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* DO YOU TEND TO LIKE BEATS YOU BUILT YOURSELF AS OPPOSED TO SAMPLED BEATS?
A combination of both, I love to sample, that’s my sh*t, 96% of the time I make my own drum beat vs jacking a loop or something, I have old analog equipment and keyboards, so I'll play some keys out and I'm heavy on sound fx and tweaking noises.
* WHO ARE SOME OF YOUR FAVE PRODUCERS?
Some of my favorite producers are Pete Rock, Rza, DJ MUGGS, Diamond D, Madlib, Dilla, Havoc, Flying Lotus...ok now lemme tell you why Muggs is one of my favorite producers, well Rza too because sometimes simple is waaay more meaningful than being over complex, smell me?? A simple hard hitting melodic loop will have me zoned out for hours...
* HOW DO YOU KNOW WHEN YOU’RE FINISHED WITH THE BEAT?
When I call one of my peeps up like....."Ayooo? U gotta minute? See if you can hear this thru the phone...." Or, I’ll just start cheezin' ridiculous for no reason, dancing with my headphones on. I make lots of beats on the regular, definitely not everything gets used....but when I feel I got a banger, pssssh.....then I got a banger!
* HAVE YOU EVER MADE WHAT YOU FELT LIKE WAS A NIICE BEAT AND SOMEONE GOT ON IT AND DID IT NO JUSTICE?
Haha, ohh for sure....I made something that I thought was hella dope, and I was saving it for the right time, but I used to send beats out to my friends just to listen to or whatever, I was like 18-19 at the time, I had sampled the X-Files theme song...but I chopped it kinda lovely. Soo maybe 2-3 months later, this dude I didn't even fu*k with sent me the track back over AIM. I was heaaaaated....., shit was straight whack, I’m talkin....doodoo! I never recorded over the track till this day just because every time I hear the beat I wanna choke that dude out.
* DO YOU PREFER TO HAVE YOUR BEATS AS INSTRUMENTALS OR DO YOU LIKE TO MAKE BEATS FOR OTHER ARTISTS?
I definitely prefer to make instrumentals, I have a fetish for puttin out beat tapes....alot of my production is unorthodox, so not everything is rhyme friendly. However, it feels dope to have cats splashin over some Sime Gezus production!!
* WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT NEWER EQUIPMENT VS THE OLDER EQUIPMENT?
All my peeps tell me "daaamn, Sime you need some new gear!" And I always shake my head and say....."yeah....I know, I'm workin on it” But to tell you the truth, my setup is comfy for me...I got old wobbly turntables, 4-tracks, Acid Pro 7.0, drum machines, SP 606, about 4 old ass Casio’s but one is super dope....cuz its got a old school pitch blend knob in the back that tweaks the hell out of the sounds, mad records. New equipment has a much crisp/cleaner sound which I really like, but I like the grit you get off a 4-track tape as well, so it’s hard to say which is better or worse...me personally? I use both.
* HOW DID YOU GET INTO PRODUCING?
My shorty wop at the time, bought me some cheap ass beat program from Best Buy or Wal-Mart maybe.....or Kmart? Nahh...I can't remember but that’s not important, check it. The program was cheezy to say the least, but it sparked my head like oooooh! I can flip beats like this allllll day! Especially on a computer....it was cake! But let me rewind mad summers before that. I didn't have turntables, nor could afford them, I don't think I even had a keyboard....but I used to listen to 88.3 and 91.5 (DJ Toast) and all those DJ's were mixing and blending, I was like whaaaat?? Growing up my family didn't have cable, or MTV, BET etc, etc, so my older brother Bobby who was going to college at UNLV (back when they had Larry Johnson, Stacey Augmon, Greg Anthony, etc ,etc. mail us VHS tapes of BET Rap City, and just music videos, as well as tapes of everything poppin at the time. In 3rd or 4th grade I was on the bus rockin to K-Solo, Das FX, Chubb Rock, Heavy D and shit. Ok so check it, my parents are/were highly religious....and they always had tapes of church sermons, my friends that I grew up with also went to that church and their fathers were in the church as musicians, deacons, elders, and my father would preach every now and then as well. So just messin around, I would find the tapes and play them in this little Sony tape recorder thing....and I'd mess with the pitch blend and rewind it, and it sounded almost like a TT scratch/cut. That Christmas I got a Karaoke machine w/ a microphone. Aight, So I would play a tape of my boy Neil's father preaching...and I'd find a phrase that sounded crazy like "So trust in the lord and your spirit will feel more at ease etc." I put the microphone up to the Sony tape recorder, and then I'd play in instrumental of like The Roots off that Illadelphia joint....and then tape it on the other side of the Karaoke. A few months experimenting with that I was making all types of church slash underground tapes, yoo! I'm heartbroken cuz all those tapes are gone, and after a year of doin that sh*t I honestly had some dope experimental bugged out tapes! My church dudes loved that shit too! Sime Gezus all day, ya smell me??
