DâM-Funk
Headquartered in the Culver City section of Los Angeles, Damon Riddick has helmed a renaissance of boogie, modern soul and electro-funk – from his storied Monday-night Funkmosphere parties to his boundary-breaking remix work. Best of all, though, are his own productions, epitomized by the galactic melodies of the acclaimed album Toechizown. In his 2010 Red Bull Music Academy lecture, the “Ambassador of Boogie Funk” talks about his favorite records, the joys of vintage synths and why it’s important to stand for something.
Hosted by Jeff “Chairman” Mao So, he is here. He, of course, I guess known as an ambassador of the funk. DâM-Funk I didn’t name myself… Jeff “Chairman” Mao He didn’t name himself that. Please welcome, DâM-Funk [applause]. DâM-Funk I appreciate it, thanks so much. Thank you, Jeff. Jeff “Chairman” Mao So, what brings you to these territories besides doing this lecture? You did
some shows? DâM-Funk I was in London this week. I came back from the city called Lisbon, Portugal. That was a great gig, and I came to London and did [Plan B] this weekend with friends of mine, Benny Blanco out there, Benji B, Mr
Wonderful, and a couple of other cats, Alex Nut. We all had a good time and that’s what brought me out to London this time. Jeff “Chairman” Mao You just said that you do not give yourself the title of the “ambassador of
funk,” but you are very much into the funk, is that correct? DâM-Funk Funk is something that I definitely am a big proponent of. Like I said,
somebody gave me that name, the “Ambassador of Boogie Funk,” I would never
name myself an ambassador. That is one of the things I’m going to talk to you
guys about as far as being an artist, and being in the game, but I will let
you continue. Jeff “Chairman” Mao Well, I was wondering if maybe you could play a little something from your
repertoire to give the folks here, who might not be completely familiar with
your work, just an idea of what you do. DâM-Funk Can I set it up first? First of all, much love and just a round of applause to
Jay Electronica, he will be here tomorrow, one more time
for him [applause]. He represents a fantastic genre of music but there are some other genres out here. The genre that I represent, and I don’t mind having the genre as a tag
or a definition. I am not one of those musicians that does the, “Oh yeah, I am
into all styles of music and yadda, yadda.” I like that thing, too, when
people say that, but I’m a cat that likes genres. I like names of genres, it’s
fun to me. I don’t want to take the easy way out as an artist and say I like
everything, I think it is good when somebody stands for something. Everybody
in this room, if you do a style of music, don’t be afraid to stand up for
that style that you do. Do that style, and then if you want to go and do
another style, try that. But stand for something. If you don’t stand for
something, you will fall for anything. I stand for funk. That’s what I stand
for. I am proud to say that I stand for the genre of funk, and I consider it to
be modern funk. I am not doing any other style right now in this particular
avenue of my career. I am representing modern funk. I’m not doing
chillwave, I’m not doing any of those things that are popping up right now. This is funk and I am taking it to the next level. With that being said, Jeff and all my friends here, I just
wanted to let you know that you can record the way you want to, you can use
any kind of equipment that you want to, you don’t have to do the state-of-the-
art instruments or state-of-the-art recording processes. The way I got in the
game was doing stuff on cassette tape, on a real cheap
Radio Shack mixer and on cassette tapes. And this is one of the first recordings I actually made in my bedroom back... I saved these from cassette tapes, and it’s just a trip to be able to play
them for you now. It may sound weird or funny but this is the way I started
off, just making weird tracks like this. And this goes back to 1989, and that
is how long I have been in the game. I’m just getting my debut album out, so
it just shows another thing that everybody in here – and bear with me as I talk
to you – everything I do I really care about. If you have a dream, do not give up. Don’t ever let your mom or your dad or some friends, or somebody who doesn’t care about you, or you think they care about you, but you think they’re steering you in the wrong
direction – if you feel in your heart that this is the music that you want to
do, this is your life’s calling, do not give up. Somebody is going to try and
stop you, somebody’s going to try and say, “Don’t you think you ought to try
plan B?” Don’t do plan B, stick with the first thing in your heart. If it’s
the music, then stick with it. This is the kind of stuff that I started off
with. This is called “You Can Do It If You Want To,” let’s see if this thing
works – 1988, Maxell cassette tapes, Casio keyboards, LinnDrum. Actually, this is an Oberheim DMX. And you can see what the influence was. (music: DâM-Funk – “You Can Do It If You Want To”) (music: DâM-Funk – “It’s My Life”) Jeff “Chairman” Mao Some rare DâM-Funk demos right there. DâM-Funk Actually, some of that is going to be coming out on Stones Throw under the title
Adolescent Funk in a couple of months so look out for that. Jeff “Chairman” Mao So, how old were you when you were making those tracks? DâM-Funk I would say I was timeless, as I am now. But I’ll be fair, it was in the
middle of high school. I have been around. When I don’t shave, like today, you
can tell. But I’m still young at heart and, like I said, I am from the
Generation X. We were the generation that came before all the technology,
Jeff, after everything was primitive, so I am right in between. I can
learn from some of the younger people that I kick it with, and I can teach some
of the people who came before me. For instance, I’m producing an album now
for… damn, I gave it away, I was going to give away something. Can I do this,
Jeff? Just to make a little bit of fun for everybody, I have got the new album
out with me, it’s a double CD Toeachizown and I hope you guys dig it, but if somebody can
tell me who the lead singer of a group called
Slave was, the first person I
will give the CD to. Jeff “Chairman” Mao I won this trivia in New York if you remember? That’s the only way I get
Stones Throw to give me records. DâM-Funk Can anyone in this room tell me who the lead singer of a group called Slave
was by raising your hand? Jeff “Chairman” Mao Anybody? Slave from the great state of Ohio, which is a place where many, many influential funk artists are from. Anybody? Slave?
