An Exclusive Interview with Blockhead

Don’t let the fresh face fool you; Tony “Blockhead” Simon goes by a lot of names, but the only thing that matters right now is “The Music Scene”, his newest album slated for release in November. Blockhead has worked with names in Hip Hop such as Aesop Rock, Murs, Slug, Mac Lethal, S.A Smash, and more.

Blockhead takes time out of his busy schedule to speak with me.

FH: I wanna thank you for your time, first off.

Blockhead: Oh, no problem.

FH: What were you and Wilder workin’ on? A remix, correct?

B: Yeah we did a remix  of “go there with you” for Chin Chin‘s new album and he played vocoder on my new album that’s coming out in November.

FH: And Chin Chin’s album is out already?

B: Yeah, for sure.

FH: Wilder was telling me their performing with TV On The Radio tomorrow…

B: Yeah yeah, that’s awesome, I know.

FH: You were saying that you were working with vocalist Joanna Erdos, who’s in the group The Midnight Show, and then her Jeremy Gibson, and you are making an album together. How is that coming along?

B: Yeah it’s coming along. There’s a lot of stops; you know, the process is start and stop a lot because her and Jeremy work a lot; I mean, they both have normal jobs so its been hard to get stuff together and we actually lost some versions of songs we had cause of a crashed hard drive, so we’ve had to start over. But we’re in the process of getting together 8-12 songs. We have a bunch of stuff written, just need to record at this point.

Blockhead- left, DJ signify -right

FH: When you perform, are you primarily using Ableton Live now?

B: Yeah, my live performance is pretty much strictly Ableton Live and I have a DJ with me, usually. I did a festival in Oregon a couple weeks ago and my DJ was sick and couldn’t travel with me, so it was just me on stage with a laptop..it wasnt as much fun (laughs). It just looks like I’m up there checking my email, you know? (laughs)

FH: Haha, yeah. Well at least you got the program mastered now..

B: Well the things I use them for I’m real good. That’s kinda how I am with equipment; I lock down what I need to know about it and I get really good at that and I totally ignore the rest of it. My ableton skills are really tight in some ways, and theres probably tons of easy shit that I dont know how to do. that’s just kinda how I roll with equipment (laughs).

FH: Tell me, when was the first time you laid eyes on what is still your production workhorse, the ASR-10?

B: Uhhh…94? I got my sampler in 94, early 94- late 95 I think? Long time ago! (laughs)

FH: Yeah; and that thing weighs 80 pounds?!

B: It’s heavy as shit, yeah.I’ve kinda given up on moving it. That’s one of the good things about ableton. I can put files into that and do everything off my computer now as opposed to bringing my sampler to studios. With a carrying case its a good..70-80 pounds.

FH: Wow. What can our audience expect to hear from “the music scene”? You were saying..more downtempo, but will it be another Music by Cavelight?

B: Well it’s not gonna be anything like..it’s all instrumental stuff, it’s all sample based, it’s the same kinda music obviously. But I never really try to make an album again cause it’s different times in my life. This album is different cause I use Ableton on it and whereas on older albums I would take one main beat and build off that into one whole song, in this album I took 3 different beats at a time and mashed them together into this one overall track that’s constantly changing. There’s no 8 bars on the album that are alike, its transforming the whole time. Not in a haywire, “what the hell is going on”? kinda way, but you know, evolving. Every part of the song evolves so the beginning and end sound nothing alike. and it’s cool! I really like it, it’s kinda what my live set is like.

Without sounding too corny, there’s a “journey” aspect of it, not the band’s (laughs) but your just kinda traveling through these songs since they definitely shift so much.

FH: You ever seen joey beats perform?

B: I know joey but I’ve never seen him perform. I know he makes dope beats.

FH: Oh hell yeah dude. I ask cause I think he has two 606 samplers up there just loopin’ em and shit. In your laptop set would you use a sampler at all,or ever want to use one?

B: Not really, I’m very minimal in my approach. It took me years to even get something that wasn’t the ASR-10, I got ableton so I could tour with it then I start messing with it and find out I could use this to make beats! Or I could use it to enhance my beats. I still make everything on the ASR, then I’ll push it over to Ableton to add stuff to it. But yeah, I’M real lo-fi and I dont learn very well so I dont really like new equipment; don’t have too much room in my apartment for it.

FH: You still hold it down, man.

B: Yeah, thanks man.

FH: Would you ever do an album with the emcee on the occasional song?

