SmartShanghai | Interview: Hamacide

Interview: Hamacide

By Morgan Short, Jun 24th, 2011 | In Nightlife

Hamacide’s music sounds like shattered and re-crystalized synths, pure clinical pulses, reverse-o vocals and guitar hooks on top of big, pounding, gated drums… all dunked in a twinkling but slightly dissonant psycho-delia. Kind of like the ethereal twisting into the reverb occult. Alchemical. It sounds alchemical.

Or at least to me anyways. These things tend to be pretty subjective.

His real name is Yusuke Hama and he’s an American producer/composer/musician newly relocated to Shanghai from New York. Tonight at The Shelter, he’s celebrating the pre-release of his new release: a full album of remixes featuring international producers bashing up and permutating his own 2010 album, “Might Little Machine”. It’s getting both a vinyl and CD issue, out of Fukuoka-based label, Oil Works. Appearing on it are people like Prefuse 73, Leblaze, Epstein, and more.

SmartShanghai talked to Hamacide about the new remix record -- "Might Little Machine Remix" LP -- plus the 2010 release, plus some general stuff.

But click on these links first: the Sub-Culture blog has a real great little intro and primer into his work. Lots of great sounds samples there. A great collection of streams of new stuff and older stuff.

Here is his main page. Here is his SoundCloud page. Here is his MixCloud page.

And then definitely this one: To help promote the show and the upcoming release on Oil Works, he’s giving away his discography for free for the next month here. Click here for that.

Don’t miss him at The Shelter tonight, playing alongside the Oil Works crew, coming in from Japan for the occasion.

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SmSh: Maybe to start with you could talk about this new release for Friday night.

Hamacide: Yeah, I put out this record “Might Little Machine” -- a full length -- in the summer of 2010, right before I came to Shanghai, in New York. Had a release party, and then three days later I came here. I had asked some people to do some remixes of the stuff on that record, but nothing really came of it because people were doing their own thing.

So I came here and the first show I played was Antidote with Himuro Yoshiteru headlining, and I talked to him about what I was doing. He suggested I put it out on Oil Works, and he introduced me to Olive Oil over email, and it kind of happened from there.

But yeah, it’s remixes of the 2010 release.

SmSh: Looking at the people involved, it’s a pretty diverse group -- Prefuse 73, Leblaze, Epstein -- how heavy of a hand did you have in the remixes? Did you set guide lines for what they could do and where they could go with the material?

Hamacide: Depends. Some of the guys wanted to choose their song and some were like, “I don’t care just give me one to do.” It was surprising, actually, because people choose songs and did stuff I wouldn’t have expected. I gave Prefuse one to do and he did something that was not beat-orientated at all.

But I was pretty fortunate to work with people who did stuff that I was very happy with. I would have been like “do this, do that”, but the stuff I got back was like “this is awesome”.

But I guess it’s a mish-mash of stuff. All the tracks are pretty different.

SmSh: To revisit the source material, how would you describe the “Might Little Machine”? That’s all your own productions right? Here’s the annoying question: if someone had never heard your stuff before, how would you describe it to them?

Hamacide: Yeah, yeah. Um… how do you do this without dropping a name and having people go “oh wow it sounds just like that actually…”

SmSh: Maybe we can just filter it down into a vague area… is it death metal?

Hamacide: [Laughs.] No it’s not death metal. It’s not doom metal… but there is some shredding guitar in it. Well, I don’t know. It’s like I had an iTunes playlist that I would play on the way to work, and I just mirrored that. Some hip hop songs, some bossa nova songs. But I can only do what I can do, so it’s cohesive in that way. Lots of people say it sounds kind of like Cornelius…

SmSh: I can delete that name if you want… if you don’t want to drop the name.

Hamacide: Yeah right… rhymes with… but wait then you can just use it in the description at the top…

SmSh: What sorts of compositional process were you and are you using to write your material. What kind of tools were you working with? You mentioned you were playing guitars… and what… Ableton?

Hamacide: At around that time I was trying to find a different process. A lot of times I would start off with a beat, play guitars, and find like a piano sample or something like that. But at that time I was starting to focus more on using Ableton along with guitars and keyboards. Kind of spastic in a way. Playing guitar, synths, which really molded the material in a way.

Just using what you have your disposal… but I guess it turned out beat-orientated.

SmSh: Are you composing music in Shanghai?

