FUNK WAX
Feb 1, 2003 12:00 PM, By Christine Hsieh
DJ Spinna has a particular fondness for the music of his youth, but one can't blame him, given that he grew up when soul was reaching a delicious peak. “I love the whole analog Moog sound,” he says of the synth characterized by its warm, springy sound. “A lot of funk records from that period, between '70 and '77, used a lot of Moog and electronic synthesizer sounds. That's the sound that I use a lot throughout the records. There are keyboards out there that can duplicate it, but I don't own them. I'm more of an original-piece collector. I'd rather get the original keyboard and use that.”
For Spinna, making music is all about presence. First comes the beat — the all-important tactile quality of a song — and from there, he builds his tunes by whirling samples, live instrumentation and turntable tricks into one cohesive mass alive with soul. With more than 15 years of DJing experience and an impressive list of production and remix credits (he's worked with scores of dance-music tastemakers and hip-hop notables, including his own Jigmastas group), Spinna has learned to rely on certain key studio pieces and a healthy group of talented vocalists and instrumentalists. “I usually start off with drums first,” he explains. “A lot of times, I'll take a record with a drum break and chop it up. I don't really loop beats anymore, because that style is kind of dead. That style went out maybe four or five years ago. When you're actually chopping drums up, you have more capability of changing things around. You have more flexibility.”
His machine of choice is the Akai MPC3000, a sequencer/synthesizer extraordinaire. “A lot of people use the 2000, which is the newer version of the 3000, but I like the 3000 better because I think it's a more durable machine, and it sounds harder, which is important to me — especially when it comes to programming drums,” he says. “I have an [E-mu] SP-1200, too, but that's a little bit more on the vintage side. It was an industry standard at one time. There is a track on the album where the SP-1200 was used, but only the true beat connoisseur could figure it out.”
From there, Spinna typically heads to the turntables to pull some samples, but that all depends on his mood. “I'm a vibey person,” he confesses. “You just have to feel it out.” In fact, several songs on his excellent new album, Here to There (BBE/Rapster, 2002), are studio jam sessions that developed a life of their own. “I'm appreciative of musicians,” Spinna says. “I grew up playing several instruments, [and] it's important to me that I use musicians often. I've been using them a lot more now than ever, because I'm trying to keep real music alive.”
Spinna makes a point to accentuate the organic qualities of his sound, be it with liberal sampling of live recordings, some impromptu scratching or even just by limiting the amount of electronic manipulation involved in his creative process. Still, Spinna's music is shaped by today's musical technology just as much as by the music of his past. “I was anti-computer for a long time,” he says with a laugh. “I was doing things analog, recording to tape, bypassing computers and programs, but with Pro Tools, it's so much easier!”
| Want to use this article? Click here for options! |  |