* WHO/WHAT INFLUENCES YOUR STYLE?
Wu-Tang, music in general, and just life....and making what you can out of what you have.
* WHO ARE SOME OF THE ARTISTS YOUR HAVE WORKED WITH SO FAR?
Uhhh, a whole handful of cats.... when I was 18 I produced an album for my homey KIDDSTARR a Boston emcee, from there I haven't released a serious Sime Gezus project since I dropped Da Mixed Ape over the summer of 2010. But during that time from 2000 to now I've been in 3-4 different groups, hip hop and experimental acts....here I’ll name off a few GM, Scissor-Hands, Rawhead, Chorus Babblebones, Oddy Gato, Lobo, Midas, Babblebones, Spooky Orange Cats, Algorythm, Animal Cracker, Melvin Junko, El Sphinx, Nick Nice, Khil, Cose MP, Mr. Mcfeely, Freddy Freestyles, Nato Loc, Halle Gibson, Will Blaze, Sydefx, Mario aka Souleye, Scribe 1, Urthlingz, ....Osmel Alfonso, and on and on...
* WHAT IS SOMETHING YOU WANT PEOPLE THAT AREN'T FANS OF YOU MUSIC TO KNOW ABOUT YOU?
That I haven't really made sh*t as far as money off this music, I do it for the love #1. I've worked many dead end jobs, and I would love to make money off what I love to do. I'm gonna make music for the rest of my life even if you see me on the Rolling Stones or Source Mag, or if I’m working on Taco Bell when I’m 47 pissed off at the World, ....mannn, I just love to create, so you gon' have to deal with me. Big ups to all my underground hardcore crusty heads that do that just because!!!
* WHO TAUGHT YOU ONE OF THE MOST VALUABLE LESSONS IN LIFE?
My father..., cuz when I was 18 and just finished my first year of college and produced a CD for my mans, I was like psssshh are you serious?? By the time I’m 25 I’m gonna be famous, so when I came home I was straight chillin with my peoples, lightin trees up whatever whatever, hookin up wit chics at house parties you know.....and my dad was like "well you gotta start looking for a job" , I didn't say nothin for a minute, then said "A job? For what??" And pops said "You have to work, your gonna need money” and I laughed and said....."Yeah, I’m on my way to doing that, I wanna do music that’s what I do" and he was all like, "its not that easy, in the mean time you gotta find something to support the things your gonna need" and I was like .."Yeah..aight aight, sure can we stop at the store so I can get a soda??" And my pops just shook his head. Now guess what?? My dumb ass has a full time job in the union whatever whatever to pay for my apartment, bills, iphone, heat, gas, car insurance, student loans, etc etc...Food, taking chics to the movies whatever whatever, buyin records, gettin my computer fixed, puttin cd's out, ordering merchandise, T-Shirts, etc etc. So my lesson learned was "stay humble, and work your ass off"
* IF YOU COULD CHANGE 1 THING ABOUT YOUR LIFE WOULD YOU? WHAT WOULD IT BE? AND WHY?
I wouldn't have went to a music school, cuz everything I picked up and learned was from me puttin in work in the basement with headphones on pushin buttons and stuff, experimenting. I've always been a smart kid, not to toot my own horn but, I would have went to college for Business or History, got my lil' degree and "still" kept smashin music off on the side cuz like I said, music is something I’ll always find time for.
