Ryan- So we’re going to start off. This is an interesting thing that’s actually doesn’t have to do directly. We’re talking about off camera or off the mic. It was a recently looked up the Wikipedia page for the definition of Tech House.
Funk D’Void- Right.
Ryan- You were in the definition.
Funk D’Void- Ah, yes. Yeah, I’m one of the purveyors or whatever of the sound. It was, that was… Yeah, there’s me and a few others, like British artists that kind of pioneered that sound in the 90s, kind of having that gray area between house and techno, not too tough, but still a bit melodic. Obviously, it’s a far cry from modern commercial tech house, which seems to have taken over the globe the last few years. Ours is more of a kind of gritty underground urban sound, mixture of kind of like, you know, our favorite kind of house sounds, melodies, baselines with a tougher kind of more kind of techno beat. So softer in its approach, but still because of that kind of like, you know, that street feel and that kind of underground feel from the 90s, when people were still experimenting with the genres. And yeah, just that was where I was most comfortable. I think it was with the emergence of Soma Records. They were a huge label, independent label. Still are. But then we were kind of leading the charge alongside, like, Terry Francis, Mr. C, Nathan Coles, Eddie Richards, these kind of people, I think they’re in the definition as well. So I’ve been told so, yeah, it’s nice to be involved, nice to have recognition of being one of the originators of the sound, so props to that. But I’m really, I have to thank Detroit Techno for, I think, for my emergence as a producer. That was probably my calling was listening to all the early Detroit techno, which once again married kind of harder beats with more melodic underpinning. So that’s where I’m at really a mixture of tech house in Detroit techno, I guess. And then later on, kind of dipping my toes into the kind of more deeper realms of house, but still having that thread of melodic kind of like gut-wrenching visceral kind of emotive core to the music. If it doesn’t have soul for me, I’m not really interested, or it doesn’t really last long in my memory. I have to have that feeling, you know, that musical memory stamp of certain notes being played together or certain kind of phrases. That’s been my thing. Call it like a kind of euphoric hook or whatever, you know, something that music does very well, certain music. So that’s where I’m coming from.
Ryan- Yeah, it’s interesting. That’s actually when I think of your sound, it’s kind of the perfect marriage between Progressive House and Detroit Techno. You have the percussiveness of playing like a drum machine live. It almost sounds like always, like it’s a jam. And I was even thinking with like the Diabla original mix versus like the heavenly mix, the original mix is just like, you’re Jeff Mills jamming it all out. It almost sounds like to me, I don’t know if that was how you made that track.
Funk D’void- Well, listen, Diabla has more from the… Diabla was originally… It’s a funny story behind this. It was originally a rejected remix for Steve Stoll. So Diabla was a remix I’d done for Steve Stoll that he didn’t like, because I didn’t put any original parts into it. So I just renamed it Diabla, and then that went on the album, and then I had just done the Kevin Saunderson e-dancer banjo remix, and… I like the elements of that and I like the base elements of Diabla. So I decided to reimagine Diabla and that kind of e-dancer Detroit setting. And I was definitely head over heels over a certain lady at the time, and I wanted to impress her. And that was really the impetus for the Diabla heavenly remix was me writing a track for this unattainable kind of like, you know, it’s like the muse theory. You know, I’m a very big fan of… having inspiration. It can be anything from going for a walk or maybe kind of like unrequited love is a good one as well. It’s basically I need to write for something. If I want to write something or a piece of art that has meaning. When you’re pining for something or someone that usually… creates the best art, I find. I think you find that with a lot of art over the centuries. It’s kind of like, yeah, just impressing. Impressing a girl, that was a Diabla heavenly mix. And I did spend about three weeks on it. But I knew it was sounding big when I was writing it. And even though I had friends, and flatmates, I was checking in on them to see if I was on the right track and everyone, whose opinion I trusted or telling me I was on the right track. But it wasn’t written in a day. It was a long kind of process of maybe three to four weeks of fine-tuning. But yes, it’s funny, the original idea, just more from that kind of declined remix. It’s crazy how ideas happen. And the inspiration, like, Twofold one from uh, e-dancer, the remix I did for e-dancer, Kevin Saunderson, the banjo remix. And the fact that, this girl I was into at the time, she said she loved that remix. So I was like, let’s put the two of these together. And then voila, you have that track.
