SPEAKER_02 0:00

Quick heads up before we start the podcast. The audio in the first 10 minutes is a little choppy on our guest side. It gets fixed shortly after around the 10 minute mark. So hang in there. Feel free to skip ahead. Enjoy. Can I vent real quick? I know you're my guest, and I'm just I'm firing off right right away.

SPEAKER_01 0:20

Go else.

SPEAKER_02 0:22

Dude, last night I filmed an episode. And so my I have a 2018 MacBook Pro. Here, I'm trying to get you full screen here. Why isn't it? Okay, there we go. I got a 2018 MacBook Pro. And for some reason the left side of the screen glitches. Like if I bring a window over there, it like gets foggy, right? And lately, my whole screen has been going into these weird diagonal lines randomly. So I usually just work on the right side of the screen and it's fine. But for whatever reason, last night I started doing a pod. I don't know if I hit record, but it's supposed to start recording automatically. So we're like 10 minutes in and my screen goes blank. So I'm watching in my monitor, you know, and everything looks clear there because I'm uh HDMI out at my computer into the monitor. And I'm kind of getting like a weird feeling. Like, what if I I said, all right, dude, let's just pause. I the only way to fix it is to close my MacBook Pro screw uh and then open it back up. Now, when I opened it back up, it fixed the glitch, and we were still like live. I could see my guest, he could hear me, I could hear him. So we kept talking for like an hour and 20 minutes or whatever, and then he's out in West Virginia, so he lost his internet connection and it went blank. So I hit stop recording, and I figured that video now would upload to the cloud and we started a new one, right? Well, it didn't, and we lost the whole episode, and we only got the last 15 minutes.

SPEAKER_00 1:58

Oh, that's crazy. That sucks, dude.

SPEAKER_02 2:01

And then I was thinking, have you ever had a situation where you like made a whole project and like broke uh external drive or lost a project?

SPEAKER_00 2:15

I've lost like whole collections of beats before. Like um like an old laptop shit to head, and I didn't back up anything. I would I lost like hundreds of beats. So that's that's happened to me before, and it I was devastated for months. Um just tons of beats, tons of stems, uh tons of things that were getting used, um files for songs that I could never remaster or release in. Yeah, it's uh it's happened to me twice.

SPEAKER_02 2:57

Uh the worst feeling in the world, man. Just like my gut has hurt all day. And it's it doesn't, it's not important, you know what I mean? But it was catching up with a friend I hadn't talked to in 22 years. We lived together in uh Virginia when we were both like 18, and we just had a great conversation and now it's lost.

SPEAKER_00 3:16

I'm sorry to hear that, man. But technology's a bit. Oh, uh tricky links.

SPEAKER_02 3:25

Well, it's cool that um I'm thankful that you're joining me tonight. It's a little different than my usual spiel of like, oh, lost friends. I guess I gotta tell everyone um how me and you linked up. I think it was just from a couple mutual friends because we were never really friends. Probably a passion for uh beat making, you know. I I knew of you because of people who are friends with you that I was friends with. And then I started working at a marketing agency, and for some reason, every vid, like every pitch I wanted to do that was like outside of client work was like, how can I get DJ Manipulator involved in some type of episodic content? And we had an idea called Beats and Brew, where we would go like drink craft beers because it was really popular at the time, and maybe figure out a creative way to incorporate like a little mixtape of beats um for that series of beers, you know, because they were always microbreweries were releasing new stuff all the time, or they had their holiday mix, and it was like, how can we incorporate some type of cool um beat mix tape, whether it was a cassette that came with a 12-pack, or if you bought 24 beers, you got a cassette tape, but also like could they use though that music in their social media or you know, how how could we monetize it in some cool way? So thanks for coming on, man. I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00 4:51

Um isn't um P or um Paul your um?

SPEAKER_02 4:59

Yeah, yeah, he's married to my sister.

SPEAKER_00 5:01

We we uh how we was because me and P used to make music together.

SPEAKER_02 5:09

Yeah, yeah. Um was that the group kinda dusty?

SPEAKER_01 5:13

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:15

How did that get set up? Was it more than you and Paul or was it like a collective of guys? Oh, either real was in there too, right?

SPEAKER_00 5:22

Right. So m and E were in another group, or at least collective called Socialite Sounds. Um that kind of went to shit due to egos and whatever kind of bullshit happened in the background. Um and uh while we were working with um the guys in Socialite Towns, we kind of got close to P and Louie and Kenny, and we started making music at Pete's house and uh he moved on um Zat Street. Um so once me and uh his crew kind of dissolved, we were like, hey, why don't we do something? And I had a all violent mix out called Studio Kind of Dusty. And our whole thing was like, you know, going to the record store, digging for records, uh uh sampling Dusty Records. So kind of dusty was like kinda like my mantra. And I'm like, why don't we just make that our crew, our label or whatever? And that um we kind of ran with it. We had a decent with it, but um see I didn't know that you came up with that.

SPEAKER_02 6:39

I always loved that name, it just fits so good.

SPEAKER_00 6:43

Yeah. It w it it I got the name from a um mad mix called feel kind of cloudy. And I switched out cloudy for dusty. Um just to tie back to getting your fingers dusty, digging through records or whatever, so that uh that kind of stuck.

SPEAKER_02 7:04

I wish Was that Oh, go ahead.

SPEAKER_00 7:08

I I kinda wish I I wish I kept it for myself because that was such a cool name, but um it is what it is.

SPEAKER_02 7:17

Yeah, uh it's but you're right, it's more of a collective rather than like one person.

SPEAKER_00 7:21

Right.

SPEAKER_02 7:24

Getting to that moment, what were you doing prior to that? Had you already had some mixtapes out, or were you just like hanging out locally? Uh were your beats even out there yet?

SPEAKER_00 7:39

Not really. Maybe a little via um uh back in the MySpace days. Uh MySpace. Yeah. That's how I met um how I met E because I think when two um before you go, your audio's a little choppy.

SPEAKER_02 7:56

Maybe a chords loose or something. Are you using Bluetooth?

SPEAKER_00 8:00

Uh I'm using this microphone right here. Can you hear me?

SPEAKER_02 8:07

Yeah, it was just kind of maybe a chords loose or something because it was kind of chopping in and out.

SPEAKER_00 8:12

Can you hear me now?

SPEAKER_02 8:13

Yeah, that's way better.

SPEAKER_00 8:14

Okay, sorry about that.

SPEAKER_02 8:16

No, it's all good. You were you were just going off on MySpace.

