Talib Kweli & Hi-Tek Stop by REHAB for an interview with Hardknock TV

Mr. Interview Reporting live from the Internet, Interview with Robot Realm

Mr. Interview gets the scoop on the Robot Realm album "Path of Wonder" that just dropped! Interview highlights include: Religious Robots, getting a great album cover from a Serbian artist and making a complete album with the music production program Reason. Also, the album “Path of Wonder” by Robot Realm is available for free download here - http://www.chegutierrez.com/robotrealm.html

Mr. Interview- Let’s start with a bit about the artwork.
Che Gutierrez- When I decided to actually make an album with robot realm I wanted it to have some kind of visual identity. Most artists want that, but the whole idea behind the thing was that it was a story. I knew what i wanted. I put up some ads on craigslist for a sci fi/fantasy artist. I talked with a couple artists who were really good but weren't exactly what i was looking for. Then shortly after that, I received a reply from a storyboard artist/painter named Aleksa Jovanovic who lives in Serbia. We never met, but only corresponded through email. The artwork was done in exchange for a website (I do website design also). His website can be found here: http://aleksajovanovic.com/


MI- So you guys did a creative swap; website design for the album art. Nice! You mentioned that the album's got a story and concept behind it. Tell me a bit about that.
Che- Robot Realm started as a story...and I was also messing some electronic music at the same time. After taking a few lessons from Christian (professor at Scratch DJ Academy) using this program Reason, I needed some new kind of new music to do. I had been writing rock and acoustic stuff for a long time before, and I was ready to get into something new. I started messing with electronic sounds, synthesizer sounds, and real instrument sounds through a sequencer. Around the same time I was writing this story, which was supposed to be a book, a sci fi novel. The whole story is about a realm of robots that don't know where they came from and end up worshiping nature. The original extended name was Robot Realm- Humanity's Pipedream...The main character is a robot named Tree. He's basically a regular guy, or robot, who starts papers and books that kind of challenge the traditional ideas and views of his time. These would include mostly what the true origin of robot-kind is. A lot of the robots are very religious you see. His ideas are revolutionary in a way.

MI- How does the city of Chicago affect your music?
Che- It puts more blues in my songs.

MI- Who are some of your electronic music influences?
Che- I haven't really been into electronic music specifically, but there are many solo artists that I really love that have used electronic elements in their albums. Such as Roger Waters, Billy Corgan, Perry Farrell, and even Phil Lynott. Most of these solo artists are previously from very famous bands. Oh yeah and Paul Simon's newest album "Surprise," too. Also, the music from Donkey Kong Country 1 and 2 for Super Nintendo highly influenced Robot Realm. The composer's name is David Wise. He worked for a company called Rareware which was a revolutionary video game company- to me anyway. I'm not too big on video games but that company was extremely creative and very imaginative.

MI- What can you tell us about where Robot Realm is going?
Che- Well, it started as a story or book. I might finish up a short story version of it. There is more music which is going to be in the form of a "perpetual album." It will be an album that goes on forever. I will continue to add songs to it. Basically it is a collection of all my b-sides. It is called TRASHGHOST and the idea behind the name is that you throw things away and they come back to haunt you. I will add that to the website at some point so people can check it out.

MI- A perpetual album, interesting.
Che- Yeah, to my knowledge it will be the first perpetual album in history.

MI- Anything specifically you wanted to say about the program reason?
Che- Well, I probably know less than 1% percent about how to use it. But it's a really great program. The sequencer sounds are really great. Writing music electronically is very easy and it's really fun to just make a beat and start throwing melodies over it.

MI- Why should people check out Robot Realm?
Che- Well, I think there's a group or type of people that would really enjoy the music if they had access to it. I like to think its classic. Out of the 30 to 40 songs
written, I tried to take the most classic tunes and put those on the PATH OF WONDER album.

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The album “Path of Wonder” by Robot Realm is available for free download here-
http://www.chegutierrez.com/robotrealm.html
Youtube Link-
http://www.youtube.com/user/robotrealmmusic
Myspace Link-
http://www.myspace.com/robotrealmmusic
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Some Pics from 152 Sunday

Here are some photos captured from 152 this Sunday. Assignment: Off-Genre.

Students played sets from reggae to country to 80s!

Good times!

Scetch and ET switching out...

Ver5e (professor) rockin out to "Bubble Gum Pop" (video coming soon)

Scetch switching from Serato to Traktor Scratch

Scratch Man

DJ Dos-A (NYC) getting into some dub-step- and yes, its important that I mention he's from NY (I dunno, ask him)

Dazzler "funkin" it up with some Zapp

Dazzler and Scetch checkin out the eq they were forced to work on

NOT PICTURED but PRESENT:

Sly 1

Bob Gnarley

King Tey

Hapa

LL, thanks for the great BBQ!

BELOW is a little video treat of Ver5e and his Back Street Boys-

By the way, great job to all of our students and mixers today!

-pics and commentary courtesy of HAPA

B.o.B ft. Asher Roth - Fuck The Money [Radio Rip]

January 30th, 2010

B.o.B appeared on Power 106’s The Takeover show on Wednesday night and played this song off his upcoming May 25th mixtape, which drops on Monday. Besides sharing a XXL cover, you might recall B.o.B and Asher Roth both rocking The Great Hangover tour, along with Kid Cudi and Pac Div, this summer.

FREE DOWNLOAD BELOW!

B.o.B feat. Asher Roth - Fuck The Money [Radio Rip]

Over this K. West production from 2005.

Props to The Los Angeles Leakers. Photo by Wes Allmond

Previously: Asher Roth Speaks on B.o.B & Kid Cudi’s Retirements

Posted by nation in Collaborations | 36 Comments »

DJ Dynamix wins MIX CROWN for KING OF LA!!!

We couldn't be prouder of our very own, DJ DYNAMIX taking the crown for the mix, party-rockin battle at the KING OF LA during NAMM.

DYNAMIX proved that he is one of the elite DJs in the current battle scene.

In addition to the battles, DYNAMIX is also the proud instructor of the Scratch course at SCRATCH DJ ACADEMY LA.

(He also moonlights as a Thundercat...and no, that pic is NOT from Halloween)

*DJ JAWA (another Scratch instructor), also took home a Crown for King of LA as he battled his way to the top! Yes, thats right- Scratch represented pretty heavy taking home BOTH crowns!!

We are waiting for the JAWA video- and it will be posted as soon as it becomes available

Rane Launches new 68 Serato Mixer

One of the biggest news bits in the DJ community...everyone talking about the new mixer that Rane has developed.

We will get a chance to see it up close and personal at the NAMM show- but heres a bit of a preview...

It supposedly has 2 USB ports for computer plug-ins, along with EFX processors on board. Sounds pretty crazy!!

More to come soon...

Some Footage from Last Week