Post by Adam B on Jul 19, 2005 11:14:58 GMT -5
Disco D Interview
by Adam Bernard
When people walk into Disco D's Brooklyn studio, The Booty Barn, one thing becomes abundantly clear, this is not your average studio. "This space used to be a big space in the basement in the building and they used to throw these crazy parties here," explains Disco, who continued the tour, "I share a wall but not an entrance with the people next to me. There's a scene on the DVD (Disco DVD Episode One) with me and Lumidee in the studio and the neighbors and banging on the wall."
Despite knowing he's outgrowing his current place and that a move to a sixth floor space is in his near future Disco describes the Barn saying "it was the right space and the right vibe. Artists really love working here. I can get incredible sound out of here, but it's like hanging out in my apartment because it is my apartment."
One of the first major artists to experience working in The Booty Barn was Nina Sky. Disco remembers "the Nina Sky thing came about because in 2003 I hooked up with Max Glaser." "I was getting into dancehall, I was into his mix CD's and I knew he wasn't really into production. We started hanging out I was teaching him Pro Tools, building some beats. He brought Cypha Sounds in because he was A&R-ing for Startrack and wanted to do a dancehall remix of 'Frontin.' We all got in and did that together. When it came to Nina Sky, they cut half the vocals for 'Move Your Body' over here and it was actually intended to be a bootleg hype record. He (Cypha Sounds) had to do five tracks, so all of a sudden I had to do five tracks. Including 'Turnin Me On.'" The Nina Sky experience shows Disco firsthand some of the highs and lows of the industry, but the most important thing it showed him was that he belonged. He explains "during the whole Nina Sky thing I was like 'I can actually DO this.'"
More recently Disco's work has been featured on 50 Cent's "The Massacre" on the song "Ski Mask Way." The track was originally something Disco created for his girlfriend, now fiancé, Brazilian actress Luciana Vendramini, after they had gotten into a fight. "We got in a disagreement, there was a language issue. She didn't talk to me for a day. I dug the O'Jays sample ('What Am I Waiting For'), made a beat, then bought a plane ticket and went back (to Brazil). I was between management. I didn't feel he was doing a good job capitalizing on the Nina Sky thing. Michelle (Lin) (Disco's PR person) was close with Sha. I gave Michelle a beat and all of a sudden things started to pop off." Disco remembers a lot of things falling into place around this time, noting "'Turnin Me On' started blowin up and the Def Jamaica album with the remix to 'Frontin' was nominated for a Grammy. Around a week before Christmas I check my messages and have two from Sha Money. I uploaded the pro tools from Brazil, crossed my fingers and boom 'Ski Mask Way.'"
The lanky Jewish guy with the big hair working with the rapper that most represents the streets isn't exactly a combination one might see as normal, but Disco notes that even in his own family there are stranger connections. "My dad's side of the family is all North Shore Chicago Jews. My mother's father survived Auschwitz, came to the US and married a German Protestant woman." That almost makes the link up with 50 sound downright regular.
The 'Ski Mask Way' experience was facilitated by one of Disco's favorite pieces of equipment, Pro Tools. "I can open up the session anywhere and be good. It lets you do things like what happened with 50 Cent." Of course, one step into his studio there are still plenty of other cords one might trip over. "I don't really have that much, in all total I think I'm really ****in with 20-25 grand worth of gear," he explains, admitting "OK that seems like a lot because I've collected it and obviously I'm still paying for some of it. In comparison to studios of yesteryear it's kind of bananas in terms of how far these records go in terms of how little amount of gear it's being done on." He reiterates "Pro Tools HD is really the centerpiece. I can write a track a number of ways, sometime it'll start with the MPC 4000 and a 1000, the 1000 goes around with me. Sometimes I'll make a beat just in pro tools. Sara Stokes' 'Make The First Move' was just in Pro Tools, and I played the keyboard parts semi-live. Otherwise I have different keyboards for different sounds. It's like being a painter, you may have 20 brushes and whatever number of colors but you may use one brush and three colors for a painting. You want access to those tools but you're not going to use all of them for everything."
