| PETE CANNON from Manchester, UK |
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| Written by tricksta |
| Saturday, 31 October 2009 19:01 |
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Blackpool originally but I now reside in Manchester, I don’t really stay static to the area for catching quality hip hop, if there is a dope show on somewhere in the UK then I’ll travel for it. for example the Louis Den Beat Cypher in Birmingham which gets so many people from across the UK congregating just to catch the vibes and a night of sick beats and rhymes. How did you get into music and is there anybody or anything you credit as an influence? My dad found a Moog in a skip and gave it to me at the age of 12, it’s a Moog rouge and I took to it like a hypnotized 12 year old who was convinced he could play the piano. The rest is hip hop synth history…….in the making. I’m influenced by so much music, so many artists and producers from an array of genres so I couldn’t pinpoint one exact person just because there are so many who have influenced me. As a producer you’ve worked with quite a few artists, but for those that don’t know tell us who you worked with? Just finished up around 6 or 7 tracks for Stig Of The Dump’s forthcoming album “The Mood Swings LP” Dr Syntax (a fantastic human, lots of stuff on his upcoming album), Kyza, Foreign Beggars, Tactical Thinking, Surreal Knowledge, Yogi, Majestic Legend (Detroit rapper with Mad Skills) Sonny Jim, Deadline and Jim Raygun, Kid Genius, MC Shaun Traynor, Snap (Dope rapper from outta Houston Texas), D Strong (Dope rapper from LA). Currently producing some beats on an album with D Strong Wildelux and Aarophat, this is shaping up to be a real good project. A lot of other things in the frame and until it’s all confirmed I better not say… don’t wanna tempt fate but I’m sure if they come off I’ll let you know about it. Out of all the artists that you have worked with what was the most memorable experience and why? We had a camper van that had a basic studio in it. Me and the boys from Tactical Thinking used to record while literally on the road and make beats, it was fun in a van and then some. Some of tracks recorded are on the album “Too Broke To Go Solo”, that just dropped. There were many debaucherous evenings on the road which resulted in some fantastic original recordings shall we say. Hip hop as mate, with a slice of stats. Learn the lingo. So what you released to date and what releases have your beats been on? Tactical Thinking “Too Broke To Go Solo” LP When did you actually start making beats? At the age of 12 with an Amiga. 8 bit was the shit with a Yamaha dx7. Dam those algorithms. How long did it take you to get moving and what was your first release? A long 13 years dammmmmmmm……I’d like to think I was perfecting an art so to speak. What’s your studio set up like? A lot of outboard synths, about 9 of em, the best is the Nivitron 4000. 5000 or so records, Sonar drum kit, mics, talkbox, turntabales, mental effects pedals robbed from my dad. Guitars, basses and the all important Mackie hr824s monitors. I would tell you all my synths but then you may know my secrets. What’s your favourite bit of kit in the studio? Gotta be the Moog just something special about the sound Do you have any studio tips for any producers coming into the game? Watch and learn that’s how I do it, there are people who think they know everything there is to know in a studio or with a certain piece of hardware but if you set out to learn a particular piece of kit don’t just be satisfied with that, move on and keep learning. When you set out to make a track do you have a certain formula that you work too? Not really I build tracks in various ways, I had my mate come around with a live drum kit and recorded him play for a while and when he went home I just started flippin some of the drum sounds then started adding some synth and stabs and just kept building till I had what I thought was a dope beat but when I sat down to do it I didn’t really have a thought process of how I would start and how it was going to finish. The latest things to drop have been the Guilty Simpson – Foreign Beggars remix of PROVE IT. Also check out www.louisden.com. It’s a beat making society that does weekly “beat battles”. Some great beat makers on there. They also do live producer shows in Birmingham, these are blooming great nights for beat makers, mcs and uk hip hop in general. Respect to Kosyne and Eat Good Records for all their work in this. Shouts to Mazzie, Sivey, S- Type, Jaisu, Shears, Jon Phonics, Bug, Prolific, these are some of the beat makers on there. Please check this site out if you’re a budding producer who wants advice or tips or wants to submit homework and get involved. Forget budgets and the politics, if you could work with any Hip-Hop artist who would it be and why? Guilty Simpson, Sean Price or Royce, between them they are killing it in the game right now Okay forget about Hip-Hop for a minute, is there anybody outside of our genre you would like to work with and why? John Lennon and George Costanza (from Seinfeld). John could make brews and talk about how fit Yoko is while George could lay down some slammin bars. Then I would bring Morrisey in for the chorus while Dave Gilmore could lay some guitar licks down. To finish it off I would have Dj Sy (yeah I said it the old skool hardcore legend) to come in and do some cuts. Now tell me you wouldn’t want to hear that. Do you have a My Space page? People are jumping from My Space to Facebook and Twitter. It seems there are loads of these type of websites popping up. What’s your whole take on the Internet and these social networking websites? I use my sites for promoting myself and my music, I can’t really speak on others and the jumping from one trend to the next but if it means keeping up with how the music fans feed their habit then it’s what you gotta do. Interview by Brendan Deane |
| Last Updated on Saturday, 31 October 2009 19:11 |
