Archive for April, 2009
Interview with Talib Kweli
DJ Matt Werner’s interview with the hip hop artist and CEO of the Blacksmith Label Talib Kweli was recorded on March 3, 2009, and originally aired on Fresh Air: The Alternative on March 10, 2009.
In the interview, Talib Kweli answers rumors about a future Black Star reunion with Mos Def, and he talks about balancing his role as both an MC and the CEO of the Blacksmith Label, his upcoming second Reflection Eternal album with DJ Hi-Tek, Jean Grae, Strong Arm Steady, his Party Robot album, how he defines himself as an artist, Nina Simone’s Four Women, President Barack Obama, the evolution of hip hop, Auto-Tune, and many other exciting topics. The show also features an introduction by Joe Sciarrillo.
A PDF of the transcript of this interview can be downloaded here.
For more on Talib Kweli, please visit http://www.talibkweli.com/and http://www.yearoftheblacksmith.com/
You can download this podcast from iTunes by clicking here, or:
(Right click and select “Save Link As” to download the large, 142 MB mp3 audio file)
To listen to the interview only, you can download the smaller mp3s in 2 parts: Part 1 (24 MB) and Part 2 (29 MB).
Click on the player to listen to the hour-long phone interview and feature on Talib Kweli.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Transcript for Talib Kweli Interview
Talib Kweli Interview
with DJ Matt Werner on Fresh Air: The Alternative
http://freshair.org.uk, http://mattswriting.com
Phone interview recorded on March 3, 2009, show aired on March 10, 2009.
The full hour-long interview and feature can be downloaded here.
A PDF of this interview transcript can be downloaded here.
DJ MATT WERNER: This is DJ Matt Werner on Fresh Air: The Alternative. We’re coming at you from Edinburgh, Scotland, and we have Talib Kweli with us on a phone interview. And so Talib, you’ve been very active this last year, and I’ve read most of the interviews you’ve conducted this last year online: on everything from your song about Lauren Hill, J Dilla, MCEO, and other projects, so I don’t want to repeat questions that’ve already been asked in these other interviews. But my listeners here in Scotland have had two main questions for you. One is on…
TALIB KWELI: Black Star?
DJ MATT WERNER: Yeah, Black Star.
TALIB KWELI: [laughs]
Award-Winning Interview with Saul Williams
DJ Matt Werner’s award-winning interview with the ground-breaking poet, musician, and actor Saul Williams was recorded on November 21, 2008 and originally aired on Fresh Air: The Alternative on December 9, 2008.
Topics and ideas discussed in the interview include Saul Williams’ third album, the Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust!, collaborating with Trent Reznor, esoteric religions, William Butler Yeats, poetry as an intuitive artform, what is beyond words, Walt Whitman, how we are so much more than how we are perceived, and Barack Obama. This hour-long phone interview and feature on Saul Williams also features much of his poetry and music, including: Sha Clack Clack, Black Stacey, Sunday Bloody Sunday, Wine, Twice the First Time, Release, Amethyst Rocks, 1987, and Children of the Night.
A PDF transcript by Korin McGinty of this interview can be downloaded here.
You can download this podcast from iTunes by clicking here.
For more on Saul Williams, please visit http://saulwilliams.com.
(Right click and select “Save Link As” to download the large, 139 MB mp3 audio file)
Click on the player to listen to the hour-long phone interview and feature on Saul Williams.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Interview transcript with Saul Williams
Saul Williams Interview
with DJ Matt Werner on Fresh Air: The Alternative
http://freshair.org.uk, http://mattswriting.com
Phone interview recorded on November 21, 2008, show aired on December 9, 2008.
Transcript by Korin McGinty, edited by DJ Matt Werner
This transcript can be downloaded as a PDF by clicking here
The audio of DJ Matt Werner’s interview with Saul Williams can be found here
DJ MATT WERNER: Saul, I was wondering if you could come on the line now and discuss a little bit about your latest album Niggy Tardust.
SAUL WILLIAMS: Sure, well the name of the album is The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust! And it’s a concept album where I am essentially exploring the idea and reality of liberation, of freedom, and what it means in the face of, or under the context of our existing definition of race, and how that relates to music and identity, and what have you.
It’s essentially a very danceable dialogue, you know, self-exploration, and the need to step beyond the boundaries imposed by society as far as what people come to expect of someone when they assume that they’re from a particular place or look a particular way or talk a particular way, or what have you. So yeah it’s basically me finding the freedom to just break out of my shell and make the music that I want to make regardless of the executive who says, “Well this doesn’t actually fit the formulaic mold of what we’re expecting from you, of what we would need in order to get this to these people over here.” It’s about just breaking those boundaries.
DJ MATT WERNER: How was it collaborating with Trent Reznor on the album?
Interview with hip hop artist Ise Lyfe
DJ Matt Werner’s interview with hip hop artist Ise Lyfe originally aired on Fresh Air: The Alternative on March 3, 2009.
