Shin-ski Special Interview

K = Interviewer
S = Shin-ski


K : Conglaturations for releasing the first solo album！
S : Thank you.

K : Was it long span for you to make the solo album?
S : Yes it was. I was planning to release this album since 4 years ago, but I didn't really have a clear image of what do I want to make. All I knew was that I want to make one full album. During that time, I kept making the beats. Everytime I finish making the beats, I chose to use that beats for either my solo work, or somebody's remixes.
Then about 2 years ago, when Othello came to Japan, he asked me if I've got any beats. I had so many beats with me, so we started to worked on it. That was my turning point. What did I realize was that"You can do it, if you try your best." Then I kept working little by little. On the other hand, I was working as
"Levitatorz" with DJ Ryow, "Shinsight Trio" with DJ Ryow & Insight, and I also worked on remix works. So I wasn't hurrying with my solo work. There were no expiration so it was good thing that I could work with my own pace.

K : I heard that you used to be a drummer before you started to make beats with MPC.
S : Yeah, I used to hit the drum from when I was 7th grade. I was in a band, the music was funk, rock, heavy metal, and pop. In that time, there weren't many drummers. One time, I used to hit the drums in 6 bands, and I was in studio for whole week. I seriously wanted to be a drummer in that time.

K : How do you sample the sounds?
S : What I do is that, I sample as many sounds as possible before I start making beats. If I buy 20 jazz records, I'll listen through every single records and then I start sampling. So sometimes I can't really remember which record did I sample.

K : How did you meet DJ Real, before you team up Martiangang?
S : He was one of my friend, when I first went to Boston. Real was a battle DJ, and I was a Track Maker, so then we just started to hang out. We exchanged music knowledge, I taught him electronica, and he taught me hiphop that I did not know. We deepen our friendship and teamed "Martiangang".

K : Is there anyone that you respect as a hiphop producer?
S : I respect Premier and Pete Rock, and the Beatnuts influenced me the most. I was always curious of that how can I produce drum sounds like theirs, especially drum sounds from the album "Stone Crazy".

K : Could you produce the good sounds by just listening?
S : It takes lots of time, but I could produce the good sounds by the end. I tend to listen each sounds separately, cause I used to be in a band. If you listen to the same beats over and over, you'll get to become aware of a little things, like difference of the hat sounds. It is important to research the other producer's sounds.

K : I have heard that you have lots of beats as Martiangang, and there isn't chance to release it. Is there any hardships for releasing?
S : Yes, I have so many beats as Martiangang, but it's old. It's been 4 years since I came back to Japan, I want to make brand new beats rather than releasing 4 years old beats. Sometimes I have a chance to hear my old stuff, I still think it's good, but I don't feel the freshness. We the producers will
listen to the same beats for over 200 or 300 times. When I finish mastering, I always feel that I want to make next beats.

K : You're featuring the famous artists in the album. When you first get to know such artists and nobody knows your name, was there any hardships working together?
S : When Electric asked me to make the beats, there were big pressure, because I had their album and I was one of the big fans. When I said that to Insight, he told me that "There is no worry, I ask you to make the beats beacause I knew that you can make one since the first time I heard your beats. You can do whatever you want." Insight definitely saved me from big pressure. It's actually up to the case, there is people who talks big, and there is people who will respect if you make good beats.

K : How often do you ask artists to put vocal in it? or how often does artists ask you to make beats?
S : In this album, I have asked couple artists, but most of the time the artists ask me to make one. There is always gossip around artists and they talk about the producers, and I guess I was one of them.

K : You lived in the States for 8 years and now you're living in Japan, how do you want to make your move?
S : What I had in my mind was that I wanted to success in Japan, I wanted all the Japanese HipHop fans to get to know me. I thought that I won't be able to success in foreign country before I success in origin country.

K : Do you ever want to go back to the States?
S : I want to go back for a vacation. Homeland is convenient to live. I would go there for a half year as longest.

K : Is there any artists that you want to work with?
S : Mast Ace for sure. I want to work with CL Smooth, too. Can't forget Kyojyu a.k.a. Ryuichi Sakamoto. I also want to work with Raul Midon, and try to produce a song without rap.

K : Do you have any goal in a music scene.
S : I want to be the real artist, which means having "artist" as my job. I want my special listening booth in CD store, too. One other thing is that I want to go all over the world as an artist.

K : Do you ever want to release CD in the States?
S : It's not that difficult to release CD in the US, but difficult part is that how are you going to spread my music after you've released it. If I'm going to be releasing in the States, I want to represent Japan.