SPEAKER_00 8:20

Yeah, so this was back in the MySpace days. This is how I met um um real um there used to be a state shop in Worcester called Concrete Wave. Um there I remember So at Concrete Wave, um I think somebody handed me a mixtape called uh The Haymaker, I believe. And there was all these kind of local rappers on. And there was a standout track um that E the Real did, and it was so dope. I was still kind of like early on to uh miss and beats. I think I started missing beats 2002, so this was like right after high school for me, 2005, 2006, maybe. Uh or seven or maybe a little after. But um, anyways, I got in touch with Eve Real VM ISpace because I I loved um one of the songs that he did a lot. Um we got together, started making music uh in a group called nine people with uh another producer. Um and through that we developed uh Social Light Sounds with a couple other people, but then that obviously got to shit. Um I frozen?

SPEAKER_02 9:44

Yeah, you're frozen. I think it's uh Yeah, it's uh I mean we can even like pause this one and then refresh it and see if that fixes the audio and the video.

SPEAKER_00 10:14

How's that?

SPEAKER_02 10:14

Okay, you're back in your audio is so much better.

SPEAKER_00 10:17

Okay. All right. Um what was I saying?

SPEAKER_02 10:21

I was trying to focus in so good, but it was like dipping in and out, and I was like, this software is pretty cool. Like it does fix a lot of audio issues, but dude, your your sound has speed now. It's it's better.

SPEAKER_00 10:32

Alright, cool. Um, so what's the last thing you you you remember me saying?

SPEAKER_02 10:39

Yeah, either real. I didn't know he was a local person. I thought he was from New York for some reason.

SPEAKER_00 10:44

He he's um he was from the Worcester area, I think Shrewsbury, but then um while we were working on music or whatever, he lived in Boston. He would kind of go back and forth. And um we had our crew, we did a like a ton of like lead shows and stuff like that, but um eventually it went to shit, like uh most rap crews do or whatever. And uh we started working with P and uh Louie and Kenny, and that was the thing for a while. We had a decent run too. We did shows, we um I think we were re-released one, was it one project? Uh this project called Wall Street, where um me, P uh did production on it, Louis rapped on it, Kenny rapped on it. Uh we did a couple singles, and then like always, this went to shit. So um at that point I started making music with Louie alone and then kind of releasing my own beat tapes. Every now and then I would produce for someone else outside of the state. Um and then things kind of progressed, more people knew who I was, um, but it never really got past like a like a a high level where I could kind of do it as my sole source of income. But I've I've always done it, and it's like a it's like a give and a curse. I always will so.

SPEAKER_02 12:33

Yeah. So growing up, what were the hobbies always music, or did you do something and then find, you know, how did you discover beat making?

SPEAKER_00 12:43

So when I was first of all, I was I was born in New York. Um I lived there until I was eleven or twelve.

SPEAKER_02 12:51

Oh, cool.

SPEAKER_00 12:53

Then uh my parents moved to to Marlborough, which was It was uh culture shock to say the least. But but before then, um I I didn't I played the trumpet in like fifth grade, stuff like that. Music was always kind of prevalent. Um my parents didn't have like a really big record collection, but uh my moms would listen to the radio to like listen to like the classic hits like Phil Collins, um Huey Lewis in the news and shit like that. Um I didn't really get into music myself until my brother um put me on to not hip hop per se, because I knew what hip hop was or whatever, but I didn't really care about it until I started listening to um The Score by the Fujies.

SPEAKER_02 13:46

Solid.

SPEAKER_00 13:47

And it it's funny because um I don't know if you know the comedian Zach Galifanakis. He has a comedy special where um he fakes having a twin brother, and he said uh the thing that they connected over was the Fuji's The Score album. I need to find that special, but but it's hilarious. But that's what kind of like sparked it off as at least me wanting to at least kind of be a part of it in some way. I didn't know how. Um I didn't know it was gonna be production. Um at one point I wanted to be a journalist and like write for like the source or something like that.

SPEAKER_01 14:30

Cool.

SPEAKER_00 14:31

But then there was a moment in middle school where um I was staying over in my uncle's house, and he had um Ready to Die on CD. I I stole it, um, and it was like the first time I was kind of listening to it at that time, or like really taking it in. I was, of course, I knew who Biggie was or whatever, but this was me like actually taking in the Ready to Die album, and it kind of sparked something in me that was like, like, how is this music made? Like, who is making these beats? Like, what are they doing? Like, like I knew they were using other people's records, but like how? What is a what is an NPC? What is a SP Um 1200? And I think specifically, there were two songs on that album that really like like made me, I guess, started my production journey. It was um Everyday Struggle and Unbelievable. I think everyday struggle was easy mode beats, and unbelievable was obviously DJ Premier, um, who's like in the like in my top three forever. Um, so that was like really like the the kickoff for me. So at that time, I would have to my brother was into hip-hop, but he wasn't really, really into like going back and looking up like the past or like the the vets and shit like that. But I got obsessed and started like going back to like BDP, public enemy, um, the Jews crew, things like that. I wanted to know as much as I could. Um early boot camp clique stuff.

SPEAKER_02 16:27

Um You're bringing back your flooded memories to me because I remember the exact moment I kind of fell in love with hip-hop, but it was more RB, and it was like early 90s run run uh driving in a Jeep with my aunt, like an old school Jeep, and she was playing Jammin 94-5. My God. And I'm hearing these like RB hits after hit, and I was like, what is this, Auntie? What channel? And I'm looking 94-5. So at home, I had a cassette player with a microphone on it, like a uh Fisher Price one. So me and my sisters started listening to Jamin 94.5 on repeat and recording songs to the cassette, and then we were making like radio shows, like we would pretend to be the radio hosts, and then we would queue up and wait for like a Mariah Carey song to come on, and then when it came on, I'd be hitting record real quick because we just did a little intro. Yeah, and then I remember my brother had a uh pretty extensive like rock collection of CDs, rock CDs, Metallica, Guns N' Roses, Life House, but he had uh Snoop Dogg's first album. Um I can't think of the name of it.

SPEAKER_00 17:38

Doggy style.

SPEAKER_02 17:39

Yeah, Doggy Style, he had that, and I was like, what is this? And I listened to it, and I was probably young, I shouldn't have been listening to it, but I was like, okay, the uh that's like I fell in love with that style of music. Um yeah. And I still go back to the classics more often than listening to new music. Like uh Paul actually got me a Boogie Downs production vinyl, you know, like some of some of the old uh KRS1 uh lyrical things is like always fun to go back to.

SPEAKER_00 18:10

Yeah, because it's like it's like those were such like formative years that kind of stick with you. Um it's like it's like high school, like really like intense experiences are happening in your life or whatever. Your your growing through shit, puberty, fucking dating, whatever. That was the soundtrack to all that shit.

SPEAKER_02 18:34

Well, my soundtrack for that was like Lincoln Park, Hybrid Theory, uh, Slim Shady LP, uh Capone Noriega, like ri those that was my like 13-year-old. And then yeah, when I was little and had like uh Sony Walkman, yeah, it was like Guns N' Roses and like Snoop Dogg and the Chronic. Well, the Chronic, yeah, the first Chronic and then Chronic 2001 was like puberty years, but yeah, so what was the first uh machine you got? Was it an SP or was it a turntable?

