Count Bass D is a legend. With 15 years of rapping and producing under his belt along with 23 solo releases and almost 7 full-lengths, Count Bass D (real name Dwight Farrell) has earned his place among heavyweight hip hop producers by bringing a unique and soulful sound to the likes of long-time friend MF Doom, (along with his early group KMD) and J Rawls. Farrell is not afraid of flexing his multi-instrumental ability either, especially on his early release “Pre-Life Crisis” where he strayed away from the world of beats and played every instrument on the record. While notable as a rapper, Count Bass is determined to share his love for early soul with the world

Channeling some pure gospel from his home in Nashville, Count Bass D is making a new move again by teaming up with STS9 (Sound Tribe Sector 9) to release another live album called “L7″ which is sure to be as honest and unique as his earlier joints. As Count Bass spans genres and styles, he remains passionate about his craft and especially his fans. We got a chance to talk before he packed up for Chicago for the weekend where he was embarking on a live EP to be produced in three days with Man Man’s private label Obey Your Brain. Take a look at Count Bass D’s notable passion and isolationist attitude about to materialistic music business today in this exclusive Cosign interview.

As you read, enjoy the first single of “L7″ called “Can We Hang Out Tonight?”

So first off, what are you working on right now?
Right now I’m about half way finished with an album with a MC from Boston named Insight. I’m also about a third of the way finished with a project with J Rawls out of Columbus called “True Ohio Players”. Also, my solo album will be out July 29th called “L7″. It’s my seventh record and I’m just two songs away from finishing it up, I just released the first single yesterday. I’m also going to do a live instrumentation EP in Chicago the first weekend in June for a record company called Obey Your Brain. One of the co-owner’s of that label is in the indie rock group Man Man. Outside of that, I’m doing projects here and there for some friends of mine. I’m pretty busy right now, definitely in the middle of a lot of work and working hard.

What label is “L7″ dropping on?
It’ll be on 1320 Records which is the record label of STS9. They’ve been good friends and have shown me a lot of support. I’m just going to do this project with them so I still have my freedom which they know is very important to me. A lot of these projects have been in the work for awhile but I was in different situation with a label so my hands were kind of tied. Luckily I’m free of that so I can give the people a lot of music that had been missing from me in 2007.

Ill. So with this work with STS9 and a live instrumentation EP, it seems that you’re experiencing a shift from production to live music.
Yeah, I started out doing live music for my first album “Pre-Life Crisis“, but at that point I didn’t really know how to sample myself and do the type of things that I did later on. Back then, I would just start a click track with the TR-808 in my headphones and play drums first, play bass second, and play my keyboards third. Thats pretty much how I did that whole first album. Well, I did parts of my second album the same way but when it came time to do a couple of 12″s like “Violatin” and “On The Reels“, I really started letting people know how much I grew up on hip-hop. It wasn’t until “Dwight Spitz” when people were able to see my whole range of hip-hop in it’s proper perspective. I think that has put the rest of my releases in perspective ever since.

True, you’ve done some great stuff for the genre.
I was a traditionalist when I started to sample full time because I learned from the guys who were masters of the MPC like VIC and Doom. I used only vinyl and only originals but its gotten to the point where technology has shifted the whole usage of samples and the drum machine has become somewhat a lost art. But I think I’ve made my mark on it and I’ve done some spiritual cleansing that has actually made me feel a little bit guilty about the usage of samples. At the same time, with everyone having access to everything that was on vinyl, there’s really no art form to the whole thing. Right now, I’m happy to get my chops back up. I’ve been really influenced by a lot of underground gospel cats right now. Not the mainstream gospel that’s been coming up but the cats in the churches. Now, I’m just trying to flex my skills once again and try something new.

Is there anyone you’ve been feeling lately that’s also trying to bridge the gap between production and live instrumentation?
I don’t really listen to a lot of current music right now. I think with me living in Tennessee all this time and not really being in a scene that people are coming through I’m not feeling much of an influence from other people, I’m just trying to do what I do. I’m barely in contact with a lot of people in the industry, so I don’t hear a lot of new records. I put out records sometimes and the labels don’t even send me copy of the records. I’m sure there’s a lot of wonderful things out there, but I make a conscience effort to avoid it sometimes. When I’m riding in a car or around on tour when people are playing music I really enjoy it, but I don’t seek out to add other people’s work to my collection that often. Unless it’s like, classic soul or classic jazz and stuff. There’s still so much of that stuff that I have to catch up on. I’m still studying “The Sound Stylistics” and “The Persuaders” and those types of cats. The new stuff is the new stuff and I’m leaving it to the younger generation to soak it up and take it to the next level with their art.

So “L7″ is coming out quite soon. What was the process putting that album together?
It’s a solo project and I’ve been working on it for awhile. Besides “Art For Sale“, I haven’t had to do a project in a real short amount of time. I usually just work on things as they go and when its all finished I let it be. I’ve been working on “L7″ since 2007. Its usually a process where I make a bunch of beats and that establishes what the sound of the record will be like. At that point, I try to earn an income from those beats. On “Dwight Spitz”, everyone had passed on every single one of those beats when I try tried to sell them. It’s not until I put the vocals on top and people hear it in context that they say, “ah, I could have done that”. Then my phone rings and people say, “why didn’t you call me to be on your album?” but I’m like “this is the same beat that you passed on!”. A lot of people will have some of these tracks on “L7″ already and they’ll be shocked when the hear the music on there. So far, I feel like it’s the best project I’ve worked on. When I don’t have that feeling, then I won’t put anything else out. Thats usually my test, if I don’t feel like something is the best thing that I’ve made, then I just keep working until I do.

What’s the album you’re doing in Chicago going to sound like?
Well a lot my records have some compositions on them, not just rap tunes and beats. So this will be likewise, just me playing keys and drums and playing with some of the local musicians up there and putting together a project with live music as opposed to beats. I’ll probably be using the Rhythm Ace drum machine made by Multivox that they guys out of the 70s used so it’ll probably have a throw back feel to it. That’s just the music I mainly listen to now, a lot of soul and R&B from the 70s and early 80s, thats just what I like!

Are you going to be playing any live shows to promote the two projects?
Right now I’m talking to STS9 about doing a tour with them in the fall and I think I’ll probably do few select dates in the summer. But honestly, I’m a recording musician and unless it’s a situation where I can put on a great show with a normal budget, I don’t plan on doing that much touring as guys traditionally do. If I get the calls and invitations thats cool, but I’ve never had a booking agent or a full-time publicist and I’m not actively looking for them. I just make the music for the people who seek me out and find out about me from a positive referral and not a cold 2-page add or something like that. That’s how you get a bunch of people who don’t want to be involved with what you’re doing, but have been bludgeoned to death by seeing your face everywhere and begin to talk bad about what you do. I’m not interested in that at all, I prefer to keep it simple.