B: I guess I would but because I’ve done both, I don’t see a problem in separating them. It’s funny cause I was talking to Wilder yesterday and hes the first vocalist I’ve ever had on any instrumental album and granted, I did it cause it’s  a  robot voice so it’s ok (laughs).  Like, it didn’t really bother me since hes on the vocoder. I don’t know though, I figure I might as well do one or the other, like I would do an album with a ton of different emcees on it and two instrumentals on it, than I would than one with 8 instrumentals and two rappers on it cause..what I’ve found over the years are people who listen to instrumental hip hop are very different from people who listen to normal hip hop.

I never really considered it before I made the music but I was like “oh wow, that’s a totally different fan base” you know like, European people. (laughs) A lot of them don’t really wanna hear rappers, you know what i mean? So you know keeping the two separate and you know and its also two different kinds of beats. It’s a very different process to make an instrumental song than a song with a rapper on it.

FH: How has blogging at Def Jux been for you?

B: It’s fun man, you know. (laughs) It’s all stuff I’ve written already. I have a personal Myspace page and I just had a blog when I wrote whenever I felt like it. There was probably like, 80 people that read it, but it was just for fun, like for my friends and stuff. I guess def jux got wind of it and was like, “why don’t you put it up here”?  But it’s usually stuff that was written a long time ago, it’s rarely stuff fresh off the presses you know?

FH: Yeah. Shit’s funny though. I’m friends with you on myspace and I sent you, one day, this blend i did, I put “carnivores unite” over ludacris’ “stand up.”

B: Oh really? (laughs)

FH: Yeah, I was proud of it so I think I posted a link on your page.  People were diggin’ it so..

B: Oh,  I don’t think I got it, it sounds fun though. Did you send it a long time ago?

FH: Yeah it was a while ago..

B: It’s funny if it’s a personal message, I don’t read most personal messages. if it’s any “HEY CHECK THIS OUT” kinda thing, I just don’t even bother cause I get so many of those; it’s usually spam or some guy trying to sell me his mixtape, so  I pretty much ignore it unless it seems like its from someone who seems like their not related to that.

FH: Would you ever leave New York?

B: To live?  No, I don’t think so. I don’t drive first of all, I’ve never driven a car in my life, so that kinda limits where I can go. But there’s no place like New York and I’ve been all over America. I’ve been to a lot of Europe, I’ve been to Canada, even Australia. I like Australia more than most places in america but New York is by far the best place I’ve ever been. I’m biased obviously but I can’t imagine living anywhere else.

FH: Will we even get to hear the final result from that pop singer you worked with?

B: Oh, probably not. It’s funny, that post was written a couple months ago. Since then she’s changed her name; I only have a really rough take of one of the songs. I totally fell out of contact with all of them since I was kinda fed up and didn’t wanna deal with it anymore. But apparently there’s a bidding war for her between major labels right now.

FH: Damn.

B: Shes really talented, and there’s no reason why she shouldn’t be famous. But I will have nothing to do with that. I don’t mean”I’m beyond that”, but I’m not invited to the party (laughs). But yeah when she comes out, you know.. throw it up there but if she doesnt come out..she’s.. I got no personal beef with her at all or the guys that work in the studio. Everyone was really cool, it was just one of those “man, so this is whathappens to music huh?” Ick!

FH: Yeah, tell me about it!

B: But it was nothing personal. It was just a bummer pretty much.

FH: Well you get your shine too. You were on MTV’S “I’m Trying To Help”!

B: (laughs) Well I mean at the time MTV was doing this thing where they spotlighted a new artist every week. Usually it was an artist that had a pretty big indie following that they wanted to expose to a larger audience and it was actually a cool thing to do and very Un-MTV of them. It wasn’t political at all, we had total creative control. They were trying to think of funny things for us to do cause the week before it had been like..I don’t know like, Common or something? You know a lot of people were doing skits and live performances and they were trying to think of something for us to do and they came up with this public access show idea.

Aesop and I used to be on this public access show in N.Y, and I think he wanted me to be on it with him cause we know each other really well and could improvise off each other, kinda like a sidekick character. So yeah it was a good experience! There was a big backlash about it, but people dont seem to understand that stuff like that is not always the worst thing in the world (laughs). People are so wound tight about the idea of selling out when in reality selling out is something totally different than that. Selling out is when you change what you do to appaease to a different crowd, or appease to your audience even though your going against everything you believe in. Getting on MTV isn’t selling out, that’s just getting great publicity. And I think that a lot of people didn’t understand that.

A lot of people hold Aesop sacred to their hearts and their just like, “MTV, how could you?!” but they watch The Hills..the fuck are they so mad about? (sighs)

FH: Haha, that’s spot on though. Phonte from Little brother made a similar post about this…

B: Oh really? Yeah you know..get mad when the music is bad. If the music falls off you can complain all you want. If you still like the music, or  if you dont like the music because someone’s on MTV, regardless of what the music sounds like, your kind of a fairweather fan anyway!  If your like ” they were on MTV, they’re sellouts”, and you dont listen to their album because of that, thats more of your problem than the artist’s problem.