SPEAKER_00 19:09

So um to kind of go back to that journey of like kind of discovering producing or whatever, um I I'm listening to all this shit, getting inspired, and then I listened to um Mad Lib for the first time. And that kind of completely blew my mind. Uh, I think it was I I I've listened to The Loop Pack before, but there was this album that he produced for someone named Dudley Perkins called Um A Little Light. It was described in an herb magazine. I don't I don't know if you remember herb magazine. It was described like herb? Like we? It was like I don't remember. It was URB. It was supposed to be like urban music or whatever. But the description for the record was D'Angelo Meets Old Dirty Bastard produced by Mad Live. So I would it would be like after school or whatever in high school. I would check out uh stone stroll.com, watch whatever music videos they had, and they had a music video for a song called Money. And it blew my fucking mind. I was like obsessed. Um a little after that, he did um the Mad Villain record, which is like a top five dead or alive like desert island record for me. And I and I heard that he produced that whole record, or most of it, on a machine called the SP303. It was like this cheap$300 sampler. As soon as I heard that, I had like a little shitty dishwasher job or whatever. As soon as I heard what he used, I saved up my money and I got one. I had like a little turntable setup, um shitty new mark mixer and turntables, and I would sample. I would kind of go like around to like my neighbors' houses and be like, oh, do you have records that you don't listen to anymore? I'll take them off your hands, and I would sample all types of it was all types of bullshit. Like a lot of people around Marlboro liked fucking John Denver for some reason. It was a ton of John Denver records. But I would sample those records and try to and try to make beats. So the first machine I had was an SP303. Uh and around that time, um a friend of mine, we we used to skip school all the time to go to Newbury Comics to buy whatever CDs or um latest 12 inch. Or whatever. And I met the first person that I started making music with one of those days that I skipped school. He went by the the name The Molecule. He was very um sick name.

SPEAKER_02 22:18

I like that name.

SPEAKER_00 22:20

He was very um influenced by like Def Jux, uh Aesop Rock, Anticon, uh Galopicals Ford type of stuff, which was dope because it was like super different. I don't know if you're you're familiar with like uh stuff that came out around that time uh from Def Jux. Like Aesop Rock was really influential too.

SPEAKER_02 22:44

I I heard one album from him because I was in a record club and they sent me one. Yes. But the other groups I haven't heard of.

SPEAKER_00 22:50

Aesop Rock. LP was it was LP's labeled uh Def Jux, and LP is like the the other half of Run the Jewels. So um he was a part of that. But it was like a like a long lineage of like super underground hip-hop that you would only hear on um Do you remember um 88.9 at night, like ERS? It was uh it was a college station um from Emerson. Oh Emerson College was um they had a a radio station. I think they still do have the radio station, but they didn't they don't have the hip-hop show anymore. But this was the show where you could listen to stuff that you would never hear on January 94.5. You would hear your K R S1, but you would hear your super underground. This is where you would hear most deaf. This is where you hear you would hear Talib Kwali, uh Immortal Technique, uh all those types of um like early 2000s uh underground hip hop, Mr. Lif, Acrobatic, the local shit, um, Sevlinel and Esoteric, who are Zarface now, but that's where you went to like find like the good shit.

SPEAKER_02 24:08

Um there was I used to listen to uh Holy Cross radio.

SPEAKER_00 24:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:12

But I mean they played eclectically like a lot of like indie and I don't re ever remember them playing hip hop, but they they probably do.

SPEAKER_00 24:22

Yeah, but this was like if you were an underground head in Massachusetts at that time, you listen to 88.9 because this is where you kind of either got a chance to listen to it, got a chance to discover it, got a chance to find out where the shows were, um, at the Middle East, Western Front, shit like that. Um 88.9 was like the fucking mecca, and it was um it was such a dope time because um you had January 94-5 or whatever, but they would play the same shit all day. 88.9 You would learn about so much dope hip-hop, whether it was from out of state or local. And Boston had such a um a dope um hip-hop scene back in the early 2000s. Um, like I said, Mr. Lif, Acrobatic, um a group called Schizophrenics, uh E-Don, Seven Allen Esoteric, of course, and and and many, many others, but um I think without um if I never got hip to um WERS 88.9 at night, I don't think I'd make the music that I make today. It would if I did, it would sound completely different.

SPEAKER_02 25:50

Yeah, what when was like the first time you like put together a collection of beats and had people listen to them? Or what what was the first do you still have some of those old beats? And like what do you think when was like the first one that you thought was, you know, uh amazing?

SPEAKER_00 26:06

So I used to I I used to um when I had my SP303, I would record those beats straight to cassette, but there would be like these shitty loops, me hitting these pads or whatever. I eventually moved from the SP to uh Fruity Loops, and I would start making beats in Fruity Loops, and I would post them online on like uh do you remember SoundClick? SoundCloud's now, but there used to be a website called SoundClick where you you would post your music or whatever and have people check it out or buy it, and it was like the shittiest of shitty beats ever. I would get what yours or the other people? Mine, mine.

SPEAKER_02 26:50

You mean you didn't just come out producing hits like from day one?

SPEAKER_00 26:55

Unfortunately, no. And I would post this music thinking I was the shit, and I would get humbled so quickly. Like, this is garbage. And rightfully so, because it was trash.

SPEAKER_02 27:07

But um Me and my buddy Lewis, we we used to love we started making beats on Fruity Loops too, on like a hacked version, and then we ended up buying the producer edition, which is cool because you still uh lifetime updates, and we would burn we would make like 10, 12 beats, and then we would burn a CD and go in the car and just crank it and just start cracking up because you know they they weren't good, they were like funny commercial like beats. We didn't know what we were doing, you know.

SPEAKER_00 27:37

Right. I you're just using all these like shitty stock sounds or whatever, you don't know how to sample, you don't know what drums to use, and is Jesus Christ. Like, like I'm telling you.

SPEAKER_02 27:50

I'll send you the link. I I made like a fake radio show with Chat GPT uh maybe like six months ago, and I and I found like I wanted to do like a fake radio show, and then I played those some of those funny old beats as the radio music, and I would ask Chat GPT like, hey, create uh a description for this song. So it was like writing me all this like copy and I was just reading it live. Yeah, I think you'll get a kick out of like the beats.

SPEAKER_00 28:21

Man, like I will I'll never let people listen to those first beats I ever made.

SPEAKER_02 28:26

No, you gotta. That'd be awesome.

SPEAKER_00 28:28

Oh god, there were so I I think I might have a CD with some of them on it. God, Jesus Christ. If I or if you look deep enough, you might find the sound click. Um, it's still an active site? It might be. If I pray to God it's not, but it might be.

