Clams Casino

NOZ

Good afternoon. We’re very lucky to have with us this afternoon a young producer who I believe is spearheading a new wave of experimentalism in hip-hop production these days. He’s done work with Lil B, Soulja Boy, A$AP Rocky, Mac Miller and he’s also put out some instrumental stuff on labels like Tri Angle and Type. Everybody give it up for Clams Casino. [applause]

CLAMS CASINO

Thanks for having me.

NOZ

Tell us a little about your background and upbringing for those who might not know.

CLAMS CASINO

I started making beats just for fun about ten years ago when I was a freshman in high school. I was about 14 years old, and I didn’t start trying to get my music out there or try to work with artists or rappers until probably about four years ago. I think 2007 was when I started going online. I’d go on MySpace and send messages out to rappers and anybody I wanted to work with, see if could send them beats. I was doing it a long time just on my own just to show my friends and listen to myself, but I started about four years ago actually trying to get it out.

NOZ

Now, I guess even before you were pushing your beats that way, what was it that drew you to make music on that level?

CLAMS CASINO

It was just something I always liked to do. Growing up, I played drums and stuff. I always liked to mess around with a lot of instruments. I started listening to hip-hop when I was about 12, and then I was only listening to hip-hop. From there, that was all I was into. Then I bought some hardware, some samplers, and just started messing around with that 'cause that’s really what I was into.

NOZ

Now tell us a bit about the hip-hop you were into back then.

CLAMS CASINO

When I was in high school, I was listening mostly to Mobb Deep, Prodigy, Wu-Tang a lot. Mostly a lot of New York stuff. Pretty hardcore gangsta rap.

NOZ

Now, you don’t seem like a hardcore dude. What drew you to that sort of stuff?

CLAMS CASINO

I don’t know. I think it’s the beats, really. Definitely, for Wu-Tang, definitely the beats 'cause I had no idea what they were talking about. I just liked the music, I just liked the beats a lot, so I would say that’s mostly what it was.

NOZ

Maybe we should play this Prodigy record to give people an idea of what you were listening to at the time.

CLAMS CASINO

Yeah, yeah, this is “Genesis” by Prodigy. This is one of my favorite songs. Right around the time I started making beats this is what I was listening to.

(music: Prodigy — “Genesis”)

NOZ

What is it about that beat that stands out to you?

CLAMS CASINO

I guess it’s the whole mood of it overall. I like the quality of it, the lo-fi stuff, kind of like what I do. The stuff I make myself I try to sound like that. But just the overall mood, the vibe of it, is kind of creepy and haunting. I just always liked that beat.

NOZ

Mobb Deep kind of messed with that sound, but ever since that hasn’t been the prevailing ethic in hip-hop — creepy or moody or lo-fi. And you actually ended up producing a track for Havoc and Mobb Deep.

CLAMS CASINO

Yeah, that was crazy how that happened. When I started sending stuff out online I was sending to this guy that was rapping with G-Unit and Mobb Deep at the time. His name was Nyce. I don’t know if you remember that guy. He was from New York and he was kind of affiliated with Mobb Deep and G-Unit. I was sending stuff to everybody and I sent him that beat that Havoc ended up rapping on.

So I sent it to his manager. Then, about a year-and-half later his manager hit me back and said, “Yo, Havoc ended up rapping on that.” 'Cause he ended up managing Havoc down the road. He was, “Yeah, Havoc got the beat, ended up rapping on it.” It was out for a while, I had no idea. That was pretty cool, a complete surprise. I’d never even tried to send stuff straight to him, but the way it worked out was pretty cool.

NOZ

It seems it was an interesting time for the way hip-hop beats have exchanged hands and moved around. Where it’s just email files that float up in the ether. Is that exciting? Is that frustrating that you make this beat and it just stops being yours?

CLAMS CASINO

What do you mean, stops being mine?

NOZ

Well, you lose control over the process.

CLAMS CASINO

I get used to it, though, just the whole process. Some bad things happen, some good things happen. Sometimes, yeah, it’s not in your control anymore once you put it out online, anything can happen with it. Hopefully, something really good happens like that. But I’m just kinda used to the process by now, taking a risk. When you throw stuff out online, anything can happen.

NOZ

Does that get confusing on the legal end of things?

