| | |
Whilst at home resting one day Simon gets a phone call from some wanna-be journalist wanting to pick his brains. D-one pops round to chat to the man who Diamond D rings when he goes beat digging in
Switzerland.
It's a freezing Sunday afternoon and I am frantically trying to find a shop to buy some batteries for the Dictaphone I had only moments earlier borrowed. Luckily trusty Mr. Patel is open and sells me the Duracell I crave and I then run down the road to Simon's house for the interview that I supposed to be conducting. At this point I am slightly concerned as this is my first interview for the site and last time I met Simon, the girl I was with made me look like Eminem's Stan the mad fan. So begins the interview:
So to start off with the project itself was proposed in New York, so it had that kind of spirit and also naturally the stuff that we found that we could sell and make money on because we put out the Big Kwam and Ambivalence on Blindside, we knew that America was the territory for selling units. We used to get 6000 units, so an album is going to do whatever more.
Getting back to the album and why we didn't use Uk artists, you know, we used three UK artists on the whole Weight project: Tribel, Out Da Ville and Delirious. That's three out of eleven, so it's not a mad disproportion. But when the album was finished we had the Delirious track (Now B-side on the Kronkite single) and hooked up with Tribel later. It's just the people we crossed paths with and checked out and that's what transpired, we could have worked another 5 tracks if we had the time and with these worked with more UK Mc's. After the album we was working on the Phi life stuff. © ukhh.com 2001
interview
0049 added 28.01.01 words
D-One
The Creators are Simon and Julian; two expert producers who's reputation for quality beats stretches from New York, Japan and the prestigious Thornton Heath. 2000 has been a busy year for the duo having released their second album; the critically acclaimed "The Weight", receiving an ukhh award for best UK producers (voted by the public) and performances at festivals. Their album is set to become the biggest selling UK hip-hop release to date, shifting approximately 50,000 units worldwide.
How's the album doing?
Yeah, pretty good, as far as I know. Just filtering back the information from America, just been in every sort of town and city.
I got some articles from The Source, they reviewed it and some web sites where …
Yeah we did some interviews and I think we did something called The Platform. We have done quite a few interviews for websites. Mainly, you know; we found the press in America to be on a website basis. Magazines are hard to break into. Over here we are blessed with a good selection of underground magazines. People knock a lot of them but at the end of the day ours are seen as the best, in America there is only a few major players. But we got love for them, its all good.
They seem to like you, Unsung Hero's and Nextmen. You are getting quite a lot of respect out there.
Yeah its all good we are getting our records out there, so that's the main thing.
The English producers seem to be the favorite at the moment, like that Jungle Dj who is producing for LL Cool J right now.
It's not Adam F?
Yeah, doing four tracks on LL cool J's album.
Yeah that's right, he's done um. I ain't actually heard them.
I heard a couple; they're quite decent, until LL starts rhyming that is.
That's good (to see him doing well)
Do you think copulation albums like yours and Unsung Hero's could pave the way for UK Mc's in America?
I think, you know, that everyone's got to do it themselves, that's what its all about- whether you are an MC, group or whatever- you've just to see yourself as a group that can conquer all boundaries. And its like, we're putting ourselves on, don't make any misassumptions we want to put ourselves on and at the same time people that we feel. And if they feel the same then we'll do work- its good networking, you know what I mean. We like to work with a variety of emcees; it brings a lot of challenges to us and makes it all really interesting.
Have you been in America touring and promoting?
We went over to New York for a week and did a couple of little Dj things.
What was the response like out there?
Some people are just picking up on it out there, a lot of people are hearing from their mates and whatever and pick it up, and then when they hear it- they are like "oh yeah".
Did people know who you were?
Yeah, we were spotted when we was in Sound Library by a few people. Which was quite funny.
It must be quite good to go half way across the world and people to be pointing you out and rating your music.
Definitely. I mean, all the response is wicked man, that's what we are in it for- so people feel it. Music for other people, the hip-hop community. That's the way I see it.
About the album itself; when I was first looking at it I thought you had a strange choice of Mc's, I was quite surprised, considering how underground a lot of them were. You've got consequence, F.T., Shawn J Period. I thought that if you were going for an international appeal you would of went for someone more well known.
Well known. We were lucky on a few. I think Mos Def we were lucky on, cos they (Mos and Kweli) just had a couple of records out each and no-one had really heard of them- we was lucky there, as they were just people that we was feeling. F.T. we heard on a couple of records, and people that were through the guy who hooked it all up for us, people that he brought to us. Wide choice of emcees man. Some of them we met afterwards and hooked up with, like the Lootpack who were in the country and heard about the project through the West coast sort of thing, through Evidence and stuff and just wanted to come over. They just came through and did the track.
They approached you.
Yeah.
That must be wicked
Definitely man, it was wicked, that was a really good feeling for Lootpack to come forward and say "yeah, I want to get on this"- it was little buzz because admittedly by the time they got on the album it was about a year and a half after we'd out to America initially to promoter it ourselves. The album was done and funded by ourselves; there was no Bad Magic when we started it out. Cos you know the album started two and a half years ago.
