Maurice Fulton
Maurice Fulton’s productions have been key to the growth of house music worldwide, both as a solo artist under and tireless collaborator. In his lecture at the 2006 Red Bull Music Academy, Fulton went in-depth on his life and work giving a special insight into how house has captured a global imagination.
Hosted by Gerd Janson Good morning. Today we have a producer, DJ, and musician, maybe, extraordinaire on the couch. Maurice Fulton Stop that. Gerd Janson His name is Maurice Fulton. He lives in Sheffield, currently. He's lived everywhere else in this world. Please give him a warm welcome. Maurice Fulton Thank you. Thank you. Gerd Janson So, Maurice, before we start doing our little bit of a hands-on session, we should maybe talk a bit about where you’re coming from musically and what were your formative experiences in the world of merry music. Maurice Fulton Musically I come from funk. Gerd Janson Funk, like funk in the Parliament... Maurice Fulton George Clinton, Funkadelic. I don’t know if you all are familiar with Parliament Funkadelic. Yes? Especially Funkadelic. That’s what got me into music, period. Gerd Janson What’s the difference between Funkadelic and Parliament? Maurice Fulton Well, Funkadelic was more rock, hard rock. Gerd Janson Yeah. Maurice Fulton Then Parliament was soul with a lot of horns. You all noticed that. Gerd Janson Probably. Maurice Fulton The first record I ever bought was a Funkadelic record, Let’s Take It to the Stage. I don’t know if you all are familiar with that record. Audience Member Yeah. Maurice Fulton That’s like my favorite record on this planet. Gerd Janson Do you have it with you, maybe? No? Maurice Fulton I have one song on CD. It’s called “Better by the Pound”. It’s like a dance song, dance record. Gerd Janson Yeah. Maybe we should just play it for a bit? Maurice Fulton OK. Gerd Janson Yeah? Maurice Fulton You can still talk while I find it, yeah. Gerd Janson What was the next step from Funkadelic? You started collecting records then? Maurice Fulton One of my brothers was into the music... He was in a lot of stuff, a lot of R&B stuff, but mostly Funkadelic was in rotation. Gerd Janson You were abusing your brother’s record collection. Maurice Fulton Oh, yes. Gerd Janson Yeah? Heavily. Maurice Fulton Every chance I’d get when he wasn’t home, yeah. Gerd Janson What time was this then? What are we talking about? Maurice Fulton I guess the mid-’70s, yeah. Gerd Janson You’re a DJ, too, then, right? Maurice Fulton Yeah, I started in the early ’80s. It’s pretty much I had two turntables, but they wasn’t Technics or anything with pitch. It was Fisher. I don’t know if you all familiar with that brand? What they had... You could stack 45s on top, and it had three speeds: 33, 45 and 78. It was like a wooden thing. It had 2 of them with no pitch. It was pretty interesting because you can get creative when you don’t have the usual tools. Gerd Janson Yeah, so you had to use your hands a lot, huh? Maurice Fulton Oh, yes. That’s how I learned how to touch the label to make it slow down. You can get certain different sounds. If you touch it a little bit hard and get that [makes distorted sound] Love that. Yeah, that’s basically how it started, and just practice, constantly practice. Because with that equipment, I couldn’t do too much, and when I had my friends come over, they all laughed at me because of my equipment. Now I understand why, you know? But I just practiced for a whole year, scratching, cutting, back cueing. I got good. Gerd Janson Do you remember the first party you played? Maurice Fulton Yes, it was a waistline party in Baltimore. What I mean by waistline party, it’s like you pay your measurements. When you go to the door, the guy has a tape measurement, and you measure your waist. And if you were thin, you paid little money. Gerd Janson So you better be a skinny dude if you want to go to a waistline party? Maurice Fulton No, because we always like the big ones because they party. They really party. We throw the skinny ones... Gerd Janson They paid a lot of money to party, of course. Maurice Fulton Well not if we like you. You come in free. Gerd Janson OK. Maurice Fulton That was the first party. It was a good party. Gerd Janson And your name back then as a DJ? Maurice Fulton I used to call myself Dr. Scratch. Don’t ask me where it come from. I don’t know. But I just thought it sounded good. Gerd Janson I distracted you now from looking for that Funkadelic tune. Maurice Fulton That’s right. Sorry. Let’s see here. All right. Just to show you. I’m going through all these CDs. It’s a lot of CDs here. This is my DJ set because I don’t play vinyl because I find it... I’m not a bad vinyl hater. I love vinyl, but when you’re travelling, it gets kind of expensive for extra luggage, and I like to carry a whole lot of records. I found this to be the cheapest way, just