SPEAKER_02 28:50

Um but would it be under DJ Manipulator or your old moniker?

SPEAKER_00 28:54

No, it would be it'd be under DJ Manipulator because DJ Manipulator is kind of the um the only moniker I had. So the way we came up with, first of all, um the molecule came up with that name. We were at his house um getting ready for a show that we were doing. I was DJing for him, and he's like, dude, you need a DJ name. And um we kept thinking of things, kept thinking of things, and um he came, he just out of nowhere, he's like, DJ manipulator. He's like, that sounds sick. Um and at the time, I was like, Yeah, yeah, that's all right for now, but I didn't really like it at all. But I never came up with another one, so it stuck.

SPEAKER_02 29:49

Um that's like Mr. Beast. You just got that Mr. Beast tag auto-generated and he became Mr. Beast.

SPEAKER_00 29:57

Yeah, I I'm telling you, I at first like I really kind of fucking hated it. But then people kept saying it was cool or whatever, and I'm just like I'm I'm like fine, I'll I'll stick with it. But now, um, yeah, I can't I can't fucking change it now.

SPEAKER_02 30:19

But how do you go from just like I guess it's progressive, right? You got the SP303, you're starting to learn how to sequence and you know, use a confusing machine. That those machines are not easy, right? Um and then you probably went into the Fruity Loops and you're starting to learn all that. Were you starting to mix in Fruity Loops, or like how were you how did you start incorporating vocals into what you were doing?

SPEAKER_00 30:49

So um I started incorporating vocals by doing remixes of other people's songs, and I would do like like getting the levels right or whatever in um uh Cool Edit Pro. I don't know if you remember Cool Edit Pro. It's like um what Adobe has um Adobe Audition. Before that, it was called Cool Edit Pro. And it was, I just like bootlegged it or whatever, downloaded off of Kazar or some shit, um, and started learning to because I I heard that Ninth Wonder Um would mix, not like Ninth Wonder and his crew, like Justice League, they would mix songs in Cool Edit Pro. So I'm like, this this must be it. And it was like my first time kind of editing, mixing, putting things together, um making sure levels were right or whatever. I mean, I sucked at the time, but it was like uh uh a great learning experience for sure.

SPEAKER_02 31:58

Nice. And you know, fast forward to the future here. Recently you got to work with Sky Zoo, right?

SPEAKER_00 32:04

Yeah. So um that's my brother for sure. Um we have a couple songs under our belt, actually.

SPEAKER_02 32:13

Um how did you link how did you link up with him? Uh did he find you? Did you get like are you guys mutual friends from the past?

SPEAKER_00 32:22

So um the way I linked up with him was through um a homie of mine. Um why is his name not coming up? Um Explicit One, who was uh a producer around the way uh from Boston. Uh he's more of an entrepreneur now, but Explicit One was really cool with him, and um Sky Zoo came to town and he needed a DJ. Explicit One thought of me and said, yo, you know Sky Zoo. And I'm like, of course I know Sky Zoo, I'm a fan. Like, well, he needs a DJ for this gig. Um, it was like um cannabis festival in um in Boston, like at that skate park that's like under the um the ramps or whatever. I think it might be by the Zekem. But, anyways, he needed a DJ. I I DJed the show for him. Um, and uh I kind of became his DJ when he came out in this area. Um, another dude who was kind of instrumental in me producing for him was um my man Easy Money. Uh anytime Sky Zoo was out here, Easy Money would be in his ear, like, yo, when you're gonna do a joint with Manip, you know, you got beats, blah, blah, blah. And I would text Sky Zoo occasionally, like, hey man, how's it going? What's happening? What are you working on? And uh he was like, one day he was like, Yeah, I'm working on a a couple things. Like, uh, I'm like, I got beats, I I can send you some shit. So I sent him some stuff, and he picked three. Three or four, but three made it on the um, was it four? Four, three or four made it on um Keep Me Company, um, which was the first record um I produced on for him. I think it's like four songs that we did. So that's kind of the beginning of our journey. Uh, and then, you know, we we became like good friends. Um pretty much talked to him like once a week. Uh and that's awesome. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:37

So we have how that just like organically happened, you know?

SPEAKER_00 34:40

Yeah, yeah. It happened like the best way possible. I i it wasn't forced at all. Like, d don't get me wrong, I I wanted to work with him since forever, but the way it happened would was possibly the best possible way it could happen. Because it like you said, it was completely organic. He's the homie. We don't just talk about music, we talk about regular life shit. Um and anytime I need help with something or connecting the dots or whatever, he's more than willing to help me. And anytime he needs anything from me, then it's the same way. So, you know, he's a he's a good friend of mine, and I'm, you know, I'm honored to be able to call him a friend.

SPEAKER_02 35:24

I mean, you guys make beautiful music together. It's like really inspiring, you know, when I listen to that album. Or uh what's the newest album called?

SPEAKER_00 35:34

Um, the newest one is uh Views of a Lifetime.

SPEAKER_02 35:38

Is that and then you're on that also, right?

SPEAKER_00 35:40

Yeah, yeah, I'm on there twice.

SPEAKER_02 35:42

That's the one I listened to is newest, and I I'll have to go back and listen to those others. I didn't know you were on those too. Um a question I oh I always wonder is so when you go and DJ for an artist, do they give you all the instrumentals? Are you like live playing their set list and they're rapping over what you're playing on your turntable?

SPEAKER_00 36:02

Yep. They they send me the instrumentals or whatever.

SPEAKER_02 36:06

Not on vinyl, this is like digital.

SPEAKER_00 36:08

Yeah, I use uh um Serato.

SPEAKER_02 36:10

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 36:11

Um but DJ software. Yeah, yeah. So they'll send me the instrumentals. Um, you know.

SPEAKER_02 36:17

Are you live scratching and transitioning from song to song? Do you kind of pause because they like to talk in between songs, or do you talk about that beforehand?

SPEAKER_00 36:28

We we talk about it beforehand, but it's all live. Um he uh, for instance, uh Sky Zoo might say, I want to do this, this, and this. I want to pause for a minute, um, take a break, talk to the crowd, let up, you know, see how they're feeling. We'll get into these two songs, we'll do an a cappella here, and then we'll end it with this, something like that. But it's it's always all live. That's cool. And when I'm and if there's cuts or whatever I'm doing, that's that's all live too.

SPEAKER_02 36:58

So they do like a mic check before to make sure everything's leveled out, I'm guessing.

SPEAKER_00 37:04

And yeah, they they usually do a sound check. Um we've done it every time we've done it the Middle East. Uh yeah, every time I've I've played with them, we do a sound check for sure.

SPEAKER_02 37:16

Cool. I'm always like curious about the behind the scenes. What's the what's the most complicated piece of gear you use in your setup? Machine?