Anybody? Funk group called Slave? DâM-Funk They had songs like “Just a Touch of Love, “Watching You,” solo stuff
like “Weak at the Knees,” “Nobody Can Be You But You,” in
London, you guys might know a song called “Dancing In The Key Of Life”? Still no one? Jeff “Chairman” Mao You are not from Ohio, though. DâM-Funk I am from Los Angeles, but we love the funk on the West Coast, and that is what
explains some of the stuff that you just heard. In LA, we have got a culture
of funk appreciation. Jeff “Chairman” Mao Set the scene for all of us. Going back, what was going on about this time
when you first started getting into the music, what was happening around you?
How did you come to get into specifically this type of style? DâM-Funk Around the time I started this music playing and creating it, actually,
it was in the midst of hip-hop, the golden era, Eric B & Rakim, EPMD, Slick Rick, those cats were hitting on the hip-hop scene. We had a station in LA called K-Day, and it was one of the first stations ever that played hip-hop 24 hours. But I’m not going to try and mix this up and make you guys feel good about this
hip-hop love. We were more funksters and we grew up on Prince, Egyptian Lover, LA Dream Team, Ready for the World, that was the stuff
that we listened to. We liked hip-hop as well but it didn’t rule our lives. Jeff “Chairman” Mao LA was a different type of scene that way. Do you remember Uncle Jamm’s Army and stuff like that. Can you explain to everybody here what that was? DâM-Funk You’re talking about the LA Sports Arena packed with 20,000 people, nothing
but people dancing. You guys have heard about Egyptian Lover, right? Of course. This is another thing, for people who are just getting into this thing and becoming
artists, or have been artists and are just learning from today and being at
[the] Red Bull [Music Academy]. You can have a great regional scene. You don’t
have to be popular in every single place. This dude was packing arenas and was
just a situation. They would have full-blown-out shows with outfits and
choreographed steps and it was just a big social scene and they even did it in
Pasadena, where I grew up. That was a little bit outside of Los Angeles, and
they would come to the Civic Center, and would just have some fun. Some of it was
interesting, because where I grew up in LA we had a gang culture. And
unfortunately, sometimes those parties got out of control. Just think about
it, on a Sunday we would have these big parties, not on a Saturday but Sunday
in the daytime. You knew that the party was the bomb if some shots got popped
off. It’s a shame but that is just the way it was. If you find yourself
running home on Sunday afternoon when “Knee Deep” by Funkadelic was playing,
you knew it was a great party. I know it sounds silly but that is just the way
it was. Egyptian Lover and that kind of funk was part of that backdrop of the
times I grew up in the early ’80s and mid-’80s in Pasadena in Los Angeles.
Then hip-hop started coming, Dr Dre and those cats, they didn’t start slowing down the tempos until ’89 and ’90 – everybody was up-tempo. Jeff “Chairman” Mao Early LA hip-hop was a lot more informed by electro and it wasn’t really
until Dre came and maybe Ice T… DâM-Funk “6 ‘N The Morning,” have you
guys ever heard that track? I mean, I don’t want to start quizzing everybody. This is some of the essential stuff. Jeff “Chairman” Mao There’ll be a written quiz later on. I guess, maintaining your focus on what
you are doing, how did you withstand the trends as things were changing, as
far as hip-hop being more dominant in LA? Did the funk stuff always have its
champions, such as yourself, or did you catch flak from not going with the hip-hop thing full throttle? DâM-Funk No flak. I think what it was in my neighborhood, there was athletes,
musicians. I’m sure this is everybody’s neighborhood, there was always those
categories that people were in. And I was just a musician who was still a part
of a clique that was cool, but I was still able to do the musician thing. I
was into a lot of genres as well. I was into metal, I was into new wave, I was
into all kinds of stuff, but funk just seemed to be the one that got me. When
hip-hop got popular in LA, some of the first demos I made were over
instrumentals from “I Need A Beat” by LL Cool J. Me and my friends would play that, and I would tape loop it, pause it and we would rap on top of it. Those are my first productions, just recording stuff on wax and
then I started putting those tapes out to my friends, and then after a while I
was like, “Man, I am digging this Roger Troutman and Zapp stuff.” In the
neighborhood, Nissan pick-up trucks were very popular, and a lot of the cats who
were hustlers, they used to get the soundsystems in their car. So, the only
stuff that sounded good in their car in our neighborhoods that bumped was like
“More Bounce To The Ounce.” If
you came up playing “More Bounce To The Ounce” by Zapp, it just sounded right,
you just got the girls. You didn’t really sound too cool with some of the East
Coast hip-hop stuff, you had to have some funk, like “Atomic Dog” or that kind of thing. When
I started realizing that it's a slightly different style, I started looking for more funk, but it was hard to find
at the record stores. Eventually, I worked at a record store called Poo-Bah at Pasadena. It exists now, but there is a new
level. I was the first kid who actually worked there, this is another little
side history. The Poo-Bah you know now, I was the first young guy to actually
work at that place and the guy Jay Green, who
originally owned that, he just showed me the ropes about how to run a
business. He always kept the record prices low and beat the other record
stores, because they always tried to charge a lot. But you keep it low, so
everybody comes to your store and he started buying more funk, and I got more
into that. It just showed that there is a great style out here that I can be a part of, and I
started making tapes and compilations and started passing them out to my
friends at school. That is how, after the metal thing, after being into
Rush and all those kinds of groups and Kiss and Iron Maiden, I was just into music, man. I just love
music. Jeff “Chairman” Mao Now, you did do some apprenticeships, right? You got some session work as well
off of that. Can you talk a little bit about that as far as getting a foot in the door for your career? DâM-Funk That’s a good point. It is OK to actually hook up with somebody that has more
experience than you to help you get into the game and show you the ropes. Mine
was Leon Sylvers, he was a
producer for SOLAR records that
produced groups like Shalamar, that
was big in London. Jeff “Chairman” Mao Does anybody know SOLAR records, “Sound Of Los Angeles Records”? Sorry, I
didn’t mean to interrupt you, as you drink your beverage. DâM-Funk That was a great Red Bull break! He produced groups like
Dynasty, Midnight Star, a lot of people, but the point is he actually was the bass player and the writer of songs like
“Misdemeanor,” which was
heavily sampled. Of course, “Only One” he wrote, rest in peace J Dilla, he sampled that for the
Donuts album. I worked with some cats that really knew what was happening. Why I’m telling you this is because if you want to make moves and strides in the game, it is good to connect
with people who already know. Don’t look at the elders as like, “That old
dude, he doesn’t know what’s going on, the game has changed.” Do not ever do
that because they can really share some wealth. Wisdom. I always respected
elders. That is one thing I can pride myself on. I never looked at the old
guys like, “Get out of here, man. My little warbly beats are better than
yours. You are old-school, I’m doing dubstep now.” I never looked at it like
that. You should never do that. These cats are walking around… they might not
have the chips or connections that you do now, but they have the wisdom. So, I
would just suggest listen to some of the older cats, they really can help you.
