The new single from uptown NY legend, Kurious. Produced by J. Cosell and myself for Team Demo and recorded and mixed by yours truly at Depth Charge Studios. The single is circulating through promotional channels now and will be available for digital sale at the end of April. Below is a stream of the clean version so you can play it for the kiddies.
http://player.theorchard.com/orchardplayer/player/viewplayer/type/artwork/id/917
Every few months or so, when either of these two legendary gentlemen come to mind, I watch this video. What a flawless and unique collaborative performance by two masters who are no longer with us; not to mention the skill and precision of the accompanying orchestra. I hope this caliber of artistry is not an endangered species, but I fear it is.
Digital & analog Tracking tapes, DAT Masters, 3.5 inch Floppy discs & video footage representing 1989 - 2003
I try to keep everything I have ever worked on. In the days before music could be easily stored as hard drive data, a busy music professional could build quite a collection of media. This is my new Ikea bookshelf in the lounge at Depth Charge Studios. I purchased it to store & present my collection of works from the first fourteen years of my career. The bottom three rows contain double stacks of ADAT track tapes. There are more than 100 completely filled sets each containing an average of 10 songs each. That’s quite a few records. It is also important to note that most of my clients had their own tapes, so this stack only contains all of my company’s productions and recordings along with recordings by studio clients who rented tape from us.
The middle row contains VHS and Digital 8 video tapes of our shows, music videos, making of music videos, various studio sessions etc. This is one of the few libraries I consider incomplete. I am missing a lot of video footage from over the years which I would love to have. If any one has any old Team Demolition or Lower Life Forms concert footage from back in the day, please let me know.
The next row up contains floppy and zip discs storing mostly beats I made on the ASR-10 from 1993 – 2003. The top row contains more than 75 DAT master tapes (digital tapes used to store the final mixed and mastered stereo mixes of records) and more than 60 four-track analog tracking tapes which contain my crew’s early work from 1989 – 1994. It is pretty amazing to stand back and look at this knowing it represents such an enormous portion of my life. Thanks to hard drives, my work from 2004 to the present is stored on a couple of machines no bigger than a typical paperback novel. While the convenience of that is fantastic, it doesn’t look quite this cool.
This will be the first of a probably never-ending series within my blog that will outline proper recording studio etiquette. As the owner of a commercial recording facility for sixteen years, I believe I am as qualified as one can be to speak on this subject. Hopefully, you will at least be entertained and perhaps learn from my observations and analysis.
Since this is lesson 1, let’s start at the beginning. Real recording studios operate like doctor’s offices and law firms, not fast food restaurants. Recording studios see clients by appointment and will most likely be unable to accommodate you walking in off the street. It is totally unprofessional to show up at a recording studio, presumably while staff and clients are in sessions, and ask for a tour or worse, try to buy studio time on site for immediate use. This happens at my facility at minimum once a week. Someone calls asking for our hours and informs us that they will be coming by in a little bit to do some recording. It’s even worse when they show up at our door wanting to use the studio. These are people who have never used our facility before and have no history with us. I then have to explain that we are booked for the day and that they have to call and set up an account before booking sessions. Busy studios like ours usually book a week to ten days in advance. Even if no one were using the studio I can’t just work with someone I’ve never met who walks in off the street. I have seen a couple of ragtag studios attempt a fast food business model and almost all of them fail because inevitably, people either go to real studios and see that is not the way the business is practiced, or worse, the studio gets robbed and eventually closes because they can no longer obtain affordable insurance.
I once had a new client call the studio to inquire about using the facility. After a nice conversation he told me he wanted to schedule some time so I began to take down his information so I could set up a new account for him in our system. When I asked him for his name, he gave me a nickname. I told him I was cool calling him that but I needed his legal name for liability purposes. He told me he didn’t give out his legal name to anyone. I told him that we would be unable to do business together. He got angry. I explained to him that we can’t have people using our $100,000 + facility without a responsible party attached in the event something is stolen, broken etc. We need to know with whom we are doing business. I told him I’m sure his physician and lawyer knew his real name and if he wanted me to be his engineer, so would I. He gave in under the pressure of the logic of my argument, but I was almost upset with myself for even making the argument in the first place. How likely would it be that this person would make a good client if he’s that unprofessional? I should have just told him to have a nice day and hung up the phone.
So in summary… Studios aren’t restaurants. You need an appointment and you need at least a semi-formal business arrangement. If you don’t want a copy of your invoice, that’s fine. But it will be in our system and accounted for. If this is unacceptable to you, I believe there is a so-called studio in Northeast being run by undercover cops that would gladly accept you walking up to the door and knocking.
