What about Louisiana?

Here's the whole itw with David "D Funk" Faulk...enjoy the reading!!! Did you work with Black Menace and Ghetto Twiinz? What happened to them? And PNC (Partners N Crime)? Yes. I worked with all of them. The artists on Big Boy Records back then were G-Slimm, Partners-N-Crime (PNC), Mystikal, Fiend, Black Menace, The Ghetto Twiinz, Elate' and Insane. I played all of the music (guitars, keyboards/piano, bass, etc.) on all of their Big Boy Records album releases. I still consider them all my friends and some of us still keep in touch when we can but so many people have gone their own different ways, you know? Time goes on and people's lives change, they have kids, get jobs, etc... It's hard to believe Partners-N-Crime's "PNC3" CD was around 19 years ago! I remember playing the instruments and us recording those songs like it was only yesterday. These days, Black Menace and Partners-N-Crime are still around. From what I understand, they are more into working with some of the younger up-and-coming rappers, mentoring them and building their own independent record label. I spoke with Mista Meanor (one half of PNC) only 3 or 4 days ago. He was looking for someone to design a logo for their label. I've always been just as much into art (drawings, computer graphics, etc.) as I am with music so I'll try to come up with something they will want to use. As far as The Ghetto Twiinz go, I really don't know much concerning what they are doing these days. Tonya (one of the twins) wound up getting married to DJ Precise but since he and I had a falling-out (see answer to question #10) and don't speak to one another, I don't really know much about their current lives. It's a shame too because I had always gotten along well with Tonya and Tremethia and really enjoyed creating music for them. Do you have an idea/are you aware of the influence of G funk and down south rap on people in France and elsewhere (Europe, Asia...)? Do you know some French rappers or producers: beat makers? I actually had no idea. It's almost like New Orleans is in their own little musical bubble here and most of the people don't realize how much the rest of the world likes (or even hears) any of the music that comes out of this area although I'd assume that whoever is collecting the royalty checks and money from the sales would be well aware of where it's selling. To this day, I don't know much in regards to where the music I created was sold (or is selling). I was royally screwed over regarding all the music I did on those CDs. To this day, I don't receive a single penny in royalties or anything. I was verbally promised that I would be well "taken care of" when the money came rolling in and yet I watched as the owner of the label and the guy who got the producer credits bought Land Cruisers and enjoyed the money from record sales while nothing was ever kicked back to me. Nothing. Zero. After that, I knew I would never work with that label or DJ Precise ever again - and I never have. I have a number of gold and platinum record awards and plaques - all of which I'd happily throw in the garbage if I could have been properly compensated instead. Don't get me wrong though. I still consider the musical content and creativity to be the most important and enjoyable thing. I'll never stop creating, composing or playing. If ever there is an instrument within reach, I'll pick it up and get lost in my own little creative world for a while because of my love for music - not because I hope to make a "hit record" and a ton of money. But no matter who you are, if you created something with someone else only to find out that they not only got paid a huge up-front amount of money for it but that they can sit back while they forever receive royalty checks in the mail at their nice home and driving their expensive cars while you wonder how you're going to pay your next month's rent. Then you find out their plan from the very beginning was to use your skills or talent simply to make themselves rich because they had secretly been copyrighting everything in their name all along. If I sound a little bitter about that - I am. Even with a signed statement by the artist Mystikal (and some other BBR artists who were around in those days) confirming they remember me creating the majority of the music on those CD's, their is a law called the "statute of limitations" which basically states that - in my waiting for him to do the right thing - I waited too long to file the case. The only way around this now is for HIM to contact the copyright and publishing offices and declare that he did NOT produce, write and compose all of those albums by himself... and, of course, that is nevvvvvver gonna' happen. I was all set to bring a guitar, a keyboard, a bass and a drum machine into a courtroom and have them call out the name to any song from any of those albums and I would play 'em right there. Of course, I would then expect him to do the same because his not-being-able-to-play-anything would be proof enough... but I digress... Let's talk about your career, how and why did you decide you would be a musician? Is the name "D Funk" related to D Train? Did you study classical music, jazz? Did you play with soul, funk or rock bands? I guess you could say it had to do with being born into a musical family of sorts. I never studied music and even to this day, I play entirely by ear. My