While Disco mind lends itself to art when thinking of his production tools, he also has very specific thoughts about what he wants in an artist when it comes to who gets to step into that studio. "The artists I tend to like are the artists that have like a vision for what they want to put out there, what kind of sound they want and what kind of emotion they want to convey. To me it's all about conveying the emotion that's in the music. If you look at a good actor you can see the visual representation, the body language, the facial expressions, before you hear their voice and with music you have to get all that same response just with the voice. I like artists who know how to convey emotion really well as well as artists who really look at their voice more so as an instrument than as just something to say. With rappers coming up it takes really learning how to control the tonal qualities in your voice and mastering what you hear in your head isn't what you're going to hear on a record. In terms of newer artists I look for artists that really get it, get every aspect of what it takes to be successful. Someone like Sara (Stokes) is a pleasure to work with. She went through the ringer with the whole Making The Band sh*t, saw how not to do sh*t and now she's in a position to do it right."
One reason Disco and Stokes work so well together may be because they both have a lot of things in common in terms of what they went through learning the ways of industry. "It's really been flying by the seat of my pants my whole career," Disco explains "it's been trail and error." He continued, "I've had everything including a sh*tty management deal at 17 that I had to buy out. I've had those trails and tribulations, I've seen the dirty side of the industry and learned how to navigate around it."
At this point in his career Disco feels "people have given me advice, but now I really feel like I'm in the driver's seat with this," and with good reason, he's got so much going on he can barely find time to breathe. His name's becoming big due to his work with Nina Sky and 50 Cent, he laid down the beat for the Aruba Jam Sprite Remix commercial, which may also be used for Rupee's next single, he's pressing up vinyl for a single called "Hug It Out Bitch" that features samples from HBO's hit show Entourage, he's working with underground artists such as Kato and Mann Terror and he's in the process of launching his own all digital label, Disco Digital. "If I don't have a ton of stuff going on I feel disappointed in myself," he explains "it's like chess, you have to look 20 moves in advance. I can still make money off records I did in 1998. Before the stuff I was doing was really like a niche thing, I was lucky to get recognition and press. I have this new fan base coming in through Nina Sky and 50 cent and I can try to tie it all in together finally."
For the rest of 2005 and beyond look for Disco's trademark D, which is tattooed on his right wrist, to be associated with even more projects. "There's always more that we can be doing and that I want to be doing," he notes. With a work ethic like that it's no wonder Disco is poised to be the industry's next producer on everybody's wish list.
www.discod.com
by Adam Bernard
When people walk into Disco D's Brooklyn studio, The Booty Barn, one thing becomes abundantly clear, this is not your average studio. "This space used to be a big space in the basement in the building and they used to throw these crazy parties here," explains Disco, who continued the tour, "I share a wall but not an entrance with the people next to me. There's a scene on the DVD (Disco DVD Episode One) with me and Lumidee in the studio and the neighbors and banging on the wall."
Despite knowing he's outgrowing his current place and that a move to a sixth floor space is in his near future Disco describes the Barn saying "it was the right space and the right vibe. Artists really love working here. I can get incredible sound out of here, but it's like hanging out in my apartment because it is my apartment."
One of the first major artists to experience working in The Booty Barn was Nina Sky. Disco remembers "the Nina Sky thing came about because in 2003 I hooked up with Max Glaser." "I was getting into dancehall, I was into his mix CD's and I knew he wasn't really into production. We started hanging out I was teaching him Pro Tools, building some beats. He brought Cypha Sounds in because he was A&R-ing for Startrack and wanted to do a dancehall remix of 'Frontin.' We all got in and did that together. When it came to Nina Sky, they cut half the vocals for 'Move Your Body' over here and it was actually intended to be a bootleg hype record. He (Cypha Sounds) had to do five tracks, so all of a sudden I had to do five tracks. Including 'Turnin Me On.'" The Nina Sky experience shows Disco firsthand some of the highs and lows of the industry, but the most important thing it showed him was that he belonged. He explains "during the whole Nina Sky thing I was like 'I can actually DO this.'"
More recently Disco's work has been featured on 50 Cent's "The Massacre" on the song "Ski Mask Way." The track was originally something Disco created for his girlfriend, now fiancé, Brazilian actress Luciana Vendramini, after they had gotten into a fight. "We got in a disagreement, there was a language issue. She didn't talk to me for a day. I dug the O'Jays sample ('What Am I Waiting For'), made a beat, then bought a plane ticket and went back (to Brazil). I was between management. I didn't feel he was doing a good job capitalizing on the Nina Sky thing. Michelle (Lin) (Disco's PR person) was close with Sha. I gave Michelle a beat and all of a sudden things started to pop off." Disco remembers a lot of things falling into place around this time, noting "'Turnin Me On' started blowin up and the Def Jamaica album with the remix to 'Frontin' was nominated for a Grammy. Around a week before Christmas I check my messages and have two from Sha Money. I uploaded the pro tools from Brazil, crossed my fingers and boom 'Ski Mask Way.'"
