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DJ Babu Talks about Duck Season 3
Turntable guru DJ Babu of the World Famous Beat Junkies & Dilated Peoples takes some time to talk to us about his new LP, Duck Season 3.
Internationally recognized producer & world champion DJ Babu is getting ready to release his new LP. For those who don’t know, DJ Babu is one-third of the hip-hop group Dilated Peoples and a part of the Beat Junkies. He has blessed us with the time and shared a little bit of knowledge with us about his new LP and his a little extra. Make sure to stay in touch because we've got more coming.
La Famiglia- Can you tell us a little bit about Duck Season 3 and the background of the Duck Season series?
DJ Babu- Duck Season 3 is my new LP coming out on Nature Sound on October 28th and it’s the third part of a series I started many years ago on another label called Sequence Records. When I initially started the series, the label was actually at the time Sequence, which was owned by a gentleman by the name of Patrick Moxey who also managed Gangstar. They were interested in the buzz I had going as a DJ at the time and they were really building on the strength of me DJing and wanted to do a compilation type album. That was about the same time I was heavily out the DJ scene and heavily into being in the studio, getting into production more so, and taking it more seriously especially being with Dilated. So I was like, “Yeah, I would love to do this compilation.” So we started off as licensing a bunch of songs. You know, I snuck in a couple songs I produced exclusively for the record. It was received really well they were doing the next volume, and now they had me producing more like half the record and licensing the other half. And just to go back a little further, I was also probably signed with the notoriety of being part of the Sound Bottom Series along with J Roc, that was probably my big first fore into a legitimate situation of putting out a LP or a compilation and that lead to the Duck Season 1 & 2 sequence.
So, that label folded. I got caught up with Dilated over the last ten or so years. And at the time I put out the second one I had also put out a Liquid Junkies record, so its been a while since I’ve been really focused to put out a third part. But I think it was actually better that I had that time to hone my skill and get better at what I do and its finally here. Duck Season 3 is finally here and it’s made the full evolution to the point of where it is now.
It’s still in the same format, but it’s evolved now that I’ve produced every single track on the album, mixed and engineered the whole record. It’s still given to you in the same format of me getting busy on the 1’s and 2’s and giving it to you in that Beat Junkie classic style of mixtape. That’s pretty much the beauty of it is that it’s my producer album not a mixtape. So you know, this is the one for me, I’m really excited. I’ve put all my heart into this one. Hopefully it will be my calling card for me for the next couple years for people to really understand my sound and what I’ve been doing.
La Famiglia- Do you feel that your production style changed over the years?
DJ Babu- Definitely, I think for most people you really get to see the inside scoop of the path they walk or what they’ve done but most people initially know me from my DJing and success I’ve had with the Beat Junkies, DJ battles, and the work I’ve done with Dilated. So for me it’s kind of a double-edged sword, it’s a blessing that people even know me and they can associate anything and have away to put out my own music. But at the same time it’s an uphill battle because people have pre-seen notions of me and what I do. The last five years or so has been a lot of work for me just to put it in people’s heads that yeh, I actually make some beats and some pretty damb good ones actually. For this one it’s a real big plate for me to put it in people’s heads that I’m a force to be reckoned with in the studio and this is what you get if you commit the time to me in the lab this is what you’re going to get. I don’t think my style has changed that much, if anything I’ve just get better at what I do. I think there has been a lot of technical nuances that change. I’ve obviously changed equipment over the years. I use Reason now versus using my old ASR-10 or EPS 16 plus keyboard like I started out with. My productions still start and end with the record, I still do a lot of sampling. I’ve been really open to working with musicians integrating live playing and being open on playing things myself and evolving my sound that why. But I think for the most part I’ve just gotten better at everything I do. My engineering skills are at an all time high. At this point I’d rather engineer my own record myself than hire an engineer outside. My ears are sharper and my hands are tighter on the programming. But it’s still like I said man, I still make records out of records at the end of the day and I’m still seeking to try to bring the best raps out of people and put the best scratches along with it and make the best hooks and choruses.
La Famiglia- Are you recording at home or do you go to a studio?
DJ Babu- I have a studio at home. I honestly like to do a lot of my scratching at home because my whole record collections is right there in front of my face which really helps. Then I also have a studio I share with Evidence in Los Angeles, me and him have a studio called Foul Proof which is our own open space. It’s pretty much the boys club where everyone can make do and feel free and not be hindered by any time constraints or rules. I kind of live far out side the cities so when I work with emcees it’s a lot easier for me to meet up with them over there. But there both pretty basic setups, we have a pretty serious Pro Tools rig at the studio me and Evidence share. If I prefer anything I like to go to our studio just to have the freedom and it’s kind of hard to work with my kids around if you know what I mean.
La Famiglia- Is there anything that you would like to do that you haven’t had a chance to?
DJ Babu- I’d love to fucking go scuba diving, but I haven’t got there yet. I don’t know…musically, there are so many artists I would still like to work with. So that across the board is a never-ending wish list I could probably be reciting for an hour or so for you. As far as going out performing, there’s still a lot of places around the world I would still like to bring our music to live that we haven’t been able to get to yet. That’s a pretty broad question man, I still find that there’s still so much more that I have to learn and accomplish. I’m still over here as a student of it all.
La Famiglia- Do you have any preferred or favorite production gear?
DJ Babu- As of lately I’m very fond of Reason 4.0 and I’m really fond of the Korg Kontrol 49 midi controller that I use with Reason. That’s been pretty much my basic set up for the past four years. Back in the day I’m a big Ensoniq fan. I started off with the Ensoniq Mirage. I moved up to the EPS 16 Plus and then for many years I was on EPS 16 and the ASR-10 before I got into Reason, those all still reside in my room and I love them to death. I’m a big fan of vintage keyboards, I love the Mini Moog, I love anything by Sequential Circuits. I could go on and on, I geaked when it comes to that sort of thing. If I go any further we might not get past this.
La Famiglia- Any Last Words
DJ Babu- Look out for myself and my crew? Look out for Evidence’s Lay Over EP, Nov 25th. Look out for Rakaa Iriscience album coming out in 2009, pick up the new Liquid Junkies LP in 2009 along with Duck Season 3 that comes out October 28th. Look out for Duck Season 3.5, its going to be a special free give away album with basically everything that didn’t make the album and some special remixes and exclusives. Look out for my crew the Beat Junkies of course and check me out on www.myspace.com/djbabu.
Links
DJ Babu's Official Myspace - www.myspace.com/djbabu
World Famous Beat Junkies Myspace - www.myspace.com/beatjunkies
Dilate Peoples Myspace - www.myspace.com/dilatedpeoples
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