Getter has been paving the way for not only ‘electronic’ music for 8 years, but also from his own releases to starting his clothing brand Trippy Burger to his most recent initiative Shred Collective. Getter has also started his alter ego Terror Reid which combines old school hip hop and the ‘Getter attitude’ of shocking lyrics.
Interview and photography: Lauren Engel
So you were born in San Jose, California. What were you like as a kid growing up?
I was loud as fuck but also quiet. I was loud with my friends but also quiet in public. I loved legos and shit and I like to cook. I like to organize shit. I was never active so my dad had to pay me $30 a week to do cross country. Was cool, some good money, bought some more legos. I was 14/15 some shit.
Where do you get your energy from?
Adderall and a lot of water (laughs). I don’t do drugs anymore and I rarely drink. Go to bed, wake up early, drink hella water and I’m energy.
Are your parents super energetic also?
Yah my dad. He’s 5’8 and super hyper. He’s hilarious and my mom is kind of laid back.
So you got your sense of humor from your dad then?
Yah, i’d say so, maybe somewhat.
Do you have siblings?
I got a little brother whose a dope skater who lives in Oregon. My older brother is a good skater slash biker slash inventor. He just does everything he’s in Oregon too and he has a wife named Kylie. Older brother’s name is Dylan, older brother’s name is Brody. They’re my dogs.
What do your parents do?
My mom is into fitness and nutrition. My dad used to work at Cisco but he moved companies I don’t know where he works now. It’s an important manager of some shit though.
Where do you think you got your creative side though. Mostly your mom?
Yah I think my mom’s side like my uncle. My mom’s Uncle John is one of the only musicians in our family. He plays guitar. He used to play for Charlie Musselwhite now he plays for some dude from Vegas. He lives in Vegas and performs there. That’s where my mom tells me I get my music from.
Did he help you out or mentor you in a certain way?
Not really. When I was younger he taught me how to play some songs on the acoustic guitar. Smoke in the water and Iron man. I know where he and my mom came from and it wasn’t shitty but that kind of inspired me to do my thing to.
Other than music what kind of hobbies or subjects were you into?
I loved to skate but I fucked up my Achilles tendon so I stopped and I did more music so it was good. I like interior designing but I never really pursued it I just organized rooms and shit. I like the make shit on Photoshop, I like to design clothes, I like to make food, I like cars I have an R8. Just been suiting it up since I got it.
In one of your recent interviews on Soundcloud you said that your mom’s gay?
My mom’s gay she’s been gay forever and she broke us the news as she says when we were younger but it wasn’t a bit deal to us because they raised us like everyone’s equal. I was around ten or eleven. Honestly I was more tripping about my dad smoking cigarettes than my mom being gay. The only thing we tripped about when she told us was that they lied to us that their divorce was for a different reason but yah my moms gay she’s super happy and dope and I’m happy that she’s cool and gay.
Do you feel that you’ve grown closer to her now that she’s open up to you and tells you about herself and relationships?
Yah totally. I would live a week with her a week with my dad on and off with my brothers. Her friends were gay and they were always the nicest people ever and wouldn’t hurt a fly. I remember the day she told us she was breaking down and we were like yo its cool we’re not assholes we’re kids. We kind of don’t get it but we kind of do. I’m glad it’s cool. I’m glad she’s happy with herself and that I’m happy for that.
When you moved to LA you were 19. Were they skeptical or what was it like for them?
Well it got to the point where I got out of high school and started doing music, doing shows. I got a job at a smoke shop and I was going to community college that my dad was paying for because I didn’t want to go so I didn’t want to pay. I wanted to do music so they put me in a music program which was cool but then there were five bullshit classes that I didn’t go to. My dad was basically paying for me to not go to school and I was just not going for the longest time and one day I was just like you know I don’t want to do this. This is lame. I’m making stacks at shows I’m making music. I want to go to LA. They were iffy about it first and then I just bought a car and was like hey on this day and drove down with all my shit. Yah just started going but I think they were worried at first.
Do you regret that?
