Branchez Brought Sexy Back to Zeds Dead's Tour Bus

Branchez is the stage name of New York-based producer Sam Kopelman. Although currently on tour with dubstep juggernauts Zed's Dead, Paper Diamond, and Green Lantern as part of the Altered States tour, the rising producer caught my attention (and the rest of the blogosphere's) earlier this year with an emotional and irresistibly catchy remix of "Stay," by Rihanna. With that jam, and some other sleek, trappy dance joints—including a great remix of Rhye's song "Open"—in his repertoire it's no surprise things are moving fast for the young yankee. I checked in with Sam during one of his off days on tour to chat about the tour's best tracks, his secret R&B side, and to get some juicy gossip on Zed's Dead.

THUMP: What's going on?
Branchez: Chilling, I'm currently in a parking lot in Saint Louis. We have the day off.

Woah! I'm from Saint Louis.
Nice! Yeah we just rolled in to Target, getting some essentials, going pee. Now I'm trying to find out where I can see Gravity in IMAX 3D, real talk.

Dude I can hook you up. Saint Louis Science Center, they have an IMAX theater.
Word.

Anyways, how's the tour been? What's the typical day like?
It's been amazing. It's my first bus tour so I'm learning a lot. Everyone else here is kind of a veteran. I have nothing to compare it to but I'm pretty sure the bus is pretty nice. And I'm lucky because all the artists are homies, and everyone gets along really well—always freestyling, always cracking jokes. It's funny to live with other musicians because when I'm home I'll be on somewhat of a nocturnal schedule, producing until 6am and then sleeping hard. But now we all live similar lifestyles so we're all up until 5 am, waking up at 2pm, and essentially all we do is listen to music. Corny as it sounds we barely watch TV. It's a beautiful scene, for me at least.

As far as the what a typical day looks like, it depends on the day. In Montreal we hit the streets, got some great food, took in the environment. But then, like when were in Pontiak, Michigan, and the only thing close by was this gas station and they were like "don't go to that gas station cause it's shady," then you kind of just try and step off the bus, soak in some sun like a reptile, and then post up on the bus. And yeah, the show always just creeps up on us.

There's only been one day when none of us drank, coincidentally we just weren't trying to turn up, but other than that it's just been like college--living with dudes and partying a lot. Which is awesome for me.

Craziest situation on the tour?
There was that time I was really lit and dipped Nacho Doritos in salsa, which was crazy as shit. It legitimately felt like a special event at the time. Also, eating cake in the club.

Word. Who's in the crowd at these shows? Are they raving or grinding?
I'd say the crowd is mostly ravers. There are a lot of furry boots and neon, but I stick to my aesthetic. It's a really interesting musical dynamic because, while we have a lot in common in what we listen to, I have no crossover in my live show with Zed's Dead. It's a good thing I'm in a starting position because I don't go technically as "hard" as the other artists. I keep it on the sexier side. I still turn up a bit, ya know—I get the kids jumping—but I don't have the hard dubstep jams in my set.

I like to play dance music. Like, Zed's music is more about rage, head bashing—you can't really dance with a girl to some of it.  And some of my jams have been getting good reactions, like the Mat Zo remix. So it's good to know that my work can succeed in this world. But yeah, to see the reaction of thousands of kids simultaneously raging it's kind of like, "Woah—this is some army of youth, change-the-world type shit."

What songs have been getting the best reactions?
I can only really speak for myself. Of my stuff, the Mat Zo remix has been getting good reactions, same with Treat You Right  and Shake. From other people's stuff, my secret weapon has been this Austin Millz remix of a Showtek song called "Slow Down."  I'm always see a lot of hands up with that track. I've also been having a lot of fun playing a track by  DJ Snake, Yellow Claw and Spanker that's also called "Slow Down."

I try to change it up every night—I been playing Kaytranada's remix of ATM Jam, the Azealia Banks and Pharrell joint. The last track I've been playing a lot is Storm Queen, this NY-based house duo, this MK dub version called "Look Right Through." That's like my dad's favorite song right now; you can't go wrong with that track in my eyes. The kids are kind of on their heels at first with some of these tracks, but as an opener I feel like my role on this tour is to warm the crowd up so I have that in mind when I play.

Cities you've fallen in love with?
We had two days off in Toronto, and Zed's Dead's from Toronto, so we had some local guidance. I was really surprised by Toronto—it's really beautiful and hip. It reminds me of Williamsburg, or areas of it. There's really cool, one-of-a-kind shops and really good food. I fucks with Toronto.

Any OVO sightings?
No, we were at the Drake hotel and I was like, "He must work here, right?" But no, sadly. In Montreal I had Schwartz's, and I'm from New York so I have a lot of pride in my Jewish foods—Schwartz's is their version of Katz's. You know, smoked meats on rye. That shit was crack. That's probably my food highlight of the tour.

And last night in Columbus there were a bunch of funny cats at the show. We had a lil' smoke session after the show and… there's definitely some funny cats in Columbus. We're bout to head west to cities I've never been to before. And the Midwest. I'm bout to pound some BBQ tomorrow.

Go to Pappy's in Saint Louis. Best BBQ you've ever had I guarantee it.
Word, let me write that down.

Where's the name come from?
In seventh grade me and my homies were really into AND1 Streetball. I could shoot, but I couldn't dribble that well, so I was Branchez. My other homie was Trio, and my other homie was Proverb. And we would just ball and fuck around, and then I started making beats, I guess around the end of seventh grade on the computers at school on Garage Band. I just started labeling tracks as Branchez. I'm very happy the way it worked out, 'cause I'm the only thing that comes up when you google "Branchez" with a "z," but with an "s."

Where's Branchez headed?
I have an official remix for What So Not out now. It's kind of like "Stay"—a big, female singer-type track. The goal is to have an EP out by the end of the year. I just started collaborating with some vocalists.

And then I have this whole R&B side of me that the world—well, the Internet—doesn't know about. On some sexual music. So I got a bunch of different ideas, it's just about getting a release together.

Wait let's talk about the secret R&B side. Dark like The Weeknd or more like Blackstreet?
I had a track up on my Soundcloud called "Baby Girl," which went [clears throat] "Baby girl are you tryna fuck? / because I'm really really tryna fuck / we should go and fuck," which sounds really aggressive. I wrote that my senior year of college and it was kind of an anthem amongst my homies, but it's really just playful, sexual, R&B. I don't really know who to compare it to, but I have a lot of fun making it. I definitely stress melody these days where more of my older stuff is about big physical reactions.

Gimme some gossip on Zed's Dead.
I guess some people don't know that they're Canadian. Also, on the bus they're not always playing dubstep—they love classic rock. And I don't know, as a headliner you could be a dick but they're total sweet hearts.