Ryan- That’s crazy because, it’s of course your biggest track. And, you know, it’s funny. Because Kevin Sanderson ended up remixing that track after you remixed him as well.
Funk D’Void- Yep, funny, huh? I love how it all comes together.
Ryan- What were you like, were you running like hardware only at that time?
Funk D’Void- Yeah, it was all hardware as all Atari 1040ST computer that was holding everything together. On board desk, like a 32-channel mixer. I was using an EFX500 pioneer, just like rooting my pads through that. using a vocoder through, a Korg, Micro-Korg. I was putting Apex Twins beats through a vocoder to give that kind of weird vocoder effect. A 909, 808, 707s, what else was I using? Yeah, the big, the main chord pad is a sample from an old rave record, which was actually done not around the same time, but by a drum and bass outfit called commix. They did a, they used the same sample from this old rave record. I think the track I sampled was pink champagne by Rhythm Eternity. It was a white label and it had this intro pads thing. And I just was like, wow, that chord progression sounds insane. So I built the whole track around that chord progression. And then, yeah, a funny thing you’re talking about this track now where there’s this been licensed to a really big label called Armada Music. They’re re-releasing it this year. I mean, it’s a huge package and some big names are going to be remixing it. So happy to see it. spread its wings again this year, even though we did have a re-release around 2011. But it’s been a while since the last versions came out. So I’ll be interested in what the new producers are going to take to bring to the table. I can’t give her the names yet, because, but they’re very big names. So this Armada music label are a big kind of music company. And they’ve actually re-released, or in the process of re-releasing another Soma Classic Silicon Souls right now. So yeah, this is kind of cool hearing these old Soma classics coming out again, hopefully getting a whole new audience of ears, you know, for the next generation.
Ryan- Yeah, man. It was interesting, you know, commix is actually one of my favorite, Drum & bass artists. One of the guys from that just came out with a new project.
Funk D,Void- Nice. Check out the album Metalheads then. You’ll recognize my Diabla parts.
Ryan- Do you think part of that’s just because everything in our realm has been over saturated with, I mean, I hate, you know, especially House and Techno. I mean, there’s so many producers, DJs, you go on YouTube, it’s like these gear guys are just making, you know, these house tracks.
Funk D’Void- It’s like how to do these riffs? How to do these 90s riffs? I think there was like we had that cultural revolution, musical youth revolution thing in the 80s, 90s. And I don’t think, you know, there was this kind of 30-year cycle. So I’m not hearing anything that’s really breaking any barriers. A lot of people like to play it safe, unfortunately. I’m always pushing my students to break rules, learn the rules and then break them, and then, you know, don’t be afraid to kind of like experiment. A lot of people just play it fucking safe these days and trying to emulate other people and other producers, which I think is just wrong. I don’t think, I think comparison is the thief of joy and also the thief of fucking creativity as well. I see it with a lot of my younger friends or producers that are trying to make it And they get so caught up in the whole circus, you know, of visibility. These things don’t mean anything to me. I don’t looking for anyone’s validation. I don’t give a shit what anyone thinks about my music or myself. I don’t give a shit about anyone’s opinion about my music. And it’s like, yeah, that gives me the freedom to do what I want. So when people say, what do you do when you go into the studio? I just don’t know. Do you go in with a certain idea or a track? I don’t. I don’t at all. Unless I’m being paid for a remix. And I know they want a particular style. I just like the freedom of just, you know, you can do anything you want in the studio. It’s great. And there’s so much more I have still to learn. I’m still learning. I still think my kicks are shit. You know, 30 years later, I still think I could be a better, my dynamics could do better. I’m still learning. There’s so much to learn, but I still have that little, that little kind of childlike joy when I get a new plugin or a new synth. I mean, it’s just, you know, I still have that kind of like innocence when it comes to music. But I don’t really, yeah, I don’t really give a shit about, you know, external factors or trends, stuff like this. And people say like, oh, man, your stuff sounds so retro. I’m like, no, I don’t even know what that means. I just do the music I do. It’s just, you know, that’s the way it is. Yeah, I don’t, I think that goes to the ego thing as well. Maybe having a healthy ego battle might be good in some certain aspects, but I’ve seen a lot of people with really harsh narcissistic disorders, and they’re not very nice to be around. And I see a lot of that stuff online as well. disease of this generation, I think, and the last generation too. But luckily I’ve managed to avoid that.
Ryan- Interesting. Okay. Yeah, were you using somebody else’s studio to have all that hardware?
