Caspa interview

[OxyKon]

7 Nov 2011

Caspa interview

Posted by Miranda

CASPA (Gary Mcann) is the dubstep revolutionary behind the labels Dub Police, Sub Soldiers and Storming, he’s been responsible for breaking in artists such as Rusko, Emalkay, Trolley Snatcha & The Others, he’s remixed Deadmau5, Miike Snow, Swedish House Mafia , Depeche Mode, Kid Sister and Adam F & Horx feat Redman and now the Dopest Ghost in Town is about to hit Aussie shores again for Stereosonic 2011, our contributor Kat Gray had a chat with him.

Hi Caspa where are you calling from today?

I’m in my studio in Waterloo; the embankment in London.

Now I’ve heard about your studio; an air raid shelter?

That was my old one. My new studio is different, I’ve been there for like a year. Do you know Peter Waterman? He’s done Kylie Minogue, Jason Donovan, Rick Astley and all those guys. It’s his old studios basically and he rents them out now. So there’s about six of us here now. We’re opposite the Big Ben in central London so it’s a nice location.

You’re going to be coming to Perth playing for Stereosonic. Traditionally you kinda stick to your dubplates. Can we expect a lot of dubplates  this Stereosonic?

Well I kinda moved off the vinyl now. I’m playing on CDJs because it’s just too much hassle. Stereosonic last year was one of them. So I had 50% of the sets were quite difficult because they were outside and it was quite windy and then you’ve got the records jumping and there’s feedback on certain places so it was tough but yeh, Im on CDJs now so it’s less stress. But dubplates, as in tunes that no ones got, yeh there’s tones so I’ll definitely be bringing that like I did last year when I was there.

Your tour schedule is pretty hectic and people only see the Caspa on stage, but what about behind the scenes, like sleeping in airports and then dropping tunes a few hours later, staying in hotels all the time, how does that affect your home life?

I don’t really have a home life to be honest. I mean it’s the best job in the world because you get to travel the world and get paid for it and you get to play music you love. Which is all obviously a bonus. So I’m not ungrateful for that. But I would say it’s not as glamorous as people think it is. There’s a lot of time where your constantly in airports and on planes and constantly traveling. Going to the airport and getting on a plane is just like someone else getting on a bus and going to work I s’pose. Mine’s just a few hours longer, but I mean it’s worth it at the end of the day.

In your new video clip for your Fullham to Waterloo track, with the taxi at the end, is that showing how it’s just another day at work?

Yeh basically, the idea for that track was kinda what we were just talking about. It’s about the taxi driver, what he has to go through on a Friday night and then kinda what I have to go through. So the two parallels of our life in the same video which I thought was a good idea. Fullham is where I live and Waterloo is where my studio is. It’s kind of a day in the life of the cab driver going from Fullham to Waterloo and all the craziness along the way. So it’s kind of in relation to what we were just talking about.

Adding to that craziness, the London riots, did that affect you at all?

It affected everyone, as in obviously what happened, you know, jobs and homes. It was awful. It wasn’t just riots, a lot of people lost their homes and their property. On that side of it, it was awful. On the other side, it was bound to happen at any time. The tension was building; for years and years it has been.

Your family, they’ve been really into music as well. And I can imagine there’s some interesting discussions when you all get together. How have they influenced your musical creations? Do you bounce ideas off them?

When I was living at home it was a lot easier because they would hear what I was making and all that kind of stuff. More so now, my Dad, he just wants to come to a lot of my gigs. And he does. He comes to Fabric and a few of the festivals with me in the UK. And so has my Mum as well. They’re really into music which is great. My brothers are into it. But the main thing they always talk to me about, is if something sounds terrible or if something sounds stupid, they always mention it to me.

As well as being really talented yourself, you have a knack for recognizing and fostering amazing talent in other artists. Do you have any advice for up and coming producers?

Someone just asked me that question, it’s probably the most asked question I get. And I always say, if you wanna make it, don’t be copying someone else’s sound. You can go on Youtube and find out how to make different people’s kind of bass lines and all that stuff. It’s great to sort of know how to use the instrument and the plugin. But as far as you copying other people, you’ll just sound like a watered down version. So if someone’s trying to be like Tupac & rap like Tupac and sound like Tupac. You’re just going to sound like a watered down version of Tupac. So why would you want to do that? So my main thing is, know what your influences are; know what inspires you; go and find that. And most of the time its not in the sound your making. It’s outside. I don’t listen to a lot of dubstep in my personal time; I listen to everything but dubstep and that’s what inspires me.

