Jason Bentley: Creative InspirationsIntroduction| 00:00 | (Music playing.)
| | 00:20 | I'm Jason Bentley on
subscriber supported 89.9 KCRW, Santa Monica.
| | 00:25 | Look at this! It's a CD-R of
my own remix of Bitter Sweet, guest
| | 00:30 | vocalist, collaborators on this new
album from Thievery Corporation. It's not
| | 00:35 | easy to bring a club into museum.
So there's always a little bit of a
| | 00:42 | disconnect, but it's more about
an experience for people.
| | 00:47 | Let's call the audience number two from Transit
Transit's forth-coming album from Autolux.
| | 00:52 | My position was I didn't want to take
it too far out. It was just taking it in
| | 00:58 | a new and a sort of dance
and electronic direction.
| | 01:02 | Including Justice, Soulwax, Simian Mobile Disco,
Boys Noize and more.
| | 01:07 | That's been my British Invasion, my punk rock movement,
my movement has been the Club Music Explosion.
| | 01:17 | (Music playing.)
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| Workspace| 00:00 | (Music plays.)
| | 00:08 | Here we are in the entrance to KCRW and
first I'll direct you your attention to this.
| | 00:13 | Why? What is this? As we come
down to the main hallway we have a bunch of
| | 00:19 | studios back here where all kind of
production is done. That's a digital mixing
| | 00:24 | board, broadcast standard. We have here
the Da-Lite Plus system, which is sort
| | 00:31 | of like Pro Tools. It's an editing
system for broadcasting. Over here we have
| | 00:36 | deck players and CD players for
production and it's all being mixed, integrated
| | 00:42 | here and broadcast out.
| | 00:44 | This is our main offices and notice in
public radio, nobody has got their own
| | 00:49 | office. It's like this no-frills type
of operation, but that's how it is public
| | 00:59 | radio. It's not like, we are not in some
Century City high rise. It's-- we're in the
| | 01:03 | basement of a college. What's up with
this color scheme is what I'm wondering?
| | 01:07 | Like purple and red, who thought of that?
| | 01:11 | So this is the main hallway for the
station, we have a lot of the posters here
| | 01:15 | on Chocolate City, Morning Becomes
Eclectic. All these posters are actually
| | 01:18 | done by students at Santa Monica
College. It's part of an art and design class
| | 01:23 | where they design posters for our
shows. Ah! Here is the poster for my show,
| | 01:29 | formally known as Metropolis and in
this case the student artist is riffing
| | 01:36 | on the Bentley luxury automobile.
| | 01:39 | The only thing I don't like is it
doesn't really say anything about the music
| | 01:44 | and that's such an important thing in
my program. It's not just about my name.
| | 01:49 | It's about music, so it doesn't say
that but it's cool. This is Liza's show.
| | 01:55 | She is formally known as The Drop and
she is a great example of someone who is
| | 02:00 | total inspiration to me. She just does
this whole like freeform gypsy women
| | 02:07 | kind of DJ thing where she just plays
all kinds of stuff and it just works.
| | 02:11 | It has such a vibe.
| | 02:13 | So it's nice to be around talented
people, people that are inspiring you,
| | 02:18 | playing music that I would have never
thought of playing, but I can take something
| | 02:22 | away from. So this is the Performance
Studio and Master Control is just right
| | 02:27 | through that window. So the artists
can see the host of the program and the
| | 02:33 | bands will setup in here. You see we
have a piano here. This would be a drum
| | 02:38 | booth to get some separation there
and this has been the home of some
| | 02:44 | unbelievable performances.
| | 02:47 | Everybody, I almost can't even think
because there are too many people that
| | 02:51 | have been here over the years. Three-
four times a week and there will be a live
| | 02:56 | performance from this room.
| | 02:58 | All right, so here we are in Master Control.
| | 03:00 | I'm the first music program for the
evening slot, so we got the stagy old
| | 03:05 | newsies here. You constantly have to
think about what you are going to play next.
| | 03:09 | I have three minutes and three seconds
to figure that out, but not a problem,
| | 03:13 | I'm professional.
| | 03:15 | Now typically, you want to listen to
what you're playing and sort of try and
| | 03:19 | imagine the next best idea, the
continuity, and the flow. So with that in mind
| | 03:28 | I happen to know that Jazzonova, group
from Berlin, probably have a nice sort of
| | 03:34 | Brazilian musicality to them. So we are
going to give this a shot, feel pretty
| | 03:38 | good about it.
| | 03:39 | In about seven seconds I'm going to
make the transition. It's going to be
| | 03:43 | magic, are you ready? That's it. Yes,
so that's it. That's DJing 100,
| | 03:52 | very simple.
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| Career philosophy| 00:00 | (Music plays.)
| | 00:08 | Growing up in Boston, Massachusetts,
I actually had just the classic East
| | 00:16 | Coast to urban environment and when I
was 13, I was transplanted out here to
| | 00:22 | Santa Monica. All of a sudden I landed
in a very homogeneous world, sort of
| | 00:29 | yuppie, wide upscale West Side and
Boston is like this great East Coast melting pot.
| | 00:36 | So I really attribute a lot of my
creative direction and career path as
| | 00:43 | ways to find the urban aspect of Los Angeles.
| | 00:50 | I found that in the club scene and
that was something that I just was really
| | 00:55 | drawn to. That's been my British
invasion, my punk rock movement, you know
| | 01:02 | things that other generations have
experienced. My movement has been the club
| | 01:07 | music explosion and the power of
that moment has been so profound. People
| | 01:15 | coming together from all walks of life,
the power of dance and bringing people
| | 01:22 | together from different worlds, all
that is just really important to me.
| | 01:26 | So that's kind of the promise
of this underground music.
| | 01:30 | By the time I got to college, I
started to really do things more pro-actively
| | 01:35 | like getting involved in college radio,
writing for music, fanzines, and going
| | 01:42 | out to events and putting together my
own events. And without really a plan as
| | 01:47 | far as a career. More doing things
that were fun, felt good, hanging out with
| | 01:54 | people who were like minded. I would
find these places where I could just be
| | 02:01 | immersed in that world. Those are the
days when you are just doing things that
| | 02:05 | feel fun and feel all right and you
are not overthinking it and you don't
| | 02:08 | really know where it's going take you.
I certainly didn't know that 15, 20
| | 02:14 | years later I would still really be
doing and touching on the same ideas but
| | 02:20 | I am and I have been able to
carve out a career and a reputation.
| | 02:25 | Initially, as far as the record
business, I first took my jobs in the record
| | 02:30 | business to really to pay for more
music. That was my scheme was I work for a
| | 02:36 | record company to pay for the records I
want to buy and so my first job was as
| | 02:40 | a A&R Scout for London Records out of
New York and I would basically send them
| | 02:45 | cassette tapes of my favorite new
music that I was coming across. That was my
| | 02:50 | role as a scout. I started the label
called Quango for Island Records. I worked
| | 02:56 | with them for couple of years and
then amicably split to pursue my next
| | 03:02 | position in A&R, which was
with Madonna's Maverick Records.
| | 03:06 | So there I think the most significant
thing to my credit there was doing the
| | 03:11 | Matrix soundtracks and also seeing
the dismantling of the record business
| | 03:18 | because when I first came into
Maverick it was still the heyday of the
| | 03:21 | business, big money was being spent,
promotion budgets, marketing budgets,
| | 03:27 | everything was just flush. And by
the time I left it was just crumbling,
| | 03:32 | the whole business was crumbling. So it was
an interesting examination of the decline
| | 03:37 | of a business model.
| | 03:41 | Then after Maverick I kept pursuing
my music supervision things in film and
| | 03:47 | commercial advertising and video games
and that's pretty much where we are now.
| | 03:52 | I'm still doing radio six nights a week
on KCRW, on KROQ, and I'm taking all of
| | 03:57 | that emersion in the music scene as a
DJ and as a tastemaker and applying it to
| | 04:03 | various projects. I always try and
make sure I have a creative outlet in
| | 04:10 | some way and it sorts of feeds me, it
feeds my process and so remixing is part
| | 04:15 | of that because it allows me to get
that much more into the music and closer to
| | 04:21 | the music.
| | 04:22 | My discipline is putting the pieces
together as a DJ and having the ear and
| | 04:28 | taste and the vision to put things
forward. All of that is a talent but all I'm
| | 04:35 | saying as I'm not your traditional
musician. But remixes allow me to take that
| | 04:40 | whole skill set and apply into a song.