Funk D’Void – No, it’s actually my own studio. I used to have a huge studio. That was done when I first moved here. In 1999, my studio was moved from Glasgow. And then I moved into a bigger studio in the mid-2000s. And I shared that studio with Groove Armada, who were living in Barcelona at the time. And we did a few collaborations. We did some gigs together and remixed each other. But yeah, mostly hardware, all rolling gear, like, I had the full museum in my studio. I was a big fan of the Nord series as well. But yeah, I was even, I mean, my favorite synths from back then were kind of like, I mean, the Novation V station was great for baselines. All the Nord had the Nord studio, the Nord lead, one, two, and three. Roland JV-2080, fully maxed out, and then a Roland JD-100, Juno 106, Juno 60, Waldorf microwave, sequential circuits pro one. It’s funny I can remember all these keyboards. There were so many of them. But yeah, at the end, just, yeah, the drum machines were great. I mean, my favorite drum machine of all time is the Roland TR808, which I had for like 25 years until I sold about five years ago, which I kind of regret selling it, but there’s this other company that recreate some of the original parts that they’re very, very cool. I can’t remember the name of the company. But yeah, there’s a company that actually deals with refurbishing original 808s and 909s. So they have all the original parts. So they made their own company. I think they’re called Dinsync. They make 909s from scratch with all original parts. So you basically have a brand new 909 or a brand new TR808. And they’re like 3000. Yeah, I’m a big fan of Roland. I’ve been since I was younger. And it’s kind of cool I ended up working with Roland Japan on a on some presets for the roland cloud VSTs. Because my favorite keyboard, probably of all times, the roland JD800, which I call the king of the strings. It’s just the best for pads. Even though it’s a wrong base, kind of like digital synth, it still has this weird kind of like… warmth to it, which is reminiscent of old analog synths, but you can’t go wrong with Roland, in my opinion. I do think that the cloud is a very good representation of what these synths used to do. So yeah, I’m a big Roland fan, but right now I have a very compact setup. I kept some bits of gear, like the Roland stuff. But mostly, how did you say, in the box? Most of my stuff’s in the box now, you know, so the plugins are so great these days.
Ryan- Yeah, digital’s interesting. And I’ve come up with this concept that technically everything is electronic music because everything’s played through an amplified speaker. And technically everything is analog because it goes through a digital analog converter. So like, you know, especially…
Funk D’Void- Everything is analog. I like that.
Ryan- Yeah, I mean, you know, if we’re following the same circuitry and they’re just emulating it and it’s eventually going to come through the driver on a speaker, like it’s becoming an analog. It’s analog by the time you hear it.
Funk D’Void- Yeah, you want to hear the electricity. I mean, ones and zeros aren’t so attractive as electric current being played, right? So I guess, yeah. But whatever sounds good. I’ve been fooled by digital VSTs before, like, wow, that sounds like a really good setup, analog setup. And it’s like, you know, it’s whatever you use, basically. But I’m a fan of the old gear. I mean, I do find these new Behringer products, they stay in tune more, like specifically the the pro one they released is actually way easier to use than the original pro one that I had for many years, you know, not to say that I’m not dissing Beringer, but I think it’s a great, it’s a great entry, you know, if you want to try these old sims and then, you know, having a kind of basic build for people with on a smaller budget, budget that can’t afford the actual machines. But it is way more fun twiddling these knobs and doing live things with these actual machines than it is just grabbing a mouse and going left and right on these kind of digital fader things. But yeah, I’m just as long as I get the right sound, I don’t care what I use, you know, I have enough tools at my disposal and I think everyone else does as well. Yeah.
Ryan- When you’re producing, how often are you, do you, or did you even, or do you still just jam out the track? I’ve heard, you know, you’ve talked about this on your streams and other situations. You’re like, you can tell, you said you could tell when somebody jammed it out and when someone’s, like, going in surgically.
