Interview And Free Downloads | Mecca:83

Last week we gave you a couple of free tracks from Manchester based producer Mecca:83 and thought we should all find out a little more about him so here we go . . .

Evan, tell us a little about yourself . . .

I’m from Macclesfield which is just south of Manchester…I’m 27 and I make beats!!

So what was it that first inspired you to make music? Any artists that stand out?

The thing that stands out most is A Tribe Called Quest’s “We Got The Jazz”. I heard that for the first time on a skate video (i still skate!) when I was about 13 and it just blew me away. Before that all I’d heard was the likes of Vanilla Ice and Mc Hammer.

Myself and two friends went to HMV to hunt down that track. When we got there they had 3 Tribe CDs: Low End Theory, Midnight Marauders and Beats Rhymes & Life….I ended up buying Beats Rhymes & Life after about 20 minutes or arguments about who should buy which CD. I pretty much taught myself to produce by trying to copy those tracks.

……Dilla?

Without a doubt! I learnt a lot from listening to Jay Dee beats. Dilla was one of those rare people who was always a step ahead of everyone else. If you listen to his beat cds from 2004 – or certain tracks on the Jaylib album – he was already on that electronic offbeat sound…way before the beat scene even really existed. I’d love to know what Dilla would make of the the beat scene if he was still around.

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Download: Mecca:83 – Thanks Jay

Tell us about the equipment you use . . .

I’ve literally just switched to Ableton Live after using Cubase for over 5 years. Having used most sequencers I’d highly recommend Ableton: it’s just so quick for getting ideas out of your head and into a project.

Aside from that I also use an MPC200, SP404 and couple of synths like the Moog Phatty…..and lots of records of course!

I heard you met Deborah Jordan on Myspace and that helped you get your music out and heard, how did that encounter come about?

Well I got briefly signed in 2006 to a label called Digisoul. I was doing some production work for Replife, who was also on the label at the time, and he happened to be working with Deb. I think Rep had passed on some of my music to her & she got in touch about working on her first solo record. I travelled to London to meet Deb and the folks at Futuristica Music quite a few times over the next 12 months and eventually Si @ Futuristica asked me if I’d like to put out some music with them. I owe those guys a lot.

How do you see sites like Bandcamp and social networks like Twitter changing how music is distributed and how people discover new music?

On a personal level I think it’s great. Being able to put out a project like Life Sketches on my own terms and keeping tabs on how many people are checking out is awesome. The “name your price” function on bandcamp is cool: to be honest my only directive with music is reaching people, so if someone wants it for free then i’d rather they grabbed it from my bandcamp than a random download link.

I get the other side though: there’s so much music out there right now that it can be really difficult to dig out the good stuff. I think the blogs help with that side of things though: my general rule is if I see it posted on 10 different blogs when the odds are it’s pretty dope.

The only real downside I see to it is physical sales. It’s pretty much impossible for a low level artist to press 1000 cds and sell them nowadays. 5/10 years ago it was all good, but now it’s not really an option for indie artists. It’s not really the money side that worries me, i’m not interested in making a living out of this really. It’s just that in 20 years when i’m telling someone I put out a project there probably won’t be any record of it!

Whats your view on the beats scene? There seems to be so many beat tapes sites out there that it is impossible to keep up, can it last?

To me the whole “beat scene” (has it even got an official name yet?!) is a bit of a two sided coin. There’s people who are making instrumental music & people who are putting out beat tapes: To me that’s two seperate things. I do make beats for emcees, but when I put out an instrumental project it’s meant to be listened to as an instrumental piece on it’s own merits.

I think a lot of people see the two things as the same, but there’s a massive difference between people like Elaquent or Mike Slott doing instrumental records and X producer putting out a compilation of beats for sale.

We featured a couple of your instrumental hip hop tracks the other week but I know you make other styles as well, tell us a bit about that . . .

I also make music as “Rise”…..I guess the best way to describe it is sampled jazz music. There’s a lot of Hip Hop elements in there, but it tends to veer away into different tempos quite drastically.

I’ve always been a massive jazz fan but I considered myself solely a Hip Hop artist for a long time. Then I did a track called “Messages” in 2007 which ended up being a 7″ on Futuristica. It struck me at that point that it was possible to make a sort of “Jazz” music with samples, and that it didn’t necessarily have to be Hip Hop based. A lot of experimentation, sweat & tantrums later I found my feet with it and ended up putting out a full jazz album, also called “Messages”, earlier this year on Futuristica.

Any artists at the minute doing it for you? Who should we keep an eye out for?

I say this everytime the question comes up, but i LOVE Blu. His lyrics & flow are ridiculous…

Bobby Blunt is one to watch this year, he’s one seriously talented guy. My man Jesse Futerman is also one to watch: he’s got some ridiculous tracks coming out this year.

On the beat scene, I still think that RLP is one of the most underrated producers out there. Love that guy’s beats.

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Download: Mecca:83 – Harbour Lights

Whats your ultimate plan regarding your beats? Where is your sound going? Whats the next step?

I guess really i’m trying to find a balance between the more electronic style of beats and straight hip hop. Producers like Elaquent do a great job of incorporating the best elements of both.

I’m working on a ton of projects at the moment so i’m definitely keeping busy. I’ve got the “Alexis Davis” project coming later in the year, which is a group project between Replife, Spinnerty, Simon S & Myself. I’m also just starting work on an EP with Jesse Futerman who is a dope producer form Canada who i’m really looking forward to working with.

Aside from that I’ve got a few production credits looming, hopefully a Mecca:83 vinyl release…and maybe some new Rise music if I get enough time!

Any advice for readers just starting out?

Decide why you’re making music. If you’re doing it because you enjoy it then just have fun. Don’t let anyone tell you that you should sound like x producer or that you should’ve flipped that sample differently. Just do your thing.

There were probably tens of people who told Samiyam or Knxwledge to quantize their beats…but they were wrong!

You can connect with Mecca:83 below . . . Thanks again mate!

http://www.solarsoundsystem.net
http://www.facebook.com/risehiphop
http://www.soundcloud.com/Solar-Sound-System
http://www.twitter.com/solarsounds