Various: Interview - Joost
Interview with Solesides.com webmaster
We got the honor to be interviewed by a respected (Dutch) music / hip-hop website "Trouble Online"
- What’s solesides.com about?
The main focus of the site, of course, is the Solesides/Quannum collective (Blackalicious, Lyrics Born, Lateef The Truth Speaker and DJ Shadow) from the San Francisco / Bay Area, California (USA). But hip-hop wouldn’t be hip-hop if there aren’t collaborations with other (hip-hop) artists. This means, that all artists who, no matter in what form, are related to the Solesides/Quannum guys, make it to the solesides website.
Next to that, it also happens that I post things on the website that I think are interesting myself. For example; many visitors of the website are real ‘crate diggers’ and they manage to find the most interesting music at the most weird and interesting places. Often, they make a mixtape of the music they have found and I’m glad to mention about it. That’s all part of the crate digging / hip-hop culture.
- Why did you begin solesides.com ?
I began the site somewhere in 1997, not long after I bought DJ Shadow’s immense “Endtroducing…” album. Which, like with many people, ment a turning point in my (music-related) life. I grew up listening to my dad’s Soul, Jazz and Funk records. That’s part of me being so interested in music. ‘Endtroducing….” Summarized (and still does) everything that I love about music. When I came up with the idea of starting a website, it was all about DJ Shadow.
At first, the site wasn’t much more than one page with a couple of links to other DJ Shadow-fan sites. I kept on searching for info about Shadow and found out that he also was a DJ/Producer for the Solesides collective. Also, I noticed that there were many people blown away by his music. I bumped into a newsgroup and all members of it were big fans of DJ Shadow. Even DJ Shadow’s girlfriend (now his wife) was a member of the group. The people shared their knowledge about all sorts of music, mainly hip-hop. That was actually the period that caused me so being so enthousiastic about the crate digging and sampling culture. When the newsgroup had to shut down, I decided to add messageboards to my site to make sure the people from the newsgroup had a place to continue sharing their love for (hip-hop) music.
As time passed by, solesides.com got a couple of facelifts. Thanks to this and, even more important; adding more and more content to the site, the website became an important place for information about the Solesides/Quannum artists and Bay Area (hip-hop) music in general. The artists themselves confirm this; I’ve had the pleasure to meet them myself a couple of times. I must add that it is a big honor to get recognition from this legendary people; It’s not long ago that I went to visit DJ Shadow himself in San Francisco.
Because of the site and the messageboards, I get a lot of input and access to many new and interesting music. This alone is enough reason to run a music-related website. Next to that, it’s inspiring to see how far the Quannum people have come. Independently. Pure on their own strength.
They started doing music during their college years and managed to build AND KEEP a worldwide fanbase. Also, they still are working on their own personal and artistic growth. You can only have a big appreciation for that and you can only see this as an example for yourself. Their will (need?) to work is tremendously big and in my opinion, may be seen as the norm. For both artists and not-artists.
Finally, hip-hop is the culture that absorbs and brings all other cultures together. It’s my personal duty to add something to that community and to keep it alive. The solesides website is a good place for that. And yes, I’m fully aware that the website is a really small part of it all. But you have to do what you can do.
- Mention something about the site what you think people should know about.
Every now and then, I release a mixtape that contains new and not-so-new music that caught my attention in one way or another. Mostly, not in the last place thanks to the people at the solesides messageboards. The feedback I get on the mixtapes, is pretty dope. So I will continue to make them. There’s a link to the mixtapes on the main solesides page.
But also: This year, Lyrics Born, Lateef The Truthspeaker and DJ Shadow will release new music. Both Lyrics Born and DJ Shadow had to deal with some criticism after their last releases. But for both, this was the release where they showed and proved to be working on their production qualities. Therefore, the year 2010 will prove to be the come-back year for them.
- Are there any new artists you think people should check out?
Definitely. Of course, there are many awesome new artists so it’s almost too hard to choose, but let me mention two:
The first one is Kidkanevil. Kidkanevil is the DJ/producer for the band Stateless (Leeds, UK). Stateless, who have worked with Jim Abiss (sound engineer for Arctic Monkeys, DJ Shadow and Kasabian and more), will release their second album this year. Kidkanevil has just released his third solo album, which is called “Basho Basho.” The beats on this album are, to say the least “addictively good” – Listen to one of the tracks from that album here: http://kidkanevil.bandcamp.com/track/when-doves-bounce
The second artist is Arts The Beatdoctor (Utrecht, The Netherlands). During the early “Endtroducing…” days, Arts visited the same websites as I did and he posted messages on websites and messageboards that I visited as well. When he released his “Transions” album in 2007, I was sold. Not long after that we met again, in real life. In 2008 he released his “Progressions EP” which shows his growth as a producer. Listen to the track “Meditate” from the EP here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4ptLq_sQm0- -
Any music blogs you want to mention about?
Yes. I’ll keep it short here, because the content of the sites speaks for itself: http://www.soul-sides.com http://www.earfuzz.com http://www.soulstrut.com
- Anything else you’d like to share?