Funk D’Void- Yeah, I can have a lot of jammers in my community, of all sorts in my community. So, a lot of jammers prefer just to kind of, like, you know, record the live, the live kind of process. And you can hear with the joins and mainly with the arrangements, I guess, they can be quite vibey and free form. Also a bit erratic and a bit kind of like jagged in certain parts. But I do like that kind of approach in a certain aspect, but I’m quite more methodical and technical when it comes to arranging. I like getting the old white coat on and glasses on and just really going under the hood. But it is fun. I’ve done, I’ve recorded tracks and remixes. actually live and I’ve played live on some of my earlier tracks because I didn’t have MIDI for some analog machines, so I had to like practice solos a few times and record it live onto DAT while the track was being recorded into the DAT machine. Luckily, I got a good few takes. But no, I think… Jamming is a good process of starting a track. I like, I always start a track just playing keys. I usually start with a Fender Rhodes plug-in or a Arp Salina sound. You know, I like hearing chord progressions. That’s what gets my juices flowing. All the beats usually come later. And the last thing I add to the track is a kick drum because the kick… really needs to kind of anchor the whole track and it’s quite easy to choose the wrong sound in the beginning of the track. But usually you can adjust as the track progresses. But I think I’m most comfortable starting tracks by making some kind of melodic phrase. That’s how I get my juices flowing. But the main hurdle I have is switching the machines on. I’m very easily distracted. More recently, though, with ADHD, being diagnosed with ADHD. It’s hard to kind of focus on one thing without easily jumping onto something else. And especially if I’ve been through music for like over 30 years. So to try and get that fresh kind of like fire in the belly feeling again, it’s very hard to kind of pinpoint that. But you have to kind of mix that with like other options or other kind of like things to do like if I feel like I’m struggling to get inspiration or struggling to even start a track usually go for a walk I just usually go for a walk come back to the studio I switch all the machines on and make sure everything’s ready for me to just to accidentally start playing so usually I’m accidentally just writing music I’m not going into it like a job I’ve never treated like this process as a job I always think you have to be in the sandbox when you’re writing or creating music. You have to be in that playful mindset. And then you get that kind of feeling of, I think they call it in the pocket when you find something that you latch onto or some certain phrase or some combination of sounds that work really well. And then you’re like, fuck, this is great. I need to keep going with this. But yeah, for me, the biggest hurdle is starting. It used to be finishing. Now it’s starting.
Ryan- Yeah, that is interesting. I always feel like finishing is the most, most, most difficult thing because everyone, either you add too much and you need to remove, which something that…
Funk D’Void- I have a lot of clients that have trouble finishing. They have a lot of easy, easy starts. They like doing loops or little sketches, like two-minute sketches, which I guess is like a Spotify song right now, two minutes. But these days… Yeah, it’s just depending, you know, I mean, I think arrangement is the kind of hardest thing for a lot of people. For me, it really is the easiest thing arranging music, because once again, it’s hard to start the arrangement, but it’s easy to get the arrangement done when you start doing the arrangement. And the funny thing is it’s the easiest, shortest process I find in the actual, the journey of writing a track. Once you get into the vibe of arranging, It starts to come naturally. And a lot of people just, a lot of my clients need that guidance from me when it comes to do. I always see myself as a composer, arranger. And a lot of people struggle with that. And I find that the easiest is to guide a lot of my students and clients. on how to finish tracks. I think that might have something to do with being in front of crowds of being a people watcher and human behaviouralist for the last 30 years, knowing what works, when something should happen, when something should stop, and how long something should go on for musically anyway. I think I’ve trained my ear a lot as well to hear, I call it like meowing cats, a lot of hidden notes in music that don’t work or that kind of are hiding underneath certain chords. But for me, I can kind of drag them out and get rid of them. But more recently, I’ve been finding that subtracting a lot of sounds is the main task for making people’s tracks sound better. I know we’re kind of morphing into what I’m doing now. I’m more of an educator now, which is great. That’s what I’ve been doing for the last six years, as well as producing and remixing and still DJing, but I definitely get the same buzz I did playing in front of like 10,000 people as I do is showing someone how to finish a track, you know, similar kind of buzz for me.
Ryan- Yeah, that’s, I mean, well, you know, I feel like out of a music scene, it’s like based off of ego, you’re one of the only characters I can tap a shoulder on and say he has none.