mother used to dance on the stage in Dublin, Ireland where she was born and raised. She was always singing around the house when I was growing up and my oldest brother played in a rock band for as long as I can remember so there was always something musical going on around me I guess. We also had a little upright piano in the house but I didn't have an interest in music at that time yet - but I completely remember the day I wanted to get a guitar and learn how to play. I must have just turned 14 years old and I was hanging out with some guys who were much older than me - like in their early 20's maybe - and they would sit around smoking marijuana and playing their records and tapes and they'd just sit there listening intently. Music wasn't simply a background thing to them. I remember thinking it was strange when I'd go to talk about something and they'd be like,"Shhh. Listen to this song." Anyway, I remember they were playing a song and something was strange about it to my ears. I remember saying,"There's something wrong with your tape or whatever - it's like.. skipping or something..." because I couldn't tap my foot or hand to the beat. They said there was nothing wrong. The band was purposely playing that way! Well, that blew my mind and changed the rest of my life in ways of listening to and understanding music. The band's name was "Rush" and the album was called "Hemispheres". Well, to make a long story short, I soon bought a 2nd-hand guitar from a pawn shop and started out trying to learn songs by Rush and other odd-time progressive rock/jazz fusion music but even though I liked all that intricate stuff, I was a huge Prince fan and really enjoyed anything funky with lots of bass playing and wah-wah guitar effects. "Earth, Wind & Fire", "Cameo", etc.. - were all very influential to my playing style. Then, fast-forward a few years later to when I was 17 years old, I applied at a local recording studio and told them I'd do anything - cleaning up the place, whatever - in order to learn about recording and engineering. Luckily, they took a chance and hired me making $150 per week mostly making digital back-up copies of old reel-to-reel tapes and stuff. In the meantime, I started a band and was creating my own original music. The only music I ever really enjoyed creating with a band was always some weird mixture of funk and progressive rock/jazz fusion. Sometimes during the day at work, I'd be on my lunch-break or something and I would take every opportunity I could get to play the studio's instruments because the owner of the studio had a lot of great vintage keyboards and synthesizers, guitars and basses, a Baby Grand piano and a drum set, etc... It was a dream come true to be around all these instruments every day and really helped me learn and grow musically. Different local rap artists and labels would book time at the studio and eventually they would hear me playing one instrument or another and ask me to play on their songs. There's a ton of those early, early rap records from New Orleans that I was never even credited as playing on. I just saw it as a way to make some extra money while getting my own band going, you know? As far as the name, "D-Funk" goes, it came about by accident actually. Early on while doing the session work for different people, one guy didn't know how to spell my name and what should have been,"D. Faulk" (my first initial and last name), he had typed as, "D Funk". By the time I had seen it, it was already released that way but a few of the rappers I knew said I needed a cool producer name and that I should just keep using it - so I did. I wish I had a better story as to how I got my producer name but it was really just an accident. :) How and why become someone who can play several music instruments? Besides Prince and maybe Bootsy Collins I don't know many of them being in front (and not behind the scene/ in the background). I just genuinely enjoy playing any musical instrument I can get my hands on. Every instrument seems to enable me to release a different aspect of my feelings or emotions. When I play a piano, I tend to play with a lot of dramatic and moody expression whereas when I pick up a bass guitar, my hands seem to naturally gravitate toward a funkier style with all the slappin' and poppin' a bass enables you to do. I mean, you simply can't create the same feeling and sounds on an electric guitar as you would be able to do with an acoustic 12-string guitar. They sound totally different and early on I realized that I didn't want to have to wait for another musician to be available in order to create a complete song. By learning as many as I could, I was able to record myself playing the drums and then over-dub a bass guitar, then a keyboard, then a lead guitar, vocals, etc... whatever you want. A lot of that inspiration came from people like Prince and Paul McCartney who I'd find out later that some of their best songs that I enjoyed so much were actually recorded by them playing all the instruments themselves in the studio. Of course, their bands were needed in order to play the songs live and stuff but it's a great way to really help yourself complete the writing (and recording) of a song without having to wait for other musicians and their schedules to coincide with your own. About the song "Slippin Into Darkness" (G-Slimm) I suppose you know Eazy E also used (well maybe