to carry CDs. Plus, they sound better to me. Gerd Janson Yeah? Really? Maurice Fulton CDs don’t scratch, you know? You don’t hear no pops in CDs. Gerd Janson Because that’s usually the argument of the vinyl lover that it sounds so good. Maurice Fulton I love digital. I thank God for digital. It’s in here somewhere. Let’s see. Man, a lot of stuff. Gerd Janson With vinyl you could have looked for the record sleeve now. Maurice Fulton Sorry? Gerd Janson With vinyl you could look for the sleeve now. Maurice Fulton Yeah, it would be bigger and I could see it bigger, but my hand writing is atrocious, so it’d take me some time. But I know it’s here, just have to find it. Where is it? Where is it? I don’t think I brought it with me. Gerd Janson Too bad. Maurice Fulton Sorry. Sorry about that. Gerd Janson No Funkadelic now, but from Baltimore and Dr. Scratch to New York then, right? Maurice Fulton Yes. Gerd Janson You were influenced by what was happening in that whatever you want to call it, New York dance culture thing? Maurice Fulton When I first moved to New York, I think the biggest thing was Masters at Work. They was ruling New York. And that sound... Gerd Janson Like early ’90s, then. Maurice Fulton Yeah. Gerd Janson Yeah. Maurice Fulton It got me interested to go to the clubs to see what was happening. I think The Sound Factory Bar and Shelter was big at the time. Started going, started dancing, started partying. Good move. Gerd Janson And you started to produce then, right, yourself? Or you were already a producer by then? Maurice Fulton I was already a producer because I worked with The Basement Boys. Gerd Janson Which is a production team. Maurice Fulton Yeah, It's a production team. Three people. I felt that I was being not held back, but I was losing creativity because I was only doing one style of music. Gerd Janson They were very much into that garage vocal kind of thing. Maurice Fulton Gospel house, and I wanted to do more. I wanted to do all types of music, so that’s why I went to New York and discovered it. Gerd Janson OK. So maybe we should play then some of your tracks you were doing... Maurice Fulton OK. Gerd Janson ...to give people an idea of what Maurice Fulton is about. Maurice Fulton OK. Before I play this track, let me just explain something. I do many different types of music. The first what I’m going to play you is the new move, which is the song is called “No More Fake Tits.” (music: Mutsumi - “No More Fake Tits” / applause) Gerd Janson MU [Mutsumi] is actually your wife, right? Maurice Fulton Yes. Gerd Janson You’re doing this project together and went from punk to country now. Maurice Fulton Well, not only country, it’s a lot more other stuff. We do all types of music, but the main influence is punk. This is another track I wanted to play. It’s Kathy Diamond. I want to do a different style of music. Let me hear it first. Where is it? (music: Kathy Diamond - “Over” / applause) Gerd Janson So you like to work with vocalists, right? Maurice Fulton Yes. Vocalists, bands, MCs, country stars, everybody. Gerd Janson Everybody. Maurice Fulton Everybody. Gerd Janson If you could, we wanted to work the kids through a track right? So how you put together your music? Maurice Fulton Some stuff I do, I do some techno dance and most of it I do from the computer. I was just going to run through how I produce a beat or make beats. The first, I like to start off with a kick, like a mean kick. Like a kick that’s so hard that if it was a bowling ball, strike! Knock down the pins. We’ll start with that first. Gerd Janson If you guys have any questions throughout the process, please ask. Maurice Fulton Well, should we do the questions now? Gerd Janson No, I mean if they have a question, “How you do it?” You know? Maurice Fulton OK. Let’s see [plays beat in Logic]. Does that sound a bit fast? The click? Yeah, no? Not fast? Audience Member No. Maurice Fulton Should it be more faster? I can make it slower or faster, if you want. We’ll keep it slow for now. OK. The next, I like to start off with hats. Preferably 808 hats because they more crispier. I’ll just lay that down. [plays hi hats on keyboard] Something sound not quantized to me. How about to you? OK. I thought I was going crazy, but I’m not now. I want to thank y’all for that. Let’s take... I don’t know, how many people work Logic Pro 7? Number of hands? Not that many people that work with Logic Pro 7? Most people, do you work with Pro Tools? Only one? One. So we have more Logic people than Pro Tools, I guess, so this should be easy. I don’t know if you’re familiar with the MIDI page. I don’t know if you can see it up on there, yeah. This is where the program gets fun and time-consuming for me. 