MUSIC INTERVIEW: MIKE RELM
Talking With the Turntablist as He Ventures into Studio Stylings
Mike Relm, the notorious DJ of style and grace has worked with Mike Patton, Blue Man Group and even Skate Wizard Tony Hawk has recently been busy on a new venture. However, he's not been too busy to sit back and chat it up with Buzzine.
Louis Elfman: Obviously, the big news is your new album which came out last week. It’s your first strictly studio album, which is a pretty big departure. What prompted this?
Mike Relm: It’s something I’ve been wanting to do for a while now. I’ve done a lot of mixes and a few DVDs, but nothing I could really say was fully my own. As a DJ, I can make a mix and people like it, and that’s cool, and you can call it guilt or whatever, but I know it’s not 100% me. People actually come up to me and ask me, “What’s your favorite playlist?” So when I see what people like DJ Shadow, Cut Chemist, or Z-Trip are doing when they play their own songs at a show, it’s really kind of cool. I’ve DJ’d for over ten years now and it’s a huge part of my life, but as an artist, there comes a time to explore new things. This is the next step. After having toured with someone like Mike Patton, who makes amazing music, it’s really very inspiring — it makes me want to make music that is exactly what I want to hear. People come to my shows because they like the mixes I did or they caught a video on YouTube, which is great, but I really want to explore the possibilities where I sit down and do something without sampling. When I told people that I was going to do an album, they said “Hmmmm… Are you going to copy Shadow?” A lot of people thought I was going to do that sort of thing. I mean, I definitely look up to him and it’s great to even be thought of in the same way, but the fact that people even said that told me I really needed to make this album.
LE: Was it a difficult experience?
MR: Not really. We used a lot of the tools I’ve used for remixes, and I have a friend who’s a recording engineer, which was perfect. But the tough part was that the bulk of it was made on the road. Most of it was files that were bounced back and forth via e-mail or even IM, because everyone is always on the road — Morningwood was in the studio recording their album in New York City, Del was bouncing around, Mr. Lif was always away… I was lucky enough to get Lateef [the Truthspeaker] while he was in town, as well as Adrian Hartley, although even Adrian we had to record in a hotel room.
LE: Really? You recorded her in a hotel room? Well the production sounds great!
MR: Thanks! When we were mixing it, I originally wanted this record to sound a lot more expensive than it actually is, but most of it was just files bounced back and forth, until finally I came home for a few months and finished it up.
LE: So is your live show totally different because of your new album?
MR: I think it compliments it, but it’s not a huge departure. If you’ve seen me before, you’re not suddenly going to think, “Man, is he on drugs? What the hell is he doing?” It’s more like me upgraded –Mike Relm 2.0. Different but still familiar — you’re not going to be lost. But my show is definitely a little longer. The old one was a solid hour, and now it’s more like an hour and a half. In this new set, the opening — the first 20 minutes — my goal is to do everything you could possibly do on a turntable. A lot of people start off slowly and build, but I want to take them for a ride. It’s pretty non-stop. The visuals are even more important now.
LE: The video component is a fundamental aspect of the Mike Relm experience, and it’s obviously something you’ve got a lot of interest in. I think it’s fair to say you’re just as much a video artist. Is the visual becoming as important as the music for you?
MR: Well, it will always be about the music — it’s been my background forever. But on the new set, I’d say they’re about 50/50. Before, there were parts where there was no video, but now there are visuals on everything. I just want something attached to every musical piece. I actually went to school to be a director, but then I kept getting too many gigs. I’d definitely like to get more into directing. I want to do a short and hopefully, some day, a feature. I’m just looking for the right story to tell, but I haven’t been able to sit down and write anything. If I did, it would probably be about a DJ who’s always on tour and whose relationships crumble. [Laughs] I think film is the ultimate form of entertainment because you’re engaged. You can’t watch film passively. With music, you can do different things to it: go for a walk, cook, work out, whatever… But to really get something out of film, you have to sit down and give it some attention. You have to grab people. And having done so many live shows, I know how to read an audience. I see people reacting in all these different situations.
LE: What was it like directing the video for “Every Time”?
MR: I’ve directed other stuff before — some stuff for Clown Alley and I did a couple music videos years ago, but this I was really proud of because it tells a story and it worked way better than I expected.
LE: It looks really great. Doing it all as a single take was pretty ambitious. Why did you challenge yourself like that?
MR: I knew it had to be a one-take. Something about the song — it just had to be a single take. Also, I really like single-take shots. If you’ve ever seen the Brian De Palma movie Snake Eyes with Nicolas Cage, the opening scene is about a ten-minute single take. It’s one of the longest continuous shots in cinema, and it’s absolutely amazing how they do it. There is so much stuff going on, so many people doing different things in the background for so long… And knowing there would be a bunch of creative people watching this, I knew it would be something they’d appreciate — all that work of everyone being perfectly synched up.
LE: The surprise ending also doubles the impact of the video; not only is it a single take, but it also goes in a completely unexpected direction.
MR: Especially these days, when everyone’s attention span is so short — myself included. If I’m not interested in something by the end of the first minute, I lose interest. Most of the things you watch online are only about 30 seconds long, but you still laugh your ass off. Five minutes is a lot of time these days, especially in entertainment. So I wanted it to be something where, if you actually watch it all the way through, there is kind of a reward because you get a surprise ending. We actually struggled with that for a while. I really needed that surprise ending. It needed to have a punch-line, and we didn’t come up with it until about two days before we were scheduled to shoot.
LE: New studio album, renewed interest in video… Are you trying to move away from being a DJ?
MR: Yes and no. I’m definitely trying to move away from being typecast. It’s probably kind of how an actor feels if they’ve been doing slapstick comedies for too long. It’s not that I don’t like the shows and gigs I’ve been doing. It’s just nice to be able to do new things. I mean, even the visual element is DJing, but that is such a broad umbrella. Most people, when I tell them I DJ, they think it’s either hip-hop, turntablism, or electronica. Well, I kind of do that and I have this visual thing which is DJing, because I control it with vinyl. But it’s not like going to a club or going to a wedding. It’s really a show. It’s a weird thing to say, because if people ask me, “What do you do?” if I don’t think they’ll get it, I’ll just say, “I’m a DJ.” But if I think the person is really going to feel it and understand it, then I’ll go into it and say, “I scratch with visuals and music and it’s all synched up. It’s all live and I don’t have a name for it, but I think you’d like it…”
Mike Relm’s new album is called Spectacle. Check it out on his website. He will be on tour through November, so be sure to check upcoming dates and showtimes for your chance to experience the madness for yourself! You won’t regret it.
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