APSCI: Sterosubversion Interview During 'Best Crisis Ever' Release Days
The globally-influenced music of ApSci blends an always interesting fusion of synth-pop, hip-hop and dance floor rhythms. And if that sounds like a busy mix, that’s because it is.Raphael “Ra” Lamotta and his Dana Diaz-Tutaan made their first brushstrokes on the mainstream canvas with 2005’s Thanks For Asking on Quannum Projects, the impressive San Fran-based hip-hop label. That initial project featured Tunde Adebimpe of TV on the Radio, Mr. Lif and label mates like Pigeon John and identified ApSci as a duo to watch. And then, they went silent.Now four years later, they have some explaining to do. And here in this Stereo Subversion exclusive, both Ra and Dana sit down to tell us their journey from Thanks for Asking to their new disc, Best Crisis Ever. In between, they discuss the new world music emerging and why Ra needs to be more careful when making their own music videos.
SSv: Where are you two at right now?
Ra Lamotta: We’re in New York right now and we’re just traveling through. We were in Australia last month and we’re still doing some shows in the city, working on some new remixes and also shooting some final footage for our new video for “Crazy Crazy Insane.”
SSv: The new single?
Dana Diaz-Tutaan: Yeah, the new single. It’s miniatures and stop-motion which is a lot of fun but it’s really time-consuming. [Laughs] If you bump the set, which is what Raphael did the other day, just by walking by the tripod and bumping it accidentally, it messes up the whole shot. So as you can tell, I got really upset. [Laughs] Now any time he walks near it, I’m like, ‘Be careful!’
Ra: I have to put out a public apology here. I better resolve this issue. [Laughs]
Dana: So yeah, it’s a lot of work, but people are responding really well to it. The extra effort that we did put in will pay off.
SSv: It’s been a few years since the last album, so how do you go into this one after taking such time off?
Dana: If anything, it’s been really good because it’s allowed us to really let go of that and create something that’s not reliant on the last record. It’s almost like we’re new artists.
Ra: We really wanted to break from the sound on the last record. There was a lot of material that we had been working on and I would say that we came up with about four or five times the amount of songs that finally made the record. We started recording in Brooklyn but then we moved out to Australia and we continued to record there. But we were happiest with the more recent batch of material, so that what made the final record.
SSv: Can you tell that’s changed – what made the final cut? In other words, are there things about the songs now that have to be present to make the cut that wasn’t true on the last album? Ra: I think the energy got ramped up in the last six months. I don’t know what it is. We live in a phenomenal area in Sydney where we’re right by the beach. A couple friends joked and said we had to make a surf record. There’s definitely a lot of aggression in it but it’s also a lot of fun. It’s hard to put into words beyond that, but I just think we cut loose a lot more.
Dana: Yeah, I just personally needed to get out of New York. I was somewhat jaded and it affected my music. But as soon as we set up shop in Sydney, vocally I think I just came back as well. And I think that’s reflected in these recordings.
SSv: You were jaded by the New York scene or urban life or…
Dana: When it boils down to it, I was born in Philippines – a sleepy, sunny country. Then I moved to Papua New Guinea until I was five – another sleepy, sunny country. Then I grew up in Australia to a certain age – and again that’s another sleepy, sunny country. So being in New York in the winter and where everything is concrete is just difficult. It was good to be there and the city was fantastic, but we had to get out every now and then just to get my priorities. Living by the ocean for two years really did it for me. So now I’m ready to go out. It’s good. I just really needed that break.
SSv: Have you always been that affected by your environment as artists?
Ra: That’s harder for me to answer because I lived in New York for 15 years. I would say the city definitely had a huge influence on me. I came into the city as a suburban kid in New Jersey. I was making suburban punk rock and that was going good for a few years. Things were starting to take off. But I became so disillusioned with that kind of sound, that kind of ethos, I guess. I was so much more fascinated with the city and diversity in New York and the open mics in Harlem and Brooklyn and jazz music and the music in the park. I just started to feel I was in a larger world. So it changed my music dramatically when I first moved into the city.I think you’re bound to be influenced by your environment, but I think the record has more to do with us working stuff out from our experiences everywhere. We have traveled a bit. We just went through Southeast Asia and Australia and Europe and I think all of that comes into play.
