Porsche 911 Does the Hustle

Happy Monday!

Here’s yet another video that surfaced with “The Hustle” as its backdrop, produced by Clash Productions. Awesome!

Love,
A

Add comment August 9th, 2010

Freerunning and Rube Goldberg Machines

In the 2 years since I first wrote “The Hustle” (DOWNLOAD), it has popped up in more completely random fan videos than anything else I’ve ever made. From snowboard and BMX videos, to videogame racing soundtracks, it’s popped up quite a bit… I guess it’s got that certain cimematic je ne sais quoi.

Well, I recently discovered two new ones worth sharing. One is a Rube Goldberg Machine video, designed by a group called Interplay Design:

And the second is a kind of hilarious parody of freerunning made by some high schoolers for their digital media class… Go figure!

And lastly, here’s the video I originally wrote the piece for, those 2 fateful years ago… “It’s Your Ride” for Hutchinson Bikes. The video’s getting close to 200,000 views!

Add comment July 6th, 2010

Pink and Purple on IFC’s Dinner With the Band!

Howdy friends!

Tuesday night this week marked my IFC TV debut. My song, “Pink and Purple,” found its way into an episode of Dinner With The Band. The episode’s special guest was Brooklyn MC-extraodinaire, Theophilus London. If you’ve never seen the show, it’s actually pretty cool… Each episode, NYC-rockstar-chef Sam Mason hosts an indie band and prepares a meal for them, and the band in turn performs a song or two. Previous guests this season have included Au Revoir Simone, Rufus Wainwright, Andrew WK, The Mountain Goats, and many more… good stuff!

In a fit of excitement I snapped a little photo of my name on screen:

And because I’m feeling generous today, here’s “Pink and Purple” to stream and/or download free! It’ll only allow 100 downloads, so get ‘em while they’re hot!

DOWNLOAD: “Pink and Purple” by Alan Wilkis

And lastly, here’s a video of Theophilus London performing “Cold Pillow” on the show:

Add comment July 1st, 2010

URB Magazine and Breakdancing Fan-Vid

Check out the Midnight Socialite mix, courtesy of URB Magazine – they put me on there twice! “Pink and Purple” and my Shwayze remix.

It’s guaranteed to get your party started: DOWNLOAD

1. B.o.B feat. Bei Maejor & Bruno Mars- Nothin’ On You (Villains Remix)
2. Marina & The Diamonds- I Am Not A Robot (Penguin Prison Remix)
3. Fever Ray- Triangle Walks (Tiga’s 1-2-3-4 Remix)
4. Róisín Murphy- Dear Miami (Original)
5. Gossip- Yr Mangled Heart (Original)
6. Groove Armada- Drop The Tough (The Twelves Remix)
7. LCD Sound System- Get Innocuous (Soulwax Remix)
8. Crookers- Hold Up Your Hand Ft. Roisin Murphy (Original)
9. Uffie- MCs Can Kiss (Original)
10. Justice- DVNO (Original)
11. Gorillaz- Stylo (Alex Metric Remix)
12. Little Jinder- Youth Blood (Silk Wolf Special Sauce Edit)
13. Kenna- Say Goodbye To Love (Remix ft. Lupe Fiasco)
14. Death From Above 1979- Black History Month (Alan Braxe & Fred Falke Remix)
15. Shwayze- Get U Home (Alan Wilkis Remix)
16. Passion Pit- The Reeling (Yasutaka Nakata Capsule Remix)
17. Bloc Party- One More Chance (Alex Metric Remix)
18. Lykke Li – Little Bit (Villains Remix)
19. Datarock- The Pretender (Holy Ghost Remix Radio Edit)
20. Relation- Your Tiny Mind (Lifelike Remix)
21. Alan Wilkis- Pink and Purple (Original)
22. Mystery Jets- The Boy Who Ran Away (Riton Re-rub)
23. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah- Over And Over Again (Original)
24. Metric- Monster Hospital (MSTRKRFT Remix)

And speaking of my Shwayze remix, here’s a little fan video I came across on Youtube – this dude’s got some serious pop-and-lock chops!