Are you happy with the kind of support you get now?
I have enough now to support my family so I’m not looking for a ton new fans or anything like that, I think that the people who have supported my over the years are enough. As long as people purchase my record, I’ll be just fine with the money that I make and I don’t need to make much more. I’ve been doing this for 15 years and I’m satisfied with my popularity, I’m not looking to take it to another level.

You seem to have a really positive outlook on the industry and success. Is there anything more you’d like people to know about it.
Check out my website countbassd.com and my myspace, that’s where you can usually find my opinions. I keep kind of a journal and I actually tell people what’s happening in my life, the ups and the downs of it. People write me e-mails that you can see on there and I write them back or I call them and I’m actually involved with the people that are involved with me. Those are the only people that I’m really interested in, I’m not really interested in blind fans for money sake or popularity sake. I’m looking for a quality listener and a music lover as opposed to the people who just buy a record to quote it around their friends like they do when they buy a video game or something. I’m not looking for that kind of person to be involved with what Count Bass D is doing. I’m looking for quality and not people who are there to criticize my every move. A lot of dudes are in music for the wrong reasons nowadays though. They’re not really trying to make music, they’re just trying to make fame and money, I see them and I know them. So I had to distance myself from that and get back to the music because thats the only thing thats going to last. I was supposed to be done making records long ago, you know how many times these record labels try to kill my career? But they can’t stop the music so as a result I’m going to be here until I’m dead!

Thats for sure! Thanks so much for talking to us.
No problem man, no nonsense from me. I’m trying to be 100% real with the people because thats what people want, so thanks!

“L7″ will be in stores late July on 1320 Records. To find out more about what Count Bass D is up to check out his website and Myspace.

interview by Justin Staple

For old times sake, take a listen to one my favorite D beats called “Jussa Player” off 2004’s “Dwight Spitz”:

[audio http://cosign.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/01-jussa-playa.mp3]

#1: Maps & Atlases
After spending the better part of the last two years recording their debut LP, Dave, Erin, Shiraz, and Chris found a home at Barsuk Records, who will release it this summer.  For further studies: Barsuk // Myspace

#2: Bygones
After Zach and Nick finished up their respective albums this year, they decided to embark on their first mini-tour together to bring improvised noise to unexpecting fans. For further studies: Sargent House // Myspace

#3: Free The Robots
After releasing Ctrl Alt Delete on Alpha Pup in March, Chris is touring the nation with the Glitch Mob to bring LA’s beats to the hungry masses.  For further studies: Alpha Pup // Myspace

Okay, so this isn’t really an exclusive interview. But on May 31st when director, writer and producer Harmony Korine came to Chicago’s Music Box Theatre for a screening of his new film Mister Lonely, we were the only ones to record the intimate and exciting Q&A that followed. I think fans of the influential director will enjoy some of his new insights and stories about the production and the people involved. The Q&A was run by Steve “Capone” Prokopy (from movie blog Ain’t It Cool News) and mainly consisted of questions from the audience.  There are some spoilers discussed so take heed if you haven’t seen the flick yet.  Enjoy this glance into the hilarity and joy of the new (and quite social) Harmony Korine.

Steve Prokopy: Bobby Vinton’s “Mr. Lonely” has always been a classic. When did you first become infatuated with the song?

Harmony Korine: Well, I had quit taking narcotics and was really getting into White Castle.

Is there really a difference?

Well, then I met this girl and she was young and she was used to hard bodies. I guess, physically I repulsed her at that point in my life. So then I swore off White Castle and I started going to this barbecue place. I was sitting there and this guy was eating these fried pickles and he started to choke. Someone came out and was doing the Heimlich Maneuver on him and that song “Mr. Lonely” was playing. So I just thought it was a great song.

Thats a great story. Someone mentioned this story to me last night; right when “Kids” came out you were on David Letterman and he asked you a question about any celebrities you had met and you told the story about the guy who had his ass cheeks pierced.

Oh yeah man. That wasn’t a celebrity, that was a guy I went to high school with and he pierced his ass with a shish-kabob skewer. It was the same guy I saw drink a whole bottle of Pepto Bismol and his ass blew off.

Lets take some questions from the audience.

Audience member: First off, you are one of the greatest directors of this era and this is a wonderful film. One question I had is, why is there one fictional character amongst the impersonators? (referring to Little Red Riding Hood)

Well, thats a good question, I never thought about it until after the film was out. Actually, Little Red Riding Hood is my wife, I married her. Originally, the part was written for someone younger. It’s hard to find an icon at that age. Originally it was written for a Brittany Spears but when I put her in the costume she just looked like a normal slutty teenager. I couldn’t really get into it and I thought it wasn’t that compelling. So, I went back and I did a little research and I saw that there was an inordinate amount of Little Red Riding Hoods. There was one sect of Little Red Riding Hoods that was more for kink, like guys who are into kink but there was a whole other that was more for children. You know what I’m saying? A lot of older men like to hire Little Red Riding Hoods and then on the other side there’s parents who like to give Little Reds to their kids. So I though she was a complex character.

Audience member: Did you have just one idea that started the movie or was it a combination of many?

Well, I hadn’t made a movie in a long time so there was definitely a lot of ideas. I had specific images of things like nuns jumping out of airplanes and riding bicycles in the clouds. There were things that were in my mind for a long time and I lived with them. Also, I had always been intrigued by Michael Jackson impersonators and I spent time in a hippie commune as a kid so I just started thinking about all of it. I though, it’d be really nice to see Sammy Davis Jr. washing his socks.

Prokopy: Do you remember where you saw your first Michael Jackson impersonator?

I don’t remember where I saw the first one but when I was living in Paris I was having some difficulty in my life and I was pretty out of it. There was a period of time when I would wrap myself in tinfoil and I would put rubber bands around my joints so I could move better. I would where this kind of like a shell and put a cap on my head because I felt I was having trouble containing my thoughts. It was around this time also that I became obsessed with cap guns. I used to go to the tourist stores and just buy all the cap guns. I was in a friends house on the Rue de Lis and I would walk around like that and just shoot these cap guns. So, one day I was doing it and there was a Michael Jackson impersonator who was out there dancing. I just happened to shoot a cap right next to him and just started flipping out and jumped to the floor and covered his head. I said, “What’s going on, are you okay?” He talked to me but he was German. I sat down with the guy and he lifted up his leg and showed me that it was basically a prostheses and that he had been to Vietnam and gotten his leg blown off or something and had had some sort of flashback when I shot the cap gun. Well anyway, we became close and that kind of started my off on this whole idea.

Prokopy: Did you shower in the shell, try to keep the thoughts in?

You know, some days.

Audience member: Do you and Macaulay Culkin ever talk about his experiences with stuff like that?

Not really… didn’t really get into that whole thing.

Audience member: This has to do with the two stories of the nuns and the impersonators. Do you draw the parallel between people living a religious life with dress that set them apart for other people and impersonators who go out in public places and attract people to them with costumes that set them apart?