SSv: A lot of that comes out even in the video for “Under Control.” The global perspective really seems to inform the music.
Ra: Definitely.
Dana: Definitely. Even just my musical influences growing up, I used to listen to African chants and obviously jazz and old standards. But the chants were a big influence on me. I grew up in Papua New Guinea as well, as I said, and the harmonies you hear there with choirs singing is beautiful and rich and full. That was definitely a big influence for us.
Ra: I grew up on the East Coast and my town was pretty diverse, so it was unique in that way. The music I grew up on was mainly hip-hop and rock and then I discovered jazz on my own. As far as a world perspective, I don’t see us as a world music group, but there’s a new kind of thing that’s happening. I think there’s a new world music. It sounds like a terrible title, but if you look at what Bondo Do Role or even M.I.A. there’s a whole new pocket of music and the sound is startling. It’s original. For us, our travels do inform our experiences in a large way. I don’t know if I could put into words how it informs it without over analyzing it, but it definitely makes it much more energetic.
SSv: You mention the video and it seems to go with this idea that artists have to be creative on all fronts in this current era. Is that exciting for you or is that tiring to have to operate on several levels like…
Dana: Yes. Let me just break in and say that. Yes, it’s exhausting. [Laughs] At the same time, it is really rewarding. When we catch up with other artists, they’re just making music and they have to find a videographer to make something and I see how difficult it is for them to lock somebody down, I feel really blessed. We didn’t plan it to be this way, but it all just sort of stuck together like this. It works out really well because we are a production. So it is rewarding but it is really exhausting. You only get four hours of sleep sometimes and you’re like, ‘Where did whole day go?’
Ra: True. Or it’s that way for several days in a row.
Dana: Yeah.
Ra: The animation on this new video takes about an hour per bar.
Dana: No, it’s more. A lot more. [Laughs]
Ra: You’ll spend the whole night shooting and you’re done with half a chorus. It’s just about rolling up your sleeves and doing the dirty work and we find there’s a lot of rewards in that. So it’s exciting.
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The globally-influenced music of ApSci blends an always interesting fusion of synth-pop, hip-hop and dance floor rhythms. And if that sounds like a busy mix, that’s because it is.Raphael “Ra” Lamotta and his Dana Diaz-Tutaan made their first brushstrokes on the mainstream canvas with 2005’s Thanks For Asking on Quannum Projects, the impressive San Fran-based hip-hop label. That initial project featured Tunde Adebimpe of TV on the Radio, Mr. Lif and label mates like Pigeon John and identified ApSci as a duo to watch. And then, they went silent.Now four years later, they have some explaining to do. And here in this Stereo Subversion exclusive, both Ra and Dana sit down to tell us their journey from Thanks for Asking to their new disc, Best Crisis Ever. In between, they discuss the new world music emerging and why Ra needs to be more careful when making their own music videos.
SSv: Where are you two at right now?
Ra Lamotta: We’re in New York right now and we’re just traveling through. We were in Australia last month and we’re still doing some shows in the city, working on some new remixes and also shooting some final footage for our new video for “Crazy Crazy Insane.”
SSv: The new single?
Dana Diaz-Tutaan: Yeah, the new single. It’s miniatures and stop-motion which is a lot of fun but it’s really time-consuming. [Laughs] If you bump the set, which is what Raphael did the other day, just by walking by the tripod and bumping it accidentally, it messes up the whole shot. So as you can tell, I got really upset. [Laughs] Now any time he walks near it, I’m like, ‘Be careful!’
Ra: I have to put out a public apology here. I better resolve this issue. [Laughs]
Dana: So yeah, it’s a lot of work, but people are responding really well to it. The extra effort that we did put in will pay off.
SSv: It’s been a few years since the last album, so how do you go into this one after taking such time off?
Dana: If anything, it’s been really good because it’s allowed us to really let go of that and create something that’s not reliant on the last record. It’s almost like we’re new artists.
