Things haven't been great in my brain for awhile and, like a lot of people, I've just been doing what I can to get by for awhile now. Part of that meant that writing about music fell by the wayside. I still like listening to it, but gathering the strength to write about it was just something that I haven't been able to do. But things are slowly moving again and I can feel a bit of rhythm in the air. My friends are going to festivals and dancing and reporting back. And one of the names that keeps coming back in reports is BALKAN BUMP. All these glowing reviews reminded that about a year and a half ago, I tracked him down for one of the best interviews I'd had in a long while. Two music-lovers, talking about music. And as he returns to Vancouver Island this Saturday (August 20 at the fantastic Cumberland Wild in Cumberland) it seems like the perfect time to finally present this interview. This interview is from FEBUARY 2021. I cannot believe it has taken this long for me to share this.
At the beginning of last year, one of the last albums I was genuinely obsessed with was Osmanity by California-based musician and producer Will Magid, better known to me – and many other dancefloor astronauts up and down the west coast – as Balkan Bump. Osmanity, is an immaculately constructed album that works so well on headphones, but also keeps reminding you of sweaty, ass-shaking nights on a dancefloor. It is an album full of fresh ideas, sounds and, most importantly these days, energy. Osmanity is tremendously inventive and deeply fun – the creation of a musician whose love of the craft is evident from the opening notes right through to closing. Osmanity became a daily listen for me. I needed to know more. I needed to talk to the creator of this most excellent album. And lucky for me, the man himself was more than willing to jump on the phone and talk some shit with me. Not only did we cover Osmanity in more detail than I could have imagined, he was also game for a one of the finest rounds of 5 Questions with Rags so far. It's conversations like this that have me keeping music close, still staying at least a little bit in love with it. This shit right here is why I'm back.
2 Majestic 4 This Planet
1. Do you remember the first album you bought with your own money?
First album I bought with my own money was Californication by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. And then within a week I bought BloodSugarSexMagik. I was also listening to a ton of Miles Davis randomly. My cousin was a big jazz-head and gave me Kind of Blue.
2. If you could spend the day with anyone living or dead, who would it be and what would you do?
Nelson Mandela. That would be pretty wild. That guy lived so many lives and I think would have lots to say. I would love to hear his stories and pick his brain.
3. If you had to be responsible for one household chore for the rest of your life, what would it be? What's your favourite household chore?
Oh, definitely cooking. Especially if I don't have to clean up afterwards.
What's your signature dish?
Homemade bagels. Lately I've been making east coast-style boiled bagels.
Do you like the keep the bagels plain or you going for some flavours in there?
I like to do a roasted onion/garlic bagel.
4. Delicious! What is the best memory you have of a teacher or mentor growing up?
I'm fortunate to have a lot of great mentors and teachers in my life. It's truly hard to pick one. I think for me one of the greatest examples I have of a mentor is a musician named Baba Ken Okulolo. I met him when I was in college. I was actually going to school with his son at UCLA studying ethnomusicology. I was an ethnomusicology major very interested in West African music, and his father Baba Ken Okulolo, a legendary Nigerian composer and bass player, he came down and did a little workshop and I learned a lot from that and then I started taking lessons with him. He's a bass player and I'm a trumpet player but I thought, “He has such a different knowledge base than I have.” So I took a bunch of lessons with him and eventually he started calling me to play in his band. I think that transition from mentor/teacher to...Having that experience, learning from him and then being able to apply it in the real world, was so valuable. You can learn things theoretically but having the chance to play it on stage, on a bandstand, is how it really synthesizes. He taught me the lesson of applied education.
5. What is the last thing that made you cry, happy or sad tears?
This is actually a really easy question for me. It happened really recently. I hadn't played music with anyone in three months, due to COVID spikes and cold weather down here in the Bay area. Last Friday some friends played music in Berkley, outside, and I joined them. We just played some jazz and funk and it was amazing. But what made me cry was two people in the audience who I hadn't seen in years. They were people I used to see all the time at shows, 10 years ago when I first broke into the scene. This one person, Britt, I remember my first shows when I was breaking into the scene, she was in the front row dancing, and I remember how significant it was to me to see that support of someone constantly in the front row rocking the fuck out. I hadn't thought about her in the last year or so because I haven't been playing shows but I'm playing outside and she's there! Dancing in the front row. This music thing doesn't only bring people together, but for some people this is really their medicine. I think for her it is, and she got her medicine that night, as did I playing music. I was literally crying on the band stand.
6. The guest question comes from Victoria drum & bass power team Kytami & Phonik Ops – Describe what you remember about your first live show.
First live show I ever did was a talent show in kindergarten. I remember crystal clear. It was outside on the soccer field. I brought my Casio keyboard, which had some premade beats on it. I think I played the Beverly Hills Cop theme, an adaptation of it, and then jammed out and improvised. It was just a little 5-minute keyboard set on the field there. I distinctly remember the combination of being nervous but excited.
Do you still get nervous before preforming?
I still get nervous in the moments leading up to the performance but once I'm on stage I only get nervous if it's my first time in that particular scenario. For example, Bonobo called me to play trumpet on his Northern Borders tour he did. I was hella nervous because his music is so understated, it's not party-time music. It's like, “Here's the trumpet part.” And there's strings and it almost felt more like a classical, electronic recital than a party and that was very new for me. Don't crack this note, don't crack this note, don't crack this note. But then with Dennis, with Gramatik, he's just like, “Choose your own parts. Do you thing.” It's very different. With Bonobo there was sheet music and a 3-piece horn section, so it's more like a classical environment. With Dennis it's like, “I'm calling you because I like you. You know my music. Just don't get in the way and play stuff that adds.” That doesn't make me nervous. I think I excel in those, maybe more chaotic environments. I played at Red Rocks with Gramatik and he sent me the music a day or two before. This is kind of his style, I think he likes to keep people on their feet a little bit. I had to learn an hour or two of music by memory and come up with my own parts, at the biggest show of the year. But that didn't make me nervous. That's where I excel.
Now, normally that would be end of everything, but I would be remiss if I didn't get into your music a bit deeper. And as much as I love Osmanity I gotta ask you about “Can U Hear It” that you did with Gift of Gab and Deuce Eclipse (of Bang Data) because that song goes so hard and I love it. (Note: This interview happened about four months before the world lost Gab. RIP)
Thank you for asking about this song. It's one of my favourites. Gift of Gab lives in Oakland, not far from where I live. Here's the thing with Gab, in my opinion – He's one of my favourite MCs for sure, but if you think about what he's doing when he raps, he's also one of my favourite musicians, favourite percussionists. He's so rhythmic and his cadence is so unique. I saw him at a Red Bull Culture Clash event, he was just improvising on stage and it blew my mind. I didn't know him personally but I have a lot of mutual friends wit him. I had a short list of MCs I wanted to work with – Talib, Chali 2na, Gift of Gab. Those are the three MCs that were hitting that ground that I thought would work with what I was doing. I started working on this groove and I sent it to him personally, because I got a connection through my friend, so I sent it to Gab and was like “Cool. I'm down.” I did a random show with my friend Deuce Eclipse and I was showing him the beat and telling him that Gift of Gab was writing to it. And he was like, “I wanna get on this track. I love this beat. And to be honest with you, Gab and I have been talking about doing something together and it's just never happened.” I was like, “Fuck, let's make it happen.” Gab was only doing 16 bars, and I wanted to have a full song, so I suggested both guys do a verse. What was super fun, we got a chance to do a live studio version with a larger version of the Balkan Bump band. That's a song that I haven't been able to really play live because it's so focused on the MCs. Occasionally I'll play it but it always feels like it falls flat because I just want Deuce and Gab there on stage with me. In hip-hop there's a lot of hype, but when the veil is off and someone is without a microphone spitting, you can tell the truth right away whether they deserve the success they have or not. He's the real fucking deal.