Seiji

Tony Nwachukwu

I’m here with a young man by the name of Paul Seiji.

Seiji

Hi, Tony Nwachukwu, hi everybody.

Tony Nwachukwu

How did you get into music?

Seiji

I’ve been into music since I was about seven when I started playing the cello.

Tony Nwachukwu

So, you’re classically trained?

Seiji

Yeah, for about ten years. I started playing cello, I went to school playing the cello, and that was my life until I was about 17 years old. While I was a teenager, I got interested in other sorts of music obviously, apart from classical. By that time I got interested in making music because I just got bored playing the classical repertoire and never creating anything. That’s when I started getting interested in making music and started fiddling about on bits of equipment, borrowed some equipment and just started making beats on crappy old MIDI sequencers and really terrible old Yamaha synths with their tinny sounds, and just started from there.

Tony Nwachukwu

What were your first forays into music-making?

Seiji

Pretty much it was house, what I tried to make at the time. US-style house, which I was into. Garage. I did a couple of tracks, which didn’t come out, they weren’t good enough. And then I eventually did one, called “Deeper” – [smiles] just a very original lyric. But my first proper release was under the name Disorient, that was for Orin Walters’ then-label Mousetrap. About the same time, I had met G-Force through a mutual friend and he was hooked up with the Reinforced guys. He had already done one production for the Enforcers picture discs and was producing drum & bass, and I got interested in drum & bass around the same time and started to do some as well.

Tony Nwachukwu

Was it a conscious decision from making drum & bass records for Reinforced to doing what you’re doing now?

Seiji

No, not at all. It was an accident really that my name became associated with drum & bass because, like I say, I was also very much into my US house and my vocal house. I was still trying to make that at the same time I was doing the records for Reinforced. I just think they didn’t stand out as much as my drum & bass records did because my drum & bass records were so weird that they stood out. The house things, I suppose, ended up eventually sticking all those various influences from drum & bass and house and everything together and ending up with what I’ve got now. It wasn’t any sort of conscious decision to move away from drum & bass, it was just a natural thing. And I think once the music started changing, I lost my interest in it. What got me into drum & bass in the first place was the complex beats. Breakbeat science, you know? I blame “Pulp Fiction” [by producer Alex Reece] for being the tune that made everyone decide it was suddenly OK to just have a fast hip-hop beat and nothing else. Whereas before that, there was always innovation in the beats and in the rhythms and just the sounds and the programming.

Tony Nwachukwu

Do you still listen to drum & bass?

Seiji

Yeah, I mean, I listen to it if I hear it. Obviously, there’s still some great tracks that’s been made out there. So, if I hear them, I appreciate those. And sometimes I like listening to drum & bass from the period that I loved it from, the period from ’94 through to ’97.

Tony Nwachukwu

First of all, what is Bugz in the Attic?

Seiji

OK, Bugz in the Attic is a collective of producers. Really, we’re mainly producers, as there’s only one serious musician, and that’s Kaidi [Tatham]. Bugz pretty much evolved from when I met Orin. I had put my first record out with him, on his house label and we just started working together and jamming around at his house. I think it was always his intention to build a collective – it was Orin who drove the whole thing, he is the daddy of Bugz. He collected people around him that he got on with well and were making good music, as far as he’s concerned. It really evolved completely organically, just him inviting people over. You know, Cliff [Scott] bringing his SP-1200 around and Khaidi coming around with a Moog and started to jam over the top. It was just friends smoking and jamming... happy days.

Tony Nwachukwu

How many of you are there in Bugz in the Attic?

Seiji

Now there’s nine of us. It’s a bit of a funny thing when people say, “How many of you are there?” because it’s gone up and down. Originally there was six and we always talked about there being the “six original members,” but now we don’t bother saying that. It’s always been this organic thing, so we might be ten next year.

Tony Nwachukwu

I know you produce records independently of Bugz. When do you decide – when you do a Bugz production – who does what?

Seiji

It’s quite an interesting question because there is no set way of doing things, which constantly amazes me as well, that we managed going on like this when there is no real method to the way that we do things as Bugz in the Attic. But I think it’s just accidental that we can all work together and we’ve always managed to find a consensus or a compromise that everyone’s happy with. I think it’s just down to the personalities and the fact that we all get along really well as friends as well. So, when it’s a Bugz production, it’s like a free-for-all. If it’s a remix, for instance, the parts will get handed out to everybody. Everybody will jam at home on it or in the studio, come up with ideas and play each other our ideas and say, “That’s rubbish, that’s good.” Like I said, we always tend to reach a consensus.

Tony Nwachukwu

What would you say has been the most difficult production you’ve had to do as a production team?

Seiji

I think it was probably the Da Lata remix of “Golden” that we did, because that was the one we did straight after the remix of 4Hero’s “Hold It Down.” “Hold It Down” was such an immediate success that we suddenly felt this pressure to come up with something that would top it. I don’t know if we did but that was that really. I think since then, we sort of realized that it’s stupid to feel that pressure anyway. We should just carry on being creative and just not worry about what people are expecting of you from a marketing point of view or something like that. It just comes back to music and vibing off what you got there.

