Headphone Highlights: Gold Panda

De La Soul “Jenifa Taught Me”/“Potholes In My Lawn” (Tommy Boy, 1988)

The actual track is  called “Jenifa Taught Me (Derwin’s Revenge)”. Well, my name’s Derwin and it’s named after a guy called Derwin, and I’ve never met anyone else called Derwin before, so it was pretty amazing for me and I loved it. De La Soul were my favourite band or hip hop crew growing up, and I found out that they sampled a track called “Peg” by Steely Dan.

Steely Dan “Peg” (ABC Records, 1977)

And I also found out that my uncle was a big Steely Dan fan. He had a CD or a vinyl and he played it, and I was like, “Oh, that’s what De La Soul sampled.” [sings] “I know I’ll love you better”. Yeah, it was Steely Dan, and he’s a big Steely Dan fan, so it was pretty cool, connected on that level through Steely Dan. I don’t know all their stuff, but it’s just really, really nice songs, really good tracks, really, really well produced, and it just sounds great and he’s got an amazing voice. Yeah, it’s a lovely, lovely song. The lyrics are great.

Squarepusher “Massif (Stay Strong)” (Warp Records, 1997)

This song is from an album called Big Loada, which was classed by someone as ‘drill n bass’ when it came out. And I really liked it because I was into hip hop and he was using like the same breaks that hip hop producers were using, just his own version of kind of jungle or whatever was happening in dance music at the time. And I just thought it was incredible, and it changed my ways of wanting to make music, really. Or my style, I guess.

Michael Jackson “Bad” (Epic, 1987)

Next one is Michael Jackson “Bad”. Bad was the album, the first tape I bought when I was younger, and I bought it from a market in Peckham, I think, and I realised when I got home that it was just a copy. And the tape actually ran out halfway through the album. So, the tape they’d dubbed it to wasn’t long enough. I was so upset, and my dad went and got my money back for me, which was pretty cool. Yeah, I’m gonna have to stick with “Bad” because it was kind of bad that I got ripped off. [laughs]

Ryuichi Sakamoto “Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence” and “Father Christmas” (Virgin, 1983)

The next two are from Ryuichi Sakamoto. First is the theme tune from Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence, and it was a time when I was getting interested in Japanese music and culture, and I’d been watching a lot of animation. And I still haven’t actually seen the film Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence, but the music’s incredible, and it’s probably one of my favourite tracks. And it’s just the sound of the synth and stuff, just really great. It’s a really great theme and a really great melody. It just conjures up so many emotions. It’s great. I’d like to hear more stuff like that, but I’m not really sure where to search. I kinda feel guilty about my knowledge of music, actually. I feel like, compared to peers or friends, I don’t actually know that much, but yeah, I’d like to hear more stuff and find out what synthesizers he used for this track.

I saw an animation called Akira when I was like 14, 15, and since then I’ve just got more and more interested into Japanese things. I sold my record collection – I had a lot of hip hop and R&B stuff and some electronic music. It was quite good, actually, it was quite a good collection of music. I sold it all on eBay and paid for this Japanese diploma at the School of Oriental and African Studies in Russell Square in London. Did a year, and it was incredible. I got upper-intermediate level in a year: speak, read and write. Though you have to keep practicing otherwise you forget, so I’m hoping to brush up on it next year, it’s gonna be my New Year’s resolution to go back and try and revise everything. But yeah, just very interested in it, and I like the way Japan looks, really. Quite visual, so when I visit Japan, I like the way all the buildings look and the topography of Japan, really.

I like Ryuichi Sakamoto, he’s doing stuff now still. Yeah, it’s great to see someone really going into those realms of music where it can be quite experimental and different. It’s really interesting, I’m glad he’s still on top of his game, or whatever, with the piano and everything. He’s incredible, he’s a great musician. That’s something I admire because I can’t actually play any instruments.

Gold Panda “Parents” (Ghostly International, 2010)

I’d love to be able to play piano or something, and I don’t play guitar. Yeah. I mean, I played it on my album, but I don’t play. I was inspired by a song, by a band called The Shaggs, they’ve got a song called “Who Are Parents”, and The Shaggs were this 60s girl group who were very bad at playing, but their dad wanted them to be a girl band, and kind of forced them into it. And I think they had a lot of fun doing it, as far as I can tell from the songs, and I just thought, “Well, if they can’t play guitar, then I can’t, and I’m gonna make a track, too.” So, that was the idea behind “Parents”. So, I guess if I had to pick one from the album, that’d be the one I’d pick, is “Parents” from the Lucky Shiner album by Gold Panda. I never dreamed of doing a guitar track, and it’s there on an album. So, yeah, I’ve done it now, and don’t have to worry anymore.

