Interview - Aybee (Deepblak Recordings)

Wednesday, April 29th, 2009 | Sounds

Armon Bazile and his Deepblak label has been releasing deep, electronic music since 2001, under a number of guises such as Aybee, Prof Delacroix, Orion 70 and o1o. With the imminent release of his first solo album, Armon gives us an insight to his label, influences and working techniques.

Q: You’re about to drop the debut album under your Aybee moniker - tell me about that and what else is in the pipeline for Deepblak in 2009.

A: The album is called the East Oakland Space Program. I have been trying to complete it for more than 3 years now. It’s changed form at least 4 times, but I finally think it’s time. It is most definitely time. You only get 1 chance to do something for the 1st time, right? I have been holding off to make sure that when that TIME comes, the proper energy is available to be transferred. Once that project is out early May I will be releasing a slew of projects under different names throughout the year. Also working on a live show hopefully to be ready by summer of 09. This year I’m looking forward to championing artists such as Afrikan Sciences, Blaktroniks via Deepblak in 09.

Q: A lot of Deepblak releases have a distinct Chicago/Detroit vibe and your music has found a home on Ron Trent’s Prescription label and off-shoot Future Vision. Which of the early Chicago/Detroit artists influenced you the most and how were you first exposed to them? Who else inspired you to start making music?

A: There is something that you collectively share with people when growing up in Urban America. A central rhythmic sensibility. In reference to Detroit/Chicago I understood them on a higher level from the 1st time I heard it. As if someone called you by a name that only your Mother called you. As Eddie Fowlkes once told me “We are all just talking to each other via the Drum”. So when I came to consciousness of Ron, and what he was doing sonically it was as like being reunited with a childhood friend that had moved away. Your soul say’s “Yes, Yes I hear you, I Know You”.

In terms of exposure you have to understand that when I was growing up the music was not presented to us the way it is packaged now. It was simply a regional form/sound of R&B, not the Techno, or House we know today. So the way you got it was through the normal Black Radio channels. So all these sounds that have now been divided off into separate genres were essentially as stated before regionalized slants on Black Music.

I did not get serious about Production until the late 90’s when all of a sudden I found a great assortment of my friends to be DJ’s. As I was getting exposed to a tremendous amount of Indie music I started to get inspired. This inspiration coincided with a paralleled sense of disgust at the trajectory of the mainstream music industry. I admired the freedom that independent artists had to express themselves. But even amongst that inspiration something was not right. There was something I was not hearing in the music. It bothered me for a whole year until I felt I had to get out what I was hearing in my head. That led me to this journey that I can’t quite find the words to describe.

Q: You’ve collaborated with quite a few artists, including Ron Trent and Paul Randolph. When you work with other artists what’s the creative process like and how does that differ from when you’re solo?

A: The greatest thing about collaborating with others is the Learning. It forces you out of your comfort zone. Where you may want to go somewhere you have to stop, and consider what the other person is feeling, and try to have both of you end up on the same frequency. Everybody works different, and that helps me grow. With talents like Paul Randolph, and Eric Rico I am floored by their professionalism as well as their dedication to the craft. It cannot help but make you better at your craft. Working with Ron Trent is an experience because you trip out off all of these external things that find a way into the music. Discussions about everything other than music that serve as the spiritual foundation for the vibe. It’s an organic process. One time we were in a session drinking Red Stripes, and he arms the track and starts laying down percussion by beating on the beer bottles with a pen. That’s vintage. That’s freedom. That’s the type of creative energy Ron fosters.

When I work I tend to work alone. I am not one of those “I am in the Studio, come thru cats”. I work in solitude with the beard, wild hair, and talking to myself…in serious Hermit Mode. The creative process for me consists of hiding out, finding an emotion and exploring it. Where it ends is what you hear.

Q: The track “Build Her” under your Prof Delacroix guise from 2007 took on a life of its own and was championed by DJ Deep, Osulande etc. When did you first hear rumblings that this track had become popular? Did it take a minute for people to realize that it was you?