'Cause it’s easy just laying down a kick and copy it and put it on every fourth bar. But... Let’s see how the hats look. They look pretty green-y and yellow-y, don’t they? Some of these hats don’t look so good. Let's see how it sounds. Yes, that kick sound like it’s out of place. I can see it. That one. Let’s see. So many out of kicks. All look horrible. OK. [plays drum pattern] All right. I'll add the snare. Let’s see. That sounds good. All right. Right now I just recorded just a regular drum pattern, but this is where the magic happens right here. So all through this little green-y and yellow thingies, I don’t know the correct terms for this colorful stuff here, so if anybody could help me with what this called. Anybody? No one. So no one knows just like me, this is good. It’s even better. All right. Audience Member Velocity. Maurice Fulton Velocity? Audience Member Yeah. Maurice Fulton OK, thank you for that. Velocity. Just learned something new. For the velocity, sometimes at certain points of the drum pattern like... I like to triple it because right now, I have it quantized on 4/4 16. If I want to make the extra stutter sound, I’ll switch it to 24 or 32. 32, to me, sounds more sexier because it got that stutter-step sound, which I’ll demonstrate. Just move that there. Sorry. Let’s try again. [plays pattern] Yeah. And you can do that with any instruments. Let’s try it with the snare, see how that sounds. Maybe interesting, maybe not. We will soon see. [plays pattern] Alright. Now let’s try a bass line. What I found more useful would be the Logic... They have some extra synths, which I like. And this... Makes a bass sound [plays bass]. Sounds nasty, what you think? Switch it back to 16 and then we should be okay. I would just put anything down for the moment, but I wanted to show you how to make those high-pitched squeak sounds with this Logic synth. Sustain the glide, which I really love, because it makes everything trippy, and then I’ll go into the vizelocity and try to build up from there. Maurice Fulton Any questions? Audience Member Is it transposition, in velocity? Maurice Fulton It’s in what you call velocity. It’s like playing from a key here [plays key on keyboard]. [inaudible question] I didn’t know that. I had no idea. I don’t basically concern on how hard I hit the key because you can fix it in the velocity, correct? So it really doesn’t matter. You can hit it soft or light. It still sounds the same to me. Any more questions? Gerd Janson You would say those are the merits of modern technology, and the music you do would sound very different if you would just use analog equipment? Maurice Fulton For synth sounds, I don’t use analog equipment because the synth sounds sounds good to me, and plus, you can carry a computer around much more than you can carry a Korg synth around, or a Moog synth around, and do music. I like things compact. Gerd Janson But if you, for instance, produce an album, which you did quite a lot... Maurice Fulton Synth sounds. Gerd Janson Synth sounds. Maurice Fulton The only live stuff analog stuff I use is the bass guitar or the drum. Every synth sound is the computer. Gerd Janson Do you play bass and drums yourself? Maurice Fulton Yes, but if I can’t play it... I’m not a good drummer, and I’m not a good bassist, so I like to hire people who are good drummers and bassists. Gerd Janson If you do an album with like Kathy Diamond, for instance, you... Maurice Fulton I hire people. Gerd Janson You have real studio session going on? Maurice Fulton Yes, because that’s a lot of work for me to do. Gerd Janson And you just work then as the “arranger/producer”? Maurice Fulton Yeah. I put it directly into the computer and arrange everything and mix it down. Gerd Janson How long does it take for you to record an album with vocalists and musicians and all that? Maurice Fulton You see how long it took me to do that, but to do an album... Gerd Janson It was pretty fast. Maurice Fulton Yeah. Beats I can do pretty quick, but mixing, it takes a while because you have to plan how you want each sound to go. Like if you want a delay on certain parts or a verb on certain parts, it takes time. Gerd Janson Do you still use samples when you do music? Maurice Fulton Oh no, oh no... And I’ll tell you why. I think in the late, no mid-’90s, I did a record on the Basement Boy label called Kong. I don’t know if you’re all familiar with that, but it had a sample of Jimmy Castor Bunch I took from King Kong. Komo Sambe, KONG! Jimmy Castor heard that, and they sued me for $2,000, and ever since then, I’ve never sampled anything else again. But I think it’s a blessing in disguise, because if he never sued me, I would’ve still been using samples, so I’m kind of glad he did, so I don’t have to use samples, and I don’t have to go to court and anything like that no more. Gerd Janson So your music would sound different today with samples all over? Maurice Fulton Yes. Gerd Janson You think it made you getting more creative? Maurice Fulton Without the samples, yes, because a