Mobb Deep “More Trife Life” (Loud Records, 1996)

Next track is a hip hop duo called Mobb Deep, a track called “More Trife Life”, and it’s on the album Hell On Earth, which is probably one of my favourite hip hop albums. It was a time when hip hop was going through this period of being very in touch with R&B and a lot of vocalists and choruses and stuff. Mobb Deep made this album and the front cover was red flames with “Mobb Deep, Hell On Earth” written on it, and there was no pop in there. There was no catchy choruses, there was no R&B divas in there. It’s just raw, horrible lyrics about drugs, violence, gambling, whatever, revenge, dissing people. It’s so bleak, but it’s so amazing. And the production’s incredible, and that got me interested in sampling vinyl, which had a lot of noise on it and a lot of crackle, because there’s a lot of crackle on all their samples. And on this track “More Trife Life”, he tells a story about how he goes to see this girl, and she sets him up with some guys who are not too friendly with him. All the way through it, there’s this sound of a boat rocking in the docks, kind of this creaking sound. And it’s got nothing to do with the song. and that really inspired me to put sounds in my tracks that have nothing to do with the track. I really like that, that really inspired me. So, yeah, Mobb Deep “More Trife Life”. It’s probably one of my favourite hip hop tracks, off one of my favourite hip hop albums. Still listen to it quite a lot.

Asa-Chang & Junray “Hana” (Hot-Cha Records, 2001)

This one is Asa-Chang & Junray. I still don’t know much about this artist, I think this is the only track I know. It’s called “Hana”, which is Japanese for ‘flower’, or depending on how you pronounce the word, it could mean ‘nose’. Asa-Chang & Junray I’ve heard is just one person. And he’s called Asa-Chang and the computer he works with is called Junray, or maybe it’s the other way round. I don’t know if that’s a rumour, I don’t know if it’s true, but I thought it was a nice story to have… you know, that he’s approached this project like a duo, and there’s only him and a machine. So, I thought that was pretty cool.

Nina Simone “My Baby Just Cares For Me” (Charly, 1982)

This track is by Nina Simone, it’s “My Baby Just Cares For Me”. I wouldn’t say I actually like the track that much, but my family are quite close, and we tend to spend a lot of time together, and we have a lot of family parties, when there’s a birthday or something. This song is always played, and my aunt and uncle and my parents all dance to it, and my grandma. So, it’s a song that’s very close to me. When I’m drunk with them, I always sing along, too. But I don’t think I’ve ever listened to it outside of that atmosphere, actually. I think I’ve only heard it at my family parties, with my family. I don’t know, maybe I’ll look that one up and download it, see how it sounds on tour, maybe.

New Kingdom “Animal” (Gee Street, 1996)

Next one is New Kingdom, a hip hop crew by these guys who kind of seemed like they were dressing like cowboys, and living life on the road and carefree. I still don’t know much about that band either, but there’s a producer called Paul Epworth, who first played me that. It was when I was doing work experience at a studio in London called The Strongroom and he was working with my uncle, who was also making music. and I remember he lent me two albums, one was by a band called Rootless, I think? It was Rotten Wood For Smoking Bees, it was called. That was pretty good, but then he played this other one and it was New Kingdom, I think it’s Paradise Or Bust is the album [it’s called Paradise Don’t Come Cheap], and the track’s called “Animal”, and the lyrics are cool. It’s like “Animal is my favourite drummer/couldn’t get Kurt off my mind all summer”, and then something else about “I once had a picture of Jimi Hendrix with a pistol and a holster”. It’s just great, they were rapping about things that weren’t really hip hop related, really. The album’s really heavy and I think it could appeal to a lot of fans of rock music. Yeah, it’s great, it was like no other hip hop I’d ever heard before. It was pretty raw and quite different. All the beats were quite slowed down, there’s a slow pace to it. There were no upbeat tracks. And it’s the kind of thing you could imagine, they’re driving along in like a cadillac through the desert and there’s tumbleweed, and they’re wearing big cowboy hats and cowboy boots and just rapping about being on the road and living off the land and pissing by the tree – there’re some of the lyrics. Yeah, it’s great. Great album, great band. I don’t know what happened to them.

Platinum 45 feat. More Fire Crew “Oi!” (FTL, 2001)

The last one is More Fire Crew, which includes MCs Ozzie B, Neeko and Lethal Bizzle, or Lethal B. It was when grime, I guess, had just started, and no one really knew it was grime yet. Grime was kind of crossing over into the charts, and this was one of the first tracks, called “Oi!”. There’s just something really good about the track. The track’s really naively produced and very simple, but there’s just something about the track that’s just really accessible for a lot of people, I think. And it was a big crossover track into the charts. Which is pretty cool for these three guys growing up, making this music for the streets, basically. Yeah, it’s a great track, and it still gets played a lot today, and I think it’s been re-released a stupid number of times, as well. It’s like a classic track. Great track.