FH: In five years what obstacles do you see your music and your persona overcoming, if any?

B: 5 years? Well sample clearance (laughs). Sample clearance has been the bane of my existence for my entire career but it’s only getting worse now cause it’s so hard to get away with to me. To me that’s the end all of what will be the problem. And the direction music is going into is a direction I’m not into. I dont like anything new, I haven’t for like, 5 years. Every now and then there will be a song, but there’s nothing interesting being made right now. But I figure to keep moving forward and making music that I like, and hopefully some people might agree with me. It’s hard, you know? With each generation there’s a new thing you gotta do and a new craze. Some of it will stay, some will be a flash in the pan. It’s like riding waves you know? Not much you can do about it, but thats the problem. So five years yeah, its gonna be hard when im 38 and making beats.

The idea of making beats into my 40′s is a daunting one.

FH: Is there another career choice you’d wanna do? Maybe bring back the rapping? (I’m kidding)

B: Ha yeah, that’d be funny…I’d still love making music and I don’t see myself stopping that. It’s just in five years I don’t know what the music world will hold for me as far as whats popular and what people wanna hear; I just dont know. And I’m not really trained  to do anything else. I like writing blogs, I like fuckin’..making beats! (laughs). I like to play basketball but I’m not really going pro anytime soon. It’s one of those things I just see what happens, just stick with it until I don’t wanna do it anymore.

FH: First thing that comes to your mind when you hear the word “autotune?”

B: Terrible.

FH: Do you know if Regina Spektor has ever heard your “Fidelity” remix?

B: I believe she has. I didn’t know that till recently, actually. The person that hooked me up with that singer girl that I did that “might get signed, might not get signed”  blog about, was Regina Spektor’s manager. It was because of that remix that he thought it might be cool that I work with this girl. So Regina Spektor has heard it, I just dont know if she liked it. It’s definitely a lot different from her version. I know that they initially didnt put it out cause it was too depressing, but that’s kind of the point of a remix right? To change it?

FH: I love how it hit that mood. I don’t know if I’ll ever hear it on a Greys’ anatomy epsiode though..

B: (laughs) Maybe when someones dying on Grey’s anatomy..

FH: Exactly!

B: Or a breakup. But I think she has heard it

FH: Would you ever do video blogging?

B: I don’t have a camera, so probably not. (laughs)

FH: Oh, that’s all that’s holding you back!?

B: No, I prefer..if I’m gonna blog, I prefer to write stuff. I’m much more lucid when I’m writing than I am when I’m talking so I like to give it a chance to think my thoughts out clearly.

FH: Favorite in studio moment with Aesop Rock?

B: The ones I remember the most is before anything mattered, and before it was about getting a record out. We were working off a digital  8 track. It was fun, it was a low pressure situation; we’re making like, float and labor days, it just wasn’t that serious, and those were the days. Some of the most un tampered  music I’ve ever made. Literally two 21 year old dudes making music that they love making, without any pressure from the outside world, which was nice.

FH: He lives in SF, right?

B: Yeah. He got married, lived there for a couple of years now.

FH: Describe your relationship with the late Camu Tao.

B: Mu’ and I were boys. You know, Mu’ was always really close friends with Aes, and those guys would come to my house back when Aes lived in Brooklyn, and we would joke around. He was a funny dude, nice guy. Kinda like a life of the party kinda guy. He was a great dude.

FH: How did writing for the T.R.O.Y blog come about?

B: I’m on their website message board for Philaflava,and it’s this really funny message board there’s a lot of really funny people on there. It’s a good place to waste a lot of time, there’s a bunch of different types of message boards within the overall page of the Philaflava board. One of them is this T.R.O.Y board where it’s all basically dedicated to golden era Hip Hop and people post up albums, and you can download em, discuss albums and stuff like that. I got on that and fuckin’ went nuts cause I’m a late 80′s to late 90′s guy. That’s what I love as far as Hip Hop goes.

So I started posting shit and they asked me to be a part of it, and I was for a couple months of it but then I ran out of stuff to give them cuz there’s only so much hard to find material that I have and could supply them with before I was tapped dry. But it was fun and that blog is amazing. It’s a lesson in hip hop like very few hip hop sites will give you. And most of its just great.

FH: Yeah I saw your post on the Omar Epps video, I was like “what the…buggin’ out man!” (laughs)

B: Haha yeah toward the end I was running out of the rare material so I just started going for the bizarre material, you know? (laughs)

FH: If there’s one hip hop song out there you heard and went “Damn, I wish I produced that?!” What would it be?

B: Hm..that’s a really hard question. Of all time?