SPEAKER_00 37:28

To be honest, I it's it's my fucking computer. Um the computer is the most complicated, annoying part of everything. Because at you know, I've had shows where it kind of shits the bed, um, losing files, things like that. Machine, my machine, my mixer, if it's connected to Serato, is just controlling everything that's in the fucking computer, which is the brain of everything. So I'd say the computer, to be honest.

SPEAKER_02 37:59

Oh, because unlike the old hardware, machine is strictly fed sounds from your software on your computer?

SPEAKER_00 38:07

Correct. At least the one I have. There is a standalone version, but it's like big money. It's yeah, it's stupid expensive. And I like my workflow between using the controller and going back and forth to the computer. So I stick with it. I do have an SP Um 404 that's completely standalone. So if I wanted to make beats without looking at a computer, I can just use this. Um there's a screen. Like if I move, if I move this really quick. So here's my um my SP 404. If I want to chop things, I can pull up a wave, waveform, um, things like that. I could zoom in, uh, tighten it up, loosen it up, things like that. Um but yeah, if I wanted to make beats without looking at a computer, which I do sometimes, just to like get out of my own head or whatever, stop looking at a screen like this, I'll I'll make beats on the um the SP404. It's like the the grown-up version of the beat machine I first started making beats with, the SP303.

SPEAKER_02 39:24

So when you're in the 404 and you make like a, I don't know, like a loop, do you then feed it into machine and add from there?

SPEAKER_00 39:32

No. Uh I know people do it that way, but when it's like when I do anything in here, I like to keep it in here. Uh if I if I record it to anything, it's gonna be like a like a straight up cassette, like a like a c actual cassette tape.

SPEAKER_02 39:52

Um, so when you're like making beats on your live and you're using machine, you've created all the loops in the machine in machine?

SPEAKER_00 40:00

Correct.

SPEAKER_02 40:02

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 40:02

Yeah. But if I'm making beats on here, it's it's like it's almost like a therapeutic type of deal. Um get away from the computer. Uh it's a whole different type of approach to actually making beats. Um you gotta kind of figure out how to make the machine work for you. Uh there's no keyboard for baselines or whatever. Um, and you only you only can do so much, so you gotta be creative with the time that you have. So um here it's like, you know, if I if I get overwhelmed with using the machine or whatever, I'll come here and just for a whole different kind of approach, switch things up, shit like that.

SPEAKER_02 40:46

Did you have any influences in like high school? Where was anyone pushing you to do this? Maybe just that guy you met at um Newberry Comics. Uh, were you a part of like a music program at school or uh it was nothing at school.

SPEAKER_00 41:02

School fucking sucked, especially when I moved to um Massachusetts. When I was in New York, um I was a part of the band, um, played the trumpet for years. Um that was kind of the most inspiring as far as music goes for school for me. Uh and it was dope too. It was so much fun. And then we end up moving to uh Massachusetts. I tried to like audition for the band or whatever, but um it was so different. In New York, we're playing like Stevie Wonder songs, Aretha Franklin, and shit like that. When I came here, they're playing like um Killer Joe or some shit like that. It was awful. And I'm just like, I can't do this shit.

SPEAKER_02 41:49

Um, so yeah, they need to make the arts more incorporated or like there wasn't there was no soul.

SPEAKER_00 41:57

There was no soul in it whatsoever. It was super stiff, and I'm just like I can't do this. So I um I got out of band and kind of kept to myself for the most part uh when it came to music or social shit in high school for the most part. Um because it sucked. The nicest way I could put it, it it it sucked. And the only thing I had to get through all that shit was hip-hop music.

SPEAKER_02 42:36

So I felt the same way. I was just messing up at school, and luckily I found uh like a mentor in a way, uh a dance teacher. My sisters were doing a play at when I was in like fifth grade or sixth grade, and I was waiting for my sisters, but the director kept making me fill in and like telling me, Oh, I need you to be in this production. I don't have a like getting me involved without me knowing it. And then all of a sudden I was like really into performing in theater, and like I enrolled in dance the next year. I was tap dancing and doing jazz, and all my friends are like, bro, you're quitting playing sports. I wasn't even that good at sports, anyways. Right, you know? Uh, and it's just like that's how I find found, you know, my way to like creativity, and then obviously w when music got involved, and then I started making videos because it's like making beats. Right. Or you know, any type of sequence of a series of things is a sequence of things. And yeah, you you're not really when you're making music too, if you're just sequencing stuff, you're just like you said, you get like a feeling, uh it's it's soulful or it's jazzy or it's more feeling based. Uh huh. You know, like even I'm not a great guitar player, but when I start to loop things I can like layer stuff.

SPEAKER_00 44:01

Right.

SPEAKER_02 44:02

And then I get a feeling of, oh, this is what this is type of vibe it is, you know, but it doesn't come before, it comes after when you start putting it all together.

SPEAKER_00 44:11

Right. Um, like it's like the greatest thing ever. Like being able to like create music or like make beats or whatever, it's um it's so it's it's therapeutic, it's it's amazing, it it it's the shit. Like I I can't really find other ways to like describe how dope or important it is to me because it's like it's like breathing at this point. You know. If I don't you know if I don't do something creative for a while, then it's like why wake up.

SPEAKER_02 44:54

I feel that I'm a I'm a hobby master. Like I need to have a million hobbies and somewhat new ones too often, you know. Right. I I feel like I'm still searching for that specific niche or hobby. It's just I just I don't even know what it is. I just like to do that new the new things once in a while. And uh every now and then again I go back to uh making beats. Right. Not not at your level, but like like the therapeutic level, you know, like throw Fruity Loops on or get the new Logic Pro going.

SPEAKER_00 45:26

You you gotta get that creativity out somehow, whether it's beats, uh videography, editing, something. As long as you're getting it out in like a healthy way, then you know it's it's a it's a beautiful thing.

SPEAKER_02 45:43

Um what are your thoughts on Summit? He's pretty new in Worcester, seems to be doing pretty well for himself. Have you heard his music with technology and what he's got going on?

SPEAKER_00 45:55

With terminology.

SPEAKER_02 45:55

Terminology, yeah, not technology.

SPEAKER_00 45:57

Um I didn't know he was from Worcester.

SPEAKER_02 46:00

Um his manager is uh I just assumed he was. I don't know. Who's his manager?

unknown 46:08

D.

SPEAKER_02 46:08

Robert Danny Di Roberto. Uh he owns D. Roberto Um property management, I think it's called.

SPEAKER_00 46:16

Interesting.

SPEAKER_02 46:17

Um he's like the P. Diddy producer. Well, I shouldn't say that. I can't you can't say that now, huh? You can't compare. Hey, I I might not like P. Diddy, but I like that press play album. That shit was like 80s, funky freestyle music. I I was like, yo, this album's good.

SPEAKER_00 46:39

I don't think I ever heard that album.