Look at a session, open it up and just
| | 04:45 | be creative in terms of how I want to
interpret that. It's really strangely the
| | 04:50 | same thing that I really set out to
do as a young man, which wass just being
| | 04:56 | excited about music. That's whole
feeling when you go to the record store
| | 05:00 | and you are excited about discovering something.
| | 05:03 | So I think that same feeling exists in
all of the things that I'm doing. If I'm
| | 05:07 | placing a song in an advertisement or
in a film and I'm making a difference for a
| | 05:12 | band, if I'm helping to break an
artist at radio. All of these little things,
| | 05:18 | it just makes me feel that I have
purpose in a way and that ultimately is
| | 05:24 | all I need. I really just want to be
able to look back and have a sense of
| | 05:30 | purpose in the world.
That would be satisfaction to me.
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| Working in radio| 00:00 | (Music plays.)
| | 00:08 | All right, well normally I get to
the station, look at my mailbox and
| | 00:12 | low and behold! Some new music for me
tocheck out from North Carolina.
| | 00:21 | See what we got, drum roll... It's Martin
Sexton, Live. Hmm. Probably not going to play a whole
| | 00:29 | lot of that but hey, that's the game.
And here is something that might be
| | 00:32 | promising. It's XL recordings.
This something from El Guincho.
| | 00:37 | Hmm. This could be interesting. Anything from XL,
I mean that's the thing I respond to as I'm
| | 00:43 | looking at who's mailing this to me
and if it's XL, then I'm pretty much down.
| | 00:47 | This is from Cornerstone Promotions in
New York and they are sending Matt and
| | 00:52 | Kim with Day Lights, Brooklyn's
favorite destructive dance duo. I'm in!
| | 00:57 | All right, going to give that a listen to.
Toss this stuff and there is today's haul at KCRW.
| | 01:06 | Now this is not inclusive of what I
get at home and my P.O. Box. So there is
| | 01:11 | quite a bit more but here's today's KCRW haul.
| | 01:15 | Well right now I host and produce a
night time, a week night program on KCRW
| | 01:21 | formally known as Metropolis but we
recently decided to lose all the names of
| | 01:27 | the shows because it was really sounding
a little too college radio. Just because
| | 01:32 | there's so many different names.
| | 01:34 | Originally Metropolis meant to kind of
reflect the nighttime atmosphere, the
| | 01:40 | mood, the feeling of the city, the
urban environment at night and so there's
| | 01:45 | a pulse, there's a rhythm, there's energy
and I was just trying to express that.
| | 01:51 | I mean we are here in Los Angeles,
which is an amazing city, very diverse, very
| | 01:56 | cosmopolitan, and it's just capturing
that feeling of the nighttime, of the
| | 02:02 | freeways of Los Angeles.
| | 02:04 | I mean we have got a unique audience,
kind of a captive audience in Los Angeles,
| | 02:09 | because some many people are in their
cars and so that experience of traveling,
| | 02:14 | moving, rhythm, music. I'm just trying
to tap into that energy. It's kind of
| | 02:19 | the core inspiration. I think the
tagline for the show is 'The Hypnotic Pulse
| | 02:24 | of the City' or something like that.
| | 02:26 | There's actually a difference in my
mind between DJing and programming. DJing
| | 02:33 | is just expression. It's just creativity.
It's about reacting to an environment,
| | 02:40 | a club environment or a restaurant or
a cocktail party or being live on the
| | 02:45 | radio but it's just pure expression.
That's DJing, that's really where the
| | 02:49 | talent of DJing is.
| | 02:50 | Programming is more of a calculation
of trying to establish rotations of
| | 02:56 | music, so that there is some familiarity.
Because what I'm also trying to do on
| | 03:00 | some level is connect the dots for
people based on new music that's coming out,
| | 03:05 | bands that are coming to town. So what
I try and strike a balance with is the
| | 03:10 | world of DJing and programming, so
that feels like there's a creative energy
| | 03:14 | going on but also I'm hitting on
things with some consistency, so that the
| | 03:20 | listeners hear something again maybe
a couple of times a week, three time a
| | 03:24 | week. I have really crafted a pretty
good ear for the music, so I know what I'm
| | 03:28 | looking for pretty quickly.
| | 03:31 | Back in the day when we would get
vinyl it was like a needle drop. He just,
| | 03:34 | check, check, check, okay I'll play it.
Nowadays you just scan, scan, or if it's an
| | 03:39 | MP3 you just, sort of, click, click,
click and you can kind of tell if
| | 03:43 | something has promise. Also because
I'm totally immersed in the music scene,
| | 03:47 | I'm aware of producers, record
labels, managers, the artists, the other
| | 03:54 | elements of how the music is being presented.
| | 03:58 | So you are picking up on other cues
that make it easier for you to either get
| | 04:03 | excited or pass on something. I have
been at KCRW for something like 17 years.
| | 04:09 | And then about three-four years into my
KCRW show, I get a call from the folks
| | 04:15 | of KROQ. I have been plug-in away at
KROQ, just quietly doing my things Saturday
| | 04:20 | nights, mid-night to three. So they
don't bother me. But I am in that unique
| | 04:26 | position especially at commercial
radio station where again they are not
| | 04:29 | telling me what to play, which is
incredibly unique this day and age.
| | 04:32 | Now the real estate of the air waves
is just, everything is accounted for,
| | 04:38 | every moment, every song is considered.
That's real estate where we are business
| | 04:43 | and we are selling this and so to
have my three hour chunk unmolested is
| | 04:49 | pretty remarkable. I do keep it
directed at a young male suburban KROQ type
| | 04:56 | audience. I don't really go
over to R&B, soul, disco, house.
| | 05:03 | If it is has that softer more feminine
edge then I kinda of, I keep
| | 05:09 | away from that really because I just
want it to make sense for KROQ. As far as
| | 05:14 | the feeling of helping artists get a
foothold and break, it's definitely
| | 05:22 | gratifying. I like seeing my name in
the liner notes and thank you. Groove
| | 05:27 | Armada are good example of lovely guys.
They seem to really appreciate the help.
| | 05:33 | Portishead, where I played, I was the
first one in America to play their music
| | 05:39 | and at that time I played it of a
cassette tape on air. Tthe album wasn't
| | 05:44 | final. It wasn't finished but I could
tell it was something special. Daft Punk,
| | 05:50 | before they were Roberts, they were
friends and now it happened on the air here
| | 05:56 | and it also happened at clubs locally.
| | 05:58 | I always like it when I challenge
myself creatively some way and take a chance
| | 06:02 | and it may mean running into the music
library last minute and you are dashing out
| | 06:08 | of the room and you look at the how
much time you have left on the CD player
| | 06:12 | and go, okay I'm going go to chance it,
I'm going to do it. And you run and go find
| | 06:15 | a CD and maybe you got the wrong CD.
You have to go back last minute and then
| | 06:19 | it's all like last second and it comes
together and then you are just like yes!
| | 06:23 | It works. Or it doesn't. But there is
that feeling of creative reward that's
| | 06:30 | always important too.
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| Music library| 00:00 | (Music plays.)
| | 00:08 | Moving into the music library for the
radio station, which is the hard work of
| | 00:13 | many people over years and years and
years. And you see the wall is double
| | 00:19 | thick, lined with CDs and that's just
one wall. Usually what I do when I come in
| | 00:25 | first is to check what's new each day.
The new recordings are posted and so I'll
| | 00:32 | see what's going on here. We have got
the new Keane album, got a record from
| | 00:36 | Herbalizer, Amp Fiddler.
| | 00:38 | So some pretty good stuff and all of
these new releases are basically in this
| | 00:45 | area of the library, so it's easier for
me to access the new stuff as compared
| | 00:52 | to everything else that's come out
over last 25 years. But when I do want to
| | 00:56 | access something that's come out over
the past 25 years, they are all here and
| | 01:01 | they are organized in the drawers.
We have got everything from Jill Scott,
| | 01:05 | Nitin Sawhney, Sea and Cake, Seal's
greatest hits, Sebado; and this just the SC
| | 01:15 | through SE.
| | 01:17 | And yeah, tons of vinyl. Not everybody
plays a lot of vinyl but some of us do
| | 01:23 | and we have got turntables. So it's
not a big deal. So yeah, down here is the
| | 01:29 | other world of jazz, Charlie Mingus.
This is African music here. We have
| | 01:34 | soundtracks behind here, a lot of stuff.