CLAMS CASINO

Yeah, very easily.

NOZ

Were there any occasions when you had to chase down credits or chase down money?

CLAMS CASINO

Yeah, every song I did with Lil B. [laughter] Chasing down credits. Every time he puts something out, he never puts anybody’s name on it, so I go around and make sure I do that first, so that was probably some of the hardest work I do, just trying to get my name attached to everything that he’s put out. That’s definitely one of the biggest things. But I got into the process of doing that and I got used to that, following him really close every time he dropped it. He wouldn’t even let me know, he’d just put something out. He’s, “Yo, I’m putting it out soon.” Sometimes it’s six months down the road. I wouldn’t even know he’s using it. I’m always trying to put my name on stuff, tag it, so people know.

NOZ

I always see, whenever a new song comes out, the first YouTube hit is on your YouTube channel, very clearly, “Produced by Clams Casino.” Maybe we should talk a little bit about Lil B, though. I don’t know how many people here are familiar with his work, but he’s one of the more divisive and interesting hip-hop artists in America right now. Maybe you can tell the people what he’s about and how you came to start working with him.

CLAMS CASINO

I first started listening to him when he was in a group called the Pack. I started hearing them around five years ago. He wasn’t really doing what he’s doing now. They were doing straight, uptempo, really fast stuff, kinda like hyphy. Then he started doing stuff on his own, putting solo stuff out on MySpace and started doing really crazy stuff. Like all freestyles and putting out five or six songs a day. I noticed that and I hit him up when I was sending messages to people on MySpace like, “Yo, can I send you some stuff?” I sent him a few beats, and he did some freestyles on them. He was putting out so much stuff, just out there, really crazy stuff. I didn’t know what to think of it at first, then I started getting into it.

I liked the stuff he did before a lot. I was like, “What the hell happened to him? What is he doing?” Then I really got into it. The first stuff he was doing on my beats, just freestyling really ridiculous stuff. I thought it was so funny and I kept sending him stuff and it just happened from there. That was the end of ’08 when I first started working with him and talking with him.

NOZ

Is that liberating as a producer to see someone doing such wild music? Did you feel like you could start doing different things production-wise?

CLAMS CASINO

Yeah, it made me look at stuff differently ‘cause I didn’t know what I thought of it at first. It was a whole ‘nother direction.

NOZ

Well, let’s go into what I think stands as your breakout production for Lil B. This is called “I’m God.” Do you want to tell us about it before we play it?

CLAMS CASINO

There’s not much background behind it. I made it for someone else, probably a few months before I sent it to Lil B. I had it a for a while but I never sent it to him because I didn’t think he’d like it. I had it laying around. I never sent it to him and I was sending him a bunch of stuff before that. Then I sent it to him and he freaked out. He flipped. He was like, “Yo, are you crazy? What is this?” I think I sent him a couple more the same day too, but he flipped out when he heard it and he recorded it a few days later. He loved it and here it is.

(music: Lil B – “I’m God” / applause)

NOZ

You’re probably a little too humble to say this but this has become a subgenre-defining track, right?

CLAMS CASINO

Yeah, I hope so.

NOZ

Tell us a little bit about the elements that went into making that track.

CLAMS CASINO

The main thing that I liked was the vocal sample. I usually use them. For the past few years, I’ve only been doing vocal samples. I don’t know why. I started looking at it and I liked the voice and I’ve used that song for so many other things. I was just trying to see what else I could do with it. I’ve used it for different kinds of beats. I usually take one source. I’ll take a song or a sample and make like three or four different beats out of it, try to make them all sound real different and see how far I could push it in each direction. So I usually end up making a lot of stuff out of the same sample.

NOZ

That’s an Imogen Heap sample?

CLAMS CASINO

Yes.

NOZ

What was it that drew you to her work? How did you find that?

CLAMS CASINO

My friend sent me another one of her songs. Not that one. I forget the name of it. He sent me an a capella and was, “Yo, you’ve gotta try this, see what you can do with it.” I’d never heard of her. I tried messing with the one he sent me and I couldn’t do anything with it, but then I started searching for more of her stuff, that’s when I found that one. I found “Just for Now.” I got a sample from that. After my friend told me about her, I went and looked for some on my own and found some other stuff from her.

