The W interviews producer Blockhead

Blockhead has been mostly known for his production on close friend Aesop Rock's albums such as Float, Labor Days, and most recently None Shall Pass, but can also be hailed for his sample-filled and thickly-layered songs on his solo albums and EPs like Downtown Science and Music by Cavelight. The W caught up with the man behind the music, while finishing the tour with com padres Aesop Rock, Rob Sonic, and DJ Signify on their last show at the MJQ.

W = The W
B = Blockhead

W: How long have you been making music?
B: Getting paid for it or just making it?
W: Just making music.
B: Since early ‘90s. I didn’t get my sampler until ‘94-95, but I was making beats for other people before that in like ‘92. So, I’d say ‘95.
W: Getting paid at all?
B: Oh, no. I started getting paid for it professionally in 2000 and not much. I didn’t get paid for it much.
W: Paying dues, right?
B: Exactly.
W: Other than producing beats, do you have an instrument background in music?
B: No, not at all. Other than being forced to play the clarinet in 5th grade, I never played an instrument. My mom used to play the piano, so I would bang on that sometimes, but beyond that I was always just into rap.
W: You just basically started sampling?
B: Exactly. I’m more influenced by the music I was raised listening to than I was actually playing.
W: That’s the next thing I was going to ask. What motivates you to make songs?
B: At this point, it’s almost automatic. I don’t think I have any clear motivation. It’s just the thing I do and I like doing it, but I never really think of it as inspiration and motivation. I just sit and think ‘soon I’ll make a beat.’
W: So, it kind of came natural to you?
B: Yeah. I used to rap and around the early ‘90s I just wasn’t any good, so I tapered off on that and started making beats. After a while, I saw I was a lot better at this than the rapping. It’s less embarrassing to do.
W: I hear you on that because I think I started out that way too and just thought, ‘Yeah, I’m not doing the rap thing.’ Plus there’s too many rappers out.
B: Exactly, I wish more people would realize that.
W: Yeah, but then there would be too many whack producers.
B: Well, there’s already too many of those. You been on MySpace lately?
W: I don’t mess with that a whole lot. (Both laughing) But back to the sampling, you just kind of picked it up in a way?
B: Over the years. I started making beats with a dude who had a side project and I’d be watching him work. Then Aesop, Omega (One), and I all got the same sampler around the same time and advanced with each other. As you get older, you figure out new things and expand your horizons a little bit. I’m not sampling jazz anymore.
W: So, if you weren’t able to be a producer, what would you be doing right now?
B: I’m a college drop-out man. I don’t know. I’d ideally like to do something in the arts, maybe writing, but honestly I might still be working in like a bakery. I really don’t know.
W: I hear the minimum wage has gone up at McDonald’s.
B: Really? Hey man, I might be there. Manager or something.
W: But seriously, maybe something in the arts?
B: Yeah. This is really the only thing I’m good at. I’m not good at math or anything like that. I started writing when I was younger and got to a point where I was a good writer, but can’t say that I am now. Outside of that, I never really cared enough for anything. I mean, ideally I’d like to be a professional basketball player, but you know.
W: Well, you’ve released a lot of work, some on your own and most on Ninja Tune. How has your music grown within itself and within you?
B: My musical horizons have expanded a lot. I don’t just listen to rap anymore. When I made my first album, I was heavily immersed in underground rap and not really trying to hear anything else. Also, simply I’ve been getting better with my equipment. The stuff I sample is constantly going to chance because the more I do, the more scrutiny I’m under as far as what I can and cannot sample, so I have to be really careful about that shit. I really have to figure out ways around it now.
W: Speaking of sampling, you’ve got a new self-released album (Uncle Tony's Coloring Book) out now, right?
B: Well, Ninja Tune is distributing it, but as far as the sampling thing, they put it out, but it’s not a Ninja Tune album because it didn’t get released in Europe. They only pressed out 5,000 copies. There’s no vinyl because they are insanely shook about the samples on there. I was initially going to put it out on my own anyway, then they heard rough cuts of it and were like, ‘Oh, we’ll do it,’ but then I gave them a list of samples and I was worried it was going to get shelved, but they finally said they’d put it out.
