Chicago-based mash-up artists The Hood Internet will be playing in the basement of the Sigma Chi house on Friday, doors open at 10:30 p.m. These two local DJ’s will be figuratively spinning up their custom brand of hip-hop-meets-indie-rock mash-ups, which promise to be a high-energy good time. North by Northwestern spoke with one-half of the Hood Internet, Aaron Brink, aka ABX.:
Max Brawer: You guys are a new step in this ever-evolving world of sampling. From Grandmaster Flash to Fatboy Slim to Girl Talk and all the people in between, do you think the game’s been changing or have the fundamentals remained the same?
ABX: I think the thing that’s changed the most is the technology, so it’s much more accessible for pretty much anyone who has computer software to sample things and mix them in a pretty professional sounding way. I think that’s the biggest difference…going back to records like Paul’s boutique–that was pretty labor intensive and they had to search through records and put them together, and now you can go to iTunes and do it in a matter of minutes.
MB: Do you dig yourself or are you mostly digital?
ABX: No, pretty much all digital.
MB: In your song choices, do you ever like to have a sense of humor? I know its definitely an opportunity when you’re mashing up different songs.
ABX: Yeah, I think mash-ups are inherently funny. I think one of the standards for mash-ups is to have song titles that are similar or that combine to make a funny or “joke title,” and we do that now and then, but it’s not the driving force of any of our songs.
MB: Sample artists, do you have any favorites, or at least people who are inspiring?
ABX: I wouldn’t say I have a lot of favorite mash-up artists. I like Girl Talk—I like what he does. Other than that I don’t listen to tons of other mash-ups. In terms of samples, Paul’s Boutique is a big influence…also De La Soul. All their records have great samples…Old hip hop samples were great, before they got prohibitively expensive.
MB: Definitely. And what’s your process like with making a song?
ABX: It varies from song to song. Usually I have a list of songs that I might want to cut up and sample, and a folder of songs that I have a cappellas for. So I’ll always just be messing around with what will mix well. It’s a lot of trial and error.
MB: Traditionally, you see a lot of people who focus on the beat of a song and then find lyrics to put over a rhythm. Do you ever work from a lyrical standpoint, where you have an a cappella and find music to match?
ABX: Yeah, I mean I think it goes as often that way as it does to the reverse. Especially with songs with singing in them, you need a specific song that’s gonna match the key, the chords and music of it. So often I’ll sit there with my guitar and figure out what the chords are and try to find a song that’s similar, or that’s going to fit within that.
MB: When you guys try to put a song together, do you press yourselves to really tweak and tweeze at it and create some new original complexities, or are you just more focused on the concept of the mash-up, as in what you’re putting with what?
ABX: I think it varies, Sometimes things come together pretty easy and there’s not a lot that you have to do in terms of manipulating the sounds, and I think that if it works, it works. But I think other times if you want to go above and beyond what some of the other mash-ups around floating around cover, you know, I’ll take a very little piece of it and I’ll add a lot of drums and sounds to fill it out…I think that that can be a little more rewarding because people might recognize one part from a song but not hear the whole melody of a song.
MB: So about the genres—I know you guys are really popular for mixing indie rock and rap. I’ve noticed, and I don’t know if you agree, but you see a lot of people who like soft indie music and are also big Kanye people, and etc. What is it about indie and hip-hop? Why do you think they mesh?
ABX: It’s interesting because I don’t think it was always that way, I think it’s moved in that direction recently. And I’m not sure exactly why that is…I think the two worlds are getting much closer, especially as dance music has become more popular in the indie rock scene. And you see a lot of the things that are happening in that world sort of crossing over and influencing or co-occurring in the hip-hop world, where there’s Kanye West sampling Daft Punk and things like that…I don’t know exactly why but I’m all for it. I think people should have a wide range of musical tastes.
MB: I noticed you started to talk about dance music being more popular. When you guys make a song, does it always have to be a dance mix?
ABX: It doesn’t always have to be a dance mix. I think we have plenty of songs that aren’t exactly dance appropriate. I think it’s definitely influenced us as we’ve been doing more and more live shows over the last year, because that’s not how we started out. We started out just doing the blog and the mash-ups, but we’ve been doing more and more live shows. I think, how is this going to work on the dance floor.
MB: Speaking of which, what elements are you guys planning on bringing to the live show?
ABX: Just having people dance. We’ll play songs that they hopefully know and love and make a good party out of it. We like to have a high-energy, good crowd.
MB: On a personal level, aside from what you guys choose to sample from, do you have other influences? Is there stuff that you don’t really touch but you listen to on your own time?
ABX: I think there’s a lot of stuff that I listen to that doesn’t make it into this, some of the softer stuff I listen to.
MB: Mostly a fan of softer music?
ABX: No I think there’s a mix, but I don’t always want to listen to hip hop or dance music.
MB: Not a closet Metallica fan or anything?
ABX: I am not a closet Metallica fan. I’m trying to think if there’s any embarrassing music that doesn’t make it in here.
MB: Well, one last question for the gear heads out there: What’s your setup like?
ABX: Well we use Abelton Live to make the mixes that we make, and for live shows too…and then we have a trigger finger which you can use to trigger sound effects, so we have a lot of awesome sound effects that we do live.
MB: Love Abelton. This all sounds great–got any last words to get people excited?
ABX: I think people should be excited enough as is!
MB: Good point, I mean you can always go out with a “Go Wildcats…”
ABX: Yeah, I can’t do that…
For free music downloads and more information, check out their Web site.