Much love,
Big A

Add comment June 24th, 2010

“First Person” Radio with Josh Madden

Internationally-renowned DJ and multi-talented man of mystery, Josh Madden, has a new internet-radio show, and he was kind enough to include my remix of The Very Best in the pilot episode! The playlist is pretty bangin, although I’d expect nothing less from the man ;)

* Chiddy Bang – Under The Sheets
* YACHT – Psychic City (Classixx Remix)
* The Virgins – Rich Girls (The Twelves Remix)
* PNAU – Baby (Breakbot Remix)
* Passion Pit – Sleepyhead (Emil and Friends Remix)
* Neon Indian – Deadbeat Summer (Database Remix)
* Air & Ryhmefest – Alpha Beta Gaga (Mark Ronson Remix)
* Matt & Kim – It’s a fact (Mano Remix feat. Hollywood Holt)
* The Cure vs Lil Wayne – Close To Me (Remix)
* Pharcyde & Sublime – Summertime in the LBC (Remix)
* The Very Best feat. Ezra Koenig – Warm Heart of Africa (Alan Wilkis Remix)
* Chromeo – Call Me Up (Bag Raiders Remix)
* Imogen Heap – Say Goodnight and Go (Remix by Back Ted N-Ted)
* Edward Sharpe – Edward Sharpe (RAC Remix)

And you can stream the episode below:

Pop tarts!

-A

Add comment June 11th, 2010

National Slovak Theater Dance Workshop Does the Hustle

A month or two ago, I got a very polite email from a dancer from the National Slovak Theater regarding my song, “The Hustle” (DOWNLOAD). He was organizing a workshop in which he and his fellow dancers would each present a choreographed routine, and he wanted to use my song for his segment.

I of course obliged, but only under the condition that he videotape it and put it up on youtube so I could see it!

It arrived in my inbox this weekend, and I was blown away. This was one of those rare and incredible moments in my musical life that I could never have imagined or predicted, one in which the power of art, music and the internet overwhelmed me completely. To think that my song somehow wound up in the ears of a dancer and turned into a show, here:

Mindblowing…

Love,
A

1 comment May 24th, 2010

48-Hour Magazine and NPR’s “Wait Wait…”

Good day, internet-travelers!

Two pieces of news to share today. The first of which is my song, “Milk and Cookies,” soundtracked the trailer to 48-Hour Magazine’s launch, pictured above. The concept for the project is pretty incredible, and I was stoked to be a part of it. Here’s their mission-statement:

“A raucous experiment in using new tools to erase media’s old limits. As the name suggests, we’re going to write, photograph, illustrate, design, edit, and ship a magazine in two days.”

You can learn more about the project at their website, 48hrmag.com. The trailer was created by the lovely and talented Ms. Kasia Cieplak Von Baldegg, and you can check out more of her work at www.kasiacieplak.com/.

The second piece of news for the day is another of my songs, “Snuggle Up to Nail Down,” was played during the most recent episode of “Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me.” I got an excited voicemail from a friend saying, “99.9% sure I heard you on the radio!” How cool is that? Granted, they only included the first 8 seconds of the song, but still feeling pretty cool, right now. You can check out the podcast on iTunes by clicking HERE. The song comes on around minute 39 or so, if you REALLY wanna go the distance…

New remix to come later this week, so stay tuned for that. Happy trails, til then!

-A

Add comment May 10th, 2010

White Hinterland Remix Reviews, Mountain Dew and Miscellany

Hello homies!

Got a truly wonderful response to my White Hinterland remix – I’m thrilled everyone came along for the ride!

