Moving Without Traveling
Hi RQM. Quite a life you have led. Born in an industrial city in Southern Poland, whisked off to Warsaw at the age of four before escaping the cold a few years later when the whole family moved to New York City. At what point of your life did you start getting into music and what sort of artists and sounds were the initial influences to you?
“I was always around music as far back as I can remember, but I only really started getting into it actively when I moved to New York – I was about 7 then. The very first vinyl that I bought with my own little stash was the ‘Thriller’ picture disc. About the same time I started to make my own mix tapes – just recording jams from the radio – all types of 80s trash and early Hip Hop. Whodini’s ‘5 Minutes of Funk’ was the joint that broke me in! I distinctly remember that feeling that I got when I heard it – I wore that tape out. And then Run DMC came along and opened the portal to guitar music, which eventually led me to Metal and NYC Hardcore. And then finally I discovered Jungle and through it I found the vast world of electronic music and I’ve been exploring it ever since. I believe music is holographic – if you really study any genre it will eventually lead you through the entire scope of music history.”
What were your first thoughts of New York?
I came from hardcore socialist Poland – martial law, empty shelves, queues for days, riots, the black market and suddenly I found myself in a place where there were so many things on the shelves that it was impossible to choose anything. I remember melting down at a Toys R Us store ’cause my parents gave me a little a budget for my birthday and I couldn’t decide what to get. That was the initial culture shock. But as a kid you’re really adaptable – in a matter of months you start picking up the language, you start watching the same cartoons as the other kids – you get your Transformers toys and then you sort of feel at home. Looking back I realize that I witnessed the second wave of Hip Hop first hand – the first wave being the original block parties. I remember the bombed out trains, the cardboards stretched out all over the city, the boom boxes, the Lee jeans, the wind breakers – all of that. New York was really run down back then – original Gotham.”
The Green Door parties in Lower Manhattan opened a lot of only doors to you. Whilst you were MCing alongside DJs Smith & Perry, the world of electronica suddenly was in your face…Sound Lab up on stage whilst the likes of Phase2 and DJ Spooky hanging around. From enjoying Hip Hop, then Jungle and then Eletronica – do you think you were just looking for the right music for you, or do you just enjoy ALL music?
“I love music across the board. And if I look back it was always music that guided me. Even with the Green Door parties – I met one of the cats who organized them just because I happened to be digging through all this Mo Wax shit at a record store that day and that brother was there as well, so we kicked it, we clicked and eventually he asked me to host their sets. And then suddenly I found myself in this entirely new world, but I was still living in the same city. In general I’m on a quest to find the perfect soundtrack to now – something completely new. I’m still chasing that feeling that I got when I first heard ‘5 Minutes of Funk’. And with writing it’s the same – that instrumental that I’m vibing off – it has to be new to my ears and it has to be ripe with emotion so that I can write a vivid story to it.”
What one type of music though would you turn off if it came on the radio?
“If you live outside of the UK, chances are all you have is commercial radio – and I can’t stand any of this prefabricated bullshit that gets played. Y’all lucky, you have BBC1 and a thick pirate radio culture – I only check internet radio stations and podcasts these days.”
Your first EP ‘Colors Fade is out on on your very own Baby Suno label. ‘Colors Fade’ produced by The Glue Kids, is a beautifully written, haunting song about the closing of an over indulgent lifestyle between a couple. Talk us through the track, was this about you and a girl – and also describe the thoughts behind the other tunes?
‘Colors Fade’ is definitely a little portal to some bygone episodes. The instrumental triggered this heavy feeling inside me when I first got it from DJ Tres aka The Glue Kids and then the words just started pouring out. On the surface it’s about a lady that gutted me way back when, but since I tend to collage stories together when I write – it’s not just about her, pieces of other women are embedded in the story as well. In a sense it’s a snapshot of a time in my life when I was addicted to getting high on all types of extremes, women included. ‘Atomic Fusion’, which is the opening track on the EP, runs a similar story line, but it’s written more as a holographic metaphor. The couple described in the song fuses together with an intensity so great that it creates a nuclear chain reaction. At first the flash appears to be as beautiful and luminous as the sun, but eventually it destroys everything around them – them included. I recorded the songs years apart, but it felt right to put them together on the same release.”
The artwork and graphics are pretty special and original how did you come up with that?