Just little tidbits of information. That goes back to my thing I was going to say before when everybody lost the quiz – no big deal, we’ll do another one – but I respect everybody. There is too much music out there to check out
and that’s why you didn’t know the answer, but I am working with this cat
called Steve Arrington and he
is the lead singer of Slave, and why I went back and got him is because I respect my elders. He has still got it, he is 53 years old and still killing the game. More soulful vocals than anybody I have heard out right now, and it just shows… If you guys hook up with somebody and you know somebody that is good in your neighborhood, or an older cat, or if you are a producer, give them a shot. You see homegirl from American Idol, she is like destroying record sales. Don’t give up on the elders, that is my point. Jeff “Chairman” Mao That is pretty cool, actually, Steve Arrington. As a side note, what was Steve
up to recently? Was he still in music doing anything? DâM-Funk He went on to do some stuff. He became a minister. He got away from the game
for a minute and got deep into that, but now he is coming back into it, which
really humbled me and showed me that I am doing something right. He said he
was looking at some videos on YouTube and got familiar with what I was doing.
He was already aware of what I was doing. I always respected him, and me and
Peanut Butter Wolf of Stones Throw, which is the guy who I owe a lot of my
current exposure – I won’t say success but I will say exposure to my friends
that I share music with – I owe a lot to Peanut Butter Wolf because he gave me
my shot to get familiar with you folks and more people worldwide to share this
music that you just heard being made in my bedroom since 1988. Me and him
always liked Steve Arrington’s vocals, and he is going to be putting the album
out on Stones Throw records, and I have got the full production on it. Jeff “Chairman” Mao That’s going to be pretty cool. I guess, I mentioned the session work that
you did, can you talk a little bit about that? What sort of stuff were you
doing? What sort of artists? DâM-Funk Yeah, Jeff. After Leon Sylvers – and this is an interesting story, because we
had gone from the cassette-tape stuff in high school, making tapes with
friends, posters on the wall in my bedroom of Kiss and Iron Maiden, and Prince
posters as well. Every Tuesday when a new record came out with the new
releases, I would ditch school to buy the new Prince album. I would make an
excuse. I had good grades. That’s another thing. This is all going to make
sense, Jeff, everybody. I just have to explain it to you. I want everybody in
here, everybody, of course, is out of school, I think. If you’re not, cool, but
don’t let the next man make you think it is cool to do bad in school. You can
still be cool, but you can still pass. You can still get good grades. That’s
the way you do it. I got good grades, so I was able to be in a program where
you got off at 12 noon. Even if I wasn’t off at 12 noon, I would be at the
record store and I would get the new Prince album when it came out, all the
way from Parade, Sign O’ The Times,
everything. I would just be on my moped and I would get the album and I would go home and sit in the chair, and my parents weren’t there, because I was a latchkey kid,
so they got off of work later. I would just open up my windows and listen to
Prince and rock back and forward in the chair. This is where I got all the
stuff that I had inside, because music was my friend, and I can tell it is your
friend as well. After that point, I fast-forward to the point where I got all
of this music in my head and I worked at the record store Poo-Bah’s, and I did
session work with Leon, learned a lot from him. Then I came back and was like,
“Man, what I’m doing?” Leon had me in the studio with Milli Vanilli and I am like, “What is this?” But that is a learning experience as well, that was in Rio, Nevada. It
was before one of the members unfortunately did the wrong move, but I learned a
lot from those times. Then I came back to Pasadena and thought, “What am I
going to do? Get a job? Drive a truck? I want to do music.” I met a friend by
the name of Binky in a group by the
name of Allfrumtha I. He was from
Inglewood and he was signed with Mack 10, a popular rapper from LA in the ’90s on Priority Records, and he got his start from Ice Cube. So eventually, he knew what I was doing, playing keyboards making the tapes. I
started doing sessions with him, which turned into session work with Mack 10,
turned into session work with
WC, turned into session work
with Ice Cube, and I got to know these cats and we respected each other. I got
credit on the records under the name DâM, or Damon Riddick, or Damon G.
Riddick. I was playing keyboards and I made some good money. But then I
realized, being in the studio sometimes, with 20 dudes, too many people in the
studio, I was like, “OK, this is cool but I would rather be just making the
music. It kind of distracts a little bit.” It was fun, but like I said, I
survived and nothing bad happened to me. I know there are horror stories that
people have heard about with that era. But dude, they
were professional. This is one thing I want to clear up about that whole West
Coast rap scene at that time. They get a bum rep, like they were animals – it
wasn’t like that. I got paid and everything was professional. I’m saying, if
you guys get a shady offer sometimes, treat people individually on a one-on-
one basis. Don’t listen to what a lot of people say. Game recognizes game.