A few things to report before I recap:

1) As many of you know, I’ve been co-producing the latest record for Project Jenny, Project Jan. We are so close to wrapping it up, I can taste it! Final mixes are complete, now in the middle of the mastering process. I seriously can’t wait!

2) Pleased to announce I’m working on MY next record – going to be a collaborative effort, working with a host of awesome special guests. Been sketching out ideas pretty regularly, very pumped to be working on my own stuff again. Lord knows where it’ll all end up, but it’s going to be awesome, I can tell you that…

3) Also been working a lot these days with my new friends, The Kickdrums. Doing some Postal-Service style email exchanges, trading ideas back and forth. Really fun stuff.

4) And lastly, my song “The Hustle” randomly wound up in yet ANOTHER extreme sports video. This time for some sort of Mountain Dew snowboarding event… Check it:

Moving right along, the White Hinterland remix picked up all sorts of steam over the past few weeks! Made it into Elbo.ws Hot Tracks after a nice thumbs up from WH’s record label, Dead Oceans.

Here’s the blog breakdown – thanks a bazillion to everyone that was kind enough to listen and write:

The Independent
Prefix Magazine “warm, lounge-ish electro-pop”
The Portland Mercury
Consequence of Sound
YK2 Daily
Better Propaganda
Killah Beez
The Music Slut
Killah Beez
Day ‘n Night Blog “I don’t have to tell anyone how good Alan Wilkis and Memory Tapes are.”
MBV Music
Arjan Writes “Alan Wilkis knows how to turn obscure indie gems into wildly unique pieces of atmospheric pop and electronica”
Boom Boom Chik “It sounds fantastic… Light one up to this”
Hypetrak “Restructured into a thumping, electro-pop tune. Very clean execution of the remix”
Cause Equals Time
The Fast Life “Wilkis drops his latest airy goody inside your speaker to conjure colorful flowering meadows into your livingroom… A pure and relaxed hymn for spring… Chilled, soulful music”
Plug In Music
Hot Biscuits
Mahogany Blog “There’s no doubt White Hinterland are chuffed”
Daily Beatz “A funky quasi-psychedelic remix… I would say he hit it out of the park”
Atari Cool Kids
Ickmusic “Wilkis is no slouch in the remix chair… Spinning it on its end with a musical drumbeat and his signature sense of funk”
Music Like Dirt “He’s become something of a hype machine fuelled phenomenon… A beautifully subtle reworking of White Hinterland”
Too Much Happiness “I like the original. It’s whip cream. But this Alan Wilkis’ remix is what I like to call a sure thing”
Short and Sweet NYC
Head Underwater
Too Many Sebastians “A rather lovely remix”
What to Wear During an Orange Alert
Super Official “Another solid remix from Alan Wilkis… transforms it into something head nodding and atmospheric.”
Music for Perfect People
Parasites and Sycophants
This Music Wins
No Modest Bear
Durrty Rice “Man, AW, this dude continues to impress with his ability to put his touch on a song… I honestly haven’t heard a horrible remix by Wilkis”
Indie Here
Subservient Experiment
Blastercase “a nice, ethereal remix… the perfect track to help you shake off that winter dust, and get ready for the nice warm weather to come”
The World in a Paper Cup “Wilkis is one of the most consistent artists out there. Perhaps it’s his ear for a beat or his ability to tweak and twist just right; whatever it is I always get a grin on my face when he drops me a tune”
Ears of the Beholder “a great remix from the talented re-thinker of songs”
The Weekly Feed
Their Bated Breath
Dumb Bass
Music is My Sunshine
Cater ATL
Above Second
Together in Digital Dreams
Sonic Dissonance
Gis Gis Gis
JP’s Blog
Radio Deconstruction
Tea n Muffin
Stay True
Pop That Rocks
Street Index
Everyday King
Cities of the Plain
Yvynyl
Joey Plays

Well, that about does it… Phewf :)

See you soon!

-A

Add comment May 3rd, 2010

Interview with Jamie Lidell – Totally Completely Exposed

Friends!

