DJ Rap emerged from the electronic underground as one of the first female DJs, with her extremely successful album Learning Curve which was a song based release on the Sony label. Since her success with that album, she has released six more full length albums, changing her musical style with each one. Her music has been featured in movies and video games, and she has acted as the lead role in a soon to be released Indie film. In addition to all of this, she owns two record labels, Propa Talent and Impropa Talent, and manages ten artists. I recently got a chance to interview her to find out more about how she got her sound and how it’s evolved from her time in the drum ‘n’ bass underground to her most recent album, Synthesis.
First off, how about a bit of background info for readers who aren’t familiar with you and your work?
DJ Rap: I’m a musician/DJ/producer/singer/songwriter, and I’ve actually been in a couple of movies as well which are about to come out. I started out as the first female DJ to ever produce, own two labels in the drum ‘n’ bass world and get paid the same money as the guys so that’s basically how I got my reputation. I was lucky to be in the right place at the right time. In that genre there weren’t that any drum ‘n’ bass producers at the time, especially there weren’t really many female DJs. There were a couple of others but I was really the first one to play in the main room with the boys. And that was mainly because I had started producing and making hit records. So that’s really my background in that sense. But I come from a classical background, I’m a classically trained pianist and I was born in Singapore and I’m half Italian, a quarter Malaysian and a quarter Irish.
I read that you traveled a lot when you were younger. Do you feel like your diverse cultural and musical background impacted the way you write music now?
DJ Rap: Basically my stepfather was in the hotel business and general managed a bunch of hotels, so a lot of my childhood was spent moving from hotel to hotel and traveling a lot doing that. I think that coming from a classical back-ground, I’m a singer/songwriter first so I always write with melodies so basically any time I write I come from a place like that. The answer is pretty different from that. Musically I’m kind of schizophrenic. I like to write all kinds of different styles and I get bored when I’m just doing one thing. Creatively I like to do a lot of things. So, yeah, I think it does. I think if you start off playing music on a piano or a guitar or acoustically, it affects the way you song-write.
What was your inspiration for making music and when did you decide you wanted to pursue this interest as a career?
DJ Rap: I’ve pretty much always wanted to do this ever since I was a baby. I’ve always wanted to sing and create music. But the DJ-ing was not in the plan. The plan was to be an actor and do that kind of thing. So it was weird, the DJ-ing was a happy accident. I was at a rave one day and saw these two DJs and was just overcome by the awesomeness of what they were doing for the crowd and how much joy they were passing to everyone and it just felt like ‘that is a cool thing to do, I want to do that’ and it was just hit me like kind of an aha moment, you know? So I was telling all my friends ‘Oh, I’m gonna be a DJ’ and they were all like ‘That’s awesome’ but nobody ever really took it seriously because, you know, we were all at these rave parties so it was kinda just like ‘hmm’ but then it really just became sort of an obsession and I became more fascinated with the production and really focused on learning how to produce before actually DJ-ing. That was very important to me from very early on. So that’s really how it started.
Who were your favorite artists to listen to while growing up?
DJ Rap: Well, pretty much my favorite artists were... hmm... I was boarded up in a convent for a lot of my young life so musically I wasn’t exposed to much. The first time I really heard pop culture was when MTV kind of broke. For me that was the first time I heard Nirvana and things like that and I completely was a rock chick. So anything to do with rock-- anything at all-- was just my thing. It was all about rock. So people like David Bowie, Phil Collins, Genesis, people like that. Those are the guys I grew up on. Seal was a huge influence to me and I played with him in a show in Aspen, and I played with David Bowie, so that was kinda fun. Really just the seventies were a huge influence on me in every way. Like, Thompson Twins, Spandau Ballet, anything like that, I was just completely immersed in it because I had never heard stuff like that before. Gary Numan I have to say emphasizes that huge, epic sound which is why I have such big warm synths in my production. It’s very synth-based and I like to bring that vibe with me. And then of course the classical vibe is very much in there. Again a lot of influences from Beethoven and chord progressions and things like that.
Did Signing with a major record label like Sony affect the way you write music at all? Do you write more with a potential audience in mind than you did beforehand?
