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Body Mechanic was without exception the first electro record because I differentiate what we did as Electro from what Kraftwerk did.
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I don't consider Kraftwork Electro.
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I consider Kraftwork the most influential band in the history of music.
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More influential than the Beatles, if you if you look at their progression and what they've done and the records that have spawned out of their creativity.
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But what they did was electronic music, and they weren't, they weren't, they they did not confine themselves to one form.
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And they and they really utilized melody and vocorder and and and uh limit lyrics with great imagery.
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It was a melange of different styles with electronic music uses the medium.
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And I think there's a big difference between electro and craft work.
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It was based on largely what the what the new parameters of the 808 uh uh inspired us to do.
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And how using that 808 in conjunction with the current sequencers and uh electronic instruments and synthesizers, I mind you have played a lot of stuff in real time.
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There's no sequencers in body mechanics, all three I played in real time by hand.
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But in conjunction with that, electro became a different art form.
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It was it was really more geared towards dance and in a way more conformist because everyone was trying to outdo each other.
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But Craft Work was never conformist.
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Never.
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Total original.
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Who was who was Quadrant?
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I was I was Quadrant 6.
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Amol came up, Amil, who was a co-writer, there was uh came up with a Star Trek reference.
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Makes sense.
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That's pretty silly, kind of like you know, Nairobi for you know, the Roby in uh in Makosa.
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So Yeah, that was that was cool.
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So body mechanic, you know, incredible, incredible record.
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You were on Atlantic for that?
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Well, there was a bidding major bidding war for it, actually.
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Because I had success with other records, and I Amol had that idea.
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Even though overnight I'll get the jump.
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And I love Amil, he's a really close friend.
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And I did it because I I love him.
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I he wanted to work and I wanted to help him because he helped me early on.
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So we start, I had an A-track recorder in my apartment, and we started on the A-track recorder.
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And if you listen to Body Mechanic, you'll notice there were no drum breaks.
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If you listen to it now, you'll notice that.
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Yeah.
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And the reason they're on is because we record the entire drum pattern onto two tracks.
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All in real time, all by hand.
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And then we transferred it to 20 uh to two-inch tape, 24 track, and finish it in the suit, then we put the candy's voltage on it.
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And uh Yeah, that was a lot of fun.
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That's a lot of fun, you know.
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And uh there's a bidding war for it.
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Uh the next plateau wanted it desperately.
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Okay, and it was like 5,000, 10,000, 15,000, 20.
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And then Atlantic R25,000, which was 12 inch in 1983, but it was a lot of fucking money.
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So with one more shot, you know, another classic, would would you see that as a kind of a precursor to what became Latin freestyle in some ways?
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Uh it was the first freestyle record, period.
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And uh, well, no.
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Strictly speaking, play at your own risk loss.
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But but I if you define freestyle by by preeminently using female vocalists, it was the first freestyle record.
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Okay.
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And it incorporated the 808 in that frenetic way, again, which is what freestyle does.
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Although modern freestyle generally just is straight from one beat.
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But now what happened is uh we all I mentioned this earlier, you know, perfect beat and renegades and all those early records, hip-hop, beatbop, body mechanic, at the time they were regarded as hip-hop records.
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They were written about as hip-hop records, they were thought to be hip-hop records, they were called hip-hop records.
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But as the musical style changed with the advent of Run DMC, it's like that, and the records, which were uh a lot simpler rhythmically.
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Actually, sort of, sort of monotonous rhythmically.
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And and letting the look, one could say they wanted the the give space to the rap, another can say that they were uninspired, you know.
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But uh when that became the the the template for for hip-hop after that, it became, I don't, I I think it became almost important for them, for for those songs to be relabeled as either electro or freestyle, because what it did was it opened up, it it gave ownership to the new, to the new hip-hop artists.
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It gave them ownership rather than having to admit where they came from, what the roots were.
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And you know, when people are allowed to take ownership, they'll take it, you know?
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That's true.
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And that's what and that's what happened.
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Uh but those were hip-hop records.
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And but then when the Latin community started uh with the success of Let the Music Play, which was the which was would not have existed with the were not the one more shot, but but Let the Music Play was was the first record of its kind that MTV MTV played by a black artist.
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MTV did not play black artists.
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So Shannon got deservedly, mind you, because it's a brilliant record, and she was brilliant, but she got the kind of success that you can only get by being on MTV at the time.
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Yes.
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Right.
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So, and from that, and that became the the the the standard bearer for freestyle, but it was one more shot, really.
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It really was.
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Again, the Latin community took ownership for it, and they still do, and uh that's fine, you know.
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One more shot, cause I love that you know that it's real, make me feel that it's real.
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All my God is with my place left to go.
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Playing a rock.
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Okay, I hated.
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I said, What is this stupid, dumb shit?
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Because I didn't understand the culture.
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And then when I heard it being played everywhere, I mean you could it was you couldn't escape it.
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It was coming out of boom boxes, it was coming out of car ratings, coming out of windows, it was in every club, and I saw how people related to it.
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And then I started hanging out with more black musicians.
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I started going to disco fever, you know, and all this.
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And I understood that this is it was cultural.
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This is like something that was moving a culture that I thought I was privy to that I wasn't.
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But when I was doing Planet Rock, I thought it was so beneath me.
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And I was wrong.
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Planet Rock changed my life for the better.
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It opened me up to a side of electronic experimentation that I that I didn't know existed.
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I know you can listen to Planet Rock now.
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Anyone can, right?
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And you listen to the electronic beeps and bloops and things.
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Those are not easy to create.
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I mean, you tell somebody with a monophonic synthesizer without precess, okay, make it make a sound like uh like thunder or a typewriter.
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You had to know what the fuck you were doing.
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And that and and how those sounds worked in conjunction with each other.
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So I was able to explore knowledge that I accumulate over time in a way that conventional music would not allow.
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You know, it allowed me to use it up front as a melodic element.
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So Planet Rock was the greatest thing that ever happened to me.
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And it was one of the greatest records of all time.
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But at the time, I wouldn't lie to you, that's how I felt about it.
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But I learned.
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You can learn, you can change.
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Real quick, what was your level of familiarity with rap music?
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It had only been on record for two or three years at that point.
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Were you familiar with with what preceded it?
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Okay.
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Well, I I knew it was in the it was in the ether.
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I heard the breaks and you know.
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Sure.
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But but you know, I didn't as a rock musician, I wasn't a fan, you know.
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Sure.
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We were very snobby about uh, well, I think we saw the early rap as a progression of disco and we didn't like disco.
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Sure.
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Rock musicians did not like you can call us racist, but that wasn't it.
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It was just we didn't like the monotony of it.
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It was like against everything we talk about having learned how to play.
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But then when P.S.
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when I did sessions on those records and I heard Hadless Cats can play, that changed my attitude too.
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You see, you hear something, you hear a civil convention on the radio when you're trying to eat a fucking bagel.
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You go, take the shit off.
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But then you go into the studio with like Alan Goldman playing drums, and you go, wait a minute.
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These guys are really, really good.
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And then you try to stop playing with them in time.
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Simple things like try to clap your hands for seven minutes on a disco record.