more DJ Yella) WAR song, if you had to compare which one would you choose? Hmm. I don't think I could compare them. I mean, as far as the G-Slimm song goes, basically the "producer" brought a cassette to the studio with a song by War on it and asked me if I could replay each of the instruments. I said sure and he recorded/sampled me playing each instrument while I tried to emulate the same feel and sound that was on the original song. I haven't listened to the song in years but I remember there were two versions of the song. One version had me replaying all the instruments and the other version was simply a sample from the original War song sampled and looped/repeated which G-Slimm rapped over. I think the original version was the one that had the music sampled from the War song. Then, when Relativity was interested in signing G-Slimm as an artist and wanted to re-release the CD, they asked us to add another 4 or 5 new original songs and, due to the fact that you have to pay more to use a sample of someone's music as opposed to if you replay it, they might have then used the version where I replayed the song. In all honesty, I really don't know at this point - it's was so long ago. Still about G Slimm, could you tell us how the song "Four Deuces and Trays" was born, the lyrics, and the beats? Did you take part in the shooting of the video clip? I had no part in the shooting of the video. Due to the fact that the "producer" had always tried to keep my music playing and production work a secret, I was never invited to any of the video shoots. I suppose in retrospect that I could have gone if I sought to do so and everything but I'm not the type of person to just show up somewhere if I wasn't invited. Plus, I'm sure I wouldn't have been included in the actual video. I don't know how much skin color played a part in a lot of decisions back then but me being the only white person with a company that began using slogans like,"Black-owned and Operated" (to follow No Limit Records' lead), I honestly doubt they wanted to show me as the one and only white guy creating the majority of the label's music. The song itself came about the way most all of the songs we were doing at that time came about. The music would be created first, always. Then the rappers would basically take a cassette tape home with them and write their lyrics. When they had their words all worked out, they'd come back to the studio to be recorded. I remember at that time G-Slimm was really influenced by a lot of the west coast music sound and so the music we'd create for him would be done with that in mind. About another famous song, "Y'all Ain't Ready Yet" (Mystikal), how was it conceived/ created? This is a very interesting story and a bit of information that just about no one knows: The bass-line for "Yall Ain't Ready" was actually a bass-line I had been working on for a song my band was going to do called,"Crimson Holds". One day while we were in the midst of creating and recording Mystikal's album, I was in the little kitchen/lunch area in the back of the studio and, as usual, I was practicing and playing some of the songs for my band. I was playing an acoustic guitar and repeating the main bass-line riff when Mike (Mystikal) walked into the area and went,"Whooooo!! What's that?" and began doing this little side-to-side thing with his shoulders he does when he's really feeling the groove of something. He said,"We gotta' use that! Don't forget that." I knew I wouldn't forget it because I had been playing around with that riff for a couple of months already. Well, it was the end of BBR's recording session that day but like 2 days later when they came back to the studio, I remembered how much he liked that bass riff so that was the first thing I played on top of a simple mid-tempo beat just to remind him of it and no sooner did I begin playing it when he (again) went,"Whooooo!! Yeah! That's that thing from the other day! Keep playin' that!" And that was that. I think we just sampled the bass and looped it over the simple beat for him to write and work out his lyrics to it and when he came back to record it, I knew it would be something. I knew people would really feel it. I didn't know it would be his first single but I really liked it a lot. Mystikal liked it so much that he didn't care about the label wanting me to be "in the background", he included my name in his lyrics and at one point in the song say,"Dave, play that funky guitar!" I still remember to this day when the album was about to be pressed up and he had a sheet of paper torn out of his notebook with everything he wanted to have printed in the liner notes of his debut CD. There was a big thank-you section he showed me where he thanked me in detail for all of my creativity and how his album wouldn't have been the same without my guitar, keyboard and bass playing, etc..., etc... When the CD was pressed up and the first box of them were brought to the studio, we all got a copy of course and I couldn't wait to pull the plastic off and open the case to see my little pat-on-the-back. But it wasn't there. Nothing about me except being listed as a "playa" of instruments. As soon as I saw Mystikal, I said,"Mike? What happened to that cool thank-you thing you put about me?" It really meant a lot to me and yet it wasn't there. He said he didn't know why it was excluded so I asked the "producer" (DJ Precise) what had happened. He said,"The place that pressed the CDs said there wasn't enough room and some things had to be taken out." In other words, he lied. Yet for some reason, I continued to believe him. Album after album of music, I saw the one person who was responsible for keeping my name hidden, for blocking me from ever getting a penny of royalty money, etc... - I saw this one person as my friend. Soon, my "friend" would build a small career and name for himself on the music and creativity I put into all of those CDs while I would get nothing. Amazingly, years after it's implosion, the label would try to make a comeback with him producing the music by himself. Take a guess what happened. Nothing. People aren't stupid and they know when something is missing. All of a sudden, every song he did didn't sound anything at all like the hits people were used to hearing from "him" before. Even with trying to hire session musicians to add guitars and basses to his drum loops and beats, it wasn't selling. Am I secretly happy about this? No way. I'm openly thrilled about it. You see, even though he and BBR can no longer use me to fill their pockets ever again on any new music, they still continue to collect royalty money from all of the past recordings and albums we created. And a few years ago when Ja Rule used a sample from one of those Mystikal songs, guess who gets another big new royalty check in the mail. Ten years from now if Burger King decides to use a sample from any of those albums I created and played all of the instruments on, once again I'll continue to receive nothing while this "producer" will be watching for his mailman to come by. Let's talk about the album "Fours Deuces and Trays", how much time did you spend on it? How did you and G Slimm work on it, did you rehearse parts of songs, achieve a track then another, and another, or you wrote the whole ( the beats i mean, not the lyrics), G Slimm would come, listen to one beat, write something, go in the booth and record? The entire album was probably created from start to finish within 4 or 5 months I would guess. Most of the time, we would continue working on instrumentals no matter who was the current artist we were working on. For example, we would be creating the music tracks with G-Slimm in mind and he would be at the studio almost daily to hear what we were creating and he might sit and write lyrics there in the studio or take a rough copy home on a cassette to continue writing but if we were to create an instrumental that he wasn't really feeling to fit him, it wouldn't matter because there was always 6 or 7 other artists or groups who would gladly scoop it up and begin writing their lyrics to use the song for their own CD. Nothing was ever really rehearsed but when an artist would be in the booth and recording their vocals, you could work out some little discrepancies on the spot by stopping the track and saying,"Put more emphasis on that last word." or "It sounds better when you do it a little more laid-back on that part.", etc... Generally, we'd always only record one song at a time so the artist could put all his attention on that one. To have an artist record 2 or 3 songs in one day could tend to make it a bit stiff or "formula" if you know what I mean. These days, it's not uncommon for a lot of the new young local rappers to simply download a bunch of instrumentals from different websites out there and then come to the studio and flip through their notebooks of lyrics and throw some verses on them and they're done. We used to really put a good amount of time and effort into the artists and songs but I don't hear that kind of dedication in many of the artists around these days. I'm not saying there aren't some but many of them just kinda' throw it all together and wonder why they haven't been discovered or signed to a major record label. I've said it before but I think a major difference is that a lot of so-called producers simply produce tracks whereas I like to produce the artist. How do you write in general? Do you sample something ( a guitar riff for example), add some bass, keyboards, drums, or you play the sample (for example "Funky worm" by Ohio Players or "Mothership Connection" by Parliament) with real music instruments ( i mean bass, guitars, drums, not just a computer) and use the result as you want, or you create something from nothing, a bassline, a drum pattern or a guitar riff or some keyboards, and then it leads you to something else and so on and at the end you have the music part? I talk about your work nowadays and also you work at Big Boy records back in the days.... Simply put: I like to use as much live instrumentation as I can and I never sample - ever - unless a particular sample is requested by someone I am working with. That's the way I've always done it and continue to do it today. I'll usually begin by creating a drum beat but sometimes I might start out with a guitar riff or keyboard chord progression and then build all the other instruments around the initial one. It may seem like a simple formula but no keyboard synthesizer or computer program can take the place of holding a real instrument in your hands - in my opinion. I've done a good amount of experimenting with computer programs like Acid and some others but mostly just for their looping and multi-track capabilities. Some instruments leave you no choice but to play them on a keyboard like if you want an orchestra-like section on your song with violins, cello, french horns, etc... (By the way, I was wondering - do you call what Americans call a "french horn" simply "a horn"? Hehee.) There was also DJ Precise in the Big Boy records staff, which was his role ? Did you work together? 