NOZ

I hear you have an interesting method in finding samples.

CLAMS CASINO

I used to. I haven’t done that for a long time. You mean just searching with a search engine and stuff? I used to use file-sharing services like LimeLinx and Bearshare, and just type any random words in and anything that came up, stuff from all over the world that I wouldn’t know what it is. Just to find different things that I wouldn’t normally find, really. Just to get a variety of different stuff, just a challenge finding new stuff I had never heard. I’d type in words and whatever came up and whatever looked cool, I’d just download it.

NOZ

What were some of those words?

CLAMS CASINO

Anything. I don’t know. Colors, green, stuff like that. If I see another word in one of those results, I’d just search that and keep it going. But I haven’t done that in a while because I just saved up so much stuff over the years. I’ve got huge folders and folders of so much stuff that I haven’t even had to search for a long time.

NOZ

Getting back to “I’m God,” it seems that specific Imogen Heap sample has become a standard not just in your catalog, but among a lot of your peers.

CLAMS CASINO

Yeah, I’ve heard a lot of people using it. Even before I did, there was some big song that sampled her, so people were doing it before me. Seems like a lot of people are doing it now, especially Lil B’s producers. There’s a lot of people using that same exact song for Lil B. People think I make them but I don’t.

NOZ

Do you feel like they’re biting your style?

CLAMS CASINO

Yeah, a little bit.

NOZ

Maybe we should play the original of that.

CLAMS CASINO

Yeah.

(music: Imogen Heap – “Just for Now”)

NOZ

So yeah, you kind of decimated that.

CLAMS CASINO

Yeah.

NOZ

What kind of gear are you working with?

CLAMS CASINO

Right now I just use software. I used to use samplers and hardware stuff, but right now, I just use the laptop. For the past probably couple of years, just software and a laptop.

NOZ

Do you want to specify as software 'cause you’re in a room full of people who get psyched about that stuff.

CLAMS CASINO

Oh yeah, Sony ACID Pro.

NOZ

Now, I think one of the cool things too about “I’m God” is that it’s inspired this whole kind of YouTube tribute movement where a lot of people have been rebuilding the track on their own. How do you feel about that?

CLAMS CASINO

I think it’s funny. It started 'cause so many people wanted it and were asking for it and I hadn’t put it out yet.

NOZ

The instrumental?

CLAMS CASINO

Yeah, the instrumental. People were talking about it for so long. They’re like, “This beat, I need this beat, I wanna rap over it.” I just didn’t put it out, I don’t know why, probably a year and a half after the original song came out. I think that’s how it started. People making remakes and stuff. There’s so many of them now on YouTube.

NOZ

Have you found any that come close?

CLAMS CASINO

Yeah, some of them I was surprised that some of the people flipped it and actually came pretty close. But not most of them.

NOZ

I guess you’ve spent a lot of time in the computer in your world. Can you tell us a bit about your day-to-day life, what you’re doing when you’re not chopping up Imogen Heap samples?

CLAMS CASINO

Lately, that’s almost all I’ve been doing. I’ve just been in the studio. I just finished school this spring. This whole summer, that’s pretty much what I do all day, pretty much chopping up samples. That’s my main thing right now, what I’ve been up to.

NOZ

What were you studying in school?

CLAMS CASINO

Physical therapy.

NOZ

Is that something you think you’re gonna pursue or is this kind of the route now?

CLAMS CASINO

I was planning on doing it, but I don’t know, it’s like… [laughs] I wanna make sure I finish school and stuff. It’s not like I stopped going, but all this music stuff is working out on its own. I was never planning to do it, but it’s looking good now. I’m just glad I got it out of the way. I can work in physical therapy if I wanted to. We’ll see what happens. Not yet.

NOZ

It seems like the new agey-ness of your sound complements physical therapy too.

CLAMS CASINO

A lot of people have said that. I never thought about it, but I guess it’s true.

NOZ

But right now is probably a good time to pursue the music thing because last week you had some beats on the number-one album in America.

CLAMS CASINO

Yeah, stuff is working out on its own, it’s pretty crazy. I just wanna see where I can go with it.

NOZ

That would be Mac Miller’s debut album. How did you come to work with him?

