Session Transcript:
Amp Fiddler
Red Bull Music Academy, Cape Town 2003

The video stream for this lecture can be watched here.

For 45-year old Joseph 'Amp' Fiddler, it's been a lifelong journey of musical discoveries. After starting out in the doo wop/soul group Enchantment, circa 1982 he became rather more enchanted with the music of Parliament and Funkadelic. Thanks to his hard work and determination it was only two years before George Clinton took him on as a band member. Having achieved this goal, Mr Fiddler wasn’t going to get stuck in a groove. He surveyed the tones and textures of electronic dance by working with artists as diverse as Maxwell, Jay Dee, Prince, and Moodymann. These collaborations came out of a simple desire to help out and see cats fulfill their dreams, and in turn gave him the knowledge he needed to fast forward into the future of house music. Amp says: "It's so sweet when all the puzzle parts are put together," and anyone who has heard his Basementality and Love And War EPs or Waltz Of A Ghetto Fly LP will certainly agree.

RBMA: »...you might know him best as Amp Fiddler.«

Amp Fiddler: »Greetings, folks. Glad to be here at [the] Red Bull [Music Academy], such a lovely place. Thank you.«

RBMA: »Please give us a brief introduction of where you're at right now and what you've been doing with records.«

Amp Fiddler: »I started creating music some years ago in a lot of different ways. I've always been into electronic music and bought drummachines and keyboards. I started playing piano as a kid, but electronics always arose my curiosity. Through the years I continued to do that same thing. I'm going to move quickly through where I started to where I am now. We always made demos and created songs through drummachines, like, when I saw you guys working with that [Roland] 909 yesterday, we bought whatever we could get. And just, throughout the last five years, after years of touring, I started to produce music myself, sending music to a label in Europe. The conversation came up about the possibility of creating dance music. I thought, 'OK, I could do that'.

Since then, I've considered myself an artist first. Because being from Motown [=MOtor TOWN=Detroit], I've always been impressed by the history. I'm a Motown singer in a sense, but I also create. This label deal gave me the opportunity to do something that I wasn't doing before, which was electronic music in the sense of dance music, as opposed to me doing soul or hip hop. Most of my friends, they didn't really like dance music. They see it as some kind of "gay house music" entity for whatever reason. They are sitting in a one-dimensional matrix in a sense. They don't see the world, they just see the neighborhood.

So I had to kind of kick them out of my past thinking to get involved in new music. I'm still searching and learning. I want to do more with electronic music and get better as a singer. So I've been collaborating with as many people as I can. I'm always listening to whatever I can, even if I'm not a young kid just starting. Most people from my past are stuck in what they always have been doing and grown up with. They want to hear some (imitates his sophisticated friends) smooth jazz and really cool music. Anything outside of that is kind of weird for them. I'm going past that.«

RBMA: »Let's talk a little about the traditional side. What I mean by traditional side is Parliament and Funkadelic. In Detroit, that's like indigenous music.«

Amp Fiddler: »When I first heard George Clinton's music, I didn't like it. At that time, I was involved in doo wop. And before that, I listened to Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles and all kinds of other rock 'n' roll, also Motown and soul. But then, Parliament and Funkadelic stuck in the back of my mind. I had just started to play a little keyboards. I think we have to keep our vision, we have to stand in the now and see ourselves in the future as far as who we want to be in our lives. We have to say it, to become it. And beyond that, you’ve got to say: "I am that and it’s gonna happen." Whatever you say, is what is. At that time I said: "One day, I will play in that band." I was always making demo tapes and met those people who were involved. I was constantly doing demo tapes. I have a whole box of just demo tapes. From 4-track to 8-track and then to 16[-track]. When George heard that demo tape, he called me to the studio and asked me if I wanted to get involved. Started going to the studio and started touring. That's how it came about.«

RBMA: »What era were you involved with Parliament?«

Amp Fiddler: »That was 1984. They had just come off of being huge. So they were taking a break to have more time for recording in the studio. I was learning a lot about how to record sounds and tones and how they work together. What amazed me even more was how vocalists work in the studio. I couldn't imagine how people could remember all those notes and sing them together, keep doubling and tripling.«

RBMA: »Isn't George Clinton the master of the multi-part vocals?«

Amp Fiddler: »Most definitely, and not only that. Something to learn from him was how he constantly doubled, tripled or quadrupled parts of a track. The way he stacked the vocals made the production really stronger. When working with vocalists, you have to have a great concept of making them sound good. Sometimes I'm guilty of that in a bad sense. When I played with a DJ upstate he said: "Well, your tracks are nice, but your vocals are on the forefront of the kick [drum], whereas on most house tracks you hear the kick right upfront." I'm not a DJ, maybe I missed that in some ways, it's something for me to learn. And that's why I have a different respect for DJs in that sense.

