In the last newsletter, I covered the Egg EP. At that point in time, I felt like I was making some pretty solid music. Things were going well with Bully Records. Marco, the guy who ran Bully, was really cool with me and the door was open to do more music. The 7 inches were selling pretty well and more and more artists were joining the label. Ironically, that was also sort of the end of me making my own music for awhile.
At that point in time, I was working at Amoeba Records in San Francisco. If you like records, it is a great place and a terrible place to work. The turnover was so high that I’d spend all of my breaks flipping through the bins and I’d end up spending most of my paycheck there too. Around that same time, I started frequenting the Soulstrut message boards. I had tried to join the conversation on the boards earlier, but like many poor fools before (and after) me, I didn’t know the rules and got clowned quick. It was a brutal place if you didn’t approach it right, but it was also a magical place where you could rub elbows with the coolest of the cool and learn from the best of the best. It was an incredibly funny place too. Longterm strutters will say “Soulstrut Por Vida” and you can definitely walk up to any regular Strutter anywhere in the world and break the ice with that. I made some great connections through that site.
So, I’m working at a record store and I was spending a lot of time on a message board frequented by some of the world’s deepest record collectors, some of the world’s best DJs and musicians, and some of the funniest people who might not have been “famous” at all. Because I was constantly surrounded by records, in real life and online, I had started to lean a little bit more towards DJing than producing. It wasn’t uncommon for producers to also have mixtapes out. Diplo was doing his Ninja Tune stuff, but also had the AEIOU mixes and the Hollertronix stuff. Edan had Quick Mix Party and Sound of the Funky Drummer. There were endless amounts of mixes on Soulstrut and all over the internet. Serato was pretty commonplace and people were really pushing what was possible with live mixing. Maybe it was just my world, but it seemed like DJing really had a large presence and there were a lot of fun and exciting ideas brewing.
I was less interested in making instrumental hip hop at this point and I probably spent more time messing around with my turntables and doing edits in pro tools. I’d had some bad experiences with previous musical counterparts and I’d drifted away in terms of interests. In 2004, I made a 15 minute mix called “Pop” and released it on a 3 inch CD. In 2005, I released the “Bumps” mix through We Nod in Japan (I’ll cover this mix in a later post). I learned a lot about Pro Tools through making these mixes. The beginning of the “Pop” mix starts with Slick Rick over Justin Timberlake’s “Like I Love You” instrumental, which is an amazing Neptunes beat.
Since things were going pretty well at Bully Records, Marco wanted to venture out into some other projects. Somehow we ended up with the idea to do a remix/mashup record and we’d include that Slick Rick remix. I had the idea to mock it up like the Bozo Meko records from the 80s, but mine would be called Bozo Geeko. Even though I liked these mixes, the whole mashup thing was admittedly pretty geeky.
If you look at the label, there are a few things to note. “Controller 7” is in quotes because this was basically DJ Tommy aka Controller 7, but this wasn’t a Controller 7 instrumental production. It also says “Not Recorded Live” because they are edits and the Flash - Bozo Meko release says “recorded live.” The song titles are combinations of the two songs/groups. I saw a comment/review somewhere that seemed to think this was a new Controller 7 record and the person was disappointed because I was doing Girl Talk type music. This was never Controller 7 music, but was just some stuff I was having fun with. I thought that was obvious, but I guess it wasn’t.
I think there were 1000 of these pressed. At that point in time, 1000 was the common starting point for a pressing. It was on 4th And Wellington Records, which I believe is where Marco lived. If Discogs is right, this was the only release on this “fake” label. For the most part, these edits are not terrible and could definitely still be serviceable. I’m sure nobody is playing Slick Rick “I Shouldn’t Have Done It” remixes these days, but you could probably still drop that E-40/Cypress Hill combo.
The last track is called “Bounce (Bonus Beat)” and it is my version of the classic party break records from the 90s (AV*, Nubian Crackers, etc.). Basically, lots of beats in a mega mix centered around a vocal sample or theme. It is meant to be a dj tool.
I sent copies to DJ Day, who I befriended through the SoulStrut message boards. He is an amazing dj and producer. (His two albums - Land of 1000 Chances and Life After You - are essential listening). I believe “Bounce (Bonus Beats)” is something he’s played many times over the years and he doesn’t just play it, he completely destroys it. It’s amazing. Here is a clip of him at the Do Over annihilating it with Aloe Blacc as the host for the gig. He’s doing this live, in front of people, in the middle of his set.
Bully had distribution through Revolver Records, which happened to be down the street from my apartment in SF (I actually worked there for a bit). One day, Marco let me know that Revolver was either going to return or dump the remaining stock of the Bozo Geeko records. Although it sounds crazy now, I just didn’t even have the energy or interest to save them. I forget how many it was, maybe a couple hundred or more. I guess they just got trashed. In hindsight, I should have just been ecological and saved them, but I had lost a bit of steam at that point and did not want to have them sitting in my apartment.
