Interview with Mark De Clive-Lowe


Q: You grew up in New Zealand, traveled most parts of the world and now you're living in West London. What makes London/the UK so interesting for you that you moved to Europe?

Mark De Clive-Lowe: It's funny, growing up in NZ, especially playing a lot of acoustic jazz and really loving what people like Kenny Kirkland and Jeff Tain Watts were doing, I always thought I'd end up living in NYC, and aspired to playing with people like Betty Carter, Branford, Kenny Garrett... but then in 1998 I spent a year traveling the world on an award I got in NZ, basically a pilgrimage around the planet checking out music hot spots and places I'd always wanted to go. I started off in San Fran and from there headed down to Cuba. Afro Cuban music had been a real passion of mine since hooking up with Danilo Perez in Boston when I was studying at Berklee there in 94. Cuba blew my mind. The vibe, the people, the culture, the music and most of all, the rhythm and the pulse. It left a pretty indelible mark on me as a person and a musician. After that I went to london - it was only for a month to see a friend en route to spending the summer in NYC - the destination I'd been holding in mind the whole time. London freaked me out at first - I was staying way out of the centre, hardly knew anyone and I couldn't believe how expensive it was. I wanted to make the most of the opportunity though, so I started reaching out to the people I knew. The first hook up was doing a session for Dave Angel - I met Dave briefly in NZ 5 years earlier and he'd said to look him up if I was ever in London. so I called him up and we did a crazy techno-jazz track that's still heavily under wraps! After that I caught up with Nathan Haines - we knew each other from NZ and had played together there, so it was great to catch up with him and we renewed our musical collaborating starting with a track for Metalheadz (Sci Clone 'Hold On'). Nathan introduced me to a DJ/producer he'd started working with who was none other than Phil Asher! It was down at Phil and Patrick Forge's inspiration information clubnite. Nathan told Phil i was a keys player and I think it was pretty much the next day we went into studio and cut our first collaboration - I dropped keys on the Restless Soul remix of Fini Dolo's 'Blow'. From there it was only a few days before I was in studio with Seiji, the Bugz and IG Culture. It was really dope - here were all these DJ/producers making music that was informed and inspired by all the music I've ever loved, and they were putting it all together in a way that had never been done before. It was a really special time not just for me, but for the West London scene in general. So that pretty much made the decision for me - it wasnt that I wanted to live in England, or London, it was that I came across a community of inspired individuals and crews making dope music that inspired me and that I knew I could bring my own creativity and flavour to.

Q: Please tell me what has changed for you since your debut album Six Degree (released on major label Universal) and where do you see your progression as an artist with the new Tide's Arising set?

Mark De Clive-Lowe: Six Degrees was an experiement for me - I'd just bought an MPC2000 on the way back to NZ from my year travelling around the world. Having seen Phil and Orin rocking the MPC in london, I thought I'd give it a go. So I was back in NZ writing music inspired by my experiences from the previous 12 months in Cuba, London, NYC and other spots, and mashing together the live playing and elements with the MPC. It was my first attempt at production in the beat-head sense of the word and conceptually was about jazz blending with the dancefloor and my take on that. Since then so much has happened. I made Six Degrees in early 1999, so that was 6 years ago now. A long time! Where I was experimenting and at the start of my learning curve making Six Degrees, Tide's Arising though, I know I'm an experienced producer and I know how to get the sound I want. Between the two albums, I've had the good fortune to work with so many great producers - all the West London crew for starters, and then people like Kenny Dope, Spinna, Wajeed, Megashira, Lemon D...the list is pretty long if I list everyone. I learnt something from every experience, so now the collaborations number over a hundred tracks, that's a fair amount of learning! Getting a chance to do some different remixes taught me a lot as well - I got to experiment as a producer on each remix and try different things - the Danilo Perez remix (Pan Africa) and the remix I did for Verve Remixed 1 of Shirley Horn, those were the two that I could feel like a new production concept and style was starting to come out. I think that it was really solidified on Relax Unwind. On that one I knew there was something special going on and something totally fresh. Once Kenny and Louie were bugging out over it and wanted to release it on MAW, I knew it was bonafide. So it's been a pretty crazy journey, and the logical conclusion was to say what I've got to say now through a new album, that's what Tide's Arising is. I really went back to a lot of my soul roots as well over the past few years - getting deep into Marvin, Minnie Ripperton, Don Blackman, Bernard Wright - lots of different artists, so I guess the result is that Tide's is more of a soul album to me where Six Degrees was more of a jazz album.

Q: Maybe it's just me but I hear a lot of P-Funk influences on your recent album. Tell me something about your motivation and influences while writing and recording this album.

Mark De Clive-Lowe: I've got a lot more into production technique and concepts since making Six Degrees and one key thing I've learnt that I always make sure is consistent is that every sound is functional - everything is there for a reason and I think that's part of the funk thing. Everything belongs to the groove rather than just solos over beats, every sound and note is functional in the groove. It's like everything IS the beat whether it's a drum, a string, a chord, a moog, whatever. There's definitely a lot of funk on Tide's, but I try to always keep it contemporary and progressive. Whether it's funk or jazz or soul, I dont really want to re-create something that has already existed, I'd rather assimilate some of those inspirations and come up with something new in my own style. The way I've developed as a beat maker too is quite different to Six Degrees - on that album I was using more jazz breaks and approaching programming with that kind of mentality, on Tide's it's more hip hop kind of drum kits and a more 16th note rhythmic approach to programming. I think the fact that I use the MPC3000 now and used to use the 2000 makes a big difference to. It just makes you work in a different way. The 2000 is still a dope machine, it's so quick and easy to use, but in comparison, it's a baby compared to the daddy 3000!