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Right.
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Try to do that.
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See how how easy that is.
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It's fucking painful.
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Yeah.
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It's painful after 30 seconds.
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All those things.
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So I began to re- I began to appreciate that, you know.
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But but uh yeah, it was a progression.
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So for Planet Rock, um, I remember you telling me before that the drum pattern, the beat was already laid from the 808, and you came in to do uh the synthesizers and other sounds.
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Talk to me about your role in Planet Rock.
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Well, I came in with with two synthesizers, a Prophet 5 and a multi-moe.
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Never used the Prophet 5.
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Profit 5 is polyphonic.
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The entire record is monophonic.
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All the multi-moe, which is a monophonic synthesizer.
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And uh I was asked to create sound effects, and uh some were very specific, others I was just uh I just let loose and did my own my own shit, you know.
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But the reason I'm writer on Planet Rock was because I was asked to create a melody line for the break.
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I said, You're asking me to create a melody line, I'm a writer.
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We talked about this before.
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All those Motown session players, man, they should have gotten writing.
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You know, where do you think the song Bernadette came from?
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It came from the bass line, you know, and it's like and they were just doing so many things at the time.
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It was one session after another.
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They didn't they were just enjoying making a living, and they didn't make that much money.
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But they enjoy making a living, they enjoying playing with each other, and it was just they thought it would never end them.
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One day they woke up and they said, Holy shit, I should have been paid for this shit.
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And they were right.
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It's easy to look back in retrospect and say, Well, why should you demand that?
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Anyone could have written a string line?
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Well, no.
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I wrote a string line that was perfect for the break.
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It was influenced by the cra by the trans-Europe string line.
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It didn't sound so it sounded so organic that it sounded like a necessary extension of it.
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You know, it's very easy if someone says, I could have done that.
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Well, try it.
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Try it.
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You know, and it's the same with the creating sounds from scratch on the monophonic synthesizer.
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I mean, at that point I'd been using that synthesizer for many years.
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I knew like the back of my hand.
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In fact, I'm working on on a ballet soundtrack, and um and I recently did uh several songs where I'm using just the monophonic uh uh multimogue, nothing else.
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No MIDI, no triggers, just playing it in real time.
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And you can produce a lot of stuff that way uh rather than having to be a slave to MIDI and MIDI MIDI tempo and stuff.
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So yeah, I mean, I came in and I produced those sounds.
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And again, somebody with a difference is the sizer could not have done it.
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So yeah, I mean, I contributed to that record in a way that made it what it was.
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And that's indisputable because it's there's a human element to the to to performance that can't be to individual performance that can't be duplicated by another human being.
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Just can't.
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Using another machine.
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So there you go.
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And so I did I I defend my role in in Planet Rock as being vital, essential, and and irreplaceable.
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Michael Jackson continues to, you know, be as ever viral as he always was, you know, people go back to want to be starting something, and because they didn't hear um Manu the Bingo's um original Makosa, which was a you know huge record.
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So a lot of younger people are taking the interpolation that Michael Jackson used and they're just making up their own lyrics for it.
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But by 83, 84, you were doing a um an electronic um reinterpretation of Makosa.
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Tell me a little bit about Makosa and how that that came to be.
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It was just a lot of fun.
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You know, there's uh the awesome forcing were there that wanted to make a record with him, and uh just went into the studio and came up with it.
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That had a phonetic 808 beat too.
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But but it was different than the earliest stuff because we added horns to it.
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There were synthesizer horns, but their horns just the same.
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And the cadence of uh the the rhythm of the rapping was just extraordinary how it worked with the 808.
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Uh I would put chief jazz with the Razzle Battle so do that funkamakosta hup.
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With a hauto, get on that out.
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So that funky makosa.
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Yeah, with a auto foto.
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That stuff was brilliant.
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It was really, it was so musical.
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It was so musical.
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And uh and that's where sometimes you know the musicality of a performance or the rhythmic of the rhythm of the performance, the the dedication to the track of a performance really could could elevate a record.
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And it did.
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And it really did.
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Those those kids were fantastic, and it was such great fun because you know, you you fed off their energy.
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Yeah, and vice versa.
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And they were so happy to be there.
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They were they were just starting out, they were just they were just so in awe, and that was like it was great.
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It was really, really great.
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It was it's really great to be around that kind of youthful energy.
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The awesome, the awesome, the awesome, Moraccia! Fucky, fucking Makosa.
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Get on down, get up, get on that, put it, jump, get on down, get on that, get on that, jump, get up down, get on down, get on down, you're not the jump, get on down, get on down, get on down, get on down, get on down, get on down, ha, what's up, what does up, what does up?
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Looking at uh looking at Planet Planet Rock, you know, huge record, and then a few months later, we get play at your own risk, which is basically uh Planet Rock with a lot more instruments.
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But what what the story not really want to get is I know you went in to do the keyboard parts on Planet Rock, beats already laid.
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What did you know about that upcoming play at your own risk at that time?
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You go in to lay these parts.
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Um what do you know about the name Planet Patrol, which is actually on Planet Rock, music by Planet Patrol.
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Who is Planet Patrol and how does that whole thing roll out from your initial coming into the studio?
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Okay, well, this is all very interesting.
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I had done Planet Rock, and uh you know, it's a long time ago, but what I do know is that when we but Arthur called me into the studio to do the keys on Play at your own risk, he said, uh, you're gonna be co-producer.
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And I was just surprised.
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I mean, you know, and I think it was because we had a a very, very good synergy, a good energy between us.
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And uh, you know, I I will not lie, I mean, I think on that record we brought out the best in each other.
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You know, Arthur had I Arthur had some firm ideas, but I had some some ideas of my own that I added to the mix.
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We we we really rocked that as a as a team, okay?
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I played two different solos on it, which were I thought were really great with two different sounds.
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I played a funky clap, again, everything was in real time on Play Jarvisque, no sequences.
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These funky clap parts composed the piano part to accommodate the melody, uh, which Arthur and I came up with in the studio.
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Uh, and the string line, uh da da da.
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And I wanted to call the song the song No Money, no fun, because it went with the string line, No Money, no fun, da da.
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It was stupid.
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Arthur had the idea.
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It was, but Arthur had a better idea, play at your own risk, and we worked off that.
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He wrote the first verse, I wrote the second verse, and so we, you know, and uh it was a good synergy.
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And then the energetics came in, and I knew nothing about them.
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Arthur knew them from Boston, you know, and I was completely clueless about them, and then they came in the studio, and it was the bloody temptations, man.
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Waiting for your girl to hold the time.
00:18:06.079 --> 00:18:15.920
Perhaps one of the one of the earliest disses, you know, if you want to call it a little sneak diss in rap, uh, Man Paris had a song called uh Boogie Down Bronx.
00:18:16.160 --> 00:18:23.599
And in that song, the the um the MC, um, this cool John Skeet, he says, You got the perfect beat, I hear you say.
00:18:23.920 --> 00:18:25.599
You got the perfect beat, I hear you say.
00:18:25.839 --> 00:18:28.160
But you better listen, grips, cause I'm here to state of that.