CLAMS CASINO

Actually, he kinda just shouted me out on Twitter. He was like, “Yo, I need to work with this dude. He’s got a cool sound.” I ended up chilling with him later. I think some of his boys showed him stuff on my mixtape, an EP or something, and he liked it a lot. So he shouted me out on Twitter. He sent me a message like, “Yo, I wanna work with you.” He gave me his number, I just started sending him stuff and it took off from there.

NOZ

Is that weird now that the roles are reversed? You used to have to hustle people on MySpace to get attention and now they’re coming to you.

CLAMS CASINO

Yeah, it’s the exact opposite now, so many people coming at me. It’s much easier. Thank god it’s like that because it’s not fun doing it the other way around.

NOZ

Let’s play something from the Mac Miller record. This is called “My Team.”

(music: Mac Miller – “My Team” / applause)

When I talked with you a few months ago, you mentioned that you hadn’t had the chance to meet many of the artists you work with. Is that changing as your career progresses?

CLAMS CASINO

Yeah, it is a little bit. Most of the people that I was working with, I would just email and stuff, so I never got in the studio with them or anything. It’s definitely changing now. I’m meeting more people and getting the chance to hang out with everybody, so it’s cool. I’m glad it’s like that now.

NOZ

Does that change your production at all, having that kind of access?

CLAMS CASINO

I wouldn’t say so. I’m still doing the same thing, I still make stuff on my own time by myself and send it out to them. So I wouldn’t say it changes the whole process. Yet, at least.

NOZ

Now, when you’re making a beat, say, you’re making “My Team,” for example, do you have Mac Miller in mind or is it just a constant workflow?

CLAMS CASINO

I usually try not to think about who I’m going to make it for or send it to, 'cause then I end up thinking too hard and it doesn’t work right. I kinda just make stuff and whatever happens, I’ll just follow that idea. If I hear something, I go with it, but I try not to think about artists or who can be on top of it too much. It just messes me up, so I try not to really think about that.

NOZ

About how many beats do you make in a day or a week?

CLAMS CASINO

It’s hard to say ‘cause I don’t sit down and make them once. I kinda just start them and then I’ll have it about a quarter done or half done and then I’ll do something else. I’d say I probably start about three a day, something like that. Then I’ll go back to that, put the pieces together, use something from one. So it’s hard to explain now. But every time I sit down, I probably start the beginning of three beats, but not finish them. It takes me a long time to finish them.

NOZ

You kind of blew my mind a few minutes ago when you told me the origins of this next record we’re gonna play by A$AP Rocky. Can you break down that process for the crowd?

CLAMS CASINO

This one we’re talking about is actually the same sample as “I’m God” from Imogen Heap. It’s the same sample, but I flipped it another way. I don’t know how many beats I’ve made with that song, but this is one that sounds very different to “I’m God.” It’s hard to even tell what it is, but it’s the same sample.

NOZ

You also said you broke it off a rejected piece of a remix to a Lil B song.

CLAMS CASINO

Oh yeah, that’s what you’re talking about. Yeah, this beat for Rocky called “Bass”… It was actually something I sent it to Lil B, but he was, “Oh, it’s too fast.” He liked half of it, but it switched up in the middle and got really fast and he was, “I can’t use that.” So he hit me back and was, “Yo, slow it all down.” So I took off the fast part, I kept the part that he liked, I made the rest of it slower to match it and then that became “I’m the Devil.”

NOZ

Which is a Lil B song?

CLAMS CASINO

Yeah, that he recorded called “I’m the Devil.” So he told me to get rid of the fast part. This beat is pretty much the fast part of that beat, but then I slowed it down again because Rocky likes everything really slow. So I just took the whole beat and made it slow and that’s how that happened.

NOZ

Let’s check out “Bass” by A$AP Rocky.

(music: A$AP Rocky – “Bass” / applause)

Now, A$AP Rocky is another hotly pursued rapper at the moment. How did you end up working with him?