Well, I’d just rather not say. You know, I always wanted to write a novel with pages missing in all the writes places so its the same things with movies. Its probably best that I don’t say. If I say it, it could ruin it for you. But what I will say is that to me, they are the same story, they always were the same story. To me, they both speak to the same ideas like transcendence or wanting to be other than what people are. People who create their own universe think the real world just isn’t enough, like dreamers.

Prokopy: Do you think for them, its about being famous? I remember the line Samantha Morton says that, “you can go to a place where everyone is famous”. Do you get a sense that that’s what they’re trying to do?

I think they have the idea that what they’re doing is noble. Like that speech that the Queen gives. At the end they feel that they feel that they’ve lived through others and they can bring the spirit of wonder alive. There’s this idea that they’re doing something thats very special and bringing it to the masses.

Audience member: How did Werner Herzog get involved?

I just asked him to do it.

Prokopy: Do you have any one great story about Werner? He’s been in other films of yours and one of your earliest supporters.

I have a lot of great stories but I wont say any of those. What I’ll do is just say one that’s medium. Once I met him in New York and we were hanging out talking and I noticed that he was wearing two belts. He was wearing one belt and like, another belt over it. At first I thought that maybe it was just some sort of weird design, like a belt made to look like a double belt. But it was actually two belts. I just said, “Werner, you’ve got two belts on” and he looked down at his pants and he just said, “Oh, you noticed this”.

Did doing a Dogme film prior to “Mister Lonely” have any influence or make any part more difficult? (referring to “Julien Donkey-Boy“)

No, not at all. It made me feel more comfortable about things in life cause there were no rules.

Audience member: Do you think that pure joy exists, or that a painful thing will always follow after?

Like he said in the movie, “nothing too good or too bad lasts too long”. I do think it exists, but I’ve always felt like that. I think pure joy or pure bliss is fleeting, but it does exist in my experience. There’s definitely moments of ecstasy in life.

Audience member: I’m curious about killing everyone off in the end. Was that something you planned before or was that something you thought of as you were writing.

I thought of it while I was writing it. Not too long ago, some guy came up to me with some fucked up deformity and he said he loved the movie but really didn’t like the part when the nuns died. I just thought, “who likes when nuns die”?

Prokopy: Satan… okay…

Audience member: The part where the eggs are singing, it was emotional and I cried. I wonder, was that a problem you set up to overcome?

I guess the easiest way to put it is that when I make movies I just take what feels right to me. If there is an emotional sense to what I’m doing, not always a narrative sense or something my mind connect, but if its an emotional sense. Even though I know a scene like that is going to be off putting to a certain amount of the audience, but if in my gut it feels correct, I just won’t question it. Also, there’s always a misconception about the films from the beginning like “Gummo” or “Julien”, that in the movie there was something to be got. That it was like you either got it or you didn’t, like you needed to somehow qualify yourself to understand the films. I always found that disappointing because that was never my intent. My films were not meant to be got, they were just meant to be experiential and to be felt. I never wanted to make movies that you could just talk away in words and that made perfect sense. I wanted my movies to make a perfect nonsense, you know. What I like as a filmmaker and what I like in life is awkwardness and mistakes. I like things that just exist and don’t necessary have a beginning middle and an end to them. So, a scene like the talking eggs, for me it just made emotional sense.

Well it did, I couldn’t believe I was crying at the eggs.

Thank you. Its one of those scenes that I’ve had people tell me that they really don’t like.

Prokopy: This is a much more emotional experience than some of your other films. The fact that someone is crying during a scene, and there’s a number of scenes that could evoke that reaction. Is that a product of you maturing or did you set out to make something like that.

I tried to do the same thing with the first movies I directed, but maybe its a little different. I always felt that the best thing was to feel multiple emotions. Like to find something funny, but feel guilt. When I’m really moved by something its usually something that works on multiple levels like something I’m attracted to but repulsed by. Or something that I’m hopeful for but saddened by. Things that aren’t just one way and are easily settled. Usually when I’m putting the films together, if there’s something that I feel works like that I tend to keep it in the movie.

Audience member: How did “Gummo” end up in “Belly” exactly?

Its strange, I didn’t even hear about it until it was in theaters and this rapper called me and was like, “yo man, your movie is in that movie and DMX is watching it”. I called my agent to tell him and was like, “how did my film end up in that other guys movie?” He said that I didn’t own it and they could basically sell it to beer commercials or whatever they wanted. But I was actually flattered because I like Hype Williams.

Prokopy: We talked about this before how you had read that among the fans of “Julien Donkey-Boy” was Sylvester Stallone. He was doing an interview and he was asked what some of his favorite films were and he said, “I like everything from ‘The Godfather’ to ‘Julien Donkey-Boy’ “.

Yeah, it was also funny because I just heard that right before someone told me the story about how he got his nuts rubbed with the microphone on. Its a famous story, he was on set somewhere and he left his mic on and some woman was licking his balls and he’s like “Lick my shaft! Suck da balls”, and everyone heard him!

Audience member: Do you think that you’ll ever revisit “Fight, Harm“?

Hopefully I won’t die for a couple years so I’ll have kind of a semi-long life. I’m hoping its one of those things I do later on in life. There’s nine fights that exist and are unedited so I probably will put them together. My wife hates the idea of me going back and looking at that stuff.

Will you ever bring David Blaine back in when you revisit it?

I don’t know, he was a shitty camera man.

Audience member: Is there some reaction to the movie that you’re most afraid people will have?

No, I don’t care. I just don’t care, I never had. I want people to like the movie and want people to respond to it. When I was young and first started making movies I cared a lot more and thought about it a lot more about it than I do now. I thought about where the films fit in and how they are perceived by this type of person and that type of person and I was always wrong. Really, all I care about is making things. I really just like to make stuff so I’ll keep making things and put them out and keep going. Fassbender (maybe someone else) used to say that making movies was like building a house and that some of his movies here like the floorboards, some were like the walls, some where like the chimney, some were like the kitchen and bedroom. The idea was that at the end of his life, he created some this house that he could live in and that all the films were made for difference reasons and at different points in his life. Thats something that I always understood and felt would be a good thing.

Audience member: How closely did you work with Sun City Girls and J. Spaceman for the music they did for the film?

I worked pretty closely. I was friends with Sun City Girls and Jason before and they had read the script but I didn’t want them to write for the picture for the most part. There’s one or two scenes that there were certain cues that Jason had to write for directly. For the most part, we just talked about things. I wanted them to just go back and just vibe off of it and send me things. It was through mail mostly because I was editing in London and they were in Washington.

Audience member: It seems like a lot of your movies are lead on by imagery. I read about one of your characters killing his parents naked because he didn’t want to get blood on his clothes (referring to “Ken Park“) was driven by an image you had in your head and wanted to see come alive. How much of your movies are made up of things you want to see?