00:18:28.319 --> 00:18:32.000
I rock so good, I rock so strong, I rock so well, cause I laugh so.
00:18:32.400 --> 00:18:36.480
Even though I used to read the credits to records religiously, I didn't see a connection.
00:18:36.640 --> 00:18:38.799
Like, why would they, why would he say that?
00:18:39.279 --> 00:18:45.119
But then I heard recently that, um, well, you told me recently that you actually played on hip hop bebop.
00:18:45.440 --> 00:18:50.480
And you told me there was some um maybe a misunderstanding or whatever it might have been with that.
00:18:50.559 --> 00:18:55.759
Speak to me about that, and maybe that would make me understand maybe why why they would say that.
00:18:55.839 --> 00:18:58.799
Uh, you know, kind of do a diss to um perfect beat.
00:18:59.359 --> 00:19:04.240
It's very easy to do to diss shit that you can that you're incapable of doing.
00:19:04.640 --> 00:19:09.119
You know, it's very easy, it's very easy to bring down the king, you know.
00:19:09.279 --> 00:19:12.160
It's like, or to try to bring down the king, which is what we're all about now.
00:19:12.400 --> 00:19:16.240
Which the whole culture is about you know bringing down whoever's popular.
00:19:16.480 --> 00:19:18.799
But it's like, but that was also part of the rap culture.
00:19:18.960 --> 00:19:19.440
It was cool.
00:19:19.519 --> 00:19:25.039
It was like, it was in a way, it was it wasn't, it was, it was, it was, it was not just a diss.
00:19:25.279 --> 00:19:29.039
It was it was it was uh it was a uh a backhanded compliment, you know.
00:19:29.279 --> 00:19:29.680
It was cool.
00:19:29.839 --> 00:19:31.680
Yes, it was it, it was an acknowledgement.
00:19:31.839 --> 00:19:41.119
So it's it's like quoting in jazz, you know, when you play some riff from from a Charlie Parker song and you put it in and Eric Dolphy does it in one of his compositions.
00:19:41.279 --> 00:19:43.440
That's not stealing, that's a quote, you know.
00:19:43.759 --> 00:19:47.039
And and ja and and jazz musicians understood that and respected it.
00:19:47.119 --> 00:19:48.079
So I respect that.
00:19:48.400 --> 00:19:54.079
The thing with with hip-hop beepop is it it harkens back to what I did with Planet Rock.
00:19:54.319 --> 00:19:59.279
My position was that if you ask me to add something that creates a hook in a song, I'm a writer.
00:19:59.839 --> 00:20:06.400
And Mike Wilkinson, who owned uh uh the record company, uh import 12, was it?
00:20:06.559 --> 00:20:14.480
Yes, I think you want me to play in this if I add a part that adds a hook, I'm I'm a writer.
00:20:14.720 --> 00:20:15.519
And I did.
00:20:15.680 --> 00:20:32.720
I mean that the the you know da da da da da da da da da da the hook of the string line, the the uh the clavinet uh rhythm played with with uh a uh like a digital bell sound, you know.
00:20:33.519 --> 00:20:34.640
Those are hooks.
00:20:34.880 --> 00:20:41.200
And so Manny, and I understand that because Manny, Manny was the heart and soul of that record.
00:20:41.519 --> 00:20:42.000
He was.
00:20:42.160 --> 00:20:44.160
But I came in and I did my thing.
00:20:44.400 --> 00:20:46.240
Would it have been the same record without it?
00:20:46.880 --> 00:20:47.680
Who knows?
00:20:47.839 --> 00:20:49.599
But nonetheless, I did it.
00:21:12.960 --> 00:21:18.880
Same deal as the other records where if I was going to do hooks, I became a writer.
00:21:19.119 --> 00:21:19.680
Yes.
00:21:20.000 --> 00:21:25.440
Now, in fairness, Arth wrote the melody and the lyrics to that song, and they were really, really heartfelt.
00:21:25.519 --> 00:21:27.599
I figured about something he was going through at the time.
00:21:27.759 --> 00:21:30.079
Well, just assuming it was, you know.
00:21:30.400 --> 00:21:33.440
But I came in and I played all the instruments.
00:21:33.599 --> 00:21:42.400
I came up with that synthesizer hook, I came up with the syllabic solo, which is my voice, you know, played on an early emulator, the first one.
00:21:56.640 --> 00:21:59.599
I created the chords against the melody that Arthur had written.
00:22:00.160 --> 00:22:05.519
Know they're very simple, it was like you know, C minor, A, flat, B repeated over and over again.
00:22:05.680 --> 00:22:06.319
But it worked.
00:22:06.480 --> 00:22:08.240
And I played the piano on that.
00:22:08.400 --> 00:22:11.119
And again, it was like, you want me to do hooks?
00:22:11.279 --> 00:22:12.559
You want me to add my sound?
00:22:12.720 --> 00:22:16.079
And it wasn't just hook set that musical hooks, it was the sound.
00:22:16.319 --> 00:22:21.599
It was using specific synthesizers that I knew how to manipulate to create those sounds.
00:22:21.920 --> 00:22:24.160
That hook paw was played on the multi-mook.
00:22:24.559 --> 00:22:24.880
Okay.
00:22:25.920 --> 00:22:30.960
And uh the syn drums were played on the profit 5, you know.
00:22:31.200 --> 00:22:33.680
And admittedly there was a preset for that.
00:22:33.839 --> 00:22:36.160
But most people didn't use it because it wasn't musical.
00:22:36.640 --> 00:22:37.039
Right.
00:22:37.200 --> 00:22:42.240
But but I used a lot of the I used a lot of the sound effects banks on um Profit 5.
00:22:42.400 --> 00:22:50.240
Again, people approaching synthesizer from from a from a strictly, you know, traditional musical sense.
00:22:50.400 --> 00:22:53.759
It replaces the synthesizer with a piano or an organ, if you will.
00:22:54.079 --> 00:22:59.440
I I explored the all the parameters that those those instruments offered, including the sound effects banks.
00:23:00.079 --> 00:23:01.440
And um refuge.
00:23:01.759 --> 00:23:04.960
So yeah, that's so Arthur asked me to play on it.
00:23:05.279 --> 00:23:08.720
And uh so I agreed under those terms, and she agreed to.
00:23:09.359 --> 00:23:11.519
And uh there you go.
00:23:11.680 --> 00:23:14.559
That's why I'm I'm writer on on IOU.
00:23:15.119 --> 00:23:23.039
But uh because I lend something to the record that that's you know irrefutable and helped make it what it was.
00:23:23.279 --> 00:23:31.680
I mean, I have read some interviews, particularly in the Guardian, where uh members of Freeze take credit for coming up with that stuff.
00:23:31.920 --> 00:23:36.400
Freeze had a keyboard player, but I remember him only coming in.
00:23:36.480 --> 00:23:38.720
I my left hand wasn't so good that day.
00:23:38.799 --> 00:23:45.039
And there's the left-handed artigio that goes, which was last sequence, which he played.
00:23:45.200 --> 00:23:45.519
Okay.
00:23:45.680 --> 00:23:52.640
I remember him playing that, but I did everything else, and you know people could say what they will, you know.