Treat somebody with respect, and they will treat you with respect. If you do
get a deal or offer, look at it and weigh the options, and if you feel good in your gut, that is when you go for it. It paid off for me. Those are the kind of people I did session work with. Jeff “Chairman” Mao But, around this time, were you able to have that support you more-or-less,
being a session musician, or did you have to do day jobs as well? DâM-Funk Good question, Jeff. I always kept a day job, because I like to have money. I
always tell people that. I never wanted to be one of the broke musicians. But
I do understand that there are broke musicians. I understand that it is a part
of the process and the artistic avenue of being creative. I’d just rather had
wanted to keep money in my pocket. I drove trucks and I still recorded music
at night time, and I drove across the freeway, still had my day job, had my
radio on the side of my truck, still listening to stuff I was doing. I was always
working, because I wanted to keep my apartment. I left home at 18 and I never
went back. I never wanted to be that cat to go back to Pops and he be like, “I
think it’s time to empty your trash.” If I ever went back home and inherit
that, I probably would have slashed my throat. No, I would never do that, but you
know what I’m saying. I wouldn’t want to give my dad the chance to say that. I
always tried to keep money in my pocket while I was pursuing music. Plus, I
wanted to prove to him – and the fellas in here can know about that son and
father struggle – I just wanted to prove to him that I can do this. It feels so
good right now! It feels so good right now [applause]. Jeff “Chairman” Mao It’s like being on Oprah or something. Just don’t start weeping. DâM-Funk Never, never. My eyes are dry. It’s all good. Jeff “Chairman” Mao Were you still collecting keyboards and stuff like that? I know you have a
studio with a lot of different vintage equipment and stuff like that. Was that
sort of something that you were able to do around this time as well? DâM-Funk I collected keyboards all the while. I collected records. So, I was doing both.
I was collecting records and collecting keyboards. The keyboards I preferred
were analog keyboards, such as Oberheim DMX drum machines, the Juno 60, the
Juno series from Roland, Moog Source. A lot of weird
keyboards that I still use from then that you heard in the cassette tapes is
what I used on this [holds
up album]. The reason why this album is interesting for myself, and I love
sharing it with you guys is because this first record, I wanted to prove again
all that stuff that I just talked about – tied into my pops, tied into having a
job, tied into having the radio in my truck driving and stuff, the session
work, Leon Sylvers, my friends, the Kiss posters on the wall and all that
stuff – it is because I used those same instruments on this album that you have
right now. All the way from ’88 I had the same instruments you heard used on
this, and I recorded this record just like I did with the cassette tapes. I
didn’t use any Logic, I didn’t use Pro Tools. I used two CD recorders and a
RadioShack mixer and a Pioneer DJ 800 mixer. That’s what I
used on this double CD that you hear. The mastering is what makes it sound
good. Everybody in the room, all the recording you are doing, definitely get a
good mastering person, because they can do wonders too. The bulk of it is just raw, being
played all the way through. Jeff “Chairman” Mao So, they were more or less live takes from what you were doing? DâM-Funk Yes, no looping. But I love looping, and I am tired of me saying this. People
thinking I’m against sampling. I am never against sampling. I love all ways of
creating music. Seriously, I do. I was just explaining to the people out there
that you can actually make an album the way I recorded it and have it stand on
its own legs. People should be happy for me acknowledging that, because what
I’m trying to show is that you can record any way you want to. I have never
said I’m against sampling or looping or any of that. I was trying to let you
guys know in a double-entendre way, just to show that you can record any way
you want to, and it can stand on its own two feet, and that’s the way I did it.
If you’re recording on primitive equipment, as long as it sounds good and
makes sense to the people on the other end, do it. Maybe you will have an
executive producer realize that this is some cool stuff, like I did with
Peanut Butter Wolf. Jeff “Chairman” Mao Do you want to play us something off of the album, actually? Obviously, you
have gotten quite a lot of acclaim for this record and the singles leading up to it.
I wonder if you can also talk about the sounds. What is it about the sounds
that you get from these particular instruments that appeals to you, besides
the fact that they were the sounds that you grew up with? DâM-Funk These sounds, because they are more warm. It appeals to me because I like warm-sounding pads, I like things to sound beautiful but still street. My thing… I
like to focus on the beauty of things. I’m not afraid to be beautiful. I know that sounds hilarious, but I am not afraid to sound beautiful or embrace things that are beautiful. To me, there is nothing wrong with touching that part of your heart where you think of sunsets or stars. But
I still like to acknowledge the beat. For instance, tracks like this – let’s
see if we can cue it up the right way, this is called “Brookside Park.” Still
hitting for the streets but still melodic on top. (music: DâM-Funk – “Brookside Park”) DâM-Funk Tracks like this, I mean, you gotta keep it gangster and that is what it is. I
try to make music that the hardest dude can get into and then the most
beautiful lady can get into at the same time, that combination. So that is
“Brookside Park,” and all that was recorded live using the Roland Juno 1. Jeff “Chairman” Mao Break it down a little bit, what are the different elements involved in
putting something like that together? DâM-Funk The different elements would be, like I said, recording it live all the way
through. I would program the drum machine first. That is the only thing I
usually sequence, about 16 bars. And after this session we will destroy the
recording, so that none of this can be heard elsewhere. Just kidding. Drum machine first, then the bassline and the chords, we will play both of those together in one take. I would play it like this. I have my rig like this, and play the bass and the keys at the same time. After I record that on the
standalone CD recorder, I’ll finalize that CD tape and take the CD out, put
the other CD into the other CD player and press play. Then put a blank CD
player in the other recorder, push record on there, then run that track
back, press play and record stuff over and over. It’s not a rocket-science
thing, but it’s something that I like to do. And I have Pro Tools sitting on my
shelf right now, collecting dust. This is just the way I like to record. One
day I will put Pro Tools together, maybe the next album, or maybe the next
album I might just go hi-tech, I don’t know. At this point I can’t go high-
tech, but right now I like the way that I record. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix
it. Jeff “Chairman” Mao What about the vocals on there? DâM-Funk The vocals were vocoder, and I did that on a fantastic keyboard that we all
know of called the
microKorg. I think that’s a
must-own for any musician. It is a fantastic little keyboard, a coffee table piece,
definitely a classic. I want to give much love to James Pants, give it up to
James Pants [applause]. Actually, that was right on cue, because I bought the microKorg from James Pants that I used on the “Brookside Park” track, so we are all in this together. Jeff “Chairman” Mao You actually probably didn’t have to give him any money, you just give him a
bowl of curry and he would’ve been happy. DâM-Funk Exactly. I shoulda did that, man. Jeff “Chairman” Mao You mentioned warmth and warmth of sound. Do you get a different type of
warmth from the different voices that you use? And how would you describe one
versus another? DâM-Funk I get a certain warmth from more of the analog stuff. The Korg, I’ve got to be
honest with you, it is cool but it definitely needs some brush up on the
warmth. Korg did make some earlier stuff that is really warm – it is still a
great company… Korg, if you’re listening. But I like older keyboards that give the warmth. You never want to use the regular patches, please! You all know this. It would be cool to tweak the sound. Don’t just use the regular patch; don’t be lazy. I hope I’m not offending anybody but you should always get your own sound. It is called a synthesizer, because that is what they do,