I never actually saw “Ken Park”. I wrote it but I never actually saw it. Everything is something that I want to see. For the most part, everything starts from an image or pictures. Like, I’ll see some lady walking down the street with curlers in here hair and wearing boxing gloves smashing herself in the face and I’ll just start to say, “wow, that’s a great movie”. That’s kind of how a make movies.

Prokopy: Image before plot?

Yes.

Audience member: At any point in your early career did you try to adhere to a more conventional structure? If so, what was your experience with that process?

Well, “Kids” is conventional. I just never felt like writing movies like that. I felt that so many other people were making those movies and I never felt that life was plotted out. I always hated people that plotted. Like, I’m going to plot to win the presidency or I’m going to plot to fuck this girl… Like, I hate you. I just think it’s best to have my movies have images that come from all directions and make sense of sight and sound in a different type of way. In most movies, all I ever remembered were specific characters and specific scenes. So, early on I just thought, why not make movies that consisted entirely of just great scenes. In most films, you just waste like 45 minutes to get to that really good point and then you waste another 30 minutes to leave that point. You’re always working to get there, why not just make a movie of just there.

Audience member: Part of that emotional core that you talk about comes through amazingly with the music selection. Do you have them in mind as you’re going through or do you think of the selection later when you’re done?

Music is strange, its always one of those things that is a mystery to me still. I love music, but its always one of those things where its impossible to predict how something is going to work with it. For the most part, when I write with a song in mind, it doesn’t work. Like, “Mister Lonely” the song worked, but a lot of times music that sounds cinematic destroys the image because its too heavy and in and of itself is a movie. Just like a normal person who likes music, I just listen to music and if there’s a song thats kind of strange or has a certain feeling I just take a mental note of it. Editing is a major piece of the process and takes lots and lots of time and trying lots and lots of different types of music and experimenting with things. But there’s no science to music.

Audience member: I thought it was interesting how this film featuring a Michael Jackson impersonator used no music of Michael Jackson obviously for licensing costs. If you lived in an alternate universe where you could use a Jackson song in the picture, would you have?

No, because this German guy used to only grunt into the microphone and only does the same two moves over and over again. It’s like a human loop and I found it so great that I wouldn’t want real Michael Jackson music to kill it.

Prokopy: Harmony, thank you very much.

Thanks everybody for coming and seeing the movie.

“Mister Lonely” is out in theaters across the nation and is coming out on DVD in the UK and Australia very soon. Definitely check it out because its amazing.

For more information on Harmony Korine check out his extremely complete fan site where most of the images in this post came from.

Recorded by Bruno Cabral in May 2008. Text by Justin Staple.

Last October, I had a little chat with rising director Matt Lessner about the origins and prospects of his first feature film The Woods.  At that time, Matt was raising about $8,000 using the grass roots financing network Kickstarter in order to fund post production for the film.  In the few days following our talk, the people’s voice was heard, and the feature was saved by multiple backers who bumped the donations past the project’s goal and all the way up to over $11,000.

Now, Matt has emerged from editing in Mt. Hood with a first cut of the film and is biding his time until completion.  Read below as he explains his resolve in keeping this film truly independent, and why it could very well be one of the most important pieces of art for our materialized generation.

How did you get into film originally?
I used to skateboard with my dad, growing up in California, and we used to skateboard in different empty spaces like pools and parking structures.  We had a little camera and we would set it up and film each other skating and stuff.  I took that same camera later on and filmed a few little stop motion things with action figures and then, in junior high, my school had a closed circuit television program like a news program, and I took a class and started getting more into doing little videos.

A lot of the visual style you’re known for deals with unique imagery.  You’ve used exotic animals and bright pastels in your music videos, and your shorts certainly have a retro aesthetic about them. Did you get into these ideas at a younger age, or did they evolve the more you learned?
I think there’s always been a bit of absurdity to what I’m doing.  I can remember for the basketball team in junior high, one guy dunked for the only time in the whole season.  It was such a big deal that in the highlights video I played that short clip over and over again for 2.5 or 3 minutes.  Things that should be straightforward or dull like that, I always made them turn out a little bizarre instead I guess.

Was it in college that you became more attracted to socially conscious films?
I would say I don’t know. I guess being socially conscious was a process that started in college when I became more aware of the world around me and started to follow news and politics.  September 11th happened my first week of school and I think it definitely made me start paying attention to what was going on in a bigger way.  With earlier projects, I had always wanted to have a sort of political or social consciousness about them, but it took me a while to figure out how to incorporate that into what I was doing and what I liked about film.  I was talking about Darling Darling, and at that time in my mind I thought there was a lot of social commentary going on.  I don’t know that it actually succeeded in what I was trying to do, haha.  I don’t think that most people picked up on the subtle bits going on in there.

What has the larger theme in it?
The thing is, I’ve been trying to figure out this way to address the issues, but not make films that deal with them in a typical way.  It seems that when you try to make a independent film that can exist on multiple levels, some people will like it because it will make them laugh and entertain them, but at the same time miss that its got something to say.  I’m definitely not trying to educate an audience, but at least engage them in certain issues that I think are important.

In your second short, Modern Measure, the visual style seems like a homage to earlier film, but its narrative and societal themes definitely shine through on a relevant and more engaging level.
I had this idea for a while… A film which was to have this couple do a lot of banal nonsense while thematically addressing all the other stuff that’s going on in the world.  I guess its a pretty base idea, but its something I deal with everyday.  You know, as soon as you start paying attention to what’s happening around you it’s sort of weird to think about the banal stuff like going to the grocery shopping or mopping the floor.  You have to figure out what your connection is to all that stuff, if there’s something I should be doing about it.  Modern Measure was basically the genesis of that idea, which was just something I was feeling all the time.

So how did you start conceiving of The Woods?  Did you sit down and start writing a screenplay for it, or was it conceived through brainstorming and scattered ideas?
Maybe I should have, but I never really sat down and tried to start writing. Usually it was just having an idea in a random place, seeing a show or walking around in some place I’ve never been before. I first started thinking about the idea at SXSW the year before I met Wyatt, in 2007 or something.  I basically wanted to see people plugging electronics into power sockets that were coming out of trees.  For a while, I was thinking it was going to be a short or something. Over the course of 2007, I moved out to New York and started meeting people who gave me a general feeling that it could be a cool concept and maybe I should make it.

I grew up really enjoying books like Hatchet and My Side of the Mountain and was really attracted to this idea of living in the woods and dropping out of society to start over from scratch in the forest.  It seems like a lot of people fantasize about this idea of reconnecting with nature or exiting society.  In reality, most of these people, myself included, don’t really know what it would take to survive in the woods and try to start a society from new.  So the original story line came from the idea of what it would be like if people like myself just decided to leave society on a whim, and went into the woods to start over again.  The characters say, “I see everything that’s wrong around me”.  But instead of trying to do something about it they decide to leave and start over, haha.