00:23:52.799 --> 00:23:55.599
Just ask the tape operators who were in the studio at you need.
00:24:20.400 --> 00:24:31.039
For your viewers who don't know what who do not familiar with the musical lexicon, contrapuntal means two or more instruments playing at the same time, but somehow sounding harmonious together.
00:24:31.200 --> 00:24:32.880
And that's not so easy.
00:24:33.119 --> 00:24:37.279
And uh there are tons of tracks that complement each other in that way.
00:24:37.440 --> 00:24:44.079
And also the title of the song reflects how the record was produced and vice versa, looking for the perfect beat.
00:24:44.240 --> 00:24:52.799
Uh the 808 was used to create at least 10 distinctly different beats, and they were put in at random.
00:24:52.960 --> 00:25:03.279
So to make those arrangement parts also work rhythmically and sonically, because the sound of the drums, depending upon how you tune them, had their own signature.
00:25:03.519 --> 00:25:08.640
So, yeah, I'm very, very proud of that record because it really was, as the New York Times said, a symphony.
00:25:08.799 --> 00:25:14.000
Yeah, looking back, it's it it it's I don't think anything had ever been done done like that.
00:25:14.079 --> 00:25:14.640
I really don't.
00:25:15.440 --> 00:25:17.039
Nor will it ever be again.
00:25:17.279 --> 00:25:31.839
Because not only was it was it contrapuntal and orchestral in a very in a very real sense, it employed the use of the 808 in a way, well, in a very musical way.
00:25:32.000 --> 00:25:35.519
The changes, those constant changes of beats were musical.
00:25:35.920 --> 00:25:42.319
And and they were individual musical statements, for lack of a better a better way of expressing it.
00:25:42.480 --> 00:25:47.359
Uh each beat had its own component, had its own flavor, you know.
00:25:47.680 --> 00:25:57.359
So I don't think anyone after that record explored the parameters of the eight oh eight to that extent.
00:25:57.519 --> 00:26:04.240
You know, it it bec it became uh just a drum machine, something to keep a beat.
00:26:04.480 --> 00:26:07.759
But this was used as a musical instrument.
00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:07.759
Body Mechanic was without exception the first electro record because I differentiate what we did as Electro from what Kraftwerk did.
00:00:07.839 --> 00:00:09.679
I don't consider Kraftwork Electro.
00:00:09.919 --> 00:00:13.519
I consider Kraftwork the most influential band in the history of music.
00:00:13.759 --> 00:00:19.760
More influential than the Beatles, if you if you look at their progression and what they've done and the records that have spawned out of their creativity.
00:00:20.000 --> 00:00:28.239
But what they did was electronic music, and they weren't, they weren't, they they did not confine themselves to one form.
00:00:28.320 --> 00:00:35.920
And they and they really utilized melody and vocorder and and and uh limit lyrics with great imagery.
00:00:36.000 --> 00:00:40.000
It was a melange of different styles with electronic music uses the medium.
00:00:40.079 --> 00:00:42.880
And I think there's a big difference between electro and craft work.
00:00:44.479 --> 00:00:55.840
It was based on largely what the what the new parameters of the 808 uh uh inspired us to do.
00:00:56.159 --> 00:01:05.920
And how using that 808 in conjunction with the current sequencers and uh electronic instruments and synthesizers, I mind you have played a lot of stuff in real time.
00:01:06.000 --> 00:01:09.760
There's no sequencers in body mechanics, all three I played in real time by hand.
00:01:10.000 --> 00:01:12.959
But in conjunction with that, electro became a different art form.
00:01:13.280 --> 00:01:19.120
It was it was really more geared towards dance and in a way more conformist because everyone was trying to outdo each other.
00:01:19.200 --> 00:01:20.959
But Craft Work was never conformist.
00:01:21.280 --> 00:01:21.599
Never.
00:01:22.000 --> 00:01:22.879
Total original.
00:01:23.120 --> 00:01:24.239
Who was who was Quadrant?
00:01:24.799 --> 00:01:26.239
I was I was Quadrant 6.
00:01:27.519 --> 00:01:32.799
Amol came up, Amil, who was a co-writer, there was uh came up with a Star Trek reference.
00:01:34.079 --> 00:01:34.319
Makes sense.
00:01:36.239 --> 00:01:41.359
That's pretty silly, kind of like you know, Nairobi for you know, the Roby in uh in Makosa.
00:01:41.680 --> 00:01:43.120
So Yeah, that was that was cool.
00:01:43.280 --> 00:01:46.239
So body mechanic, you know, incredible, incredible record.
00:01:46.480 --> 00:01:48.159
You were on Atlantic for that?
00:01:49.040 --> 00:01:51.920
Well, there was a bidding major bidding war for it, actually.
00:01:52.159 --> 00:01:56.480
Because I had success with other records, and I Amol had that idea.
00:01:56.959 --> 00:01:58.319
Even though overnight I'll get the jump.
00:01:58.560 --> 00:02:00.079
And I love Amil, he's a really close friend.
00:02:00.159 --> 00:02:02.959
And I did it because I I love him.
00:02:03.040 --> 00:02:06.000
I he wanted to work and I wanted to help him because he helped me early on.
00:02:06.239 --> 00:02:10.240
So we start, I had an A-track recorder in my apartment, and we started on the A-track recorder.
00:02:10.639 --> 00:02:13.599
And if you listen to Body Mechanic, you'll notice there were no drum breaks.
00:02:14.800 --> 00:02:16.159
If you listen to it now, you'll notice that.
00:02:16.400 --> 00:02:16.479
Yeah.
00:02:16.719 --> 00:02:20.879
And the reason they're on is because we record the entire drum pattern onto two tracks.
00:02:24.159 --> 00:02:26.719
All in real time, all by hand.
00:02:27.120 --> 00:02:32.719
And then we transferred it to 20 uh to two-inch tape, 24 track, and finish it in the suit, then we put the candy's voltage on it.
00:02:33.360 --> 00:02:35.759
And uh Yeah, that was a lot of fun.
00:02:36.159 --> 00:02:37.280
That's a lot of fun, you know.
00:02:37.439 --> 00:02:38.960
And uh there's a bidding war for it.
00:02:39.199 --> 00:02:41.439
Uh the next plateau wanted it desperately.
00:02:41.680 --> 00:02:45.520
Okay, and it was like 5,000, 10,000, 15,000, 20.
00:02:45.919 --> 00:02:51.919
And then Atlantic R25,000, which was 12 inch in 1983, but it was a lot of fucking money.
00:02:59.680 --> 00:03:08.159
So with one more shot, you know, another classic, would would you see that as a kind of a precursor to what became Latin freestyle in some ways?
00:03:08.400 --> 00:03:10.879
Uh it was the first freestyle record, period.
00:03:11.439 --> 00:03:13.360
And uh, well, no.
00:03:14.240 --> 00:03:16.800
Strictly speaking, play at your own risk loss.
00:03:17.360 --> 00:03:25.840
But but I if you define freestyle by by preeminently using female vocalists, it was the first freestyle record.
00:03:26.000 --> 00:03:26.240
Okay.
