belgian swag for export : dynooo
Posted: May 26, 2011 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a commentDynoo is pretty uncompromising when it comes to making music, as he appears to be about most aspects of his life. His output is both prolific and multi faceted, an eclectic array of contorted beats and breaks which defy categorisation. About a year ago I stumbled upon one of his random compositions on a typically epic YouTube journey and have been intrigued and excited by his music ever since. His dry sense of humour and command of English idioms is impressive for a non native, and in exchange for some unfamiliar cockney rhyming slang expressions, he happily dished the dirt on dynooo.
When and how did you start making music as dynooo?
I started doing hip hop when I was about 16, rapping and making beats in Cool Edit. Dyno was my nickname back then. The last few years production got a little more serious. I’m starting to hate my name. It’s probably the main reason why I’m making up alter egos all the time.
Tell me about your latest collaboration project with Cupp Cave – how did that come about?
I met Cupp a couple years ago and we just instantly clicked. Turned out we share a remarkably similar taste although he has somewhat of a different musical background. Crappy video footage, ugly decor and kitschy photography, first time I felt like I could share all that with someone. We do a lot of back and forth texting about new music (he lives about 2 hrs away). Guess it was only right we’d have to collab on stuff at some point. We work together a lot now – be it tunes, video, flyers or anything else for the label. Feels right.
Could you talk a little about the label surf kill – what led you to start it up? How is that going and is there any label vision/profile as such? what’s lined up for the rest of the year?
I guess we felt like we had so much to share. We didn’t really want to deal with finding the right label to put it all out, our whole ideology is to just do whatever and not be patient. All of us are pretty broke so it’s not easy but having worldwide distribution definitely helps. The whole visual identity is distinct and natural, we basically just do what we feel. Turns out people seem to like it. I think Surf Kill is as free as it gets, it’s the most exciting project ever to me and that’s what’s charismatic about it, its punk aesthetic if you will. Definitely getting it tattooed at some point. There’s about 3 more projects in the works, some very interesting pieces. We’re planning a couple of small exhibitions as well.
Does being in Belgium help you creatively? What is the scene like there and how is your music received locally…how does this compare with the reaction abroad?
It’s getting better, although I feel like there’s more interesting places to live as a musician. The scene is small to non-existent, and seeing as we’re such a small country it’s inevitable everybody more or less knows each other out here. I’m sort of a background type dude so I don’t do the whole networking thing all too well. I do think it’s pretty cool to be from a place that’s not ‘happening’. Makes you create your own bubble. It’s weird, it wasn’t until recently that I got more international shows so I’m excited to see where that goes, SK seems to be getting a lot of love abroad. It’s cool but I don’t really care to be honest.
Musical influences past and present?
Past: Shurik’N, 2 Unlimited, DJ Premier, Cobain, Wu, Guns ‘N Roses & Harold Faltermeyer. Present: Actress, Hype Williams, Waka Flocka, Peaking Lights, James Pants & Zomby. Right off the top. My friends’ music is a big influence to me as well. Happy to know some very talented people, give Ssaliva, Sagat, Cupp Cave and Dalcym a listen.
What’s your set up equipment wise?
Laptop, cheap Casio, SP-303 & midi keyboard. Nothing too fancy. Got a mixer, turntable and stuff up in the attic where everything is set up but after I moved half of it downstairs during wintertime I just work with what’s in the living room. I’m lazy. Plus I don’t like home studios.
Your sound is pretty varied, how would you describe it in your own words?
Littledom. I don’t know, I don’t particularly like to talk about what it is or what it sounds like. I’m very skeptical, I hate a lot of songs I did. It’s a curse as well as a blessing I guess.
Guilty pleasures? (musical and otherwise)
Cheesy shit. Chris Brown, R Kelly, Usher, Pretty Ricky. Slow jamz. B-movies. Putting fries in between my burger. Used to love eating Nutella straight out of the jar. I’ve also been developing a bikini fetish.
Favourite film?
Impossible. Here’s 8. Total Recall, Julien Donkey-boy, The Breakfast Club, Seul Contre Tous, After Hours, Clockers, New Jersey Drive and Paris, Texas.