CLAMS CASINO

I actually found some of his stuff online. He had some songs up on YouTube, not videos – just some songs of his. I think he had like one video, so I saw it on one of his boys’ websites that I check a lot. I saw it on there. He had one video and a bunch of songs on YouTube, a few actually, not too many. I just wanted to send him some stuff. This was in April I think of this year. So the guy that runs the website I saw it on, I was like, “Yo, do you know how I can get in touch with Rocky?” 'Cause I couldn’t find any way to hit him up, he didn’t even have Twitter or anything and that’s what I normally use. He was, “Yeah, here’s his email. We were just talking about your instrumental tape last night.” They’re friends, I didn’t know that, and they said they were talking about my tape, so I was like, “Oh, cool.” So I sent him some stuff, I sent him three or four beats, I told him who I was and was like, “Yo, I wanna see if you’ll work on some stuff.” He hit me right back and was like, “You’re like my favorite producer right now. I’ve already recorded some stuff on your beats.” He already had stuff done from my instrumental tape. He hit me right back. His song “Demons,” he had already recorded that before I ever hit him up. He sent that right back to me. I liked it and I kept sending him stuff from there. The first thing he recorded was “Wassup” and I really liked that, so I just kept hitting him with a lot of stuff.

NOZ

You’ve done some shows with Rocky since, right?

CLAMS CASINO

Yeah, I did two with him pretty recently, last month.

NOZ

What’s that like, hearing your music into a live setting?

CLAMS CASINO

It’s cool. It’s fun, it’s different. I’ve done some stuff myself and a few shows with him. It’s cool, it’s different, I like it. I had fun.

NOZ

At the same time as… You’re a rising talent in the hip-hop world, making beats for rappers, you’ve also drawn attention from this experimental world. You’ve put out vinyl-only instrumental projects with Type and Tri Angle. Was that the same situation where they just hit you up?

CLAMS CASINO

Yeah, they just approached me. When I put out the instrumental tape of all the beats I’d done for people, it just attracted a whole ‘nother group of people that I didn’t even really think would be interested in it. People were saying it’s a whole different kind of thing, it’s not hip-hop, it’s electronic music. So it attracted a whole 'nother crowd. Those labels just hit me up were really into the music, so I started talking to them. I had a bunch of stuff that I was trying to get rappers on sitting around. So I was just like, “Let me just put some of it out. You don’t need rappers on it, people wanna listen to it without rappers.” So I had stuff laying around that I’d sent out but nobody was using, so that became the EP I put out.

NOZ

Were you aware of that world of music? Did it influence you?

CLAMS CASINO

No, I would check out some of the stuff. I’d hear people compare what I do to all this other stuff. I would check it out, but before that, I wasn’t into it. I’ve found a lot of cool stuff since then that I like but not before.

NOZ

Who are some of the other instrumental artists that you’ve found?

CLAMS CASINO

Stuff on Tri Angle, some of their artists like Balam Acab. He’s got some crazy stuff and I’m surprised by how much it sounds like mine. I like his stuff a lot and some other guys on the label, but that’s pretty much it.

NOZ

It seems like the worlds of hip-hop and experimental music, at least on the underground level, are merging. If you took some of the Rocky instrumentals, they’d be kind of the same thing you’d hear on these labels.

CLAMS CASINO

Yeah, definitely. It’s cool that so many different people, people that don’t even listen to hip-hop, will listen to it now if they don’t know me from that. It’s funny, when the Rocky tape came out, I saw people online saying, “Oh man, Clams is working with rappers now?” I was like, “What? What do you mean?” “I can’t believe Clams did a whole tape with a rapper, and it’s awesome.” They had no idea that I ever even made hip-hop. I thought that was funny. But it’s cool that they are into that and don’t listen to hip-hop, but now they’ll check it out.

NOZ

Let’s play something from one of your instrumental projects. What do you think, “Gorilla”?

CLAMS CASINO

Yeah.

(music: Clams Casino – “Gorilla” / applause)

NOZ

Now, that was originally intended as an instrumental you would send a rap artists?

CLAMS CASINO

That was actually kind of half and half. It could go either way. Even before I put out the original instrumental mixtape out, somebody originally gave me the idea of doing instrumental stuff. So that one was half and half. I did send that to rappers, but I was thinking also that it might be cool just as an instrumental. That’s why that one, instead of just a beat, is formatted like an actual song. It involves a lot more than a regular hip-hop beat. But I did send that to a rapper. I think I sent it to Soulja Boy. He was the first rapper I sent that to.