No I don’t fucking like school. I’m not a fan of school I mean I get it. I know why people go. If you want to be a doctor or thereapist, schools for you but like if you’re creative schools a devil because you can’t go to school. You can’t teach art. You’re either born with to or your not and you can explore it. You can learn shit on the way, you can learn how to paint you can try different strokes, how to blend shit better, different tools to use but no ones going to teach you how to paint. It should be programmed in your body. That’s what I believe. I’m not a fan of school, especially high school. Fuck high school. Go for your parents and that’s it. Doesn’t matter you will never use any knowledge from high school ever.
When you were starting out did you have someone guide you?
Ya Datsik. He was like my fucking idol. He ended up releasing my new music on his label and put me on tour. I was just with him the other day and I still remember the first day I stepped on his bus and they’re all watching TV and I was like never met this dude I’m fangirling I’m freaking out. I was 18 or 19. Was cool, he definitely helped me along the way and pointed me. Helped a lot with getting everything in my brain out in the open which was really cool.
Were your parents supportive or how did you gain their support?
No they were supportive. I think it was weird at first because they don’t know much about it. It’s kind of new, it’s still new. It wasn’t like oh I’m going to be a rapper, I’m going to be in a band. It was like hey I’m going to press play for a bunch of kids so they were iffy but they were definitely supportive. My dad comes to all my Vegas shows. It’s super fun. I had metal bands and shit with my friends but it was nothing serious. Like my dad let us set up a thing in the back garage pool house area and would jam all the time.
Do you think there are any disadvantages to social media? Like any music people or labels don’t take you as seriously?
Yah for sure. There’s different parts of it because like making electronic dance music has gotten itself such a bad rep in all the other markets because it’s like oh you make music on the computer, oh ok, you press play, you don’t play an instrument. All this shit. That affects if I want to work with any hip hop people. It gets to the point where like the only people I can work with are personal homies or somebody I met because if I hit somebody up and tell them to work they’re like you’re edm, no. But then it’s the same with the social media. I’ve been doing music almost eight years and I’m fucking good at it and I know I’m good at it but no one will take you seriously if they know you from Vine or YouTube. I would do vlogs and vining and all this shit and I would put my heart into a song and people would just be on it talking about suh dude, talking about funny shit. I get it, as long as they know the name right. I’d appreciate them to appreciate the music more.
A lot of people who go to your shows are your fans from social media was it hard to make the bridge?
I don’t really pay attention to what my followers…obviously I pay attention to what they say. I fucking roast people on the daily. I don’t really care what they listen to of mine just because I make everything now and as long as they’re there and they’re open and paying attention to me and hearing what I’m playing or listening to me on their phone I don’t really care if I’m converting them to comedy or to this because if they fuck with me they’ll fuck with what I’m making.
For the “Trippy Burger” stuff when you first started out there weren’t too many artists making their own clothing right?
Yah we did it just for a quick bucks. Was like yo we need to put Suh Dude shirts out and did make us quite a few quick bucks. It was my manager’s idea. He actually did the suh dude thing. Suh dude was a year before it blew up. My manager blew it up by posting it on my Facebook then was like okay now we make shirts so it came together. Then I put out the head splitter video. That was either before or after and that was where the Trippy Burger name came from because in that video I eat a burger and trip balls. Now it’s in Zumies and I also have the Shred clothing which is going to be more of the shit I wear. Trippy Burger is more of the funny cool artsy shit.
For the artsy stuff do you have an artist you look up to or inspired by?
Yah I literally the other day unfollowed everyone on every social media platform except for visual artists because I’m so obsessed with art. I’m an artist too I can draw shit. But I’m not as good as these other guys so I’m literally follow around 80 to 90 number like that. I hit them up individually and be like dude name a price I don’t give a fuck, your shit is awesome and it properly represents what I’m doing in people’s headphones and if we can do it musicians and visuals the same lets do it.
Do you have any shirts right now that you drew yourself?
No not really. I do a few but I don’t say like yo I made this. I got an iPad with procreate so I just draw shit on there. That’s the new shit for shred it will just be like quick shit. Kind of like Supreme because I’m obsessed with Supreme since I was 16.
