The thing I love most about Soundcloud is the ability to just set up a group, have local talent add stuff to it at will, and be able to listen to all of it as a neat-and-tidy package. Lately I’ve even been peeping original tracks posted in the Boston Soundcloud users group I set up while on the train or when I’m out and about, straight from the iPhone. Without it, I wouldn’t have discovered gorgeus tracks like this:
Although the artist is listed as Frontier here, the Soundcloud associates back to a person who goes by the name GeoLogic; the former is most likely one of his aliases. Either way, there isn’t much info on GeoLogic outside his Soundcloud account, and that’s part of the whole mystique I like behind tracks like this. “Seeing Is Believeing” is a faceless, ego-free, and organic piece of music that delves deep into the confines of trip hop without losing its soul.
Synonomous with the Mushroom Jazz sound Mark Farina helped popularize, Seeing Is Believing lassos live guitar playing and, from another world, scratched vocal effects; sounds which are parallel universes apart from one another tend to work well in trip hop at the hands of a sampling artist who knows what he or she is doing. Like this guy.
A great artist who has mastered the craft of sampling not only knows what sounds to include in their work, but equally important, what sounds NOT to include. And in Seeing Is Believing, generic bits and dissonant bobs don’t make the cut. That’s probably a good thing.
If you are involved in the Boston electronic music scene, there is a good chance you may have heard of Amy Douglas, one half of the bleeding-edge duo SPF 5000. If you haven’t, give it a couple more months, you will. Even if you’re not from Boston. Amy’s making waves right now, working with a slew of significant musicians both within, and external to, the SPF5000 project. And unlike all the hype surrounding the Hurricane Irene hysteria a month ago, there’s a real storm brewing here!
Familiar listeners know about Amy’s gift as a vocalist, but a beautiful bold voice isn’t the only ace in her hand. She also takes responsibility for much of the songwriting muscle behind her SPF 5000, with partner Rob handling production duty. Amy loves music, and has the work ethic required to do the damn gig full time. I recently had the chance to toss back some drinks with her, learn a bit about where she came from, and where she’s going as a professional musician. Take a gander at what we talked about, if you will.
Not Just A Professional Musician
I’ve known Amy mainly through contact on Facebook and Twitter during the past year, noticing first and foremost her meticulous, almost Rainman-like knowledge of music in in all connotations. When she’s not status-updating or tweeting about her own stuff, she’s waxing poetic about everything from rock to gospel, funk, hip hop, R&B, and her biggest passion (which she was not at ALL reluctant to share): disco.
Amy’s the sort of person who can equally appreciate Fleetwood Mac when Stevie Nicks was running the show, just as much as the Peter Green-driven group circa 1968 when they were a relatively unknown British blues band. Not a “purist” who scoffs at Nick’s pop-friendly hooks, or a casual fan who won’t explore the earlier work just because none of the cuts showed up on the “Greatest Hits” compilation (or FM radio at all, for that matter).
Amy isn’t just a professional musician, but also a professional MUSIC FAN and LISTENER.
After making the trek to her Somerville flat in the 95-degree weather on a humid, late August Saturday afternoon, Amy assured me there would be chilled beverages upon arrival. My rather primitive experience dealing with alcohol beyond beer were calculating this form of hospitality to be some form of Bud, PBR, hell maybe even a ‘Gansett. “Nope, no beer here!” Amy divulged as I stared curiously at her scrupulous collection of tequila and rum bottles lining the perimeter of her kitchen. “Try this instead” she said while seamlessly smashing limes across the top of her counter. “A caipirinha.”
In case you don’t know what it looks like. It’s pretty good, trust. Image source: http://miami.eater.com
The Brazilian drink almost paralleled Amy’s multifarious nature. Willing to explore the unexplored, and conquer the less familiar. I instantly forgot about that routine cold Bud on the first draw. The lime from the caipirinha vivified the senses, putting my mind at ease. It tasted great, a perfect toast to alleviate the oppressive humidity. Certainly I was glad I stepped outside of my perimeter to try it. An openness not too different from Amy, considering she ventured into the world of dance music only two years ago after being schooled in the traditional vocation of music her whole life. Better late than never, right?
A songwriter in a producer-dominated landscape
“I don’t associate myself with anything other than singing and songwriting” started Amy as we advanced to her front porch. “I grew up playing piano. Listening to jazz. I’ve always been a musician. A geek. Modern dance music didn’t hit me until several years ago, it was a late thing for me.” Thirty seconds into our discussion I ascertained that Amy enjoys talking the shop as much as she does playing in the shop.
