Kicking off their promotional tour at SXSW, Amp Live and Zumbi—collectively known as Zion I return with their sixth album, The Take Over. Having whittled down their latest effort from 40 to 30 songs, the Oakland duo feels that this project represents the pinnacle in their critically acclaimed career. Check out what these forward thinking artists had to say about their Take Over mentality, the art of the remix, other projects they have in store, and the importance of experimentation:
URB: Since you guys dropped your first project in 2000, you guys have remained very consistent. What do you think has allowed you guys to remain so consistent after so many projects and so many years?
Amp Live: We really try just keep things edgy and pushing it. I am always making music, and Zumbi is always rhyming, so there is a certain standard that is always going to be there.
Zumbi: Before we dropped our first album, we had been through a lot already. We had been signed to a major label when we were in Atlanta. We went through the trials and tribulations of being on a major label and working really hard for two years and having nothing to show for it. It helped us make our minds up of what we were going to do. We had been through the nonsense of we were going to get real famous, hella rich, and have all these breezies. All of that was kind of behind us and we just focused on the music. We just had our minds focused.
URB: I understand that one of the reasons you called your latest project the Take Over was because it was the complete and best work you guys could do as Zion I. When you started working on this project, did you have this Take Over mindset and when did you realize that you reached the goal of this is the best?
Zumbi: The thing about us we record a lot of music, so even when we are done with an album we will have songs for the next one or ideas for it. I knew we wanted to have this bigger sound to the record, but I didn’t know it would be the pinnacle but as we started to work on the record looking at the different progression of the songs, like we did DJ, DJ three or four times. Amp did the beat like three times, and I had to rock the rhyme like two or three times, so as we started to go through that process of refining things, it felt like a different process and that’s when I thought that this is really the best we could do right now as human beings because we are not perfect. At this moment this is the best we can do and the next one will be even better.
URB: So you feel that you have set the bar even higher for the next project?
Zumbi: Yeah I really do. It is interesting some people really seem to love it and others are not used to hearing us like this, but I also realize that when are first album came out, hella people were frontin on it, “Oh what is this drum & Bbass shit? What are you guys doing? Why are you doing that?”, but now people refer to it as a classic, so it takes time for it to grow on people and for people to get what you are doing. I think the next album we will have to go even deeper.
URB: In terms of the creative process, how as the creative process changed over the years?
Zumbi: When our first album came out, the songs on that album were a collection of songs from over three and a half years. We were just making music, and we choose the best music from that period of time. Now the grind is heavy. You can’t just make an album every two years or every year. You have to be engaged with the fans. You have to do blogs. You have to do contests. Those conversations we have are important because we don’t have three years to concentrate to do this epic work. We will say we have the next eight months to finish a project and that keeps us focused. And, me and Amp have different tastes musically. Sometimes there are things that he likes that I don’t and there are things that I like that he doesn’t, so those conversations help us get tuned in.
URB: Speaking of contests, you guys have a remix contest for “DJ, DJ”, have you had a chance to check out many of the submissions?
Amp Live: Yeah, there are some tight stuff.
URB: Since this is a track that you have already done, when you listened to these submissions are you ever surprised about the direction they might have taken it?
Amp Live: Oh yeah. I think that is one of the coolest things about music today. When people always ask me about who my favorite producer, it always changes and most of the time I don’t even know that person’s name. I think it is the time for people just be overly creative. I guess the problem is you still need to know how to make a hit song. A lot of the stuff I was doing with my remixes would lend itself to the Zion I projects. I think would really meant more wasn’t what I was doing but who I was remixing. For the Radiohead thing, I just wanted to make it an old school, hip-hop style and chop it up. Most of the time, when someone does a hip-hop mix today, they are using Pro Tools sessions and its all clean. I thought it would be ill to flip it up on a real hip-hop type of way. The vibe of hearing them in this new way adds to some Zion I songs, not all, but some songs. The group loved the album that is why it finally got released because it approved it. The label approved it because it provided a different point of view on the album.
URB: You probably exposed them to a whole new audience as well.
Amp Live: Yeah and honestly that is a lot of the feedback I have been getting as well. Radiohead is so humongous you wouldn’t think that they would need that but for certain people hearing them in a new way made them want to go out and get that album, which is cool.
URB: Have there been any formal discussions about working together?
Amp Live: I think at first there were, but it has been awhile. I think after this Zion I campaign dies down a bit, I will reach out to them because I know they have some new stuff coming out, so next time we can do something more official with them. What is crazy about that whole ordeal is that I do official remixes for people all of the time. I just didn’t realize that was going to happen with this project. This time around it would be cool to do it official with them.
URB: Amp, you have done your share of remixes, including Radiohead’s “In Rainbows,” you have stated before that you dig groups outside of the hip-hop genre, with all of the cross genre work taking place these days, who are some of the artists you are interested in remixing or working with?
Amp Live: The biggest remix last year, after Radiohead, was the Tokyo Police Club with Aesop Rock. I just did something with the Submarines. I mess with groups that I think are tight. Right now I am starting to work more on my own albums. In terms of remixing, I am down to remix any group that is tight, big or small, but right now I am really focused on finishing up my albums.
URB: What can you tell us about those projects?
Amp Live: I have three or four albums coming out. I have the second volume of Electric Wonderland coming out. I did the first one three years ago, and it was all Drum N Bass, and this time it is more house/dance. It is basically my view on electronic music at this point. It is like a stamp in time. I love all different types of music, but this is just my thoughts on it and that will probably drop in May. Then I have a remix project that I can’t really say much about, which will be dropping this summer. I have an instrumental album coming out later in the year.
URB: All of your projects seem very distinct.
Amp Live: Yeah, when I was going up I played drums, piano and the organ in Church, and then I would go listen to Skate Punk with my friends. I would play drums in rock groups and listen to a lot of hip-hop. It’s been a combination of everything for me, but now I am able to do it professionally.
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