I usually come in 10-15 minutes before
| | 01:43 | the show starts and just get a bunch of
material together and the reason of why
| | 01:48 | it's not more time than that is
because I'm doing so much radio through the week.
| | 01:53 | I mean just remember I'm
on the air six nights a week.
| | 01:57 | So it's really a constant and I
can take advantage of that, use that as
| | 02:03 | strength. It's not like I have to
produce one show a week and I want to make
| | 02:07 | that show so distinct. It's more
like just a constant flow of adding new
| | 02:12 | things, checking out new things and
really I'll go directly to the new music
| | 02:17 | section, the new CDs and I'll just
start to go through that and it's really new
| | 02:23 | to the extent of probably four or five months.
| | 02:26 | So it's still lot of music and that's
my starting point is what's new and that will
| | 02:34 | often times make the connection to
something that's older and I'll come back
| | 02:37 | and pull that as well. But a lot of what
I do is what's the latest thing. It's
| | 02:42 | really impossible to know everything,
but over the span of 10 or 15 or 20 years
| | 02:48 | you become familiar with the lot of
great stuff. And sometimes I'll just go
| | 02:54 | through an exercise of maybe doing
an hour or maybe a whole show will be
| | 02:59 | without any preparation and I'll just
have to come out and get one of these
| | 03:04 | drawers open and just pick some
things and just do that unprepared,
| | 03:14 | unrehearsed exercise.
| | 03:16 | It can be really refreshing and
sometimes you just get into it right off,
| | 03:20 | especially as often as I DJ and
that's part of the discovery of the music
| | 03:23 | library and what it offers is
that no stone is left unturned. It's all
| | 03:29 | here for you and whether it takes a
couple of months or a couple of years or
| | 03:35 | whenever, it's here for you and it's
yours for the exploration. So, it's a
| | 03:42 | great working environment I would have to say.
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| Digital tools| 00:00 | (Music playing.)
| | 00:09 | Underneath here is a voila! Is a DJ rig,
turntables, some mixers and I can use this
| | 00:17 | at any time but really I just take a
line from the DJ mixer and make sure that
| | 00:22 | it's live and I'll use this line
for my digital rig. It's a variety of
| | 00:30 | components but mainly it's the laptop.
Of course I wouldn't know what to do
| | 00:36 | without this little puppy. Hard
drive. Here is kind of a mixing unit,
| | 00:43 | which-- this represents everything
happening on the laptop. This is kind of a
| | 00:49 | preamp unit that I use. It
drives the signal, controls the queue.
| | 00:53 | So now I'm essentially ready to go.
This is all I need to DJ. Once I launch the
| | 01:00 | software, we are set. I'm here in
the control booth at KCRW. Now, what I
| | 01:07 | typically set up to my right when
I'm facing the board is my laptop and on
| | 01:14 | this I run a program by M-Audio called
Torq and it's basically a DJ software
| | 01:23 | program that's an interface for the
organization and the playback of all of your music.
| | 01:29 | It could be MP3, could be WAVEs, it
could AIF, AIFF files and you can see on
| | 01:35 | the monitor here that it essentially
represents two different decks. It is sort
| | 01:42 | of queuing up two separate either, in
the real world it would be CD players or
| | 01:47 | turntables on each side, and then
there's a cross-fader in between and there is
| | 01:53 | volume control. There is EQ control so
LOWs, MID, HIGHs. There is GAIN up top.
| | 02:00 | You see a visual of the waveform,
which is really helpful, and they also
| | 02:06 | break the waveform down
into more specific counts.
| | 02:09 | So you can get a sense of the tempo.
Actually it also shows you the tempo.
| | 02:14 | This track I just queued up is 134.5 BPM,
Over here is 69.4 BPM. If you want to
| | 02:22 | just go based on BPMs of records you
can queue up things that have some more
| | 02:26 | BPMs and then they make it easier for
you to mix them. If not you can control
| | 02:30 | the pitch. That's what a normal DJ does.
You adjust the tempo of a record by
| | 02:34 | controlling the pitch.
| | 02:36 | So one of the benefits of this program
is it has a browser. I'll even expand
| | 02:41 | the browser here and it looks at all
of your iTunes organizations. So you see
| | 02:47 | the playlists that you have created
and all the music and as you can imagine,
| | 02:54 | these playlists like Recently Added
and Recently Played for me is really
| | 02:59 | helpful because I can just go to that
library and check out what I did I play
| | 03:06 | last night or what I played two nights
ago? So keep that rotation going or
| | 03:10 | add to the pool that's recently added.
| | 03:13 | Well when I first started it was
basically the turntables, which are now
| | 03:18 | hidden under this counter, and the CD
players and so that was it. The digital
| | 03:27 | revolution came along and just
completely changed a lot of stuff but really I
| | 03:35 | think for the better and it expanded
the horizons of what was possible, makes
| | 03:41 | things more accessible. In theory
I could go online and buy or download
| | 03:48 | somehow a song, any song right now and
rack it up and play it minutes later.
| | 03:55 | The fact that I'm online now or
maybe someone can send me a demo as an
| | 04:00 | attachment in an e-mail and it will
come right now and I can turn around and play
| | 04:04 | it immediately. So it's amazing how
much it has done for just the access of
| | 04:10 | music and not just locally but
globally. There's really no limitation. So,
| | 04:17 | I don't know how many other DJs are
actively using Torq on the air. Some of
| | 04:23 | them are, I don't if they have total
confidence in using a laptop to broadcast
| | 04:27 | and they would much prefer something
that they are familiar with, which is just
| | 04:30 | queuing up CD's and going in that
direction. It's totally fine. But this is the
| | 04:34 | way that I do it and I really do look
to the laptop for-- 90% of the program is
| | 04:41 | being mixed out of this and it
just runs straight through board.
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| Performing live| 00:00 | (Music plays.)
| | 00:09 | So as far as the music community in Los
Angeles, I really feel like we have it
| | 00:15 | very good. We have all the best talent
in all the genres will come through Los
| | 00:21 | Angeles and so we're spoiled. We got
the best of a world of music and so we
| | 00:28 | have got the festivals, we have got the
nightclubs, we have got a bar scene. So,
| | 00:35 | it's all happening here.
I hope people appreciate it.
| | 00:38 | I have made it my cause for years.
My cause has been the electronic music
| | 00:44 | scene and dance music scene because I
see something so important and powerful
| | 00:50 | and transformative in the dance music
world, apart from this sort of rock and
| | 00:56 | roll system of touring and ticketing
and go sit in your seat and you adore this
| | 01:03 | pop star, I get it. But dance music to
me is so much more empowering to people.
| | 01:09 | You go out and you are the source of
the energy. You are the star and the
| | 01:13 | potential to meet and connect and see
different people from different parts of
| | 01:19 | the world, which is really exciting
and has always been the part of my whole
| | 01:25 | movement.
| | 01:27 | When it comes to picking and choosing
the gigs that I play, mostly people have
| | 01:31 | to find me. I kind of make them
figure it out how you are going to get in
| | 01:35 | touch with me. I'm not actually
soliciting DJ work. I don't have a manager,
| | 01:40 | I don't have a booking agent, and nobody
is out there knocking on doors asking to
| | 01:45 | book me.
| | 01:45 | I was the first DJ to play at the
Academy Awards. I have played the Emmy
| | 01:52 | Awards after party two years in a row.
My point is that I'm doing something
| | 01:57 | right in terms of visibility but I just
think that you have to get it. You have
| | 02:01 | to know that you want what I do. Last
weekend I played an Obama benefit with
| | 02:08 | Hillary Clinton speaking and Bon Jovi
playing and I'm DJing. Like, what?!
| | 02:15 | In a couple of weeks I'm playing the HARD
Festival which is with Justice and Soulwax
| | 02:21 | and Simian Mobile Disco, like the
freshest, edgiest, hard electro rock, like
| | 02:26 | underground, kids, just rabid kids.
| | 02:30 | I do play at various museums and
cultural institutions around the city. Mostly
| | 02:36 | it's linked to current exhibitions and
them wanting to draw a new and younger
| | 02:44 | audience to appreciate the museum. It's
not easy to bring a club into a museum.
| | 02:53 | So there is always little bit of a
disconnect. But it's more about an
| | 02:58 | experience for people.
| | 03:00 | So to be able to play such a wide
range of things, I think the bottom-line is
| | 03:06 | that no matter what little scene or
community you are from, I think people
| | 03:13 | just appreciate that, well, I have got
great taste and whatever it is, I'll be
| | 03:18 | playing some good music.
| | 03:20 | Its also about being put into a
situation and trying to solve that puzzle in
| | 03:26 | terms of, in a very subtle way, what's
going to unlock kind of the energy or
| | 03:31 | the potential of the room and I'm
always looking for signs from the audience.
| | 03:37 | It could be that guy way in the corner.