Ra: We really wanted to break from the sound on the last record. There was a lot of material that we had been working on and I would say that we came up with about four or five times the amount of songs that finally made the record. We started recording in Brooklyn but then we moved out to Australia and we continued to record there. But we were happiest with the more recent batch of material, so that what made the final record.
SSv: Can you tell that’s changed – what made the final cut? In other words, are there things about the songs now that have to be present to make the cut that wasn’t true on the last album? Ra: I think the energy got ramped up in the last six months. I don’t know what it is. We live in a phenomenal area in Sydney where we’re right by the beach. A couple friends joked and said we had to make a surf record. There’s definitely a lot of aggression in it but it’s also a lot of fun. It’s hard to put into words beyond that, but I just think we cut loose a lot more.
Dana: Yeah, I just personally needed to get out of New York. I was somewhat jaded and it affected my music. But as soon as we set up shop in Sydney, vocally I think I just came back as well. And I think that’s reflected in these recordings.
SSv: You were jaded by the New York scene or urban life or…
Dana: When it boils down to it, I was born in Philippines – a sleepy, sunny country. Then I moved to Papua New Guinea until I was five – another sleepy, sunny country. Then I grew up in Australia to a certain age – and again that’s another sleepy, sunny country. So being in New York in the winter and where everything is concrete is just difficult. It was good to be there and the city was fantastic, but we had to get out every now and then just to get my priorities. Living by the ocean for two years really did it for me. So now I’m ready to go out. It’s good. I just really needed that break.
SSv: Have you always been that affected by your environment as artists?
Ra: That’s harder for me to answer because I lived in New York for 15 years. I would say the city definitely had a huge influence on me. I came into the city as a suburban kid in New Jersey. I was making suburban punk rock and that was going good for a few years. Things were starting to take off. But I became so disillusioned with that kind of sound, that kind of ethos, I guess. I was so much more fascinated with the city and diversity in New York and the open mics in Harlem and Brooklyn and jazz music and the music in the park. I just started to feel I was in a larger world. So it changed my music dramatically when I first moved into the city.I think you’re bound to be influenced by your environment, but I think the record has more to do with us working stuff out from our experiences everywhere. We have traveled a bit. We just went through Southeast Asia and Australia and Europe and I think all of that comes into play.
SSv: A lot of that comes out even in the video for “Under Control.” The global perspective really seems to inform the music.
Ra: Definitely.
Dana: Definitely. Even just my musical influences growing up, I used to listen to African chants and obviously jazz and old standards. But the chants were a big influence on me. I grew up in Papua New Guinea as well, as I said, and the harmonies you hear there with choirs singing is beautiful and rich and full. That was definitely a big influence for us.
Ra: I grew up on the East Coast and my town was pretty diverse, so it was unique in that way. The music I grew up on was mainly hip-hop and rock and then I discovered jazz on my own. As far as a world perspective, I don’t see us as a world music group, but there’s a new kind of thing that’s happening. I think there’s a new world music. It sounds like a terrible title, but if you look at what Bondo Do Role or even M.I.A. there’s a whole new pocket of music and the sound is startling. It’s original. For us, our travels do inform our experiences in a large way. I don’t know if I could put into words how it informs it without over analyzing it, but it definitely makes it much more energetic.
SSv: You mention the video and it seems to go with this idea that artists have to be creative on all fronts in this current era. Is that exciting for you or is that tiring to have to operate on several levels like…
Dana: Yes. Let me just break in and say that. Yes, it’s exhausting. [Laughs] At the same time, it is really rewarding. When we catch up with other artists, they’re just making music and they have to find a videographer to make something and I see how difficult it is for them to lock somebody down, I feel really blessed. We didn’t plan it to be this way, but it all just sort of stuck together like this. It works out really well because we are a production. So it is rewarding but it is really exhausting. You only get four hours of sleep sometimes and you’re like, ‘Where did whole day go?’
Ra: True. Or it’s that way for several days in a row.
Dana: Yeah.
Ra: The animation on this new video takes about an hour per bar.
Dana: No, it’s more. A lot more. [Laughs]
Ra: You’ll spend the whole night shooting and you’re done with half a chorus. It’s just about rolling up your sleeves and doing the dirty work and we find there’s a lot of rewards in that. So it’s exciting.
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