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apparently Photek scored "The Italian Job" and worked on the matrix as well... very interesting... oh, and hes working on a hip hop album *crosses fingers that he is better at hiphop then house* |
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bah... fucking nativeinstruments... the url doesnt change... well, i think the link is on the front page anways sorry about that |
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hmm..didnt know that...good for him! |
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If the Italian Job score comes out, I might get it. I'm a bit fan of film scores and of Photek, so that might really be good. |
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since I cant link it: A fixture on the UK jungle scene since the early nineties, Photek a.k.a. Rupert Parkes is best known for his role in developing the “intelligent” drum & bass genre. Over the course of his career as Photek, Parkes has developed a sound that is simultaneously individual, innovative and accessible, earning him much respect and popularity amongst critics and music fans alike. The strength of the sound finds foundation in Photek’s incredibly detailed drum programming, which is then augmented by his sophisticated sense for combining abstract sounds with jazz and classic techno influences. Recently Parkes has been more and more active in producing music for film, having worked on a number of scoring projects for upcoming features from his new home base in Los Angeles. His dedication to film scoring is evident, and his perfectionist attention to detail and tireless work ethic are quickly leading him to success in Hollywood. We sat down with Photek to talk about the career behind him, the career ahead of him, and the role digital technology and NI software plays in his working process. Interview by Bela Canhoto How long have you been working in LA and when did you build this studio? We’ve been here over a year and a half. We spend a lot of time LA. I'm out here working, not resting. We're not some restful aliens with green cards. I'm working on several projects, but it's the film scoring that brought us out here really. You're going to end up here if you really want to score. We also have a company out here called Ultima USA and “Photek Records” which is a UK company. Then we have a US label called “Do or Die” which is me and the guys from LOUD. Photek Records is really the mini label. What are you working on at the moment? I just did “The Italian Job”. It's a remake of the old Michael Caine film. It's a cool 60’s movie. It's with Mark Wahlberg and Mos Def and I did some music for the Matrix. Platinum is my new score. It’s directed by Kevin Bray for UPN/ MTV and |
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MTV and written by Sofia Coppola and John Ridley. I’m also working on a hip-hop album. It's the first time I've got this deep into hip-hop. I've done the first CD myself and that's in between rehearsals for Platinum, which is an hour episode every 2 days. There are six 1-hour episodes. So it’s been pretty hectic. (Laughs) It sounds impossible. I didn't sleep. The last month I had been sleeping about 2 nights every 3 days just to get it all in. How did you get involved with the Matrix? Through Jason Bently, I've known him for years from whenever I'd come and do personal tours and I'd pass through LA. So he's been really supportive of me since I started coming out. His office is just around the corner. I ended up doing did 1 piece for the movie. Then there's a new movie I’m working on called El Dorado. It's kind of like Raiders of the Lost Ark with Christopher Walken and the Rock. It’s an action/adventure with comedy. It's set in the jungles of Brazil. I'm scoring it with Harry Gregson Willams who did “Spy Game” and “Enemy of the State”. We’re working on it together since I'm going to be on tour during some of the composing. Photek in the studio with KONTAKT (enlarge...) It’s an interesting coincidence that your wife Miriam is an established film director. You’ve already created music for her film “Lost Blue Heaven”. Are there any other collaborations in the works? We literally got married and then worked on Unter den Palmen. That was 5 years ago. Lost Blue Heaven was on my last album on Virgin, Solaris, which also had the no 1 dance single “Mine to Give” featuring Robert Owens. What Native Instruments software do you use when scoring? I use Battery a lot, but Kontakt is really the main one. They all crosswork so easily. You can put almost anything into Kontakt. You can put almost any kind of file into it. I used Traktor when I had a little tour in September to December. I had Traktor on the laptop and I just put stuff in and looked at what worked with what. I'd b |
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I'd be at the hotel or the airport and just try out what tracks kind of worked together. It's pretty cool. What style of music will be featured on your new album and what software are you using to produce it? It's going to be like cutting edge hip-hop meets drum & bass. That's really what it is, and it doesn't stray off too much from that. I’m mainly using Kontakt, Battery, Logic, EXS 24 and Bombfactory compressors. There’s so much more I’d like to use, but I have to compare what sounds the best and can go with me like Kontakt and all that software. Especially since I'm going to be taking my laptop on tour in the summer and producing while I’m away. I was in Miami a few months back and with John from LOUD and Carson Daly and I did 2 tracks on the laptop with just Kontakt and Logic. What are your favorite features in Kontakt and Battery? With Kontakt, the best thing about it is the way they set up the key grid. You can literally load and lift the samples to key, simple as that. Take that and lift it onto a key and spread it out across the board. It's easy, and then there's the waveform. I don't know any other sampler where it's that easy. My favorite feature is just the ease of setting up the keys and then having the pretty extreme internal effects, like the distortions. Being able to pick that particular key, make it into a group, and add a distortion to it or put a harsh reverb on something. It’s so easy and the biggest issue for me is time. I’m really relying on software now, it’s 99% of what I’m using and I always reach for it first. When you work with tight deadlines you need these tools to make it possible and the ones that are too complex and difficult to use, I leave for another time, when I’ve got extra time. Usually I just reach for things like Kontakt. There’s no strange file system to worry about, because the other problem is just losing files when you’re in a hurry and making sure things are correctly formulated. I mean just the way that you save on Kontakt makes a huge diff |
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It can be in any folder, and you can just save the instrument. I don’t even worry about where those sounds are, as long as I don’t delete anything I can find them. I can even move folders around and it’s still easy to find them. It’s a cool file system because you don’t spend afternoons trying to work out where your sounds went. |