A: Man that track. I first thought it could be something when I put it in a mix, and folks where emailing me like WTH is that? Then my friend Angela emailed me saying she was at this party and this song came on, and she lost it. Then she said someone told her it was me, and she Extra lost it. It was really interesting how long it took people to figure out that it was me. Simbad was in NY, and sent me a text saying that he was at a party and Osunlade was playing the joint. He said he told Osunlade “I see your playing AYBEE?” He said he was like no “It’s Prof. Delacroix” not knowing that it was me. That’s a beautiful thing to watch music organically take a life of it’s on vs. being uber marketed down peoples throats. I was very honored that a lot of people that I respect took to it so fondly.

Q: America’s west coast has been developing some interesting new music in the past few years which has been resonating in other scenes. For example, Los Angeles’ Flying Lotus & Samiyam’s wonky hip hop beats finding a home on London’s dubstep label Hyperdub. You too also ignore genre boundaries, pulling the best parts to create hybrids. What sounds have you found most interesting and innovating recently?

A: You have to understand the nature of what the west represents in the scope of the American experiment. The west has always been the place for the pioneering spirit. Where people came to invent and re-invent themselves. So we have this freedom of spirit that enables us to roam. There are some interesting sonic codes getting put in the air right now. Some really subversive shit. I think a lot of people are happy about new developments, and some are getting thrown into cognitive dissonance as it relates to soul. Some people need the walls to give them consciousness of thought. What I think you are hearing out of folks like Flying Lotus, Afrikan Sciences, Xaphryn Follicle, and legions of others are the kids who use to look out of the window when the teacher was talking. Many are coming into the understanding as to why you looked out the window in the first place.

Q: You seem to have quite an interest in science fiction and futurism. The Belleville Three (Atkins/May/Saunderson) cited Alvin Toffler’s “The Third Wave” as a big influence on their mindsets. Are there any authors / directors that have inspired you and the way you approach making music. Also, being near Silicon Valley how has that affected you?

A: There is no fiction to the science. Or better yet there is no separation of the spiritual, and the scientific with my understandings. The mindset is not set. The mind is always growing seeking that fluid balance with the Creator. Music is visual. Ron Trent, and I build on this subject all the time. That’s what makes cinematography such a powerful medium. All film is inspiring. Just like music it is powerful transfer of electromagnetic energy. In terms of directors Spielberg, and Fellini are two directors that jump out at me, but I probably derive as much inspiration from a Frank Ghery building, or a Dr. Seuss book.

Regarding the Valley, being raised in the home of the Tech Boom no doubt affected me the same way the auto industry influenced The Belleville Three. It led me to embrace the emerging. It helped me to apply an asymmetrical nature to my music. It again goes back to the pioneering ethos of the west. Stories of two guys going into the garage, and coming out with Apple, or Hewlett Packard. The understanding that the technology is not the end, but the means to fulfill the creative vision.

Q: Deepblak is pretty much a digital label. With so many distributors going out of business it seems like digital only is the inevitable future of indie labels. What’s your take on this situation and are there any upcoming Deepblak physical releases?

A: Again because of proximity to the valley, and prior experience in the Web 1.0 world I understood what happens to people who get behind the technology curve. That quite simply is what happened to many folks. There was too much emphasis on the medium of delivery, and not the music. Great music endures all delivery systems end of story. Being born digital help me connect with others, and kept my music from sitting on someone’s desk that would have tried to make me sound like whatever was HOT that week. I have very little sympathy for distributors. I remember one that told me they would not put out an Afrikan Sciences project because their sales team could not sell it. They said it was to abstract. I guess they couldn’t talk about the usual Synth Washes and Bubbly Basslines (smh).

With that said I would like to do some physical pieces for the Collectors at some point in the future. Maybe I’ll buy my own pressing machine and do short runs of 10 …(lol)…that’s some Moodymann type stuff.

Q: What’s your studio set up like? Are you an analogue geek?

A: The studio is very basic. Monitors, MAC, and a Korg X5 pretty simple. I don’t have the dough or the space to be an analog geek. I really don’t care what people use just understand that the machine serves the mind, and not the other way around.

Aybee’s ‘East Oakland Space Program’ will be available May 5th via the Deepblak store.

Tags: Aybee, Deepblak, Future Vision Records, Interview, Prescription Records, Ron Trent

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