He just tapped his foot. Okay, I think
| | 03:42 | I got him. And you are always
looking for that reaction, especially in
| | 03:47 | situations maybe it's the opening of a
high-end restaurant or a cocktail party
| | 03:52 | or political event or something where
it's a little more difficult to solve,
| | 03:56 | how do we figure this out? How do we
take these people somewhere? It is kind of
| | 04:00 | this musical journey you want to take people on.
| | 04:03 | We are in a great position because
people trust the brand of KCRW. So to a
| | 04:11 | certain extent they are going to go out
to things just because KCRW is part of it.
| | 04:16 | So that gives us an opportunity to
present a lot of unknown talent, talent
| | 04:21 | that as a standalone maybe people
wouldn't go see it, but as a KCRW show,
| | 04:27 | people give it a shot. So we take
advantage of that, especially at the
| | 04:30 | Hollywood Bowl where we do a world
festival and we will mix and match groups
| | 04:35 | that would never play together and
almost speak to completely different
| | 04:41 | communities normally, but they can
all come together and I think people
| | 04:45 | appreciate that and I also think
that people buy tickets for that series
| | 04:51 | without even knowing who is
on. They don't have to know.
| | 04:54 | I think really a lot the festivals
that have come up in the last five to ten
| | 04:59 | years have taken the cues from what we
have done. This eclectic kind of formula
| | 05:08 | and being able to say like, you as a
listener, you can handle it. You have got
| | 05:15 | an open mind, let's give you credit.
| | 05:17 | You see that festivals have done over
the years, things like Coachella,
| | 05:21 | there is such a huge range of music on
those bills now. That's kind of the thing to
| | 05:26 | do is present more of an eclectic
format. So, yeah, we have got nice crop of
| | 05:32 | music and genres colliding and music
scenes, very active, very fertile.
| | 05:39 | LA is the place; it's the place to be.
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| Remixing music| 00:00 | (Music plays.)
| | 00:09 | Remixing music. I have done a number of
different remixes over the years. It's
| | 00:13 | mostly for me a way to stay creative
and involved with music, more so than
| | 00:21 | DJing. It lets me really get in. But
it allows me to use my DJ sensibilities,
| | 00:28 | my taste and my feeling for the
potential of a song in a different area.
| | 00:33 | Maybe a club version or a different
version. It lets me apply those skills.
| | 00:40 | The intention of remixes is sort of --
there are a few ways to look at it.
| | 00:45 | One way is you want to take an exiting
song, but you want to turn on a whole
| | 00:50 | different group of people to that same
song. So you kind of want to take that
| | 00:53 | song into an area it wouldn't
otherwise be able to access.
| | 00:58 | For instance, the club scene. And
that's why people typically do remixes.
| | 01:03 | They take a song and maybe isn't arranged or
prepped or written with a club scene in
| | 01:10 | mind but you will repurpose it for
that club. You will give it the sort of
| | 01:16 | required arrangement for a club DJ, a
mix-in of 30 second or more, a mix-out,
| | 01:24 | a big kind of kick syncopation to it,
four to the four kick drum. But also these
| | 01:29 | days with so many bedroom producers and
with electronic music software being so
| | 01:37 | accessible, there no longer has to
be such a specific purpose for a remix.
| | 01:44 | Remixes nowadays can be completely
just creative, a postmodern exercise of
| | 01:52 | cutting and splicing and rearranging
and mashing up different ideas. So it's a
| | 01:57 | pretty exiting field just creatively
because the creative stakes are really high.
| | 02:04 | It's a fertile creative ground.
| | 02:07 | When I get a remix opportunity I look
at it as creativity and collaboration
| | 02:14 | and I'll usually call up a friend who
is an engineer that I want to hang out with.
| | 02:21 | It takes a long time. It's really
hard work over days and weeks and
| | 02:27 | sometimes you take a break and you come
back to a remix after you have sort of
| | 02:31 | put it out of your mind for a little
while and you come back with fresh ears.
| | 02:34 | So you need to want to hang out
with these people and feel like you can
| | 02:39 | communicate with these people. Also
I don't typically want to be in the
| | 02:44 | situation of being the squarepusher on
the computer. It's just not what I want
| | 02:50 | to be doing. So like you will notice in
my home rig, it's pretty striped down.
| | 02:53 | It's basically like record-- a DJ rig,
you have got this and my microphone but
| | 03:00 | it's barebones. A lot of people are
just gear whores. They just have so much
| | 03:06 | stuff and everything and all of the new
software. I'm not really like that. So,
| | 03:12 | I let other people do that.
| | 03:14 | So I'll find an engineer that I want
to work with and we will go and we will
| | 03:17 | collaborate. I'll be writing parts and
we will be working on stuff and it is
| | 03:22 | very collaborative. Like I'll write
part of a baseline and maybe my guy, the
| | 03:27 | engineer will be like, let me try this,
let me try that one time boom, boom,
| | 03:31 | boom and I'll be like, yeah,
yeah that's cool, that's better.
| | 03:34 | We work in either Logic or Pro Tools
or both. Sometimes you do a lot of the
| | 03:40 | writing in Logic and then you do the
arranging and the editing and a lot of the
| | 03:45 | effects in Pro Tools. Then I have
another person who will master it and give it
| | 03:52 | that final sort of finish.
| | 03:54 | So it is truly collaborative but I'm
not saying that I work solo, alone on a
| | 04:01 | computer and write it and do all that stuff.
I really do collaborate with people.
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| Remixing the Silversun Pickups| 00:00 | (Music plays.)
| | 00:08 | One example I want to play for you
was a local band called the Silversun
| | 00:13 | Pickups. They wrote this song called
Lazy Eye, which I just fell in love with.
| | 00:20 | It kind of reminded me of classic
Smashing Pumpkins and it has a really
| | 00:27 | distinctive guitar line which pretty
much exists throughout the track and in
| | 00:34 | fact it starts the record. And it was
something that I also start my remix with,
| | 00:40 | but in a sense you'll hear the
original and then when you hear my remix,
| | 00:45 | you can hear how I start the same way,
but then it's a departure and you realize,
| | 00:50 | okay this is a different version.
| | 00:52 | I wrote new drums, new synth parts, a
whole different sort of a vibe. So first
| | 00:58 | I'm going to play the opening and the first
couple seconds of the original version
| | 01:03 | of Lazy Eye by Silversun Pickups.
| | 01:05 | (Music playing.)
| | 01:21 | One thing I really love about this
song is it's over five-and-a-half minutes
| | 01:25 | long which is definitely not standard.
Most songs are a neat three-and-a-half
| | 01:30 | to four minutes. Just the commercial
world has sort up tuned them into this timing.
| | 01:36 | So it shows that they didn't write it
with radio in mind. They just made a
| | 01:41 | great song, so I love that. But there
is a part in this song where they just
| | 01:46 | completely go out into left field
with feedback and guitar loops and
| | 01:52 | everything. Okay, right here you just
hear the feedback building and then the
| | 01:58 | guitar is surging and the drums
and it's just intense.
| | 02:02 | (Music playing.)
| | 02:05 | I'll skip in a little bit.
| | 02:06 | (Music playing.)
| | 02:15 | And you just don't really hear this
type of a thing on radio anymore, where a
| | 02:21 | song is just -- Stairway to Heaven or
something, those are great songs, and
| | 02:27 | they have let the song exist and build
in the dynamics but you don't hear it as often.
| | 02:31 | So I was definitely captivated. So here
is my version. I kept the same opening
| | 02:36 | but you will pretty quickly hear
certain synth parts coming in, introducing
| | 02:42 | more of a dreamy effect and then the
drums are totally different drums,
| | 02:48 | I rewrote the drums and so without further ado.
| | 02:52 | (Music playing.)
| | 02:57 | See like little weird synth parts?
| | 03:00 | (Music playing.)
| | 03:06 | Much louder drums, it's a rock pattern.
| | 03:10 | It isn't like a house kick drum.
It's a rock two-step pattern but it's
| | 03:15 | syncopated so that you can mix in.
So it's sort of DJ-friendly and club-
| | 03:19 | friendly and then I wrote a big synth
baseline here, more reverberance.
| | 03:27 | (Music playing.)
| | 03:29 | So you can tell that it's the same song.