As some of you already know, a few weeks ago I had the good fortune of interviewing Jamie Lidell for Planet Magazine. Jamie’s music has been majorly inspirational to me over the years, so it was kind of a big deal for me to meet him… The official interview just went live, and you can read it at Planet-Mag.com.

A lot of the music-geekier material was unfortunately left on the editing room floor for the official interview, so I wanted to post the complete joint here for those of you that want to learn a bit more about Jamie’s process and general awesomeness. Enjoy!

Jamie Lidell’s new album, Compass (out May 18), might just be his most ambitious effort to date. While his signature blue-eyed-soul is very much in attendance, we now hear elements of Americana, folk and even punk rock creeping in — thanks in part to co-production from Beck, and contributions from a host of heavy-hitters including Grizzly Bear’s Chris Taylor and Feist. Despite this seemingly broad variation in style, the album is grounded in a way that Lidell’s music has never been before. Having found new love in his life, Jamie’s songs now exude a certain maturity and a reconciliation between his many musical identities. In the breadth of a single track, we can hear heavily processed beat-boxes, staccato horns, and stitched-together soundscapes, alongside constant streams of infectious hooks — it’s a difficult sound to pin down, yet somehow it blends together perfectly. I recently caught up with Lidell at the Standard Hotel in New York.

Alan Wilkis: I first became interested in your music with an interview you did with WIRE magazine, maybe five years ago? You had this quote about how you had gotten tired of the electronic music “space race,” and you wanted to get back to writing songs.

Jamie Lidell: Yeahhhhh, right. It’s a bit of an ego-crushing thing, because you can get a certain level of status, and you know how to get a high score on a certain kind of game, you know? But you can end up playing that game ’til you die. And I was like, “Man, there were other games in the arcade.” And I don’t want to be getting high scores, anyway. I just want to be playing. It’s cool how that kind of fell off, you know. I think in general people kind of got less interested.

AW: In what sense? In electronic music?

JL: Yeah. That “interesting” kind of, like, you know… it’s a shame in a way because there was a pioneering spirit that was going on, and that Warp [Records] was really well-known for. The more adventurous, the better.

AW: Definitely. And in Berlin where you were, as well.

JL: Exactly. Although the Berlin club scene, in fairness, ended up getting swamped by minimal techno. And it was like, “Really? That’s what happened?” I’m sorry guys, but we caned the minimal techno scene back in ‘95, and it was only a little fringe then. It was okay… It’s gotta have the FUNK! Where the hell’s the funk?

AW: Absolutely!

JL: If there’s no funk, there really is nothing to do except be… impressed? It’s like watching a movie that’s all special effects. How many of those do you wanna watch? That’s about getting old, as well, dare I say. Because a lot of kids will watch the effects and be like, “Fuck man! Shit is in 3-D?!!” And more power to them. I don’t care to judge, it just isn’t for me.

AW: I’ve listened to “Compass” five times now, and I feel like a lot of that spirit, the electronic side of you is creeping back in, but the songs are thoroughly well-written as well — and they’re cohesive.

JL: Right. This one’s very much about ME, more than the last two albums, because I worked with Mocky so intensively on the last few, and I was very much the cowriter of everything. It kind of made me, I guess, “lazy” is a word? I came to rely on him more as a stabilizer to me, like my foil. I’ll go out on a limb with an idea, and wanna follow through, but I’ll always run it by him. And in a way my musical identity started getting, not dictated, but…

AW: Evolving together?

JL: Yeah, it was evolving together. When I started this album, I was nervous, like, “Who am I gonna get to help me?” But at the same time, I didn’t have a plan, you know… Beck called me.

AW: How did you guys get together in the first place?

JL: He caught wind of my solo show somehow, because he’s just…

AW: He’s got his ear to… like… everything?