Funk D’Void- Yeah, yeah, I don’t like ego people or narcissism is one of the biggest diseases of the planet, unfortunately. You see it more, you see it see peeping to every walk of life, politics especially, and social media is just… Yeah, it’s just people thinking there’s something they’re not, or, you know, wanting to be better than other people. You know, this is a recipe for disaster. Supremacism, I think, is the word I’m looking for it. People who think they’re better than other people. We’re all, you know, all on this planet together, no one’s getting out alive, you know, and it’s kind of like, it’s just, yeah, it’s just a lot of shit going on right now that’s kind of affects my artistic flow. I’m a very empathic kind of person, so that’s another thing that affects my inspiration. other events that happened that kind of not in my direct universe, but on a global scale, I’m affected a lot by all this stuff. So sometimes you just have to mute the noise, but it’s being a bit more difficult these days to do that. I think, yeah, the artistic struggle is kind of necessary in some aspects. I think I write better music if I don’t write good music if I’m super happy or, you know, I think the best time I write music is when I’m kind of and need as a tonic or a kind of cathartic, you know, escape. I think music is the best tonic for that, you know, to escape out of like certain, you know, situations or like things that affect your well-being mentally as well. I think it’s a great solution for being in a bad space. And the studio, the way I have my studio is just like, when I walk in, I’m like, oh, I’m home. I’m in this place. I think the studio space… keeping it neat and keeping it, you know, inviting, comfortable, open. Having a window in your studio is very important, I think, in my aspect as well. So, yeah, I’m just like, I run to the studio every day, but I’m not, I’m doing everything here. Like, I’m teaching, I’m doing three streams a week, you know, helping with software development, sound design, and, you know, watching movies, playing video games. I guess I’m one of those guys that sits in front of a screen all day, but I definitely, I kind of like marry that with my outdoor activities as well. I live in Barcelona, so I have a lot of options. I can go for a walk on the beach. I can sit and wait for a bus with a palm tree, look at a palm tree for like 10 minutes, or I can… Yeah, there’s so much to do. And I’ve got to get out of the city as well. I definitely think you need some kind of routine. You can’t just be sitting in front of the screen all day and expecting to write masterpieces. You just have to write when the inspiration happens, you know. So I’ve had so many sabbaticals, some for like six days, some for six months. I don’t really force it and I don’t treat it like a job, even though it kind of is a part of my job doing this. But I equally run to work as far as running to a class or listening to someone else’s track is not work for me. It’s just like breathing. And I love it. I don’t feel scared when I go to press that button on my Twitch stream or whatever. I know a lot of people have this fear. I used to have that fear, but you have to get used to it. when it comes to like, you know, doing this kind of performance thing. I mean, I think a lot of artists are quite shy. I’m actually pretty shy person. I have a social battery that runs out pretty quickly if I’m in a big social situation. But it’s like, yeah, it’s just, whatever works for you, I have a special system that works for me. But I have to say, after all this time, it is… Yeah, it is a bit of a trick to try to get to write music. It’s becoming a bit more difficult than it used to be, unfortunately.
Ryan- That’s awesome, man. You know, and also, you know, I’ve getting inspiration from a lot of ravers, you know, we had these elusive characters with their black v necks, and it’s like, family, you know, food, these things that they don’t ever want to talk about like, oh, they’re human beings.
Funk D’Void- It’s like food, shelter, yeah, water. That’s the kind of three basic things we need.
Ryan- When you realize, yeah. Well, I was even just saying, like, you know, everyone’s always trying to talk about going back to the ego thing, like, everyone’s like, oh, I’m this, like, elusive character that’s, like, a social media influencer of some sort, and they, like, don’t talk about, like, family or, like, friends, or, like, anything, like, in real life. that are all…
Funk D’Void- They’re nothing to do with real life whatsoever. Social media isn’t real life anyway. I’ve been kind of observing from a distance, but now I’m kind of getting my toes wet in the kind of like observation pool with watching some of these, you know, whatever the current scene, the current culture we’re in, which is kind of like a pastiche, you know, a Swiss becomes hyper-commercialized pastiche the grain of what it used to be like. And it’s kind of mad to watch how far from the music has gone into more into the spectacle and the attention economy, which I’ve always had trouble with this whole kind of attention thing. I just don’t know if it’s, we all remember after COVID, we all thought it was going to pass and reset and we’re going to go back to the old ways. It kind of doubled down, got worse.
Ryan- No, yeah, I totally agree. I watched a Marco Bailey interview with this interviewer talking about this same problem. And Marco Bailey is like, I’m just done with everything pretty much, and I’m just going to throw parties in my backyard.