“SPF 5000 is the perfect synthesis between classic songwriting and modern sounds,” summarized Amy after I asked her to describe the outfit in a single sentence. “We’re a 25th century dance band.”
Amy went on to talk about her approach to creating her music, which has always begun with traditional songwriting. When Amy and Rob have an idea for a song, it often starts with humming a melody, or playing it on the piano. Similar to how a graphic artist will sketch a concept on paper and pad before firing up Photoshop, Amy prefers to stay away from the computer until she is sure her idea is compelling enough to hold the listener’s interest.
“My main vision as an artist is to utilize dance to root people back to MUSIC. Not some silly umbrella of a genre.” Amy conferred. I can relate to this. Defining a song by a genre label, a beat-per-minute stamp, even by the year of release, is an easy trend to get trapped in. Without even realizing it, these preconceived notions of restricting ourselves to how we think music should be construed turns into an exhaustive process.
We end up listening to the hype, not the music itself. Perhaps Amy is the kind of person dance music needs right now. To spearhead something beyond just a factory of songs that DJ’s might play, but don’t have lasting impact.
“In my honest opinion, Daft Punk are the only artists in dance who have emerged in the last 20 years that we will be talking about 20 years from now,” Amy boldly stated. “They never sacrificed the process of writing amazing songs, even as they sonically explored where sounds like funk or disco could go. Why do you think “Around the World” worked so well?”
The answer is no brainer, and I almost didn’t even let her finish the sentence before vindicating her comment. It was all about Around The World’s simple yet infectious lyrics, melody, and bassline. “The bassline of Around The World is rooted in something as memorable structurally of what Bernard Edwards and Chic did with Good Times, yet it’s still fresh and simple” said Amy. That song got my attention when I was a casual listener in 1997, in fact I bought the “Homework” CD shortly afterwards. Ultimately the disc got stolen somewhere in my hazy latter days in college, but hey…whoever took it obviously had good taste in music too!
Just nod your head to it. I won’t tell anyone, it’s OK.
“Many dance music producers worry more about the execution instead of the idea, which is why they never made the magnitude of impact Daft Punk did,” said Amy. And interestingly enough, Daft Punk’s music is DJ friendly too; a nice bonus on top of the masterful songwriting of Benglatar and company.
Another issue Amy points out is the fact that some dance artists get entangled in writing SONICS, as opposed to writing songs. Letting the songwriting aspect fall in importance beneath ensuring the record falls under “Genre umbrella A” and sounds like “Artist B” so “DJ C” will play it. She calls this a “culture of genres”, which confines the artists.
“If producers sent me things that sounded like a Salsoul Orchestra record, I would be happy to collaborate with them and make something that stands the test of time, like Runaway does.”
The Harder She Worked, The Luckier She Got: From Trouble & Bass, To Bootsy Collins and DFA, By Way of Top Billin’
Amy is, in her own words, a “New York City born and bred gal”. She and her husband Dave, a technical writer, departed the Big Apple in 2009. Dave had a number of work opportunity leads in Somerville, and Amy felt very strongly that something big was about to happen in this bubbling little town. The couple sensed the “community vibe” in Somerville right from the get go.
It didn’t take long for Amy to acclimate herself to Boston. She knew she had work to do, but her musical goals helped refine the steps she needed to take to get there.
Right before the relocation, Amy met Drop The Lime from New York’s well-praised Trouble And Bass camp. Sharing the same diet of traditional music as Amy, Drop The Lime instantly fell in love with Amy’s distinct diva-hooks, and ended up procuring her for several Trouble and Bass projects.
“Still Believe” by Polish duo Supra1 was one of the first T&B tracks Amy was involved with. Everyone from Brackles to L-Vis 1990 remixed it, further solidifying her foundation. A track with AC Slater and Juiceboxx called “The Feeling” followed. Being in a different city did not limit Amy at all; hell who wouldn’t want the job of getting to collab with producers from around the world right from a modest little Somerville studio!
SPF5000’s genesis soon followed after Amy and Rob met for the first time. “He was playing bass in a band, but was itching to get into doing more dance music work,” said Amy. “He’s an incredible house fanatic. And we’re both analog, in the sense we’re able to construct on our instruments first before Rob starts making it sound like….SPF5000.” In other words, Amy is the songwriting brain, and Rob is the production genius.
