Noah Daniel Smith creates electronic music and under the name, Hard Mix.
Tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do. I live in Charlotte, North Carolina and work at a branding agency shooting/editing all of our videos along with doing some design work. When I’m not working, I’m normally making music while simultaneously figuring out how to use some of my synthesizers. It’s a bit of a puzzle figuring some of them out but that’s sort of the fun part I guess. Apart from making music, I like being outdoors and hiking as much as I can.
What kinds of things are influencing your music right now? For a solid 4-5 years, I strictly was only using soft synths mainly because I didn’t know anything about real synthesizers. Over the past year I was really bored with making music and wanted some inspiration so I decided to finally buy a synthesizer. My first purchase was a Korg MS20 Mini and that just got me obsessed with synthesizers. Since then, I’ve bought a total of eight synths…I went a bit overboard. The sounds they make just can’t be replicated and it has really influenced my style of playing. The way I think about how I want a track to sound is very different when you have these old synthesizers.
Here’re a few videos of some recent songs I’m working on strictly using the synthesizers I have. 1 2 3 4 5
Who would you ideally like to collaborate with? Ulrich Schnauss. The guy is just a legend and genius. I’d love to sit in a studio and see his process from start to finish on a song.
What other musicians/bands are you interested in right now? I’m pretty ADD when it comes to listening to music so I’m always switching it up. But when I’m at work I find myself going back and listening to Ulrich Schnauss, Yagya, and Herva.
Top three songs I listen to:
As if You’ve Never Been Away – Ulrich
Sleepygirl 4 – Yagya
My Mono Relax – Herva
Top 3 favorite or most visited websites and why?
Weather.com – My life revolves around the weather. If its raining, I’m bummed. If it’s sunny, I’m happy.
eBay.com – Constantly looking for synthesizers.
Craigslist.com – More synthesizers and dogs (I really want/need a dog).
Most embarrassing moment on stage? I was DJing and accidentally hit the cue button which made the song stop. Immediately broke into a cold sweat and everyone stopped dancing (or so I was picturing in my head). I cued the song back up and I think everyone thought it was just an awkward break in the song.
What’s your absolute favorite place in the world to be? Hiking on a mountain or any place where there isn’t a computer or a phone in front of my face. Most of the time that’s when I’m hiking.
What were you like in high school? A goofball and also a bit reclusive, which I’m realizing is essentially what I’m still like. I played drums in a band all throughout high school and also did a lot of freelance camera operating for various companies. I remember shooting video for that terrible show on MTV called Made. Towards the end of high school I started getting into making electronic music and thats kind of when Hard Mix took off.
How long have you lived in Charlotte and what brought you there? I’ve lived in Charlotte for two years now. I went to school at Winthrop University which is about 30 minutes south of Charlotte. After graduating I was hired to work at a branding agency so I finally made the move to Charlotte. My brother also lives here so it’s cool living in the same city as him.
What are some recent, upcoming or current projects you are working on? I’m not really producing music under the name Hard Mix anymore. I’ve transitioned into doing mainly dance music and less downtempo stuff. I decided to change my name to Mr. Body which has nothing to do with myself. I just came up with it while watching this video. I post most of my music under that name here: Mr. Body. I’ve also started recording more piano/guitar driven tracks under the name, Compartmental. If you really want to stay up to date on what I’m working on, I post a ton of videos on my Instagram.