Funk D’Void- That’s it. Listen, I have a party here once a month. It’s awesome. No phones, everyone’s eyes are closed on the dance floor. All ages, all race, color, creed, fucking background. It’s just my little… Church, it’s like 100 people, and that actually fills my soul. You know, I mean, I’m lucky to have that because it’s very easy to distance yourself or get cut off, unless you have that kind of social outlet. I don’t, I do think it’s important to go out there and socialize and speak to each other, you know, and don’t spend too much time online. Yeah, I think that’s a very good point. Going out there. and just talking to people hanging out in the real world, stay off the feed, you know, just disconnect. I definitely think that’s a great idea, man. For all of us, for all of saying, because there are some nefarious forces buying for our attention, and yeah, it’s not looking good, but yeah, at least we have music, man. Music is the best friend. It is always there. Yeah, as a job, I can definitely tell you, I’m feeling really, really comfortable right now with this new chapter of my career. You know, we’re launching this new platform called Suru, which is like a S-U-R-U. It’s a artist development platform, which really puts everyone with the right teacher, the right mentor, whatever skills you need, there’s someone there for you to help you out. Kind of like a skill tree apparatus to the site. fully lossless quality audio. I mean, how shit is SoundCloud? We’ve been dealing with SoundCloud for God knows how many years. And it’s like, we need an alternative to this. I’m not just saying it’s just an alternative to SoundCloud, but it’s just a breath of fresh air and it’s run by artists who actually care about future artists as well. So there’s little things like that that keep me going and little sparks of hope. And then, you know, sometimes you write a great track in the studio. That’s another thing. I think finishing… Complaining a track is a great feeling. There’s a huge dopamine rush to be received after writing, finishing track. So yeah, that’s my thing.
Ryan- Do you have any more releases coming up soon?
Funk D’Void- Oh, yeah, I’ve got quite a lot. My next thing goes out in two days on Rhythm Cult. It’s a collaboration with Alex Clavijo. We’re going for that old-school tech house sound with a bit more modern production techniques, a bit more kind of emotional kind of palette to it. I just, my remix for Brian Kage just came out on Michigander Records from Detroit.
Ryan-I listened to that. That was phenomenal, man. I was actually thinking about buying the vinyl for that one.
Funk D’Void- That’s it. Oh, nice.
Ryan- That’s A-plus, yeah.
Funk D’Void- What else I’ve got coming out? Yeah, I’ve got another single coming out on We Will Always Be a Love Song. It’s a French label, some vinyl-only label, where it’s an original kind of work in a style of underground resistance timeline vibe, with remix from one of my colleagues who I thought would do a great job and they did a great job. So that’s coming out on vinyl. And then more collabs in the pipeline. I don’t know what else I’m doing. I might do some more sound design for Roland as well. I want to work on maybe a sound pack for the Juno 106 or one of these, one of these early synths. I still have fun with synthesizers, man. I’ll never get bored of synths. That’s the first thing that got me into this, you know, was just when I was a teenager, my mother was a pianist, rest her soul, and she used to work for the BBC and she used to get these synths. She used to borrow these synths from her work and bring them home and just leave them in the living room. And that’s what got me started. So I had a jono 60 when I was nine. I know it sounds very cheesy to say that, but I was lucky to have a mother that had synths in the house and let me use them. But I was lucky to know what I wanted to do since I was a kid. So a lot of kids don’t have that. So I just, I would say to kids, just keep trying things out until you find the one that clicks. You know, I mean, music might not be for you, but you have to try it first. You know, the tools are there to try it. it’s even easier to write music now. I definitely think to all the kids that are trying to find their passion, there’s so much things to do out there. And, you know, I definitely think if you’ve not done music before, try it and see if you like it, because we need more aphex twins in the world, etc. We need more kind of like geniuses to push the sound forward, you know. There’s not enough mavericks out there anymore. We need some more mavericks.
Ryan- I think there’s going to be space for that in the future. I think… the landscape’s changing and I think people are just gonna be wanting more and more experimentation, more live stuff.
Funk D’Void- We need more nerds, the nerds need to come back.
Ryan- Yeah, well we have nerds, but not like, you know, they’re a different kind of nerd now.
Funk D’Void- Yeah, the nerds, we need to bring back the nerds because the nerds when they made the great the music, you know, God knows what we have now on the stage. I don’t want, I don’t, whatever is I don’t like it. Yeah, we need to bring music back to the forefront. It’s like Frankie Knuckles said, if the minute you think you’re bigger than the music, it’s over. I’m a big fan of that quote.