Ise Lyfe wrote and performed in the best play I saw in 2008, a one-man play entitled “Who’s Krazy.” Having followed Ise’s early work in Youth Speaks since he was a teenager, I was excited to have a phone interview this author, educator, hip hop artist, actor, and community organizer from East Oakland, California.
In the hour-long radio broadcast, Ise Lyfe talks about the commodification of poverty related to the exploitation of black culture in the U.S., the BART police shooting of Oscar Grant, his latest album Prince Cometh, his forthcoming book Pistols and Prayers and forthcoming mixtape Take Them to School, the fears of Obama’s assassination held by people in East Oakland during the 2008 presidential campaign, and how Obama’s election is not the end of racial struggle in the U.S.
The show also features a dispatch from Joe Sciarrillo on the New Year’s shooting of Oscar Grant by a BART police officer in Oakland, California, and the subsequent protests. Amanda Mohammed speaks at the end of the show about her March 13, 2009 event in Berkeley, California raising awareness on the genocide in Darfur, Sudan.
For more on Ise Lyfe, please visit his websites: http://iselyfenation.com and http://www.myspace.com/iselyfe
(Right click and select “Save Link As” to download the large, 125 MB mp3 audio file)
Click on the player to listen to the hour-long interview and feature on Ise Lyfe.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Interview with hip hop artist Dahlak Brathwaite
DJ Matt Werner’s interview with hip hop artist Dahlak Brathwaite originally aired on Fresh Air: The Alternative on November 18, 2008.
In this 40-minute interview and feature on Dahlak Brathwaite, Dahlak discusses his Kanye West tribute album Commencement, touring with Ill-Literacy (his group with Adriel Luis, Nico Cary and Ruby Veridiano-Ching), his views on race in the United States, life after graduating from UC Davis, and Barack Obama. The interview also features 6 of Dahlak’s tracks and poems, including A Peculiar Evolution, Take It Away, Black Genius, Fight! Fight! Fight! (with George Watsky), Do It, and Never Know.
For more on this dynamic MC and spoken-word performer, musician, writer, and theater actor Dahlak Brathwaite, please see his websites: http://www.thisisdahlak.com/ and http://www.ill-literacy.com/
(Right click and select “Save Link As” to download the large, 84 MB mp3 audio file)
Click on the player to listen to the 40-minute interview and feature on Dahlak Brathwaite.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Interview with beatboxer Kid Beyond
DJ Matt Werner’s exclusive interview with beatboxer, singer, live-looper, and voice actor extraordinaire Kid Beyond originally aired on Fresh Air: The Alternative on November 25, 2008.
In addition to playing his live cover of Wandering Star by Portishead and I Shall Be Free off of his album Amplivate, the interview also features his voice-overs for video games like Call of Duty, Sims (and how he improvised speaking Simlish), Guitar Hero and American Idol video games, and Nokia commercials. Kid Beyond also showcases his impersonations of Barack Obama, Don LaFontaine, Thurl Ravenscroft, and many more.
This in-depth interview covers many topics, ranging from Kid Beyond’s beginnings as a performer in an a cappella group at Brown University, to joining The House Jacks, being signed to Warner Brothers and almost being made into a boy band, to his solo touring, live looping gigs, to his exploration of Buddhism and the inspiration for his song I Shall Be Free, as well as his work fundraising for Barack Obama in 2008.
For more on Kid Beyond and his EP Amplivate, please visit http://www.kidbeyond.com
Note: All of the male voices and music performed in this 50-minute interview (besides DJ Matt Werner’s voice) including the commercials, are done by Kid Beyond using only his voice and live looping. This interview was also featured on Human Beatbox.com
(Right click and select “Save Link As” to download the large, 109 MB mp3 audio file)
Click on the player to listen to the 50-minute interview and feature on vocal artist Kid Beyond.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Interview with spoken-word artist George Watsky
DJ Matt Werner’s exclusive interview with spoken-word artist George Watsky, originally aired on Fresh Air: The Alternative on November 11, 2008.
In this interview, rising hip hop sensation, writer, and performer George Watsky addresses his beef with Michael Cera, and his experiences performing on the Def Poetry Jam, and working with Robert Redford in sustainability. This podcast also features 6 of Watsky’s tracks and poems: Lonely Hearts Club, Half Jewish, Where the Sidewalk Ends, Fight! Fight! Fight! (with Dahlak Brathwaite), Run My Mouth, and his Michael Cera diss track.
Also, check out his website http://georgewatsky.com/ for some funny blog entries, like this one: The Whitest, Least Famous person performing at the NAACP Image Awards…. Also his popular stop-motion video for “I Got This Love” is below.
(Right click and select “Save Link As” to download the large, 89 MB mp3 audio file)
Click on the player to listen to the 40-minute interview and feature on writer and performing artist George Watsky.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Video of noted organist Matt Porter
I had the honor of meeting with accomplished University of Edinburgh organist Matt Porter as he practiced for an upcoming recital. Here is a video I captured of him playing part of Buxtehude’s Prelude from Prelude, Fugue and Chaccone in C Major on the organ. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNXJCXGNblQ
-
-
You are currently browsing the archives for April, 2009