you synthesize sound. I would never use the preset. But that is how I come up with my stuff. Jeff “Chairman” Mao Last week we had Gabriel Roth from this record label
Daptone, who do stuff with
Sharon Jones and people like
that. In some ways, you guys are kindred spirits because he does things completely
analog, himself. But he was talking about discipline and discipline within
your playing, and discipline within your execution of being one part of a
band. Now, you are your own band, more or less, but at the same time, I notice
from your songs and how they are put together, they are very disciplined. The
parts… I think when people think of funk they think of a lot of bass slapping, thumbs slapping
on the bass, just sort of over-embellishing the groove. I wonder if you could
speak on that a little bit, how you feel about that, because that is in some
respects one characteristic of funk. But I feel your stuff is also very
disciplined. DâM-Funk Thank you for noticing that. I do practice discipline. I was just talking to
somebody about this, and it’s probably again maybe my Generation X thing, I
don’t know. But the newer generation now, it seems to me that this
ADD thing is going on and, I guess, it’s a prideful thing. It is like, that’s cool, but the
Beatles were known to take seven days for one song, maybe even longer. Now
cats are doing a track in like 30 minutes and that seems to be the new
bragging rights, “Yeah, I made that beat in like ten minutes.” “OK, cool, but
that’s dope? What if you spent a little bit more time on it?” Now, I’m even guilty
of it. I did “Hood Pass Intact”
in ten minutes, if you guys ever heard that track. But that it is because it
felt right and I just said, “Let me walk away from this, I know when it is
cool, don’t go nuts.” But sometimes it’s fun to see if you can discipline
yourself to really work on a song. This track right here, I did about 21
takes of this before I got it right. Let me see if I can cue this one up. This
is from the album as well, there we go. Recorded live in Funkmosphere Lab in Los
Angeles… (music: DâM-Funk – unknown) I am not going to torture you with the whole song but I just wanted to show
you that sometimes… that one I wanted to make a song that could be played on
the radio and not just a beat. I am not going to be one of those guys right
now to condemn a certain way of music, but there is a little difference. I
have a song called “I Don’t Just Do Beats” and I am not dissing beats. It is a “just” in the title, I “just” don’t do beats. I make beats,
too, but it would be nice to acknowledge cats that still do music and beats.
It’s like, “It’s that beat, that’s that beat, that’s hard…” What about the
person that does the music, too? That’s OK, for people to actually construct
actual songs. You know what I’m saying, I’m not being funny or anything. But what happened
appreciating people who do music and not just a beat? That right there, I
wanted to include on this as well, to show that from your question, it was a
long answer, but the discipline… yeah, you definitely want to have some discipline
when it comes to making an album these days and music. It’ll be nice to
hear sometimes… Jeff “Chairman” Mao On a more philosophical level… funk is always so intrinsically linked with
sci-fi imagery and fantasy and things like that. Why do you think that it is?
And what about that sort of stuff appeals to you? If there is a deeper meaning
to it, what do you think all of that imagery represents? DâM-Funk Funk goes a long way back and it is not a fad, it is a way of life. If you
study some of the Funkadelic and Parliament imagery, and even Sun Ra, Miles Davis… a lot of people came
before P-Funk, but had the funk
ideology. Funk to me represents the back room, if you will, of R&B and
soul. The dark room in the back of the house, the cousin or bastard child of
those genres. Just like metal and punk are the bastard children of rock or country, you know what I mean? Funk allows you to think about other things. It opens up
another door. It is just a long lineage of that. I like to incorporate
different ways of thinking through funk music. It’s just a tradition. I have
had experiences that I attribute to funk and the way it is, and it is not a
game. It’s a way of life. I mean, it’s deep to explain but I want funk to be
respected. And I think it is finally again. Commercialism made funk funny. Even
the word got kind of weird to say. I’m trying to bring style back to funk. I
don’t want to be known for rainbow Afros or diapers on stage. There is more
to it. It’s an ideology, it is about the chords, it is about the tempos, it
is about the flow. It is about what I said earlier, about the hardest gangster
and the most beautiful lady that can have a glass of wine with it at the same
time. I want to create that connection. Class and the streets together in the same room – that’s what I am trying to do with this modern funk. I want to bring everybody in
the same room together, but still don’t forget about traveling to another
galaxy and giving that music to another species, letting them hear the music
that we are creating. Funk I think is the genre, or one of the genres, that I
think another species or lifeform could really get into, because it is rooted
in the motherland. It is rooted in drums. It is rooted in the first people
that were ever on this planet, and it is now being given to everybody in this
room and all different people to take to another universe. That is what I
think about the funk that I am creating, and I want to contribute into that. Jeff “Chairman” Mao I am glad you address that, because I think there is some sort of kitsch or
novelty stigma attached to the music to some degree. I am a huge, huge P-Funk
fan and I love the outrageousness of what they were doing. It was
groundbreaking to have a guy with a diaper on stage playing guitar. But maybe
it is just the era that we live in, but everything has to be too ironic or self-
conscious, and I am kind of glad that you were able to address that. What role
would you say escapism has in your creativity and in the process of how you do
things? DâM-Funk It has a lot to do with it. The reason I’m into it is for escapism. I want to
provide the listener a place to get away to another place. Like I told you
about that kid sitting in the room with the windows open after ditching
school, listening to the records – I want to provide the music, the soundtrack
to their lives, and it is an escapism. People have things to go through each
day in school or at work or whatever, I want to provide a double album like
this so they can get in and be, “Let me put this thing on and just close my
eyes and get into this.” That is what I want to provide. Something that they
can remember and hold on to and can provide the soundtrack to their lives and I
hope everybody in this room that creates music and art… I hope that’s some of
the reason that you do it, not just for self-pleasing things, but to help
other people as well. Please yourself, as I please myself with my music, I’m
not going to lie, because it feels good when you complete a song it gets all
that stuff out. Art is about expressing yourself, but still I hope you’re
thinking that when you do create art you are hoping that it is helping another
person and it is not all self-serving. Jeff “Chairman” Mao When you do your DJ sets and you do your live sets, I guess they overlap in
some ways. In light of the diaper on stage image, you also emphasize
showmanship. Can you talk a little bit about that and how you incorporate
showmanship into even just a DJ set? DâM-Funk I incorporate showmanship in a way that I never want to bore people when they
come to one of my shows or sets. I just don’t want to be the guy that is
staring at his laptop with a blank expression on his face. I hope I didn’t
hurt anybody’s feelings in here. You don’t have to be jumping for joy, but I’ll be
frank, that shit better be good if you’re going to stand there and just
look at a laptop with a blank expression. It better be good. For me, maybe it
is a little bit easier in my particular style, because it has got a bump to it,
most of it, or at least I try to have a bump to it. I just like to make
people feel good and be into it. I let myself go. I’m more of a laid-back
person when I’m kicking it, but on stage I just turn to somebody else. I hope
that every artist here can remember that when you get on stage, people drove,
they took the train, they went out in the cold, they bought a ticket.