For your Shred Collective your main idea—you don’t want rich by yourself you want everyone to have a fair share. Where did that mentality come from?
Everybody’s been down in the dumps. Doesn’t matter if you have or you haven’t but sometimes you got to sell shit to pay rent. Sometimes you go to do this blablabla. But at the same time people who call themselves your best friends…not saying that best friends give you handouts all the time but they see what you’re going through and don’t even offer to help. I feel like instead of it being a business or record label or this or that or this person makes this money. If you make a song and you like it and you want to put it out to the audience, we’ll put it out and you get all the money because that’s fair and it will put some money into your pocket. We do these sample pack deals and I give all the money to who I do the sample pack with. I feel like if I had a bunch of money but my best friend was broke I would spend all my money trying to make them be by including them in shit like yo lets go to six flags, I got you on the ticket. Why not just meet them in the middle and be like hey I’m going to make you money so we can go to six flags at the same time. I don’t have to buy you a ticket. Call it karma call it whatever but everyone deserves a slice of the pie.
Did you get this idea yourself or was it something you saw online that inspired it?
I write a bunch of shit down on my computer and my phone and I would just like jot down notes of ideas or songs or lyrics or whatever. That was one of them and I kind of built off it. I’ve always wanted to use a word called shred because that’s fucking dup.
You want to open a store for it down the road?
We’re going to do pop up stores hopefully different spots on my tour. Big Mouth tour, get your fucking tickets. Do some popup shops, have some guests but we want to open up a retail store in 2018 permanently. But I want to do it in a different area because everyones on Fairfax and Melrose. We want a block. We want to have everyone there chilling kind of like an office. Upstairs will be an office and sell some clothes, meet some peeps, it will be fun.
I love your Terror Reid stuff. Is rapping a recent thing?
I remember I was in the studio with my homie and Andy Milonakis as weird as that sounds. My friend was friends with him and rapped and I was like oh I’ll write you something. I wrote it and was like wait that was kind of tight. That was a couple of years ago. And then I started to kind of do it myself. Then when I met Pouya and Fat Nick and all those guys. I was always in the studio with them recording and see how they work and how they would like loop the beat. Listen to it, get the flow down before the words and all the stuff. I started to do that and I put out one song as Terror Reid as a joke. I say as a joke loosely because it was serious but it wasn’t. Then it started to stack up and then I was like damn I know how to do this better than any of these motherfuckers and that’t not me being a dick that’s just like I’m confident in what I do. I mean I’m not better than Pouya. All the guys I work with are way better than me. I want to be in an interview with Joe Budden and kill him in a freestyle. It kind of just blossomed. Actually Who Dat wasn’t supposed to come out because I didn’t like it. I still don’t like it that much. The wordplay just isn’t what I want it to be. It was originally just a beat for someone but we just wanted to put a song out. We being me and my manager. Next year is going to be a a bunch of Terror Reid stuff.
What was the reason being not putting that out as Getter?
Everyone knows Getter for edm and comedy. I’m proud of that and it’s cool but I don’t want to bring that energy into hip hop because I don’t want some more fake wack shit or fans thinking they like something when in reality they like the other thing that this dudes doing. It’s originally supposed to be me in a ski mask and anytime I get fucked up..because I like to shock rap stuff. Like oh fuck he just said that?! It’s supposed to be like I drink bleach and I turn into Terror Reid. We did it for a while and it was cool and after a bit I’m like dude I want people to see my face and the expressions I’m doing when I’m saying all this fucked up shit. I can see hip hop more long term than edm. I would be more happy with it because it’s got replay value and people would listen to it more. Putting out an EP, having people listen to it for a week and ask you what’s next. Kind of keeping it close. I don’t think we are going to do the mask thing anymore.
What was the original idea behind the mask?
I was self conscious about rapping and stuff because like it wasn’t where I wanted to be yet. So I put it on to speed things up. I actually made custom makes but then Future’s got the mask off, there’s Ski Mask the Slump god, there’s Little Toe who wears a ski mask. All these people wearing ski masks I don’t want to blend in with the crowd. I was like fuck it I’ll just be another white kid with tattoos that raps.
