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 Mike
Ladd
Interview
interview 0218 added
15.07.04 words: Nikesh technical:
QED
Mike Ladd, the spoken word poet, rapper and experimental hip-hopper
extraordinaire
has graced us with many guises and disguises over the years, with his hip-hop
melodrama that is the Infesticons vs Majesticons saga, as well as his futurist
project, which have seen him looking forward to look back, taking in many
influences from over the world and giving them his own flavour of New York. He
is about to put out his next solo album, “Nostalgia-lator”, a futuristic,
electronic, glitched-out view into the future, from the vantage point of a
dysfunctional time-machine. I spoke to him, holed up in France, working on a
jazz project the new Infesticons project and future record, over a bad telephone
line, as he tried to install a Pro-Tools update. Here’s what we tried to
discuss.
 How
are you?
I’m doing good. Working on a bunch of different shit. Working on next record,
different projects. Hiding out in lab getting work done. Trying to upgrade my
pro-tools setup. I’m in Paris. It’s alright. I miss NY but I like it here. I’m
back and forth between here and NY. I’ll probably be in London in July.
Tell us about your Vijay Iyer project?
We did a project funded by the Orientalist Institution called the Asian society.
They approached Vijay about doing something thoughtful. He got in touch with me.
We did a project, we started it before 9-11 and it was interviews with people of
colour in airports. Examining how black-brown people are coping with
globalisation in the context of airports, how we survive in this level of
economy and within the new mean of airports. It showcases a country’s
technological advance. Airports that are in the demilitarised zone. The
frontline for the war on feeling. Or terror as Dubya puts it. Our intention
before 9-11 was just to examine the discrimination and the reality for a person
of colour in an airport. That included unfair detention, the linking of lovers,
reuniting with families and understanding this in an internationalist context.
Cos a lot of third world are more cosmopolitan than the Europeans cos they live
in four or five different countries and this creates another global reality. It
was great for me, cos I got to concentrate on my writing. A lot of time I’m
split between lyrics and music which is different to writing poetry. But it was
nice to be in a creative space where I could concentrate on making poems that
worked with music. I was intent on making poems that worked on their own on the
page. I tried…
"...I’m not feeling Dizzee Rascal for some reason. The beats are dry..."
What was the reaction to Majesticons? Anything to say about the upcoming last
instalment?
 The
only hint I can give is that there will be lots of sex. Majest-incest. It’s a
typical good vs evil story so we have to have a Romeo and Juliet element.
Majesticons sold more than any other record I’ve make. The reactions were
varied. There were a lot of hardcore Infesticons fans who hated that record.
People had different takes on it. Some got it and loved it. Other thought was
too cheeky to joke about. Others thought I was selling out. Others thought I was
doing top 40 shit. In a way it was a celebration of top 40 shit. If you’re
making music, there are some top 40 stuff you love. Making pop music is a real
craft. It’s tougher to prove yourself in pop. The reality is: to make great pop
song it’s a craft and it’s respected. It was a tribute to do that, if not a
valiant but failed attempt to recreate it.
What is a nostalgia-lator? What is the new album to you? How did the music
making process differ from making something conceptual? Do you draw lines
between character/issue projects and Mike Ladd projects?
It’s a shitty time machine that doesn’t work. It works as a hollow deck, taking
you back to where you think you’re going in time but really helps to escape your
problems. When I was thinking about after and post future as a concept, the
nostalgia-lator was the first vehicle for the afterfuture built in response to
the future… the afterfuture, the past, the present are all irrelevant and the
moment is all you got. The album instead of going back to the early 80s, I went
back to early 90s and the stuff I was liking back then. Fishbone, Dinosaur Jr.
The Majesticons-Infesticons project was a hole I dug for myself. And for my own
stuff, there are no rules. A lot of stuff came out of toying and playing with a
band I was with. When I was going to high school in India, first time I heard
Bollywood music and it was like punk to me. So I wanted to make a punk version
of Bollywood, get rid of my Bollywood ya-ya’s…I would say that there was also an
element of me feeling comfortable with my singing voice.
"...The Majesticons-Infesticons project was a hole I dug for myself. And for my
own stuff, there are no rules..."
A lot of the lyrics in my favourite albums the vocals function as another
instrument, like My Bloody Valentine or Cocteau twins. You listen to Jimi
Hendrix, that’s what I mean. It’s contextually there. How I’ve evolved: I’ve
gone in a number of different directions and I’ve begun to put it all together
in one room. This is a first version of everything I’ve collected along the way.
The way I make music it’s a process everything gets to listen to it and this
part is “Red Eye Jupiter” (off “Welcome to the Afterfuture) so I turned into a
record. It’s a natural progression from my other records. Each of those has
dabbled in different genres. “Nostalgia-lator“ is a whole album. I concentrated
on songs rather than sonic experimentation. Each song I wanted to be a concise
song and also what I learnt from Majesticons was to appreciate pop song
structures so I wanted to mess with that a little bit. Some of the craft I’ve
learned and stuck with…
What about the single, “Housewives at Play”?
 “Housewives
at Play” is the oldest track on there. It’s 3 years old. I used to play live all
the time. Part of my band was a drummer called Damali and my guitar/keyboardist
Jalil (TV On the Radio) and I worked the song out with them.
What are you working on?
Got a record for Thirsty Ear Records (a jazz record) coming out. El-P has done a
record called “High Water” and DJ Spooky has done one called “Optometry” and
Anti-Pop Consortium have done one as well and I’m doing one. You take a bunch of
live musicians sample them for a day and turn it into music. Hopefully you hear
that in 4 months. I’m working on the next Big Dada record. That’s a
Infesticons-Majesticons… that’ll be out in Spring 2005.
Who are you voting for?
Kerry, I have to. I dunno if I like him. I got my misgivings about him but if
you’re voting for an emperor, I think Americans shouldn’t be the only ones
voting. Everyone’s gotta deal with the emperor. I believe in voting cos I have
to. We got to get that guy out.
"...The only hint I can give is that there will be lots of sex. Majest-incest.
It’s a typical good vs evil story so we have to have a Romeo and Juliet element..."
Tell me one thing that is good on television
Dave Chappelle and South Park. The first Dave Chappelle show. Someone played me
the videotapes of the old Vic Reeves show.
 Anyone
you feeling anyone in the UK?
I’m not feeling Dizzee Rascal for some reason. The beats are dry. The TTC guys
have harder beats… I love Infinite Livez, his lactating man… shit…
And there, the line got so bad, it was time to say goodbye but with the new
album set to drop and many more projects lined up, the future and the
after-future are destined for legendary status.
-
Nikesh Shukla
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