GEARED talks to Obese Records’ top producer/beatsmaster M-PHAZES about the aspects of hip hop production, the Aussie scene’s impending American breakthrough and, of course, beats.

GEARED: What does it usually take to make a hip hop track?

M-PHAZES: Typically, the big thing is whether it’s samples or keyboards – but basically, you can get this by laying the drums first or going through old records to find a sample that you might want to remake into a new track. That’s the basis of it, but it’s a very rough thing – there’s such a wide spectrum of different styles these days and people are starting out with violins and other live instruments. Ten years ago, I would have told you “Yep, starts with the drums!” (laughs), but it all starts with the inspiration – just like a musician writing music, only it’s a bit more technology-based. It usually starts on a computer or on a piece of equipment like an [Akai] MPC or something like that; that’s the biggest difference between hip hop production and rock songwriting.

G: When did you discover your affinity for making beats?

M-P: Oh man, that goes all the way back to my first experience of hip hop. Groups like Public Enemy and the sort of beats they had, they didn’t sound like your typical rock & roll or Top 40 tracks – my parents used to listen to that and that’s what I was exposed to. Hip hop had this harder, kinda big and strong beat behind it and I fell in love with it. Basically, I started by looping tapes on my mum’s tape deck – putting a hip hop tape on the other side and finding an open beat in the song for the loop. I didn’t realise what I did was getting into the production side of things.  

G: How long did it take you to assemble both volumes of [drum sample CDs] Dirty 30 Drum Disks?

M-P: The first one didn’t take as long as the second one but it took a while – I’ve spent about a day on it just tweaking sounds. The second one I’ve put a lot more time in and it took me about two-and-a-half days to complete, considering the drums are only two seconds in length, if not less – I’ve put effects on them all and made sure they sounded good enough to put straight into a track. It was just processing drums, not working on a song, which normally takes more than a week.

G: Which modern beatsmasters and producers do you look to for inspiration?

M-P: There’s a lot! There’s a guy called DJ BattleCat – he’s a record producer that I look up to; there’s DJ Quik, who’s another legend; there’s DJ Premier and the old-school guys like Pete Rock, Dilla, Dr Dre and all those other big names. There are also new guys in the game like Illmind and Swiff D – I look up to them because they’re almost my peers.

G: Are you going to resume [internet-based educational/advertising channel] M-Phazes TV on Ustream this year? 

M-P: Yeah, I’ll keep it going; I’ve just been busy with my album [Good Gracious] a lot. Once that’s settled down, I’ll be doing more things like that – I’m actually hooking up getting a sponsorship with [recording software] Cubase. It’s not set in stone yet, but maybe they’ll get me to do seminars because the people who do them are quite boring… not to take away, but they want someone who’d talk about hip hop production to kids (laughs). Hopefully, there’ll be a lot more shows on M-Phazes TV.

G: The Stereo Imaging vid on M-Phazes TV I thought stood out in terms of clarity – how long would it normally take an inexperienced producer to nail the technique?

M-P: Not too long – I mean, it would obviously be easier if I was there coaching and going through it with them, but it wouldn’t normally take long at all. It sounds a lot more complicated than it is, but once you’ve got a technique like that, you’ll do it quite easily. Depends on the person’s ear – if they’ve got a great ear, they can latch onto it and know what it’s supposed to sound like straight away – but I don’t think it would take anyone too long.

G: Which ones of your own productions do you rate the highest?

M-P: That’s a tough one, but I’d probably say Supastition – a guy I used to work with. His song Step It Up might not be one of my most polished productions, but it’s always something I’ll be really proud of. At the time when I made it, I was like “that works”, but it has a bit more sentimental value than anything.

G: With Obese acts like Hilltop Hoods and Bliss ‘N Eso respectively selling out shows in US and Canada and playing SXSW, where do you think Aussie hip hop is sitting in North America at the moment?

M-P: I feel we’ve yet to get the recognition that we deserve, but I don’t feel like any country outside the US gets recognition from the US. They’re very closeminded towards outside countries, but I feel that’s changing slowly, with people like M.I.A. and Dizzee Rascal getting recognition over there; they’ve started to open their arms to other cultures and music 

G: Now that Good Gracious is out, what’s next?

M-P: Basically, I’ll just focus on more beats for international artists and then hopefully move to the States to try and make some music over there and see what happens.    

M-PHAZES latest LP GOOD GRACIOUS is out now through Obese. Check out www.myspace.com/mphazes for more information.

Be first to comment on this article

Write Comment
Comments are submitted for possible publication on the condition that they may be edited. Poster's IP addresses are logged.
Name:
Comment:
Code:*