DJ Rap: No, I never do that. I think you can’t make music in mind with what you think people want to hear. I think that you have to make music that you’re absolutely in love with and because you love creating art and I know I never make music worrying about what sells. Though, honestly there are some thoughts that come to mind like, for example, making music with lyrics makes sense because there’s licensing and there’s more opportunities, but I make tons of instrumental stuff too and I never make it thinking ‘well I think people are going to like this’ because to me that doesn’t seem like true art. True art is making music from your soul and heart and then either it resonates with people or it doesn’t but I’ve never made music for other people. I’ve made it because that’s just what’s coming out of me and you hope other people like it.
What has been your biggest reason for changing musical styles so much from album to album?
DJ Rap: I’ve changed musical styles and have done so my whole life because I’m an artist. I’m not a person stuck in a box. I don’t eat the same meal every day, I don’t have sex in the same position every day. I’m a human being, not a human robot, so I do what I want when I want, whatever’s calling me, and it’s taken a really long time for other people to see that that’s pretty much what’s happening all around us in music and art. I knew this fifteen years ago that we’d get to a point where when you ask people what they listen to it would be a bit of Skrillex, a bit of Deadmau5, a bit of DJ Rap, a bit of Static Revenger, never just one thing anymore and I was just there a little earlier [laughs] that’s all.
What prompted you to begin writing music for a full band?
DJ Rap: Again, just a need to create and do different things and push envelopes and to see what it would be like to do drum ‘n’ bass live and to see what it would be like to do songs live and I don’t regret it at all, and having a major record deal with Sony was a wonderful experience for me and not one that I regret at all and it’s been great. And, you know, there’s pitfalls for everything. There’s pitfalls for being independent and pitfalls for being with a major, but ultimately, just writing music and trying different things but I think it’s not really something to be done, it’s a need. It’s like I have to do this right now. I have to do it so that’s what I’m going to do, I don’t have a choice. People think you have a choice, but you don’t have a choice. I think there’s a difference between an artist and someone who likes the idea of being an artist, and it’s that a real artist can’t function unless they are doing something that has to do with their art, it’s not their choice. And it’s a curse sometimes, you know? But someone who likes the idea of being famous just because they like the idea of it, they can go weeks without making music. Everyone I know who’s a real artist, they can’t go three days.
I saw that you had started a band called Metasyn. You released an album and a music video but then in the middle of last year you guys seemed to just disappear from the face of the Earth. What are you up to with them lately? Are they still together?
DJ Rap: Well, no. What happened is I formed a band and basically my record deal with Ministry of Sound came out and everybody thought it would be in the best interest to put Metasyn on hold while that record was doing its thing because it was a totally different animal. So there will be more stuff from Metasyn but it probably won’t be until next year now.
Between owning a record label, and all of the live shows you do, how are you still able to find the time to write new material?
DJ Rap: Well, I have two record labels and ten artists under me who I look after and the way I run, I keep it pretty regimented, so I’ll do all of the office stuff in the morning, like from nine to one and break for lunch and then maybe stop at the park with my dogs to get away from it all, and if I’m lucky and I don’t have a bunch of other office work and admin, sometimes that can go until like eight o’clock, nine o’clock and then I’ll just spend the rest of the night doing music until twelve or one or two and then I get up and do it all again. On label days--I have designated days that are for the label--again I do the basic label stuff in the morning but that’s like three or four days a month that I do nothing but label stuff like on release days, uploading days, all that stuff. It’s just that I’m organized so I run it like that, and I find it easy doing a lot of things. I enjoy being busy, I enjoy multi-tasking, so for me it doesn’t seem like a strain at all. I keep the weekends to myself for when I’m DJ-ing. So it tends to be when I’m not doing so much DJ-ing and I’m heavy in the studio, when I’m heavy on tour, I tend to not do music, which works out great because then I’m really hungry for the studio and I’m fresh with ideas. It all works out. Somehow it all works perfectly for me. I do enough of everything that I’m constantly interested in it so nothing is too much, otherwise I’d just get bored
Be on the lookout for new material from DJ Rap as well as from her band Metasyn. Her record labels, Propa Talent and Impropa Talent, are also producing albums from hot new artists all the time. Propa Talent is her dubstep, break, and drum ‘n’ bass label, and Impropa Talent is her house label. You can check out her website at www.djrap.com for music, media and tour dates and for more information about her albums and record labels, visit her releases page at www.djrap.com/music.php
-The Enemy
Duncan Mandville
Theconcertscene.com
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