Asian Dan

Photos by Josh Weiner
LIONSHARE Myspacehollergram.net
Asian Dan Interviews: LIONSHARE
1. Who is LIONSHARE? How would describe your music?

J. Gatz: Pop rap.
Frontpage: Pop hop.
Hot Tub Jonny: Poppadopoulis. Ask Cam how to spell it.

2. Who makes all the beats? What is your creative process like?

J. Gatz: Frontpage wakes me up from deep R.E.M. sleep. I narrate my dream. We circle every third word in the transcript. We browse our record collection for songs including these words. Sampling is chance.
Frontpage: I melt the fillings of the dead. Add that to vinyl solution. Boil on high.
Hot Tub Jonny: Frontpage does the beats. He’s like that guy in the movie where he counts the quarters when he drops them. Or toothpicks. Raindance. The creative process involves, including but not limited too®: Côtes du Rhone, Hennessey, Triptofan, one way tickets to Feza, PBR, Louis XIII.

3. What are your biggest influences on your music?

J. Gatz: JLG, JLB, Cave Pearls, Pearl Harbor, Harbor Seals, Sealed Fates, Fate Albert, Albert Brooks, Bruichladdich, Zebra Cakes.
Frontpage: David Banner, David Banner. Lil Wayne, R.A.G.U., Snap hop, Alexander Scriabin, Tiny Tim, Wagner, Ian MacKaye, Stravinsky, Henry Rollins, Ex Models, Zebra Cakes.
Hot Tub Jonny: G. G. Allin, Nabokov, Caps Lock, Zebra Cakes.

4. What are your thoughts on the current state of hip-hop/rap?

J. Gatz: Last Christmas I prayed to Santa for a Busta Rhymes and Mystikal collaboalbum. No luck. Santa’s getting a dis track this year.
Frontpage: Sometimes the bass is too loud. One time I got sick from drinking old milk. I got a weak stomach! My stomach will continue to hurt until Mystikal gets out of jail and makes a full length with Busta Rhymes.
Hot Tub Jonny: New John Varvatos store in the Marcy Projects. Summer ’07!

5. Future plans for LIONSHARE? Any collabs or remixes?

J.Gatz: I’m moving to the desert. Play songs to the fireflies and rattlesnakes. Make some Indian friends. Both kinds of Indians. Remixes? I’ll remix myself a mojito. New York is kind of a mojito town.
Frontpage: Our first show is next Friday (the 13th of June @ Death By Audio in Brooklyn). We’re going to have a big record release party in late July. Painted hats! Faces obscured!
Hot Tub Jonny: Spinnas on your headphones. LIONSHARE headphones. They really spin!

6. Final thoughts or words for Asian Dan readers.

J.Gatz: See us live.
Frontpage: See us dead.
Hot Tub Jonny: Hear is dead.

Check out this track, it reminds me of something Madlib would produce. I love what LIONSHARE does to that classic sample especially during the chorus. If I was back in NYC I would definitely be at their debut show tomorrow night at Death By Audio in Brooklyn. So go represent Asian Dan and support LIONSHARE if you are in NYC and hit up this show!
LIONSHARE – Trip to Feza

I love Breakbot’s production style. It is so 70s sounding. His bass samples are so good and real sounding, they remind me of Fred Falke’s bass playing. Hall & Oates and Steely Dan would be proud of what Breakbot is doing.

This track could be the next D.A.N.C.E, with the little children singing and that funky piano part.PNAU – Baby (Breakbot Remix)
This sounds like a Prince track.Pacific! – Hold Me (Breakbot Remix)

Breakbot MyspaceCheckout his great remix of Late of the Pier’s “Bathroom Gurgle”.

Such a Rock n’ Roll photo \m/
Cut Copy – Hearts on Fire (NT89 Remix)
Cut Copy MyspaceNT89 Myspace

Also NT89’s new EP, You’re My Very Special One is out. Buy it here.

A-Trak’s statement about Running Man:
“I don’t really run. Yet when Nike asked me to do this track I was smitten. There was a musical challenge there, and I got excited. I’ve been producing mostly uptempo electro tracks as of late, but my background is hip-hop and I think you can hear it in my choice of sounds. I wanted this record to showcase my current style, but I also didn’t want to stray away from hip-hop completely. That’s why you find guest rap verses in the mix, plenty of chopped & screwed vocals, and a hefty dose of drums breaks that are surely more Bomb Squad than Ibiza.”

Out June 24 on iTunes. I guess Kanye’s connection with Nike got A-Trak this deal.

Thom & Jonny covering Portishead’s “The Rip” off Third.

Wu-Tang Clan – Stomp (The Bloody Beetroots Remix)
John Frusciante x Method Man x RZA

Phoenix – Twenty-One One Zero
Epic. Reminds me of Sebastien Tellier meets M83 and Battles. Thoughts?Phoenix Myspacewearephoenix.com

Revolte returns with some new music. “Guess What” is a heavy funk track, different from Revolte’s past work, but Revolte has always created genre jumping music. I am a big fan of the string samples used in the song.
Revolte – Guess What
Check out some other new tracks on Revolte’s MyspaceRevolte Myspace

I’m a little behind with my blogging, but here is a crazy collaboration that I just found out about, Machines Don’t Care. It is a project centered around Herve and Sinden along with djs/producers Drop The Lime, Detboi, Trevor Loveys, Toddla T, Affie Yusuf and Fake Blood. It should be an interesting mix of talents.
Machines Don’t Care – On a Roll Man (Herve, Trevor Loveys and Affie Yusef)
Check out this 12 minute mini mix of their album set to be released in July:Machines Don’t Care – 12 Minnute Mini Mix
Machines Don’t Care Myspace

Erol recently caught up with bassist Kai Fish to discuss the making of the Mystery Jets acclaimed album ‘Twenty One’ on the eve of their next single release ‘Two Doors Down’. As a extra special bonus, you can download the original home demo of album opener ‘Hide Away’ recorded way back in March 2007.

Erol: Kai! What happened? It’s been a long journey…

Kai: E! It has certainly been a long journey, and I’ve a sneaky feeling we’re not even half way there… How long did it take us to record? A year? I can’t believe it, it feels like barely a month ago we set foot in Konk for the first of many sessions. It’s definitely been a roller coaster, more nemesis in Alton towers than a stroll through an English park… I don’t think we could have done it any other way though, do you?

Erol: I agree. Being a second album, there’s a lot to consider, and I feel it’s a time where you really need to explore your own music, and edit yourself much harder, and it takes time. Rushing a second album is usually the death knell for many bands. We went through almost 10 studios, 5 engineers; we lost ‘Young Love’ due to a hard drive failure and had to rebuild it from fragments of audio..

Kai: Who would have thought… although listening back to the album now I think it feels very together, I certainly doesn’t sound like the journey it took to get there. I think it was maybe the way the songs were in such various degrees of completion when we went in to record them, that made the process such an epic one. Something to remember for next time!

Continue Reading Erol Alkan’s interview with the Mystery Jets & download a demo of Hideaway
Behind the Bunhouse Blog