Brooklyn in da house. Exclusive interview
Interview by Rob Chadwick
A huge welcome to DMCWORLD. How has 2015 been treating you?
Hey Rob. This year has been pretty good to me so far, touch wood. My album was released in March, which was in equal parts a relief and yet also terrifying. I am definitely looking forward to the summer, it’s the whole reason people put up with winter in New York, it’s the payback! So far I have some shows in Brazil and possibly a tour of the Caribbean, so yes there’s lots to look forward to.
Tell us about when you first got into dance music…
My first exposure to dance music was when I was a teenager, via my older sister. I listened to rave music – the fast jungle stuff, the insane tempos, the chipmunk vocals – and the whole scene that went with it – laser shows, the rave fashion, the hedonism. I loved it right away. My friends and I would sneak off in the middle of the night and catch a train two hours away to some abandoned warehouse, where an insane party was taking place. We were hooked. As I got older my tastes swayed more towards house music and I got heavily into collecting records and DJing. I was always dabbling in production from a young age but I didn’t start to put more of myself into it until later, and certainly waited a long time before releasing anything.
Give us some background on the last few years – you were in a duo initially, right?
I was in a band with my friend Nathaniel Jay, we were soho808 and we made slow disco jams and deep house. We were quite determined to pursue it, we wrote a song a week for over a year. We reached a point where he wanted to start a record label (he has since started two – Love Revolution and Love Notes from Brooklyn) and I wanted to pursue a solo career.
Were you always into slower, more organic sounds?
For me it was a natural progression to that sound. When I was younger I went through a long phase of buying tech house and deep house and then when I discovered artists like Mathew Herbert, Jamie Lidell and LCD Soundsystem, among others, they shaped my desire to create dance music with that sound. I think they appeal to me because of the realness of the soundscape, it’s the soul and the talent and the musicianship which lies self-evident in the music. There’s a stronger connection for me with those characteristics.
Are you a multi-instrumentalist? The album is very lush sounding…
I guess I would say I am, I’ve had formal training with piano and alto saxophone, and I taught myself guitar. I wouldn’t say I’m a master of anything, however I’m pretty badass with a recorder. As to the sound of the album, I am by trade a mix engineer and essentially it’s my job to bring songs to life for other artists, so I’m grateful you think I managed to achieve that with my own music!
Why did you go ahead into an album right now – does your sound suit it more? How different than an EP is an LP in the creative process?
It happened in a fairly natural way. I was releasing singles and EP’s on No.19 and I ended up with a whole bunch of songs that didn’t really fit with the aesthetic of that label, so I pushed forward with the idea of releasing a whole album. As to the differences between making an EP and an LP, the creative process for me is the same, however it’s a difference of scale between the two. An album requires more consideration in curating and joining pieces, it’s just a matter of taking a further step back.
Did you enjoy it now you look back? Any tracks really standout as hard or easy to come together?
For me, I look back on it and think, like anything worth doing, there were times of joy and times of frustration and doubt. For me they were in equal parts, and I didn’t really know that starting out. The standouts for me were recording the live musicians – drummer, bass player, guitarist, horn players and singers. That was the most enjoyable period, trashing midi files and tracking the real thing. The hardest moments were toward the end when I began second guessing myself about mix decisions and final treatments. I found it to be a far more difficult process than previously, when I was part of duos or bands.
You are a gear junkie – tell us about some of the kit you used to write the album…
When I was in the creative phase I used the Octatrack which can control most of the other analog gear I have, such as Machinedrum, Vermona DRM1, Vermona Kick Lancet, 707, Moog Minitaur, Prophet08 and some effects. The processing gear is what I’m most nerdy about – during the mix stage I use two UA Apollo’s into a 16 channel Allen and Heath board, which sums down into a Dangerous 2-Bus and is routed through an Avalon 747-sp buss compressor and onto tape. There’s other stuff in the rack like a vintage Alesis reverb, a few DBX compressors and some old Korg synths. My favorite piece of gear is the Avalon compressor, it turns everything into a shiny diamond!
Do you plan to do a live show at any time, or are you mainly a DJ? Do you aim to create the same moods in clubs as you do on record?
I have started touring my live set, previously I only DJ’ed. I have just returned from a tour in Mexico, and am about to take off again for Brazil. My live set consists of only hardware gear, no laptop and I take most of the synths and drum machines mentioned earlier. For me I prefer the creative directions I can take in a live situation, trying new things. There’s lots of room for error but I find there’s a spark to be found between an audience and I with this process so right now it’s how i’m doing things. The mood on the record really doesn’t fit into current club environments. So I have been taking elements of songs off the album and reworking / remixing them to be more uptempo, danceable versions of themselves.
And finally, what else you got coming up/are you looking forward to?
I’m very much looking forward to more touring opportunities, and releasing more new music I’ve been working on. I have an edit coming out on Wolf+Lamb black, and more to be announced soon. I am also looking forward to the release of Slow Hands’ album, I worked closely with him at my studio Dangly Studios here in New York , co-producing and mixing his record, and I’m excited because what he’s made is brilliant.
http://soundcloud.com/cameoculture