Funk D’Void- I mean, alcohol definitely doesn’t help with the creative process at all. I don’t think any drugs, any narcotics, any alcohol, anything stimulants helps with the creative process. I think you have to be in a pure state of mind to write music. I’ve always been that way of thought. A lot of people say, well, what about double reggae, but you’re right maybe with that. But I think, yeah, music and drugs, interesting combination, but not in the artistic point of view, not in the creation of music, I guess. A lot of people will disagree with me on that one, but yeah.
Ryan- I have, you know, had my fair share of a good night, but it’s also, you know, usually you’re DJing or you’re spectating, you’re not sitting in the studio. If you…
Funk D’Void- Yeah, DJing’s fine. You can get drunk and… I mean, I don’t know if I could be in a club sober, that’s a good point. I’m not sure I can handle it. I know some friends of mine that stopped drinking and go to, like, you know, a couple of DJ friends that won’t mention their names, but they went sober and… I could just see them in the club standing on the wall with this frozen smile on their face trying to get through it all. And then like, yeah, it must be tough to be in that kind of situation where you’re surrounded by everyone who’s drunk or high and you’re like straight. I know a lot of friends can’t handle that. I don’t think I can handle that situation. But I mean, I’m not a huge drinker, but I do like a couple of beers if I’m DJing. But as I say in the studio, I don’t think I could, I don’t drink or… Yeah, at home. I’m not really a kind of like drinker at home. I’m a social drinker, as they say.
Ryan- Are you taking like drinking any caffiene? To get your juices going mentally?
Funk D’Void- Oh, bro, I have like two liters a day. I drink two liters of coffee a day, especially now my meds have run out. My ADHD meds have run out. So I’m doubling my caffeine intake. So I’m like, yeah, I’m like, I’m running around like a goddamn squirrel. It’s crazy. But the thing is with coffee, it makes me focus a bit better. And it kind of makes me sleepy as well. So I get this kind of huge rush for like three hours and then kind of tapers off. And then I have another coffee that keeps me going. Whereas ADHD meds keeps me going six hours straight on the one thing. The thing is with ADHD, you have all these screens in real life and in your brain as well. And the thing about these meds, they kind of mute all the other screens. And then you have this voice in the back of your mind that says, do this. This is the one thing you need to do. And if you feel yourself get distracted, it stops you from doing that, and it just drags you back into the task number one. So task number one for me, it should be writing music. So I do actually need that little aid, that mental aid for me to focus on finishing or, writing. But when it happens, it’s like a flurry of creativity. I can do a lot of work in a short space of time when I’m in that hyper-focus mode. So I do see ADHD as a superpower. You just need to learn how to hone it, you know, to kind of like sharpen, sharpen the skill. But I think a lot of artists suffer from ADHD. I don’t know if it’s late onset ADHD, but I definitely didn’t have this when I was younger. So this has happened maybe over the usage of internet the last 15 years and the kind of like computer culture, I guess, being more online or more connected with screens. It’s definitely accelerated maybe my onset of ADHD. But yeah, I mean, I don’t know. I have a lot of, all my friends have it or they say they have, I don’t know if they’ve been diagnosed, but it’s definitely an artistic thing. A lot of artists have this. Oh, artists live in their own universe. Who cares? They’re all fine. We have our own mental universe. We’re all fucking nuts. I like the crazy peoples. I like people with stories. I don’t like regular folk. I like kind of weirdos, freaks, and people with stories, broken people. I love all that shit. That’s my gang.
Ryan- That’s good, man. Everyone needs that acceptance, I think, at some point, especially in a culture right now where everyone’s trying to be perfect all the time.
Funk D’Void- But yeah, I think that’s super perfect, fucking narcissistic. You know, I’m better than everyone else attitude. I hate that shit. Good thing is about playing it funny crowds for 30 years. I can see everyone’s different personality traits within two minutes of meeting them. So I know what people’s motives are, whatever. This business is a really kind of like shark-infested business. And sometimes I lose my age and one slips through the net. But yeah, you can usually tell what people are about, you know, by meeting them or they reveal themselves. Ego is always, you know, always raise this ugly head now and then. But I think we all need some kind of ego, you know, you need to have some kind of, like, you know, self-affirmation. But as long as it doesn’t turn into something self-destructive or destructive of other people, you know. But it’s a tough, it’s a tough battle, the old ego.
Ryan- Yeah, and it’s, oh, I kind of agree with that. I guess it’s a good way to put it.