Favourite book?
Loved ‘On The Road’. It was recommended to me a while ago and I must say it’s totally life changing. I’m finishing a Kurt Cobain joint at the moment. I’m slow, I’ll read 4 chapters, leave it alone for a week then read some more. Might dive into some Bret Easton-Ellis…and more Palahniuk.
Do you have a day job?
Nope but I’m supposed to be looking. Guess I’m investing all my time and energy in hoping this music thing will get picked up and eventually solve all my financial problems. I’d love to work for a really well known rapper. Carte blanche. Like, imagining Gucci on low-pitched psychedelics, or Wayne on some 80bpm Neophyte. Change the name of the game. Get beaucoup money.
Tell me a secret?
I have 2 nipples.
What did you want to do/be as a kid?
I wanted to be Michael Jackson. My dad once destroyed my Bad tape cause I was being annoying. I cried for days. I could also lie and tell you I’ve always wanted to be the next Aphex Twin.
Biggest life lesson learnt?
Past love.
Check out :
Surf Kill
Dynooo’s personal website
Dynooo’s shit hot tumblr with stacks of fantastically trashy low res photos
Dynooo downloads (new tracks!)
turn my swagg on
candle donut
esprit sweat
thunderstrukk
witch turks
Two LPs worth of new material out later this year.
mixtape # 6 : april
Posted: April 12, 2011 Filed under: mixtapes Leave a comment
♥ alberto arteaga – negrita (wayno)
♥ lapalux – long days feat. stainless steele
♥ civil civic – lights on a leash
♥ etienne daho – week-end a rome
♥ jessie ware & sampha – valentine
♥ maya angelou – run joe
♥ paul weiner – cautari
♥ hype williams – unfaithful
♥ asha putli – i dig love
♥ the berg sans nipple – but we are full of merde
♥ momus – confiance absolue
♥ prismic delight – avril 14
♥ beach fossils – out in the way feat. jack tatum
♥ pure x – chain reflection 2
♥ acheron – rain dance
april mixtape : download
image : ffffound
more disparate thoughts
Posted: April 7, 2011 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment
just because you grow up doesn't mean you have to stop seeing the world as a giant playground
seasoned
turn the other cheek
'i don't remember them saying anything about fancy dress'
this is my TRUTH
the solution to most of our problems can be found down the back of the sofa
'look dude, just get off my case'
everything is nicer in the woods anyway
who’s afraid of othello woolf?
Posted: April 1, 2011 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a commentOthello Woolf. The strategic name change alone (nee Oliver) immediately conjures up the image of a well heeled London dandy and the reality is not too far off, not only in terms of his sartorial choices but his musical leanings as well. His debut single ‘Stand’, an enlightened neo-soul number got some outstanding remix treatment. Later offerings ‘Deep Water’ and ‘Doorstep’ are also full of promise, an indicator of a strong debut LP to come, to be released later this year. I asked him about those Brian Ferry comparisons and found out that in private, he’s giving Dr. Dolittle a run for his money.
I understand you’ve been compared to Bryan Ferry and Roxy music. My take on your music it is what i think new romantic would sound like in 2010. What style/genre do you feel most identified with or how would you describe your sound?
I get the Bryan Ferry comparison. It’s just the lazy journalist thought process, like ‘oh, English dude in a suit….Bryan Ferry’. But to my ears my music sounds nothing like Bryan Ferry or Roxy Music. Not to say I’m no fan, Avalon is a huge record and I’m always listening to it. Can’t say I really identify with any one genre. I guess Pop more than anything, but that’s so incredibly broad. I’d describe my sound right now as evolving – the earlier tracks were kind of my own style of funk and soul music but I think I’m moving away from that a bit. The songs I’m currently working on have heavier drums, more minimal guitar, maybe more synths. A tighter sound overall.
Musical influences growing up? Contemporary musical loves/references?
