#vezzen

S&S: What equipment did you use to create Wooden Temple? V: All of it was created with the SP-404sx and SP-555, a couple of my favorite droids. 

S&S: Was making this album different from your previous more beat-centric tracks? V: It definitely was from a process standpoint. Using the same gear I do to make straight ahead beats gave me the ability to just focus more on experimenting with different sources and effects, and having freedom to layer without an underlying tempo. With the exception of a few separate tracks on a couple songs, all of it was recorded in real time, one take. This is really the first time I sat down and created an album with a similar soundscape, opposed to when I would make a bunch of beats that are all over the spot. S&S: Who have been some of your influences and spiritual guides from when you first started making music until now?

V: I would say the homie, Asonic Garcia, since day one for me. I was actually a fan of his music in high school when he rapped and was part of this Vallejo hiphop collective Freepotroc. They were my hometown heroes. Then he transitioned more towards making more lo-fi instrumental tracks, and I remember saying to myself, “There is nobody that makes tracks like these,” and I still feel that til this day. So definitely Asonic Garcia; he showed me the way of the sampler and has pretty much been a bigger brother to me. 

S&S: You’re orignally from Vallejo, CA, but have lived in Honolulu, HI, and now Denver, CO. Has the change in surroundings influenced your production process?

V: It has, in a way that I haven’t actually created anything since moving out here. Getting adjusted to moving to a new place all together is its own process, and on top of managing school and work can be overwhelming at times. I’ve been here almost a year now I have a pretty good grasp on everything, and now I have this urge to create, start working on music and art again. Staying connected with all the creative homies who keep putting out great work definitely plays into keeping inspired and driven to create.

S&S: Do you have any essential food or drink spots? V: Food out here in Denver I’m slowly discovering. Can’t think of any place I would say are essential since I’m only scratching the surface so far; there are a ton of places. There is a spot near where I live called Burrito Express that serves carne asada fries that is almost uncanny to this spot I used to hit up in Vallejo/Fairfield when I lived in California called Baldo’s. So I go there pretty much every day. It’s more a personal thing, not for the Zagat mobbin Yelpers. For other spots, I would say just checking out all the micro-brewery places have been pretty adventurous.

S&S: What sort of media do you like to consume that feeds you to create the music you do? V: Maybe it’s more what type of media that consumes me? Music is at the top of that list, specifically cassette tape releases. It has been a mode of consumption and discovery for me. I feel there are a lot of different elements in play when you buy and listen to a tape. The DIY independent aspect of it. The process of listening to an entire side, without having the ease of shuffling through tracks. Hearing more contemporary music on a older media format definitely becomes a listening experience you can’t recreate in other ways. It’s a great way that independent artists and labels have reclaimed the tape format from obscurity and nostalgia. Aside from tapes, I’d say going to the movies, and playing video games. Mostly Destiny, if you really want to talk about consumption.

S&S: What are your top three cassettes in your collection?

V: If the crib was on fire and I could only grab 3 tapes… I’d save “Wooden Temple” (of course), “Umaga Tape” by Asonic Garica, and “Beat Speak Vol. 2” by 6Fingers. To preserve three generations of Pinoy Vallejo beat makers hah… S&S: OK, so what are your top three records in your collection? V: Same scenario, my Dirty Drums 10" record, Fuga by Ricci Rucker and Cut Form Crush by Mophono. 

S&S: If you were to teach a class on beat-making what would be some of the albums for “required reading”? V: Endtroducing, without a doubt. Just how it’s one of the greatest albums ever, and was made with the MPC60 which had only 13 seconds of sample time (double if you expand the memory). Just to show students it’s not ultimately about the gear and possessing these infinite possibilities when it comes to the technology available today. It’s about how limitations can force you to think and create out of the box and experiment. I’d also add the Endroducing 33 1/3 book by Eliot Wilder on the whole back story and process of how that album was created. 

S&S: Can you talk about your forthcoming full-length coming out with Lightsleepers?