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How has software affected your approach to writing music? It makes you get into it quicker. With analog it’s like, ok, I got that sounding the way I want it, so I’m not going to touch it. I’m going to leave it like that. With software it’s easier to switch things right there, like to change chords more effectively. When you start writing a track, do you have a preconceived idea of how the final song will sound? Or do you begin by designing new sounds and build from there? What’s your mental process? Well there’s always something that makes you sit down and start to work. So, it’s kind of like an atmosphere or mood that you start from. I usually know right away if it’s going to be drum & bass or something downtempo. I start with a few sounds and play around and see what I get. Many times the final track doesn’t have anything to do with what I sit down to do. I start with certain sounds that make the overall feel of the track. And I used to always start with beats, and that would be enough of an indication, but these days I go more for sounds than I do beats, especially over the last year and a half. It may have something to do with the fact that there are a few house type tracks and many drum & bass tracks on the last album, and I didn’t start with beats. Drum and bass is always about the drums, drums first. I guess over the last year and a half I’ve done less of that than I have before. So I’ve had to take a different approach to it. You've worked with so many varied sounds over the years. When did you start producing and can you take me through the different styles you’ve developed over the course of your career? I started out in 1992. I'd say that I never really switched styles. They just came out of everything I've been doing. So the first thing I ever did when I started making music was hip hop beats, and I guess the reason why drum & bass exists is because people like me, hip hop heads in Europe, who didn't have MCs, were going out to raves. And that's how the music began for |
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for me, beats in a rave environment. Then I did a couple of techno tracks and I did something on the “A.R.T.” label. I did a drum & bass track and then a techno mix of that track. So at the time labels like Mo' Wax were bringing sort of trip hop in and techno tracks were getting drum & bass mixes, so I came in from the other way. A drum & bass track that had a techno mix. I also did some house tracks with Robert Owens, which were really Chicago house beats. That was in 2001. But lately I've been focusing on drum & bass and trying to keep focused. I think I want to define Photek as being about beats rather than all the other music. I started to realize that when I’d listen to my favorite producers. I want to hear a very particular thing. And I started to look at it from that point of view. You know, if you want to hear Derrick May, you want to hear Derrick May, not Wu-Tang doing techno tracks even though they really like it. (Laughs) So, I started to think about it in those terms a bit more and decided I should define Photek with the essence of what it was. What kind of music do you listen to on your own time and how does it affect your music? It’s usually hip hop, and it’s kind of like the usual suspects you know? The same people that always make one beat are always in my car permanently. Anything that the Neptunes or Timberland makes. The Trackmasters, Alchemists, those kinds of producers. It’s been the dominant influence over me always. That and techno too, but I don’t listen to techno now. It just doesn’t fit. I don’t listen to drum & bass because, well you start doing what everyone else is doing instead of doing something new. How important is the mastering process for you and why are you adamant about working with Stuart Hawks? Stuart’s like the cutting edge man, and that’s major. I don’t know what I’d do if he retired. I’d always go to him. I cut at a couple of other places till I came across him. And now it’s down to Stuart. I spend a couple of days with Stuart mastering stuf |
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stuff. And we’ve done some pretty innovative stuff even at the cutting process. Your music is very appreciated in the drum & bass scene although it does not feature a very obvious sub bass line, it has more pressuring features and a more intelligible mix than a lot of other productions. What is your secret? Caring about it. Laughs. Actually giving a f*** as to what it sounds like. I know a lot of people in drum and bass just bang it out. Who cares about it? It's got to sound good. It's not about making money, although I expect to make a lot of money, but the first issue is, is it good or not, and do we care? I mean that's part of the reason I wanted to get off Virgin. I've been on Virgin since '95 and just got off January this year. There's a load of politics that's got nothing to do with making music succeed. It's got nothing to do with music period. And it's just like I don't want to be in that environment. Music is like 24 hours when I'm doing it. And I'm working all out. I'm not sleeping. I may want to sleep and I might want to go on a holiday, but I don't do either because I care that much about what I'm doing, and I think that anyone who doesn't care that way should get the f*** out of the music business. For instance, I'm sure the guys that put your software together, they don't sleep. I’m sure the guys at NI work like crazy, the engineers. And personally, I don't want anybody other than those kind of people around. People that work at these record companies just want tickets to a party somewhere and get a pay raise and get their lunch break. They should go into another industry. This is about spirit. Music is a sacred thing for me. That’s nice to hear. Thanks so much for the interview. No problem, thanks for coming out. |
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great, some music coming out from photek that isn't awful. did he say he recorded music with carson daly? p.s. the tv show platinum is really lame |
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"Rupert Parkes is best known for his role in developing the “intelligent” drum & bass genre. " There wasn't much "intelligent" about Solaris. Anybody want a copy of the double vinyl cheap? |
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never even heard of "platinum" what is it? |
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show about a rapper-in-the-making.. really dumb |
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solaris sucked |
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I think they're more or less referring to Modus Operandi, which is good. Solaris was pretty bad. |
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his older stuff is amazing solaris... is not my roommate was actually listening to it yesterday, and was really into it... so... yeah... whatever floats your boat |
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