It was golden-era hip-hop in my teens – NWA, Warren-G, Biggie, 2pac, Snoop, Wu Tang, Bone Thugs n Harmony, Ice-T etc, that’s all I listened to really. Later I got into more guitar-based stuff like The Smiths, Talking Heads, Television, The Stones. And then always the big-hitters like Stevie Wonder, Prince, Marvin Gaye, Joni Mitchell, Dylan.
Right now I’m still listening a lot to Kanye West’s latest, that’s a masterpiece. Drake’s album is cool. New Radiohead album is ok but not as good as In Rainbows. I liked Funeral and Neon Bible so got the new Arcade Fire album and that is truly one of the most boring records I’ve ever heard – don’t get the fuss.
Was music always an interest for you growing up? Did you always aspire to be a singer?
It’s always been a big part of my life. I don’t really see myself as a singer because I don’t have a particularly good voice, it’s a weakness and just part of a wider picture which involves song-writing, arrangement, production and so on. But yes, I have always aspired to create music.
Which part to do you prefer of the creative process: writing and recording or performing live?
Writing and recording I’d place together because they’re one and same thing for me. As I’m recording I’m writing the song, it all happens at once. Performing live comes way behind being in the studio for me, there’s no greater high than the feeling of making a breakthrough in a song and then wanting to listen to it over and over.
How have your live shows been received?
Well I’d say. It’s always a bit hard to tell, you never know what people really think. All I can do is try my best and that’s what I’ve tried to do with the live show, especially in everything being played live – no backing tracks.
I first heard you thanks to the Golden Silvers remix of ‘Stand’. How did that remix come about?
I was introduced to Gwil through a mutual friend and we’ve got a similar taste in music. I think I just asked if they wanted to remix Stand and they were up for it. Gwil’s working on a solo record now, which I’m really exited to hear. Alexis, who was the drummer in Golden Silvers, has recently been on drums when I play live, he’s a machine!
Does living in London aspire you creatively?
When you’re here it’s easy to take it for granted and feel like the city has no effect on your creativity. The effect it has becomes very apparent when you leave – things just feel different. Randomly I was in Winchester the other day, a real quaint English town with a village feel, and I just felt completely different. And it crossed my mind that if I was to make some recordings there they would come out very different. Probably less aggressive.
Worst job you’ve ever done? If you weren’t singing what would you rather be doing, and in fact, do you still have a day job?
Probably washing my parent’s car when I was a kid. If I wasn’t in music I would like to have gone into science perhaps, anything to do with space and the universe.
Most embarrassing moment?
Looking back, being in various teenage bands with the worst band names. Like ‘Still Movement’, which I joined on keyboards when I was 16. We did the worst U2 cover once.
Your biggest fear?
Worrying so much about the future that the present passes me by. Keep having to tell myself that now is to be cherished.
Tell me a secret.
I spend way to much time talking to my cat.
What’s in store for you/plans for the coming year?
I’m working hard on my album and right now we’re just figuring out who wants to put it out.
I may also be putting a record out with Bullion on Young Turks later this year, although I’m not yet sure whether it will be some tracks we’ve collaborated on, or a record of my own songs that he has mixed and added some of his own production touches. Watch this space…
downloads :
Stand (Golden Silvers Remix)
Stand (Astronomer Remix)
Follow Othello’s movements on his website, twitter, myspace and facebook
how do they see when there is no light?
Posted: March 29, 2011 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a commenthank marvin : an interview with dem hunger
Posted: March 25, 2011 Filed under: inspiration, interviews, musica Leave a commentDem Hunger’s music is pretty hard to categorise. Chopped up, fucked about and mangled samples laid over dischordant feedback, Bollywood soundtracks, 8-bit, played on a tape that sounds like it’s been left on a car dashboard to melt in the sun for too long. It’s not for the faint hearted…and yet I love it. That said, I was a little concerned about meeting, his twitter stream is an outlet for his alter ego Susie Sahara who rants in block capitals and reads like a care in the community casualty. But Louis Johnstone in the flesh is disarming and very talkative. Over a bitterly cold evening sat outside The Dove on Broadway market and countless belgian beers, I got to grips with the man and his hunger.
What were your early musical influences?
The Ghostbusters soundtrack, bought for me by dad on vinyl. Then he bought the ‘Final Countdown’. He and I used to dance together round the house to it.