Although the duo currently work part-time jobs for supplementary income, they are very close to being able to earn a decent income strictly from music. “It’s nice being able to just wake up in the morning, go outside to the front porch, come up with an idea for a melody, transcribe it at the piano, and phone Rob to ask him how we can make it a classic” Amy explained as she knocked the wood of her table. “This is not as easy or as glamorous as it looks. I get up early and work on music the same way one would work in the office. And our day doesn’t end at 5pm either…Rob and I work tirelessly.” Oh and by the way, having a Saturday or Sunday off is a rarity.
And that’s just the music part. That doesn’t touch on Amy and Rob having to bear the responsibility of promoting and distributing their own music. “The standard business model of a label no longer exists, it’s up to us now”, said Amy. In fact, she stressed several times that although the support of labels like Top Billin’ and Trouble & Bass have helped, you can’t rely on just one person from a label to get a track out there. This is why many musicians have to bear the brunt of being the PR spokesperson and ad executive too. “Success is not a guarantee no matter how talented you are, especially in a recession” she discussed. “You have to love it even more than you ever did, and have a very good understanding of what you want your end result to be”.
Expect to spend a lot of time here if you want to do the music gig full time. Yes, Friday nights too. Well, sometimes. Image source: http://alientribe.com/
Artists need to view their careers and music just as professionally as a suit-and-tie executive would, but without the suit and tie of course. If a musician does not take their work serious, how the hell is a cash-paying listener supposed to? Or, for that matter, a listener who has trouble putting food on the table, let alone being able to afford a couple of 99-cent downloads. “I make music because it is my everything” said Amy. “I have fire in my belly. I am my own boss, I have to be”
What I like about Amy is she’s hustling when she doesn’t even realize it. These kinds of people are the ones who tend to go places, hustling when they’re off the clock because they love what they do so much. At just about any time of day you can find her tweeting about her favorite musicians. In the last week alone, they have included Sun Ra, Muddy Waters, Sergio Mendes & Brasil 66, Sinead O’ Connor, MC Lyte, Paul Simon, Mott The Hopple and Jan Akkerman. Quite the cross section.
Nothing wrong with a little Sergio Mendes, right?
A busy work schedule begets a busy release schedule
The fruit of SPF 5000’s labor is becoming visible, in the form of two releases dropping in within the space of three weeks. “White Hot Fantasy (released earlier this year) set the wheels in motion and laid the foundation for where we’re going” said Amy as she began discussing the SPF 5000 agenda. “Now we have two more releases in the pipeline.”
Let’s cut right to the chase and highlight the two:
1. P.O.T.S. came out late last month, and has already been getting a good amount of support from DJ’s worldwide. Amy was very quick to point out her vocal contributions: “I took a big risk and decided not to sing on P.O.T.S., but to RAP instead. Frankly, it’s not a song for singing…but for just being silly to. Dunno if I’ll do it again!” DJ Sega and Jumpin’ Jack (aka Scottie B) cut two banging house remixes, and Mr. Vega did a remix that is just nuts and can’t be defined by any genres really. Just listen to the crazy edits and swing-stepped sections and you’ll see for yourself. Remixes of White Hot Fantasy by Franki Chan and Glowtape also included. Available digitally.
2. Paraiso drops on Nurvous (sister label of Nervous) October 11th. “It’s been amazing to work with three Godly producers on this release: Miami bass king Lazaro Casanova, Baltimore club king Scottie B, and House king Hex Hector.” (The King himself, Elvis Presley, was unfortunately unavailable). Walter & Royce have a remix on this too. I have yet to hear Paraiso, but based on the high bar Nervous sets, there should be little to worry about.
Following Paraiso, there are going to be several more things in the pipeline, but nothing that Amy can discuss as of right now. But trust me, she’s got a full plate. “We’re busy, but we really want to wait until the last possible moment to put out a full-length album.” said Amy in response to a question she will surely start getting from her fans and colleagues. “We’ve only been around since October 2010. We need to wait until both ourselves, and our fans, are ready for an SPF 5000 album or EP.”
Adding one part songwriting, one part modern sound to the recipe leads to Amy and Rob’s ultimate vision: “SPF 5000 is not just music for the dancefloor, but music for your life” said Amy.
Life is peachy too
As I approached the bottom of my second caipirinha, I realized we were running low on time. So I had to ensure I got a chance to squeeze in a quick chat on Peach Melba, a side project between Amy and DFA-frontman Juan (John) MacLean launched earlier this year.