They actually thought of you. They considered coming to see your ass, and then
you get up there and you just acting like you’re mad? I’m mad sometimes, too. I
have songs that address that. But I just feel that when it comes to
showmanship, I like to give people a good show. In this era right now, I feel
good. I used to feel weird. I’ll be honest with you, I was doing my thing. I like to party on stage,
and I was like, “Man, nobody else is really partying.” The people that I do
gigs with, all the other artists were doing some other thing. But where I come
from, we party. You get into it. You give showmanship. I understand there is an
ironic thing out there and people kind of don’t want to show that they are
excited… Jeff “Chairman” Mao People are always too cool for school… So, what sort of things would you be doing on stage if you were doing a DJ set or something like that? How would you try to reach the people? DâM-Funk I just take it to the natural vibe. I feed off of the crowd. For instance, in
Lisbon – I’ll just keep it recent. In Lisbon it was such an incredible crowd.
Everybody was just partying, everybody was into it and I was into it too. Then
you will go to another gig and it will be kind of OK, some people are
watching curiously… But that is something I want you guys to prepare for. Every gig is not going to be dynamite – don’t let that get to you. There
will be people staring at you. There are also going to be some people in the
audience that think they can do it better than you. That is always going to be
out there. It is no big deal – all you have to do is just rock it for that one
person you know that’s there, what saves me is when I can see one person
enjoying it. Then I look around and see the one guy is standing there with
that blank expression, it’s like, “Cool, that’s alright.” But I’m just going
to keep providing, because I chose to do this. All of us in this room, we chose
to do this. We chose to be on the stage. This is some serious shit when you
think about it, because we could be doing something else. Some people are actually
looking at us, like, “How dare you to choose to get on stage, to live a
lifestyle like that?” But it’s art. We chose art. This is the way we want to
live our lives. I would just say, deal with all the little things that come with that
territory and stay strong. Jeff “Chairman” Mao Everybody here actually shared their DJ horror stories from their past. Do you
have one that you want to share with us? It’s like the great equalizer;
everybody seems to have one. DâM-Funk A great equalizer, I feel you. I’m going to be honest, can I share it like
this? I was talking to my lady, right? And I was like, I am going to be honest with
you, I was talking to her just last night, like, “Man, everything is going so
cool, I am just waiting for something to happen. If I’m going to have to knock
somebody out on stage or get crazy, when is that going to happen?” She was
like, “Man, don’t even worry about that. You have always been waiting for
something to happen, waiting for someone to say... you know, just enjoy what is
going on. You don’t have the type of energy that invites anything bad to
happen.” And I had to realize that and say, “OK, look, maybe it is OK to not
have anything bad happen.” Seriously, I have not had anything weird happen
yet. I want to be the great equalizer, but I just haven’t had any serious
problems yet. And I’m trying to look for some wood somewhere… I think that is
metal [knocks on table]. So I’ll just thank God, or the universe above for anybody that is too
particular in here. It is always up for debate, but that’s another story. I just
haven’t had any horror stories yet. I just want to thank my lucky stars, if you will. But I
guess the only thing I can say is, like I said earlier, you will have gigs
that aren’t as cool as the other one. You wonder, “Whoah, what was that about?” Oh
OK, I got an equalizer. It was one of my own gigs, in my own home town of
Funkmosphere.
