Beats4Clothes x Ooloo: Interview

I first came across Josef of Beats4Clothes through the Odd Future kids and soon realized that they ran in the same circles and also produce(d) for Casey Veggies… all from the Los Angeles, California area. They caught my attention because they’re young, but doing things ahead of their time with music, and making a whole bunch of noise in the industry. So much noise that Mac Miller invited Casey & Beats4Clothes to hop on tour with him to open his West Coast shows. I decided to have a chat with Beats4Clothes to see what they were about and share it with you.

Check out the full interview with Beats4Clothes after the jump!

For those that don’t know, who is Beats4Clothes?
Dom: Beats4Clothes consists of Josef, Ryan, and Dom. We met in ‘08 at recording school and have been producing/mixing and making music together ever since.

How did the name Beats4Clothes come about? Do each of you have a specific role or specialty in the creation process?
Josef: Beats4Clothes started off by real life events that went down after recording sessions. We would record a few songs and get compensated with shirts, hoodies, tees. We were thankful to get rewarded that way cuz at that time something was better than nothing, and what’s better than getting hooked up with clothes? Music and fashion is awesome and something that everyone appreciates. One day I just told Dom, “Hey we might as well call ourselves Beats4Clothes because it’s what’s going on right now,” and we’ve stuck with it ever since. All three of us produce, but mainly all the tracks have been coming out from me and Dom. We were the ones who started producing first and Ryan came in the group as a lead engineer, but he also has fluent talent in producing and has a great ear for sounds. He also is responsible for putting together good melodies, and us finishing them.

How would you describe your sound? Is there a genre you’d classify yourselves under?
Ryan: I think it was hip hop that brought us together, and anytime we work together that mutual love comes through on several levels. As we’re growing as artists/engineers, our sound is becoming more original as we pull influences from all aspects of life, music, and culture.

You guys got to work on Casey Veggies’ recent project “Sleeping In Class”. How did you meet him and what is it like working with him?
Josef: We met Casey through Skeme. One day he just brought him to the studio to record a song off the “Amazing” beat Kanye put out. I knew of Casey since ‘07 and realized he had mad potential so to finally link up with him two years later was great. He is an awesome in-studio worker. He already has visions for most of the tracks he lays down and when he puts in work, HE PUTS IN WORK. Vibing with him on creativity is like MJ and Pippen lol. We helped him put out Customized Greatly Vol.2 back in 2009, had 3 tracks on there. Sleeping In Class was no different. Turned out to be an amazing original project. I love everyone who downloaded and got to listen to it.

What track(s) did you guys produce on “Sleeping In Class”?
Dom: We produced “Forever”, the intro of the project. Working with Casey is about as easy as it comes. When we work together the music just happens, that’s a huge credit to Casey’s ability to let us be us on every track.

Aside from Casey, what other projects have you guys worked since you’ve started?
Josef: We have worked on numerous projects with Skeme: Fuck the Radio Vol. 1 and Vol.2, Skeme of Things 2. Also for C-San’s I wanna work with Quik and California Wax Museum. Wax Museum was a good project for us cuz we finally got Dom Kennedy to hop on our track, been tryna do that for years. Just been grinding, tryna get the name out along with putting out good material. It’s a challenge but someone’s gotta do it.

Ryan: Can’t forget about one of my favorites to work with, Overdoz. Their creativity is infectious.

What do you think about the current state of hip hop? And the state of West Coast hip hop for 2011?
Josef: The current state of hip hop is still good to me. But when you talk about RAP, I feel as if folks that DON’T make music for the radio always turn out with the best material. Everything is so pre-meditated nowadays with lyrics and music, also very watered down. INDIE, in my opinion, is the route to take. West Coast is coming out with refreshing sounds that people aren’t used to hearing anymore. The artists speak about real life situations and events that are relevant with people in general, that’s why I think folks fuck with it so much. West Coast is good. LA got next for sure.

I definitely hear you on that, and I do believe LA got next after Pittsburgh at the moment haha. Unfortunately, for artists to make big money, commercial interests have to blend with artistic interests, so it’ll be interesting to see what happens to the music.

What is it you guys love about producing?
Ryan: I love the creativity and freedom that comes with producing. There is no right or wrong way to do anything as long as we’re being creative. Not everyone’s gonna like our stuff so it’s whatever makes us happy. Whatever we feel like represents us.

Josef: Same thing that Ryan said. The freedom of expression is what drives me to keep making and making. Creating things that I feel sound dope, not what someone else thinks. And to have people support you for being yourself is a gift in disguise. Producing gives a person a feeling of accomplishment and also a feeling that can get put to use in your music.

What is the Beats4Clothes creation process like, and how do you know if a beat needs to be scrapped after hours of creating?
Ryan: As far as producing it usually starts with me alone or Jo tries to beatbox. From there we each add in parts to fill space, or add moods. We all hear things fairly similarly, so the creative process can be easy. Songs are usually keeps or scrapped when we hear them the next day. If it takes us back to the same vibe we usually keep ‘em.

Josef: I scrap a lot of beats only if I don’t feel that beat knock on the tip of my spin. There are beats that are like “eehh, alright ok”, and there are beats where I’m just like, “Damn, did I really do that?” Those are the keepers and the ones that get saved for the best.

What equipment/software do you use?
Josef: I started off with a MPC 2500 and did my best to learn the ins and outs of the equipment, and still learning more about it as we speak. But now with all our equipment combined, you’re looking at a MPC 2500, Fantom-X6, Korg pad with Pro Tools, Logic, Cubase and Reason. Pretty much any piece of music equipment thrown at us we can make it work.

What advice would you give to producers getting into the game?
Josef: The best advice I can tell to another producer is the same advice given to me when I first started, and that was, “Don’t think you’re the shit.” Always know there’s always someone out there just as hungry as you are – or even hungrier – that wants to pass you up, so never settle thinking you’re the best, especially with no credibility. Stay true to your sound and yourself and continue to do YOU.

Let everyone know what they can expect to hear from Beats4Clothes in the near future.
Josef: It’s 2011 and me, Dom, and Ryan are working on our first group compilation project with everything produced by Beats4Clothes and it is titled “GoodForNothing”. Expect to catch all of LA on that tape.

Make sure you keep up with these talented dudes out of Cali, and look out for that GoodForNothing project dropping in the near future… that shit’s gonna knock. Shouts to Josef, Dom, and Ryan for taking time out to do this and I look forward to what the future has in store, for all of us. Much love to them for their support of Ooloo as well!

Now, let us all thank Based God… Amen.

Links: www.beats4clothes.com | twitter.com/NyCe_Sounds | beats4clothes.tumblr.com | myspace.com/beats4clothes