EntertainingThings.com

I have been familiar with hiphop producer Blockhead (Anthony Simon) longer then most. Nowadays the internet is full with hiphop sites and blogs and forums but in the earlier days of the internet there wasnt a lot of places for people to get together and talk. But discussion groups were still popular so I was a reader of rec.music.hip-hop where Blockhead was also a regular poster. So when he made a few CDs that he was selling I figured I would check it out. That album turned out to be Aesop Rock’s first album Music for Earthworms. Although that first album featured mainly beats from Dub L from then on I began checking for Blockhead. He of course has gone on to have a successful career making beats for MCs but also his solo instrumental stuff for Ninja Tune, his most recent being The Music Scene.

Quite a few years ago I interviewed Blockhead for Stealth magazine when he was promoting his first Ninja Tune release Music by Cavelight. Stealth was a hiphop magazine based in Australia. In the past I interviewed One Be Lo and Illogic for them which were printed but I think around the time I did the Blockhead interview Stealth was having problems raising money for the next issue and I don’t think this interview was ever published. Stealth is still around as a website/forum but I don’t think they are putting out any physical issues anymore. So this is kind of a lost interview that has some good info so I decided to throw it up on the site. I edited some parts of the interview out since it wasnt really useful being years old like having him talk about upcoming projects that have came out a long time ago but the majority of the interview is still a good read today

How does the process differ from making a beat that you know an MC is going to rap over versus a joint you know is going to be instrumental. Do you approach them the same?

Its pretty much the same. I don’t start making a beat thinking this is going to be for an MC and this is going to be an instrumental joint. But after a while once I know where the song is headed if its going to be an instrumental joint I will add more to it and change the beat up a little.

As far as what you do in your songs for this album how
much is planned and how much are happy accidents. Such as when you use a reverse vocal sample or when you mess with different speeds of the same sample.

A lot of it is trail and error. Like if I like a sample but it doesn’t work I might reverse it or flip it somehow. It’s a lot of experimentation.

You just went on tour with some other Ninjatune artists. Did you get to build with them at all and did seeing people like Kid Koala perform night after night spark any ideas that you want to do with your music?

I wasn’t thinking too much about music while on tour. But yeah we did get to build some, it was cool. I’m not a DJ so I didn’t pick up anything from Kid Koala directly. But Kid Koala kinda ruins you for other DJ’s, he is just so talented. After the tour I was back in NY and I saw this DJ and he was dope but all I was thinking is he is no Kid Koala.

Any entertaining road stories from your Ninjatune tour?

Well its not sexy or anything but I have one. It was at are second stop on tour and I had to go to the restroom before the show. They were doing sound checks and everything. People were getting ready to go on and all that. So I used the restroom but then I saw there was no toilet paper. I was freaking out a little so I called my road manager but he wouldn’t pick up. I called him five times but nothing. So I had to think. What was I going to do? Wipe with my hands? Use my underwear?

What did you end up doing?

I realized I could use my socks. So I took them off used them to wipe up and threw them away.

You’re like MacGyver.

Yeah I thought it was pretty ingenious. So I rocked that show with no socks.

Probably the Ninjatune ones. Shows in Canada have a lot more girls. Its like in the US the front row is full of guys that stare at you. In Canada the front row is full of girls dancing.

Do you think you are gaining new fans from your Ninjatune shows or do most of those people know your hiphop stuff.

I’m defiantly reaching new people with my Ninjatune stuff, people that didn’t know me from my work with Aesop. But its like the people don’t get my music are generally aren’t into hiphop. Like the people that hear my music at a Ninjatune show and don’t like it most of the time aren’t into hiphop. But I’m defiantly reaching more people.

I know at one time when you were with the collective known as Overground you rapped why did you stop?

You know about the Overground, you don’t have any copies of that do you?

Nope.

I quit because I was wack. Actually if I kept it up you know I could be solid by now but I wasn’t that good. I don’t think the world needs another white boy rapper with a wack voice. Plus I met Aesop around that time and I was like this guy is dope he has an original style and everything so I just stopped and concentrated on producing. I was the only one in the Overground who rapped pretty much everyone wanted to produce. Its like we realized we aren’t the white Pharcyde and we started making beats.

I know you have said in the past that you aren’t one of those producers who will go to the ends of the earth for a break or rare record. You will flip bargain records and whatever you can get. Do you think
that has had an influence on your style.

I don’t know about now because I have been buying a lot of records lately. But it certainly influenced my style early on when I was using records from like my parent’s record collection and stuff like that.

In your early stuff your vocal samples are really strong is this something you have tried to do or just something that happened.

I think some of that is how the albums were mixed. We didn’t mix things separately Music by Cavelight is the first album I had each sound mixed by itself. So I think on some songs the samples dominate because of the mix. But also I think its all about the melody. Sure drums are important, I mean its hiphop. But to me the drums get you dancing, the melody is what you’re humming the next day.

With Aesop producing more joints for himself does that free you up to produce for other people?

Not really things have been pretty much the same. I mean I could work with more people but over the last year or so I have been concentrating on the business side of the industry. Plus working with Aesop is so easy. We have been together for so long we know each other so well. I just give him a beat and he does his thing.

Who is someone you want to work with?

Twista.

Really

Yeah his album is dope, well the first half. It kinda falls apart halfway through. But yeah I would like to work with him.

Have you heard Trap Muzik by T.I.

Yeah I love that album, its dope. I would like to work with some southern MC’s.

Do you think you could pull off a song that fellas from Atlanta or New Orleans would dig?

Yeah no doubt I have tons of southern beats but I’m in NY and cats out here don’t like that style. I need to find an MC who can rap either double time or real slow. I would love to work with T.I. or Twista.

Related Links
Blockhead – Blog / Myspace

Merchandise
Blockhead – Music by Cavelight album CD / MP3
Blockhead – Downtown Science album CD / MP3
Blockhead – Uncle Tony’s Coloring Book album MP3
Blockhead – The Music Scene album CD / MP3