Mon, 07 Mar 2011 / Post a comment
R&B, funk, hip-hop and eighty’s tracks which we never immagined being blasts on the dancefloor, openairs made of happines and great music, love towards music, towards all kinds of music, desire of finding new ways to influence positively the dance scenery, these is Soul Clap. The couple, after meeting, created soul clap one of the freshest and interesting projects on the international scene. Set with other productors and djs who equally love music, they created what today is the sound of Boston. They made us fall in love with tracks like “Extravaganza” and with Eps like “Action Satisfaction”… Now they are going to release their new album, made of 27 tracks, 9 of which are inedited, with Wolf+Lamb: “Wolf+Lamb VS Sound Clap DJ Kicks”. “Lonely C” has already been charming us and while we wait for March 15th, date of release of DJ kicks, we decided to know more about Soul Clap!
Welcome on Soundwall!
Let’s start from the beginning: how was “Soul Clap” project born? What is the purpose of Soul Clap?
C: We first met in a cuddle puddle at a rave in Connecticut, USA in 1998.
E: Then we started to DJ together in 2001 and came up with the name Soul Clap on my mom’s porch, drinking 40s.
Where does your love for music come from?
C: Music has always been at the center of my family, but when it was my really my early teenage years that I became a fanatic. Thats when I was introduced to funk and soul and after attending a P-Funk concert when i was about 13 there’s really been no turning back.
E: My dad plays jazz bass and I would listen to him playing growing up. He also has an amazing record collection, mostly jazz, but also psychedelic rock and other stuff. When he wasn’t working he’d be playing or listening to music all the time, so I think that laid the foundation for my lifelong obsession with music.
We know that the music mixture you come from is made of Hardhouse, Jazz, R&B, House, happy hardocore partys and much more. How did these genres influence your current sounds?
E: For a long time we were trying to bring our house, funk and disco sound to the more hip-hop clubs in Boston, so we were making house versions of hip-hop, r’n'b and pop tracks. At the time I don’t think we were ready yet, so our sound really went more towards house and techno. Then people started to get into our edits and as we got better at production we built up the confidence and skill to go back and bring the funk, hip-hop and disco influences all together into our house sound. So it’s all come full circle today.
What do you think about the current Boston soundscape?
E: For the first time ever Boston really has it’s own dance music sound. It’s tough because there are so many awesome DJs in Boston, but there really aren’t a lot of good parties in the city and the only producers who came up are Kooky Scientist and Armand Van Helden (who left and blew up in New York). Now, the stuff that we’re doing, what Tanner Ross and Sergio Santos are doing and the music we all make together as SECT all has a really sample oriented drum sound with thick funk synths and basslines. We’re really trying to channel the New Edition vibe and I think it’s a sound the world has started to identify as our own.
What is your equipment set up when you make beats?
C: We’re based in Ableton and since we’re on the road so much we’ve become experts at making music on our laptops, MacBook Pro 13?. Typically we keep it in the box. We’re pretty sample-heavy but also get deep into the classic sounding software synths like Arturia’s Minimoog and the Korg Legacy series. But, when we’re off the road we can get into the hardware that we share with Gadi, like the Korg ms-2000 and Roland SH101 and our trademark Simmons Clap Trap. One other element that is key to our production set up is that we’ve pretty much done away with the conventional studio arrangement, like sitting at a desk with a everything in front of you. Instead we sit around on couches or set up the monitors at the foot of a big bed. We’re always kicked back and relaxing when we write music, its much more of a shared social experience.
What about the idea of using real instruments in your show?
E: We don’t really have any plans for live performance. We’ve always been DJs and that’s what we’re good at.
How was the armony with Wolf + Lamb born?
C: We first met Gadi and Zev at the Marcy hotel at an after-party for the famously dysfunctional Minitek festival back in 2008. We began trading music and talking a lot on skype after that and it was clear that they saw some potential in us. They really started mentoring us and helped us develop a lot as musicians, taking our production to the next level. They also started the sub label Wolf + Lamb Black specifically to release our edits which increased our profile. Nowadays we’re very close with Gadi and Zev, living together in Miami and working together daily. We’ve also helped them a lot, exposing them to new ideas and helping with the overall strategy of the Wolf + Lamb.
Is there a project, an experience that you have always had in mind and that you haven’t tried yet?
C: I’m thinking Wolf + Lamb vs Soul Clap, The Kosher Delicatessen. Now thats a Ruben!
E: If there’s one thing i get to do before i die it’s definitely walking on the moon!