So what are you listening to at the moment?

What did I have in the car the other day?.. I had Kanye West instrumentals from his first two albums, a Prodigy CD and I had a H-Town CD; H-Town are an old R&B soul group from Houston in the 90s. So nothing to do with what I do but I just like to listen to the instruments and how they put stuff together and the kinda beats they use; I think it helps me in my music.

It adds something different to the genre?

Yeh it’s the random stuff. I’ve got so much random stuff like techno stuff, I even like hardcore or gabba; I don’t care, I listen to it. There’s always something in music for me that I find inspiring and that triggers something in my brain to sort of use that kind of idea . So yeh, I don’t listen to dubstep to try to copy other people; I just do what I do.

That’s what I could see in your other interviews, just your level of passion for music; you just love what you do.  

Yeh definitely, that’s right; I wouldn’t change it for the world to be honest.

But before you got into music you were a basketball player. In the transition from basketball to music, because you had a serious injury and you couldn’t keep playing, how long did it take you to pick yourself up again and decide that music was the thing you were going to do?

It was really hard because once you do something you love so much and it becomes part of your life like your routine. I was playing basketball 5,6,7 times a week you know; every day, I was like living and eating and breathing basketball. So when something changes so dramatically from doing something and you stop, it was actually quite depressing to be honest. And it’s like ‘aw what am I gonna do?’ Cuz all my energy and all my focus and all my dreams were in something that I loved so much and now I cant do it. But I’ve always loved music and it’s always been like I said, and you said, a part of my family. I just kind of thought ‘you know what, Im gonna get into DJing’. I bought myself a pair of decks and started to make a few mix tapes for my friends and then it really just progressed from there. It was a way to focus all my energy and all my time into something else and that’s kinda what I did. So I went from that, to that. I kinda took it to the same level as I did with basketball. Because when I finished playing basketball I was playing for England and I had a scholarship to an American high school, so it was going really well you know?  So basically, I just switched my energy from one thing to the other and that’s what I’m doing now.

Whats the main thing that you’re really excited about at the moment?

I think my main thing is playing people my album and just seeing their reaction I s’pose. But it’s playing it to my friends and family and my close ones; people who mean something to me do you know what I mean? And just making them turn around and going “Whoa thats pretty sick”. For me that’s what I’m looking forward to the most. Cuz I know its good; the album, and I’m not the kind of person who brags too much, but I know it’s good and I know its solid, and I kinda just want someone else to put a stamp on it to say “yeh actually it is pretty good”.  So that’s what I’m most looking forward to.

Can you tell us what your album title means Everybody’s Talking Nobody’s Listening means   

The album title basically is at the point where dubstep was getting ready to really blow up it was 2008; just after id done the Fabric CD and I was just writing an album. And I kind of felt like people were just talking about dubstep and about how it was gonna be so big and how it was gonna be this and that and just talking about it so much, and people would, you know, go online. Like it’s the same thing now. People are really hyped up and overrated and talked about, “aw they’re the next big thing”. But actually, what does anything mean if there’s nothing to listen to?

So it was kind of like “the proof is in the pudding?”

Yeh exactly. The music will do the talking . I haven’t got to tell you how good it is, I’ll just press play; If you like it, wicked; if you don’t you don’t. It’s like anything, the proof’s in the pudding isn’t it?

 

CATCH CASPA @ STEREOSONIC FESTIVAL

SYDNEY – NOVEMBER 26th @ SHOWGROUNDS

PERTH – NOVEMBER 27th @ CLAREMONT SHOWGROUNDS

MELBOURNE – DECEMBER 3rd @ SHOWGROUNDS

ADELAIDE – DECEMBER 3rd @ BONYTHON PARK

BRISBANE – DECEMBER 4th @ RNA SHOWGROUNDS

Tags: caspa , caspa interview , dub police , gary mcann

[Jaz]

Awesome interview dude, did you do the interview or taken from somewhere else?

[OxyKon]

haha i wish nah i found it on a website

http://www.dubzone.com.au/

[JonnyB]

nice post man! + rep that shit!