Emmerald: What’s your MC’s name and what tracks do Rasiyah and Yolanda sing on?
Domu: His name is Trauma. I have known him for at least 15 years and he has only appeared on one other
release--Phlash 3000 “Starstruck” on Estereo in 2003. He is working on his debut hip-hop LP. Rasiyah sings on “Arrival” and “Like This”. Yolanda sings on “So Precious”, “Stay Away” and “Its You”.
Emmerald: What do you look for when working with a vocalist?
Domu: An understanding of the track and a feel for all good music, the ability to warm up quickly, to write un-cheesily and to do it in one take! No, that last one is never possible, but the more prepared the better.
Emmerald: What’s your working style in the studio? When a singer comes in to work with you, what can
he/she expect?
Domu: I find it better that they have had some time with the songs. I’ll listen to their ideas and then work on a compromise. If neither side is too protective, then often a compromise leads to a better track. Any primadonnas can f**k right off now. I don’t deal with vocalists with egos, cos when they have done their bit, I’m the one that does all the editing and mixing, plus I wrote the track in the first place. But if they are cool, we can go through the whole process together. We can collaborate and do something new and interesting. I always hope to push a vocalist to a
performance they wouldn’t usually do.
Emmerald: What equipment do you use in making music?
Domu: I just have my computer and my keyboards really. I use Exs24 on Logic, but I still have an EMU e6400 I use for samples, and I have a Rhodes 73, a Juno 106, an Arp Omni2 and an Arp Oddysey which I use all the time. Every now and again I’ll change a board if I’m sick of it, but I’m pleased with the range of sounds these boards have at the moment.
Emmerald: You’ve said that you are a DJ first. What are your DJ sets like? Is there a certain thing that you look for in a tune when you're thinking about putting a mix together? Do you tend to plan mixes or go with the flow?
Domu: I learn mixes at gigs. I have tried to practice a few at home lately, but when you try it loud you always mess up, cos it’s different. I like have a few little set pieces that change after a while, add some new ones, take away old ones. It’s hard to know where you lie between education and entertainment, ‘cos there is a lot of DJ snobbery. A lot of the U.S. DJs that toured the UK recently like Questlove and Wajeed were all criticised by nerds for playing too
party-ish. But my experience of the states, especially LA, is that if you DJ every night, this party style is the only thing that works consistently. You need the balance of things your crowd will know and things they won’t.
Emmerald: Do you find that kind of “DJ snobbery” mainly in the UK or do you see that around the globe? It seems like in the U.S., U.K. DJs get criticised for not playing party style with a bunch of records everyone's heard a billions times.
Domu: I find snobbery everywhere. It’s easy to say that you have heard Black Sheep’s “The Choice is Yours” or Pete Rock and CL’s “T.R.O.Y”, or even classic M.A.W or Mr. Fingers, a million times. But if we want kids to get into this sound, then they need to start at the most obvious like James Brown or Rob Base and E Z Rock, then work through to the deeper stuff to find more obscure records and breaks. When you find a DJ is bored of playing Lyn Collins’ “Think”, he starts to search for other records that make you dance, but they never have the same effect as the record you have been aware of your whole life and has memories attached. But it is lazy to play classics all night,
so that is why I often try to play a classic I have recently discovered alongside something new and deep, like Patrice Rushen’s “Number One” next to a Theo Parrish record, or something like that.