“I worked with 44 flavours, which is one of the dopest Berlin based design bureaus. They’re ex-graff writers – street artists and they know how to make clean corporate designs – so we brainstormed on the concept and they knocked out this artwork. For the vinyl edition I worked with REMED, who I think is one of the most soulful painters – street artists in the game right now and a brother. And he essentially converted the COLORS FADE lyrics into a painting running over 84 7″ covers. So when someone buys a 7″ they actually get a piece of the painting with it and a t-shirt. There are still a few left, check the address below.”
What made you want to start your own label in the first place?
“Over the years I learned a lot about promoting and marketing music and a lot of the labels that I worked with got stuck with the DJs-as-the-radio promo format. And truthfully I don’t want to make or release DJ tools – I want to make proper songs. But to promote songs you need a bit more creativity – that or money. You need to have proper designs, video clips, press shots, which is exactly what most labels don’t want to spend money on so I decided to do it all on my own.”
Which one artist would you really like to collaborate in the studio with?
“I would really love to have HR from the Bad Brains and the cats from TV On The Radio on the LP. When I find the right backing instrumentals I’ll be going after them for sure.”
How did you feel having to leave New York and return to Poland for a year due to VISA problems in the late 90s? Did you continue to write/make music whilst over there or did you try other entertainment areas?
“This was a hard one for me – and it was definitely one of the two most brutal years in my life. Just before I left New York I opened up for Gus-Gus and the X-Ecutioners with this project called Terceira Coalition, and then some cats I was rolling with organized a show for ESPO and GIANT. I was getting invited to everything from Hip Hop jams to Ryuchi Sakamoto performances, Rawkus was on the rise with all this future underground Hip Hop – I was living it to the fullest. But when I went back to Poland, Hip Hop was just starting to bud there – I couldn’t connect. Back then it really felt like I came from the future. It was beautiful to see the culture jump start and all, the 4 Elements being laid down for the first time, kid’s minds being blown, but I was just on a whole other trip back then so it didn’t do it for me. And then on top of it I was in debt so I had to get a job and I ended up in advertising – that was my introduction to Babylon. After about 8 months in hell I remember I was in the back of a cab listening to the Blackstar LP thinking, praying, hoping that I can somehow find a way to dig myself out of the hole and go back to New York. And then somehow shit just fell into place – I quit my job, started a web design company with my brother Fil, then a stolen phone landed in my lap – so I could call my peoples in NYC to help me sort out some paperwork, we flipped a few documents on our own and give thanks, life threw a few other bonuses our way and soon we were back in NYC. I wrote a bit when I lived in Warsaw, I can’t stop ever, and I hosted some radio shows, but I didn’t really record much.”
What one album would you never sell?
“I lost my entire collection of vinyl in the late 90s. I put all my shit in this shady storage space in downtown Brooklyn and after a few months of not paying my bills my shit vaporized. The ‘Thriller’ picture disc was in there and the first Smiff N Wessun LP with a special dedication from Steele written on it. I still hope that one day I’ll find these two joints somewhere. These are the artifacts that you pass on to your kids.”
“So back to New York where you launched an line radio station Groobo specialising in Hip Hop, Drum n’ Bass and Dancehall – did you know that the internet was the future for radio back then?”
“Hell no! My boy was a boom programmer and we conned this newspaper we were working for out of a server and all the tech shit that we needed to jump start the radio and we just did it for the love of it. It was all just starting back then and people just did it because it was possible, but nobody really knew where it was all going. I think that only now we can finally talk about the internet and the music business and how it all changed, but even after 4-5 years people were still puzzled and straight speculating. I remember all these absurd articles coming out a few years back about new physical formats being developed to replace the CD, but none of that happened – formats just got wiped out by streaming, clouding and the iPod and nobody predicted that.”
When you get home from the studio, how do you chill?
“I’m a simple dude – some mellow music, a bottle of boom wine and good soulful company will get me grounded.”
Who would play you in RQM the movie?
“After seeing that Biggie Smalls movie I realized that a bio epic only works for me if I never knew what the prototype of the protagonist was actually like – otherwise I can’t buy into it. So The Doors, Basquiatt, those flicks made sense to me ’cause I had no point of reference when I watched them – this is pre youtube. I think that Bob Dylan movie, where all these different actors play him is a healthy way of flipping the format. But anyway who would ever want to do a movie about some abstract Polak lyricist?!”