Back to the “Controller 7” in quotes…This was not a Controller 7 record, but it seemed to confuse people. I was having fun and I was offered the chance to release these on vinyl, so I wasn’t going to say no. I don’t have these online and I don’t really mention them much. If you have a copy, it’s fun to throw on every now and then.
Over the years, I’d been a fan of Turntable Lab. I was a customer since the very early days and they also stocked a bunch of my records, including the Bozo Geeko record. I would buy records from them and, in one order, I happened to get some Motown acapellas and a 12 inch for Peter, Bjorn, and John’s “Young Folks.” When you’ve got 2 turntables and you get new records, you end up messing around as you’re going through your new finds. It’s as if this was meant to be, two records stacked right on top of each other just happened to be an amazing pairing.
Thanks to the magic of the internet, I can see that it was July 9th, 2007 that I casually posted the blend that I made. I didn’t think much of it at the time. I knew I liked it, but I didn’t know that anyone else would.
The mp3 was reposted over on the Hollertronix board and it seemed to take on a life of its own. It was pretty satisfying to have spontaneously made something in my bedroom and then watch it spread so quickly. Not long after, I was approached by Token Recluse to see if I wanted to release it as a 7 inch.
There were 500 of these pressed and, much to my surprise, they sold out almost instantly. The distributor told the label that we needed to repress it or they were going to bootleg it. A flatteringly humorous threat. I think this was big in Europe. I’ve been told that it was played at the Glastonbury Festival one year. I have had many people tell me it's a wedding staple and it always goes over well.
Again, it’s not a Controller 7 song, but an edit I did for fun. I have always dabbled in a lot of different areas and I had fun messing around with things like this. It’s actually a very simple combo in the end and nothing I can really claim much credit for. It was just luck, coincidence, and maybe a bit of serendipity.
Since the distributor said they were going to bootleg it, we decided to re-release it as a 12 inch with some new edits. One of the songs I added was a Three Six Mafia “Stay Fly” remix. I think this one still holds up pretty well.
The acapella had silence for all of the curse words, which I didn’t like, so I went in and rebuilt as many words as I could using syllables from other words. Sometimes I had to swap in words from other acapellas.
I think working on this kind of stuff had a little more appeal to me at the time because I was getting positive and more-immediate feedback, plus it was a lot of fun. It’s all a bit hazy for me now, but I don’t think I was super inspired with sample based, instrumental stuff at the time. That’s something I’ve always loved and it’s still the way I make music these days, but I just wasn’t as inspired at that time.
Although I did get some great feedback about these records, they also were more “of-the-moment.” They weren’t really contributing to the Controller 7 discography and in some ways, I think they may have been a little confusing and possibly even detrimental to how people viewed my music. For me, it was clearly a side project thing, but some people thought I was switching up my style.
In retrospect, with Right Handed Straw and everything I’ve done since 2020, I don’t think. I ever really switched up my style. I’ve learned new things along the way, but I feel like it’s all pretty true to my sound.
Those confused and sometimes negative reactions definitely popped my bubble a bit. By 2009 or so, I don’t think I really thought I’d be making much more music. Ironically, my fun little diversion was also the beginning of “the end.” Besides feeling less inspired, my life was changing a lot. I got married in 2008. I became a dad in 2009. I went to grad school (while working full-time) in 2010. As a result, I was stretched so thin that I was basically sleep walking for a few years. I would occasionally turn on my sampler or my music computer and tinker with something, but I was so tired that I barely had a creative thought left in my head. Having little kids and almost no free time, I definitely considered selling all of my gear and records. It seemed incredibly impractical for my life at the time, but as luck would have it, I was too lazy and tired to actually get rid of anything.
So, “the end” was within reach, but laziness kept it at a distance. I don’t have any intention of doing any of these types of edits or mashups anymore, but I guess I did something similar not that long ago with my Uptown “Dope on Plastic” edit. Hopefully people can tell the difference between “Controller 7 music” and “edits.”
I got my first big break doing a remix. You can read about that here. The Deep Puddle Dynamics “Rain Men” remix was my reference point for a long time. Then I had the other Deep Puddle remixes on Left Handed Straw. In recent years, I’ve done some official remixes for people and I’m really proud of my track record as a remixer. I’m not doing hundreds of remixes, but I put a lot into the small handful that I do. You can check out some previous ones on this playlist. It’s pretty insane to me that I did an official Future Islands remix. I have a few more remixes coming, including one big one that I am really excited about.
TLDR - 2004-2008 was a different time for me. I was having fun with some side projects and I think I lost the spark for any of my own music. Luckily, I didn’t completely lose the spark because I think I’ve been making my best music in this 2020-present run. I’m also having a lot more fun now too.
C7 Por Vida!
Dude it’s been a second. Looking forward to reading. I love hearing artist processes in their creative endeavors. You write clearly even when you do the thing where you answer your own rhetorical questions. That you maybe ask out loud in the writing I just find people’s processes and how they create fascinating.