Where does the “Dancing on the Charles” idea come from?
E: We started D.O.T.C. in summer 2007 just to have an outdoor party with bbq, music and some friends. It was next to the Charles River on the patio of an American Legion post (a place where veterans of wars can come together and drink and have social events) so it was really cheap to rent the space. The first party we had 150 people show up without really promoting or anything so we decided to do 3 more that summer and they kept getting bigger and bigger. The whole thing was really unique for the Boston area, a really diverse group of people all coming together to dance under the stars and people kept commenting to us that it felt more like a party in Europe because it was so genuine and relaxed. We got lots of press for our kick-off in 2008 and the city of Cambridge licensing commission decided they didn’t want the parties to happen anymore. It was crazy because the party went from 7pm-1am and we never had any problems or complaints, so it really shows how opposed the city is to cool cultural events. Luckily I grew up in Cambridge and have friends on city council so they helped us push it through. So we got all the proper licenses and had maybe 7 more parties that year and Urb magazine called us one of the best outdoor parties in the country. So 2009 rolls around and the license commission tries to stop us again with a whole new set of rules, we had to get an architect and lawyer, but we made it happen. Once again everything went smoothly and we even had DJ Harvey and Nicolas Jaar as special guests that summer. Then last summer the commission found a new way to block us, which was to threaten the post that if they rented to us they would shut them down permanently. There was really nothing we could do, we didn’t want the post to get shut down because it’s so important for the veterans to have that space, and we had the opportunity to live in Berlin for the summer so we took it as a sign. It was really sad for us to have to give up on party and 100s of people sent us messages asking how they could help, but my heart was really broken. We put so much work in to make our city a better place to live and they tried to stop us at every turn, not just with D.O.T.C., but with pretty much anything related to dancing. In the end the community is who really was hurt, because the city lost a really unique world-class party.
Can we consider it ended with the “The finale” edition in 2009 or are you going to create something similar?
E: Yeh, like I said, we fought for 10 years to make Boston a better place for dance music, but this really just broke my heart.
To conclude: give us a few key album that we can’t avoid to have in our collection!
C: Funkadelic – Lets Take It To The Stage, Goldie – Timeless, Dimitri From Paris – After The Playboy Mansion (Disc 2).
E: Tribe Called Quest – Midnight Marauders, DJ Shadow – Endtroducing and the Stacey Pullen DJ Kicks mix.
Thu, 30 Dec 2010 / Post a commentSoul Clap join me on the 2Deep House Show. Find out about their 90s Jam at the weekend and getting into a classic house and garage mix of 90s gems!
Hour 1//
1. Martin Dawson – In The City
2. Mr. G - Get On Down
3. Maya Jane Coles – Humming Bird
4. Bent - Swollen (Ben Watt Vocal Remix)
5. Huxley - Olive
6. Maya Jane Coles – Lookin’ Out
7. Karl Jefferson - Elements
8. Subb-An - No More
9. Mark Henning - Lucky J (Jamie Jones remix)
10. Jef K – Want You Back
11. Anthony Shakir – Detroit State Of Mind
Hour 2//
Exclusive Interview
SOUL CLAP
Guest Mix – SOUL CLAP
1. Theo Parrish - Took Me All The Way Back - Funded by MM
2. Lil Louis - Wargames - FFRR
3. Melvin Meeks - Drip Drop - Relief Records
4. Gener Farris - Show Your Feeling - 83 West Records
5. Johnick - The Captain - Henry Street Music
6. Raven Maize - Forever Together (Forever United Mix) - Quark Records
7. Gusto - Disco's Revenge (Mole Hole Dirty Mix) - Bumble Bee Records
8. The Buffalo Bunch - Buffalo Beats - Scratche
9. Black Sheep - Strobelite Honey (Def Version) - Mercury
10. DJ Sneak - You Can't Hide From Your Bud - Classic
11. Jodeci - Freek'N You (M.K. Dub) - MCA
12. Coolio - Ooh La La (Tuff Jam's Club Mix) - Tommy Boy
13. 24 Hour Experience - Together - Nice 'N' Ripe
14. Reality - Wanna Get Busy (Sneak's Busy Dub) - Strictly Rhythm
15. Chris Cuevas - Hip Hop (Masters At Work Dub) - Atlantic
16. J.M. Silk - Shadows Of Your Love (Acapella/Beats Mix) - DJ International
17. DJ Funk presents Houz' Mon - Deeper Side Of Me - Dance Mania
18. Armand Van Helden - Sell Deh Pussy - Stupid Fresh
