What a treat!
Yet another special guest FiLMiX for you, from Funkmammoth, a DJ/Producer from small town Nebraska and student at Iowa State University. Digging through dusty records at local thrift shops and record stores, he uses old Soul, R&B, and Easy Listening samples and flips them into something he refers to as “Elevator Beats”.
The mix –
Flamingosis – Not Like The Others
Childhood – We Bad
tomppabeats – One Two Step
Funkmammoth x Bonus Points – Clean Break
Brock Berrigan – The Waiting Game
jinsang – waiting.
Vanilla – Wishiknew
mtbrd – Girl Next Door
eggglub – Glubglub
Bonus Points – Been Too Long
constrobuz – Stbb 529
Saint Pepsi – Mac Tonight
Shag – My Mind
Funkmammoth – Everytime I See You
Funkmammoth – Birds Play The New London Orchestra
The film –
Muppet Treasure Island (1996)
We had a quick chat with him too –
When did you start producing and what or who were your early passions and influences?
I started messing around with GarageBand in grade-school. Obviously is was real crappy stuff, but that evolved into using Ableton doing simple edits and mashups of tracks. Usually just putting a beat to like a Legend of Zelda song I liked haha.
I got into electronic music when I was 8 or 9. I listened to a ton of Röyksopp, Avalanches, Daft Punk, a lot of those big names in the early 2000’s. That progressed into a love for Jackin’ House and French House which all influenced my music.
What makes music and film interesting for you?
I like stuff with a lot of depth. Stuff you can watch or listen to multiple times and still not get tired of it because you pick up on something new each time around.
What do you usually start with when preparing for a new track?
I almost always just start off with a sample that fits a mood or vibe that I’m trying to convey. To get my samples I go to a local thrift shops or record stores and pick up old vinyl records. The more obscure the better, I typically try not to pay more than like $3 or $4 for them. Then I thumb through the LP’s and record anything I think I’ll be able to use and just kind of stock pile a bunch of different samples that I can pick and choose from.
Great FiLMiX by the way. Can you talk about the process? How did you select the tracks, decide on a theme?
I’m glad you liked it! I typically do my mixing via my Pioneer DDJ-SR, but for convenience’s sake, a lot of it was made via Ableton Live on a plane ride to London with the guy in front of me’s seat pressed up against my knees. So I’m glad it ended up alright haha.
I basically picked out tracks from some of my favorite artists right now. Guys like Vanilla, Flamingosis and Brock Berrigan are huge influences to me and basically everyone else in the Instrumental Hip Hop scene, so of course I had get them in there.
And why did you choose Muppet Treasure Island as your film? Are you a fan?
My brothers and I used to watch Muppet Treasure Island back in the day. I actually think we wore out the VHS lol. There are so many great lines and it’s one of the few children’s movies that’s legitimately funny. In my mind there are three simple ingredients to a fantastic movie: Muppets, some treasure, and an island.
What films are you into? What are your favourites?
Currently, most movies I watch are old horror flicks with my buddies. I’m not a big fan of getting scared so I usually try to get them to watch more campy ones like Army of Darkness, Jason Goes to Manhatten, Creepshow, that kind of stuff.
Some of my favorite movies of all time though are The Big Lebowski, Dazed and Confused, Jurassic Park, and most recently Everybody Wants Some. I love that one. Basically no plot. Just dudes in 1980 being dudes. Awesome.
Do films influence your producing at all?
Every once in awhile I’ll see a film that inspires me to make a beat. Everybody Wants Some and Dazed and Confused are good examples of that. Just the overall retro vibes from those movies are right up my creative alley. In addition to that, whenever I’m watching a movie I’m listening lines that can sample.
Anything coming up in the future?
For sure! Some fun collaborations I’m really excited for, as well as releasing a new EP in the summer. It’ll hopefully run like one continuous mix, kind of like an Avalanches album. I’m jam packing it with a bunch of little samples and trying to make it almost like a conceptual EP, where there’s a little bit of a story that goes along throughout. Should be a lot of fun!
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