There are at least three bands called Graves: 1. a black metal band from Portugal 2. a horror punk band 3. a metallic hardcore band from Auckland New Zealand 4. an unknown idm project found only on /mu/. 5. a producer from Hawaii (@wearegraves) : Right place, right time. That’s how Christian Mochizuki p/k/a graves will tell you he made his break in the music industry over seven years ago when a chance self-imposed exile to Hawaii from Kanye West landed Christian a less-than-savory assistant position in the early stages of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. He stuck it out for a year, running around doing errands for West and his small army of guests, collaborators, and crew before permanently sliding his way into the studio, first as an assistant engineer and ultimately as a full time engineer. He became a member of the squad, practically living in the studio for the duration of MBDTF — the record that eventually put a Grammy in Christian’s pocket and led to another credit on Watch The Throne. The dawn of Christian’s career in music had started at the top rung of the industry ladder, but a hunger to pursue his own musical path soon emerged. This spawned the native Hawaiian trio, OOF, which Christian now recalls as “bad”, “cheesy”, and “terrible”, but it did give him the opportunity to play EDC New York through Insomniac’s Discovery Project and provide a taste of the touring DJ life. It also confirmed what kind of music he didn’t want to make, and it wasn’t long before Christian created the solo project we know him as today — graves. Now graves is rising quickly as one of the most exciting names in bass music.