What has been the best live show you have appeared at? You’ve been on stage with the likes of Missy Elliott, M.I.A., Peter Kruder, The Rapture, The Stereo Mcs, Kool Keith, and the The Cool Kids…
“Opening up for Missy is definitely up there. Honestly I didn’t believe that we could pull it off. Al Haca had a very unique, kind of a-tonal sound design approach to beat making and people couldn’t always decipher it. And although this show popped off only a couple of years ago and by that time Dub Step had already chewed through the popular aesthetics, we were still dealing with a Pop context and we were bringing a stark underground sound to it. On top of that all the vocalists flew in from different parts of the world and we only got to rehearse with each other over some laptop speakers for about 40 minutes in a hotel room right before the show. And two days before that I flew from Brazil to Spain – that took me about 20 hours plus and then after 15 hours spent in Barcelona I flew another 20 hours plus to Malaysia with some stop overs and then had a proper drive to the venue. I slept hardly, but the rush of being in front of thousands of people and people that were really feeling our music – that and having a Godzilla sound system supporting us let a brother zone out lovely. This was the last Al Haca show ever and even though we got ripped off by an insider, and then we were thrown into a little “run from the mafia” type flick – it was still a boom experience and a banging ass show!”
2001 saw you re-locate yet again, this time to Berlin where you really got stuck in releasing tracks on the likes of Expoited, OMG! Recordings, Traktor, Big Chill Recordings and also appearing on dozens of tracks for other artists. What do you think is your best ever piece of studio work and who have you enjoyed working with the most?
“Tough one. My songs are like my little stack of polaroids – basically they’re just still shots of my life. So even if I don’t rate a tune technically or if it didn’t really dent the airwaves – it’s still up there for me ’cause it’s a part of my experience. But if we’re talking songs that mean the world to me, then there’s a bunch of them on The Tape vs RQM records – ‘Allow’ is definitely one of them. I also love ‘Miss Pacman’ – I think it captured the spirit of that time. And with ‘Atomic Fusion’ and ‘Colors Fade’ I think I’m finally at home with speaking what I feel unfiltered and in 3D. And I only work with people that I click with – so pretty much everyone I got a chance to work with is family and I learned everything that I know about recording from them.”
What do you really miss about New York?
“Chinatown was my biggest loss – I can’t explain it, I was there a few times a week. The feeling of being in a movie and watching one, while randomly walking around the city – priceless. The vibrant colors in common speech – a huge loss. Meeting strangers who’ll give you everything they got if you need it – that whole do or die mentality that New Yorkers breathe – definitely! The latent spirituality and that thick energy in the air that makes you feel like you’re a part of something bigger and that everything is possible – that as well. Plus that fat dripping pizza, the huge ass bagels obese with home made spreads – all of that! Inshallah I’ll go there this year to finish my LP and shoot some flicks – that’s the mission.”
Best and worst thing about living in Berlin?
No lie, but in my opinion Berlin is a perfect city. You can do whatever you want, whenever you want and you don’t need a dime to your name to make it happen. It’s like New York in the 80s in some ways, but minus the crime. Cops are invisible here, you can drink and smoke on the street. The gray ass winter if you’re not used to it is a tough one to stomach and the ever increasing flood of drunk tourists tearing shit up is a bit annoying – but that’s about it.”
What new artists have you been listening to recently should we look out for?
“I haven’t really made any real discoveries lately – ever since myspace went all spammatic I don’t have so much access to unsigned talent. I’ve been listening to a lot of Mount Kimbie, Electric Wire Hustle and Robot Koch recently – electronic soul music at its finest.”
What’s next from RQM?
“I just recorded a new joint for my LP with Son Of Kick – it might be the next single if we can get the right remixes for it, TRG just signed up, but I need a couple of more hard hitters. And a proper budget for a video would be boom – this one’s got to have a video. This month Colors Fade will come out in Japan and next month Colors Refaded will come out, which is a remix EP, which will only feature Japanese producers. Other than that – more studio time and a lot more paperwork.”
And finally, when was the last time you embarrassed yourself?
“The other day actually. Doing a shit at a restaurant. I cleared the space out.”
Thank you dude
Dan Prince
“My pleasure Dan – it’s refreshing to get some questions from someone that actually did the research. All the best.”
RQM COLORS FADE EP OUT NOW!
LIMITED EDITION 7″ TSHIRT COMBO AVAILABLE AT HHV.DE :
