Say Uncle

The Funk is back….that’s Dam (pronounced Dame) Funk to be precise. The Los Angeles, Leimert Park based producer/selector, who came up on early-80s funk, boogie, electro and new wave records from the likes of Prince & Slave is now on a full-blown galactical journey to bring his music to heads around the globe with his upcoming LP, ToEachIzOwn. No samples, but keyboards, synths, warm analog and a respect for the digital age, Dam truly has his own sound and style that’s influencing 80s babies and hipsters alike to do their research and get down, with evidence being the dance floor this Sunday as Mr. Funk touches down in Miami by the Chocolate Sundays weekly at Purdy Lounge.

Greetings Dam
Much love for having me on here man

When did you start making music?
Since I was a kid, ditching school, doing a lot of keyboard stuff back then, and still basically using the same formula now. I figured out you just have to stay true to what you do. I grew up during the new jack swing era, went thru all kinds of stuff, but never tried to sound like those genres, just what’s in my heart. What you’re getting now is what I sound like. With me, it’s what I’ve heard inside my heart, instead of what other people were doing to try and make money.

You came up as a session player on records for Mc Eiht, Mack 10 etc., the west coast always seemed to incorporate that live bounce into their rap..
It was mostly session work with cats in LA in the west coast rap scene. Keyboard work strictly with cats like Mack 10, MC Eight, WC. Stuff with Master P on the I Got the Hookup soundtrack. I was real young and got into it via a cat named Binky Mack from a group called ‘All from the I’ in Englewood. Then eventually I just decided to do my own thing. That whole scene I was in was cool because they allowed you to replay tracks. They didn’t really sample, so that’s why a lot of cats got gigs playing bass, keyboards, horns. The west coast hip-hop scene actually involved musicians so that’s kind of what I came out of.

What prompted the move to go into Dam Funk production mode?
After all the work I did contributing to others it’s about time for me to share what’s in my heart, I’m going strictly to the people that want to hear what I do. Peanut Butter Wolf has provided a great platform for me to do that with Stones Throw. He heard my music and was like, “it’s time to get some of this stuff out.” I commend him because he’s kind of a holder of the torch for hip-hop, but yet a lot of people don’t realize that Wolf is into funk heavily. He saw an opening in the Stones Throw roster where the funk can be represented, the door got opened up, and hopefully others can come thru it.

So ToEachIzOwn is your first LP coming this fall..
It’s gonna be something! The hardest part was to decide what I’m going to put on it. I am going to put some of the singles on there because some of the stuff was only available on vinyl before. Now it’s going to all be on CD & vinyl. It’s a story, a concept on ToEachIzOwn, so I didn’t want to leave songs off. 90% is going to be new material. You will be getting ‘Hood Pass Intact’,’ Kill Dat’, ‘Electrify’.

What’s the theme behind the record?
The concept is off the title, meaning that everyone should be allowed to do their own thing without ultra criticism or wanting to fall into in an envelope of sound. I commend people that have a different sound, I’m glad I don’t have a sound that I’m a part of. I don’t roll with a huge crew. I don’t need 10 dudes that are doing the same sound that I hang out with. This is a different aspect of LA that I’m trying to share with the world. I’m just inviting other cats that have songs they’ve constructed in their bedrooms that might be weird or different, or maybe 10 minute long recordings. It doesn’t have to just be a two minute beat, it could be a musical composition, and if you’re from the hood you could still do it. That’s the door I’m trying to open up for everybody whose doing the music thing.

‘It doesn’t have to just be a two minute beat, it could be a musical composition, and if you’re from the hood you could still do it. That’s the door I’m trying to open up for everybody whose doing the music thing’

What was going through your mind when you were putting this project together?
My studio is constructed just like the way it was when I was a teenager ditching school. I wanted people with this album, unlike the big studios, to experience the sound of being right in the bedroom. This is what I always wanted from Prince. When Prince was coming up, that was one of my major influences. He was a guy that I could escape in with his music. I would come home, open up my windows, look at the mountains, and every Tuesday when the new record would come out, I would come home put it on the record player and escape. That’s what I’m trying to provide for kids and people of all ages. The album is recorded and it sounds like it’s in the bedroom, it doesn’t sound like it’s on pro-tools, I don’t want it to sound like it’s on pro-tools. This album, I wanted it to be like where you can hear sounds in the background, hiss, everything. I’m not going to have you torture it, but it’s going to be warm where in a way you can tell it was made raw. It’s beauty mixed with rawness, the street mixed with the heavens, that’s what Im trying to provide. There’s nothing wrong with being interested in beautiful things, but you still have to keep the bottom bangin’. I don’t want to hear headbanging all the time, I want to hear bangin’ stuff mixed with complex chords. But who knows, the next album I might go totally hi-tech!

Do you have a certain process for recording or making music?
Production- wise drums are first. They’re the essence. The claps, the kick, that’s from the motherland. The beat, the rhythm, when I start the drum, that inspires me. Chords are important, then followed by the bass. I don’t think too much, I’m not in the computer laptop screen constructing everything mathematically, you just go with the flow. If you think too hard, it comes off sounding like you’re thinking too hard. You just have to zone out.