Q: How come that Tide's Arising has already been released last year in September in Japan? And do you think that this may harm sales of the album when it has just been released these days in the rest of the world?

Mark De Clive-Lowe: I was in japan on tour right after I finished mixing down the album and I had a meeting with Columbia over there. After about 15 minutes, we'd agreed that Columbia would release the album in Japan. They just loved it. From the first note they heard, they loved it. I really dig Japan like that - they recognise and respect good shit. After that, I spent a year shopping the album in the UK, Europe and the States and although a lot of labels were interested, not many could get their heads around it - for some, it was "too jazz", for others it was "too urban" - I was like, "that's the whole point though!" but not many labels could see it that way. It's a shame because I really believe that an album like Tide's could have some considerable impact on the global music scene. There's a lot of music out there that is formulaic and the same old same old, but very little that is really progressive as far as beat culture, jazz and soul music go. But labels just don't really want to take risk on something fresh and different, it's a shame but they'd rather minimise the risk and protect their job and paycheck by sticking with the same old shit. And it's ironic, because that's what's fucked up the industry. It's not about downloading, it's about a lack of quality and creativity across the board.

Q: You have a very substantial website that offers lots of information and news. How important is the internet for you as a tool to promote your music?

Mark De Clive-Lowe: The internet is dope!! There's never been anything like it, and I imagine most of us can't imagine a world without it now. I love the vibe of being in direct contact with fans and music heads via the website, being able to interact via the boards, being able to get the word out directly without the politics and cost associated with traditional media.

Q: What do you think of filesharing via p2p-networks? Do you think it will harm the sales of your records or do you think it's just another way of what people used to do in the past with making mixtapes for their friends?

Mark De Clive-Lowe: I don't think it's healthy for music sales but it's happening, so there isn't much we can do about it. I think it's great that someone in China or Russia who's never heard any of this kind of music now has access to it, that's dope. But in places where you can step outside your door and buy the album, or if you don't want to step out you can get it from Amazon or iTunes, I don't understand p2p in those situations. The artists need support to continue creating the music you love to listen to. otherwise they'll quit and get a day job, and then it's the world's loss that a great artist no longer creates. I know a few people like that and it's really sad. I'm not blaming p2p, but the mentality behind it doesnt help us, and there isn't any way around the fact that it is stealing - whether it's from a label or from an artist. The flipside though, is that say 500,000 people are file sharing my album, then I'd like to think that a good percentage of those people would pay decent money to see me play live, so there's an advantage in that way. With the download culture being so big, album's are becoming nothing more than advertisements, marketing tools for the artist's live shows. Unfortunately the flipside is that real financial livelihoods are at stake. You might as well be stealing your best friend's paycheck.

Q: Please tell me more about the FreeSoul Sessions Clubnites? What can one who hasn't been there yet expect from this event?

Mark De Clive-Lowe: Freesoul Sessions has been so much fun. At it's core, it's a fully improvised jam session. I've spent my whole life playing music and that's brought me to a point where doing completely improvised shows is something that's second nature to me and totally refreshing. The first thing the audience hear is the click of the MPC3000. I program the beats live, buliding up the kicks, snares, hats, percussion, then drop in a b-line on the MS2000, build up rhodes and keyboard parts. The other musicians with me will augment the composition on their instruments - sometimes Kaidi on poly6 and percussion or drums, Richard Spaven on drums, Dave Okumu or D. Waldman on guitar, and the vocalists improvise songs and vocal elements. It's pretty amazing really. To be honest, most improv gigs I've been to aren't very good, but we're at a point and on a level where I know what we're doing is dope and I think audiences really appreciate the raw creativity of it. I find rehearsed shows kind of lifeless and at worst totally patronising. Freesoul is the antidote - the anti-show.

Q: Which new collaborations, remix or record projects do you plan to do in the near future?

Mark De Clive-Lowe: There's a lot going on at the moment. I'm doing a couple of tracks on Leon Ware's new album - one with Kenny Dope, one with Spinna, 5 tracks on Lady Alma's debut album - both of which are sounding heavy!! I've just done a remixes for Yukihiro Fukutomi and Big Bang and working on new remixes for Lekan Babalola, Domu and Phuturistix. I'm in the middle of making Rasiyah's debut EP which will be dropping on Antipodean, and a new MdCL/Bembe 12" for Antipodean that's going to be dropping just before summer. There's a 12" I've done featuring Alma which Funk Of Fury will be putting out in few months, and the Legends Of The Underground project I did with Bembe, Domu and Seiji will be released in May or June on Kindred Spirits. I'm also producing Cherie Mathieson's debut album - she sang on my Move On Up 12" and on Day By Day off Six Degrees so that's a pretty exciting project. There's been studio collaborations with Platinum Pied Pipers, Bugz, Fanatix, Papa Records and a few others, so in short, there's a lot going on! There's some remixes coming up for Tide's Arising as well - Phuturistix, Maddslinky, Domu, Wajeed and more. Freesoul Sessions will be evolving into a record project soon as well - keep an eye out on the website for info on that!

Q: Will you tour continental Europe and Germany to promote your new album?

Mark De Clive-Lowe: Most definitely! I'm going to be playing in Amsterdam soon doing the first Tide's Arising live show [May 13th at Paradiso], and in Cologne next week to do a promo event for the Red Bull Music Academy - that's a really great project that Red Bull have going on and it's something I'm happy to be involved with. Educating and sharing with the next generation of music makers is important and a responsibility for us all. Hopefully before the end of autumn though, there's going to be a proper European tour.

For more infos visit markdeclivelowe.net, antipodeanrecords.net and read my review of Mark De Clive-Lowe's Tide's Arising.