A couple summers ago the Madman was in Berlin covering an upcoming music scene — a truly bad ass group of producers and artists including Shir Khan, Jahcoozi, The Tape, Al Haca, Chris DeLuca vs. Phon.o (CLP), and of course Modeselektor, who we’re clearly in love with on LIAS. Separately, and at times together, these guys were crafting a sound clearly outside of the minimal techno sound that to this day still rules that city with a mighty fist. They had balls, a shitload of bass, pristine programming, but the one thing they didn’t have was a name for this sound. One day I was interviewing RQM, the glue-like MC that’s dropped rhymes on nearly all of the above artist’s tracks, and he too was stumped for a name. After we said goodbye, I started walking towards my hotel when he ran back to me out of breath. “Hey, I thought about your question, about how to define our music,” he said. “And I’d call it Future Bass Music.”

And so it stood.

Since, other mags have dubbed it things like Nu Dub, but Future Bass seems to have stuck. Who knows if RQM, aka Lukasz Polowczyk, actually coined the phrase but that’s the first I’d heard of it. Anyway, the guy is way craftier than just some dude who makes up names — his style is unique, a sort of amalgam of smart wordplay and detailed storytelling that is sadly absent in modern hip hop. Moreover, he’s chosen to rap on music that few thought you could ride a flow on — he’s laced some truly futuristic shit. Last summer we told you about Miss Pacman (Exploited Records), and today he’s releasing Barely Legal (OMG!), which features original production by Marvin Suggs and remixes by Brain Matters, Bass Weazel and Filewile. Apparently, the track was inspired by our lastnightsparty and the work of graff maestro Tilt — the mastermind behinf the Bubble Girls photo series. Although living in Berlin for 6 years (after growing up in Brooklyn), RQM replanted himself 2 years ago in the decidedly warmer climes of Barcelona, leaving the frigid weather and colder architecture of Europe’s most important artistic city for the land of siestas and tapas. Is he any happier? Read below and find out!

Were you aware that people have latched onto the phrase Future Bass? For instance, I’ve read XLR8R and Fader label Modeselektor that. Do you think you coined the phrase?

I done forgot about all that, but yeah, I remember now – I literally ran after you to tell you : “we should call it Future Bass Music.” And you’re right it became a household name. I don’t know know if I can claim that, maybe it’s better for the music historians to trace it and tag it.

Read the rest of RQM’s interview (one of our best and most honest ever) after the Jump!

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So you moved from Berlin where you had a pretty established crew to Barcelona. Was that difficult?

Not at all – It was actually very necessary at the time. I really needed a break from the scene and the city itself, I mean I lived there for almost 6 years straight and I started to get numb to it and that state of mind is never good for art. Plus I wasn’t feeling where the city was going. The crusty DIY Berlin that I loved started to turn into a hipster Mecca and by default it became too flashy and too self-conscious. Money started to flow into the city and although I was happy to see all my creative people get at least a small chunk of it – creativity itself started suffering. Before all the people that I knew made art for the sake of art, music for the sake of music, of course we were all pushing to eventually break the commercial threshold, but we weren’t compromising. But once money started to flow the motivation, even if it was only on a subconscious level started to change – we started to make art for money. It was funny to see all this gritty street art that was ubiquitous finally move from the city walls into galleries. And at the same time all my peoples that were making music suddenly wanted to become Timbaland and started to jack his style to the letter, not realizing that it was the left-of-center and that I don’t give a fuck if it sells attitude that actually honed the world in to listen to them in the first place.

How did the music scene of Barcelona differ from that of Berlin? Which is better, and in which way?

I don’t want to knock Barcelona, it’s a cool city on many levels, but there is no music scene here per se. There are some very creative and forward-thinking heads around that struggle to push things forward, but there is no communication between them. And then there is the mafia style control over the club scene, where a couple of families run the majority of the clubs in the city and give really shitty deals to promoters. So promoters avoid taking risks and cater to the mainstream tastes. Before I came here I was looking forward to checking Sonar, but it turned out to be a huge disappointment – the acts they book are staple and you can see them in Berlin on the regular. And having the means to do it the festival does almost nothing to support the local sound. The local acts, with very few exceptions, get the filler slots for a 50-euro fee and a pat on the shoulder – I mean that metaphorically, but you know what I mean. It’s almost like Mutek Mexico, where the sole objective of the festival is to import the big names. But having said that, watch out for Beatspoke, Debilorhitmicos, Guillamino and El Chavo – one hundred percent Barcelona-home-grown and dope

How are the other guys in that Berlin crew doing?