Tony Nwachukwu

What are we about to hear?

Seiji

We’re about to hear a remix I’ve just done of a Scandinavian hip-hop thing, called Sensational. This is what I just finished.

(music: Sensational - unknown / Seiji remix)

Seiji

I think there are a few different reasons that this criticism gets leveled. But I think, if people would see the dancing that goes down at Co-Op, for instance, it is quite obvious that it is danceable music. There is a heavy vibe at that club, when there’s lots of people dancing and lots of great dancers really getting down. I think the majority of people might not be open to thinking about it as dance music. It is complicated rhythmically, but it also sounds electronic. That’s two things that aren’t really that common in dance music. Whereas for instance, I always say about our music is that the rhythms in it are nothing new. Rhythmically, everything’s already been done anyway over history. The rhythms you’re hearing in broken beat are African or Latin, they’ve all been done before, they just sound different. Even just funk. Listening to funk records from the ‘70s, you will hear a lot of the same rhythms that we’re using. But because it’s in a different context, people don’t even pay attention to the fact that they’re hearing [human-beatboxes the drums of “Loose Lips”]. Because there’s a funk guitar going away behind it and a vocal and the drums are in the mix, so you don’t even register that you’re listening to a beat that is not as straight with a “two” and “four” snare. If it is a slightly more organic sound, people might relax more and feel the music rather than analyzing where the snare and kicks are and things like that. The one thing I find, when I’ve been to places and played the music to people that really have no education about electronic music or dance music or modern youth culture or anything like that, and they’re literally just feeling the same music that they’re hearing and not analyzing in any way, then I find I get a much better response. For instance, when I went to Puerto Rico and the people there don’t really read the music press or they haven’t been educated into “this is hip-hop, this is R&B, this is house,” and they haven’t all these categories stuck in their heads already. They’d hear it and for them it is all techno music, you know? So, they’re just hearing it, they’re feeling it and they’re dancing.

Tony Nwachukwu

Did you make some music while you were there?

Seiji

Yeah, I made a few tunes actually, but only one of them has come out so far. And that’s a record called “Vasilando.” All I really did was record a traditional plena and put a house beat underneath it. I felt a bit uncomfortable about it at the time, but I think the response to the record was good.

Tony Nwachukwu

Why were you uncomfortable?

Seiji

I was just a little uncomfortable with it because I was doing something that I thought wasn’t really me, because I was supposed to be constantly pushing boundaries and all these kind of things. But actually, I was just making a fun, danceable record.

Tony Nwachukwu

Are you maybe going to continue to record over there?

Seiji

Actually, it’s quite interesting what’s happening over there at the moment. Orin Walters, the Afronaught is out there at the moment and he’s developing further the links that we got with the Candela crew over there, which is a bar and a sort of festival. There’s now a music studio there, so we’re starting to work with some more original music, rather than just rehashing traditional music. I’ve got a little taste of one of the things that Orin has done recently on his last trip there.

(music: The Afronaught – “Golpe Tuyo Calinda”)

Income is a funny one because, like I was saying before, getting stuck in doing a lot of remixes is definitely what happened to me. Because, trying to make a living off music, you are constantly hustling. And remix work is the easiest way to get short-term cash. But I don’t think it’s the best. I think it’s something you’ve really got to keep a handle on because it can affect your creativity. The same thing with DJing as well. I mean, I don’t consider myself a DJ. I didn’t get into this because of DJing. I did mix records in my bedroom when I was 16 or 17, like I said, I was buying lots of garage records, listening to Benji Candelario on Choice FM. Listening to him mixing in key and holding mixes for three minutes and that sort of thing. I was into it, but I never really started properly, until I had the name from production, then I started to get gigs. It was actually Dego from 4Hero who first made me start DJing. At the time I wasn’t DJing and he was saying, “Right, you’re come with me to Japan to DJ,” on his next tour, and took me out there.

Tony Nwachukwu

So let me get this right. Apart from DJing in your bedroom when you were 17, your next DJ gig was DJing with Dego in Japan?

Seiji

Yeah, my only DJ gig really up until going to Japan with Dego was playing in my bedroom, basically.

Tony Nwachukwu

There’s a slight difference...

Seiji

Yeah, and when I got out there, it was really a baptism by fire. I remember feeling really physically ill before I went on at my first gig. I couldn’t eat, I was rushing to the toilet and all sorts, it was horrible. But that week I had to learn fast, so I managed to get over my fear. Since then I’ve been getting gigs off the back of my records. But I think I’ve actually been DJing a little bit too much recently. And, the same way with remixing, it’s taken away from the fact that I haven’t actually made an original piece of music in about a year or a year and a half. I mean, “Loose Lips” was the last production that I’ve done for myself that I just knocked out for the hell of it.

Tony Nwachukwu

Have you started on some new work?

