This interview is the first in a series of interviews with artists that are pushing music forward. We are honored to have XXXchange aka Alex Epton, production master and member of hip hop group Spank Rock to start the series. As the producer/musical mastermind behind YoYoYoYoYo, the debut from Spank Rock and one of the best music releases in 2006, and remix credits that include Thom Yorke, Bjork and Coldcut, XXXchange's hip hop flavored touch is influencing music from all genres of music.
FoeWeel:
It seems that you guys have brought back the fun and party atmosphere back to hip-hop and struck a chord with the indie-rock community as well as the electronic/dance community. What do you think is in the music to make all of the hipsters wanna dance ?XXXchange: It's really just our taste. We're not going to play a record that we don't believe in just because it's cool, or trendy. There's definitely some new cool artists in our mixes but, really, if somebody comes out to hear us DJ and they expect all mstrkrft or blog-house they'll probably be disappointed. We're all all about having fun, playing records we like, and giving credit to our audience and their desire to dance. We're not really about having the shows be some scenester cool-kids-club bullshit...it's for everybody.
FoeWeel:
I had the chance to see you play at Mighty in San Francisco last year and I was amazed of how the vibe seemed like an old-skool hip-hop show. People were going off and it was more like a house party rather than a hip-hop show. I even heard 'The Outfield' as one of the warmup songs and with Yes and The Romantics on the Fabric release, are you guys laughing as well as saying, just dance and who cares what people think is "cool", or not cool ?XXXchange: (see above re:cool) but also, if you go to a weekly or monthly party in your town that's actually successful, (where tons of people come every time and the dj's actually make rent doing it) you're going to hear stuff like "push it" way more than you hear the new LCD soundsystem or Ed-banger indy stuff. We try and give people a good mix of both, but yeah the fabric mix we made super-accessible on purpose.
FoeWeel:
Can you share a story when all of you realized that maybe you guys were onto something and connecting with people with your music?XXXchange: Just doing the shows and having people respond to us having fun and being ourselves. People get really excited when they see you up there actually having fun and doing your thing! As a producer I've had alot of nice things said about my work in the press which is a
really encouraging, at the same time, you always want to do better, just on GP
FoeWeel:
From a production and MC standpoint, who are your influences ?XXXchange: My influences as a producer and as a DJ are all over the place from doo-wop to funk and soul to radio hip hop, especially Timbaland, to DFA stuff, which is maybe my biggest influence. Oh, and classic rock, like Creedence and Chicago and shit.
FoeWeel:
I hear that you guys have remixed the track 'The Eraser' off of Thom Yorke's album of the same name. Knowing that he's thrown such huge praise out to you guys, how did you react and what did you think of the acknowledgment ? The same with the 'Earth Intruders' remix by Bjork. I think it's one of the best Bjork remixes I've heard in a long time and it might even top the original. Two of the biggest and credible and influential names in music are fans. It must be an honor that two people that continue to push music forward are throwing credit your way.XXXchange: It's really flattering, man, I mean really, I want to stop doing remixes now! It's like what else am I going to do!?! unless, you know, Puffy wants to pay me 20k to do one or something (!) seriously though, it was a really great honor that they asked for remixes, I felt kind of stressed out when I found out, but when i actually sat down to do the mixes the music came really easily and it's probably two of the best things I've ever done. As a producer you're always accompanying somebody's lyrics and singing/rapping. It's the easiest thing in the world to make a good piece of music when the vocalist is that great.
FoeWeel:
What's the strangest request for a remix that you have encountered from an artist or record company?XXXchange: Lot's of sub-par rock shit. Like whiney emo-ish stuff and we make these really exuberant / fun records and it's like "why did you pick us for this again?" Usually they're asking for the wrong reasons.
FoeWeel:
Hip-hop seems to be the American version of dance music. How has the reception been in other parts of the world to your music and shows?XXXchange: We usually tailor the show depending on what part of the world we're in...more house and electro stuff for Europe, can't really get away with playing too much Creedence over there. You know, you can't really play alot of straight up dance music in the US, it has a stigma here. You have to play dance-rock, or dance-rap or whatever... god forbid you play Mr Fingers or something people are like "are you going to play techno all night? When are you going to play 'sexy-back?'" like that.
FoeWeel:
Who would win a mixed martial arts, or thumb wrestling battle between Naeem and James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem ?XXXchange: Murphy. he's huge. Naeem makes spaghetti look fat.
FoeWeel: If you could have one superpower, what would it be and who in the music world would be your arch nemesis ?XXXchange: Easy. To be able to stop time and Diplo. ( for no other reason than he's the competition. no beefo.)
FoeWeel:
Fork, Spoon or Spork ?XXXchange: Spoon. They are also a great band as well as a utensil for eating soup.
FoeWeel:
What do you see as the differences between both cities (New York, Baltimore, Philadelphia) and which city has influenced your musical style more ? Philly Cheesesteak or Maryland Crabs ?
XXXchange: I've never lived in philly, I pretty much left Baltimore straight for New York so my influences are rap, club music and disco more or less in that order. I had no idea Josh Wink was from Philly!? Cool. He's awesome. Definitely crabs though. Seriously.
FoeWeel:
For the Fabric release, was it difficult getting releases for all of the music ? Were there any songs you guys wanted to include, but couldn't for whatever reason ? You guys are the first hip-hop act to be in the series. Have you guys checked out any of the other releases. It is a wide variety of dance music and I think you guys fit perfectly in that mold.XXXchange: Yeah the licensing was a huge debacle, but Fabric handled it very well, the problem was more with the record companies / artists. Still we got some really great stuff in the end and changed our ideas enough to make it work. The only regret i have is that we couldn't credit the guest rappers or any of the re-edits directly, to avoid f*ing up the licensing. Oh well.
(note that the Fabricdead 33.3 : The Remix Mixes was just released which contains all of the original tracks and re-edits that were intended to be on the original release - limited to 1000 copies )© FoeWeel, Inc.
Labels: bjork, forwardmusic, spank rock, spoon, thom yorke, xxxchange