Did you like his taste in music?
I did, yeah. I hadn’t worked it out at that point, I was still listening to what was in the charts, like most kids do. Basically, he was into Jimmy Hendrix and he suggested I learn to play guitar. This was when I was about 11 and I started to take lessons. From there I used to make my own songs up and got really into Green Day, I was a Green Day maniac, this was in 94/95, and then I got into pop punk and it went from there, all the West Coast, like NoFX and used to play in punk bands.
How was your guitar playing?
I was pretty much self taught, power chords. I can still play although I haven’t played for a long time. I got into Fugazi, Minutemen, I was a massive Descendents fan. Then I progressed to Black eyes, on the cusp of 2000, post hardcore, then Godspeed you Black Emperor, Mogwai, and then Ghostface, Madlib etc. I had a jazz phase too. Coltrane obviously. I discovered that Coltrane did this collaboration with Rashid Ali, a two piece, Coltrane on tenor, and Rashid Ali on drums around 66/7, really pushing the genre. I felt I had to play saxophone. Started making up fucking weird shit, playing gigs on my own, with an instrument I couldn’t play. I’d have a tape deck with loops and I’d play sax over it.
I looked on Discogs today and it said that you also go by Saxophones, Wanda’s group and Tigerpiss.
There’s Motherships and The Hers as well. Tigerpiss was me fucking about with a glockenspiel and a snare drum basically. Motherships was my singer/songwriter stuff. I like to sing. I’d say I’m in the Tom Waits/Scott Walker school of singing. The deep voice helps. If you sing with a deep voice, everyone thinks you’re genuine. Then I really got into the DIY ethic, Calvin Johnston, that lo-fi vibe. I bought a four track, started writing songs on guitar.
So how did Dem Hunger come about and what inspired the name?
I was doing some artwork, merging two images together, focusing on the symmetry. I made about 8 pictures, and for every one, I was going to write a song. It was a starting point for a project. I can’t just launch into something, it has to be based on a concept. I’ll wake up one day and set myself a month to work on something.
But in terms of the name Dem Hunger itself, I get obsessed with certain words. I had a ‘milk’ stage, just the word, not the drink itself. It was originally going to be Dem Culture, because I really liked the way the word culture looked, and sounded. Then I got into the word hunger. Simple as that really. it’s like a piece of art that you like the way it looks. For me, it was the same thing with words.
So words are quite important to you? It’s one of the things I noticed that got my attention and inspired me was the titles of your tracks on your Caveman Smack LP, for example.
It’s all so thought out. I’ve always been good at writing ‘soundbites’, as opposed to creating a story. That’s all it is. It’s enjoyable.
Did you want there to be a relationship between the song titles and the music?
The idea with Cavemen Smack was I wanted it to sound like if cavemen had different technology at the time, and the idea progressed from there, if they had had the tools, what would come from that. If I had the guts, I would have just let it be completely slapdash, a completely horrible audible experience.
There isn’t a face to your music as such, was this a conscious decision? Do you hide behind your various alter egos? Your twitter and facebook personas for example are these fictitious characters you create.
It’s why I ummed and ahed a little about being photographed for the work:ethic interview.
Can you tell us a bit more about the writing and creative process, the software and equipment you use etc.
In terms of the way I make my music, I don’t sequence anything. I might record something one day and come back to it later. It’s all really archaic. I’ve got an old MPD, I wanted an MPC but I couldn’t afford one. It was the last thing my ex-girlfriend ever bought me. A demo version of Fruity Loops, which I use to convert the MPD, and then I have a Polderbits sound recorder, which I use to convert vinyl to MP3. You can use it for internal and external sound, and I’ve used that and had the same programme for 11 years. I always expect mistakes and I like it, there were loads incorporated into Caveman Smack. I’m trying to teach myself not to hold back. I used to set myself a 4 hour window, and make myself produce. Lately I might work for an hour and get 10 seconds worth of material I’ll use. I wish I had a reel to reel and cut tapes, but it’s all about time and money. If I gave myself free reign I wouldn’t be able to do anything, it’s by limiting myself that I do it. Hence giving myself a story or concept to guide me.