JL: He does. He’s an Internet junky. He really loves his shit. Anyway, I opened up for him in 2006 for a whole tour. He was really into my show and genuinely really loved it.

AW: Did you guys ever share the stage?

JL: He invited me onto his stage quite a lot. He wanted to do duets with me, and he wanted to work with me during that time. We actually did go into the studio for a bit in LA. He was working on something that never came out in the end, just a weird idea. He wanted to print songs straight to vinyl, so he hired a studio, and we were printing shit straight to vinyl like, “Okay, ready? Hit Record!!!” He had a crazy tight ass band, all his session L.A. freaks… Anyway, I had just moved here [New York City] in about February of 2009. I was thinking about making a new record, but I didn’t really have a plan. Beck called and said, “Hey, I just wondered if you wanted to get together? If you wanted some production assistance on a record, if you’re gonna be making something new?” The fucking timing was insane…

AW: Like the thought had just occurred to you?

JL: Literally, though! It’s kind of spooky.

AW: Was that prior to the Record Club project that you had done with him?

JL: Around about the same time… I went to L.A. just to hang out with him and work in his studio, just to see how we got along as a writing/production partnership kind of thing. He has a lot of particular ways of working, and they’re really inspirational insofar as he’s very spontaneous, very quick-witted, as you’d imagine. He doesn’t miss a beat in terms of style. He just has such a huge pool of music swimming around in his head. He can pluck from eras and pluck from…

AW: I kind of imagine that you’re the same way.

JL: Well, it’s a little bit different with me, because I’m not so studied. He really knows how to PLAY the shit. Whereas I can’t.

AW: Do you play any specific instruments?

JL: I don’t, really.

AW: But you play gear!

JL: I came from a techno scene, so the machine and the electronics are my instruments, for sure.

AW: And your voice, obviously.

JL: Yeah, the voice is my instrument.

AW: It’s like the most clichéd thing to say someone’s voice is their instrument, but you really maximize the potential of the human voice.

JL: Yeah, right. It’s true. I enjoy it. Anything goes with the voice for me, so it’s cool… So, we had the first session in L.A. It went great. I had three days and we did four songs. That’s actually Beck CHILLING. We could have had six songs going if I had…

AW: Good god. How much had you written prior to that?

JL: Nothing! I started with a tabula rasa.

AW: WOW.

JL: It was a little intimidating, I gotta admit, going into Beck’s home studio. He’s got all his gear, his engineer, and I’m coming in like, “Hey… uh… let’s make some music…?” So I didn’t really have that much to say. And we had scheduled another meeting after that a few months down the line. I had a tour to do in Europe with my band. And my head was kinda thinking about that. Then I got back to New York and time was running out, and then the deadline for us meeting got moved earlier. So I was really against the clock. I had basically a month to write everything. And I thought, “Man, I’ve got to write the whole thing. Why not? If I can do four tracks in three days with Beck, I can do that.” I had a lot to draw on, a lot of these journals and things… The thing that was so amazing about working with Beck is that he ups the ante a lot.

AW: You’re gonna bring your A-game. Jesus.

JL: And that’s what I was doing. Playing sketches I’d done off my laptop to Beck. And Beck’s kind of a weird fan of mine. His son was super into Multiply and I think that brought me closer to him, because his son was like super into it. I was already in the house. And I just wanted to impress him, in a very of basic way. I came with the best songs I could write at the time, and as quick as I could get them together.

AW: Which were the first tracks you brought to him?

JL: All of them. All the tracks I wrote ended up on the album. The only track we wrote together was “Coma Chameleon,” which is pretty much a Beck song… He wrote the lyrics, I kind of wrote the melody. I played the drums, a lot of the bed tracks. I would go into his little music room and just start smacking drums, and playing pianos, and his engineer would be cutting shit as I was doing it… So I’d come in a bit despondent, like, “I don’t know… what do you think?” And the engineer would be going, “Well, we’ve got this.” And it would be like “Duh-duh-chik. DUH-duh-chik.”