“We met on Facebook, and John felt my voice would be a great compliment to the Peach Melba Project,” said Amy. MacLean knew all about Amy’s dynamic vocals from Koko Dozo, a former band she was part of when living in New York. “We just waxed poetic about great music for an hour after meeting in person. Sun Ra. Gospel. Al Green. Salsoul Orchestra. Led Zeppelin. Everything. I fell in so naturally with John; not only do we both have an undying passion for music, but his vision is just as focused as mine. We’re also both attracted to authenticity.”
Amy took a great deal of inspiration from the way MacLean writes and produces music. “Juan looks at music just like an abstract painter views a blank canvas.” she discussed. “He has a spherical idea about a piece of music. He’ll just give me something to start working off of, with the jazz sensibility of just, *go with this*. Just like Miles did with his session musicians on Kind of Blue.” Going further, Amy mentioned that as the duo work together, John has Amy push an idea as far as possible, and the more you give him, the more inspired he gets in return. It’s cyclic and organic. “I’m very grateful I’m a jazz musician, because improvisation is key in Peach Melba”, said Amy.
The most succinct way I can describe the “Can’t Let Go” release Peach Melba released in July, is it’s a miniature history lesson on American dance music compressed into three mixes. MacLean’s vision of the original version certainly appears to be a loose disco throwback; the fragments of Amy’s vocals used obviously giving it that human element many current dance tracks omit. We get to watch MacLean travel sonically through the country on this single, from New York’s disco on the first mix to Chicago’s classic house and Detroit’s dub techno on mixes two and three. I like the way he chops and molds Amy’s vocal around the rhythm of each mix as well. It reminds me of Todd Edwards’ style, and considering he came from Jersey…I guess we can throw that part of the country in John’s travels too.
Peach Melba are just getting started. MacLean and Amy are very much on the same page and speak candidly about their initial visions once they kick off a project. Rest assured, you will be hearing about Peach Melba again very soon, hopefully from a website far more significant than my own.
Wrapping things up
“SPF 5000 is pretty lucky” Amy concluded as we started wrapping things up. “We want to make a big happy family out of anyone we’ve been working with. Music is the greatest thing in the world.” When you love what you do, the work just comes natural for people like Amy. “The harder the struggle is, the humbler you become in the long run”, said Amy. “We’re thankful for everything that has been handed to us. Our first several releases set the ball in motion for us, and we hope it’s going to go some place interesting.”
I asked Amy who she aspires to become musician-wise. Her answer? “Quincy Jones”, she asserted. “Jones had a successful career doing TV, scoring film, making music, producing for others, and song writing. I’d love to be able to do all of this.”
With the way Amy eats, sleeps, and breathes music, anything is possible for her. But for the time being, be on the lookout for Paraiso, which drops in a couple days. Also check out SPF 5000’s soundcloud to keep tabs on what they’re working on, as well as Amy’s Twitter feed, if you have the desire to school yourself on stuff you probably don’t get a chance to hear on the radio every day!
Headtunes Recordings is no stranger to this blog, or to Boston for that matter. A well-established deep house mecca running on full steam for the better part of a decade now, Headtunes is about ready to serve up their very first full-length album. After a variety of producers that represent this imprint slaved away in the studio, and the label owners scoured through the archives to polish off some unreleased content, it’s release time. Almost.
The label owners behind Headtunes had to deal with quite a few changes over the past few years as people consume music different these days; plus the margains have thinned, and distributors are looking for ways to nickel-and-dime in any way possible. Kickstarter is a new website which has gained traction over the past year. It’s basically a social media-driven site that enables artists to raise venture capital for their projects. It’s very simple to set up a profile and blog through their site, and donations are very easy to make. Headtunes have latched onto this concept, deciding to cut out the middle man altogether for the compilation, titled “5 + 1”.
This is where you come into play, to make the 5 + 1 album a reality.
Donating to fund the Headtunes compilation doesn’t merely grant yourself a pat on the back. You are also obtaining the entire, or parts of, the 5 + 1 compilation too. You’re allowed to donate any amount you want; $10 gets you a DJ-mixed version of the 16 tracks, while a $20 bid scores you both the mixed and unmixed versions. Want Marc, John and Sleazy McQueen to throw you a barbeque? Give them $500 and they’ll make that happen (I heard they drive down to Tenessee to procure the dry rub seasoning to boot). The goal is to raise $1500, and they’re already 2/3rds of the way there.
