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This week I'm sitting down with a guy whose name might not be as famous as the records he made, but whose fingerprints are all over some of the most important hip hop of the last 35 years: Scotty Hard.
Scotty grew up in Vancouver on a diet of classical guitar, jazz camp and free jazz shows, then fell hard for punk, no wave and the Ornette Coleman school of harmolodic funk before Public Enemy's It Takes a Nation of Millions convinced him New York was the only place left to go. He landed at Calliope Studios — the 24-hour home base for the Native Tongues, De La Soul, Stetsasonic and Queen Latifah — with almost no formal engineering training, learning by the skin of his teeth on sessions that ranged from editing Tone Loc's mink-coat 900-number ad to filling in on De La Soul Is Dead when the regular engineer didn't show. That one shift turned into a decades-long run with Prince Paul, which led him into the orbit of Gravediggaz, RZA and the Wu-Tang Forever sessions, New Kingdom, the Stereo MCs and PM Dawn.
We talk about how he found his footing as the guy trusted to give creative input rather than just push faders, the eleven-minute Lisa Stansfield remix that became bigger than anyone in the room expected, and mixing the second Gravediggaz record and Wu-Tang Forever in neighbouring rooms at the same time — including the day RZA walked in and asked him what exactly he was doing in there. We also spend a good chunk of the conversation on his long, deeply loyal relationship with Ka, one of the most singular and uncompromising voices in hip hop, and on the accident that left Scotty with a spinal cord injury and how he's kept making some of the best music of his career since. We close out talking about his new record with Steven Bernstein, Ultra Resonance / Resonation Trio, which takes the hip hop chop-and-flip approach and applies it to acoustic jazz.
This is a long one and every minute of it is worth your time. Topics covered:
Growing up in Vancouver: classical guitar, jazz camp, and opening for Ornette Coleman
The no wave and punk funk scenes that pulled him toward New York
Landing at Calliope Studios and learning to engineer with zero formal training
His first-ever session: editing 2-inch tape for a Tone Loc ad
Getting the call to fill in on De La Soul Is Dead and starting his run with Prince Paul
Making beats on the SP12 and S900 synced to 24-track tape
Knowing when to offer a creative opinion and when to just be the engineer
The Lisa Stansfield "Been Around the World" remix that blew up bigger than anyone predicted
New Kingdom and being "too ahead of its time"
How Gravediggaz came together and meeting RZA
Mixing the second Gravediggaz record and Wu-Tang Forever at the same time in LA
What actually made Gravediggaz sound so dark and eerie
The challenge of mixing records you didn't record yourself
His parallel life in jazz: Teo Macero, Medeski Martin & Wood, and Sex Mob
Working with Ka on Days with Dr. Yen Lo and why Ka refused to compromise his art
Remembering Ka and the Legacy Open Studio celebration of his life
His car accident, his spinal cord injury, and adapting his life and work around it
Surprising mic choices that worked for rappers who didn't have "perfect" voices
His one piece of outboard gear he'd tell any beatmaker to buy
His new album, Ultra Resonance / Resonation Trio with Steven Bernstein
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