00:03:26.400 --> 00:03:30.159
And it incorporated the 808 in that frenetic way, again, which is what freestyle does.
00:03:30.240 --> 00:03:33.599
Although modern freestyle generally just is straight from one beat.
00:03:33.919 --> 00:03:47.680
But now what happened is uh we all I mentioned this earlier, you know, perfect beat and renegades and all those early records, hip-hop, beatbop, body mechanic, at the time they were regarded as hip-hop records.
00:03:47.840 --> 00:03:52.879
They were written about as hip-hop records, they were thought to be hip-hop records, they were called hip-hop records.
00:03:53.039 --> 00:04:01.520
But as the musical style changed with the advent of Run DMC, it's like that, and the records, which were uh a lot simpler rhythmically.
00:04:01.680 --> 00:04:04.400
Actually, sort of, sort of monotonous rhythmically.
00:04:04.639 --> 00:04:12.319
And and letting the look, one could say they wanted the the give space to the rap, another can say that they were uninspired, you know.
00:04:12.639 --> 00:04:36.079
But uh when that became the the the template for for hip-hop after that, it became, I don't, I I think it became almost important for them, for for those songs to be relabeled as either electro or freestyle, because what it did was it opened up, it it gave ownership to the new, to the new hip-hop artists.
00:04:36.160 --> 00:04:41.600
It gave them ownership rather than having to admit where they came from, what the roots were.
00:04:41.839 --> 00:04:45.120
And you know, when people are allowed to take ownership, they'll take it, you know?
00:04:45.360 --> 00:04:45.680
That's true.
00:04:45.920 --> 00:04:47.519
And that's what and that's what happened.
00:04:47.680 --> 00:04:49.519
Uh but those were hip-hop records.
00:04:49.680 --> 00:05:10.639
And but then when the Latin community started uh with the success of Let the Music Play, which was the which was would not have existed with the were not the one more shot, but but Let the Music Play was was the first record of its kind that MTV MTV played by a black artist.
00:05:10.959 --> 00:05:13.519
MTV did not play black artists.
00:05:13.680 --> 00:05:23.199
So Shannon got deservedly, mind you, because it's a brilliant record, and she was brilliant, but she got the kind of success that you can only get by being on MTV at the time.
00:05:23.360 --> 00:05:24.000
Yes.
00:05:24.480 --> 00:05:24.959
Right.
00:05:25.279 --> 00:05:33.199
So, and from that, and that became the the the the standard bearer for freestyle, but it was one more shot, really.
00:05:33.360 --> 00:05:34.240
It really was.
00:05:34.800 --> 00:05:41.360
Again, the Latin community took ownership for it, and they still do, and uh that's fine, you know.
00:05:41.759 --> 00:05:49.199
One more shot, cause I love that you know that it's real, make me feel that it's real.
00:05:50.000 --> 00:05:56.160
All my God is with my place left to go.
00:06:00.720 --> 00:06:01.680
Playing a rock.
00:06:02.480 --> 00:06:03.920
Okay, I hated.
00:06:04.399 --> 00:06:07.759
I said, What is this stupid, dumb shit?
00:06:08.000 --> 00:06:10.160
Because I didn't understand the culture.
00:06:10.720 --> 00:06:14.959
And then when I heard it being played everywhere, I mean you could it was you couldn't escape it.
00:06:15.120 --> 00:06:22.399
It was coming out of boom boxes, it was coming out of car ratings, coming out of windows, it was in every club, and I saw how people related to it.
00:06:22.560 --> 00:06:25.120
And then I started hanging out with more black musicians.
00:06:25.279 --> 00:06:27.759
I started going to disco fever, you know, and all this.
00:06:28.079 --> 00:06:30.879
And I understood that this is it was cultural.
00:06:31.040 --> 00:06:35.360
This is like something that was moving a culture that I thought I was privy to that I wasn't.
00:06:35.519 --> 00:06:38.240
But when I was doing Planet Rock, I thought it was so beneath me.
00:06:38.399 --> 00:06:39.120
And I was wrong.
00:06:39.279 --> 00:06:41.600
Planet Rock changed my life for the better.
00:06:41.759 --> 00:06:47.439
It opened me up to a side of electronic experimentation that I that I didn't know existed.
00:06:47.519 --> 00:06:49.360
I know you can listen to Planet Rock now.
00:06:49.519 --> 00:06:50.720
Anyone can, right?
00:06:50.959 --> 00:06:53.839
And you listen to the electronic beeps and bloops and things.
00:06:54.000 --> 00:06:55.759
Those are not easy to create.
00:06:55.920 --> 00:07:02.480
I mean, you tell somebody with a monophonic synthesizer without precess, okay, make it make a sound like uh like thunder or a typewriter.
00:07:02.720 --> 00:07:04.480
You had to know what the fuck you were doing.
00:07:04.800 --> 00:07:07.920
And that and and how those sounds worked in conjunction with each other.
00:07:08.079 --> 00:07:14.000
So I was able to explore knowledge that I accumulate over time in a way that conventional music would not allow.
00:07:14.480 --> 00:07:17.360
You know, it allowed me to use it up front as a melodic element.
00:07:17.439 --> 00:07:20.079
So Planet Rock was the greatest thing that ever happened to me.
00:07:20.160 --> 00:07:22.639
And it was one of the greatest records of all time.
00:07:22.800 --> 00:07:25.920
But at the time, I wouldn't lie to you, that's how I felt about it.
00:07:26.160 --> 00:07:27.279
But I learned.
00:07:27.519 --> 00:07:29.600
You can learn, you can change.
00:07:29.920 --> 00:07:33.360
Real quick, what was your level of familiarity with rap music?
00:07:33.439 --> 00:07:36.000
It had only been on record for two or three years at that point.
00:07:36.319 --> 00:07:38.800
Were you familiar with with what preceded it?
00:07:39.040 --> 00:07:39.279
Okay.
00:07:39.680 --> 00:07:41.759
Well, I I knew it was in the it was in the ether.
00:07:41.920 --> 00:07:43.120
I heard the breaks and you know.
00:07:43.279 --> 00:07:43.519
Sure.
00:07:43.920 --> 00:07:47.360
But but you know, I didn't as a rock musician, I wasn't a fan, you know.
00:07:47.519 --> 00:07:47.680
Sure.
00:07:47.920 --> 00:07:56.160
We were very snobby about uh, well, I think we saw the early rap as a progression of disco and we didn't like disco.
00:07:56.319 --> 00:07:56.560
Sure.
00:07:56.800 --> 00:08:00.240
Rock musicians did not like you can call us racist, but that wasn't it.
00:08:00.399 --> 00:08:02.480
It was just we didn't like the monotony of it.
00:08:02.720 --> 00:08:05.439
It was like against everything we talk about having learned how to play.
00:08:06.319 --> 00:08:07.600
But then when P.S.
00:08:07.759 --> 00:08:13.680
when I did sessions on those records and I heard Hadless Cats can play, that changed my attitude too.
00:08:13.839 --> 00:08:18.399
You see, you hear something, you hear a civil convention on the radio when you're trying to eat a fucking bagel.
00:08:18.560 --> 00:08:19.680
You go, take the shit off.