This is an interesting concept that independent music labels (and even the musicians themselves) ought to be hip to. Cutting distribution costs, along with the hefty cuts that digital storefronts such as Beatport or iTunes take away, keeps overhead lower. Result? Better quality mastering, artwork on the physical versions, and probably a little extra food on the table for the artists themselves.
Looking forward to hearing the compilation myself, it’s slated for release later on this year. Oh yeah, I also uploaded pics from the Headtunes party they recently threw at Think Tank a few weeks ago that showcased Trus Me on the wheels. You can check those out here.
Boston producer J Whitty opens his bio with little hesitation stating that he’s trained as a bass, cello, and mandolin player for almost a decade. One would think he would be off playing bluegrass gigs or maybe even in a jazz band, but he has decided to bring his talent into the arena of electronic music instead. We could use him here, that’s for sure. His refreshing spin on space-age hip hop meets epic prog rock synth stardom has a very sharp, yet funky feel across all of his work. Nothing too pretentious, yet also not too experimental to the point where you can’t nod your head in approval on the first listen.
Although J Whitty considers much of his work “glitch hop”, he avoids many of the cliches that non-listeners tend to associate with said style, such as relentless stutter-edits and liberal doses of distortion on the samples. Both are present mind you, but used more like salt: a pinch, which goes a long way. Any good cook knows too much ruins the flavor of the steak entirely. In fact, a lot of the synth work is very clean and sits well on top of the peppy percussive sounds. Whatever he wants to call it, it’s musical, that’s for sure.
J Whitty’s Soundcloud page has a pretty nice arsenal of freebies, the vast majority of which he’s made in the last six months alone. He isn’t just working solo either. Be sure to check out his side project, Tell Me Your Visions, a duo with fellow producer Flairgun. The textures of their self-titled track subtly hint at both dubstep as well as ambient, but this stuff is tough to classify, so I’ll try not to pigenhole. I’m also a fan of the “Graduation” LP, which includes the techy “Space Nectra” that is essentially drum and bass divided by two (BPM-wise), and the effusive pads of the opener “Ambient Dub”.
This dude also mentioned he majored in spanish when he went to school at SUNY Albany, but let’s hope at the rate he’s going he won’t need to put any of those skills to work. Good music like this transcends all languages anyhow!
If you’ve been to Bass Oasis, Music Ecology, DubWIZE, Bassic, SUBduction, or any of the Boston Soundcloud meetups, you have probably had the chance to meet Evan Langley, aka DJ Vous by now. At any of these parties you can find probably find him on BOTH sides of the decks. The truth is, Vous has been quite active in the downtown electronic music community for quite some time now. And not just at the bars, but also in his studio producing original flavours to boot.
The past several years witnessed Vous spending a good deal of time crafting dubstep and future garage, good examples being “Ping vs. Pong” and “GOGO” respectively. His strongest and most recent work, however, takes things at a more relaxed pace in the form of moombahton.
If you aren’t hip to the term yet, moombahton is one of the newest and most rapidly-growing sub-genres of dance on the market at the moment. Assuming responsibility for a tempo left almost completely unscathed for the past twenty years, moombahton staked claim in the 110-115 beat-per-minute range. Don’t let the slower tempo of it fool you. Pretty much ALL of the energy, funk, and catchiness of the genres that influenced it, such as baltimore club, Latin freestyle, and straight up house are very much present here. Vous, along with other producers and DJ’s such as N.E. Tempo and Mike Tran, are some of the first local cats to test the genre’s waters in our city. The sound has a good deal of ground to cover, but it’s building in momentum, thanks to the work these guys and others are doing to ensure people are aware of its existence. Think dubstep in basically any American city in 2006 and you get the picture.
Vous’s track “Doin My Thang”, released earlier this year, is a great example of the strength of moombahton even at its slower tempo. This track features some weighty kicks, trigger happy sped-up vocal samples of Eric B that nicely compliment the rhythm, and very nice synth work that punctuates each section of the five-minute piece. It opens with a very energetic build-up right before the main drop, but is followed by a very relaxed section that illustrates how you can cater to the dancefloor and the people listening at home while relaxing in one pass.
Expect to hear more moombahton tracks coming out of Vous’s studio soon. Follow him on Soundcloud to be the first to know when they hit they hit the streets!
Wednesday, November 16, 2011 at 1:28AM 