FH: Of all time. Anything from the golden age..anything.

B: Man..I have no idea (laughs) theres so many that I wish..I tell ya, I wish I produced the whole 1st Black Sheep album.

I lend it more to albums cause just one song..there’s no way I could pick just one song but..the 2nd Jungle Brothers album:

And the 2nd NWA album:

Those albums to me are so immaculately produced. In an era where you didn’t have the equipment you have now, it boggles my mind how well made those albums were. Like what they did on the Black Sheep album, I can’t…they didnt even do it with a sampler, they did it with 8 second samples on a mixer and they’d match samples and they layered..they did stuff that people with great equipment now couldnt do, and that album is the shit.

FH: Concerning your post about Q-tip once giving you the half-assed handshake in the 90’s..had a similar experience at Rock The Bells last year. I wasin line to get the native tongues chapter of my VIBE hip hop book signed, and while Phife and Ali Shaheed signed, when it came to Tip he had this“what the fuck is this” look on his face. Not the friendliest guy I figure.

B: It’s funny at the time when I was younger I thought it was because I was white cause it was me and a black guy and he gave the black dude, who was as much of a stranger as I was, a real pound. And he gave me the wet noodle handshake, but you know..I know tons of white guys who know Q-tip.

(laughs)

FH: Why don’t we ever see you at Rock The Bells? Your just more of a behind the scenes producer?

B: Yeah I’m behind the scenes definitely. I don’t DJ, so I would have to be with a rapper. It’s not really my scene; I don’t even like live shows that much. I don’t like going to them, i don’t like being at them, I’d rather be performing than going to see one.

FH: I just think you need a good beer Block, some friends to kick it with..get you out there!

B: (laughs) yeah I hate to sound like the oldest person alive, but I’m just too old for that shit. I’m too old to be sittin’ around with a bunch of 22 year old kids, you know? I just dont care.

FH: So your first boob signing, that was ..great!

FH: Any more since then?

B: I’ve signed like, maybe three boobs (laughs). I haven’t been on tour enough to sign a lot of boobs but there’s one pair I signed that were the most immaculate awesome pair of boobs ever.

FH: yeah that first pair was…oooo…

B: Yeah, great picture right? (laughs)

FH: dude,you should have kept that number! Where did you meet her at?

B: I think Detroit? Nothing ever came of that though, go figure.

FH: Now aren’t you doing a weekly set at…

B: Oh it’s this place called Anchor and it’s not a set as much as me and my friend DJ’ing and playing songs, there’s no skill set being brought to the table; it’s like a party that we throw.

FH: I mean, Odd Nosdam does that in Berkeley all the time so..

B: I’m willing to bet he gets to play much better music than I do. The crowd there dictates a lot of what we play and it’s definitely not what I’d like to be playing most of the time. Until like, 2:30 AM and people start clearing out a little bit, then I get to play what I want, but before that it’s dancey 80′s and 90′s and a little bit of new shit. It’s not what people think; people go there like, “well when are you gonna play your songs?!” and I’m like, “there will be nothing remotely like that here.” (laughs) I mean, ideally I’d like to play nothing but old soul music but you can’t have that kind of night in New York.

FH: Not even any Curtis Mayfield or anything?

B: It depends. If people aren’t dancing and their just chillin’, I’ll play that shit all night. But once people start dancing and requesting horrible music it N kinda changes the whole vibe. There’s a blog I did about DJ’ing but its very..that shit rings true. It gives you an exact idea what I’m talking about.

FH: Now is that gig paid?

B: Yeah it’s like a job, weekly gig. Some spending money, cash. It’s selling out, but the best selling out (laughs). Me playing that kinda music..I mean granted I wont play any Lady Gaga, I’ve never played a Madonna song, but..definitely playing some Janet Jackson, Bobby Brown, stuff like that.. you know? Stuff I dont hate.

FH: Stuff you wont kick yourself over after your done?

B: (laughs) Exactly.

FH: Any plans on an instrumental 7″ record with anyone? Maybe with Signify?

B: Signify and I are working on a bunch of songs together. We don’t know what we’re gonna do with them. If we’re gonna release, maybe a 7″ or maybe a little EP together,  but were definitely workin’ on stuff. And Signify..I did a couple tracks on his last album, and he did a track on my new album. Signify and I have a good working relationship.

FH: Good shit. I still need to check out Signify’s newest album “Of Cities”

B: Oh yeah it’s good man, and Aesop is on it and he killed it. There’s two joints and he fuckin’ murders em

FH: Well, that’s all I have for now Tony!

B: That was pretty thorough!

FH: Thanks man I try to do the best. Thanks a lot for your time man, take care and keep it funky!

B: (laughs) alright man I’ll try! Peace.