sample, you can only do so much. You can filter it, you can cut it, play it backward, slow it down, speed it up, but if you play a sound, you can add melody. You can’t do that with samples too much unless you buy expensive programs to do that. Gerd Janson And would the beat you just did now... Where would you take it to, if you go further now to flesh it out? Maurice Fulton Should we see? Gerd Janson Yeah, maybe. Maurice Fulton All right. Let’s hear what we’ve got [plays beat]. Hmm. What do you think I should add? Should I add keys? Should I add pads? Should I slow it.... Pads, please? [to audience member] You got it, Missy. Let’s see what I’ll bring up. [plays with beat on computer] It would go further, but I need another smoke to enhance the further ability. Can I say that? Gerd Janson Yeah. You can say whatever you want. Everything will be cut out afterward. Maurice Fulton Any other questions? Gerd Janson With a track like this that’s very different to the MU track we heard. Maurice Fulton Well I have tracks like that on the new album. Gerd Janson Yeah? Maurice Fulton Yeah. Gerd Janson And she sings about it? Maurice Fulton Well she yells about it or screams about it. Yeah. Gerd Janson And how would you compare your being a producer thing to your DJ life, then? It goes hand-in-hand, or is it two different affairs? Maurice Fulton It’s two different love and hate, because with DJing, it's sometimes... No, all the times it’s challenging, but sometimes, when you go to certain clubs, you get these DJ divas that like to do stuff their way, and then when that happens, it puts me off of DJing, and then I make music, and then when music puts me off, like when you deal with certain labels... I just want to mention, if you do music, get publishing. Please, get publishing. Because some record companies will fuck you and will take your money, but if you have publishing, you can at least get a little bit of something, and if the record company don’t pay publishing, you can tell them. Gerd Janson How often did this happen to you, then? Maurice Fulton Oh a lot. Many times. I don’t want to mention names, but I’m pretty sure you all know I have problems with Tigersushi. Gerd Janson So what to do about it then? Get a lawyer? Sue them? Maurice Fulton Yeah. You can. That would be a lot of money, a waste of money, so the best thing would be to just get publishing. Let the publishing sue them. That’d be the best way. You don’t have to pay much money. Your publisher would do all that, and plus you get a little bit of money that you made. Gerd Janson And can you elaborate on that DJ diva thing a bit more? What do you mean with it, exactly? The challenge of DJing in a club? Maurice Fulton Challenge of DJing is excellent for me because I don’t know none of the people, and I have no idea what they like, and sometimes, when I play, it’s a good party, and other times it’s not. Gerd Janson So you would argue that it was a better time for DJing when you had your own club, being there for eight hours on Friday, Saturday, and being an edutainer... Maurice Fulton It’s the same. It’s the same, because every weekend, sometimes it’s different people, sometimes it’s the same. You don’t know, and it just gets challenging, just trying to put people onto new music, or classics. Sometimes they’ll be receptive. Sometimes they’re not. Gerd Janson When you play, you play a lot of classics, right? Maurice Fulton Yes. Yeah. Gerd Janson Why is that? People could argue, “All this boring old music. We want to hear new stuff.” Maurice Fulton I try to mix it up a little bit, but certain classics, I just like to hear in the club very loud. Gerd Janson Could you, maybe, show us one of your... Maurice Fulton Let’s see what we have here [looks through CDs]. Ah. here’s a good classic. (music: Skyy – “Here’s to You” / applause) Gerd Janson And if you say, “classics,” what kind of classics? Universal classics or classics that have been coined at a certain time and place? Maurice Fulton Like Paradise Garage classics. Gerd Janson So you went there, or... Maurice Fulton I was a Zanzibar head. I was a Tony Humphries head. Gerd Janson Zanzibar was a club in Jersey, right? Maurice Fulton Yes. That was my Paradise Garage, for me. Tony Humphries was God to me. He played mostly a lot of Italian disco records and classics. Gerd Janson And what was so special about the club? Maurice Fulton Their sound system. My goodness, the bass, and there was a certain point when the club gets really, really packed and full, and the middle of the floor would curve. It would bounce, so if you’re dancing, you would be bouncing at the same time, which was excellent. That’s why I love that club. Gerd Janson How often did you go there? Maurice Fulton Oh every Wednesday. Gerd Janson You made the trip from Baltimore to Jersey? Maurice Fulton Yes. Gerd Janson Which takes about how long? Maurice Fulton