NOZ

We haven’t talked about your relationship with Soulja Boy. How did that come to pass and what came of that?

CLAMS CASINO

Lil B sent him — I think he liked the “I’m God” beat a lot. I was trying to send him stuff. I noticed they started working a lot and I was, “Yo, I’m trying to get some stuff to Soulja.” He was, “Definitely, he likes ‘I’m God’ a lot.” So I was, “Cool.” I sent stuff to B, and he would shoot over to him and he didn’t end up doing anything. He did rap on “I’m God” first. That was the first thing I ended up doing with him, a freestyle on that beat. But I never really talked to him. Then, about a year later, Lil B hit me up again, “Soulja wants some sample beats and stuff.” So I sent him three – that was one of them. I sent him the one that became “All I Need” and “The World Needs Change” and that one, “Gorilla.” So I sent him those three and he ended up using two of them. Then he wanted to do a whole mixtape. “Yo, I wanna do a whole tape with you, with stuff like this, all sampled.” It never happened, but I kept sending him stuff. We did end up doing a lot of songs, but never put a whole tape out.

NOZ

Seems like Soulja’s in a weird point in his career where he kind of wants to be a more adventurous and experimental artist.

CLAMS CASINO

He does a lot of different things, he experiments, so I think that’s cool of him to do that. More people should do that. That’s what I like about him, he does try a lot of different stuff. People would never expect him to rap on stuff that I sent him, but he wanted stuff like that and he used it.

NOZ

Do you have any of those Soulja tracks? I don’t have them on me.

CLAMS CASINO

I don’t think so. Actually, I might have them on my iPad. I can check.

NOZ

Yeah. Hope you guys don’t mind. [Clam searches iPad] I’m just gonna play a little more from the Rainforest EP while…

CLAMS CASINO

Yeah, I’ve got them. I’ve got one. I’ve got “All I Need.”

(music: Soulja Boy – “All I Need” / applause)

NOZ

So Soulja has a line opening up that records where he says, “I never got into the music industry to make money.” That seems like the prevailing ethos for a lot of you guys in your circle. Is that safe to say?

CLAMS CASINO

Definitely. Especially me. I never really thought about that. The guys I work with a lot like Main Attrakionz, they just make music to make music. They put out so much stuff I can’t keep up with them and up until recently they’ve not really made anything off it. They just love to do it. I like working with guys that think like that.

NOZ

With that in mind, what are you working on now? What’s in the pipeline?

CLAMS CASINO

A lot. I can’t even keep up with it, but there’s a lot right now. I hate to ruin the surprise, there’s a lot of big stuff, but I don’t even now what I can talk about.

NOZ

Can you give us one name?

CLAMS CASINO

Mm-mm.

NOZ

[silence] Alright. We can open up the floor to questions.

AUDIENCE MEMBER

Your EP on Tri Angle got a lot of praise and I was wondering if you see yourself working more on instrumentals. Maybe you wanna put some vocals on there and work with someone, but will you be working more on solo stuff, Clams Casino stuff in the future?

CLAMS CASINO

Will I be working on more solo stuff, like instrumental?

AUDIENCE MEMBER

I don’t wanna say instrumental ‘cause you can always collaborate, but not just producing beats for rappers so much in the future.

CLAMS CASINO

I definitely see myself doing more solo stuff down the road. There’s a lot of that out right now and I’m going back to working with artists for a little bit, but I like to switch things up a lot. I get bored fast, and I’m sure when I’m ready I’ll be doing a lot more instrumental stuff. I like it, and I’ll be doing that too.

AUDIENCE MEMBER

Just one more. I don’t know if you still do this, but it used to be that if someone put one of your beats on YouTube, you’d go there and drop a comment saying, “Hey, I made this beat, thanks.” I think that’s unusual 'cause producers, usually when they start generating a buzz stop interacting so much online. I was wondering why you do that, why you think that’s important?

CLAMS CASINO

First up, I’ve got to say there’s a YouTube channel that posts up all my stuff and has pictures of me, but it’s not me. So, I don’t know if that’s the one you’re talking about.

Audience Member

I don’t think so. I read an interview with you where you mentioned you do that.