00:08:19.759 --> 00:08:25.199
But then you go into the studio with like Alan Goldman playing drums, and you go, wait a minute.
00:08:25.839 --> 00:08:28.480
These guys are really, really good.
00:08:28.720 --> 00:08:32.000
And then you try to stop playing with them in time.
00:08:33.279 --> 00:08:37.519
Simple things like try to clap your hands for seven minutes on a disco record.
00:08:37.600 --> 00:08:37.759
Right.
00:08:38.159 --> 00:08:38.960
Try to do that.
00:08:39.360 --> 00:08:40.960
See how how easy that is.
00:08:41.360 --> 00:08:42.639
It's fucking painful.
00:08:42.799 --> 00:08:43.039
Yeah.
00:08:43.200 --> 00:08:45.039
It's painful after 30 seconds.
00:08:45.200 --> 00:08:45.919
All those things.
00:08:46.000 --> 00:08:50.399
So I began to re- I began to appreciate that, you know.
00:08:50.720 --> 00:08:54.480
But but uh yeah, it was a progression.
00:08:54.879 --> 00:09:05.679
So for Planet Rock, um, I remember you telling me before that the drum pattern, the beat was already laid from the 808, and you came in to do uh the synthesizers and other sounds.
00:09:05.840 --> 00:09:08.159
Talk to me about your role in Planet Rock.
00:09:09.279 --> 00:09:15.200
Well, I came in with with two synthesizers, a Prophet 5 and a multi-moe.
00:09:15.679 --> 00:09:16.960
Never used the Prophet 5.
00:09:17.120 --> 00:09:18.720
Profit 5 is polyphonic.
00:09:18.799 --> 00:09:20.639
The entire record is monophonic.
00:09:21.039 --> 00:09:24.000
All the multi-moe, which is a monophonic synthesizer.
00:09:24.320 --> 00:09:36.559
And uh I was asked to create sound effects, and uh some were very specific, others I was just uh I just let loose and did my own my own shit, you know.
00:09:36.879 --> 00:09:43.440
But the reason I'm writer on Planet Rock was because I was asked to create a melody line for the break.
00:09:43.679 --> 00:09:46.960
I said, You're asking me to create a melody line, I'm a writer.
00:09:47.360 --> 00:09:48.480
We talked about this before.
00:09:48.639 --> 00:09:52.720
All those Motown session players, man, they should have gotten writing.
00:09:53.039 --> 00:09:55.519
You know, where do you think the song Bernadette came from?
00:09:55.600 --> 00:10:01.919
It came from the bass line, you know, and it's like and they were just doing so many things at the time.
00:10:02.080 --> 00:10:03.519
It was one session after another.
00:10:03.679 --> 00:10:06.799
They didn't they were just enjoying making a living, and they didn't make that much money.
00:10:07.039 --> 00:10:11.039
But they enjoy making a living, they enjoying playing with each other, and it was just they thought it would never end them.
00:10:11.120 --> 00:10:14.639
One day they woke up and they said, Holy shit, I should have been paid for this shit.
00:10:14.720 --> 00:10:15.600
And they were right.
00:10:16.399 --> 00:10:23.759
It's easy to look back in retrospect and say, Well, why should you demand that?
00:10:24.000 --> 00:10:25.279
Anyone could have written a string line?
00:10:25.360 --> 00:10:26.080
Well, no.
00:10:26.320 --> 00:10:29.039
I wrote a string line that was perfect for the break.
00:10:29.279 --> 00:10:32.480
It was influenced by the cra by the trans-Europe string line.
00:10:32.720 --> 00:10:37.679
It didn't sound so it sounded so organic that it sounded like a necessary extension of it.
00:10:38.000 --> 00:10:40.240
You know, it's very easy if someone says, I could have done that.
00:10:40.320 --> 00:10:41.360
Well, try it.
00:10:49.919 --> 00:10:50.799
Try it.
00:10:51.200 --> 00:10:57.360
You know, and it's the same with the creating sounds from scratch on the monophonic synthesizer.
00:10:57.440 --> 00:11:00.480
I mean, at that point I'd been using that synthesizer for many years.
00:11:00.559 --> 00:11:01.919
I knew like the back of my hand.
00:11:02.000 --> 00:11:14.159
In fact, I'm working on on a ballet soundtrack, and um and I recently did uh several songs where I'm using just the monophonic uh uh multimogue, nothing else.
00:11:14.240 --> 00:11:18.639
No MIDI, no triggers, just playing it in real time.
00:11:19.120 --> 00:11:28.240
And you can produce a lot of stuff that way uh rather than having to be a slave to MIDI and MIDI MIDI tempo and stuff.
00:11:28.480 --> 00:11:32.080
So yeah, I mean, I came in and I produced those sounds.
00:11:32.240 --> 00:11:36.960
And again, somebody with a difference is the sizer could not have done it.
00:11:37.120 --> 00:11:42.320
So yeah, I mean, I contributed to that record in a way that made it what it was.
00:11:42.559 --> 00:11:52.000
And that's indisputable because it's there's a human element to the to to performance that can't be to individual performance that can't be duplicated by another human being.
00:11:52.240 --> 00:11:53.039
Just can't.
00:11:53.600 --> 00:11:54.720
Using another machine.
00:11:54.879 --> 00:11:55.759
So there you go.
00:11:55.919 --> 00:12:06.080
And so I did I I defend my role in in Planet Rock as being vital, essential, and and irreplaceable.
00:12:06.639 --> 00:12:22.799
Michael Jackson continues to, you know, be as ever viral as he always was, you know, people go back to want to be starting something, and because they didn't hear um Manu the Bingo's um original Makosa, which was a you know huge record.
00:12:31.759 --> 00:12:37.679
So a lot of younger people are taking the interpolation that Michael Jackson used and they're just making up their own lyrics for it.
00:12:37.759 --> 00:12:45.200
But by 83, 84, you were doing a um an electronic um reinterpretation of Makosa.
00:12:53.759 --> 00:12:57.200
Tell me a little bit about Makosa and how that that came to be.
00:12:57.679 --> 00:12:58.879
It was just a lot of fun.
00:12:59.679 --> 00:13:06.879
You know, there's uh the awesome forcing were there that wanted to make a record with him, and uh just went into the studio and came up with it.
00:13:07.120 --> 00:13:09.200
That had a phonetic 808 beat too.
00:13:09.600 --> 00:13:12.960
But but it was different than the earliest stuff because we added horns to it.
00:13:13.039 --> 00:13:15.759
There were synthesizer horns, but their horns just the same.
00:13:16.080 --> 00:13:23.200
And the cadence of uh the the rhythm of the rapping was just extraordinary how it worked with the 808.
00:13:23.279 --> 00:13:27.440
Uh I would put chief jazz with the Razzle Battle so do that funkamakosta hup.
00:13:27.679 --> 00:13:31.039
With a hauto, get on that out.
00:13:33.679 --> 00:13:35.120
So that funky makosa.
00:13:35.360 --> 00:13:36.799
Yeah, with a auto foto.
00:13:37.519 --> 00:13:38.559
That stuff was brilliant.
00:13:38.720 --> 00:13:41.039
It was really, it was so musical.