I mean it's not that much of a departure and
| | 03:33 | that was where I calculated. I wanted
people to know this is the same song.
| | 03:38 | (Female singing: I've been waiting for
this moment, moment, moment, moment....)
| | 03:43 | I use the vocal, I chopped it out,
set it into a delay. One big thing about
| | 03:51 | club records and remixes is that you
are really trying to sort of play with
| | 03:54 | peoples heads and trip them out a
little bit. So that's why I'm using the vocal,
| | 03:59 | throwing it into reverb and so I'll
skip ahead to the area where I'm trying to
| | 04:07 | in a way engage the psychedelic nature
of the original, that part that I played
| | 04:12 | for you a moment ago.
| | 04:13 | So the track is firing along and then
I just drop it out. It just drops out
| | 04:20 | and builds up again.
| | 04:21 | (Music playing.)
| | 04:25 | That's a whole synth pattern, the FM7, just this
| | 04:30 | arpeggiating rhythm. But I'm kind
of trying to do the same thing with
| | 04:35 | electronics that they are doing with
electro guitar, feedback, drums in a rock sense.
| | 04:43 | I'm trying to do with electronics,
building a surging feeling and then I
| | 04:48 | actually come back to their drums.
So you'll hear their live drums.
| | 04:52 | (Music playing.)
| | 04:57 | So see that's them. And we haven't heard
their drums in my version up to this point.
| | 05:02 | So all of a sudden we are
kind of back to the original.
| | 05:05 | (Music playing.)
| | 05:17 | So anyway that's the Silversun
Pickups. You should have seen this
| | 05:22 | session. When I got their original
recording and opened it up in a Pro Tools and
| | 05:29 | I mean it was the most intricate session,
multi-tracks like you would not believe,
| | 05:35 | vocal effects, the craftsmanship of
that production was pretty, pretty
| | 05:40 | impressive and my position was I
didn't want to take it too far out. I wanted
| | 05:46 | people to hear that original guitar line,
I wanted people to hear the vocal,
| | 05:51 | but it was just taking it in a new
sort of a dance and electronic direction.
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| Music supervision| 00:00 | (Music plays.)
| | 00:08 | Music supervision came about for me as
an extension of DJing because I was on
| | 00:14 | the air and being on the air in Los
Angeles, I mean that's -- this is the
| | 00:19 | entertainment capital of the world.
So you are really speaking to writers,
| | 00:23 | directors, producers.
| | 00:25 | So I started to get calls from people
looking for help in music direction.
| | 00:31 | Music supervision can really mean a
variety of things; it can be anything from
| | 00:36 | placing existing songs in a project. So
in a way kind of DJing to a scene or a
| | 00:44 | game or an advertisement but it can
also be overall coordination of score,
| | 00:50 | hiring a composer, all of the
aspects of the recording of that score.
| | 00:57 | So it can be very, very hands-on
or it can be just almost all in
| | 01:03 | postproduction but ultimately you are
serving this project and you also have to
| | 01:08 | let go of whatever agenda you may have
individually. I come to the table with
| | 01:16 | a lot of contacts and a certain
aesthetic and a certain skill-set but ultimately
| | 01:22 | you need to have the open-mindedness
and versatility to serve that project and
| | 01:27 | even if you favor certain people's
involvement, certain composers, you almost
| | 01:34 | always just have to insulate
yourself from that kind favoritism.
| | 01:38 | Also if you are going to have any
longevity in music supervision, you need
| | 01:43 | have the versatility that I'm talking
about, an ability to adapt to different
| | 01:48 | projects. I kind of have a
reputation in electronic music and dance music
| | 01:55 | and because what I have done on radio,
but I have really actively tried to work
| | 02:00 | outside of that box as well to show
people that I can work on projects that
| | 02:06 | aren't exclusively
electronic. So that's important.
| | 02:09 | I have been on projects where I have
worked really well with the director and
| | 02:13 | then we have submitted our work maybe
over a month or two to the producers and
| | 02:18 | the producers have said we don't like
this, start over. And then the director
| | 02:23 | said, well guess what? I'm out of here.
This is my director's cut, see you guys.
| | 02:27 | I have realized that that is the norm.
People think, oh, well the norm is
| | 02:33 | probably a very smooth sail. Well no,
the norm is that anything could happen.
| | 02:38 | Things don't work. You are unable to
clear songs that you're really counting on.
| | 02:44 | It's wild ride, supervision. It's not easy.
| | 02:46 | A lot people come into it thinking oh,
yeah I can do that. Similar to DJing.
| | 02:51 | Well sure, DJ. Sure, I can do that. I
love Djing. And then the reality is you
| | 02:59 | have to be really tuned to the
situation and the people. I have in recent years
| | 03:07 | worked with Lexus and Reuters and
Jaguar and all these sort of -- Microsoft and
| | 03:14 | all these corporate brands where they
want to use music and the power and the
| | 03:17 | magic of music to strengthen their brand.
So they look to me as a taste maker,
| | 03:25 | as someone who has relationships with
all of these people but also has the ear
| | 03:29 | for new emerging music and they want a
piece of that. They want that taste to
| | 03:36 | reinforce their brand.
| | 03:38 | So it's easy for me to spend half or
more than half of my time really as an
| | 03:46 | extension of my work in radio. I'll be
playing music on the radio at night and
| | 03:51 | an idea will come to me, oh, this should
be perfect for that Microsoft project.
| | 03:55 | I just thought yeah, this would be
perfect. Or I'll be opening up mail at the
| | 03:59 | station and it could just as easily
relate to playing on the air as it does a
| | 04:04 | project I'm working on.
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| Music supervision: film| 00:00 | (Music plays.)
| | 00:08 | When you have a complete film, even a
rough cut, you sit down with the director
| | 00:14 | and the composer and you spot it and
you are essentially, by spotting it, you
| | 00:19 | are starting to develop a queue sheet,
which is the very specific mapping of a
| | 00:27 | film for everything, from score to
source. The source meaning a song
| | 00:33 | that you would put in there, maybe
it's back ground music, it's something
| | 00:36 | playing on the radio in the background
of the scene. You have really got to
| | 00:40 | map all of that out.
| | 00:41 | I usually pitch three, four different
ideas to the director for a particular
| | 00:46 | scene. I don't want to pitch too many
things, because you almost want to guide
| | 00:53 | the director. So, you've really got to
go in pre-clearing a lot of these ideas,
| | 01:00 | because the problem is that if you
play something and the director loves it,
| | 01:05 | then you are screwed. Because it's
something that is called temp love and often
| | 01:11 | times directors and their personalities,
they just, they don't want to hear no.
| | 01:18 | And so, they will get stuck on
something. They will just be trying so hard,
| | 01:22 | because they will like that idea.
| | 01:24 | So don't play it to them, don't show
them unless you can clear it. So it is a
| | 01:28 | balance between the creative
inspiration but also the ability to actually make
| | 01:35 | it happen. The highest profile project
I have worked on is the Matrix Trilogy.
| | 01:40 | So that was a great example of really
learning the craft of music supervision
| | 01:47 | because for the first one, I came in
when the film was in postproduction. So,
| | 01:54 | the film was cut. It was done
essentially and my job was to fill these gaps
| | 02:00 | with songs, to liaise with a record
company to create a soundtrack and also
| | 02:07 | fulfill the director's interests.
| | 02:09 | The directors really only had two
specific requests. They wanted Rage Against
| | 02:14 | the Machine at the end and they wanted,
there was one other. Oh! They wanted the
| | 02:20 | Prodigy. That was it. Those were high
ticket items, by the way. Those were
| | 02:26 | expensive licenses, just knowing
the profile of those bands, but it was all
| | 02:32 | postproduction. The film was done. I
didn't know the Wachowskis prior
| | 02:37 | to that and I was sort of thrust
into this situation and ironically,
| | 02:42 | the soundtrack got a Grammy
nomination and all this acclaim.
| | 02:46 | The film did really well, obviously, too.
| | 02:50 | It's just funny, because it was just
slapped together, with all existing.
| | 02:53 | No songs were written for the film. I
didn't have time for any that. It was all
| | 02:57 | just throw a bunch ideas at that and
just see what works, figure it out and
| | 03:00 | make sure that we got Rage, make sure
we got Prodigy and just get it out there.
| | 03:05 | And then some how that just really
resonated with people. So that was good.
| | 03:09 | Second one was more being involved in
whole process, even being on hand during
| | 03:17 | the shooting of certain scenes like
when Morpheus is talking to Zion and
| | 03:25 | playing that music and there is this
elaborate dance sequence, futuristic
| | 03:29 | tribal dance sequence and I actually
DJed to the set for the whole dance.
| | 03:36 | I have played the demo version of the song,
which alternately made into the film.
