Peanut Butter Wolf talks to Nitricboy and evil:cat
Last month Budweiser and uber-wanky-style-mag Sleazenation put on their annual Soundclash tour with gigs in Edinburgh, Manchester and London.
Predictably, the line-up in London was unmitigated crap but the Manchester roster boasted a headline set by Peanut Butter Wolf himself. Emails were swapped, phone calls were made, credit cards battered and before you know it myself and Evil' are booked in for an informal chat with the Wolf himself.
(Please note if any of this transcript seems slightly 'off' bear in mind there was a free beer policy on the night which I fully exploited and although Evil was driving he sank enough Red Bull to incapacitate any lesser man.)
FTT: Well thanks a lot for agreeing to do this. PBW: No problem. Thanks for your interest.
FTT: So what brings you to the UK then, surely you're not here for this one gig? PBW: No. Well I did a gig last night and I'm doing Scratch in London at the weekend...but I enjoy coming to England, I like it here.
At this point we realise that the music echoing around the especially erected marquee we're in (don't ask) will probably win out over PBW on my antiquated Dictaphone so PBW volunteers to get up and unplug the amplifier...which he does...only to have it plugged back in again by a barman who obviously doesn't recognise a turntablist/producer extrordinaire when he sees one unplug his amp.
PBW: Oh well, I'll just have to shout.
FTT: So tell us about your recent bowling trip across the states. How did that come about? PBW: Well, Egon wanted to go on a digging trip to top up his funk 45 collection so I said I'd tag along if we could go bowling as well. In the end we got through about a dozen cities from New York to LA and we bowled in every single one. It was fun. Egon picked up some great records and we got to meet some cool people.
FTT: What about this "Turntables by the Bay" LP you've contributed to? PBW: What? FTT: The "Turntables By The Bay" compilation with all the Bay Area producers on it. PBW: I’ve never heard of it? Am I on it? FTT: Well that's what we heard. It's got Shadow and The Picklz and Mix Master Mike on it and... PBW: I've no idea. I really don't know about it.
(We’ve checked since and he’s definitely on it! In fact, you can buy it on Amazon!)
FTT: Oh. Right. Well you’d better sort it out because you’re probably owed some royalties. Talking of which... (cheesy interview link) what’s your take on Napster? PBW: Everybody has a stance. Some of my artists are against it; I'm kind of for it. I guess I don't know enough about it to make an informed decision. Where I'm at right now I'd like to promote myself more. I don't think enough people really know about the music and for me the music’s more important and as I long as I have enough money to live you know. Like Metallica - I think they're set for life, I didn't understand what that was about and I think that was the general perception of them, which is why I think they lost a lot of their fanbase. People were like "What the fuck?".
FTT: I think most people just download a few tracks and then go out and buy the record. PBW: Yeah I’d rather have people download one song and then say "I like this artist I'm gonna go out and buy the album". From that standpoint it's really positive. It's just like mixtapes you know. If someone's gonna put my stuff on a mix tape I'm not going to say, "You didn't licence it..."
FTT: What does the future hold for Stonesthrow? Are you going to get bigger? PBW: Well, that's not up to me, that’s up to the fans. I think the support's growing and growing.
FTT: How many artists have you got at the moment then? PBW: I don't really know, I never really do the math on that. Whoever I like at the moment, I'll put out their record, you know.
FTT: Do you sign them to contracts? PBW: I'm starting to do more contracts now because a lot of times when you don't do contracts everyone has their own idea of what's going on, that's been a problem. I ran my label really relaxed for a long time, working only with friends and sometimes that'll ruin a friendship, if you think one thing and they think one thing. But if I had it my way there wouldn't be contracts because it is easier you know. I keep things pretty simple.
FTT: Is there anyone you'd have liked to signed to your label that you didn't get? PBW: Erm.... (long pause) ...no, I'm pretty happy with who I'm with right now because I don't have much time to promote a lot of different people.
FTT: What level would you like to take Stonesthrow to. I mean would you say Stonesthrow is underground? PBW: Well it is and it isn't. I mean, if you say Stonesthrow to the average person they’re not going to know what you're talking about, right?
FTT: Is promotion the really hard bit of the job then? PBW: Yeah, I think so. Staying organised and keeping up with all the different people. There's a lot of work that needs to get done everyday, you know.
FTT: How do you balance that? I mean you're over here now and your label is back over there. Have you got people back home doing the label stuff? PBW: I have now, yeah... I feel like I have a really good staff of people right now who I trust and who trust me... That's what I like too, I've been really careful about who I choose to work with, I didn't just pick the first person who came along.
FTT: Is that hard when you're starting out, saying no? PBW: Yeah it is, because when I was starting out there was so many people that I wanted to intern, just for the love of the music, and I value those people so much. If somebody's willing to do that that's a great thing.
FTT: Have you ever had to turn down a friend? PBW: I turn down friends a lot yeah, it's difficult. Because most of my friends are in the music industry, a lot of my friends are making hip-hop music, and a lot of my friends are from the Bay Area. But I think everyone goes their own direction at the end and they usually respect me and if they don't respect me then they're not really a good friend anyways.
FTT: What's the Bay Area like these days, because it's had a lot of press recently? PBW: It's an exciting place to be. I think the whole of California is. I mean, I just moved to Southern California from the Bay Area myself and there's a lot of stuff going on there, and there's a lot of stuff going on in the bay as well.
At this point we realise our time in the Vip marquee is well and truly up so thank-you’s are exchanged, a CD is hurredly signed and we’re ushered out of the VIP marquee back to our stash of free beers, where we wait patiently to witness a set of what we’re promised by the man himself will be a set of pure hip-hop 101.
Unfortunately, two records in to his set Peanut Butter Wolf is interrupted by the incessant wail of the fire alarm (probably a good thing as Evil’ and I were about to start culling the chattering wankers around us). Obviously we follow the correct procedure and stuff our pockets with beer before evacuating the building in an orderly (if slightly weighed-down) fashion. But standing around in the rain surrounded by tossers is not our idea of a good gig so we make our excuses and leave them to it.
Thanks to Egon at Stonesthrow, Kirsty at B-Original and of course Peanut Butter Wolf, for making this interview possible.
Peanut Butter Wolf talks to Nitricboy and evil:cat