SPEAKER_02 46:41

And check Press Play out by Diddy. It's I think it's his best album. He's he's getting real funky on it. It is a little weird now that everything's come out.

SPEAKER_00 46:51

Right.

SPEAKER_02 46:52

But um my god, please listen to it and tell me what you think. I hope you like it. It is fresh.

SPEAKER_00 46:58

We'll see. No guarantees, but we'll see. But um, I I did hear the record that Summit did with terminology, and I think it was it was really dope. Um, but I didn't know he was or he was potentially from Worcester, and I didn't know his manager. I'm so out of the loop in shit in Worcester in general. I'm I keep to myself for the most part. Uh I may go I may go out to Boston or I have like a select few of people uh I make music with now, but I'm so out of the loop, it's not even funny. I don't know what the fuck is going on in Worcester. I'm sure there's a ton of dope stuff that I don't know about, but I'm in my uh my little box. I go to work, I come home, I make my beats, I do a show here and there. That's pretty much it.

SPEAKER_02 47:50

Why don't you so when you you do uh vinyl you did a vinyl set recently?

SPEAKER_00 47:56

Yeah, that was for um a good friend of mine, um Lowman. He's the um program manager at Central on Air, um, where they have DJs come through, do hour-long sets. Um and I was like, fuck it, why don't I just do one? Um it'd be fun. And it was a really good time too. Uh it came out um really dope. I had fun doing that.

SPEAKER_02 48:20

What it is it a collected mix of music or yeah, yeah, it's all types of shit.

SPEAKER_00 48:25

Um when I when I got there to do my set, there was these kids playing like uh like this crazy dance music, and like it was almost like uh an episode of Boiler Room, just kids like dancing everywhere and having a good time, the DJs going off, whatever. But it I've heard EDM on it, hip hop, of course, funk, jazz, all vinyl sets, whether it's CDJs, uh digital, whatever. They they let people just do their thing and express themselves. So yeah, it it's uh it's really dope.

SPEAKER_02 49:00

Do you incorporate your own music or is it strictly um just DJing songs?

SPEAKER_00 49:07

For this one, I I did the strictly um an all-vinyl set, but next time I do it, I do want to do a beat set that's all just production from me. Um when I do my sets or whatever, it's either um a beat set that I do off the SP, um, because I perform with this too, or I'll do like an all-vinyl set with um joints that I've I I go digging a lot for records, so a lot of breaks, jazz, soul, psychedelic rock, or whatever, just just funky shit that I find or whatever to play.

SPEAKER_02 49:45

So cool. Um you still do an IT during the day, IT still?

SPEAKER_00 49:53

Yep. Um I'm um I'm like the IT manager uh at a place in Holden now. Um I won't say the name or whatever the place, but it's it's I I like the job, but of course I'd rather be making music or whatever, but it's it's steady job.

SPEAKER_02 50:17

I work with good people, um, and it allows me to be able to do this shit after I get off of work, so you when you uh performed at the palladium with Lou, um you opened for Joiner, right?

SPEAKER_00 50:35

We've we've performed there twice. Once we opened for Joiner and then once we opened for uh Method Man and Red Man.

SPEAKER_02 50:44

Did you get to hang out with them? Are they like down-to-earth cool people?

SPEAKER_00 50:49

Uh we it it wasn't really like hanging out. We would just say our piece or whatever and kind of keep it moving. Keep it moving. We don't at least I didn't want to like bother them or whatever, you know. Uh comes off like like kind of being like a just people like everyone else, you know? Exactly. I don't want to come off.

SPEAKER_02 51:09

If it organically happens that you're gonna be hanging out for a little cool, and if not, whatever.

SPEAKER_00 51:15

Exactly. And I don't want to come off as a groupie or whatever. Um there was plenty of that around to begin with, so I didn't I didn't need to add to it.

SPEAKER_02 51:25

How uncomfortable is groupie love with all a bunch of dudes.

SPEAKER_00 51:29

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_02 51:30

Oh, I guess there was females. There must have been girls there too.

SPEAKER_00 51:32

Yeah, there was girls there too.

SPEAKER_02 51:34

Uh but I could see, you know, people I mean, you're you're trying to get break into the industry and there's someone there who's made it for 20, 30 years. It's like mate it's like, do I shoot my shot, you know?

SPEAKER_00 51:47

It it just reeks of desperation. Um I I just try not to be around it as much as possible. But at the same time, I get it. I understand. Um if you're gonna shoot your shot, shoot it, I guess. Um just hopefully it doesn't come off corny, but most of the time it does.

SPEAKER_02 52:11

And you should have made a chain with all your uh cassettes on it. Right listen and then they're like, dude, how am I even gonna listen to this cassette?

SPEAKER_00 52:20

And then I pull out the Walkman. Boombox. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 52:25

I want to get my kids a boombox and some cassettes, because uh you could go on eBay and start getting like old Ninja Turtle uh soundtracks or like the bodyguard soundtrack, you know, like old uh boys to men, just like let them listen to music in their room versus uh yeah, I don't want to get them like a phone or something.

SPEAKER_00 52:46

Are you gonna get your kids a do they have turntables or are you gonna get your kids a turntable?

SPEAKER_02 52:52

I'm I have my goal is to when we upgrade our home, I want to get another duplex, but we need another bedroom because we have three kids and only two bedrooms. We could finish the basement, but the house is really kind of a starter home and it's small. And um, but my ultimate goal would be to have a couple more bedrooms, and I want a room where I mean I have like we'll have like a orange rug and like green chairs, no TV in there, and just my turntable and you know, speak, you know, just like a music room, but also have like magazines and books, yeah. Uh a place you can just go in and put music on, read, you know, maybe paint, draw, anything that play music, play guitar, anything that's like away, no, no technology allowed. Right. That's only like chill vibes and creativity.

SPEAKER_00 53:47

Yeah. Start them off with start them off with the boom box at first, and when you guys move, you can gradually get that record collection going and and uh all those cassettes and the boom box in that room. That'd be really dope.

SPEAKER_02 53:59

They love making beats. I I bring out the um MIDI pad and the keyboard. Nice. I load them, I load them each up, uh load one up on drums and one up on synths or something.

SPEAKER_00 54:11

Nice. Yeah, you gotta start them early, man.

SPEAKER_02 54:16

But I always it's a learning curve because if you don't if you don't play around in that space for a while, I'm like, how do I channel one to this MIDI pad and channel two to this one? And like they're both, you know, and if you shut one off and then now they're both playing the same sound. Yeah. Uh so it's like I almost need to the night before remember how to do everything so that they're not sitting there getting impatient.

SPEAKER_00 54:41

Yeah, but soon enough they're gonna learn how to do it on their own and they'll be doing it. If they love it enough, they'll be doing it every single day. So they'll be teaching you how to do it, and that'll be fucking crazy.