AW: [laughs] Like, “I did that?”

JL: This looping pedal that he had… I started making a lot of those crazy loops. I was just overloading it, and it sounded horrible, but amazing. I played a simple beat to it, and all of a sudden we had the riff. He hit a little guitar thing, and that’s a Beck song for you.

AW: It’s like you’re creating material to sample, and then treating it like a sample.

JL: Yeah. He just gets raw material, jumps on it, loops it up, takes another thing… So you can roll with it more. Then he flew in the horns later, whilst I wasn’t there.

AW: What was your songwriting process like?

JL: It’s always different, track to track. All the songs, this time around, I just laid a quick bare track down, anything that would get the ball rolling. Beatbox, drum machine… Literally like no thinking. Just kind of in the kitchen like [makes funny sounds]… And then obviously the lyrics were more, you know… except for “She Needs Me”, which was me just completely ad-libbing… So, that’s it. I had a lot to draw on. It was a lot to do with me having new love in my life. The album is a lot more personal than I’ve ever dared to be before. I just feel like I’d gotten into this habit of maybe trying to generalize in lyrics. Take a theme that’s kind of personal to me and…

AW: Make it more about everyone?

JL: Yeah. This one’s a lot more personal. This is me kind of baring all, completely exposed.

AW: Self-discovery? Finding something out about yourself?

JL: Just looking in the mirror in a different way. Being like, “Really? Do you hate that about yourself or is that okay? What’s wrong with sharing that?” If you’re not going to give, I mean, what’s the fucking point? I think I’d started to… not water it down… but think about the end result and craft the song to fit something that I wanted to project. And it all got a bit contrived in a way. So this album, I stopped contriving anything. It was just like, “Okay, I’m feeling this. What would make me feel it harder?”

AW: I wanted to talk about, not just Feist, but the other people you worked with. How did you wind up working with James Gadson, and the other guys on there?

JL: So the timeline goes, first L.A. session with Beck. I went away. Had a month, wrote, came back. And during the second L.A. session, which was quite long, we had Record Club booked. We did that at Sunset Sound, where they recorded “Exile on Main Street”, “Purple Rain”, and shit. So it’s like for me, it was like, “GOD…” A legendary place. And then in walks James Gadson, who I’d been watching play with Bill Withers on the road with my saxophone player. And we were laughing like…

AW: HE’S THE COOLEST GUY EVER.

JL: He’s just the coolest drummer, you could imagine. Just incredible. He’s the sweetest, warmest, most talented… just how you wanna be when you get older, you know? Enthusiastic, open-minded, but no ego on him. He just wants to make good music.

AW: And he clearly recognizes when someone else is good!

JL: Yeah, we were loving playing together… Of all the production help that Beck put into the album, I think he putting me together with Gadson and helping sort out the Oceanway session, and like obviously writing with him… That was a really pivotal moment, having that extra pressure all of a sudden. I had just done sketches, and suddenly I’m going to Oceanway, top studio in L.A. with Gadson! And Feist was in town already, and I know her. I worked with her on The Reminder, doing the backing vocals on “1, 2, 3, 4″ and a bunch of the songs… She’s just an amazing musician. One of those feelers, just like, “Let me try something on this.” NAILING it… World class! She’s playing guitar, she’s singing. She just wanted to muck in and get her hands dirty musically. So Beck was there, and she was there, James Gadson, Nikka Costa… and then Pat Sansone from Wilco.

AW: Yeah! And Autumn Defense.

JL: Yeah, I mean he’s amazing, Pat. We worked together on the Record Club. And I’d known Pat before because he’d kept coming to my shows… At last I said, “PLEASE, I’d love to have you involved in the record.” So he flew in the parts via email, and so did Gonzo [Gonzalez], which was amazing. Pat would just send me this impeccably-recorded stuff from the Wilco loft: bass parts, wurlitzer, mallets.