‘This album, I wanted it to be like where you can hear sounds in the background, hiss, everything. I’m not going to have you torture it, but it’s going to be warm where in a way you can tell it was made raw. It’s beauty mixed with rawness, the street mixed with the heavens, that’s what I’m trying to provide. There’s nothing wrong with being interested in beautiful things, but you still have to keep the bottom bangin’

G-funk, pop lock, what’s in the water out in Cali that gives ya’ll that step?
It’s attributed to the weather and the culture of how we get down. The Midwest is the creator of my style of funk. James Brown is the godfather of soul, but George Clinton is the godfather of funk, that’s just my opinion. Too many people don’t give the props that these people deserve: Roger Troutman, George Clinton, Steve Washington the leader of Slave feat. Steve Arrington, Brass Construction, Cameo even groups from Miami. That sound went well with the car culture out here, the way we dress, the way we wear our hair, the way we walk. The thing about us is we embraced music from all other places, we didn’t nose up on all other regions. Cybotron & Juan Atkins from Detroit, Luke from Miami, Prince. We still rock 501s, Romeos and a t-shirt, I’m still rockin Dickies. I keep things classic, and never go with fads. Classic works in the long run but still pushing the future. [With me] you’ll see a cat you can relate to, but yet still welcoming you to take a journey to the future without forgetting the past. That’s the kind of funk I want to provide for everybody.

How did you get into DJ’ing? We’ve also heard you like to announce the names of the artist and labels of the records you play live..
Rocking live on the mic, I’ve always done it announcing the labels and the tracks. The whole reason I got into DJ’ing was to share the record collection in my bedroom. I was always doing original material and I said, “you know what, I’m a record collector as well, why not let people hear the records.” I would go to clubs and it would be nothing but house and hip-hop. Every club I would go to in LA was bangin’ what was on the radio, back then the underground clubs were so niche’d, but once ‘Bounce,Rock,Skate’ came on, the club would go nuts! They would love that sound, but then the DJ would go right back to the regular stuff. I saw what was going on. People wanted to hear more of that hump, that ride stuff. I was like, “okay, lets start incorporating this stuff.” I have a lot of [the records] because I was into it when it was happening. So when I started playing, I was like this track…since it was kind of not heard of is produced by so and so on this label. I’ve heard other people do it, but to the extent that I do it, I don’t stop the dance floor. Music is about sharing. DJs are about sharing music, not about an ego trip that this is my track and nobody else is going to have it. I’m doing a better service for people to find that artist and go search out that record. Then I go back to making my original music once the DJ gig is over.

Are you up on Serato or is it strictly wax?
It’s my Gemini struggle, I’m definitely not an elitist. I have Serato, but I have wax as well. I’m analog and digital, I like to combine both. Analog is beautiful, it’s warm, it’s human. In the future I don’t just want to be a robot, I want to still be a human. I embrace technology, who wouldn’t appreciate with Serato that you can make a song at 6am in the morning and at 5pm go play it at a party. But, I still get my fingers dirty looking for great wax and rare tracks. The digging and the journey still goes on.

How is your live show coming together, have you been working with any bands to bring out the real sound to the people?
I’m working with this band right now, a collective of cats under the name of Master Blazter. One of the cats, Computer Jay, has some solo stuff on his own and also J-1, a DJ and drummer, both very talented cats. We’ve done two live things and I look forwards to working with those cats. Some of the shows down the line you will get an experience, not just selecting/ DJing which is fantastic, but I am a musician first and consider myself to be a selector/ DJ second. I still enjoy doing both, and what I’ve been doing lately is mixing the selecting with original material. So, even though you don’t see me with a band, you will be getting some original material as well when you come hear my selecting presentation.

What’s been on the Dam Funk turntable platter of late?
The recent stuff is a guy named SFV, he has a bit more of a freaky and synthesized sound, Nite Jewel from LA who has a record out on Italians do it Better called ‘What Did He Say’, it’s tough to describe…like some real melodic modern funk, where her other stuff is new wave, real fantastic. Gosub on Citinite whose actually from Miami, he put out a double album that was pretty slept on, a tech/ future funk type sound influenced by Juan Atkins and those kind of guys. Mostly older stuff that still sounds fresh,a record from a group Twilight ‘Pains of Love’ from 1986, incredible album from Vallejo, CA. I always go back to my Slave albums, some new 45s of limited pressings I’ve found, this pop group Prefab Sprout from England, a young cat named Hudson Mohawke whose album I just contributed vocals to that’s coming out soon. He actually respects the past and doesn’t put a middle finger to it while still pressing the envelope to the future, Hudson Mohawke is one of the cats that I like in the new school.

Lastly, to keep it fonky…give us a couple artists you would like to collaborate with..
I still one day would like to have Prince do a guitar solo or just be in the studio while recording. Q-tip is a cool dude, I might get together with him when we’re in New York. He doesn’t get enough credit as he was behind a lot of that stuff when the Tribe Called Quest albums were being dropped. Much respect to the new school, like the new Animal Collective remix I did, it reminds me of Talking Heads working back and forth George Clinton, meshing different styles and genres. Really, my wish would be to work with cats that came out before me, because I would like to learn from them, some of the things that spawned greatness. To take notes, never copy their style, but to at least see how they approached certain things.

For more on Dam Funk visit http://www.myspace.com/damfunk

Check out a live mix from Dam Funk at Benji B’s Deviation Sessions here

Make sure to catch Dam at Chocolate Sundays, June 21st @ Purdy Lounge. Shouts to the Champion Sound/ I Am Your Villain crews and the Public Wizard