The average urban music career is one and a half albums. The average attention span of a modern music enthusiast is about a second and a half. Add these two things together and it is easy to see why so many of the artists I work with have no idea that I was one of them not so long ago. In fact, they would be fortunate to have a career where they made the money my crew and I earned, sold the records we sold, toured the places we toured and broke the ground that we broke. We had videos before there was a Youtube. We were featured in The Source and scores of magazines that have been gone so long one probably hasn’t heard of them either. We were on WPGC when we were in high school. Our records charted on CMJ and Rap Attack for a decade. Much of our music was available online; in the sense that one could order it from an online record store on vinyl, cd or cassette. (Side note: In 1999, I signed an online distribution deal with a company called CDuctive. We received a $2000 advance for the rights to distribute our catalog. That company was later aquired and then they were aquired until one day, they became The Orchard.)
If you’ve never heard of my crew and our work, I don’t take it personally. A hip hop generation spans about 3 or 4 years. That generation is usually only aware of the generation that immediately preceeded their own, and the one that follows. With the exception of my “Mister Wise Album” which came out in 2010, all of my records as an artist were released independently between 1996 and 2004. Only the few scholars of the current generation know about the Depth Charge label, the Lower Life Forms and the Team Demolition projects (but I digress at the risk of sounding like Andy Rooney.)
Fortunately, there are many from in and around my generation who do remember. It is the demand of these individuals that drive up the price of our early out of print vinyl and who post our old music on web sites that are designed to spotlight the works of an underground era. It is these people who have sent me a number of requests to make available our old catalog and unreleased tracks. And it is in part, them who have inspired to make my New Year’s resolution to do so.
My company only released a dozen or so 12 inch singles and a half a dozen albums in our history. However, that represents just a small fraction of the material we produced and recorded. In the early 90s, we recorded our music on 4 Track tape. I still have the working machine and all 62 tapes which contain more than 250 songs, (most of which never made it to market.) I also have more than 85 sets of ADAT tapes containing our music that was recorded between 1995 and 2003. We are still cataloging these, but I estimate there are 300-350 songs on those tapes. I am personally going to be spending my spare time dumping and archiving all of these tracks from both of these formats to hard drives over the next several months. From there, I will restore, re-mix and re-master all that I find redeemable, and make as many of them available as I can. I also have plans to take some of this material and re-work it. (Vocals placed over new music, lost beats remade or completely remixed etc.)
When all is said and done, I believe those who do hear this anthology of sorts will enjoy the creativity, passion, unique ideals and honest artistry my crew represented. If a youngster wants to have a listen, have at it, but I’m not doing this for them. I’m doing this for myself. The digital age allows me to preserve for both posterity and enjoyment, that which was the central focus of my life for a dozen years. Doing so allows me to truly close that chapter of my life, and have a ton of fun in the process.
I don’t care if listeners know I worked on a record. Most of them are only concerned with whether or not they like the song. Those that do care about credits will do the research and figure it out. I also don’t tag and stamp my tracks. If you use my stuff without permission, I call my lawyer. So long as the people who cut the checks know my work, I’m good. Furthermore, I’ve always found it tacky for producers names or voices to be heard on records. I understand that people don’t read liner notes any more (if they even exist) and so it may be tempting for a beatmaker to have his name shouted on a record, but I make my living doing what I do. For many, that shout out is their only payment, so I don’t begrudge them. But for me, I let the artist shine.
All that being said, if you’re going to credit me, get it right. I would rather you not credit me at all if you’re going to misspell my name, credit someone else for my work, credit everyone else for their contributions while omitting mine, or credit me for something I didn’t do. Errors like these are unprofessional, and I don’t want to be associated with Bush League projects. Read the contract or the invoice. If you have any questions, send an e-mail. Pick up the phone. Do yourself a service and get it right.
Hanging out in the studio on Halloween weekend with my nephew Chantz and Wellington
Boring people usually do boring things. This is circular reasoning of course because it is mainly our actions, or lack there of, that make us “boring” or “interesting.” I rarely meet boring people who create music that interests me. It is usually the ones who lead interesting lives outside of music, who have collected the experiences needed to create works I find remarkable.