I got into trouble recently, Hyperdub wanted me to do something for them, but I made up a story that I was doing a split with Burial. I woke up one day before work and had an email from the Hyperdub guy and he said he’d had about 1000 emails, because everyone’s waiting for new Burial material after a 2 year wait, and I didn’t think it would snowball like that because I tweeted it. After a telling off he still said if I wanted to submit material I could. Hyperdub want me to do a full length but I’m not ready for that, it scares the shit out of me, because i know they’re going to criticise me for it not being good enough, or pay me advance to make something, as opposed to me make it and getting a return from the sale of the records, which I’m more comfortable with.
Have you played out live? How have live performances been received?
I probably won’t ever play live with Dem Hunger. I’m not as confident as I was when I was 19/20. I over think it.
But if you were to play out would it be a DJ set as opposed to live?
I’d want to do something that people probably wouldn’t like. I like doing my own thing. It fucks off the audience. I’ve played live in the past, sax, tape deck. I played at the Old Blue Last. The guy from Fuck Buttons, prior to being in the band used to put on shows. I played with Lucky dragons on one occasion too. He really liked my music, regardless of what I wanted to do live. I’d just turn up with whatever I felt like on the day. That was fun, it was when I had the guts to do it. I didn’t give a fuck back then. But you get to that stage when people are expecting something of me as Dem Hunger, and it plays on my mind. When I used to play shows, I used to challenge myself. I would give myself a challenge or a limitation, such as for a certain show, I might just allow myself a bass guitar and a kick drum. Or just sing with a loop pedal, or use old soul songs.
Tell me a little bit about your artwork.
It sounds like a cliche but it was just like a need, the idea of spending my time after work or after school creating something. I drink a lot on my own, instead of going out with friends…the best nights I’ve had have been drinking on my own. I don’t ever get bored in my own company. It was relaxing, time to myself, and a sense of achievement, even if no one else gets it. Everything I put out, I want 100% artistic control over, I’m pretty rigid like that. I’m a bit of a control freak in that respect. With Caveman Smack I had total artistic control, except for the colour of the tape. With the Wanda Group on New New Age cassettes I chose the layout etc. I made up the fake women in the band, it lists four members, but obviously it’s just me, to suggest the idea of a 60s soul group.
A bit like Throbbing Gristle, the cover and title they chose for their 20 Jazz Funk Greats LP, the idea that you don’t know what you’re going to get. I might buy something in a record shop purely on the strength of the cover, I like the idea of the cover being the opposite of the music.
What’s your view on the resurgence of cassette as a viable format?
I think it’s good because it’s cheap to produce. It’s an interesting package. It’s a way of getting loads of it out there. I’s a nice format, it’s soft, it’s warm, it’s pretty hard to break.
Do you think your day job positively or adversely affects your music?
Work gives you structure. I come home and I know that I have a limited amount of time to make music, say a 3 or 4 hour window. The best thing is not to have internet. It’s the bane of my life. I like the idea of staying at home and being on benefits, and making lots of music, but the reality is that I wouldn’t end up making anything.
What’s lined up for this year?
In terms of what I’m meant to do, it’s a split Dem Hunger/Svetlana release. There’s another group I’m working on, and by that I mean me, called The Cleaners, that will be an extension of Wanda Group. Oneotrixpointnever has started a new label called Mexican Summer and perhaps I’ll work with them, and NNA tapes wants to put out The Cleaners thing. They’re going to send me all the tapes they’ve released over the last year, and I’ll make a remix tape based on that material.
Check out his latest split with Cuppcave on Vlek records
You can buy his full length LP ‘Caveman Smack’ from excellent LA based Leaving Records
Releases on New New Age Tapes and Mexican Summer to follow
EXCLUSIVE TRACK : Wanda Group – woman woman woman woman : download
Marianne Hobb’s Radio 1 Dem Hunger mix : download
Check out Dem Hunger on twitter and on his tumblr, alien pisshead
All Artwork by Demhunger, made especially for this interview