AW: He would just send you the files?

JL: Yeah he’d send me a yousendit-style gigabyte.

AW: And you would send him pieces to work with, and he would lay it down remote?

JL: Yeah, exactly. I’d take it as far as I could, and I’d say “Pat I need your help.” And he’d just NAIL this absolutely beautiful shit. Sometimes I had to erode it, cuz it was too fucking good, you know what I mean? It sounded like… pristine Steve Reich shit. Counterpoint… and I ended up running it through some really awful machines.

AW: All of the sounds that I hear on the album are treated so carefully. Even if it’s a sound that everybody knows, there’s something a little twisted about it.

JL: Yeahhhhhhh. Well, that’s a lot to do with Chris Taylor [of Grizzly Bear] as well. I mean, I’ve gotta give Chris a lot of credit.

AW: How did you connect with him?

JL: I’ve been a Grizzly Bear fan… I was just crazy in love with that album [Veckatimest], like, “HOW is it done?” When we worked together in the Grizzly church, he’s working with the bloody computer on a guitar case, couple of monitors… This whole makeshift studio, and I’m like, “Well, where do you make your records?” and he’s like “We do it like this.” He’s working with very little, and achieving a LOT. He’s a really talented guy. It started off in Brooklyn at the church where they record. We would just try and nail tunes, get to know each other. I had to learn to sing in front of him, which is always a bit intimidating. It didn’t really work out so great… none of the recordings we did there actually made it on the record. But going to Canada, I knew I needed him to come out to that. My manager hooked up a session at Feist’s lodge. Just a brilliant place. And it made it come all together. There was Oceanway… so much amazing rhythm stuff from Gadson, but a mess as well. Nothing really complete…

AW: Are you the one editing it all together?

JL: Yeah.

AW: And are you mixing it as well?

JL: Chris Taylor really was the mix engineer, but I really was too. I know what I’m doing, and I could have mixed the record, in a way. But I really wanted Chris. I mean, he’s TRAINED in that shit. And I’m NOT. and I HATE mixing. I absolutely hate it, but I’m very stubborn. I felt really bad for Chris, because I think he didn’t really know that before working with me. I’m really not easy to please. But at the end of the day, we were a really good combination.

AW: I think it’s those challenges that really forge a strong working relationship.

JL: Yeah exactly. The tension. We’re both perfectionists in different kind of levels. The thing that is really hardcore, and I’ll always respect Chris for is that it was so exhausting, and I was really demanding. When we mixed the record, it was twelve days, for 14-hour days…

AW: A sitting-over-his-shoulder kind of thing?

JL: Exactly. One block of time. If we didn’t eat macrobiotic food, we just couldn’t even stay awake. We just were eating the cleanest food.

AW: Is that a normal part of your diet, now?

JL: It is a little bit. I try, although I just ate a brisket sandwich.

AW: You gotta live a little.

JL: Yeahhhhh. It was great… Chris is amazing. So prolific. He’s a real feeler… I mean, you say, “Did I edit everything?” The song “Compass” is a good example. We had two days at Oceanway, and the second was a day that I called for. I knew I wanted to do “Compass”, but it wasn’t really a song, it was just a ukelele sketch. So I was trying to get everyone on the same page… We just kept recording for hours. It was just like these crazy jigsaw pieces.

AW: Well it does feel so free, but in a good way.

JL: Yeah, I was overwhelmed. So he [Chris Taylor] just was like, “Fuck that.” Slam that up against… Lego-style. Ch-ching. And he made an edit of the song that was kinda sweet. It made me think it’s possible to get this guy finished. So I took that, and re-worked it… I needed to create these artificial bits of terrain. I did a lot of work at home in my little cupboard studio.

AW: How’s living in New York? How does being here influence you musically or otherwise?