W: Is there anything you can tell us about the album?
B: Well, it’s an instrumental album. A sort of side project. I don’t want to say side project, but it was a step away from the stuff I’ve previously done. It’s still in the same vein, but it’s all over a 100 bpms because I felt kind of pigeonholed after the first album as being this depressed down-tempo guy, but I’m not that dude. I like making music like that and I like listening to it, but in my normal life I’m actually a pretty chipper guy. I’m not like sulking, lighting candles and shit. So, for the album, I thought to myself, ‘I have all these fast beats and no rappers are taking them. I like them and I’ll just turn ‘em into songs.’ Some are happy and some are fast, but I was just trying to expand the spectrum that I could work within, especially when I’m working in the club. I’m going to do another album with Ninja Tune, but when I do that, I want to be able to do a fast song, slow song, and anything in between.
W: So, this album is a bit more fast-paced?
B: Yeah, it’s upbeat. There’s definitely some extremely happy songs, but it’s also that almost every song is kind of conforming to a genre. There’s songs kind of rocky, disco, and jazzy, but they all pinpoint a different genre and make it fast, but that was only in hindsight. (laughing)
W: You kind of did that when you were in a group called the Party Fun Action Committee. How did that come about?
B: That was just me and a friend fucking around for years. We started doing that in the mid-90s as a joke on a 4-track, then I guess El-P heard it and was like, ‘I’ll put this out.’ So we did and it was like the least successful album ever on Def Jux, but it was the most fun I’ve had making music. If I could do anything for a career, that would it, just making funny songs all day long.
W: So, did you do most of the production on it?
B: No, Jer did the majority of it.
W: But you guys rapped and made the beats right?
B: Yeah, rapping, singing, doing skits. The thing is, there’s a lot of genres in the album. There’s like an ‘80s song, an r&b song, and he’s just really good at catching nuances that I’m just like, ‘I make rap beats.’
W: Are you guys going to make another album like this again?
B: I doubt it. We don’t have that type of free time anymore. We made that in a time when we were just chilling, doing nothing, and sitting around smoking weed all day. Now, I can’t do that.
W: Okay. On another note, I’ve read other interviews online about your live performances. What do you like or dislike the most about being on tour?
B: My least favorite is being away from New York and traveling. I hate traveling. I hate minivans. I hate living out of a bag. Eating out and not being able to exercise. I play basketball on a pretty regular basis in New York and when I’m away I’m just eating fried foods for like a month. The best part is the show and after the show. Just seeing your impact across the country. It’s not like that at all in New York and it’s not a big deal, but you go somewhere else and it’s like, ‘Wow! A lot of people listen to me in Colorado.’ So, that’s the best part, but pretty much everything else sucks about it. (laughing) It’s not like the rock star lifestyle people make it out to be. There’s not like orgies with groupies and stuff like that. Not on our tours.
W: Well, maybe if you put more Party Fun Action Committee albums out.
B: Maybe. That would be the groupie tour. (laughing)
W: Last question. You’re finishing up the tour and heading back home soon, are there any projects you are or will be working on after the tour?
B: I don’t know if I’m going to exactly hop into another album because the new one came out pretty recently, but I kind of have to because I haven’t made a beat in like five months. Maybe longer. I just haven’t. Sometimes I just don’t feel like it. So, I’m going to start getting back into that and Aesop’s going to be working on new shit. I just tend to make beats, turn them out, and choose which ones I’d like to use, but I just have to get back in the swing of things and make beats again because I honestly don’t remember how to use my sampler at this point.
W: So, you don’t have anything planned with other artists?
B: Not really. I’m working with this dude named Despot on Def Jux and Cage’s new album, I’m going to do a track or two, but nothing that’s ultra-time consuming.

For more on Blockhead visit:
http://www.myspace.com/theblockishot
http://www.ninjatune.net/blockhead/