Portions like that definitely have this comical and satirical tone to it.  I’ve seen images of the film with these wires and microchips cutting into a character and there’s blood dripping from the wound.  It seems funny that the characters bring along the “tools” that they’re most familiar with, but its also kind of concerning that they’re this far removed from what it would actually take to survive without the comforts they get from society. Do some of these darker elements come out as well?
When they get out to the woods, most of what they’re doing is just hanging out.  They talk about what they’re doing but they’re not actually doing anything useful, their effort doesn’t really change or move ahead in any direction.  After they’re out there for a while there’s basically a collapse back in the real world.  You don’t specifically know what has happened back there, but there was a collapse of the normal social structure.  The characters become stranded in the woods and what has sort of been a game up to this point turns pretty serious.  They’re forced to make good on the reason that they were out there in the first place but because they’ve surrounded themselves with all this technology and gadgets, they don’t really have the means to survive.  So, in trying to find ways to forge ahead, they look largely to all their consumer goods and try to re-appropriate them as tools to survive.  The Swiffer mops become spears to fish, the computer hard drives are bashed and made into hatchets, everything is broken up and dismantled to be reused, like Native Americans who tried to use every part of the animals they hunted.

Were there any films about communal living or survivalists that inspired you?

Not really directly but I’m sure some things have influenced the idea of The Woods subconsciously.  Films like Even Dwarfs Started Small, or the old Lord of The Flies follow similar themes and commentary, but even films like Camp Nowhere which is ‘94 Disney comedy played a role, haha.

So the film is done with principal photography and now you’re raising money for post-production and expenses.  Instead of going about the traditional independent financing route, you seem to be trying a more grassroots approach by asking for incentive based donations on the creative funding platform Kickstarter.com.  What would you say to all those who want to be potential mini-financiers?
First, I would tell them about the film directly and show them segments.  I think Kickstarter is interesting because people can throw in as little as $1 or $5 but if a bunch of people are doing it, it can make a big difference.  I know economic times are tight, and people don’t have a lot of money to spend, but I really think that there’s something unique about this film beyond its narrative or what it’s about.  It’s in the way the film is being made.  The term “independent film” is thrown around a lot and has definitely gotten bigger in the last 20 years, but so much of the better independent films are actually financed by either smaller studios, bigger studios or distinguished financiers.  So there’s still a level of control going on.

This film truly is an independent film.  Up until this point, everything I’ve done financially I’ve done myself and everything that’s happened has happened through the dedication of friends, family, or people who have wanted to be a part of this thing.  So now, I have an even bigger desire to finish this thing and take it as far as it can go.  Its very much a film about what it means to be a young American or a young human being today and what our responsibility is for being alive right now.  So I don’t think it gets any more independent than having these young people from around the world pitching in a being a part of the process.

“Surprise Hotel” is such a celebratory party song and I wanted to make a video that would be this big celebratory party.  I’m not so interested in the indie music video style party, but I thought it’d be fun to stage a party where the only people invited were elderly men, weird animals and ladies wearing early 90s high cut bikinis, an unusual grouping of people.  I also tried to deal with what we had around us.  We don’t get a whole lot of money to make these videos so we kind of brainstorm with the people that are going to be involved and figure out what we have access to.

How about The Raveonettes video, how did that come to be?

It was little bit different than any other video because they’ve obviously been around a long time, they have a very specific aesthetic that they’re going for. You need to be respectful of their general vibe.  At the same time it had to be something that I wanted to make, something bizarre, a little bit different. Usually doing a video, I try not to think about what the lyrics are, but in this case you just can’t avoid them, he’s singing about overdosing, and going to intensive care. I was trying to go in the completely opposite direction, to paint this super-saccharine sweet picture over these darker lyrics, hopefully to the degree that it gets creepy and uncomfortable. By the end it’s completely different. I’m kind of excited that the ending made it into a Raveonettes video because they do have this specific aesthetic that they’re going for, I think by the end it goes to new territory that people have never seen the Raveonettes in before.

Besides The Woods, do you have any other projects coming up?
I shot a video for the band Foreign Born.  For now, I’m really trying to focus on the feature. When the feature’s finished I might try to do some adventuring… help someone somewhere weave baskets, haha.  I don’t always want to be making movies about what it means to be a young American in the world today. The filmmakers that I really admire and respect have definitely gotten out into the world and lived crazy lives.  So I think I’ll go sail around the world, or climb a tree in New Guinea or something, I don’t know exactly. For now I’m trying to keep my eyes on the prize and finish this feature!

Good luck, we’re excited to see it!

// for further research check out:

Montelomax

Green Card Pictures

The Woods on Kickstater.com

Justin

Today’s guest is San Antonio’s very own jazz/hip hop fusion beat maestro Rae Davis. With an album that proves excellent in the genre of his inspirations, Davis is quite busy bringing his educated and nuanced sound to the stage with the likes of Kid Koala and Busdriver. Learn more about the young and passionate producer below as we chat about his transition into production and cop a lesson in jazz history. Below this post, be sure to catch a review of his brand new album “Positive Thinking!” out now on Exponential Records.

As a special treat to bump while reading, here is a Rae Davis remix of Flying Lotus’ “Tea Leaf Dancers”:
[audio http://cosign.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/tea.mp3]

How did you originally get into the production side of music?
That was actually right out of high school. I was playing piano and guitar by then and listening to a lot of jazz and doing some classical guitar studies. Then out of high school my home boy gave me a copy of Fruity Loops and I was just playing with that. But then I needed more so I just bought the Pro Tools Rig, the LE version, and then basically when off from there. I’m using Reactor and Reason now and I’ve been learning from friends teaching me here and there. You know, little recording techniques and tricks.

What were you influenced by around the time that you started getting into production? I read you were playing in a few bands early on and then drifted more over to hip hop. Was there anything you were listening to that just made you say, “Damn, I want to sound like these guys”?
Yeah, I was in like an indie rock band for awhile. Every time we played I just wasn’t feeling it. I didn’t want to be the guy in the band that said, “maybe we should do this”. I was always the one who wanted to take the songs in a different direction. So I just decided to do my own thing. At the time I was listening to tons of hip hop and jazz shit. Especially jazz, that was main thing in high school, ever since I picked up jazz piano I was all about that. I got real into Telefon Tel Aviv around that time and some electronic shit. Then I started to listen to Boards of Canada and that influenced the more experimental side in me.

Yeah, I notice on the “Positive Thinking!” album there’s a lot of Rhodes sounds. Are those samples or are you playing that live?
Its all pretty much live. I run it through a lot of delay pedals and there’s a lot of EQing and little tricks to make the Rhodes sound a lot nicer quality. I definitely improved the sound from the Rhodes using plug-ins and all that, then make loops out of the best takes. But it’s written out first and then played live.