JL: I love it. New York’s amazing. It’s influencing me because… well obviously, I couldn’t bring all my studio stuff. Which was a blessing, because in Berlin I had all my shit in a big room. And to be honest, it was overwhelming, you know?

AW: Too many choices.

JL: Yeah. I grew up with this one sampler and a computer, and I did a lot of shit on there. You don’t have any choices. It’s just like, “what ELSE can I do with this?” You’ve only got two colors in your paintbox, and you’re just like, “If I mix this one with this, in this crazy way…” You come up with styles, and then you end up getting some money and buying all the colors of the rainbow. And then you just end up making boring shit.

AW: Right. It’s like the guitar player with 1000 pedals.

JL: Exactly. What are you really playing? But yeah, New York’s been amazing. I like having that limitation, although at the same time it would be a dream for me to stay in Manhattan and have a proper studio that I can really let loose in.

AW: I saw [in your promo video] the Quincy Jones picture. Is there a story involved with that, or was it a chance meeting?

JL: Yeah! Right you noticed that! [laughs] I met Quincy. It was Montreaux Jazz Festival. We were playing, and the promoter of the show was a really interesting character, and thought that I was a bit of a charlatan or something… I just got bad vibes off him. But when we played the show, he was like, “Not bad. Something about you I like. Do you wanna meet Quincy Jones?” And I was like, “Yes, I do!”

AW: Ha!

JL: It was Quincy’s birthday, and he was trashed. He was… pretty drunk.

AW: Nice.

JL: I came up and met him, and he was like, “Where you from?” I was like, “England.” And he was like, “What?!” “I’m from England.” “WHAT?!!” He was freaking me out a little bit. And then he got me in a fucking headlock. I went down to speak to him close to his ear ‘cuz he couldn’t hear me, and he grabbed my head and was like, “You’re from England? Well I just spoke to Amy Winehouse, and I told her to get off the drugs, man. ‘Cuz you know my daughter…” and he just goes on this crazy personal story with me. I wasn’t expecting this… I’m in a headlock with Quincy Jones… It was SUPER weird. My tour manager was on the spot with a camera. And I’m just like, “I’m with Quincy. He’s amazing… And kinda crazy.”

AW: Wow. That’s a keeper.

JL: It is.

Add comment April 16th, 2010

What’s New? Also, Jamie Lidell + the Morning Benders are great

Howdy folks!

Exciting times over here in Wilcassettes-land. Busy busy BIZZZZ-ZAY! Wanted to give y’all a little update:

1) Two new remixes on the horizon, and oddly enough, both feature female vocalists. I never realized it until now, but everybody I’ve worked with so far has been male-fronted bands… Go figure. Anyhoo, I’m really quite excited about these, and I think/hope y’all are gonna like ‘em – stay tuned, next one is coming out soon enough…

2) I’m getting back to writing and recording my own stuff, full-steam ahead. Sketching out ideas for the next record, what it’s going to sound like, and who I’m going to be working with. Granted it’s all very early on, but I’ve more or less finished a song already, and I’m just generally pumped.

3) As you may recall, over the past several months I’ve been co-producing the next album by Project Jenny Project Jan. We are wrapping up final mixes this week and next, and this little baby is sounding SO good. I’m so proud of them, and I’m even more proud to be a part of it.

4) Jamie Lidell… He’s my hero, and he’s got a new record coming out… and I recently had the pleasure of meeting him and interviewing him for Planet Magazine. The interview should be dropping soon, I’ll be sure to link it up to y’all as soon as it does… And for the record, his album is jaw-droppingly sick… you’ll be hearing it soon enough, but here’s a making-of video to whet your appetite:

5) Annnnnnd lastly, I’ve been listening to this band, The Morning Benders quite a bit lately. They have a new album that came out called “Big Echo,” and it’s lovely. Give them a spin if you’re in the market for summery, surfy, Beach-Boys-y indie rock. Here’s their song, “Excuses”:

Add comment April 1st, 2010