SPEAKER_02 54:53

I always say, like, yeah, if my kid wants to play in the fruity loops, I'd rather him do that than like go on YouTube or something. I'll support that all day. If he can learn how to load up tracks and play with MIDI keys and like record sounds and loop stuff, that's that's amazing. I'm that's a positive use of technology.

SPEAKER_00 55:14

For sure. I don't have kids of my own, but I have uh uh two nieces and um I wish I had the time to teach them how to make beats or whatever, but um it is what it is. But yeah, pass it to your kids as soon as possible, you know?

SPEAKER_02 55:33

Yeah, because then we could do it together. He could be over there, I could be over here. Yep. Little free time, play, play, playtime.

SPEAKER_00 55:41

For sure.

SPEAKER_02 55:43

Are you did you release that you shared uh Graham Jamps three or four? You you shared a project with me. Is that out yet?

SPEAKER_00 55:51

Not yet. Um so the plan is to release it on Sky Zoo's label. Um, but we're still trying to hammer out the the details. I mean the project's done. I just want to um lock down a date.

SPEAKER_02 56:09

Uh I got the bootleg on my Kazar account. If anybody wants it, I'll send the link.

SPEAKER_00 56:16

Yeah, but we're just um trying to figure out a release date. And once we get that locked down, then we could start um promoting it or whatever. But yeah, that's nice. What's his label called? Uh FGR First Generation Rich. And then the the main label is Hypnot Records.

SPEAKER_02 56:38

So is that what like a music attorney recommends now? Is like you just put it out on your own label so you own your own publishing, if I'm using that terminology right?

SPEAKER_00 56:48

Yeah, yeah, just so as much comes back to you as possible.

SPEAKER_02 56:53

Um it's almost like setting up a business. If you're in music, they probably there's you hire an attorney and they'll set your business up so that it makes sense.

SPEAKER_00 57:00

Right, right. Um uh especially like a like a business type of lawyer or a music type of lawyer who knows publishing splits, things like that. It's a whole complicated fucking mess, and um, it's good to hire somebody who does that just so you don't um because sometimes it gets in in the way of creativity.

SPEAKER_02 57:22

All this when you put stuff out on like YouTube, have you ever saw someone like what happens if you put a beat out and someone really likes it and they want to add it to a uh a tape? How does that work? Do they have to give you credit or can they just take it because it's already on the internet?

SPEAKER_00 57:39

So what you can do is when you're uploading it to whatever streaming platform or like whatever distribution that you use, you could set it to where if someone uploads your song and they don't tell you and the algorithm detects it, they'll either DistroKid or some software like that. They'll either either get a strike or you'll make money off it, and the person who used your song won't because they used your song.

SPEAKER_02 58:10

So that'd be sick. Go ahead, use my stuff.

SPEAKER_00 58:13

Yeah, but and you don't even have to like talk to them, whatever. It's like go ahead, use my song, but you're gonna I'm taking some of your money. Um so I uh that's happened to me uh not often uh a couple times, but it's like fucking fractions of a penny or whatever.

SPEAKER_02 58:32

I steal your beats all the time and just rap in my basement.

SPEAKER_00 58:36

I mean, are you making money off in the basement?

SPEAKER_02 58:41

No, I'm scaring people.

SPEAKER_00 58:43

You're more than welcome to to go off.

SPEAKER_02 58:48

I'll send you a rap one day when I when I get a good one down. Because I used to joke I wanted to make a rap album when I turned 40. Man. But not in the way of like, I'm gonna make a rap album and become a rapper, in a way that it's like, how creative is it to come up with a concept and write, you know, lyrics and come up with hooks and like vibe with beats that and try to tell a story, even you know, is it even if it's not good, it's like the whole pro I kind of wanted to film it too. Like, can Rich Marks the Spot make a rap, you know, make a couple rap songs?

SPEAKER_00 59:24

Right.

SPEAKER_02 59:25

Like not being a rapper, but like being a creative person and and you know, not fearing the judgment that people would give you for making a song, you know?

SPEAKER_00 59:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 59:35

And and whatever ha comes out comes out.

SPEAKER_00 59:38

And it would be interesting to just like you're saying you're making a rap record at 40, what's your perspective? You're you're um you're not a rapper one. You're a regular guy who does regular things. What's that sound like in the form of a rap record?

SPEAKER_02 59:59

Well, it I do kind of have some poetry that I wrote inspired by. I used to wait tables with this guy, Alan, and he would always be writing on the receipt paper. So I was like, what are you writing, man? And he's like, Oh, I like rap a little bit. And I was like, hey, I make beats. So obviously we connected.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:18

And he would just come over after a shift and just I would just play beats for hours, and he would just rap and write. And then I was like, I'm gonna try to write songs for you. So I started writing poetry, and it really when you're a waiter, you're waiting like an hour and a half for customers to come in sometimes. So we just I just started writing them, and then I started calling it the receipt scroll, receipt scrolls, because we just had these long receipt scrolls of writing. That's awesome. And I saved them all. So, and that was the plan. It was like, all right, I'm gonna use those some at some point in the future. So, yeah, it's not really what I'm doing now, more so than what I was feeling back then. You know, I went to college at 25, I went and got my master's degree, and I was super depressed after my last master's class because I was like, damn, I'm in soup, I'm in a lot of debt, and this didn't change my life at all. Yeah. For the negative, so I was still waiting tables until I kind of find, you know, an avenue.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:12

Right. So you can take all those pieces from that time and then take a piece from this poem, take a piece from that poem, and then put together like these whole songs.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:22

I think so. Yeah, why? I think I could.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:24

Why not?

SPEAKER_02 1:01:26

Yeah. Once in a while I revisit the idea and I was like, it would be so much fun, but I'm not making an excuse, but like life happens too. I mean, I have the microphone and the the iMac right there, just ready to go when I want to do the project. I even have a guy um I met through Fiverr who like mixes and masters stuff. Yeah. And he's in Hungary and he's nasty at playing bass. So he's like, Yeah, anytime you wanna like uh send me the beat and the the audio, I'll try to improve it a little bit and mix it for you.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:02

Yeah, but I just haven't got around to it. I I know you're you're busy, man, you got kids, you have work, so I understand uh things getting in the way.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:13

Um no excuses though. If you're gonna do something, just do it. You know what I mean? Focus on it for a month and get something together.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:19

Yeah. Um sometimes, you know, I I I get that way too. Like I'm busy, I get home from work, I'm fucking exhausted. Sometimes I just want to straight up take a nap. And then not wake up until tomorrow. But um, you know, it's you have to fall in love with the process in order to continue. Especially at this age, um 39, 40, whatever, you have to absolutely love it. Because if you don't, it's like, why am I doing this? I'm just wasting my time. I could be doing something else, I could be working another job, I could be getting money somehow, I could be sleeping, I could be relaxing, I could be playing video games, but you have to love this music stuff, and you can't expect anything else from it except to enjoy yourself, have a good time, express yourself or whatever. Uh especially at the end of the day.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:27