| | 03:40 | So with the second one, I was very much
a part of the process and working much
| | 03:46 | closer with the composer and the
overall picture. And then the third film was
| | 03:53 | all scored, but the goal there was to
actually try and develop a collaboration
| | 04:02 | between the composer Don Davis and
various electronic people. Juno Reactor
| | 04:08 | is one example where we really
put them in the studio together and we
| | 04:11 | said you guys, come together and create
a hybrid of score and orchestration meets
| | 04:18 | Sci-Fi tribal electronic.
| | 04:21 | The results are on CD. You could check
them out. The third disk, there is
| | 04:25 | no popular music there. There is no
Rage Against the Machine, there is none of
| | 04:29 | that. The third disk is a pure score
record, but the intention of it was that
| | 04:34 | it's a score that's integrated into a
futuristic electronic sound. I'm working
| | 04:42 | on the sequel to Tron, the Disney
cult film from 1983. That's going to be a
| | 04:52 | big focus of mine for the
next year and a half, two years.
| | 04:56 | There will also be a lot of
ancillary properties, like video games and all
| | 05:02 | kinds of things. You can imagine the
marketing that goes into that. So really,
| | 05:05 | music has to seep down and touch all of
those things. Whatever we establish as
| | 05:10 | the core themes need to really
take root in all of these other properties
| | 05:16 | that they create. It's huge project.
I'm excited, I'm nervous, but I'm really
| | 05:24 | pleased to be involved. It's a good
group of people and I think we are going to
| | 05:27 | do something incredibly special.
| | 05:28 | I feel like we are on the cusp of
something that's going to really impact
| | 05:32 | popular culture. So just like we
appreciate the original Tron 25 years later,
| | 05:37 | I really feel like we are going to do
something so special and people will think
| | 05:40 | back and go yeah, yeah! Tron, you
remember Tron 2? Yeah, so we'll see though.
| | 05:47 | Fingers crossed.
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| Music supervision: video games| 00:00 | (Music plays.)
| | 00:09 | Music supervision for video games is a
lot more technically demanding because
| | 00:15 | the nature of video games and how
music plays requires almost these loops,
| | 00:23 | instead of full compositions or songs
as we know it. It's broken down more and
| | 00:30 | it has trigger mechanisms built into
the engine, the music engine and within
| | 00:36 | the program to reflect
changes in the gaming.
| | 00:41 | So it's not like you are just scoring
to a defined picture. As you know, with a
| | 00:46 | game, you are controlling what happens
and so things could get more intense,
| | 00:50 | things can relax more and the music
has to reflect that. So it's like the
| | 00:57 | composition of the music requires
more specificity in how you writing in
| | 01:03 | sections and the sections have
to queue based on the action.
| | 01:08 | From a music supervisor standpoint,
it could be a game that's more almost
| | 01:14 | like a juke box of music playing.
Maybe it's a racing game or Rock Band type
| | 01:20 | of game where the music is more
defined as just hey, select the music that
| | 01:26 | works, that's right and put
it in there and have it play.
| | 01:29 | The bands also look at it as an
opportunity for exposure. The video game
| | 01:35 | oftentimes or the game company will
say oh well, it's promotion, it's spins,
| | 01:41 | it's building exposure for your band
and so you see specialized marketing
| | 01:49 | initiatives now where bands will put
out their new album or their new song
| | 01:54 | exclusively through a game because
they know that they are reaching young
| | 01:58 | people and it's legitimate.
| | 02:01 | It's another way to bring music to
people. The reality is young people are
| | 02:05 | spending lot of times with games.
I worked on a project called as Destroy All
| | 02:09 | Humans, which was a 1950s theme kind
of alien landing on earth and then just
| | 02:16 | blasting away. They wanted this hybrid
of classic 1950s meets electronic Sci-Fi
| | 02:27 | weirdness contemporary.
| | 02:29 | I had to remix old classics, 1950s
classics. A Little Star, Shaboom-Shaboom, all
| | 02:38 | this stuff and we actually put out a
soundtrack too. So as a companion piece to
| | 02:42 | the game you could get for free or
it was bundled with the first 5000 games.
| | 02:49 | It was an actual CD.
| | 02:50 | So that was really cool in terms of
working on the game, feeling good about my
| | 02:55 | work on the game, but also being able
to create this standalone soundtrack to
| | 03:00 | go along with the game.
| | 03:01 | Full Spectrum Warrior was another
game I worked on which is more based in
| | 03:08 | battle ground situations. So there
was certain intensity and it also had to
| | 03:16 | reflect the situations, the context.
Like being in this fictional Middle Eastern
| | 03:26 | war zone that they created in the
game. And just for having that ethnic
| | 03:31 | flare that was accurate
for the Middle East in a way.
| | 03:35 | So that was some of the requirements
there. Often times you are dealing with a
| | 03:39 | group of people on a game, a
group of developers instead of a singular
| | 03:47 | unified vision of a director on a film.
At least that's my experience. I think
| | 03:51 | as video games become more cinematic
in terms of their experience and I think
| | 03:56 | that's happening, I think certain
things will change and maybe they will become
| | 04:00 | closer but I find that the video game
world is more flying by the seat of your
| | 04:04 | pants. A little more clumsy, the
money is not there, they don't fully
| | 04:11 | understand the value of music
yet but perhaps it will happen.
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| Music supervision: advertising| 00:00 | (Music plays.)
| | 00:09 | Working on music supervision for
advertising, in some ways it's more fun because
| | 00:14 | it's such a concentrated frame, 30
seconds or 60 seconds, and also the
| | 00:21 | turnaround is quicker, so it's not quite
as draining long term as a film project
| | 00:27 | or a video game. You can use the quick
turnaround to your advantage, so that
| | 00:33 | if there is a song that I feel is
buzzing at the radio and if I feel is really just
| | 00:39 | ripe but nobody knows about it yet,
I can pitch it for an ad and then the
| | 00:44 | ad will run fairly quickly,
within a couple of months typically.
| | 00:48 | So you capture the arc of that song.
Maybe that song will also be getting more
| | 00:54 | airplay on the radio, will be getting
some video/television airplay. So it is
| | 01:00 | sort of fits in what's happening.
It feels very fresh, very now.
| | 01:05 | That's the potential anyway.
| | 01:07 | A recent campaign that I really
feel good about is this is Chevy Malibu
| | 01:12 | campaign. There were four different
spots that I worked on and a lot of them
| | 01:17 | ran during the Olympics, during the
Super Bowl, during the Grammys, and some
| | 01:23 | high profile stuff. So I got a great
feeling when I see my work running during
| | 01:30 | the closing ceremonies in the Olympics.
You don't get a bigger audience than that.
| | 01:34 | In advertising there are number of
hoops to jump through. You're dealing with the
| | 01:39 | agency, you are dealing with the
director. Sometimes you are dealing with
| | 01:42 | people you don't even know, you are
not in communication with. You are just
| | 01:46 | hear, Oh! Well so and so from the
agency thought that was a bad idea.
| | 01:51 | But in the case of the Chevy Malibu somehow
these really fresh independent music ideas
| | 01:56 | made it through.
| | 01:57 | I'm going to play this spot here
which is Oren Lavie from Berlin and it's a
| | 02:05 | really sweet spot. It's about a girl
growing up and she is on the conveyor belt at
| | 02:12 | a auto manufacturing plant, but she is
being surrounded by a car that's being
| | 02:19 | built around her. The idea is that as she
grows up, safety is first with this car.
| | 02:27 | So the song I felt like just had a
simplicity and an honesty and seemed to be--
| | 02:33 | The song is called "Her Morning
Elegance" and it seemed to be a balance, simple
| | 02:38 | beauty of a woman. So let's check it out.
| | 02:43 | (Music playing.)
| | 02:50 | So here she is growing up as a toddler,
| | 02:52 | there is her parents. Here are
the machines surrounding her.
| | 02:59 | (Man singing: Sun been down for days. A pretty flower.)
| | 03:05 | Preteen.
| | 03:06 | (Man singing: In a vase.)
| | 03:08 | Always looking out for those machines.
| | 03:09 | (Man singing: The fireplace.)
| | 03:11 | She is at the prom.
| | 03:12 | (Man singing: A cello...)
| | 03:13 | Graduating.
| | 03:14 | (Man singing: ...in it's case.)
| | 03:17 | She's off to her first job.
| | 03:19 | (Music playing.)
| | 03:22 | (Man singing: Soon she's down the stairs.