Seiji

It was in the last one or two months that I really made a conscious effort to start to make sure that I make music for myself. I’ve invested a bit more money in my home studio, I’ve just bought myself a Wurlitzer, I’m getting that back from the restorers next week. I’m gonna teach myself harmony and stuff like that, start writing songs.

Tony Nwachukwu

Are you going to sing?

Seiji

If you’re lucky. [laughs] For now I really want to get into writing music and songwriting. Not that you’re going to be hearing any nasty ballads straight-away or anything like that, but at least some songs or just some scatty vocal grooves or stuff like that.

Tony Nwachukwu

Any chance to get the cello in the picture?

Seiji

Yes, there’ll probably be some cello coming back, but I’ve got to practice first because I haven’t been playing for ten years. So I’m all out of tune. So unless I just use the Auto-Tune...

Tony Nwachukwu

[laughs] Or a sample library. Do you still have your cello from school?

Seiji

I have actually played it, I was lying a little bit. Phil Asher is always encouraging me to play. A couple of times recently, he’s phoned me up and said, “Right, come down to the studio, bring your cello.” I’ve gone down there and played some really minimal string part that he has written for me on one of his remixes and it sort of gets submerged right down in the mix or something. But it makes me feel good, so...

Tony Nwachukwu

Can you think of any mixes off hand where you got some cello on one of Phil’s records? I actually didn’t know that so I’m going to go to my records and try and hear it.

Seiji

[Laughs] Ok, there is a Jody Watley remix he did recently. But, like I say, I’m so low in the mix, so you’re not going to hear me anyway. But it felt good to have my name on a record playing cello.

Tony Nwachukwu

What were your usual tools for making music?

Seiji

I started making electronic music on bits of equipment that I borrowed. The very first bits I used were a really basic sequencer and synth, I can’t even remember what they were. It was like a DX-something, the Yamaha – this flat thing – I don’t know, I can’t remember. That taught me the basics. Then I actually met a guy, who is a good friend of mine now, who had a studio, and I started to use that studio. And he had an Ensonic sampler, one of these really old ones and that sort of showed me the basics of sampling on that. He taught me how to use Cubase on the Atari and that was the main thing. From there, after I got serious about the music, I got an E-Mu sampler, an E-Mu 64, and just used that and the Atari. So for about five years, six years, I’ve just used an E-Mu 64 and the Atari to sequence. Any sort of keyboard sounds or anything like that, I used samples in the E-Mu. My music was pretty much all samples at that point anyway.

Tony Nwachukwu

And you’d take what you’ve worked on and Daz-I-Kue would mix it down?

Seiji

I started to do my own mix downs in the early days, but they sounded horrible. So as soon as there was a really good engineer around, I got him to help me. So since then Daz-I-Kue has been doing my mixdowns. I tend to do some basic writing at home, get some ideas together, develop the whole thing in terms of programming, do most of the programming at home and then take it to the studio to do recording of vocals or live stuff and then the mixdown. I’m the sort of person... I’m at the most creative when I’m at home on my own at night in my bedroom. If I’m under pressure and someone says, “OK, program a beat in front of us,” I can’t really do it. So that’s why I work at home.

Tony Nwachukwu

Is there some kind of cueing system for Daz in terms of mixes? You guys are quite busy.

Seiji

Yeah, he calls himself “the hardest working man in showbiz” or something like that, I can’t remember. But, yeah, he is very busy but he finds the time to do my stuff so I’m happy.

Tony Nwachukwu

So now you’ve got yourself a few nice bits of equipment, including the Wurlitzer EP 200. What else did you get yourself?

Seiji

Recently I just bought the Titanium G4 as well. I had to say goodbye to the Atari because it starting to flake on me, it was getting too old and I had to keep getting it repaired and all that kind of thing, it was getting too long. But I must say that I really regret that now because there was something about the Atari I really loved. And I haven’t been finding the Mac as easy as I thought.

Tony Nwachukwu

Have you pinpointed what it is about the Atari that you miss?

Seiji

One thing about it, it is very tactile. When you pressed the button of the mouse it went [loudly] clunk. When you press the button on the Mac it sounds [quietly] click. If you’re making music with computers, there’s this interface between you and your music. It helps to have some sort of manual input or to have that tactile something. And the thing about the Atari was, it was very immediate and the interface between you and your music didn’t seem to be that great. And then obviously, there is the clock aspect as well. There is this endless debate going on about the MIDI clock in the Atari is better than the MIDI clock in the PC, is better than the MIDI clock in the Mac and all this sort of thing. I mean, I don’t know because I’m not technically into that stuff, but there was definitely a feel to sequencing on the Atari that is difficult to get from more sophisticated computers and I don’t know why that is. They say it’s because it’s got a built-in MIDI port. And then others say, “It’s a little less sophisticated, the MIDI gets shuffled a little bit.” I don’t know what it was, but there’s a natural feel to programming on an Atari that is hard to get now from a Mac. Definitely, you can’t get it from a PC, as far as I’m concerned. I’ve heard about some interesting bits of equipment, like ideas about importing your MIDI files into your MPC to get that kind of old school swing back in your music when it’s all feeling a bit square.