Perhaps this is the reason that many gifted musicians are terrible songwriters. The time it takes to become a concert master pianist or a first violinist in a world class orchestra may be so great that it leaves little time for anything else. The concert pianist and violinist spend countless hours learning to play the most complicated pieces ever written for their respective instruments, and as a result often lead otherwise boring lives. While they may be celebrated as one of only half a dozen people in the world who can play a particular composition with such mastery, their technical proficiency dwarfs their own creativity. Meanwhile, a less technically gifted musician is busy writing hit songs because while that person dedicates his or her life to their craft, he or she still finds the time to have the experiences necessary to create new things. If all one does is work on music, where does the inspiration come from? One has to make time to laugh, love, stumble, fall and get back up, so there is a palette full of colors with which to create.
Ever wonder why your favorite artist can’t quite strike a tone with you like they did with their earlier work? Perhaps it is because that early work was written by a person, not an overworked star living in a bubble.
Does popular music in general seem stale to you? You’re not alone. Our high paced techno-culture demands that artists cycle faster. This leaves little time for the reflection needed for creativity. Hip hop has become notorious for this. Artists have to constantly put out material to stay relevant and as a result, dilute their creativity into mediocrity. A group like A Tribe Called Quest used to spend a year producing an album. After its release they would spend a year touring then another year making the next record. Just when you started wondering what they were up to, they would drop a new record. They took their time, lived their lives, and chose quality over quantity. Nowadays, this cycle is compressed from two years into six months making it extremely difficult for an artist to maintain a consistent quality and freshness in their music.
I sometimes go long stretches without writing or composing new material. In my younger years, I would be bothered by this and would perceive it as a lack of productivity. I soon realized that these long periods of down time weren’t down time at all. They in fact were the times I needed to charge my creative battery and experience life. When inspiration would finally strike, it wasn’t born out of thin air. It was seeded in those periods of so-called inactivity, and when it would finally bloom it would often do so in an onslaught of ideas with fantastic results.
Work ethic is a key in any venture, but I encourage my fellow creators to live full lives and pull themselves away from trying to be the next big thing just long enough to have the experiences from which to build. The resulting music will be better and the process will be much more satisfying.
I’m leading with “Whisper Back” from my new full length release, “The Mister Wise Album.” It’s one of the earlier recorded works on the album but it’s a favorite of many of my colleagues. This joint is free to download and contains no naughty language so please spread it like it’s contagious. The full album is available exclusively on iTunes right now. All the best.
BEHIND DA BOARDS: TEAM DEMO (PRODUCERS OF 50 CENT’S “CRIME WAVE”) EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW W/ CHAMPMAG.COM
CHAMP MAGAZINE
The Boy Hollywood
CHAMP: What’s up Team Demo? What are you guys up to at the moment?
Zechariah Wise: Working on music, running a company.
J. Cosell: Music and raising kids.
CHAMP: I definitely wanna start off by getting the background on you guys. Where are you guys from?
Zechariah Wise: The four of us (Zechariah Wise, J. Cosell, DJ Dialtone & Jady Experience) grew up together in the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC. We currently all live either in DC or Virginia. Our studio headquarters, Depth Charge Studios, is in Alexandria Virginia literally 3 minutes from DC.
CHAMP: Who were some of your influences growing up and listening to music?
Zechariah Wise: The soundtrack in my house was eclectic – everything from Motown to Fleetwood Mac. Run DMC was the group that got me into hip hop.
J. Cosell: Eric B. and Rakim, Public Enemy, LL Cool J, Big Daddy Kane etc.
CHAMP: What was the first beat or sign that made you wanna make beats?
Zechariah Wise: It wasn’t really like that. Cosell, Dialtone and I started making music together in 1988 when we were in grade school. Back then, in-house production was the norm for hip hop. Rappers either did their music themselves or they had one producer doing their music. Making hip hop back then meant you were involved in everything. We all rapped, and learned how to make beats together. Dialtone and myself dee jayed house parties and all of us were into dancing. We were 13, 14 year old kids coming up in the golden age of hip hop. We were like sponges absorbing everything so making beats was just part of being a hip hop head for us.
CHAMP: I definitely got introduced to you off the Crime Wave – 50 Cent joint. Crazy crazy joint. How did that whole situation happen?
Zechariah Wise: Back in 2004, Riggs Morales at Shady Records heard some of the stuff we were doing with Illa Ghee and took interest. Since then we’ve developed a great relationship with Riggs and we pay him a visit every three months or so to submit tracks. Eventually, that led to direct contacts within G-Unit and Jady would shoot over to their office and drop some beats on them directly as well. We ended up doing a track called “Hold Up” for Obie Trice and some remixes for Eminem and Stat Quo that never really got out there. Finally, we got word around Christmas time of 2008 that 50 picked a track from us. The deal went down a short time later and here we are.
CHAMP: What was your reaction when 50 dropped the video to his movie with “Crime Wave”?