Hence the name "The Weight"
Yeah exactly- people who know it. And there are even articles in Trace magazine when we recorded it and brought everyone over, some writer came with us and documented the whole thing. It was wicked, he did this big write up in Trace, people knew a lot of the Mc's and we did a show bin Subterrania where we brought them over-so people had heard about and we seemed to be getting asked everyday "what's happening?". I felt like large professor.
'The album was done and funded by ourselves; there was no Bad Magic when we started it out.'
Like those skits on the album with all those people giving you a bell.
That was definitely a touch. But that is a thing admittedly that some people were like "Ahh telephone things" it is a bit lame in that sense but I got to defend it in the sense that it is all original beats- so we just had to go with it and keep the formula alive.
What would you say to the critism you have got concerned with the lack of British Mc's? Personally I was surprised there was no Blak-Twang, Rodney P or Task Force. Was it because you wanted to get more exposure in America?
To start with the project, although we wanted to include UK representatives- as many as possible we were in a situation where we had not even thought of the album, the album was proposed in New York while we were working in D&D Studios. It went from being a 12" to an EP, to when we got back- an album. So it really kind of…….I'm gonna break it properly….., I've never broken it down as deep as this cos I go over this piece, cos everyone brings it up.
The English market ain't as big for Hip-Hop.
To be honest with you, if anything I'd say yeah, I will definitely say we did not have so much of a regard for the UK market. But it wasn't disrespect for the UK MC's. That is another good argument that we never felt that we could have made any money out of the UK. We tried with "The Master Plan"(1st album); we did all the other 12's…
'That is another good argument that we never felt that we could have made any money out of the UK.'
With MCM
Yeah, we worked with nuff UK emcees, up until we worked with Kwam and then the American market was open. Then with Natural Elements- and we found that we could just sell those records in America kinda easy. We were early on that independence tip.
The UK scene has really only blown up in the last 12 months. If you started your album two and a half years ago you wouldn't have been worrying about it too much?
I dunno, I think the whole thing was starting when we was planning the album. Things were definitely progressing over here; the standard has been progressing for years -since it died off. Steadily people have been beavering away in their own little areas. People in Nottingham and all over the country have been forming crews and doing their own thing, so that's how this new thing has evolved. The more people promote their records better, then people will have better that standard. That's what's improving, the whole products are now more commercially viable and I think the whole independent scene is quite healthy over here and Europe.
What was your involvement with the Phi Life Cipher album?
It was cool, to start off with it was just helping them out, we had the facilities to record and we just finished the album and were trying to get that to the shops. We knew these guys for years and knew they definitely had skills. Personally I think they are the top Uk act. Basically, we recorded 8 tracks in our studio and then they got a deal off Vadim down the road.
I liked that track "fat cats".
Definitely, I think they are talking some correct stuff.
You performed at the Brighton Essential Festival, what's it like being a producer and then going out and doing a live performance?
You know what, it was only Djing. That is a bit of a bone of contention cos we have been trying to get a tour together and tried on various occasions but for various reasons haven't quite pulled it off. One of the main reasons is that we want to do it properly, not extravagant but we want live keys, drums, sampler and we definitely wanted to bring over Craig (G) and he is not an easy guy to get hold of. Everything was cool and we all hooked up but for whatever reasons it didn't happen. We had Consequence booked down and some Uk artists- it was all going ahead. Maybe it was all too much or too ambitious. We wanted to come correct at the end of the day. But unfortunately… so to everyone who had heard that we were planning tour, we were but it got pulled.
Do you reckon you could get one for next year?
We are almost inclined to just deal with the next album. Because with the next album we don't know how it is going to come, it's not gonna be like The Weight, a totally different formula. Whatever formula it is we need to tie it into a tour. The next album will be worked in a way so that we can take it on the road. So it will be real interesting but we're not sure how it's gonna progress yet, but we will come up with something for next year.
'The next album will be worked in a way so that we can take it on the road.'
I remember seeing you on T.V. talking about how you wanted to catch James Brown at the Brighton Festival and Julian wanted him to sign his records, who else are you influenced by?
I am influenced by just trying to find the next bit of music, there is always something, so many different sounds floating around out there. It's always changing- from wherever: Asia, Japan, and Africa.
Just going for original beats then?
Yeah. I suppose the next thing is also musicians, people don't really realize that on the album there are a lot of live musicians.
You've got the Kronkite single out now.
With Delirious on the back, that was intended for the album but that one sample was too hot and we never had time to do another version. But now we had the time and there it is, a track from Tottenham's finest. Nothing is really confirmed for the future but there is a Morcheeba remix just coming out and a few other bits and bobs that we do.
What does the future hold for the Creators?
What project who knows at the moment we are just building a lot of beats (I heard one and it was fukin bad) and getting them stored up. I take quite a while to do a beat; sometimes it can take seconds sometimes…
Finally, what the fuck is a Kronkite?
I dunno (as he reaches for the dictionary).
Done, D-one and only.
