Mr. Myles

Dec 2 2010 - 7:43pm | Kristina Kenney


There does not seem to be much Myles Kratzer cannot do.

Since releasing his first demo CD last month and being featured in the Sept. 23 issue of The University Star, Kratzer has teamed with long-time friend and fellow artist Joseph Blanks to establish his parent company called Rambull, LLC and record label, Two Point Conversion.

Blanks said the record label became official Nov. 1, and Kratzer’s CD became available on iTunes at the end of the month. Kratzer does not plan on slowing down anytime soon. The next thing on his to-do list is to shoot a music video on campus. All of this is being done while Kratzer is also a full-time math major and father.

While most people might find a list of such duties overwhelming, Kratzer takes it all in stride, saying he is his biggest hurdle.

“This is the first time in my life I feel like I have complete control over something,” Kratzer said. “I feel that this is supposed to be happening in my life.”

Blanks, New York resident and Kratzer’s business partner, said the development of the company and record label seemed to come at the right time. Blanks said it has been an idea the two have discussed for years and considers it one of the greatest accomplishments of his life.

“The feeling itself is liberating,” Blanks said. “To actually stop talking and do it takes a lot of weight off our shoulders. It gives us a new set of adventures to embark on and we’re so excited for the new opportunities ahead of us.”

Kratzer and Blanks hope to also establish a number of other ventures within the next year including a website dedicated to topics their generation relates most to. Kratzer said the site would be similar to a news blog, where contributors could voice thoughts on specific topics for others to then comment on.

Sahab Hobab, Kratzer’s friend and producer, hopes Kratzer achieves everything he is working for. Hobab said out of all the tracks he produced with Kratzer, “Hour Glass Snow” was his favorite to create, because all of the structural, lyrical and musical elements came together perfectly.

“That (track) was more my style,” said Hobab. “Whatever I had in my mind got put on paper. We got to have (Blanks) do a little poetry part at the end that sounded really good.”

Kratzer said he and Blanks decided to create the company and not head for a major label, because they wanted to remain true to themselves and not have money be the only goal.

Kratzer said having freedom to say whatever he wants and be himself is essential to the image of the company. Personalizing himself and music for fans through social media outlets and his personal website are factors Kratzer believes are most important.

“I don’t even say ‘fan,’ because everyone is a friend to me,” Kratzer said. “I want to keep my Twitter that way and my Facebook that way. If people e-mail me at the address on my artist webpage, I want to personally respond back to everybody, so they feel like they know me.” - University Star

Sep 22 2010 - 9:50pm | Kristina Kenney


Myles Kratzer loves to watch Sponge Bob.
“A couple years ago, I dressed up as Sponge Bob for Halloween,” Kratzer said. “I had the glasses, the suspenders — the whole nine. If you’re going to be Sponge Bob, you really have to be Sponge Bob.”
Kratzer, mathematics junior, describes himself as a bit of a nerd. He is known to friends as “the encyclopedia,” and has hopes of becoming a math teacher.
However, one of Kratzer’s newly revealed talents has the music scene taking notice.
Kratzer said he knew he was in the right place to start taking his passion for writing, rapping and producing more seriously when he moved to Austin four years ago.
“I was like ‘Wow, this place is amazing,’” Kratzer said. “I started making full-on beats. I produced all of them, and I recorded in my own little home studio.”
Since then, Kratzer has become “Mr. Myles.”
He recently spent a weekend in Fresno, Calif. recording six original tracks with the help of Sahab Hobab, a producer at Lo-Fi Panda Recording Studio.
“I saw a lot of potential in Myles,” Hobab said. “When he’s rapping, you feel like he’s actually living it, and he believes in what he’s saying. I think that’s really important, because if you don’t believe in yourself, no one else is going to believe in you.”
Kratzer’s parents both served in the military. So he was raised in different places including Italy, Germany and California. Kratzer credits his unique sound to a culturally diverse background.
“I have this laid back, have fun, techno type music that I ended up with,” Kratzer said.
Kratzer said one of the biggest hurdles he has had to get through in life occurred in junior high. His father was involved in a head-on collision, leaving him with two broken cervical vertebrae. Kratzer dropped out of school to help with his father’s recovery process.
“I practically lived in the hospital,” Kratzer said. “They brought the hospital bed into the house. So I had to go from spending everyday in the hospital looking at my dad to waking up every morning and still seeing the same thing.”
Kratzer said his father attempted to commit suicide after dealing with the pain. The incident served as inspiration for “Goodbye Suicide,” one of the tracks Kratzer wrote and recorded for his demo CD.
“It has to do with me personally going through that scenario and realizing that it’s quick for us to judge when someone gets to that point,” Kratzer said. “It’s harder for us to stand back and listen to why they felt like they needed to do that.”
Looking beyond his musical abilities, Kratzer said another immediate goal he has is earning a degree to always have the option of teaching math in the future.
“I don’t think there are many rappers in calculus,” Kratzer said.
Kratzer’s father, Robert Kratzer, said he always pushed his son toward school more than music but hopes he will succeed in any area.
“With the life we’ve had, he’s kind of learned to be hard,” Robert Kratzer said. “Normally, you have grandparents or aunts and uncles involved in your life, but he’s never had that because we’ve always lived somewhere else. We had to learn a different kind of life.”
"Mr. Myles" said his prevalent musical influence is Tupac Shakur and can appreciate the way he showcased what it means to be oneself.
“I know he hit a point in life where he was confused and went down the wrong path,” Kratzer said. “But at the end of the day, you have to respect an artist for breaking down all those barriers and letting you see every aspect of their personality.” - University Star