will grow it to become a full service business. Generally, I really like it because I get to kind of hear what a lot of “up and coming” producers, or maybe more hobby producers are being influenced by and what they are trying to make. It’s cool to hear a lot of my friends' influences on people who send me music, like sometimes I’ll hear stuff that sounds a lot like my friends' music. It's cool to see the influence trickle down through the generations of producers. And then also being surprised by people sending me stuff that's pretty new sounding, a new sound, or really pushing the envelope. In addition, being able to master a lot of my friends' music is really great. I think the thing I'm most proud of is Craftal’s latest album on The Rust. That is my favorite thing I've done. I really love that album a lot and he's a good friend of mine.
Barnhill: What do you do outside of music? What do you do when you're not mastering or making your own music?
Ovoid: I am pretty social. I hang out with a lot of my friends that Ive known for most of my life in Tacoma. I hike a lot, I read. Oh, I'm trying to get into like full on summiting mountains but I need to take some glacier travel courses to be certified to get the permits but growing up here in Tacoma, with the mountains kinda looming over the city, has really inspired me to want to climb them. Hiking is definitely my favorite pastime. Mostly music though, honestly, I'm kinda a workaholic.
Barnhill: Who are you listening to now? Anyone you are looking forward to in music?
Ovoid: Right now, my biggest influence is probably Nine Inch Nails. I didn’t really listen to them growing up. I had heard their songs a little bit, but then in the last year and a half or so, I have been totally sucked into their music. I think it’s their production style that got me but I’ve been pretty obsessed with Nine Inch Nails lately. Also, I like things like Snarky Puppy, jazz fusion. I love all that. That's what I switch back and forth with, weird jazz fusion stuff to Nine Inch Nails. I like a lot of the stuff that I was playing on the Ovoid Radio Sessions, during quarantine. Just a lot of kinda chill stuff, a lot of trip hop, other sorts of relaxing music.
Barnhill: Did you go to school for music?
Ovoid: So for production, I'm mostly self taught but we have an awesome community of producers in psy-bass music that all share knowledge with each other constantly so that helps a ton. But I did go to an arts high school where I took songwriting and audio recording classes for 3 years and I definitely learned a ton there. I also took guitar lessons for many years before that so learning music has been a lifelong journey for me at this point.
Barnhill: How would you describe your music?
Ovoid: How I would describe my music is one of my absolute least favorite questions to get because I hate trying to quantify it into genres. I use “psy-bass” as an overarching term but really it's all over the place and I try to not limit myself to certain tempos or genres.
Heavy, pulsating, and serendipitous, Adam Ovoid is bridging the gaps that define the genres of psychedelic, bass-heavy music. If music is the forest, its inhabitants are musicians and creatives, and Ovoid is the mycelium network reaching out to each corner. Nutritious for the soul, pleasing to the ears, and engaging for the body, everyone should take a nibble off the mushy delight that is Adam Ovoid.
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