The Less You Know, The Better

A few weeks back I had the pleasure of interviewing DJ Shadow with my buddy KB for Subsoniq Radio. Shadow's 5th studio album "The Less You Know, The Better" just dropped in early October.



In our conversation, Shadow spoke at length about a number of topics, including some of the folks who inspire him (Bambaattaa, Premier, Mannie Fresh etc,) what it was like working with Zack de la Rocha, & why he was surprised by the feedback he received from his 2006 album, "The Outsider."

You can listen/download the entire interview over at SubsoniqRadio.com. And definitely hit up DJshadow.com to cop the new album...digital download, CD, vinyl, pick your poison.

In the meantime, I've extracted a segment from our chat to share with you here. In this excerpt, the discussion focuses on some of the featured guest artists he's brought to light through his last 2 full-lengths, most notably Chris James of Stateless, and on the new record, vocalist Tom Vek:

DJ Shadow on Subsoniq - on Tom Vek + Chris James by iamwondermike

Last but not least, for all you remixers & producers out there, Shadow is running a remix competition for the tune "Scale It Back," which features Little Dragon. The contest runs until November 25th and the winning entry will appear as part of an official remix package through Island Records.

Details and audio stems at remix.DJshadow.com.

Cut Chemist on Pitch Control

I had a lot of fun hosting Pitch Control on XM for the few years or so that I got to do it, and one of the best things about the whole deal was getting to meet some of my favorite DJs, producers, etc. It's been more than a year since I stopped hosting the show, but I wanted to share some of the highlights from the archives since this stuff is fairly timeless (at least, in my opinion!) One experience that was real dope was when Cut Chemist came thru town on tour to support his debut solo record 'The Audience's Listening' a couple years back. Going into our meeting, most of what I knew of Cut was through his work with J5, but as a DJ, I was up to speed on some of the other stuff he's done as well. All that aside, I can't begin to say how cool of a cat he is and how enjoyable it was to speak with a dude who loves music as much as he does. We spoke for more than an hour, but for broadcast I had to trim it down a bit, and below is what resulted...



Pitch Control with Cut Chemist (from 01-27-08)
"Intro / Timbaland on dust…the dopest duo ever…"
Cut Chemist - Storm feat. Lif and Edan
"Virtuoso in rhythm instruments…everything's extreme, the bad and the good…"
Cut Chemist - The Garden
"I hated it, anything but that…so organic but mathematical at the same time"
Ozomatli - Eva
"Big ups to B+ man…"
Keepintime - Live suite
"Still some of the most talented people I've worked with..."
Jurassic 5 - Jayou
"He was equally influenced by Lesson 6…"
Cut Chemist - Spat
Kid Koala - Stompin' at le Sevoi
"An exhilarating feeling…Private Press was so him, and this is good too"
DJ Shadow - This Time (I'm Gonna Try It My Way)
DJ Shadow - Building Steam with A Grain of Salt
"I haven't felt this positive about music I don't think since the 80's"
Gorillaz - Dirty Harry
"Outro / It only gets weirder from here…"

(more setlists and Pitch Control ish at www.myspace.com/pitchcontrol)

Shout out to the homie Cut Chemist for being such a great guest, not to mention such an inspiration and amazing talent. Peace man!

Also, gotta shout out the dude Nocturnal Ron, whose instrumental albums I always used to raid for music beds for Pitch Control!!! Whattup Ron!