I don’t use loops or sequencing. I record it live
all the way through. The only thing I programme
or sequence is the drum machine. That allows
that human feel to come through, even though
the sounds are synthesised — it’s the way I’ve
always worked. And for me it’s important I create
with those limitations because it makes you work
harder to get the sound you’ve visualised. For
me, that’s why that ‘80s music is so crucial to me.
That music was blacker, it was totally futurist and
forward-looking, often down to the difficult times
that the ‘80s were, that urge to escape, to bring
the future, bring the light into dark days.”
Do you see sound? “Yeah, I’ve always seen sound,
seen people or scenes when I’m making music. A
blue sky, a swaying tree, looking out my window,
it’s how I get ideas. And then I try and reflect
those feelings. It was important to me and Snoop
that the album went on an emotional journey,
wasn’t just a musical thing. The lyrics and the
feelings behind each song are really important to
what makes ‘7 Days’ work.”
BUILT TO LAST
Indeed. And for anyone who thinks they’ve
heard everything Snoop has to say, listen to the
gorgeous ‘Let It Go’ or the sumptuously dazzling
‘Faden Away’ to hear a tenderness, fragility,
vulnerability and sweetness you might not
suspect. It reminds me of how Ice-T once told me
— real gangsters don’t listen to gangsta rap, they
listen to Stylistics and Teddy Pendergrass...
“Exactly! They listen to things they can listen to
with their lady, their families, things about love
and heartbreak because that’s real toughness,
that’s what’s really real.”
Is that why the album’s called ‘7 Days Of Funk’?
Because in a pop world obsessed with blowing
people away it’s a much rarer, more precious thing
to create something that can become interwoven
with everyday life. I listen to ‘7 Days’ in the car
with the kids, in the bedroom with the missus.
“That’s it. It’s become a habit for young musicians
to think that they have to create something that
will be hot, that will take off straight away. I’m
just not interested in that because I know that’s
the kind of popularity that will pass by fast, will
be gone quickly. I’m thinking way down the road,
making music people can live with and grow up with.
“I’d rather have made something that will stand
the test of time, years, decades from now, like the
music I love, than try for some radio-friendly hot
track today. The title of the album is really down
to how long it took us to make it. I’m not someone
interested in tweaking everything I make forever.
070 djmag.c om.au
Once it’s done, it’s done. The key is recording in
a relaxed, natural way, that’s everything. If you
do that then humanity, and personality, can come
through.”
‘7 Days’ is picking up major plaudits everywhere
it’s heard, and DF finds himself in 2014, after
so many years ploughing a lonely furrow on the
margins, as an in-demand DJ and producer. Is
there anyone you’d like to work with in the future?
“Paddy McAloon from Prefab Sprout. I’m such
a massive fan of his. I’m keen to explore other
kinds of music. When I was growing up I was into
everything from Todd Rundgren to ‘80s British
electro-pop to metal bands like Iron Maiden,
Rush, Sabbath, Crue, Kiss. Like metal is to rock,
funk to me has always been like the dirty relative
of R&B and soul, the dark room in the house where
all those genres get mashed up. It’s not just a
genre of music, it’s an attitude and a way of life
and a way of thinking. I had posters all over my
wall as a kid of all these artists and that’s how I
listened to music, looking at the posters, looking
out the window, escaping. I hope people can feel
the same way about ‘7 Days’.”
Thee best launchpad out of here and far out
there you’ll hear all Spring. Get some Dam Funk
in your trunk and consider yourself armed for the
future from the best of the past. No looking back.
Looking UP.
djmag.com.au 071