The lyrics you want you want to do more of the old style hip hop lyrics right?
Yah I want to make the old dude sound new and the new dude sound old. I just want to bring it back to the good shit. The new shits cool but it’s not hip hop it’s rap. That’s cool whatever rap about your lean and your fucking Xanax and how much money you get but in the end of the day I want to make the shit I want to hear. I want to make some violent shit, I want to make some shit that makes people talk like I fucking huff donkey shit or snort anthrax shit like that. It’s way more unbelievable. It like the difference between Michael Moore and Michael Bay. Michael Moore is basic, sticking to the guidelines. It’s not crazy out of this world but Michael Bay you’re like fuck there’s so many explosions. So I’m Michael Bay.
And you want to get into making movies right? Like you wake up in the middle of the night and have some dreams and write them down.
Yah, I said that in an interview a while ago and I kind of stopped doing it for a while because my mind started getting so all over the place. I just do so much shit at the same time that I go crazy and then lock myself away and finish everything and come out and I’m born again. That was one of the things I started to do. It’s starting to happen again. If I’m working on a song all day everyday. By the end of the day that’s all thats in my head. I’ll go to bed with it in my head still. So I’ll usually dream about it then I’ll have ideas for music videos and movies. Like what Tyler the Creator does it’s so cool because he does exactly what he wants, doesn’t give a fuck what anyone says. But it’s all dope because he knocked off the whole people are going to like this. He’s just like I like this I’m putting it out. I want to do that kind of shit. I have over thirty music video ideas that were definitely going to do. I would love to do movies. I’m sure everybody would say comedy. But I would love to be behind this scenes. Me and my homie were talking about making a movie. He said you can be one of the actors and I’m like I’ll write some of it, I can write jokes. Everybody mistakes me for the guy that wants to be all the attention and centre of everything but like that was a mistake, the best possible mistake. Now that I got everything that I want and I’m doing more but I like being behind the scenes. I want to be the guy making beats for people and just getting money. More money than other people would because I’m doing what I like. With the Terror Reid thing I want to push a wave and start people doing that style then I’ll just be like alright I’ll make all the beats now. I would love to direct and write.
You tweeted more you wanted to get out of the electronic scene. Can you elaborate that?
There are some people who have fucked me in this industry and I’m sure lots of people get fucked by lots of people. I’m not going to say who because they know what they did. It’s no use calling them out. I’m kind of emo on the internet because I want people to know what I’m going through. I’m vocal about it but I make it simple. That whole thing came from for the longest time like I make music and it takes forever and I put it out and people give a fuck then don’t give a fuck then it’s like I’m not a clothing brand I don’t just drop shit I gotta work. I started getting tired of people underappreciating my shit. And I started to think about how I make that kind of music for a certain scenario because if you listen to that on headphones it sure isn’t good as it is playing live. I make everything so now it’s like okay I either can do this edm thing and make a bunch of money or make pointless fucking music and will be hot for a little bit or I can take that energy and combine it with this better energy making the shit that I like to call real music because it makes you think a little bit more and it’s about certain shit. You can cry to it, you can laugh to it. All these people are bummed saying I’m quitting and all this stuff. I’m not quitting, I worded it wrong. I’m just changing and moving on. I’m still going to make party shit but it’s not top priority. In two, three EPs maybe you’l see a couple of singles but the rest of it is like you can listen to it anywhere. You don’t need to be at a party. You can bike and listen to it. You can shit and listen to it. I just want people to know that I am here and that I’m staying but I’m not like doing what everyone wants me to do. If I lose everything I don’t care because it’s what I want to do.
What do you want to be remembered for?
I want to be that guy who made every kind of music, made beats for everyone. I just want to be the shit. I just want everyone to be like yo, I want to be a legend. I want to be all these guys who made an imprint. You’ll never forget them. People forget EDM artists real quick because I’ve been doing this shit 8 years so I know. I don’t want to be forgotten. I want to be that dude, I want to be that boy.
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