Hello Gwizski, how are you? First off, tell us when and how did you start making beats?
Aye, I’d first like to say thanks for having me here. Things are good. Loop Regions is about to have national street release date June 8th, so things are good. When did I start making beats? Well, I started in ’98 off and on, using different pieces of gear, Mpc, 303’s, grooveboxes. I didn’t have my own gear back then so (I used) what ever I could fuck with at time. Back then I was living in Santa Cruz CA (shout to Reseda), but basically back then I was putting together drums to rap over myself (yup!) . By the time I got to Santa Cruz trying to wait for beats was out of the question, so I started buying records and learned as much as I could about sequencing. It wasn’t till I moved to Portland that I was able to afford buying my own gear. Santa Cruz was the hella spendy on that rent, for a place that had the worst digging but the best weather! But really my first pieces of gear was an 303 to a 505 then an MPC2000xl and abelton for my midi keys. Loop Regions is just my MPC, every hit sample based untracked steoro out completely stock rocked, all five dollar to dollar records I bought in ’06.
So you live in Portland now. Why did you move fom Cali?
There is more record stores in Portland per capita, then any where else in the world. Dead fucking serious-and the weather is nice – cheap clean Nikes.
The beat in Need A Ride is off the hook. Can you tell what the sample is?
There are a lot of different samples in Need A Ride. But the two most commonly asked samples are the girl´s vocal track and the chorus hook sample, I could tell you but they might come and rob me or something they (RIAA) been cracking down on fools out here, raiding houses seize and desist type shit! Boooooooo to that shit! I hope (that) I’m not alone when I say sampling other people´s music, espescally the music the over saturated pop culture (that) has (been) forgotten about, is critical to preserving all music and teaching new and old generations the vast history. So on that note, the girl´s vocal sample is off that Jeremy Steig’s "Firefly". Googie Coppola is the girl´s name singing. The guitar chorus hook sample is off the Hummingbird "Diamond Nights" record, which Berard Purdie was a part of for a minute.
How do know all these MCs on your album? Were all of the collabos done in the studio or via email?
All the songs were recorded at my home studio except Tableek’s "Slide", which was recorded at the Iceburg (studio), which is down the street from my house. The only other tracks that were done outta town were the Scarub track and the Anglo track. I was playing the beat for
Scarub on the way to the PDX airport and a week later he sent me back Need A Ride. And Anglo, I played him that beat during one of his stop in Portland, he sent it back during the mastering period. I hooked up with him via my roomate DJ ATM, their both from AZ. Z-Man, Eddie K and DJ Marz, all met during one of there many trips to Portland ,and I
thought "how come I never met these dudes when I was living in the Bay?" We had some folks in common so it bugged me out. We had some shows together and sorted out the connection and been friends since. By the way look for these guys on the next Cuf LP or Deep Fried Funk Bros. (Pete, Nate The Gr8, Mad G of The Cuf) Sacramento Kings!
Which song took the longest to complete?
Which beat took the longest? Let me see…I don’t know. They all took about the same time. I started and finished it in 10 months, while working during the day(chopping vegetables) and DJing at night. I’ve always wanted to do a project like this, finally just came together.
Please leave a comment on the following topics:
– Don Imus calling women’s basketball team "nappy-headed hos"
– the Scott Storch vs. Timbaland beef
– Redman´s comeback with Red Gone Wild
– the Virginia Tech killing spree
Terrible. Those families don’t deserve that one bit. I hate to point a
finger, but the campus and local police should have stopped this guy!
J Dilla is obviously one of your favourite producers. But isn´t sad that he had to die to be recognized as one of the best producers?
Remembrance Is Power. J Dilla is the greatest of all time. Everybody knows that then and now. These record companies (majors) are holding these types of artists back, there is no real changes happening in cooperate programing i.e. placing great music next to that pop shit. Fuck that anyway. What this music is really about Jay Dee accomplished it in its entirety. A person discovering Dilla for the first time is still hella beautiful and always will be. He didn’t have to die to be recognized as one of the greatest forces in hip hop, it was because he was present, that he’ll be recognized as one of the strongest forces to touch down ever.
If you could produce a whole album for one MC who would it be and why?
I’m producing an EP with Pete from THE CUF, it’s going to be hot, with more production techniques,not as „stock rocked“ as Loop Regions.
You will be touring Europe with Scarub and Pigeon John in July. What do you expect from the tour?
That’s pushed to September. We’ll see I’ve never been out there before, I’m sure it´ll be a good experience, thoush.
What is the latest record you bought?
The last record I bought was Rotary Connection "Aladdin".
What can we expect from you in the near future? Do you produce also for other´s albums?
I got a instrumental 12" coming up. Currently working with a handful of emcee’s on my next full length and an EP with Pete from The Cuf.
OK, thank you very much for your time. Would you like to add anything?
Aye, thanks for having me homie and I like to get to Europe more so if you want to add Gwizski to your shows either DJing or live production with my MPC, just hit me gwizski@gmail.com. Max Respect. Peace.
Photos (5 – 10): Christy Klep