Funk D’Void- You need to like your own shit. You know, it’s nice to like your own shit, come on. It’s good if you write something good, it’s okay to feel good about it, you know. But yeah, it’s just, you got to be careful with that. It’s a tough beast to control the ego. But I’ve watched a lot of family members, one in particular that had it really bad, and I just grew up thinking I didn’t want to be like that, you know. But you get to spot it, you get to spot it when you’re growing up with that kind of thing. That’s why I know what it’s like being around artists. I’m quite good at dealing with artists or people with that kind of like, you know, confidence. A lot of my clients and students have lack of self-confidence. So I also see that too. So you need to build people up in that respect. You need to fill the hole. You know, I even know some established artists are very, they have that kind of imposter syndrome. which is another disease I hate. I’ve had that as well imposter syndrome be like, wait a minute, am I shit? You know, like when you see all this other stuff happening and then you start questioning your own art. So yeah, it’s a kind of like, maybe it’s a little bit of paranoia or your brain playing tricks on you. But yeah, your death, your art is worth something, you know, it needs to be get out there. It’s not, it’s not doing anything stuck in your head or not being put out there, just make, the whole process of making art is very cathartic and therapeutic in itself. I just, I’m a big fan of saying, fuck what anyone else thinks about your stuff, you know, never, never, that’s never had any issue with me at all. I mean, never been a competitive person or a careerist, whatever, that’s probably to my detriment financially, but I am, As long as I’m happy with myself, you know, that’s the main thing, I’m not harming anyone else either by doing something, you know, it’s a better to further my career. So yeah, I’m lucky I’m still here. I mean, all of my peers are dropping off like flies. So hopefully I’ll still be around for a few more years, let’s see. But it just seems that there’s a current climate of people in my age group are producers and artists that seem to be dropping off prematurely. So I’ve learned to kind of Carpe Diem a lot more these days. So like, yeah, just hang out with friends more, you know, take the holiday, spend some more time with your family, and say yes to a lot of things, because you never know if you’re going to make it, you know, the next day, you never know, every day is a fucking miracle, I say.
Ryan- No, it is, man, it really is. I think in this music scene, you’re kind of, you’re right. I think right now, a lot of the artists that you would hope would stick around are kind of falling off, and it also seems like it’s just, You know, I see this a lot, like, and like, when I look up older, like, drum & bass records that I love from, like, moving shadow or something, I’m like, this guy put out, like, two records, and he was gone. You know, he was probably, he probably toured with like…
Funk D’Void- Where is he now, man? I’m like, yeah, they’re like, they’re like my age or whatever. But, you know, like, I meet some of my heroes, like, Dan Duncan. He was an amazing drum… He was intense on moving shadow. Was it moving shadow or whatever? Intense, though, what’s the other label he was on? Big human, a drum and bass producer. Now he’s producing techno or… for years under the Pig and Dan name and now we’re friends and now we’re with this company, we’re working together in this company. So I think the stars are aligning, good people gravitate to good people. You know, there’s a few fucking shysters on the way, but you know, you gravitate, you know, to your tribe. What does it say? If you stick to your vibe, you’ll find your tribe. Yeah, I’m a big follower of that for sure. So that’s what building this community is. It’s a tiny community I have. But it just works. It’s like the old days, you know, when we used to be in like villages of 150 people, everyone knew their name and everyone had the same kids. That’s the vibe I like, I like that kind of small, the community vibe.
Ryan- Also, this music was created in a space very similar to that in Detroit and Chicago. It was a handful of people hanging out all the time, man.
Funk D’Void-Yeah, I’m just an anti-commercial, you know, anti-mainstream guy. I mean, you know, I’m just, if it’s popular, then it’s not good. I mean, I don’t know if it’s popular, can it still be good? That’s a good question. I’m not sure. Certain things, yeah, but I dealt with music. It’s kind of like, yeah, it seems to dilute a lot, the bigger the crowds. So maybe we’re not meant for the big crowds, but as long as I’m happy and music touches me the way it should do, then I’m cool with that. But yeah, as far as fame, money, success, these are alien things to me. I’m more about personal happiness. That’s what I’m all about.
Ryan- Awesome, man. I think we’ll end it there. Thank you so much for your time, and we’ll talk again soon, man.
Funk D’Void- All right, bro. Take care. I’ll speak to you soon, Ry.
Transcribed with Meetgeek. Edited by Ry Kohanya
No Such Animal 