A lot of other musicians are either intimidated [by DJs] or they just don't like y'all. Because here you are playing their music and they've been studying all this time and they don't get a chance to have that kind of a dance medium that you guys got. Maybe they're missing that. You are also the people who we need to interact with so that we can create the kind of medium that we need to get our records played. And to know how to create the right tonalities to make the people dance.«

RBMA: »In general, people in electronic music considered it a bad thing to be musical, let alone to bring in a bass guitar, a guitar, a piano, any these types of instruments. (...) Before, this was almost a sin. But now it's like all of a sudden: "Wait a minute, electronic music has a history that starts before drummachines." (...) The never ending grooves you hear in Theo Parrish or Basic Channel records, it has a much longer history.«

Amp Fiddler: »I totally agree. I heard that same thing as a kid. My dad comes from St. Thomas. And when I heard calypso music, it was like: (imitates) 'Oomp, oomp, oomp, oomp, boo bee boo beep, boo bee boo beep…' That was basically the same beat, the same trance I was hearing as a kid. So this has always been there. It's a beautiful thing. Now it's time for that change where people cross over and mix up things.«

RBMA: »Hey, let's play them a song. What song shall we choose?«

Amp Fiddler: »Do you have Love And War? Because right now I think, with what's going on from where we're from, I think it's kind of important to keep that conversation going.«

(music: Amp Fiddler - Love And War)

RBMA: »So when it comes to lyrics, how do you go about writing them?«

Amp Fiddler: »I still have a theory from when I was a kid. I listened to the music that was prominent, which was Motown. Most of the music spoke about issues and current events of the time. That made a difference to the people. Later on, I've never heard that anymore. People seemed to be scared to speak out about things. All they wrote about was silly shit. (...) This song we hear now was inspired by the Gulf war. I wrote it sometime last year before it started. It just felt like it was about to happen. After 9/11, they needed someone to blame for to create some drama. But I don't think you can fight terrorism with terrorism. So that song came about.«

RBMA: »It's like fighting a beehive by sticking a stick in it.«

Amp Fiddler: »Exactly, it will all come right back at you.«

RBMA: »(…) Anyway, you were playing with George Clinton and the crew. How big was the band?«

Amp Fiddler: »Probably 18 people. It was kind of scary first because I had no idea what to play. I was a young musician and they said: "Come to Europe. Here's a tape of 30-some songs that we play. Learn these songs, rehearse and we'll have a show." So I had to learn those songs, come to the soundcheck and play. It was bad enough not knowing the songs that well. What was worse than that was the fact that I didn't know the musicians that well and they didn't trust me. When it's that many people, you have to know exactly when to stop and when to play, what tones work in the music and can be heard, what tones don't work because they are too much. (…) It's like if you were DJing with a band. Then you would have to be creative enough to pull samples within that band to make it interesting. Some records just won't work.«

RBMA: »(...) I'm sure that some of the musicians you were on stage with have been in this group for ten years or more. At the time you joined them, were there people in the group who had played with James Brown?«

Amp Fiddler: »Maceo Parker, the saxophonist, was in the band. He was the band leader, the one to yell at you, to tell you either to start or stop playing.«

RBMA: »How did you communicate that on stage?«

Amp Fiddler: »Maceo Parker was the MD, the musical director, at the time. Once you fucked up, he would look at you with this real ugly face. So you would stop playing or play something different.«

RBMA: »As far as I know, James Brown was the most evil musical director of all time.«

Amp Fiddler: »I heard the same thing.«

RBMA: »So your debut in George Clinton's band was like a birth by fire.«

Amp Fiddler: »It has brought me a long way and I learned a lot from it: how to arrange a band, how to make things work in a band in terms of business, tour management, marketing.«

RBMA: »What did you do after Parliament? You mentioned the Brand New Heavies, what else?«

Amp Fiddler: »I did a Seal album, I did a Maxwell album. As an artist, I was always been keen on leaving my ego at home. Once, when I was out on the street, as it was the case when I met Maxwell, a kid on the street stopped me, saying: "Yo man, we saw you on the Parliament show last night. You’re Amp Fiddler!" I replied: "Yes." He said: "You probably don't wanna do it, we'd like you to play on our demo." So I gave him my number. They called me and I came over to play on that Maxwell demo. There was no money, but I didn't care as they seemed to be some cool guys. I didn't really care, I went home. A year later, he called me back because he wanted me to play on his album. I think that this humility, just being there for people and giving, is what got me into getting more.«