About three hours. Gerd Janson To get there? Maurice Fulton Yeah. Gerd Janson Three hours to get back. That’s dedication, then. Maurice Fulton That was fun. Gerd Janson If you talk about Tony Humphries playing Italian stuff... Maurice Fulton Yeah. He’d get these records that no one had months before they come out. No one knew what he was playing. That’s what made it special. Gerd Janson Do you have something of that with you? That Italian kind of stuff that was influential for you? Maurice Fulton I think I do. Gerd Janson And do you think it has changed, too? Looking at places like Zanzibar back then, to clubs right now? Maurice Fulton Yes, because of the music. There’s so many different categories now. In Zanzibar, they played all kinds, but now, they have... Some clubs play just certain type of music, like trance or R&B, hip-hop. Gerd Janson Or electroclash. Maurice Fulton Electroclash. Gerd Janson That’s your favorite genre, right? Maurice Fulton What, electroclash? Gerd Janson Of all the subgenres? Maurice Fulton No. Gerd Janson I meant this with a little bit tongue-in-cheek. Maurice Fulton We’re on camera. I’m not going say that (laughs). (Digs through CDs) Where is it? It’s somewhere in here. Gerd Janson Do you quantize the disco stuff when you're DJing? Maurice Fulton Do I quantize? No, not at all. Nothing. Gerd Janson So you adjust the pitch? Maurice Fulton I play like this. I have to fight the pitch all the time. Gerd Janson Makes it a bit more lively then, right? Maurice Fulton Oh, yeah, because I see some DJs play with a computer or laptop. I just play with CDs and a CD player. Where is it? Gerd Janson Yeah, you didn’t get into the laptop DJing yet? With Final... Maurice Fulton No. Gerd Janson Why? Maurice Fulton Because that looks confusing to me. I like to be able to put in a CD, press track search, and play, sometimes pitch. But with the computer, I guess you have to set up a program and all that. Too much time for me. Where is it? I know it’s in here somewhere. Any other questions while I try to find it? It’s a very quiet audience today with no questions. Gerd Janson How much time do you spend with music throughout the day? Maurice Fulton Maybe... I guess about an hour and a half, two hours. Gerd Janson Not more? Maurice Fulton No. Gerd Janson I thought you were this twelve-hour guy, doing nothing but music all day. Maurice Fulton (laughs) Nah. Gerd Janson But you’re pretty prolific with the output. Maurice Fulton Sorry? Gerd Janson You’re pretty prolific with the output, then? Maurice Fulton Well, I do it every day. It’s just like a habit. You wake up, take a shower, put on some clothes, do a beat, mess with my wife, go shopping, food shopping, go to sleep. But there’s other stuff I forget to mention because we’re on camera. That’s just basically what I do. Every day. Gerd Janson And you like to go fishing too, right? Maurice Fulton I haven’t gone fishing in a long time. I wish I did. Well see in Sheffield, it’s... Gerd Janson It’s hard to get a good catch in Sheffield? Maurice Fulton Well see there’s not a lot of water around Sheffield. There’s just cows and sheep. It’s an industrial city, but fifteen minutes from the city center is country. Nothing but grass and cows and sheep. I love it. Gerd Janson So you moved there because of the sheep and the cows? Maurice Fulton No, because of my wife. 'Cause I lived in New York before, and it was a big culture shock moving from New York to Sheffield. Gerd Janson I can imagine. Maurice Fulton Quite fun. [still digging through CDs] I can’t find anything today. Gerd Janson You can’t find anything? You should get back into the vinyl again, huh? Maurice Fulton [laughs] No, it’s too heavy for me. Gerd Janson Maybe you’ve got something else that was a classic Zanzibar tune. Maurice Fulton Yeah, that’s what I’m trying to find. Ah! Here it is! It’s like a Italian disco. (music: N.O.I.A. – “True Love” / applause) Gerd Janson So what was that tune? Maurice Fulton “True Love” N.I.O.A. (sic) It’s Italian disco. Monster. I used to love it. Gerd Janson You love also the cheesy parts about it, Italian disco? Maurice Fulton Oh, yes. Everything. I like cheese. Cheese is good, especially pop cheese. Most people don’t understand that some pop, like Britney Spears, is actually good. I take the worst part of what people don’t like about that music, and draw inspiration from it. Gerd Janson So do you have something that was inspired by Britney Spears with you? Maurice Fulton With me? Gerd Janson Yeah. Maurice Fulton What would happen if I say yes? Gerd Janson (laughs) We would like to hear it then. Maurice Fulton (laughs) Well, I’m going to say no. Gerd Janson Oh, come on. Maurice Fulton I don’t have any. No, I’m fine. I don’t have any Britney Spears. Gerd Janson Come on, please. Maurice Fulton I wish I did, but I’m sorry. I just can’t do it. Gerd Janson And you were speaking