Deriving his alias from 'Robotayaki', which means grilled Japanese food, Montreal producer Preston Chin's interest in electronic music dates back to his early years. "I was always exposed to a huge diversity of electronic music," he tells THUMP. "Chill house, progressive trance, and generally electronica thanks to my brother and sister who picked up CDs every weekend from HMV. Producers like The Chemical Brothers, Moby, and Gorillaz are just a few who definitely shaped my particular tastes nowadays."A former McGill University student, Chin currently lives and works in Montreal. "Montreal's scene is one of the most diverse but unpretentious scenes to get into. There's always somewhere to go on a particular night to hear the type of music you're into, and I love that. People in this city simply know how to enjoy music," he says.The success of his remix releases aside, Chin is ready for what the future holds, and has been locked in his studio for the past several months working on new material. "I'm super excited to reveal all the stuff I've been holding on to over these past months. One of my main anxieties in the past was my ability to produce original mixes since my main strength was doing remixes. Having something already there to base a track off of is a totally different beast. Luckily, I can say I'm a lot more comfortable now starting from scratch," Chin says. His remix catalogue includes electro heavyweights Kavinsky, Miami Horror, and Van She."I was also a huge gamer back in middle school, and often got really attached to the OSTs in a couple of games like Chrono Trigger, Plok, and Super Mario RPG. It's eclectic as hell, and I'm not sure if it even shows in my music, but I think my love for electronic was fostered by these two unlikely players in my early life," Chin recounts.The young producer is moving towards a more sensual, intimate, and powerful sound with this output. "There's some of that danceable, quirky Robotaki stuff, and also some newer, more downtempo, nostalgic sounding tunes which I've been screwing around with recently. All I can say is I'm going to throw a lot of curveballs for the listeners who have been waiting so patiently, and I hope they'll dig the new direction," he says.Along with the new sound, he's also ready to take more musical risks. "I want to think I'm taking the same synth aesthetic I've always had and spinning it in a way that people won't expect from me. I'm really digging some of the influences that hip-hop and house music are having on electronic dance music lately, and I see this as a great opportunity to try new things. Some producers have an unwillingness to assimilate aspects of a new trend in music just because it's popular at that time. I say, 'why limit yourself?'" he remarks. We can't wait to hear what's next.Robotaki is on Facebook // SoundCloud // Twitter
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