Thats cool. So you mentioned Pro Tools and I was wondering if there was any other production gear that you favor or what you’re working with right now?
I’ve been using the LE Pro Tools version a lot. That’s like my main thing and I love it, I’m always working in “grid mode“. That’s why I’m so into Pro Tools. I like to work in grid mode because I’m always adding like stutters but my friends mainly use shuffle and spot mode, and i find it very difficult to to work in. So I definitely favor Pro Tools, and I use Reason a lot to make beats and I use Reaktor for sound design. I have synthesizers I use for loops and things like that. I recently started using my SP-303 again and the stuff I’m doing right now is more sample based. I’m doing a lot with drum samples and making them kind of lost and broken. Like that SAMIYAM shit is fresh, I’m really into that sound right now. No particular time, you know, like broken beat so now I’ve been focusing on my SP-303.

Yeah, we’ve been focusing on that stuff a lot.
Yeah, I’ve always been a big believer on, you know, its not what you’ve got its how you use it. I mean, I know cats using big HD systems and I hear the stuff and it just sounds corny. But then I go to some dude’s house down the street who doesn’t have a studio but has a beat machine and sampler and is making really dope shit. Its definitely the mind behind the process thats for sure.

Definitely. As far as “Positive Thinking!”, it seems like there is one constant theme throughout the record. Are those songs you’ve pieced together recently or have you been working on it over a long period of time?
Yeah, I’ve been working on it over the course of like a year and a half just off and on. I’ll be writing and going back to the songs because I always felt like i was learning new shit. Especially when it comes to recording things like trumpets or percussion its pretty much just some mics in a room with some friends messing around for just like twenty minutes and then another session for twenty minutes. And then I took that home with me and arranged it to my satisfaction and I pretty much work from there. So I did this over the course of a year.

Thats a great process.
Yeah, “Old Pianos” is the only song on the record that’s made entirely out of samples. That’s me and my home boy Diego. I messed with samples off the SP-303 and then sent him the track and he did a lot of post-production work and sent it back to see if i dug what he had done. That was probably the track that was a bit out of the ordinary from my typical production style. It was the last song we did for the record. Everything was done and then I talked to Diego like, “Hey we should just do a track together to put on the record”.

And the label the record is on is Exponential?
Yeah, Ernest Gonzales label, a good friend of mine from San Antonio. I’m originally from San Antonio but I moved up to Austin to do the whole music thing like ninety percent of the people in that town. But yeah, he runs that label and we had been talking a lot about putting out my CD. So I sent it to him and he thought it was something that belonged on the label. He’s all about getting your name and music out and not trying to make money for himself. He’s definitely a real solid dude.

Are you playing any live sets to promote the album? What do those look like for you?
Thats what’s tricky, I kind of hate playing live. I wish I had a full band to play with me, but basically when I play live I have 2 laptops set up, a midi controller, a sampler and of course my Rhodes. I basically play live over the tracks. Its kind of boring, like I said I wish I had a live band so we could improvise and vibe off each other. Lately I’ve been playing live though because it’s part of the game. You know, getting people to hear to the record and get my name out. I played last night here in San Antonio and it was a good crowd and people responded really nice to it. But in the end I feel like it could be ten times better then it is.

Nice. What’s next recording wise?
My boy Diego is moving up to Canada but I’ll be keeping it going with him, trading tracks and doing a lot of stuff like “Old Pianos” but more of the jazz influence stuff. What I really want to do is produce for people. I really want to be behind the artist and produce for some female vocalists. Or maybe some marching bands, that’d be dope. There’s a bunch down in Houston and shit, those guys have so much flavor.

Are there any colabs that’d you love to make happen?
No one real famous, really. I’d love to work with like Ahu Dolly or this girl whose local, some girl named Kat Edmonsen. But I haven’t approached her yet. She’s a jazz vocalist who has worked with Ephraim Owens whose Erykah Badu’s trumpet player and her voice is just perfect for what I’m trying to do next.

What have you been listening to recently? Is there anything that you’d recommend?
A friend of mine hooked me up with some new D’Angelo shit and thats all I’ve been listening to lately. Apparently he’s been recording on and off for the past couple years. I love “Voodoo”, it’s a big inspiration for the sound I like to go for. His new shit is amazing. The new Clipse shit too, “Re-Up Gang Vol. 3″, that shit’s hot.

What about producers that are around now. Anyone you especially like?
Definitely Madlib, a big inspiration to me. As far as my favorite producer, I’d say definitely J Dilla. I remember hearing Pharcyde’s “Runnin’” and lovin’ it. All the shit he did for Tribe Called Quest, D’Angelo and Erykah Badu. I love all that stuff and it all comes from Dilla. But on the other side, I also love all the ambient stuff. Like Brian Eno is amazing and Jeff Buckley for some rock influences. Just so many people.

What were you listening to during the process of the album? You mentioned some jazz cats.
Definitely a lot of Coltrane. “A Love Supreme” just blew me away when I first heard it, especially the opening track, “Acknowledgment.” Oliver Nelson’s record, “Blues and the Abstract Truth”. That is an amazing record especially the track, “Stolen Moments” it’s basically the ultimate jazz standard for me. I was listening to a lot of Ornette Coleman and Hank Mobley as well, those two guys are amazing. Actually, “This I Dig of You” is a Hank Mobley tune that I basically stole the name for a track on “Positive Thinking!”. Definitely pick up Hank Mobley’s “The Soul Station”.

Thank you very much Rae, good to talk to you.
Thanks man, take it easy.

interview by Justin Staple

SAMIYAM is the Ann Arbor native turned LA beatsmith whose choppy yet fluid beats bang like a cloudy ride through a level of Earthbound. Partly due to a choice ear for equipment and compression, and partly due to the influence and colab of electic/brokenbeat/trip hop pioneer Flying Lotus, SAMIYAM has captured the SoCal scene of progressive producers and in turn gained devoted fans worldwide without so much as a label release. Regardless, SAMIYAM is focused on getting the beats out there–after gathering enough donut-esque bangers, he started slinging his first disc on CD-R appropriately titled, “Rap Beats Vol. 1″. The disc, packaged with his own unique sketches on top of magazine cut outs, holds a lot of heat and is sure to make fans of all genres nod till the neck is sore. With the help of FlyLo’s new label/dream team Brainfeeder, the 23 beats are on iTunes. Cop it by clicking the picture to the right or head over to his myspace.

Cosign got a chance to catch up with Sam on the tele, and chatted about what he’s been up to and whats new in the genre. Check for an exclusive MP3 off “Rap Beats Vol. 1″ afterwards.

So first, an equipment question for the producer heads. I’ve heard that the SP 303 is your sampler of choice. I was wondering if you prefer it over the MPC and how you got started with it?

Its funny why you say that I’m into it “over the MPC” because I actually did have a MPC before. I guess I had it for the same reason you would ask about it, because its so talked about. You know, “this guy used it, that guy used it”. It was the first machine I used and it was just too much, you know too many functions on there. Its great because I could always learn new shit you could do on it but also I was only using like half of the functions on that thing. So I picked up the 303 for its effects and found it had a sequencer on it and just started making shit on it and I liked the way it worked. Its pretty simple and its got great effects.