about labels and publishing, so why don’t you set up a label of your own, then? Maurice Fulton I’ve done that, but... Gerd Janson What was the name of the label? Maurice Fulton Bubble T’s Communication. Where is she? Where’s my partner? I think she’s.... Naoka? Is Naoka... Oh, she’s there! Oh, stand up, Naoka. That’s my partner with Bubble T's. Stand up, so people can get a look. Don’t be shy! Come on. There she go. [applause] Starting to do Bubble Tease, so hopefully everything will go smoothly. Gerd Janson So you are just starting the label now? Maurice Fulton Yeah. Gerd Janson So when will be the first release, then? Maurice Fulton Actually, MU was on Bubble Tease, that was just licensed through output. So is Syclops, is on Bubble Tease, and Kathy Diamond is on Bubble Tease. Gerd Janson OK, and you find it hard to run a label then? Maurice Fulton Because of stuff I do, yeah. Pretty much hard, that’s why. Hopefully, I have help. Gerd Janson And what are your favorite places in the world to play your mixture of classics and new music? I mean, are there many left that you really enjoy? Maurice Fulton It’s not that many. Manchester, Electric Chair. And then London, Horse Meat Disco. Japan, Precious Hall, and the Liquid Room is nice. Gerd Janson What is so good about these places? The sound system? Maurice Fulton The sound and the crowd. Well, Manchester in Electric Chair, the sound is not that good, but the energy and the crowd is like nothing I’ve ever seen in the world. Nothing. Not even New York could top it. Gerd Janson So what are they doing there then? Maurice Fulton They hear a song they like, there’s a big net or a gate and they pull it down and start screaming. You look, and you see a whole big net on five hundred plus people. It’s mental. If they really like the music, they’ll start climbing on the lights and swinging. Gerd Janson [laughs] Maurice Fulton Seriously. I’ve never seen that anywhere in a club except the Electric Chair in Manchester. Gerd Janson So they give you a lot of love there, then? Maurice Fulton Oh, yeah. Gerd Janson Do you have one of your current productions with you? Except for the MU and the Kathy Diamond’s thing? Maurice Fulton Yes, I have Syclops with me. Gerd Janson Which is like your band, right? Maurice Fulton Yes, I have a band, three musicians, if I can find it. It’s in here somewhere. Where is it? I think you’re right. Maybe I’ll have to start getting records, so I can see [laughs]. Gerd Janson Yeah, how do you do it in a dark club, then? Maurice Fulton Oh, I have a light. I have a little light right here. Gerd Janson That’s smart [laughs]. So always use a light when you’re on with your CDs to a club. Maurice Fulton I’m pretty compact. These are my headphones [shows audience headphones]. These pretty loud. (music: Syclops – “The Fly”) Gerd Janson So what are the main ingredients in a Maurice Fulton track? Bass, drums, nice keys? Maurice Fulton That’s it. Gerd Janson That’s how you do it? Maurice Fulton That’s all. Bass, mostly live drums and synth sounds. Gerd Janson But you didn’t play those drums yourself? Maurice Fulton I sure didn’t. Gerd Janson You did? Maurice Fulton No, not at all. Gerd Janson Is there any... Or, let me put it this way. You were talking about earlier, before we started the lecture, that you think it’s important to be original in what you’re doing. Maurice Fulton Yes. Gerd Janson Why? Maurice Fulton Because there’s a lot of artists that sound like each other, and for me, it’s hard to tell the difference. Like with pop stars: Britney look like Christina, Christina look like P!nk, P!nk look like Nora Jones. Everybody look alike. Yes, she does! If Nora Jones had blonde hair, she would look like P!nk (laughs). She would look exactly like P!nk (laughs). But to me, it doesn’t seem like there’s a lot of originality. They all look like each other. So I’m thinking, if you be different, you’ll stand out. Gerd Janson How would you be different, then? Maurice Fulton To not do what everybody else is doing. Gerd Janson On purpose? Maurice Fulton On purpose. Gerd Janson Even if it’s maybe not that nice, then? Maurice Fulton Well, it all depends on how it sounds. If it sounds not nice, you won’t do it. Gerd Janson So how long did it take you to find your voice in music? I mean, you stand out. Maurice Fulton I think Jimi Tenor said it best. Gerd Janson Who was the guy from Finland, right? Maurice Fulton Yes, he taught me... Basement Boys taught me to derange music a certain way. Like have the chorus first, the first verse, second verse, chorus, refrain, chorus. That was the way I was taught with the Basement Boys. When I met Jimi Tenor, he threw everything out the window. He told me, “Music should be about what you feel at that time.” Like if you want a verse there, put it there, or if you want a second verse for a first verse, put it there. It’s how you feel at that