* WHY DO YOU LOVE MUSIC?
The music loves me, I’m just sayin.....
* WHAT ARE YOU TOP 5 MOVIES?
Glory (cuz my pops brought it home when I was a lil' smiley head and I cried for dumb long cuz it was that real!! Peace to Denzel!!) , Requiem for a Dream (cuz i was traumatized when a close friend went thru a similar bizarre situation) Rocky III (cuz my older brothers loved it, so I liked it just because...but now when I watch it, it’s like word! This truly is bonkers, smell me?) Fear and Loathing in LV (my college roommate Laird put me onto this....and it blew my mind, helped me relax a little bit, untuck the shirt some...and just breathe u kno?) Columbus (this is odd, this isn't even one of my favorite movies by all means.....but i'ma tell you why it actually is, ok? So my pops again, when I was little of course took me to the mall and then we were gonna peep this movie, well we were in a store and it was closing and my father was asking the manager or whatever what door we could go thru to walk thru the mall to get to the cinema, and the dude was being a dick....something happened and we had to go out the waaaay back, and it was pouring rain outside, and I remember my dad was heated and took his coat off and put it over me and was cursing.....my pops a preacher, so for him to curse it was kind of a big deal. He was basically telling me, don't let people play you over anything....race, age, creed, whatever whatever....so every time I see or hear of that movie I remember that night. Oh yeah....Ali was dope too, Rambo...
* IF YOU COULD PICK 3 ARTISTS PAST OR PRESENT TO WORK WITH WHO WOULD YOU PICK?
I would pick, Jimi Hendrix, Billie Holiday, and DJ MUGGS.
* WHAT ARE 3 THINGS YOU CANT LIVE WITHOUT?
Food, Underground Hip Hop, and a big butt with a smile......ya smell me??
* HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR STYLE COOL LAID BACK, INYOUR FACE, CONSCIOUS?
I would describe my style as conscious....but maaadd people say that my style is so laid back that it’s almost in your face. Haha, but really tho...I’m as laid back as laid back can be.
* WHAT DO YOU LIKE TO DO TO RELAX? (THAT YOU CAN TELL US ABOUT) = )
I used to be a big video game head, honestly I’m the best that ever did it when it came to some Nintendo Tecmo Bowl, and then they came out with the Tecmo Basketball joint....pssshhh....I’m the youngest in my family, and I ran thru my brothers and all their older friends eaaaasy!! Live 95 I was the champ, sheeit.....I was nice with Live until at least 99, wait wait, I was murkin all the dudes at college on Dreamcast mannn....don’t even get me started, I don't play video games much anymore but, I'll still give yall a run for your money. I like to just chill, watch ESPN, maybe the T.O. show or somethin, I rent movies and alla that. I can relax doing anything.....
* WHEN DID YOU REALIZE YOU LOVED MUSIC MORE THAN THE AVERAGE PERSON?
When the last 5 or 6 ex girlfriends kept saying "ALL you wanna do is music, you don't even wanna spend time with me SIMONNNN!!"
* HOW DOES THE BEAT COME TO YOU? I KNOW SOME PRODUCERS SAMPLE BUT LIKE YOUR OWN ORIGINAL BEAT HOW DOES IT COME TO YOU?
I usually fux with the drums first, something a little off beat but on beat around 92bpm's or soo.....throw a little highhat, and maybe a shake, then double the highhat with one having a higher pitch, maybe layer the kick drum with something real thick....I’m talkin thick like J-Lo in 2002, lil bass line....then the samples chop em' up, or play a little melody on the Casio, tweek it, loop it up, dig into the jazz bin, and find a smooth soul sample and flip that in reverse...Orrrrrr....I find the melody, sample and I’m like ooooooh.....I’ll just have that playin for awhile until I get the drums and bass to fit it.
(Peep http://www.simegezus.bandcamp.com/ : and check all the Gebralter Beat Tapes) so you can see what I’m talking about, smell me??
