Since emerging as a teenaged DJ-wunderkind in the mid ’90s, Eric San, AKA Kid Koala, has always pushed himself to be different. His debut was a dizzying multilayered, hand-cut affair, a technique he’s since parlayed into stints with funk group Bullfrog, spaced out hip-hop all-stars Deltron 3030, and a soundtrack to his own graphic novel. Now the Montreal-based turntablist has teamed up with friend and fellow DJ Dylan “Dynomite D” Frombach as The Slew, creating a dirty-blues rock record built out of hand-cut samples with a rock-star assisted live show. Four and a half years in the making, San describes the group’s debut, 100%, as “sludge-Blues a la The Bomb Squad.”
Contrary to popular belief, the project was not borne out of a soundtrack offer. San and Frombach met back in Seattle in 1998 when the former was on tour with the Beastie Boys as part of Money Mark’s band. “We’d always thought about doing a full-length record [together] and discussed for years what that would be.” The soundtrack offer came several months after they started working on what would become 100%. “[The Director] needed amped up, testosterone-y music. We just kept working on this Slew music and see if it fit with their thing,” he explains. “We thought we’d kill two birds with one stone.” With the record done and the doc stuck in limbo, San and Frombach decided to forge on ahead. “We’re not waiting around for you dudes,” jokes San. “We’re slow enough as it is.”
Along for the ride is Chris Ross and Myles Heskett, the former rhythm section of Aussie rockers Wolfmother. The duo had enthusiastically followed the Slew’s progression for over three years. “Every time I would see them, they’d be like, ‘What’s up with The Slew? Is it finished?’” While they didn’t get a chance to play on the record, they are part of the band’s ambitious live show, which boasts six turntables and 80 pieces of show vinyl along with their bass and drums. And that’s the scaled back version. San originally figured that it would take eight DJs cutting on 16 turntables to properly recreate the album. “We thought more and more about it… and we realized that was probably close to impossible,” he concedes. “Secondly, it would probably look too bizarre and cerebral onstage.” Since they had made a rock record, he says, they figured they should put on a rock show with a live rhythm section.
When it came time to choose who to tap for their tour, San recalls a conversation with Frombach saying, “‘Well whoever it is, they better play as good as Chris and Myles.’ And I was like, ‘Yeah that would be bad-ass.’ And then Dylan said, ‘Maybe we should ask them.’” That Ross and Heskett agreed still surprises San. “Those guys… they roll on a whole different level,” he says. “They’re Grammy award-winning rock stars.”
“The whole album has been a longshot,” he says, recalling a similar conversation he had about mixing the record while listening to the Beastie Boys So Whatcha Want 12-inch. “It’s got to hit this hard,” he remembers. “Whoever does the final mixes has to be like Mario C.” At which point, Frombach chimed in, “Hey, maybe we should ask Mario C.” They sent the tracks to the Beastie Boys producer who liked what he heard. Soon San and Frombach found themselves in L.A. working on the final mixes. “We were pinching ourselves the whole time. ‘Is this happening? This is crazy.’”
Of course, all of this work would be moot if the marriage of the two styles came across like some lame Nu-Metal re-tread. “Chris and Myles obviously know how to play together and they sound good,” says San. “I knew we’d have all our parts pretty much locked. The real X-factor was could we get the two worlds to blend correctly. Even when we picked them up from the airport we were like, ‘Okay, hopefully this will work.’” Within minutes of getting into their rehearsal space all fears were put to rest. “It was like, ‘Oh yeah. This will work out just fine.’”
With The Slew’s initial two week run of mosh-pit inducing shows behind them, San is looking ahead to a European tour next Spring and, he hopes, another North American tour in the summer, once again with Ross and Heskett in the line-up. “We’ve talked more about it and we think we’re going to try and record a second album with bass and drum parts for them,” he adds. In the meantime, San is looking forward to making less decibel-busting music. “I’m working on something now that’s almost like lullaby music.” he says. “I’m gonna do a show where everyone has headphones on and a bean bag they can chill-out on.”
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[...] Kid Koala + Wolfmother = The Slew I interviewed Eric San aka Kid Koala before the holidays about his new blues-rock/hip-hop group The Slew and their record 100%. The story is up over at URB.com for your reading pleasure. Check it out… [...]