Katie BainRemember Goosebumps, those creepy books that scared the crap out of you when you were a kid?
For the second year in a row, L.A. trap DJ RL Grime is dropping a bass heavy Halloween mix with a cameo by none other than the Goosebumps author himself, R.L. Stine. And yes, RL Grime's name was inspired by the 70-year-old children's book author.
We're debuting the mix below, and we also chatted with the 22-year-old DJ — who also performs under the name Clockwork and whose real name is Henry Steinway — about Halloween and his set at this weekend's Hard Day of the Dead electro fest. Read on, IF YOU DARE.
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How did you get connected with R.L. Stine?
It all happened over Twitter. I was surprised off the bat that he had a Twitter page, and that it was a really good Twitter page too. He has [over 100,000] followers. I think someone tweeted at him “Have you heard of RL Grime?” He responded no, but somehow I got looped into the conversation and started talking to him. Around this time last year, I was like, 'Hey man, can you send me your email?' and he did right away, and he's been super cooperative with everything after that. He's an amazing guy.
Has he given you feedback on the music?
Not so much. He's probably more a fan of the idea that someone is paying tribute to him. It's probably not his favorite kind of music, but he's been really responsive and got involved this year as well.
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Did you read Goosebumps as a kid?
Oh yeah. I was a huge Goosebumps fan. I think Say Cheese and Die was one of my favorites. I remember being really into the choose your own ending thing. I also watched the TV series a bunch too. It actually just got put on Netflix, so you can check it out after we hang up.
What's the story on this year's Halloween mix?
R.L. Stine sent over a voice recording of him introducing himself and the mix, and this year we actually got the illustrator who did all the books to do the mixtape cover, so that's really cool. Musically, it's the same idea, just trying to pick out spooky Halloween vibe songs. It's longer too, about an hour.
What's your plan for Hard this weekend?
This will be the first time I've played with Baauer in awhile. We need to sit down and hash it out, but we made a song together a couple of weeks ago that we'll definitely be playing, and a lot of other new stuff.
RL Grime; Credit: Photo courtesy of RL Grime
Are you going dress up?
It's hard finding a costume that's easy to DJ in. I've tried wearing a mask before, but it got too hot and I couldn't really see anything. I'm not really good at Halloween. People shouldn't really expect anything, then whatever I do do will blow people away.
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What's the scariest thing that's ever happened while playing a set?
I had someone spill a drink from the second floor right on top of my laptop and my whole screen went green when I was playing, and once I played a WeDidIt party at SXSW and some guy in the crowd got stabbed while we were playing, like in the hand or something.
Wait, what?
It was a pretty wild experience. We cut off the music and we were like, “Hey, probably don't stab people while we're playing.” [laughs] I think we kicked the guy out and he got arrested right when he went outside, but we kept going. The show only stopped for like, three minutes. We didn't really miss a beat there.
BELOW: RL Grime's Halloween mix!
Download the mix on RL Grimes' tricked out Halloween website.
RL Grime plays a set with Baauer at Hard's Day of the Dead this Sunday, November 3.
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