CLAMS CASINO

Yeah, I do that. If stuff’s not labeled… I’ve been used to doing that for so long. People don’t give credit for producers when they put stuff out online. So I got used to doing that every time. Every time somebody would put a song out, I’d just go around and post it up as much as I could just so people would know. If it’s not there I’ll still do that. But now people are putting my name on it more. I don’t have to ask. But if it’s not there, I still do stuff like that.

AUDIENCE MEMBER

I’ve got a couple of questions for you. You were talking earlier about how once you send your beats out through emails and stuff, it gets out of your hands at that point. Does a song ever come back to you from an MC and you’ll hear it and just cringe at it? Has that ever happened?

CLAMS CASINO

[pause] I’m sure it has. I can’t think of anything.

AUDIENCE MEMBER

You don’t have to give me any names.

CLAMS CASINO

Yeah, I’m sure it has, I’m just trying to think of specific times. I don’t know. If it’s somebody that I don’t like, I wouldn’t send them beats in the first place. It’s rare that someone I like and will reach out to, that they won’t do something I like on top of it. So, most of the time, no, but I’m sure it has.

AUDIENCE MEMBER

One more question. If you could pick one MC of all time to work with, who would it be? Or group.

CLAMS CASINO

I would say Cam’ron.

NOZ

Good choice. Maybe we should play “Killa Cam” 'cause you mentioned that as a big influence.

CLAMS CASINO

Yeah, it’s another one of my favorite songs and a production I really like from the Heatmakerz. This is off Cam’ron’s CD, Purple Haze.

(music: Cam’ron – “Killa Cam” / applause)

NOZ

I don’t know if we have to listen to Cam’ron’s skits. But yeah, it seems like you can hear Heatmakerz doing that multi-tiered vocal sample thing there.

CLAMS CASINO

Yeah, that was one of my favorite hip-hop productions ever.

NOZ

Do we have any other questions?

AUDIENCE MEMBER

You mentioned you don’t make beats with rappers in mind. Have you ever sent a beat to lots of people and lots of them have come back and lots of them have come back and said, “I want to do this”?

CLAMS CASINO

That happens all the time.

AUDIENCE MEMBER

How do you decide?

CLAMS CASINO

Usually, people don’t mind. People just put out stuff for free all the time online now. There’ll be so many songs out with the same beat. Sometimes, it’s a problem. If it’s going to go on somebody’s CD, then obviously it’s a bigger deal 'cause only one person can really have it. There haven’t been too many times where people get mad about it – “Oh, you sent it to him too, you sent it to him too?” 'Cause I send so much stuff out at once and usually people don’t respond at all. I’m not gonna sit around and wait for two months for someone to answer and say they’ll do it. I’ll send it to someone else. I send stuff all over the place and usually it happens because people don’t use it fast enough. All right, I’ll send it to someone else. So it does happen a lot where you have two or three people on the same beat.

AUDIENCE MEMBER

I’m just curious at what point you picked up management and how that changed your workflow and creativity. It feels like you hustled really hard just to get shit to people.

CLAMS CASINO

Earlier this year, I put the instrumental tape out in March and started talking to people from record labels who hit me up and said, “Send me some music.” I just started talking to some of those people and met people through there. I met this guy from Warner Brothers, and he was like, “Send me some music.” So I sent him stuff and he was like, “You have nobody managing you. I have a guy that might be able to help you out.” I started talking to some people and they were like, “We’ll see how it works. We’ll help you out a little bit.” It wasn’t an official thing, just if it works for both of us down the road, we can make it official. So I started having people help me early this year, around the spring, and it has helped a lot, a little direction and organization, so I'm glad it happened like that. But doing online stuff, on the internet, it took a long time until someone came along and helped me out. But it’s definitely a lot of good guidance now.

AUDIENCE MEMBER

You worked with a lot of rappers the past couple of years. I was just wondering if there are any singers or vocalists. ‘Cause you do a lot of vocal sampling, but not really singers. So I’m just wondering if you have any interest in that.

CLAMS CASINO

Yeah, that’s definitely something I want to do soon. I’ve got something coming out soon that I can’t really talk about yet. [laughs]

NOZ

Secrets of Clams Casino.