It really wasn’t a big deal, but this shows again and it might help you guys
too, it was one of my worst DJ sets. I was trainwrecking. There was one time
before the show, somebody passed me something and I was like, “Man, come on, why did I
do that?” I was thinking it was going to enhance me, but I was like, “Why did
I do that? I don’t even trip like that no more.” I was like, “Oh, man, this is one of my worst DJ
sets ever at Funkmosphere in LA. I will never, ever do that again before
DJing.” Those kinds of gigs happen, and you have just got to move onto the
next one and keep your head up. What I did was I kept it true, I got on the
microphone, “Much love, y’all. This is one of my worst DJ sets,” everybody was
still clapping and laughed. But I’m not going to try and play it off and act
like it didn’t happen. So that’s how I did it and it’s all good. Jeff “Chairman” Mao So you just mentioned Funkmosphere, can you explain what that is and how long
you have been doing it? DâM-Funk Funkmosphere is the spot I founded in Los Angeles, California, in the Culver City
area. It’s been going on for almost four years in Jul. That’s when my DJ
friends Billy Goods, DJ Randy Watson AKA Ron, DJ Laroj – we have been hosting people like Ron Trent, Chico Mann, Peanut Butter Wolf, of course. A lot of good cats have passed through there. We focus on the
genre of boogie and funk. We play stuff like this. I will let you hear
something. Jeff “Chairman” Mao You are a connoisseur of that stuff as well. DâM-Funk Oh thank you, I try to be. Let’s see. This is one that I really like. I dropped
this at Plan B this weekend. This is a rare 45; this is the kind of stuff we
play there. This was released in 1981 out of Los Angeles and it’s a group
called LS Movement. It’s
called “Move Everything You Got.” Let’s see if we can get it right, maybe it
is a needle thing, I’ll put this mic down for a second. (music: LS Movement – “Move Everything You Got”) DâM-Funk Benny Blanco can attest to this, they are the London side of the boogie movement which we are doing. Benny is right there, much love to Benny. Can you guys give Benny a round of
applause? [applause] Jeff “Chairman” Mao Yeah, give Benny a round of applause. He has been working hard for you guys these past ten days. DâM-Funk So, we are international. We’re trying to keep boogie alive and take funk into
different territories and we appreciate you guys giving us the chance to share
this music. Jeff “Chairman” Mao I guess I skipped over the part where you actually got signed to Stones
Throw. Can you mention how Wolf came across your stuff and how that happened? DâM-Funk We started seeing each other. For instance, I would go look at his DJ sets
around LA. He was DJing at a place called Star Shoes one night and he did
an all 1983 set. And see, a lot of people know Wolf from the backpack hip-hop
stuff, but he is into all styles of music. As I said earlier, it is great to be
into all types of music, but you can still stand for something. But the point
is that being so well-rounded in music, he had collected funk as well. Slave,
the group that I was talking to you about, One Way, Prince – very into Prince,
which I didn’t know. So, when I walked into this club, he was playing this stuff
and I was like, “Damn, this dude really has it. Who is the DJ?” And then, “Damn, it’s Wolf!” So, we linked up and we started talking about Steve Arrington, of course. I want to play one of those tracks before this is all
over, give you guys a premiere of what is coming out on Stones Throw with
Steve Arrington. But he started to come to Funkmosphere and I started inviting
him to spin at my spot and he did and he did a 777 thing, and we just built
up. I left a comment during the great days of MySpace, you remember that? Much
love to MySpace, I owe them a lot. I am not laughing. A great, great site. So
I left a comment on Baron Zen’s
page, the cat who was on Stones Throw, who did this great little weird oddity
album. It came time for remixes to be done and I left a message on Baron Zen’s
MySpace page innocently, I was like, “I like the track.” Then suddenly Wolf
hits me, “I saw you left a comment on Baron Zen’s page, I didn’t know you like
that stuff.” So, I was like, “Yeah, I like all music.” He said, “Man, we are doing a
remix project, and I heard some of the stuff on your MySpace page, and I liked
it.” “OK. Thanks, man.” He said, “Hey, I want to see if you want to do a remix for
one of the tracks.” I tell you, after this, I will tell you a human thing… after the phone call, I swear to God, I hung up the phone and I got on my
knees. I went over to the other part of the room and I said, “Thank you, God!
Thank you, God! I am finally putting something out on my own, no rap sessions,
none of this stuff. Thank you, God!” I got up off my knees and it was like
Wolf just believed in the sound from the MySpace page. So then I did “Burn Rubber”. Here is one more thing, this is very important for everybody in here... He gave me the go ahead to do
this thing, because first, another incredible cat, Madlib, was doing a remix of a track,
too, and I turned to him and said I would do “Shoes,” this Baron Zen track. They
said, “Ah, Madlib’s doing that.” So I said, “OK, damn! What am I going to do?”
At the end of the CD there was “Burn Rubber,” where Baron Zen is just screaming
on it for about a minute. He took the original “Burn Rubber” by The Gap
Band, I’ll play it in the
background while I’m talking. He basically told me, “Why don’t you go ahead?” I said, “I like ‘Burn Rubber,’ I could do something with that.” He was like, “OK, go ahead. It’s just a little instrumental, a short track.” So basically this is the track we are referring to. I walked around and said, “Where am
I going to record this, what am I going to do to this?” But I ended up
recording this track and I had to lay Baron Zen’s voice. Wolf sent me the
a cappella – as you guys already know, they send you the parts – and I laid his
voice on top like this. The original was just his voice without vocoder but
I’ll tell you a story in a minute. I turned in the first version with his
vocal without a vocoder and check this out. This is a lesson for everybody, I
turned it in and he said, “Man, that’s dope what you did with the music but the
vocal is just off key. I don’t like the way Baron Zen’s vocal sound on there.”
All the work I did, I was like, “Damn! He is telling me no.” Then the fear is after me getting on my knees and praying, this might fall through my
fingertips. Being the good guy that Wolf is, he was like, “Why don’t you try
running his voice through a machine or some kind of effects?” And we both came
up with the vocoder. So I think Wolf actually came up with the vocoder idea
and I said, “Cool, let’s do it.” I went back to the studio again, the remix
still not approved. The reason I am telling you this is because if you ever
get discouraged, don’t just throw your hands up and be like, “Forget this,
dude. I did all this work… forget it.” I ended up doing it. I ended up running
it through the vocoder and I turned it in to Wolf and he said, “Oh man, this
is the one.” (music: Baron Zen – “Burn Rubber (DâM-Funk 12” Remix)”) DâM-Funk So not to torture you with that, now I
do that live in my sets with my synthesizer keyboard I strap on my shoulders.