00:13:41.360 --> 00:13:42.639
It was so musical.
00:13:42.960 --> 00:13:58.399
And uh and that's where sometimes you know the musicality of a performance or the rhythmic of the rhythm of the performance, the the dedication to the track of a performance really could could elevate a record.
00:13:58.799 --> 00:13:59.440
And it did.
00:14:00.080 --> 00:14:01.039
And it really did.
00:14:01.120 --> 00:14:06.639
Those those kids were fantastic, and it was such great fun because you know, you you fed off their energy.
00:14:07.840 --> 00:14:08.960
Yeah, and vice versa.
00:14:09.039 --> 00:14:10.240
And they were so happy to be there.
00:14:10.320 --> 00:14:15.360
They were they were just starting out, they were just they were just so in awe, and that was like it was great.
00:14:15.679 --> 00:14:16.639
It was really, really great.
00:14:16.720 --> 00:14:20.320
It was it's really great to be around that kind of youthful energy.
00:14:22.480 --> 00:14:28.080
The awesome, the awesome, the awesome, Moraccia! Fucky, fucking Makosa.
00:14:37.120 --> 00:15:00.799
Get on down, get up, get on that, put it, jump, get on down, get on that, get on that, jump, get up down, get on down, get on down, you're not the jump, get on down, get on down, get on down, get on down, get on down, get on down, ha, what's up, what does up, what does up?
00:15:05.919 --> 00:15:15.759
Looking at uh looking at Planet Planet Rock, you know, huge record, and then a few months later, we get play at your own risk, which is basically uh Planet Rock with a lot more instruments.
00:15:15.919 --> 00:15:24.799
But what what the story not really want to get is I know you went in to do the keyboard parts on Planet Rock, beats already laid.
00:15:26.159 --> 00:15:30.240
What did you know about that upcoming play at your own risk at that time?
00:15:30.399 --> 00:15:32.159
You go in to lay these parts.
00:15:32.320 --> 00:15:37.519
Um what do you know about the name Planet Patrol, which is actually on Planet Rock, music by Planet Patrol.
00:15:37.600 --> 00:15:42.720
Who is Planet Patrol and how does that whole thing roll out from your initial coming into the studio?
00:15:43.039 --> 00:15:44.960
Okay, well, this is all very interesting.
00:15:45.120 --> 00:16:00.720
I had done Planet Rock, and uh you know, it's a long time ago, but what I do know is that when we but Arthur called me into the studio to do the keys on Play at your own risk, he said, uh, you're gonna be co-producer.
00:16:01.120 --> 00:16:02.720
And I was just surprised.
00:16:02.799 --> 00:16:10.559
I mean, you know, and I think it was because we had a a very, very good synergy, a good energy between us.
00:16:10.720 --> 00:16:17.200
And uh, you know, I I will not lie, I mean, I think on that record we brought out the best in each other.
00:16:17.440 --> 00:16:24.960
You know, Arthur had I Arthur had some firm ideas, but I had some some ideas of my own that I added to the mix.
00:16:25.120 --> 00:16:29.919
We we we really rocked that as a as a team, okay?
00:16:51.120 --> 00:16:55.360
I played two different solos on it, which were I thought were really great with two different sounds.
00:16:55.440 --> 00:17:00.240
I played a funky clap, again, everything was in real time on Play Jarvisque, no sequences.
00:17:00.399 --> 00:17:09.039
These funky clap parts composed the piano part to accommodate the melody, uh, which Arthur and I came up with in the studio.
00:17:09.200 --> 00:17:11.599
Uh, and the string line, uh da da da.
00:17:13.279 --> 00:17:21.519
And I wanted to call the song the song No Money, no fun, because it went with the string line, No Money, no fun, da da.
00:17:22.000 --> 00:17:23.039
It was stupid.
00:17:24.480 --> 00:17:25.599
Arthur had the idea.
00:17:25.839 --> 00:17:29.599
It was, but Arthur had a better idea, play at your own risk, and we worked off that.
00:17:29.839 --> 00:17:35.599
He wrote the first verse, I wrote the second verse, and so we, you know, and uh it was a good synergy.
00:17:35.759 --> 00:17:38.960
And then the energetics came in, and I knew nothing about them.
00:17:39.119 --> 00:17:46.960
Arthur knew them from Boston, you know, and I was completely clueless about them, and then they came in the studio, and it was the bloody temptations, man.
00:17:51.119 --> 00:17:53.440
Waiting for your girl to hold the time.
00:18:06.079 --> 00:18:15.920
Perhaps one of the one of the earliest disses, you know, if you want to call it a little sneak diss in rap, uh, Man Paris had a song called uh Boogie Down Bronx.
00:18:16.160 --> 00:18:23.599
And in that song, the the um the MC, um, this cool John Skeet, he says, You got the perfect beat, I hear you say.
00:18:23.920 --> 00:18:25.599
You got the perfect beat, I hear you say.
00:18:25.839 --> 00:18:28.160
But you better listen, grips, cause I'm here to state of that.
00:18:28.319 --> 00:18:32.000
I rock so good, I rock so strong, I rock so well, cause I laugh so.
00:18:32.400 --> 00:18:36.480
Even though I used to read the credits to records religiously, I didn't see a connection.
00:18:36.640 --> 00:18:38.799
Like, why would they, why would he say that?
00:18:39.279 --> 00:18:45.119
But then I heard recently that, um, well, you told me recently that you actually played on hip hop bebop.
00:18:45.440 --> 00:18:50.480
And you told me there was some um maybe a misunderstanding or whatever it might have been with that.
00:18:50.559 --> 00:18:55.759
Speak to me about that, and maybe that would make me understand maybe why why they would say that.
00:18:55.839 --> 00:18:58.799
Uh, you know, kind of do a diss to um perfect beat.
00:18:59.359 --> 00:19:04.240
It's very easy to do to diss shit that you can that you're incapable of doing.
00:19:04.640 --> 00:19:09.119
You know, it's very easy, it's very easy to bring down the king, you know.
00:19:09.279 --> 00:19:12.160
It's like, or to try to bring down the king, which is what we're all about now.
00:19:12.400 --> 00:19:16.240
Which the whole culture is about you know bringing down whoever's popular.
00:19:16.480 --> 00:19:18.799
But it's like, but that was also part of the rap culture.
00:19:18.960 --> 00:19:19.440
It was cool.
00:19:19.519 --> 00:19:25.039
It was like, it was in a way, it was it wasn't, it was, it was, it was, it was not just a diss.
00:19:25.279 --> 00:19:29.039
It was it was it was uh it was a uh a backhanded compliment, you know.
00:19:29.279 --> 00:19:29.680
It was cool.
00:19:29.839 --> 00:19:31.680
Yes, it was it, it was an acknowledgement.
00:19:31.839 --> 00:19:41.119
So it's it's like quoting in jazz, you know, when you play some riff from from a Charlie Parker song and you put it in and Eric Dolphy does it in one of his compositions.
00:19:41.279 --> 00:19:43.440
That's not stealing, that's a quote, you know.
00:19:43.759 --> 00:19:47.039
And and ja and and jazz musicians understood that and respected it.
