Shoshana: I wanted to ask you a little bit about all the music we’ve heard so far bringing us up to the top of the hour.

DJ Story: Sure.

Shoshana: You have other voices and musicians on there obviously but you’re doing most of the instruments yourself?

DJ Story: yeah I just love to play with the synthesizers and the microphones. putting them in different configurations, and I play other instruments too like the marimba and some mbira (African thumb piano) and I like to sing, and I really love to bring other artists in and get them involved with stuff like didgeridoos and flutes and other voices or whatever they have to contribute guitar, saxophone whatever you know.

Shoshana: And your father plays with you too sometimes? What does he play again?

DJ Story: Yeah, he plays the tenor sax and the alto and soprano flute and his main instrument is his voice.

Shoshana: You’re sort of a local here. I mean you’ve been living in Paradise with your family, but also you grew up in or spent a lot of time in New Mexico in the southwest right? And you spend a lot of time on Kauai.

DJ Story: Yeah I was born in Jamaica.

Shoshana: Alright wow that’s cool. So you’re kind of multicultural here, and when you go to Kauai a lot in the winter time like that last voice we heard on transforming with Sasha Butterfly, a lot of the California artists go over there and hang out for the winter right? So you get to record with them?

DJ Story: Yeah a lot of people from all over the world come to Kauai, so it’s a really great hub for music and art and again music is like another form of photography except for it’s with sound. Like with photography every picture has its own story that it tells, and it’s the same with sound. It’s like there’s a story behind the creation of every song or melodic composition.

Shoshana: You’re a young man here barely what you’re 21 or 20?

DJ Story: I’m 20 right now yeah.

Shoshana: I’m amazed that you uh I mean you have a lot of talent, and I mean just a natural feel for mixing the music, and getting the moods going.

DJ Story: Thank you

Shoshana: How long have you been doing all this?

DJ Story: I’ve been playing music my whole life, although recording, I started out DJing. I was scratching and stuff doing hip hop stuff at first, and then I started learning how to mix electronic music and then I really started getting into the studio work, cause I wanted to do something a little more original and start incorporating that into my sets, so I still like to DJ live for people, and I’ve been recording in the studio for about the last 8 years.

Interview with Dr. J on Ear Candy 01.09.07

brendanp: what are you working with these days?
mostly abelton?
or reason?

me: she got inspired to write the lyrics and then I put the music to it
2:14 PM actually it’s a new form of technology I got from the ETs

brendanp: oh! right, of course!
2:15 PM called Abelton Live…

me: lol, yea

brendanp: those aliens make the best software

me: it’s fun

brendanp: i haven’t played with it actually
2:16 PM me: it’s amazing once you get the hang of it

brendanp: what i’ve heard is that it’s like part sampler, part synth, part loop station

me: yes, and much more
2:17 PM brendanp: and geared to performance as much as production, right?

me: I don’t even have the latest version, but I really want it
2:18 PM it’s got a kick butt looping device that senses the tempo of your loop as you record it, and then sets the song tempo to match you vs. trying to match a metronome
2:19 PM

brendanp: oh that’s sweet

me: live also supports vst and au plugins, so you can load up all kinds of crazy synths and effects
2:20 PM setting up midi couldn’t be easier
2:21 PM the automation rocks, and you can use your computers type pad as a keyboard

brendanp: oh woah
that’s sweet dude

me: I’ve been doing some crazy stuff using my ipod touch as a wireless midi controller too
2:22 PM

brendanp: oh crazy, you can do that?
just special apps?
2:23 PM

me: I can turn effects off and on and change sliders and x_ y_ controls just by tilting my ipod.
I found a really good free one
mmm
midi music machine
I’ve been wanting to blog about it