One of the most prodigious music producers of the last ten years, Dan 'the Automator' Nakamura has worked with everyone from the Beastie Boys, The Eels and Dr Octagon to Primal Scream and Company Flow.
As well as being a classically trained violinist, he is a Gorillaz member and one half of Handsome Boy Modelling School (with legendary studio auteur Prince Paul). One of his best mates is DJ Shadow, who recorded his ground-breaking debut album 'Endtroducing' at chez Automator.
Here Nakamura talks to Sinéad Gleeson about sampling, the first albums he bought and flying to Texas just to buy records.
Sinéad Gleeson: Your musical resumè is very wide-ranging: DJ, producer, remixer, engineer and musician. Did you stumble into this career or was it a life choice?Dan the Automator: I started playing classical violin at three years of age. Don't mistake that for me being a prodigy, it was more because my mom forced me to! I've always loved music but I never wanted to be a guitar player in a band because I always bought a lot of records so it made more sense for me to become a DJ. The more I learnt about that the more I started thinking 'Maybe I can edit records or do remixes' but I didn't really know that kind of career existed until I looked into it.
SG: Did one particular genre/type of music influence you?DTA: Well I suppose I'd say hip-hop, it was the influential one, and definitely my favourite. At the same time, I loved pop music so I still bought the latest Michael Jackson records. I think I actually bought ALL the music that was out there at that time, pretty much whatever I could get my hands on. I mean, the first three albums I bought were Earth, Wind and Fire's 'All'n All', the soundtrack to 'Saturday Night Fever' and Chuck Mangione's 'Feel So Good', which I still love.
SG: You've worked with Company Flow, Dr. Octagon, The Eels, Cornershop, Primal Scream, DJ Shadow. When deciding to get involved in a project, what's the hook for you?DTA: When I decided I was going to be a producer I knew it would be as a rap/hip-hop producer and I did that, but I'm not that into what's going on with hip-hop at the moment, and it's not really into what I'm doing. So I've reached the point where people come to me with different projects - I decide based on what I'm interested in at that time and I what I like.
SG: This diversity is mirrored in the line-up of your latest project, Gorillaz (also including Blur's Damon Albarn and Tina Weymouth formerly of Talking Heads and The Tom-Tom Club). How did it come about?DTA: It was primarily through Damon Albarn that it all kicked off. I always found Blur an interesting band because they're a rock band but they use drum machines and keyboards. Conversely Damon has a pretty wide musical taste and he was into the same stuff as me so he contacted me and told me about his idea for the Gorillaz. We'd never played anything to each other but I also thought the set-up of Blur was very forward thinking. Truthfully, I’m more attracted to that kind of music so literally the next day I agreed to get involved.
SG: You use a lot of samples in your work, are you the kind of vinyl junkie who spends hours rummaging around in record shops?DTA: I like drum samples a lot, they’re a big part of what I do, but these days I don’t sample as much as I used to because it just gets too expensive! On the Handsome Boy Modelling Album, (Prince) Paul and I sampled music on four or five songs that ended up costing us a quarter of our budget. I go back along with DJ Shadow and we’re neck and neck when it comes to buying tons of vinyl. We’ve even taken plane trips to Texas to buy records, y’know?
SG: There are contributions – vocally and otherwise - on the first HBMS album from Moloko’s Roisin Murphy, Sean Lennon and The Beastie Boys. Is there anyone who you’d like to work with or anyone you’ve convinced to appear on the next record?DTA: The first album was more of a friendly affair, in that we went through our collective phone books for collaborators rather than trying to make contact with people through managers or labels. I tried to contact Bjork but that didn’t end up happening. For the next record, we have some people lined up you may be able to guess at. We toured with Radiohead but I can’t confirm or deny if Thom Yorke will be appearing. (Laughs).
SG: So what projects are you currently working on?DTA: I’ve been working on my own record called ‘Music To Make Love To Your Old Lady By’ which is a love song record that isn’t, with vocals from Jennifer Charles and Mike Patton from Faith No More. It just so happens that this is going on at the same time as the Gorillaz, and with Zack de la Rocha [formerly] from Rage Against The Machine - and we start the next Handsome Boy Modelling School album hopefully in September.
Dan the Automator plays Dublin’s Temple Bar Music Centre on Friday July 6th as part of the Tommy Boy 20th anniversary tour with Afrika Bambaata and Maseo (De La Soul)