J. Cosell: We were excited. It all happened so fast. We knew it was on the album but we had no idea he was pushing it as a street single with the video. They intentionally kept it very quiet.
Zechariah Wise: I was working on location at a live sound gig when Cosell called me saying “it leaked, it’s out, it’s a single!” Within an hour my phone was ringing like crazy. The next night, we had a session at the studio so we got to take a break and watch the video premier together. It was surreal.
CHAMP: What was your reaction when people accused 50 of stealing the beat from Fabolous?
Zechariah Wise: We chuckled. They just sampled the same record folks. It happens! We made the “Crime Wave” beat in 2005 and submitted it to G-Unit in 2006. We’ve made something like 350 beats since then. None of us heard the Fab track and from what I gather, we did ours before Fab’s was even out.
J. Cosell: It’s just a coincidence. The fans can decide which one is better.
CHAMP: Where do you guys stand in the argument of sampling vs. original based beats?
Zechariah Wise: I think with the technology that is now available, the argument is moot. There used to be an obvious difference in the sound of a beat based on samples versus one done synthetically, and some producers still have that really brittle “synthy” sound that none of us are that crazy about. But now, if you know what you’re doing and you have the right stuff, the sky is the limit. For example, when you play piano in a plug-in instrument or on a newer module, you’re not playing some synthetic representation of a piano. You are playing a piano that was sampled from a real grand piano recorded note by note and style by style in a recording studio. Computers have become so powerful that you can literally have a sample by sample totally organic version of every instrument you can possibly think of at your fingertips. When you couple that with premium pre-amps and compressors, your only limit is your talent and your knowledge of instruments and recording techniques. Getting that, “sound” used to be impossible without a band and an SSL Console. Not any more.
We do both completely original beats as well as beats with samples from other music. The ones containing a sample also have plenty of original elements: everything from basslines, to orchestral arrangements. Sampling is a tool in our toolbox. Some of us use it more than others. Obviously, samples cost us money as producers so there can be a business issue with sampling, but if we can’t clear it, we can re-create it. We have plenty of tracks where people have asked me, “where did you get that sample from,” and the beat they are referring to is totally original. The bottom line is, whether it’s original, or contains a sample, if it’s dope, it’s dope. If it’s a hit, it’s a hit.
CHAMP: Now the name Team Demo. What’s the origin behind the name?
Zechariah Wise: It’s actually short for Team Demolition. We were, and I guess still are a hip hop group. We put out a bunch of independent 12 inch records starting in 1997 and an album called “Demolition Derby” in 2001 and a second called “Yo! TD Raps,” in 2004. We made a little noise. Sold like 50,000 total units if you count the downloads. In 2004, the decision was made to focus squarely on production.
J. Cosell: Illa Ghee started calling us Team Demo for short and a bunch of other artists we were working with followed suit. It stuck.
CHAMP: What’s Team Demo top three beats from other producers?
Zechariah Wise: I don’t think we could possibly narrow it down to just three. We are hip hop historians with a particular expertise on the time period of our youth – 1986 through like 1994. When you have been doing this as long as we have, your frame of reference becomes so large that it’s impossible to narrow it down.
J. Cosell: We all probably have our own individual favorites, but I’m sure no one will disagree that we all loved the work of the Bomb Squad, Marley Marl, DJ Premier and Dr. Dre. That’s four producers, not three beats, but you get the idea.
CHAMP: What projects are you currently working on that the people should look out for and what else can we expect form Team Demo?
Zechariah Wise: First and foremost, I would encourage everybody to pick up some of our earlier work such as the albums we talked about earlier as well as “Bullet and a Bracelet,” by Illa Ghee which came out in 2007. We did the majority of the production on it and it also has tracks by Havoc and The Alchemist. We have been working closely with an artist from DC named Kingpen Slim who has made a ton of noise regionally and has some real heavyweights interested so if you haven’t heard his stuff, you will very soon.
J. Cosell: Early next year we are putting out a mixtape called “Pocket Full of Music,” featuring DMV (DC, Maryland & Virginia) artists and Wise has an album called “Mister Wise” which should be out around the same time. We also have tracks in the works with Sean Price, Tabi Bonney, Kurious, another Illa Ghee album and a bunch of stuff we can’t really talk about yet. Stay tuned. Visit depthcharge.com for news and links to everything.
![TD12[1]](http://www.champmag.com/wp-content/uploads/TD121-300x200.jpg "TD12[1]")
Left to Right: J. Cosell, DJ Dialtone, Jady Experience, Zechariah Wise
Photo by Chapi-D