time. Gerd Janson The only rule is no rules? Maurice Fulton No rules at all. Gerd Janson Questions? I think we’ll get him the microphone. Maurice Fulton OK. Audience Member Do you like remixing other artists? Maurice Fulton Yes, if they sound good. Yes. Audience Member Did you remix artists you don’t like? Maurice Fulton I never did that. If I don’t like the song or the artist, I don’t bother it at all because I have to be inspired to do the mix. Audience Member What is different in the creation process with remixing than your own track? Maurice Fulton It’s the same because, when I remix, it’s literally I have to do another track to fit the vocals. So it’s the same process, you know: Sit down, smoke, get the keyboards, maybe hire a drummer, or program it myself, smoke, mix it down, put it on a CD, smoke, listen to it, then send it off. Gerd Janson No smoking before sending it off? Maurice Fulton Oh, no. I have to go to the mail; the post. You don’t want to be stoned to do that! Gerd Janson Talking about being inspired from the original artist to do a remix... You can be inspired by something you dislike also, right? Just to be inspired in another way. Maurice Fulton Yeah, like Britney. But see, with Britney, I use that for my own tracks. I wouldn’t use it for other people, remixes, because they would get mad at me if I took a reference from Britney Spears. Gerd Janson You never thought about one of the tracks you remixed like, “Oh, it’s utter shit, but I can make it sound nice?” Maurice fulton No. If I don’t like it, if it doesn’t make me move inside my chair or wiggle my butt, then nah. No way. Gerd Janson There was another question? Audience Member You said your main influence was punk? Maurice Fulton That’s what I’m doing right now. I have phases that I go through. Sometimes I go through a hip-hop phase, gospel house, ear-bleeding trance, hip-hop, country, and now I’m into punk. Audience Member The sound of punk music, or the way of working on it? Maurice Fulton Matter of fact, I have a punk track here. It’s a new one from MU’s LP. Let me find it first. Song is titled, “U Look Good & They Don’t.” (music: Mutsumi - “U Look Good & They Don’t” / applause) Gerd Janson That’s pretty far out there. Maurice Fulton Punk. Gerd Janson Yeah. How hard is it to work with someone that’s actually... That you’re married to? A lot of fights during the process? Maurice Fulton No, it’s easy, because I do the lyrics first, read them back, and then I imagine what it would sound like with music. Then, I put the music, then I ask MU, just, I go over with her how it should be sung, and just record, and there you have it. It’s really easy working with MU. Gerd Janson She’s never into the process of actually making the track with you? Maurice Fulton Oh, no! Oh, no. She’s off reading OK magazines or Heat magazines during that time. Or, what is it you have here? NW? Next Week? I picked that up yesterday, because I’m getting into the junk magazine thing, the Heat and OK. I find it interesting. Gerd Janson I never saw that. Ben might know it, then. [inaudible comment] Finement? Finest. Fimus? Is it real cheesy? Audience Member It is, more cheesy than NW. Maurice Fulton Oh, excellent. Thank you for that. Gerd Janson Any more questions? Microphone, here. Audience Member I was just wondering whether Syclops were part of Mum, I Broke the Video? (sic) Do you have it on you? Maurice Fulton Do I have it on me? No, I’m sorry. It’s been... That’s a pretty old track. Audience Member Oh, well, you probably made it a while ago, but I only got it last year. Maurice Fulton I’m so sorry! I should be punished! I should be... Punish me! Punish me! Have her punish me, OK? Audience Member We'll punish you later. Maurice Fulton OK. It's that way. It's coming. There it is. Audience Member Hi. Can you play the "Paris Hilton" track? Maurice Fulton Do I have that with me? That’s a good question. I think I have that. Audience Member Where did you get the inspiration... With all those samples and stuff? It’s so random, but I just love that. Maurice Fulton It’s no samples. Audience Member Where’d you get the chicken and... Maurice fulton That’s Mu. Audience Member Is it? That's awesome. Maurice fulton I wanted to do the (makes chicken sound) because I haven’t heard that in a dance record, ever. Audience member It was so... I just love it. It's so good. Maurice Fulton Thank you. I thought I... I know I have it somewhere. But the making of that record: I wanted to create something to make people dance and laugh at the same time, while they dancing. Gerd Janson Certainly worked. Maurice Fulton And that's... When someone told me that they never laughed so hard and danced at the same time, was a big compliment to me. It’s a really big compliment to me. 