Hamacide: Yeah, but it’s been hard because I don’t have any of my gear. And I realize how much I like to -- well, even though beat making is a pretty solo process -- I realize how much I like working with other people. And it’s like the internet is so fucking slow here. Gotta get this file to this guy but it’s taking three days to upload…

SmSh: Yeah, I read that on your record released under the name Leyode, you were working with another vocalist but you never met up in person in the writing process… you did the whole thing over the internet with file transfers and separate recording…

Hamacide: Yeah, my first record in 2007. We actually lived ten minutes away from each other, walking. The singer is a friend of mine from Atlanta, but we just had conflicting schedules…

But it’s interested because if you’re in a band with someone in a room, you’re right there to criticize each other, but working this way you just send stuff over is like: “this is it. Do what you’re going to do.”

Just piecing it together.

A similar sort of thing was going on for the 2010 record, “Might Little Machine”. I was talking to some people, “alright, I’m not going to give you the drums -- just a click track and the chord changes” to like a folk singer. And it worked out that way.

SmSh: What’s sort of musical background and upbringing were you bringing to the table?

Hamacide: Well, I was always more of a rock kid and I grew up playing classical, and guitar… I like classic rock. Beach Boys… Zombies…

I guess I really am a rock person because I write “songs”. Rock or pop or whatever. Sixteen bar blues or whatever. It’s electronic drums but when people listen to my music, they hear the guitar and “wait is this a rock song? [Laughs.]

SmSh: You also have a background in classical music. How big of a role would you say that plays in the stuff you write these days? I find that when people come from that sort of early background, they revisit it later on in life...

Hamacide: Yeah, I think so. Definitely, in your teenage years or early 20s, I did not want to listen to another classical piece… but when you get older you can’t take that loud shit anymore and then that shit is pretty cool. Even playing guitar, it’s the technical aspects that play a role. Being able to pick stuff up by ear.

But also at the same time it hindered me at first. Lots of rules, you know… it’s confusing. Like Neil Young, I fuckin’ love Neil Young, but you’re thinking half these notes are wrong. I was wishing I didn’t learn all that stuff and see it that way.

Almost makes you want to unlearn.

SmSh: You’ve transitioned out into DJing. Hows that going?

Hamacide: Well, I haven’t been doing it that long. Did some in New York. But it was like, “I don’t have a band but I still want to play out.” And for my own stuff I have like six different people singing on my record so how can that work? So I started DJing the songs that I like. Just out of necessity, I guess.

And I’ve met a lot of cool people through it. We had a night at The Shelter called Beat Conductors, which was more of a hip hop kind of thing. Me, SIG, Ceezy, Kyle… but they’re all better DJs that me. [Laughs.] I just play the songs I like…

SmSh: Speaking of local music, what’s been your impressions of Shanghai and music in China, as someone who just moved here fairly recently?

Hamacide: Well, it’s taken me a while to find stuff I guess. You don’t know where anything is, and you go to some place random and “shit this is terrible”, but I’ve been fortunate to hear some stuff. I like Little Punk’s stuff, although I don’t know too many bands. A few beat makers around, mostly on the hip hop tip. SIG, Ceezy, ROM guys -- they seem to be going with it.

SmSh: What sorts of music in general are you listening to these days? New, old… are you active in trying to follow new music outside of China?

Hamacide: Well, I find myself listening to stuff I was listening too back in New York. That last Grizzly Bear record I really liked. Bear in Heaven. Pretty awesome… Toro Y Moi. Little Dragon.

In terms of new music, it’s hard and I don’t really keep it going. You sort of take it for granted in the States.. but yeah, you can’t blame anyone but yourself. Finding new music, you have to make it a priority for yourself.

SmSh: Back to your record, what formats are you releasing it on?

Hamacide: It’s on vinyl. Not too sure how many -- 300 or 400. And then a month after that, they're going to put out a CD version which will include more… Demon Slayer, Caliph-8, mostly the Japanese guys that the Oil Works people work with, and then some people from New York I got to be on it.

SmSh: Oil Works -- the guys coming in from Japan to play -- maybe you can introduce them a bit. What sorts of stuff do they play?

Hamacide: Oil Works is based out of Fukuoka, Japan, and they’re kind of like the big crew there. They kind of have their hand in everything. They do visual art, music production, DJing, a lot of merchandise apparently.

I guess you would say they’re in that whole abstract hip hop scene -- down tempo, kind of heavy. But they’ve been doing their thing for at least ten years now I think. I’m really excited to see them live. I’ve only heard their records.

SmSh: What next? What sorts of projects are you working on?

Hamacide: Right now, I’m doing an album with one of the guys from the last record -- a folk singer from Michigan. A full length. Right now, I guess I’m all based around a computer because it’s what I got. But I’m going back to the States and I’d like to bring some gear.

So once this is over, I’ll get back into it full force.

***

Hamacide plays tonight at The Shelter, joined by Oil Works from Japan and hosted by Sub-Culture. Details here. And click here for Hamacide's discography.

Tagged: The Shelter Interviews Event Previews