The lanky Jewish guy with the big hair working with the rapper that most represents the streets isn't exactly a combination one might see as normal, but Disco notes that even in his own family there are stranger connections. "My dad's side of the family is all North Shore Chicago Jews. My mother's father survived Auschwitz, came to the US and married a German Protestant woman." That almost makes the link up with 50 sound downright regular.
The 'Ski Mask Way' experience was facilitated by one of Disco's favorite pieces of equipment, Pro Tools. "I can open up the session anywhere and be good. It lets you do things like what happened with 50 Cent." Of course, one step into his studio there are still plenty of other cords one might trip over. "I don't really have that much, in all total I think I'm really ****in with 20-25 grand worth of gear," he explains, admitting "OK that seems like a lot because I've collected it and obviously I'm still paying for some of it. In comparison to studios of yesteryear it's kind of bananas in terms of how far these records go in terms of how little amount of gear it's being done on." He reiterates "Pro Tools HD is really the centerpiece. I can write a track a number of ways, sometime it'll start with the MPC 4000 and a 1000, the 1000 goes around with me. Sometimes I'll make a beat just in pro tools. Sara Stokes' 'Make The First Move' was just in Pro Tools, and I played the keyboard parts semi-live. Otherwise I have different keyboards for different sounds. It's like being a painter, you may have 20 brushes and whatever number of colors but you may use one brush and three colors for a painting. You want access to those tools but you're not going to use all of them for everything."
While Disco mind lends itself to art when thinking of his production tools, he also has very specific thoughts about what he wants in an artist when it comes to who gets to step into that studio. "The artists I tend to like are the artists that have like a vision for what they want to put out there, what kind of sound they want and what kind of emotion they want to convey. To me it's all about conveying the emotion that's in the music. If you look at a good actor you can see the visual representation, the body language, the facial expressions, before you hear their voice and with music you have to get all that same response just with the voice. I like artists who know how to convey emotion really well as well as artists who really look at their voice more so as an instrument than as just something to say. With rappers coming up it takes really learning how to control the tonal qualities in your voice and mastering what you hear in your head isn't what you're going to hear on a record. In terms of newer artists I look for artists that really get it, get every aspect of what it takes to be successful. Someone like Sara (Stokes) is a pleasure to work with. She went through the ringer with the whole Making The Band sh*t, saw how not to do sh*t and now she's in a position to do it right."
One reason Disco and Stokes work so well together may be because they both have a lot of things in common in terms of what they went through learning the ways of industry. "It's really been flying by the seat of my pants my whole career," Disco explains "it's been trail and error." He continued, "I've had everything including a sh*tty management deal at 17 that I had to buy out. I've had those trails and tribulations, I've seen the dirty side of the industry and learned how to navigate around it."
At this point in his career Disco feels "people have given me advice, but now I really feel like I'm in the driver's seat with this," and with good reason, he's got so much going on he can barely find time to breathe. His name's becoming big due to his work with Nina Sky and 50 Cent, he laid down the beat for the Aruba Jam Sprite Remix commercial, which may also be used for Rupee's next single, he's pressing up vinyl for a single called "Hug It Out Bitch" that features samples from HBO's hit show Entourage, he's working with underground artists such as Kato and Mann Terror and he's in the process of launching his own all digital label, Disco Digital. "If I don't have a ton of stuff going on I feel disappointed in myself," he explains "it's like chess, you have to look 20 moves in advance. I can still make money off records I did in 1998. Before the stuff I was doing was really like a niche thing, I was lucky to get recognition and press. I have this new fan base coming in through Nina Sky and 50 cent and I can try to tie it all in together finally."
For the rest of 2005 and beyond look for Disco's trademark D, which is tattooed on his right wrist, to be associated with even more projects. "There's always more that we can be doing and that I want to be doing," he notes. With a work ethic like that it's no wonder Disco is poised to be the industry's next producer on everybody's wish list.
www.discod.com