My peoples,
I’m glad to announce another new section to this blog, the MEETING IN THE LADIES ROOM interview. And If you thought we weren’t speaking about A-TRAK enough here at Coolcats, think again ladies. Because he is right here, right now:
A-Trak, thank you for being the first subject to this new ‘Meeting In The Ladies Room’ section. Pause.
- Everybody knows your background, ok. Montreal dweller, youngest in charge, Bar-Mitzvah money hustler, world’s top turntablist. You actually knocked down all of our french hopes to ever win a DJ world contest by beating Crazy B, Pone, and the Birdy Nam Nam crew twice in the DMC finals, right? How those guys look at you now, still mad?
Damn Mehdi, you’re trying to stir up some controversy right from the first question? Yeah I beat some French DJs in my battle years, but it’s all love now. I like France! I went to school at a French “lycée”. I have a French Baccalaureate. A lot of my American friends don’t understand the difference between speaking French and being French. Craze used to ask me stuff like “are you French, Canadian, Jewish or Moroccan?” and I always had to specify “I’m not French, I speak French.” In case you can’t tell I’m just rambling because I don’t know what to answer to your question.
- After that, for you began the Kanye West touring DJ era. Interestingly enough, it’s also the time your name started to show up in the music production field. Was your experience with Kanye key in your evolvement from DJing to producing? Any secret studio story?
Yeah it’s true that a couple of aspects of my career evolved around that same time. But in reality I wouldn’t say that Kanye pushed me to produce. Rather, once I took on the Kanye gig I didn’t want to suddenly just be known as “Kanye West’s DJ” and lose my own accolades so I pushed the A-Trak brand harder than ever, which included more production.
Still, being around Kanye definitely influenced my production and I’m not even sure if he realized it. First of all just watching him in the studio always impressed me. He works really fast, he knows exactly what he’s looking for and his ear picks up on things that most people wouldn’t notice. So that pushed me to develop those instincts better for myself. And honestly Kanye always liked the beats that I played him, so he always talked to me as a peer when it came to production. I think it motivated me to live up to that, even though I thought I was more of a novice. It gave me confidence.
Did you know that I was one of the many many many (at least 8 or 9) engineers who tried to mix “Stronger”, the original version? When he first got it mixed he sent me the mp3 and I didn’t like how it came out. Neither did he. So he had another engineer try it out. Next thing you know 3 of the top engineers in the US had turned in dull mixes of that track. After a couple more I said “you know what? let me give it a shot”… but it was a bit too ambitious for me. There’s like 20-something stacks of synths in that record. At the time I was working on Protools LE on a 12inch laptop. I remember opening the session and thinking “what did I get myself into?” In the end Timbaland reworked the kickdrums and that solved some of the issues that the engineers were having with the track.
- Your brother DaveOne from Chromeo was one of the first to make the transition from rap producer to dance music. Sebastian, Fake Blood, the Birdy Nam Nam guys, the Crookers, now it’s seems almost natural for hip-hop heads to make the ’switch’, no pun intended. Now what percentage of your hip-hop audience do you think followed you through that path? Any awkward moment dropping ‘It ain’t hard to tell’ in a big techno festival rave?
For me there was a sort of transition where I started playing more dance music for an indie-hipster audience or a dance audience, and it wasn’t necessarily the same fans as the OG hip hop and turntablism fans. And then gradually I started noticing my hip hop friends, peers and fans getting interested in the “electro” stuff that my friends and I were doing. I started getting emails from guys like Clinton Sparks asking for my newer uptempo remixes. Around the same time, Kanye came out with the Graduation album and a lot of people in the rap world credited me for influencing that sound… generally in a good way! This past year I’ve noticed that practically all the DJs that used to do the DMC’s in the generation after me now play electro sets with a copious amounts of Crookers and Fake Blood.
And yes I do remember an awkward rap moment just a few months ago. Usually even if I’m playing a big techno festival rave, as you called it, I still drop a couple of rap classics. I played in Osaka last December and I remember dropping Luniz “I Got Five On It” and getting complete dead silence from the audience.
- You are the OG of tag-team gigs, touring with Diplo, with BoysNoize, with Sinden and with me. Which one of us would be the real Kramer to your own Seinfeld?
I can’t believe you’re asking me to pick a favorite! This is no-nonsense journalism. Controversial. I’d say it would be either you or Alex. Aren’t the 3 of us supposed to start a group?
You know when I lived at your house (note: Mehdi and I did a house swap last fall) I used to say Kavinsky was my Kramer. Not in the sense of DJ partner but literally my wacky neighbor who would basically pop in unannounced.
- You also are the OG of blogging DJ’s, and an irreproachable Myspace/Facebook/Twitter/YouTube Channel cable guy. How many hours a day are you spending choosing the clothes you’re going to wear?
There’s no relation between the 1st half and the 2nd half of your question. Thanks for the cyberprops. I would have to say I spend about 2 hours just looking at clothes in my closet and making combinations in my head, then an hour to an hour and a half trying out different outfits, then another half hour taking the final clothes off, ironing it and putting it back on. So I spend about 4 hours a day getting dressed. That’s on a normal day. Weekends it’s closer to 5.
- Speaking of clothes, people don’t know you’re an expert of style and comfort matching advice. You covered the man purse problem in your blog, as well as the proverbial white man and scarf issue. Any tip on the puffy coat/skinny pants dichotomy?
Thanks buddy. What’s the problem with puffy coat / skinny pants? It works like a charm. It’s like skinny jeans / big hi-top sneakers. It makes for an excellent silhouette.
- Who is Sammy Bananas?
Haha… Sammy Bananas is very real. You never met Sammy? His mustache is the stuff of legends. Sammy Bananas is 1/2 of DJ duo Certified Bananas. They’re originally from New England but he’s been living in New York for a couple of years. He has also gone by the name P-Nice, but his name is Sam and he’s in Certified Bananas so that explains his now famous moniker. Sammy’s a funky dude. He likes slap bass and horn licks and all things groovy. I believe he also plays the trumpet? Suddenly I’m wondering if I’m making that up. Sammy is also a good engineer. He masters all of Ayres’ releases. I think you and Sammy would get along swimmingly.
It is what it is, thank you Alain.
A-Trak and I will be playing in NYC’s Studio B this saturday, then the big FOOL’S GOLD AFTER DARK jump-off at Austin’s South By South West, and a couple of shows in Miami’s Winter Music Conference along with Annie Mac. We’re also trying to pitch our very own sitcom called DJ MEHDI AND A-TRAK ASKED SO-ME TO DESIGN THE FLYER FOR THEIR WALKIE-TALKIE TOUR AND ALL THEY GOT WAS THIS LOUSY T-SHIRT.
M.
INXS – Don’t Change