00:19:47.119 --> 00:19:48.079
So I respect that.
00:19:48.400 --> 00:19:54.079
The thing with with hip-hop beepop is it it harkens back to what I did with Planet Rock.
00:19:54.319 --> 00:19:59.279
My position was that if you ask me to add something that creates a hook in a song, I'm a writer.
00:19:59.839 --> 00:20:06.400
And Mike Wilkinson, who owned uh uh the record company, uh import 12, was it?
00:20:06.559 --> 00:20:14.480
Yes, I think you want me to play in this if I add a part that adds a hook, I'm I'm a writer.
00:20:14.720 --> 00:20:15.519
And I did.
00:20:15.680 --> 00:20:32.720
I mean that the the you know da da da da da da da da da da the hook of the string line, the the uh the clavinet uh rhythm played with with uh a uh like a digital bell sound, you know.
00:20:33.519 --> 00:20:34.640
Those are hooks.
00:20:34.880 --> 00:20:41.200
And so Manny, and I understand that because Manny, Manny was the heart and soul of that record.
00:20:41.519 --> 00:20:42.000
He was.
00:20:42.160 --> 00:20:44.160
But I came in and I did my thing.
00:20:44.400 --> 00:20:46.240
Would it have been the same record without it?
00:20:46.880 --> 00:20:47.680
Who knows?
00:20:47.839 --> 00:20:49.599
But nonetheless, I did it.
00:21:12.960 --> 00:21:18.880
Same deal as the other records where if I was going to do hooks, I became a writer.
00:21:19.119 --> 00:21:19.680
Yes.
00:21:20.000 --> 00:21:25.440
Now, in fairness, Arth wrote the melody and the lyrics to that song, and they were really, really heartfelt.
00:21:25.519 --> 00:21:27.599
I figured about something he was going through at the time.
00:21:27.759 --> 00:21:30.079
Well, just assuming it was, you know.
00:21:30.400 --> 00:21:33.440
But I came in and I played all the instruments.
00:21:33.599 --> 00:21:42.400
I came up with that synthesizer hook, I came up with the syllabic solo, which is my voice, you know, played on an early emulator, the first one.
00:21:56.640 --> 00:21:59.599
I created the chords against the melody that Arthur had written.
00:22:00.160 --> 00:22:05.519
Know they're very simple, it was like you know, C minor, A, flat, B repeated over and over again.
00:22:05.680 --> 00:22:06.319
But it worked.
00:22:06.480 --> 00:22:08.240
And I played the piano on that.
00:22:08.400 --> 00:22:11.119
And again, it was like, you want me to do hooks?
00:22:11.279 --> 00:22:12.559
You want me to add my sound?
00:22:12.720 --> 00:22:16.079
And it wasn't just hook set that musical hooks, it was the sound.
00:22:16.319 --> 00:22:21.599
It was using specific synthesizers that I knew how to manipulate to create those sounds.
00:22:21.920 --> 00:22:24.160
That hook paw was played on the multi-mook.
00:22:24.559 --> 00:22:24.880
Okay.
00:22:25.920 --> 00:22:30.960
And uh the syn drums were played on the profit 5, you know.
00:22:31.200 --> 00:22:33.680
And admittedly there was a preset for that.
00:22:33.839 --> 00:22:36.160
But most people didn't use it because it wasn't musical.
00:22:36.640 --> 00:22:37.039
Right.
00:22:37.200 --> 00:22:42.240
But but I used a lot of the I used a lot of the sound effects banks on um Profit 5.
00:22:42.400 --> 00:22:50.240
Again, people approaching synthesizer from from a from a strictly, you know, traditional musical sense.
00:22:50.400 --> 00:22:53.759
It replaces the synthesizer with a piano or an organ, if you will.
00:22:54.079 --> 00:22:59.440
I I explored the all the parameters that those those instruments offered, including the sound effects banks.
00:23:00.079 --> 00:23:01.440
And um refuge.
00:23:01.759 --> 00:23:04.960
So yeah, that's so Arthur asked me to play on it.
00:23:05.279 --> 00:23:08.720
And uh so I agreed under those terms, and she agreed to.
00:23:09.359 --> 00:23:11.519
And uh there you go.
00:23:11.680 --> 00:23:14.559
That's why I'm I'm writer on on IOU.
00:23:15.119 --> 00:23:23.039
But uh because I lend something to the record that that's you know irrefutable and helped make it what it was.
00:23:23.279 --> 00:23:31.680
I mean, I have read some interviews, particularly in the Guardian, where uh members of Freeze take credit for coming up with that stuff.
00:23:31.920 --> 00:23:36.400
Freeze had a keyboard player, but I remember him only coming in.
00:23:36.480 --> 00:23:38.720
I my left hand wasn't so good that day.
00:23:38.799 --> 00:23:45.039
And there's the left-handed artigio that goes, which was last sequence, which he played.
00:23:45.200 --> 00:23:45.519
Okay.
00:23:45.680 --> 00:23:52.640
I remember him playing that, but I did everything else, and you know people could say what they will, you know.
00:23:52.799 --> 00:23:55.599
Just ask the tape operators who were in the studio at you need.
00:24:20.400 --> 00:24:31.039
For your viewers who don't know what who do not familiar with the musical lexicon, contrapuntal means two or more instruments playing at the same time, but somehow sounding harmonious together.
00:24:31.200 --> 00:24:32.880
And that's not so easy.
00:24:33.119 --> 00:24:37.279
And uh there are tons of tracks that complement each other in that way.
00:24:37.440 --> 00:24:44.079
And also the title of the song reflects how the record was produced and vice versa, looking for the perfect beat.
00:24:44.240 --> 00:24:52.799
Uh the 808 was used to create at least 10 distinctly different beats, and they were put in at random.
00:24:52.960 --> 00:25:03.279
So to make those arrangement parts also work rhythmically and sonically, because the sound of the drums, depending upon how you tune them, had their own signature.
00:25:03.519 --> 00:25:08.640
So, yeah, I'm very, very proud of that record because it really was, as the New York Times said, a symphony.
00:25:08.799 --> 00:25:14.000
Yeah, looking back, it's it it it's I don't think anything had ever been done done like that.
00:25:14.079 --> 00:25:14.640
I really don't.
00:25:15.440 --> 00:25:17.039
Nor will it ever be again.
00:25:17.279 --> 00:25:31.839
Because not only was it was it contrapuntal and orchestral in a very in a very real sense, it employed the use of the 808 in a way, well, in a very musical way.
00:25:32.000 --> 00:25:35.519
The changes, those constant changes of beats were musical.
00:25:35.920 --> 00:25:42.319
And and they were individual musical statements, for lack of a better a better way of expressing it.
00:25:42.480 --> 00:25:47.359
Uh each beat had its own component, had its own flavor, you know.
00:25:47.680 --> 00:25:57.359
So I don't think anyone after that record explored the parameters of the eight oh eight to that extent.
00:25:57.519 --> 00:26:04.240
You know, it it bec it became uh just a drum machine, something to keep a beat.
00:26:04.480 --> 00:26:07.759
But this was used as a musical instrument.