CLAMS CASINO

A lot of secret stuff in the works, but you’re definitely gonna hear about it soon. It’s something I’m interested in and I think a lot of my stuff would be perfect for singers who actually put melodies on instead of just rapping. So that’s definitely something I’ve wanted to do for a while. So I’ve got some stuff coming out like that and hopefully a lot more in the future.

AUDIENCE MEMBER

I’m curious if Imogen Heap has reached out to you about anything.

CLAMS CASINO

No, she hasn’t yet. About legal stuff?

AUDIENCE MEMBER

Either that or just, “Hey, I liked how you ripped apart my vocals.” [laughs]

CLAMS CASINO

She hasn’t said anything, but hopefully she’ll say something. I haven’t even tried to reach out to her, but I’d like to hear what she thinks about it. That would be cool to see what she has to say.

AUDIENCE MEMBER

Especially that there’s this whole scene of people sampling one song of hers.

CLAMS CASINO

Yeah, it’d be interesting to see what she has to say about it. Hope I can get in touch with her some time.

NOZ

Put your manager on it.

AUDIENCE MEMBER

Have you ever had people make comparisons with the British shoegaze bands? Are you familiar with this late-’80s, early-’90s bands like My Bloody Valentine and Slowdive?

CLAMS CASINO

I’ve heard people say shoegaze, but I don’t really know what it is or what bands they are. I know My Bloody Valentine, I know stuff by them. I’ve definitely heard people say that, but I don’t know much of the music.

AUDIENCE MEMBER

There’s so many elements; there’s the drones, the long drones, and sweet vocals against quite intense and overpowering sound. I was just wondered if you’d listened to any of it ‘cause it seems like that’s something you could sample.

CLAMS CASINO

A lot of people have said that to me. I’ve got to check out the music ‘cause it sounds like something I would definitely like, but I’m not familiar with the bands. People say shoegaze all the time, but I wouldn’t really know what they meant.

Participant

Also, you seem like a pretty easy-going guy, but there’s this emotional intensity in the music. Do you find it’s an outlet for these feelings?

CLAMS CASINO

Yeah, I guess. Usually, when I’m making stuff I’m just hanging out, I’m relaxed. I guess my feelings come out in there, I don’t really know. I’m not angry, making crazy songs. I’m usually just chilling. That’s how I make the most stuff. It’s really hard to explain that.

AUDIENCE MEMBER

You’re not a troubled artist like the Marilyn Manson of hip-hop.

CLAMS CASINO

[laughs] No, definitely not that.

AUDIENCE MEMBER

I’ve just wondered if you’ve had any copyright issues thus far and whether that’s something that’s a concern to you, using vocal samples especially, which are more obvious than taking a drum sample or something like that.

CLAMS CASINO

It’s kind of tough. All the stuff I’ve been making for the last few months, I’ve been trying to recreate the sound that I usually do without copyrighted samples. It took me a while to get used to it, but now I’m getting in a groove of taking other stuff and really making it sound like that. So, it’s definitely an issue and it sucks ‘cause sometimes you can’t put stuff out that you want. So I’m just trying to recreate the stuff and make it sound like something I usually do. It took me a while to get used to it, but now I think I’ve found out how to do it. So I’m excited about that and I have no worries now about any of the copyright stuff.

AUDIENCE MEMBER

Where does your name come from?

CLAMS CASINO

It doesn’t mean anything, honestly. [laughs] I just kept it ‘cause it was catchy and easy to remember. It doesn’t have any stories to it. Sorry about that.

NOZ

Do people call you Clams frequently?

CLAMS CASINO

Yeah, now they do. People that I’ll just meet, they’ll call me Clams. They don’t know my real name. I don’t mind.

NOZ

Any more questions? Alright. I guess we can leave you guys with one more track. What do you think?

CLAMS CASINO

This is A$AP Rocky featuring Main Attrakionz. It’s called “Leaf.”

(music: A$AP Rocky feat. Main Attrakionz – “Leaf” / applause)

NOZ

What was going on with that vocal sample at the end?

CLAMS CASINO

I didn’t put that in. Rocky’s engineer put in that ODB sample like the intro and the stuff at the end. I didn’t send it to them like that. They put that on. So I don’t know, but it’s pretty cool.

NOZ

Everybody, give a round of applause for Clams Casino.

CLAMS CASINO

Thank you for having me.