11) Are there rappers, or singers you would like to work with? I've mentioned a good bit about him and his role in my answers to some of the other questions. Whenever possible, I choose to refer to him as the guy who was credited as the "producer" (in quotation marks). He's had enough of a life making money from the music we created while I still receive nothing so I avoid using his name whenever possible but basically he'd create or play a drum loop and I would create and play everything else. Rappers or singers I'd like to work with? I'd have to say guys like Jay-Z, Dr. Dre, The Beastie Boys (r.i.p. MCA), Kanye (sans the attitude) because I like people who aren't afraid to try new and different things in their music. I admire the innovators. People who like trying to mix it up a bit and incorporating other sounds into hip-hop music like heavy rock guitar riffs or odd-time signatures, progressive jazz chords and new age ethereal moods, etc... There are so many possibilities. Those are the kinds of things I've always tried to do when creating original hip-hop music. How would you describe Louisiana for foreigners, in general and about music scenes? I have to say that New Orleans is known worldwide as a kind of music mecca but in reality the music scene here probably 85% cover bands doing old blues and dixieland music or top 40 hits. The greatest thing about New Orleans is the food which has a lot of french/cajun seasoning and spices, etc... It's best to come to New Orleans and eat but musically its a struggle for anyone to make it out of here doing original music. If you had to compare yourself ( the way you write songs/music) to Cold 187um ( Above The Law), Erick Sermon, DJ Quik, Khayree, RZA, The Bomb Squad, what would you say? Of those you mentioned, I have to acknowledge DJ Quikk as someone I very much admire. From what I understand, he is a real musician and his rap tracks always showcase that too. Other than that, I really couldn't compare myself to anyone else because I think I have my own way of creating and the majority of my influences are musicians that most people have never heard of: Allan Holdsworth, Return To Forever, Mattias IA Eklundh, Steve Vai, Mike Patton, John Zorn, Frank Zappa, King Crimson, The Dregs, etc. I think that my influences being as they are has got to affect the way I think in terms of creating music and the fact that I do a lot of hip-hop and rap music wouldn't make a lot of sense to many people but there is so much great music out there. I don't understand how anyone can just listen to the radio as their main source for hearing new or interesting music. I think the majority of the greatest music and musicians out there will never be heard on the radio - which is a shame. What is David "D-Funk" Faulk up to nowadays? 14) Something to add? Struggling and trying to make it. Hehee. I'm currently working on my own debut solo CD of all original music featuring myself playing all the instruments. I have a website that needs some serious updating which will hopefully be completed by the time this interview is printed. Other than that, I'm still recording and producing other artists. I've been lucky enough to work with some great people since my Big Boy Records days. I produced a song for George Clinton with myself on all the instruments, did some assisting / engineering for Lenny Kravitz and Glenn Tilbrook (of Squeeze), recorded and mixed the artist Tricky for a remake of Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit" (Verve: Remixed) and some other things. I'm always looking to be involved with new and unique projects so if anyone your way is interested, these days it's easy to collaborate and create music by sending stuff back and forth through the internet. - David "D-Funk" Faulk DFunkFaulk@aol.com | MY WEBSITE - Divergent Recordings | (504) 296-1004

Sunless Friday...some rain too!

Et oui, FISHBONE était de passage dans cette charmante et culturelle ville de province que l'on nomme, Joey Joey Starr, mais j'ai pas fait 500 mètres que les...petit moment d'égarement..que l'on nomme Tours, plus exactement Chambray-les-Tours, la banlieue ouest ou nord ouest, sans Booba, Ali et les cohortes des Hauts de Seine, ce qui fait que le hiphop local ne repose pas en paix (en tout cas pas celui de basse qualité mais c'est une autre histoire...)..comme me l'a fait remarquer plaisamment un collègue d'instrumentations sonores, que gagnait-on avec le tarif plus élevé du "ticket"? Steeve O ou un autre clerc du Jackass crew qui surgit de sa boîte en disant "Got punked, mother f**ker!!!!" Enfin bon, Angelo Moore, Norwood Fisher et Cie étaient bien là, en rouge ( ça passe, Chambray n'a pas été colonisé par Snoop Dogg, Eastsidaz, Dogg pound, LBC crew, donc n'est pas encore un territoire CRIP :-)), en vedette américaine pour Mass Hysteria...on en reparle plus tard, et on salue le clavier ( funny guy, qui non seulement se permet de se moquer de moi, mais plonge de temps en temps dans la foule)..Red party at Chambray, fallait y être, j'espère que c'était le cas pour vous!!