Her morning elegance she wears.)
| | 03:32 | (Music playing.)
| | 03:44 | I just liked how that song worked
and it was something originally very
| | 03:48 | instinctive and thankfully it survived.
I can only imagine how much criticism
| | 03:55 | was put on this. You imagine a company
like Chevrolet and I mean, imagine
| | 04:02 | the boardrooms. The stakes are so
high with this, and here I'm in my Venice
| | 04:08 | studio, just trying ideas, up against it.
So for that to actually survive and to
| | 04:14 | go out nationally is pretty remarkable.
| | 04:17 | Okay. This one is for an Indonesian
cigarette company. Um. Look, I don't know.
| | 04:26 | They called me, so I'm going to work
on it. You see these people, noticeably
| | 04:34 | they are very healthy and athletic,
even though they are apparently smokers.
| | 04:37 | They are running through this kind
of futuristic situation, jumping over things.
| | 04:47 | (Music playing.)
| | 04:53 | You will see an edit point here
where leaves come off of the tree.
| | 04:56 | The music is in sync, like a nice
instrument comes in. Notice how the music really
| | 05:05 | is synched with certain picture events.
| | 05:08 | (Music playing.)
| | 05:14 | That's a great example of where the
music cuts. And in this case, it's a band
| | 05:23 | called Zero 7. Now this band didn't
write this song for this picture. So the
| | 05:27 | picture really had to adjust to the
song and they had to have that flexibility
| | 05:34 | on the picture side. But the thing I
wanted to point out on this is when I
| | 05:39 | worked on this spot, I was looking at
these actors running through a sound
| | 05:45 | stage, everything was green screen,
there were none other details of this world
| | 05:52 | that we see.
| | 05:54 | So it's just a funny situation to be in
because I'll look at this after the
| | 05:58 | fact and go, wow, that's amazing. The
world that they visualized and created,
| | 06:02 | but I'm looking at these same shots
and they're in some sound stage in Culver
| | 06:07 | City and it's beautiful
how it all comes together.
| | 06:13 | In these cases, it makes me feel
really good in terms of my role as a music
| | 06:17 | supervisor, because these are career
changing events for these bands. I mean
| | 06:21 | they would never have the opportunity
to get this much exposure any other way.
| | 06:28 | I think part of the reward really is
just the satisfaction of knowing that you
| | 06:32 | made a difference for great music.
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| Bookmarks & bookshelves| 00:00 | (Music plays.)
| | 00:09 | Okay, so here are a few resources that
I typically use in getting new music and
| | 00:15 | finding it online.
| | 00:16 | The first is beatport.com, which is a
great resource for DJs. Basically that's
| | 00:22 | a record store. They've got a lot of
different ways that you can filter through
| | 00:26 | the music. You could also go to a
specific playlists from different DJs around
| | 00:31 | the world and I'm talking about a lot of
different DJs. There is a lot of music
| | 00:35 | here that's specially tailored for club
DJs and people who love techno and drum
| | 00:41 | & bass and house music and trance and all
of that. Beatport really does a great job.
| | 00:47 | But I wanted to go to another website.
This is more of a blog type of format.
| | 00:53 | It's called Record Label. They put
forward more of a vibe, an aesthetic scene,
| | 01:01 | but what I love is they write about
all the music, they give you all kinds of
| | 01:05 | links, they make it fun and exciting
in terms of your experience and all the
| | 01:12 | music is free. So it's sort of an ad-
supported model where the music is free
| | 01:17 | but you just have to deal with their
sponsors. It's all cool. I love what they
| | 01:22 | are doing. Here is a Meat Beat Manifesto
remix by Lee Combs, and I mean this is good.
| | 01:27 | This is good.
| | 01:27 | You feel like you are reading a
magazine, but you are also at the same time
| | 01:33 | getting free downloads from this
magazine. I often go to this website called
| | 01:37 | thedailyswarm.com because it basically
aggregates news stories, but they have
| | 01:45 | edited together the types of news
stories that I would be interested in as a
| | 01:51 | creative executive, as a DJ, as a
festival concert goer, as an electronic music
| | 01:58 | fan, they are kind of on the same
page somehow as this Daily Swarm. It's all
| | 02:04 | just to have a better view of
what's new and what's fresh out there.
| | 02:08 | All right so this is my CD collection.
It's organized fairly well, so it's a
| | 02:15 | working music library for me. Whether
I want to pull out something from the
| | 02:20 | Clash or music from Fugazi but it's
really 15, 20 years of real, active music collecting.
| | 02:32 | Moving down here, you can see the
start of the vinyl and unfortunately this
| | 02:36 | isn't as well organized as I would
like it to be. These are primarily import
| | 02:42 | dance singles and EPs from the late
80s through the 90s and through with this
| | 02:49 | decade as well.
| | 02:50 | Every single has a story and sort of
has a memory attached to it and so it's
| | 02:57 | just great. It's like each thing you
flash on a period of your life when maybe
| | 03:03 | I played this or I just love that
record and so it's just cool to spend a few
| | 03:10 | hours going through these tracks. Here
is music from David Holmes, who is an
| | 03:16 | Irish producer and composer, and I'm
actually playing his new album right now
| | 03:21 | on KCRW. And I just love vinyl.
The feel of it, the smell of it, you could even
| | 03:29 | see my fingerprints on the record
from way back whenever I played this.
| | 03:34 | The task is really that I need to
digitize all this stuff since I'm so
| | 03:40 | completely digital now. I have really
got to be disciplined about recording
| | 03:45 | some of the stuff and I don't know how
I'm going to do that. But eventually it
| | 03:51 | will happen. All of this will be in a computer.
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| Sources of inspiration| 00:00 | (Music plays.)
| | 00:08 | For inspiration, it's really about
interaction with people and listening to
| | 00:15 | their points of view. One way that I
try and stay inspired for the industry
| | 00:23 | side of things is I have gotten really
involved in the Recording Academy, which
| | 00:28 | is the Grammy organization. So besides
doing the Grammy show every year they
| | 00:32 | actually have an academy.
| | 00:35 | I have been on the Board of
Governors there for four years now and it's
| | 00:40 | basically a room where different
people from the industry get together once a
| | 00:44 | month and we deal with issues around
the music world, musicians and it's just a
| | 00:49 | great room. I'll be sitting next to -
it's so random but it's like the lead
| | 00:54 | singer of Earth, Wind and Fire will
be on one side of me, Philip Bailey and
| | 00:59 | then one of Elvis Presley's
producers is on the right. Everybody has this
| | 01:05 | viewpoint and this experience and
that's one way I try and stay inspired is
| | 01:08 | just interacting with these people.
| | 01:10 | It also might be people are way out of
my age group. They will be in their 60s
| | 01:16 | or something, but they have so much
knowledge and such an interesting perspective
| | 01:20 | on the world so that really if there is
just a simple conversation, you are going to
| | 01:24 | pick some stuff up.
| | 01:25 | The Recording Academy also is the type
of organization that's a non-profit and
| | 01:29 | it's not something you are paid for,
where you really have to change your point
| | 01:34 | of view from what am I getting out of
this to what am I giving into this, and
| | 01:40 | that's when you get, is when you switch
that around. But if you are only going
| | 01:45 | into it going, why am I
volunteering here? They have me come to
| | 01:49 | these boring meetings. And when you
switch over to just 'what can I really
| | 01:55 | contribute' and focus on that, then
all of a sudden, like magic, the universe
| | 02:00 | allows you to then get something out of it.
| | 02:03 | So that's important with not only the
Recording Academy but probably with any
| | 02:07 | kind of collaboration, whether I'm
working in a studio with a musician or
| | 02:13 | working on a remix or working with
director on a film, is really trying to
| | 02:18 | listen and see how much information
you can gain in terms of what you are
| | 02:23 | giving to the situation.
| | 02:26 | It's almost the search for what's next.
That's also really important in my
| | 02:31 | particular music scene. Dance music is
an electronic music in particular, it's
| | 02:36 | very much about what's next, what's
coming and it's sort of the need to
| | 02:44 | discover and find out is what
drives it. And it's what drives me.
| | 02:50 | I'm looking to be inspired every day.
When I go into KCRW and I go into the
| | 02:56 | music library and I'm checking out
new things, I'm going to come across
| | 03:00 | something that I didn't expect
and just really switches me on.
| | 03:05 | I think fundamentally with electronic
music/dance music is really about what
| | 03:09 | people can do that you've never heard
before and since that's fundamentally
| | 03:14 | part of the music scene, it's what
keeps me really excited to hear what's next.