Yeah. Do you have any favorite albums that you know were solely produced on the 303?

I heard Madlib made all the beats on Madvillian on the 303 but besides that I haven’t heard many albums that were just on the 303… have you?

Just that and the Quasimoto albums pretty much. Any other equipment that you favor? Any analog shit?

Hmm… I don’t think anything I use is really analog, its pretty much all digital and supposed to sound like analog shit. I make a lot of sound on the Novation Bass Station but I don’t know if I’d recommend anyone to buy it. Haha, but its definitely a cool sounding synth

I was reading online that you attended the Red Bull Conference in Toronto. Whats the Red Bull conference about and what’d you guys do up there?

Theres really everything. When you go to the Red Bull Music Academy the main point of it is just two weeks where you’re surrounded by a bunch of young people from all over the world that are there for one common interest. Some kids were there to learn how to make beats and some DJs who wanted to learn more of the production side. The main thing I liked about it was just meeting a few people and just being around all that creativity and all these people who love music.

Sounds great. Is it invitational or open?

They take applications every year and I think they accept like 60 people. Yeah, theres two terms with 30 people each. I think the applications for next time are supposed to be going in pretty soon.

I heard the new FlyAmSam beat on the Ghostly/Adult Swim compilation and know they play some Flying Lotus on Adult Swim. I was wondering if you’ve gotten any play time over there?

Nope, I haven’t had anything on there. Thats the first beat of mine that had to do with Adult Swim. It was definitely dope for it to be on there because thats like the only shit I watch on TV. Its awesome, that Tim and Eric show is like the best shit on TV.

So you moved out to LA recently?

Yeah, like 7 or 8 months ago. Its been really hot.

So, when Lotus was first out in LA he was interning at Stones Throw, have they been listening to any of your beats?

Nah, I’ve met some people over at Stones Throw but I haven’t talked with them about doing anything.

Is there anything you’re listening to right now that you’d recommend?

Have you heard the new Portishead? I would recommend people listen to that and then buy it when it comes out. Its kind of scary that everybody I know has a copy of it already, but thats a fucking amazing album. I don’t keep up that much on new stuff though. For the most part I’m just listening to records if I want to hear some music, but that Portishead shit is amazing.

What about movies?

Wow, haha I dont really watch that many movies. I just bought Home Alone yesterday, I’m excited about that.

So what are you working on right now? Any upcoming projects or shows?

Well right now I’m going to be doing a few shows but I need to figure out everything I have booked so I can put it up on Myspace. I’m still selling this CD, Rap Beats Vol. 1 which is 23 unreleased beats and I’m making the cover art for every single CD thats sold. I’m cutting shit out of magazines and adding drawings to peoples faces. Thats going to be out on iTunes May 6, so definitely hit that up. Then, I’ve got a 10″ coming out with Poo-Bah Records and another project coming out with Hyperdub. Are you familiar with them?

Nah, I’ll check it out– Hyperdub.

Also I did a Daedelus remix coming out on Ninja Tune, I’m not sure when thats out though. I’ve been working on a few things trying to stay busy out here. We’re going to London this summer too, actually, fuck, like next month. Thats going to be with Lotus, Ras G, Kode 9 and some other cats. I think Rustie on it too. Its called the Brainfeeder Festival.

Wow, thats ill. I’ve been hearing about Brainfeeder– whats that all about?

Brainfeeder is basically a label that Lotus is just now starting. Rap Beats Vol. 1 digital came out on iTunes through like Brainfeeder and Alpha Pup, Daddy Kev’s label.

Nice, everyone in London should check that out. Do you feel that your kind of sound is blowing up more in Europe than it is in the states? Its got a culture in Cali, but I feel like in Europe people are paying a lot more attention.

Yeah definitely. It doesn’t really hurt my feelings too much that people down the street from me don’t know or care who I am. I kind of like it like that. Its cool though, kids in Europe definitely have an open ear for stuff like this. Like with this CD I’ve been selling, its just amazing to see how many of the orders are coming in from the UK. There might even be more UK orders than American orders. The kids are into it, I get way more e-mails asking “when is there gunna be an album out?” from European cats.

I heard Lotus is out in Europe right now touring with RZA. Have you heard how that’s going?

Nah, I haven’t talked to him about that. I would imagine its going pretty well though… thats going to be fucking crazy. Isn’t Rustie on some of those shows?

Yeah, that should be great. Would you say those kind of prolific producers are picking up on that sound more and more?

I mean, people are kind of interested in hearing, I don’t want to say something new, because none of us are doing something that groundbreaking, but just some different shit, you know? I guess a lot of the stuff we do is pretty much hip hop, but I’m not like reading a rule book or anything. I think kids are getting something a little bit different. Theres definitely more and more interest though.

I know you look up to Dilla as an influence. Are there any other producers right now or in the past who you look up to musically?

I mean, Qunicy Jones is probably one of the dudes who influenced me way back in the day before I thought about trying to make beats. I was really into the Michael Jackson shit. But I dunno, I don’t really keep up on that much new shit but I know a lot people are doing some really dope stuff now. You know, you got Lotus and them. You know Ras G, right?

Yeah, he’s ill. Well one more question. I hit up the Lotus game and was wondering how far you’ve gotten on it and/or how faded you have to be to beat it?

Haha, I dunno. We spend way much more time playing like Call of Duty 4 at his house than playing the fuckin “Flying Lotus game”.

Haha, thank you very much good to talk to you.

You too man, peace.

“Carnival Food” off “Rap Beats Vol. 1″, available now on iTunes or Myspace:

[audio http://cosign.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/18-carnival-food1.m4a]

Carnival Food

|| words by Justin Staple ||

Everyone knows the music industry today is disillusioned. Major labels, who were at one point home to some of the most talented artists in the industry, have begun to flood their rosters with rappers banking on three note hooks and faux social commentary. Hip hop, it seems, is stuck in a paradigm of simplicity, where the most unoriginal wins. This is why exciting and progressive music has found nested with independent labels, those whose models push far past a profit.  In the past years of independent hip hop, its almost common knowledge that Stones Throw Record has paved the way.

To put things in epic perspective, this weeks designer has single-handedly changed the face of underground hip hop by creating a distinct and recognizable image for one the most important labels in the genre.

His name is Jeff Jank and he is the art director for Stones Throw records. To date, Jank (an alias of obscurity) has designed influential album art for almost every artist on the roster, from Madlib to Dilla, and Dudley to Quas. Jank has been with Stones Throw from the beginning and took special care to distance from the b-boy/graf vibe of early 90s hip hop, and back into the classic tones of early jazz LP covers.