I don’t like to call it a keytar
anymore. I just call it a synth axe. See what I’m trying to do? I’m trying to
change the cornball effect of funk that it used to have, rainbow Afros,
everybody laughing at the keytar. This is serious business. All that
synthesizer is something for the keyboards to be able to be free on
stage. Jan Hammer and all those
kind of cats, it got kind of weird in the ’80s. Much love to Jan Hammer, he is
incredible, but during that time, that instrument got stigmatized and I’m trying
to bring it to our table. Jeff “Chairman” Mao So, through the remix for them you got your first official solo releases? DâM-Funk After that, cats like J Rocc and DJs across the
world started playing that track and I really appreciated it. Benji B, a great cat from your
town, supported a lot of things, and it was all natural. None of this was any
kind of favors or anything like that. Everything I did was natural. I would
suggest to everybody here, stick with the natural vibe. And be careful when you
do the demo submitting. There is one little thing that I need to share with
you guys. When you do the demos thing, just do it in a way, I can’t even
explain it, it has to be more natural. I’ll never forget what Leon told me, he
told me the industry is built on relationships. Sometimes it’s not going to
work, no matter how big your dream is, just, “Here is a CD.”
Somebody might listen to it, but sometimes there is so much going on in
somebody’s head, it might not be the right way to approach it. You might have
to give it to a third party or just set up something, or at least have a
genuine conversation first, instead of just your “Yo, yo, yo, yo…” Sometimes
it works but I don’t know, man, there is too many ways of doing things now to get your
music heard, and that way sometimes is not the way. Fortunately, you are
looking at somebody who actually does listen to demos, but I’m just letting
you know about other cats – that aggressiveness doesn’t really work with
people. It just works naturally, like I said with that MySpace thing, that was just
all natural. I wasn’t trying to get on no label… Jeff “Chairman” Mao Right place, right time. I do want to hear the Steve Arrington thing before
we open the place up to questions from everybody. So, what stage is the album
at now, and when can we expect this to drop? DâM-Funk I would hope that it would be out by summertime. We have recorded ten tracks
together. We’re going to do a very serious project with this, and I have a
promise from Wolf that this will be a very well thought-out project, because
Steve Arrington is owed that respect. I feel he is one of the best, most overlooked
vocalists in funk. He is one of the best and he’s still incredible. He just
deserves the respect and he is one of my heroes, and I think it’ll be out by
the summertime, hopefully. Here is something, this is called “The Way I Feel
About You.” A little modern funk for you. (music: Steve Arrington feat. DâM-Funk – “The Way I Feel About You”) DâM-Funk You can hear the fun that he is having. Back in the game, you know what I’m
Saying? [Applause] Much love, y’all. Trying to do it, looking out for the old school, too, y’all. World premiere, Steve Arrington and DâM-Funk collaboration, one of my heroes
from Slave, yo! I didn’t even want to talk that long but that’s cool, thank
you for allowing me to do that. Audience member Hi. So many things to ask… I will just round them up into one long question.
You mention that you still sequence your drums, so do you get new drum sounds,
use a different drum sequencer? And then, one of the songs you played, I
noticed there was only three sounds, the bass, the keyboard and a string line
going. How do you get it to sound so rich? Is that the way the synthesizers
are? Like, you can’t get that with digital stuff? And then, what advice would
you have for someone that, like, in my home country, Nigeria, the kind of
music I want to do is not really stuff that appeals to people, so how will I
break out of that into a place where people appreciate my music? DâM-Funk I would just do it from the heart, keep doing what you do, don’t change, man.
Look at me, I was doing stuff like this, you heard what I started off with in
’88, I just stuck with what I did. I am basically doing the same thing, the
same drum machine, using the same keyboards. I’m not playing, I’m using the
same instruments I used from back then up until now on Toeachizown. The reason that it sounds warm is because it was recorded, like I said earlier, through analog keyboards and recording it all the way live. Sometimes the digital stuff, it
may be the sequencing that makes it not sound not as human as it should be. I like
to do more human-times-technology. I really don’t want to sound like a jam band. I
want to sound human. But I still want to sound futuristic, so I use technology
to my benefit, but I don’t let the technology run me. So I challenge myself.
You do the elbow grease, I am going to record it live all the way through,
instead of sequencing. So that is what I suggest to you, if you want to have a
more warm sound, maybe try playing it live all the way through or use some
older equipment that suits you. But it is all good. Anyway, I’m sure the cats
out there that record digitally will have a way to make a sound warm, so check
with them as well. Audience member What is your take on Auto-Tune? DâM-Funk Auto-Tune is just a choice. I would never use it, but I like vocoders and I
like the talk box. Jeff “Chairman” Mao You play the talk box? DâM-Funk I played it before, not on this album, but I don’t really like that tube in my
mouth. I like vocoders. I prefer the vocoder over the talk box. Audience member First of all, I would like to say you are the shit, man. You have a big, big
fan down in the Dominican Republic. DâM-Funk Much love, man. I appreciate that, much respect. Audience member My question is, do you have any musical training whatsoever? Do you do it all by ear? DâM-Funk All by ear. [Applause] It’s OK, it’s OK. I appreciate that but I give it up to the students of music, I give it up to you. I just didn’t do it like this. I had played drums, I was
in the jazz band in school, and like a lot of us that had those papers in front
of us at school, we just wanted to play. But I commend the cats that went to
school for music, much respect. Audience member Hi. What is your opinion about guys like George Clinton and Bootsy Collins, still
out there doing their shit like it is 1970? Is that good for the genre? DâM-Funk I think it’s good for the genre. I love Bootsy, I love George, I think they
are just great artists and I actually think they deserve more respect. It
seems like you have to pass away to get the respect that people give. These
cats are actually outliving everybody, and they are doing everything and they
are still free. George is still free, put it like that. He is still doing his
thing. He deserves all the accolades that any other Mick Jagger does. I say
that with respect, but George and Bootsy deserve the respect that some of those
greats have. I have much respect for them. I just would like to continue the funk,
just play my part. Audience member Thanks. Sometimes a good friend of mine likes to play your music when he is
driving. He also is a DJ and he plays a lot of your stuff. When it is playing
he always gets this smile on his face and he turns to me and says, “Music you
can hold your girl’s hand to.” I just want to basically make a comment, I
really like funk music as well, it is something that my dad used to play. One
of my favorite songs is “Funky Worm,” the Ohio Players, and so I just wanted to basically just thank you for being true to your genre and bringing it back. DâM-Funk I appreciate that, my sister, I do. Thank you, I’m going to keep on doing it
for everybody… [applause]