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| Interview with Lynda| 00:00 | (Music plays.)
| | 00:08 | Lynda Weinman: Welcome to Creative
Inspirations. I'm your host Lynda Weinman
| | 00:12 | with lynda.com and I'm very
pleased today to be interviewing Jason Bentley.
| | 00:16 | Jason Bentley: Thank you.
| | 00:17 | Lynda: How do you like to
be referred to in terms of a title or
| | 00:21 | describing what it is that you do?
| | 00:23 | Jason: Yeah, I mean you are
correct. It's pretty broad, more than simply
| | 00:28 | DJing but I do like DJ because
there is the implication that that's a figure
| | 00:38 | that as a tastemaker presides
over different media, ideas, culture, a curator
| | 00:49 | but I really like the idea of being a
Renaissance man in music. So it's a lot of things.
| | 00:55 | Lynda: I was struck when I was
listening to some of the footage that we
| | 00:58 | have already shot of you that as
you are doing mixes that you are also a
| | 01:03 | musician. You are really more than
a DJ and I wondered if you had any kind of
| | 01:07 | musical background and how you
trained to do that sort of music?
| | 01:10 | Jason: Well because I have such a
high standard on the music that I
| | 01:17 | play as a DJ, I also put myself to that
high standard. So I'm not so quick to
| | 01:25 | call myself a musician. I don't
necessarily have a background. I have a love
| | 01:28 | for it and that passion for it, but
the nice thing is it always comes down to
| | 01:32 | your ear and even if I'm in front
of keyboard and I'm making my way fumbling
| | 01:38 | through a melody, its still about what
your taste is and what your ear is responding to.
| | 01:46 | So even though I don't have a
traditional training in that area, I can still
| | 01:49 | work through an idea. As far as my work
as a composer, slowly but truly I've
| | 01:55 | really tried to do come around and
be confident about it, but again that I
| | 01:59 | have such a high standard that I
can't just put it out there and say, oh this
| | 02:04 | is what I do and it's music and it's
great. I just always, it has to be as good
| | 02:09 | as everything else that I'm playing,
if that makes sense at all.
| | 02:12 | Lynda: It makes a lot of sense.
What I mean is I think most artist of
| | 02:15 | any genre are self-critical of what they do.
| | 02:18 | Jason: Yes, and it can be a
painstaking process, just letting that out
| | 02:21 | because I have so much respect for
that creative process. I mean I have really
| | 02:26 | made a career on being an editor and
an a filter of that. So over time, I hope
| | 02:35 | to let loose it a little bit more and
feel more confident about it but I'm very
| | 02:39 | cautious about that
part of my personal expression.
| | 02:43 | Lynda: Do feel like the digital
tools have opened doors for you that
| | 02:47 | wouldn't have been opened before?
| | 02:48 | Jason: Definitely. It makes it more
accessible, but also the remix has been
| | 02:54 | an important stepping stone for me
because when you think about it, with a remix
| | 02:59 | people aren't doing it for any
other reason but creativity. There is no
| | 03:04 | directive there is no major label,
there is no manager. People are just trying
| | 03:09 | ideas and so that kind of unfettered
creativity usually results in some pretty
| | 03:15 | exciting ideas. Sometimes it's
objectionable, maybe there are copyright issues and
| | 03:20 | people have all kinds of problems,
but that only comes into play when there is
| | 03:23 | money involved and if it's something
that's just put out there, perhaps through
| | 03:27 | the internet or a limited
edition release that is only on promo.
| | 03:32 | So there is no sales, there is no
money being generated, usually people look
| | 03:35 | the other way and they appreciate
at us as just creativity. I mean the truth
| | 03:40 | about music is, as music in song is
a tradition that humanity really owns. It's
| | 03:46 | not something that necessarily needs
to be commodified and given a price tag
| | 03:52 | really. I mean it's about tradition;
it's about an oral tradition. So hopefully
| | 03:57 | there is some respect for passing down
ideas, connecting things and of course
| | 04:02 | with technology allowing so much
more power over that process, I hope that
| | 04:07 | people are okay with it
and they see the importance of it.
| | 04:10 | Lynda: How have you seen the
iPod and the ability for people to make
| | 04:15 | their own mixes and order their own
songs impact the DJ profession, let's say?
| | 04:22 | Jason: Well the DJ booth has
certainly been revolutionized. The old
| | 04:28 | system was turntables, CD players, a
mixer which allowed you to bring up all of
| | 04:34 | these different sources and play them
at the same time or mix from one to the
| | 04:37 | other and now all of that is out,
which is quite a revolution. Now it can be a
| | 04:42 | laptop and perhaps a little piece of
outboard gear, the software program lets
| | 04:48 | you look at all of your music, your MP3s,
your WAVE files and bring them up and
| | 04:53 | mix them and you can do everything that
you would be able to by putting vinyl
| | 04:57 | on a turntable platter.
| | 04:59 | So that's a revolution within the
DJ boost. As far as mobile technology,
| | 05:04 | people downloading music, hopefully
it will save the record business, which
| | 05:08 | obviously has been in recession for
some time. Now there are new ideas where
| | 05:15 | when you get your phone service
you can opt for music and then you have
| | 05:18 | access to millions of songs and
you are just paying a little extra. So
| | 05:21 | everybody is looking for other ways
to bolster the economy in that area and
| | 05:26 | I don't think it has really become
clear yet, but there are some strong signs
| | 05:31 | that the industry will be back but
we do know that CD sales, physical CDs are
| | 05:37 | really in decline. So change is
eminent but hopefully the mobile technology
| | 05:43 | will give a nice boost.
| | 05:44 | Lynda: Do you find that
there are aspects that you prefer about
| | 05:50 | everything being digitized at this
point and searchable and do you prefer this
| | 05:55 | new way of working over the old,
having the LPs, or are there sort of
| | 06:00 | some visceral things about
the old ways too that you missed?
| | 06:02 | Jason: Recently I went through
my record collection and I was trying to
| | 06:06 | thin it out and maybe couple thousand
records just get rid of. I realize that
| | 06:12 | you just pulling out the vinyl pieces,
you flash on a memory that's very real
| | 06:18 | and digital will never take the place
of that. You remember a time, a moment of
| | 06:24 | time that I played that record in,
the smell of the vinyl, my fingerprints on
| | 06:28 | the record. That experience
will never be replaced by digital.
| | 06:33 | The advantages of digital are-- my
lower back is very thankful. I can bring
| | 06:40 | weeks worth of music to in a backpack
to a gig and it's unbelievable. I used
| | 06:46 | to have these two crates and I would
put them on a hand truck and I would take
| | 06:51 | that everywhere. So daily I would be
loading up at least twice or maybe
| | 06:55 | three-four times, loading up a hand
truck and going across to whatever
| | 07:00 | destination, the radio station.
| | 07:02 | I can't believe that that's how I did
things before. So the digital revolution
| | 07:06 | has been fantastic in other ways and
I'm happy to adapt. It has been good but
| | 07:13 | sometimes when I look back, I do miss
the vinyl and even then just feeling it
| | 07:18 | and touching it and smelling it,
there is something special there.
| | 07:21 | Lynda: All right. Are you
still going out into the clubs and
| | 07:23 | discovering new facts and new talents
and are there any trends that you are excited to discuss?
| | 07:31 | Jason: Yeah definitely. Well lately, it has
been a really nice fusion of rock and dance
| | 07:37 | energies and perhaps reminiscent of
the 80s when things were maybe less
| | 07:45 | categorized the way that they are.
It's going to return to just a refreshing
| | 07:51 | fusion of ideas and perhaps
technology has allowed for this too, because
| | 07:56 | technology can put ideas on a grid and
put them together in ways that maybe
| | 08:02 | weren't possible or thinkable in
the past. So you have a little bit of
| | 08:05 | country and you got a little bit of
rock, and you got a little bit of hip hop
| | 08:08 | and so all of that is easily done.
| | 08:12 | But yeah, the most interesting thing to
me lately has been a real rock and dance
| | 08:16 | collision where things are syncopated,
things are on a rhythmic grade and a
| | 08:23 | rhythmic energy but they have an
attitude to them. That's just sort of one
| | 08:29 | trend we are seeing lately.
| | 08:31 | Lynda: Well I want to thank you so much for being
a part of the interview. It has been wonderful.
| | 08:34 | Jason: Thank you, Lynda. I appreciate it.
Thank you for thinking of me and I
| | 08:38 | hope people find it compelling and interesting.
| | 08:40 | Lynda: Sure they will.
| | 08:42 | Jason: All right, thanks a lot.
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