Yeah, you can it and the you can tell through the music too. Like you could listen to your stuff and tell that you got a passion for it because it's unique, it's your like your own take on the genre. Right. I I dig it.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:41

Well done, man.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:42

Thank you. Yeah. Appreciate it. I'm actually about to make beats in a few minutes.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:50

Nice. My so my screen went blank again, but I can see you in my monitor and I can see that we're recording still. Okay. So when we hop off, I'm not gonna shut my computer. I'm gonna try to get my mouse to click stop recording, and it should automatically do it.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:05

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:05

Um, and then don't shut your device down right away, it'll upload to the cloud. And I I guess that's how it works. Okay, cool, cool. Um, I do you good for one more question? Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. I wanted to know what's like what do you see in the future? Are there any artists you are looking to work with? Are you open to ideas? If like a young kid wants to reach out to you and and how does the process work? Just have them send you some songs they made or, you know, link up?

SPEAKER_00 1:04:36

I don't know. Um, will I continue making music for sure? Um sometimes I see it being on a bigger scale than what I'm doing now, because even though it's been really slow or whatever, um, whether it's due to um not working with people anymore or my own fault, anything I've done or the trajectory or whatever, it's always been a a level above what I've done in the past. So maybe I'll get to a point where um I don't have to work a regular job anymore. I don't know. Um, but I'll always make music. If I make music with someone new, uh it's always going to be um organic. Someone sending me music or whatever may not be the right way to do it, but if I meet someone uh at a show or something, or you have a friend that I'm good friends with and they vouch for you and I check out the stuff, and it's always going to be an organic process. I don't want anything, especially at this age, I'm not doing anything that makes it feel Like I I'm forced to do something I don't want to do just to get to another place. So it'll always be organic. Um but at the end of the day I'm I love this shit. For better or for worse. So I'm always gonna make music.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:18

Nice. So I are you married?

SPEAKER_00 1:06:21

No, but I have a a girlfriend I've been with for 13 years.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:25

Oh awesome. Does she like making music or like listening to it?

SPEAKER_00 1:06:32

She enjoys listening to my music um when I let her. Um but she she she doesn't make music, which is fine. I kind of prefer it that way, because uh it might get a little annoying to be honest, having someone else trying to make music in the same household.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:50

Um but oh man, my wife hates when I make beats. She's like, what the can you stop playing the same shit over and over and over again?

SPEAKER_00 1:06:57

Uh it's the exact opposite. She's uh super supportive, comes out to the shows, listens to the release. Uh if she's at work, she'll tune into the the live stream on YouTube or whatever, but she's she's uh she's super supportive of what I do. So I'm gonna do it.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:18

I gotta tune in more to the but your live streams are usually at night, right?

SPEAKER_00 1:07:22

Right. And I haven't done it in in weeks because I'm either busy or I'm just fucking exhausted.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:32

Yeah, but like if I'm in the a flow state at work, I feel like the live would be nice to put on and you know, just have it in the background going while I'm like in a flow state designing or working through some marketing stuff.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:45

Right. But yeah, unfortunately it's always that night because I have a regular ass job. Um, but I I will come back to streaming again. Probably I I feel like I'll I was thinking about doing it next week because I'll have some time. So I'll probably come back to the stream next week. Uh I'll announce it before, of course. But um, I've been like I worked on um a couple projects. One that's coming out uh next week, actually, with uh easy money. It's called I'll grab a I'll grab a SMID. It's called 01830, the um the zip code for Haverl, which is where he's from. The autofocus is bad on this camera, but so we we're we're putting this out. Um we're selling copies right now, but it drops on streaming services the 20th. But been working on this for a while, so that's done.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:44

Um and after that Do you just make do you just make the beat and then uh uh pass it off, or do you mix the vocals too?

SPEAKER_00 1:08:54

We we mix the vocals together at a studio.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:59

Um what's your favorite studio you ever been to? Like, is it often you go to one or is it more like home studios?

SPEAKER_00 1:09:10

It's more home. Uh it's I I guess like my house is my favorite studio, but we mix we mix uh the vocals for these at uh Wonka Sound and Lowell, um, which is where like Terminology does a lot of his stuff, a whole lot of um like ST, uh the like Terminology's label, his crew or whatever, they record and mix over there a lot. So we mixed a decent amount of um this album there.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:40

When you go into a studio, do they help you record or do they just give you free access to everything? And how do you know where to go and what is it like software you can recognize?

SPEAKER_00 1:09:50

There's there's an engineer there who's who's helping us, for sure. I mean, if if I had to go to a studio and figure it out, figure it out myself, I could. I I went to um I don't know if you remember when AI was around, but I went to it with um the Art Institute of uh Massachusetts or whatever. But I went there for a while for audio production. Um the school ended up closing down, but I I learned enough to be able to kind of man a board by myself. So if I had to, then I could. But I'm more of the the home studio kind of guy for sure.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:31

Cool. All right, where can people follow you if they want to check your stuff out?

SPEAKER_00 1:10:35

Um Instagram at Dustymanip uh D-U-S-T-Y-M-A-N-I-P. Same thing on Twitter, but I don't use Twitter because Twitter is a social toilet and I hate it. Um I fucking hate Twitter. Um YouTube, of course. Uh just look me up, you'll you'll find me.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:03

Go to YouTube, that's where you need to go.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:05

Go subscribe. Go subscribe to YouTube. Uh it's just DJ Manipulator uh Twitch and um my website as well, which I desperately need to update, uh DJmanipulator.com.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:17

No, your website's cool, dude. It's got a dusty feel to it with the right info.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:22

Right, for sure. I just need to update like the the current releases and things like that. So gotcha. But yeah, but yeah, that's where you can find me.

unknown 1:11:32

Cool.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:33

You got any uh crazy questions from me or you want to call it a night so you can get busy?

SPEAKER_00 1:11:37

I'm gonna get busy on these beats. Um, but I appreciate you having me for this. This was fun, man. Um, I know we we wanted to do it a while ago, but this was um, I'm glad we got to do it this way.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:49

Yeah, uh it's nice connecting with other creatives and you know, even though it was different, a different uh theme than where I'm used to on it. I want to transition my podcast anyways to more it doesn't need to be someone I lost contact with 20 years ago, you know, it could just be anybody.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:05

Right.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:05

Uh and it's been therapeutic to connect with people. So yeah, let's keep in touch and uh keep a lookout for the projects and appreciate you. Have a good night, man. You too, man. Absolutely. Take care, man. All right, be on the lookout for those wraps I'm gonna send you.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:22

I can't wait. All right, man. All right, peace.