Participant: »Kenny Dixon Jr., or Moodymann, is a mythical figure in Detroit. How did your association come about with him? I feel house has been a pretty boring genre the last couple of years, but the stuff you guys have done is pretty interesting. How did that come about?«

Amp Fiddler: »That's interesting. He was one of those persons I was doing sessions for and my record company kept saying: "Man, do you know this bloke Moodymann?" And I kept saying: "No, I don't know, but I've been doing sessions with some cool cats that do house music lately." A week later, Kenny gave me his record. And I said: "Oh, shit. This is Moodymann." I was working with him all this time and didn't know it. That's how our relationship started.«

RBMA: »Just think about this story, that's how low-key this gentleman is. Amp Fiddler was working with him, and he had to get his record to know that he was Moodymann.«

Amp Fiddler: »Exactly, I just work and I do things. A lot of us in Detroit do things for each other in a way. We give a lot to each other without a lot of expectations; there's not a lot of ego involved. (...) At least the majority of the people are like that. For example, I help [Academy participant] Monica with one of her projects, and she's helping me with my website. It's the same thing with Carl Craig, Kevin Saunderson or Eddie Fowlkes. It's a basic set-up with keyboards and drummachines. A lot of times there's a track already done and they need someone to fill up the spaces to get the mood they want to create. It wasn't easy for me at first because I had to go back and listen to so many different genres of music out on the dancefloor to understand what was maybe needed as far as the colour. Because I could add something that could be totally too dark or I could add something totally too bright as far as tonality in a record. And I think it's important that I had to learn different things rhythmically. Some things need chords that are layed out, some things need chords that are rhythmic. I had to learn to rather think about adding to the track what's needed than thinking about what I wanted to play. (...) I listen to many tracks that are similar to what you guys are doing. A lot of them are done in a simple way. But it's so sweet when all the puzzle parts are put together.«

RBMA: »Please talk a little bit about Slum Village.«

Amp Fiddler: »Jay Dee was the kid that created all those tracks. One day he came in and played them to me. Jay Dee created his first tracks with cassette players. He just kept dubbing from one cassette to another until he got the track done. And I said: "Damn, if you can do that, then I can show you how to make a track using samples with that MPC." So I watched him using the MPC. He took the same pieces from his original tracks and collaged them in the MPC. The look on his face was so amazing. He was just so excited by hearing the samples in the way he always wanted to hear them. I had an 8-track tape player at the time and so we took the music to the tape and added vocals. It was just sweet to see the cats fulfill their dreams, as far as they got their demo done. They had the tracks, but they didn't have the facility to record the vocals. The big part of making records is to have that ability to have the freedom to create different vocals. As a new artist you want to hear what your voice sounds like (puts on a weird voice), creating just the character that you want.«

RBMA: »It goes to show how in Detroit people just don't take no for an answer. Jay Dee started making beats with two cassette players. And I know many people from Detroit who learned to mix with just one turntable you couldn't change the pitch on and one cassette player you could change the pitch on. You can make music in any way possible.«

Amp Fiddler: »Jay Dee did the title track on my album. I introduced him to Q-Tip and helped Slum Village to get on so that they could make their productions available.«

RBMA: »Which track is it?«

Amp Fiddler: »Waltz Of A Ghetto Fly, the title track of my album.«

(music: Amp Fiddler - Waltz Of A Ghetto Fly)

»After they had released all their records, I called him and told him that I needed him to help me with tracks for my album. I had given so much to him, helped him with his career, but he didn't have time to bring me a track. So he never did. But a kid came by at the barbershop and said: "Somebody brought me these zips and sold them to me for $100. You make me a rap track and you can keep those 12 zips for your MPC." A month later, I listened to them and I realised that they were Jay Dee's zips. So I called him and I said: "Yo man, I got all your zips. What’s up?" He said: "I tell you what happened. I was moving and someone broke into my house and they stole my zips. You can have them." I had these lyrics and I was trying to find a track that would work. (...) And this track was the one. But I knew that I had already heard it before. One of my buddies told me then that it was on Q-Tip's Amplified album. Of all the tracks, I picked one from the Q-Tip album. But I added to the production by making a bridge in it and having John Arnold play guitars. Apart from that I kept the whole track and just sang over it. In the bridge, all I did was taking the bass out and I twisted it. I changed the tuning of the bass in ProTools. But John Arnold, the guitar player, told me that there's something in that bridge that's out of tune still. But see, for me it doesn't sound out of tune (...), whereas for him, as a theoretical person, there is something out of tune.«