Arts the Beatdoctor
“I like how the whole doctor thing brings a little lightness to my music, which is pretty serious and melancholic. But we don’t take it too seriously - no coats, masks or things like that on stage. Although I do cut my samples with a scalpel…”
Arts the Beatdoctor is anything but predictable. Given his apparent reticence and and eagerness to hide behind his rather brilliant persona (I’ve got a lot of time for anyone that fits a pun into their name – Arts being Dutch for doctor) I expected to have to speak to him via codenames in a deserted park at night. Instead, he turns out to be a friendly, funny guy. He even has a real name, but for legal purposes I can’t divulge it here. But given the nature of his fantastic debut album Transitions which shifts constantly between moods and styles it shouldn’t have been that much of a surprise. This fluidity extends into his live show, which he’s currently taking on the road supporting Pete Philly and Perquisite and veers between straight up hip hop, contemplative jazz stylings and everywhere in between. It’s brilliant. I caught up with Arts halfway through his tour to find out more about the man behind the surgical mask…
How are the live shows going?
"Pretty well! Like the name implies (the Arts The Beatdoctor Experiment), we’re doing a lot of different things every night, trying out which fun stuff we can do,and things are going pretty well! The experiment for myself is trying to make my music “work” live. But we take it pretty literally: We are experimenting with routing live instruments through hard and software, and we’re even borrowing some gear from the gaming industry…"
That sounds pretty cool…
"I hate being on the stage while only operating my laptop with a mouse. I’ve seen people do that, and it looks like they’re checking their email. So I try to set it up so the audience can follow what I’m doing. I have some midi controllers around the place and some game controllers as well. I really can’t say any more about about it, you’ll have to come and see for yourself…"
How are the shows different to the record?
"We have built in a lot of space for improvisation, not necessarily meaning sax solos, but also ways to change the set depending on the reception that night. That’s what I like from doing both: In the studio I try to catch the inspiration and put it in a solid form, but when rehearsing for the shows we’re trying to create opportunities for new inspiration. I see as two different things."
Is this the sort of fluidity that inspired the title of your album?
"The name Transitions was actually an idea from Autobahn, the people who did the artwork. It reflects on the theme of the album (changing lanes, trains or direction) which is represented in the way I made the music and in the lyrics, but also in the form the music is presented: it’s really one piece of music, most of the time literally transitioning from one track to another."
As some tracks were released a couple years of ago, how did you make the album flow so smoothly?
"I’ve actually been working on this album for about 3 or 4 years. The Fragments EP was the first “snippet” of what was coming, but I see it like I was already working on the album then. I’ve been producing tracks for a long time, throwing in new ones, throwing out those that didn’t fit, and when I was almost finished, I started doing a “mosaic” – changing the tracklist, see which fitted together best, making transitions from one track to another, fitting musical quotes from one track into another. That’s how the album became an album and not a “best of” with my latest tracks."
How do you actually create your music – do you start with a sample or instruments?
"The first phase is always experimenting with samples. This just seems to work best for me. After I have put in a few hours without even thinking where I’m going, I take a step back and look what a track needs. Sometimes it’s vocals, or a live instrument."
Do you just see an MC as another instrument then, just as important to a track as any other part?
"I see MCing as another (usually lead) instrument, so that’s how I use rap in my music. If there’s no MC, you can have another lead instrument, or even a melody or a sound that isn’t an instrument at all, that takes that role. I do get bored by beatcreators who don’t have the feeling for how this works – I hear a lot of instrumental music missing the aspect that makes you want to hear it again. This usually isn’t the MC by the way, it could be a dope sample or just a sound I can’t put my finger on."
So how do you work with a vocalist? Do you work together on a track, or do you just present them with the instrumental and get them to work on top of it?
"It depends. On most tracks, I gave the vocalist and instrumental, and gave them some info on the album and the way I was going, and let them work. At a late stage I wanted to have some input, but generally that was just before recording."
Why did you choose them?
"For each track, I thought of people who would sound nice on the beat I had. In the process of working on the album I got access to some great people, that I couldn’t reach before (much thanks to Pete Philly for that), so it represents the top of what I could get for this album."
Would you say you make hip hop then, or jazz? Which do you feel closer to?
"Well this constantly changes for me. At phases, I’m drawn to hip hop, to the sound of the beats, the atmosphere at parties, stuff like that. But at other times a lot of things in hip hop bother me, like how seriously everybody takes themselves and hip hop. So it’s really a love-hate relationship. It depends on who I am talking to as well – For jazz listeners, I clearly make hip hop, but for hardcore hip hop heads I’m more on a jazz side I guess."
What jazz and what hip hop do you like?
"I’m a big fan of 70’s experimental (but not too experimental) jazz, like Chick Corea, Keith Jarrett, that kind of stuff, and I like some new stuff like Esbjorn Svensson Trio. As for hip hop I like very different stuff – mostly things that are musically interesting, I listen to beats more than I listen to a rapper, even when not listening to instrumentals. At the moment I’m digging a little deeper in the “new” Dutch hiphop scene: I always thought we were a bit behind, but there’s some really talented people coming up now."
Like?
"In the Dutch hip hop scene, I like Opgezwolle, Blocnotes, Fata Morgana, Sir OJ, Pax & Pry. Apart from those, there are a lot of producers coming up that are really great. Like I said, I am just starting to notice now that we have a lot of talent emerging."
Is being Dutch relevant to you as a musician?
"I don’t feel extremely “Dutch”. Although I moved to Utrecht a few months ago and I really like the scene here. Everybody is working on their goals here, but make time to help you get to yours at the same time. I like that as long as it doesn’t divide you into little camps – Like people from Rotterdam trying to do better than people in Amsterdam. We’re already a small enough country…"
Why is all your work in English? Does this mean it’s automatically targeted outside the Netherlands?
"I do both – I have recorded Dutch tracks also, and worked for MC’s who rap in Dutch. It was a decision I had to make to be able to go outside of Holland. Here, it’s already hard to be successful when you are making music with a big fanbase (like Opgezwolle, who are doing really good now), but if you are a bit leftfield, like me, you really need the rest of the world to gain enough support to keep going."
How much support are you getting at the moment?
"Almost all the press I get is people being interested after hearing my music. I think that’s great, and flattering. We don’t have the budget to do worldwide promotion, or even distribution, so it’s great to see that there are people around prepared to spend time to find new, interesting music and promote it to the people they think should know. It’s like the internet has brought a little democracy to the music business."
What’s up for Arts the Beatdoctor in the future?
"A lot’s up! I will be finishing the Pete Philly & Perquisite tour as support, do some other shows at the same time when my schedule allows it, we’re finishing the Q4 album the next months, do some side projects like the Beats Broke 7” and start working on my new album. And as of this month, I started a 2 year study where I will be researching today’s music business. So yeah…"
Arts the Beatdoctor is on tour with Pete Philly until the end of October.
For more information and tour updates, check www.myspace.com/artsthebeatdoctor. Do it.