One thing is for sure, Jank pays attention. He realizes that album art is a tool for publicity, whose only function for many is to put a marketable face to the music. However, Jank has admired influential record covers from the past, and studied how the design can be part of the music inside. Through his experience, Jank creates covers that are both artfully filled throwback references while still relevant to the current tone and image of the artist.

For years, Jank has kept Stones Throw on the cutting edge of the art and music scene by adapting to times of changing technology, where the art associated with an album is often lost through the popularity of digital music formats. For the new era, Jank will be creating a new norm for music art where design and visual style can be associated with everything from websites to ringtones.

Cosign took advantage of his technological cunning for a quick ol’ fashion “Facebook interview” with one of the nicest guys in the biz.

Besides Stones Throw, what are you working on right now and have you formed any new collaborations?

I’m working over full time with Stones Throw right now, so there’s not much time for anything else. Here are some upcoming projects. I’ll let you decide which are real and which are merely ideal: Quasimoto toy for Kid Robot; designing my own line of top hats; coining advertising jingles for Koushik’s Ringtone Box Set; producing Funkaho’s AC/DC tribute album; writing, directing, and filming an all-black cast revisionist biopic of Charlie Manson with Dudley Perkins cast in the starring role. I mean, why not?

Are you starting to explore new mediums (ie. photography, film, maybe more music?) and how do you bring your distinct style to them?

I’m just trying to force myself to keep doing the old ones!

I read about your work on the Charizma and Wolf demos from the birth of Stones Throw. How did that come about– and will the designs ever see the light of day?

I did the Charizma & PBW logo, and some demo tape covers for them back in the day. We’d print them at Kinko’s and assemble the tapes at Taco Bell. Most of this stuff has been released, but not the tape covers of course. My work on the demos really just consisted of me saying, “Sure, come over and use the 4-track.” We went through a lot of cassette back then.

I feel you’re somewhat credited for the growth of Stones Throw as a marketable and influential label. What do you envision being the next big step both as a label and a “scene”, especially in the face of dissolving physical media?

Thanks. It is just as much a learning process now as when I first started. Stones Throw’s already been evolving to the changes for quite some time, so I suspect we’ll keep adapting. In simplest terms, we like music and we like to make stuff out of nothing, and there’s always new ways to do both of those.

Does it frustrate you how the face of popular music and its accompanied art has evolved and lost most artistic credibility? Is it a product of disinterest by the fans or just the commercialization of the whole industry?

Not really. The classic days of the album cover ended with CDs and videos, and I started long after that. Records and covers have always been products and marketing, if you ignore all the culture involved. I’m in it for the culture though.

Your covers have been compared to a producer “sampling” old work. How is the process of taking something older and making it unique and exciting effect your design?

Whether I’m doing something that I’ve never seen before, or taking something that’s been done and doing again in my own way, it’s all the same thing, really. Everyone who has created anything likes to finish, sit back and go, “Yeeeeaaah. That’s Mine!” Last year I did a cover based on ornette coleman’s “Ornette!” which I guess is the type of thing you’re referring to. I did that partly because I’d met the designer, John Jagel, a few months before he died, partly because I’d also worked with his son Jason, and partly because I love old record covers like this one.

What are you listening to right now that has inspired your work?

In the past day I’ve listened to the new Breeders album and Madvillain “2″ (note the quotes around 2). They’re both inspiring me to quit work early and go to the park with a 40 of Mickey’s & orange juice and get in a fight with some 10-year-old’s

Thanks Jank!

Here’s the advice:

Go to the illest record store in your spot, walk to the jazz LP crates and peep all the classic covers, go home and listen to any record out on Stones Throw and marvel at how Jank is one of the best artists for today’s music.

For further studies:

http://www.stonesthrow.com/jank/index.html

http://www.feedmecoolshit.com/interviews-archive/jeff-jank/

http://www.flowmagazine.net/more.php?id=2

|| words by Justin Staple ||

Imagine Bruce Springsteen’s “Youngstown” expanded into a career. Now imagine that, instead of the Boss and his New Jersey origins, the auteur in question comes from a blue-collar background in Kent County, Michigan – a good long-term vantage point for the deterioration of American industry. With those images in mind, you probably have an approximate vision of Drew Nelson and his third and most recent album Dusty Road to Beulah Land. Though the album is steeped in personal reactions to the recession, what may seem especially germane for the rest of the country right now has been relevant in Michigan for far longer. Drew Nelson, for all his roots credentials and influences, is an ambient artist; he tries to sound out the tone of dilapidation. And, for the most part, he succeeds.

Nelson’s instrumentals ranges from the finger picked bounciness of “Grandmother Moon” to the more driving and purposeful lament of “Stranger”. In either case, what may surprise you most may not be just his compelling guitar play, but the gorgeous brush work on the drums. To the album’s great credit, Terra Nova studios in Austin, TX, gently but assertively mixed all the instruments.

According to Nelson’s website, producer and mixer Jerry Tubb related the following regarding his work on the album: “I’ve worked on a lot of music. Sometimes I get a salvage project; this is a record.” Regardless of how consistent Nelson’s narrative-styled songs were to begin with, Tubb clearly had a great deal of influence on the tenor of the guitars and low attack on the drums. These two characteristics go a long way toward cultivating the ambiance with which Nelson works.

Despite the moonshine warmth of the vocals, it bears mentioning that Nelson’s lyric stories leave something to be desired occasionally. At times I get the sense that he’s trying to imitate Mark Knopfler’s unbelievable track record in writing tunes from a specific person’s point of view. The problem might simply be that Knopfler picks more interesting narratives and narrators. Recall the Dire Straits’ song “Iron Hand” which cynically covers the Battle of Orgreave during the UK miner’s strike in 1984, or even “Money for Nothing”, sung as a snide commentary on MTV by an appliance store employee with whom Knoplfer once had a conversation. Nelson, on the other hand, gives a quiet dignity to all of his subjects – for instance, an old Native American woman in “Grandmother Moon” and a farmer watching the erosion of his land in “Farmer’s Lament” – but stumbles in reaching for the same momentum that define Knopfler and Springsteen’s stories.

The stranger’s claim that he feels “like a stranger in [his] own life” can be taken as an operating thesis of this album. Even so, the album never comes across as unfamiliar or unwelcome, and Nelson has generously prevented us from feeling like strangers to his songs. In that spirit, the incidental hiccups throughout the record never derail the project and in some ways largely contributes to the affects of the album. This is a record, indeed.

words by Miles King

Cosign Presents is back with Chicago’s most lovable DJ, Kid Color.  Kyle Woods came out to Chicago from Cali with nothing but a keen taste for 70s disco and a dream of making the kids dance.  And dance they did as Kyle painted the town with his high energy sets everywhere from Wicker Park’s sweaty lofts to the biggest clubs and venues.  Watch as Kid Color tells his story with pal Dan Coop (of Does it Offend You, Yeah?) and Abbey Pub’s resident bad ass Adam.

Film by Justin Staple.