'Cause I think dance songs, you should have fun and laugh and you know, have a good time, while listening to the song. Where is it? It’s here somewhere. "Paris Hilton," here it is. Gerd Janson So why did you call it "Paris Hilton"? Maurice Fulton You know what? It sounded nice. 'Cause when I was writing, the "Shake your body body / move your body body / dance your body body" I had writer's block. What should go after "Dance your body body?" Paris Hilton! Gerd Janson So you like her movies, also? Maurice Fulton No, it's just... She was on TV, so much. Too much. It was just an overload of Paris Hilton one time. So I just thought, why not do a song? (music: Mu - “Paris Hilton” /applause) Gerd Janson So House music from Chicago was also a pretty big influence on you? Maurice Fulton Oh yeah, yeah. Gerd Janson Like, rhythmically? Maurice Fulton Oh yeah, like Adonis, Marshall Jefferson, Bess Lawrence, oh yeah. Stuff that’d shake your booty, yeah. Gerd Janson What is the new music you can draw inspiration from? Maurice Fulton Dance music? Gerd Janson Yeah. Except for Britney Spears, now? Maurice Fulton It’s tough with dance music, but with other types of music, I like Ne-Yo, R&B artist. I like Jay-Z. I like LeToya, the girl that used to be in Destiny’s Child that got kicked out. She has a solo, I like her. What else. It’s a lot of artists. Gerd Janson Dance music sounds pretty stale to you these days? Maurice Fulton Not all. I like the Idjut Boys. I like Theo Parrish. Lindstrøm. What I can think of right now. Gerd Janson Any more questions? Audience Member You just mentioned the culture shock that hit you when you moved to Sheffield, you mentioned that. Does it matter where you are for your music? Maurice Fulton No, not at all, because, unless you make music outside, then it would matter, but when you’re in the house it doesn’t matter. Audience member Like in the forest? Or next to the sheep? Maurice Fulton It would matter, yes. Because then you’ll have sheep influence you. No, it really doesn’t matter where you at in the world. It’s just... As long as you have an electric cord and some speakers, you can do it anywhere. Gerd Janson You proved that, right? That you can do it anywhere. You moved. Maurice Fulton I moved a lot of different places, and as long as you have electric cord, speakers, it’s all good. Gerd Janson And your favorite place in the world, then? Maurice Fulton New York. Have to be New York. I never seen a city with so many different cultures and different people from other countries in one city. Plus, it stays open all night. It doesn’t close. I love that. Gerd Janson Why not move back there? Maurice Fulton Oh, the party scene is not exciting as it is in England, because it’s a lot of clubs happening in England than it is in New York. Most of the clubs in New York is very pop, so that doesn’t appeal to me. Gerd Janson So you would have to play Britney Spears, then. Maurice Fulton Yes, I would. In heavy rotation. Gerd Janson Europe is better for you to work? To be based at? Maurice Fulton For DJing, yes. Gerd Janson No other questions? Audience Member Could you tell us how you mix your own track? Have you got a method? What’s your tips for mixing? Maurice Fulton Oh that’s easy. I take each instrument, like I have on here, and try to add a little bit of, maybe EQ, maybe delay, or maybe anything, but it takes... Audience Member Usually, you use your laptop? Maurice Fulton For mixdown, yes. Audience Member OK, no other process? Maurice Fulton None. Nothing like that. It’s mostly the plug-ins. The effect plug-ins, and my favorite one would have to be the spectral delay. The Native Instruments one. This baby here. This is like, my favorite delay ever invented by man, or woman, or whoever invented it. I bless them. I hope that answers your question. Any more? Audience Member It’s great to be doing lots of original stuff. How important is it to have a different name for each different sound you do? Maurice Fulton I don’t concern about the name. What, like an artist name? Audience Member Yeah. Certain artists will produce work under different names, and a different sound for each name. I’d like to see an artist just come out with their own name and say, “Hey, fuck you, I do lots of different stuff!” Maurice Fluton Well, I don’t know too many people who do that. That change they name every time they do a different production. I work with bands and they call they selves something different. I’m still Maurice Fulton, producer. Gerd Janson But you still like to use monikers, right? Maurice Fulton No, I have bands. They're bands. Most people think Syclops is me, it’s not. It’s a band that I produce, that the press just keep thinking that it’s me. That’s why I don’t really talk to the press much. Gerd Janson You don’t like interviews, right? Maurice Fulton Not at all. Not at all. I get sick of hearing, “Who, what, where, when, why, how come?” I’m sick of that. Gerd Janson Then, I have the cure for you. Thank you very much. [applause]