Yes. “Stop Complaining” (Lyrics Born) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-T5taMs0niA
Interview with Solesides.com webmaster
We got the honor to be interviewed by a respected (Dutch) music / hip-hop website "Trouble Online"
- What’s solesides.com about?
The main focus of the site, of course, is the Solesides/Quannum collective (Blackalicious, Lyrics Born, Lateef The Truth Speaker and DJ Shadow) from the San Francisco / Bay Area, California (USA). But hip-hop wouldn’t be hip-hop if there aren’t collaborations with other (hip-hop) artists. This means, that all artists who, no matter in what form, are related to the Solesides/Quannum guys, make it to the solesides website.
Next to that, it also happens that I post things on the website that I think are interesting myself. For example; many visitors of the website are real ‘crate diggers’ and they manage to find the most interesting music at the most weird and interesting places. Often, they make a mixtape of the music they have found and I’m glad to mention about it. That’s all part of the crate digging / hip-hop culture.
- Why did you begin solesides.com ?
I began the site somewhere in 1997, not long after I bought DJ Shadow’s immense “Endtroducing…” album. Which, like with many people, ment a turning point in my (music-related) life. I grew up listening to my dad’s Soul, Jazz and Funk records. That’s part of me being so interested in music. ‘Endtroducing….” Summarized (and still does) everything that I love about music. When I came up with the idea of starting a website, it was all about DJ Shadow.
At first, the site wasn’t much more than one page with a couple of links to other DJ Shadow-fan sites. I kept on searching for info about Shadow and found out that he also was a DJ/Producer for the Solesides collective. Also, I noticed that there were many people blown away by his music. I bumped into a newsgroup and all members of it were big fans of DJ Shadow. Even DJ Shadow’s girlfriend (now his wife) was a member of the group. The people shared their knowledge about all sorts of music, mainly hip-hop. That was actually the period that caused me so being so enthousiastic about the crate digging and sampling culture. When the newsgroup had to shut down, I decided to add messageboards to my site to make sure the people from the newsgroup had a place to continue sharing their love for (hip-hop) music.
As time passed by, solesides.com got a couple of facelifts. Thanks to this and, even more important; adding more and more content to the site, the website became an important place for information about the Solesides/Quannum artists and Bay Area (hip-hop) music in general. The artists themselves confirm this; I’ve had the pleasure to meet them myself a couple of times. I must add that it is a big honor to get recognition from this legendary people; It’s not long ago that I went to visit DJ Shadow himself in San Francisco.
Because of the site and the messageboards, I get a lot of input and access to many new and interesting music. This alone is enough reason to run a music-related website. Next to that, it’s inspiring to see how far the Quannum people have come. Independently. Pure on their own strength.
They started doing music during their college years and managed to build AND KEEP a worldwide fanbase. Also, they still are working on their own personal and artistic growth. You can only have a big appreciation for that and you can only see this as an example for yourself. Their will (need?) to work is tremendously big and in my opinion, may be seen as the norm. For both artists and not-artists.
Finally, hip-hop is the culture that absorbs and brings all other cultures together. It’s my personal duty to add something to that community and to keep it alive. The solesides website is a good place for that. And yes, I’m fully aware that the website is a really small part of it all. But you have to do what you can do.
- Mention something about the site what you think people should know about.
Every now and then, I release a mixtape that contains new and not-so-new music that caught my attention in one way or another. Mostly, not in the last place thanks to the people at the solesides messageboards. The feedback I get on the mixtapes, is pretty dope. So I will continue to make them. There’s a link to the mixtapes on the main solesides page.
But also: This year, Lyrics Born, Lateef The Truthspeaker and DJ Shadow will release new music. Both Lyrics Born and DJ Shadow had to deal with some criticism after their last releases. But for both, this was the release where they showed and proved to be working on their production qualities. Therefore, the year 2010 will prove to be the come-back year for them.
- Are there any new artists you think people should check out?
Definitely. Of course, there are many awesome new artists so it’s almost too hard to choose, but let me mention two:
The first one is Kidkanevil. Kidkanevil is the DJ/producer for the band Stateless (Leeds, UK). Stateless, who have worked with Jim Abiss (sound engineer for Arctic Monkeys, DJ Shadow and Kasabian and more), will release their second album this year. Kidkanevil has just released his third solo album, which is called “Basho Basho.” The beats on this album are, to say the least “addictively good” – Listen to one of the tracks from that album here: http://kidkanevil.bandcamp.com/track/when-doves-bounce
The second artist is Arts The Beatdoctor (Utrecht, The Netherlands). During the early “Endtroducing…” days, Arts visited the same websites as I did and he posted messages on websites and messageboards that I visited as well. When he released his “Transions” album in 2007, I was sold. Not long after that we met again, in real life. In 2008 he released his “Progressions EP” which shows his growth as a producer. Listen to the track “Meditate” from the EP here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4ptLq_sQm0- -
Any music blogs you want to mention about?
Yes. I’ll keep it short here, because the content of the sites speaks for itself: http://www.soul-sides.com http://www.earfuzz.com http://www.soulstrut.com
- Anything else you’d like to share?
Yes. “Stop Complaining” (Lyrics Born) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-T5taMs0niA