I’m happy to say that all my people are on the rise. Shir Khan’s label Exploited is making some serious noise and is set to drop a weighty compilation in September with some shit on it that the world aint heard yet. The CLP’s are in Detroit right now producing Gangsta Rap, I’m not sure who the artist is, but it’s supposed to be large. Jahcoozi is still set on world domination and they’re finishing their third full length lp, I heard a few tunes and they’re massive and even more musical than the joints before. Stereotyp is globetrotting and promoting Kubo and trying to brand the style as Barefoot – hands down one of my favorite projects right now. And Al Haca is officially dead and we’re just discussing the possibility of burying it with a CD of unreleased tunes, and we got a million on the drive, and a book documenting this whole mad journey that we’ve endured together – but you never know with Al Haca, it’s sort of like the weather in Poland: straight unpredictable

What was it like working creatively in Barcelona? Is that where you recorded Barely Evil?

Funny enough all the tunes that I’m releasing right now, Barely Evil included, have been recorded in Berlin before the move. And although Barcelona didn’t push me on a creative level, it helped me to put my heart back into place as far as music is concerned and prepped me for recording the next LP. The concept is in place and I’ll be moving back to Berlin in October to put it all down on tape.

Who produced the new tracks? How did you meet them?

The usual suspects: Robot Koch, Marvin Suggs, Sirius Mo, Walera from Data MC, The Glue Kids etc. Berlin Bass Mafia in full effect!

Is this part of a soon-to-be-released larger album coming out soon?

It’s funny cause this collection of tracks was originally going to be my full-length debut and in a way it’ll be still be that. But the thing is that after I dropped the first single, which was “Miss Pacman”, I figured since the average lifespan of a record in terms of media exposure is something like 3 months, and that’s if you have the means and the budget to promote it right, then maybe it’s better to partition the LP and drop all of the songs individually, and that’s what I’ve been doing. So “Barely Evil” is the follow up single, but at the same time I have tunes coming out on the Exploited and the Bass Brains compilations. The whole thing is a concept LP – all the songs deal with relationships. I have the typical club jams about boy-meets-girl and the whole sex-drugs-and-club music molotov cocktail and that’s “Miss Pacman” and “Barely Evil”. “Lover’s Voo Doo” is about telepathy and sex. Then there’s the tune I did with Sirius Mo, which is called “Atomic Fusion” and it’s an account of the lifespan of a relationship told from end to beginning using imagery specifically related to nuclear war. Those are the tracks coming out right now and in the fall I’ll close the project with a 2-4 song EP about jealousy and infidelity and maybe compile the whole thing into a mixtape. It’s a bitch to communicate the concept for the LP without having the budget for videos — and working with multiple labels and the compilation formats don’t help either — but I think It’s slowly coming together.

Who are your top three musical inspirations? Who was most instrumental in affecting the RQM sound?

There are too many to name. The thing is I love music so I’m always searching for the perfect soundtrack to now. This past year I was digging out all the classic records from back in the day.  I wanted to see if they still hit me like they did when I first heard them. So the playlist was all scrambled: Bad Brains, Marvin Gaye, John Coltrane, Metallica, Tribe Called Quest, Nirvana, Black Sabbath, Jimmy Hendrix, The Beasties, Goldie, Whodini, Run DMC, Rakim, Dre, Snoop, Rick James, Devo, Kate Bush, D’Angelo, The Roots, Nas, Jay-Z, Michael Jackson, Minor Threat, Fugazi, NIN, The Rollins Band, Stevie Wonder, Tom Ze etc. etc. And that’s in no order, off the top of my head and the list is far from being complete.

Your rhymes have a very distinctive flow, as you dubbed it “liquid rhymes”. How would you describe your “process” for writing?

The thing is I only write off of beats. So I’m always looking for tracks that feel emotionally charged for me and give me a very clear mental picture. If I find that beat and the feeling is there then the words come naturally. And as far as the style itself is concerned, I really work to keep it liquid –I’m always changing it and adopting it to the beats. Back in the day I was really into all the off -beat and between-the-grid type rappers and spoken word artist. For example I loved how RZA could go on and off the beat and some of Busta’s jams inspired me, especially the ones where he slid all over the place and used adlibs to keep the flow on beat. Common was another one that hit me as well as Talib. It might sound crazy, but back in the day I really thought of the metronome-like precise on-beat rappers, Q-tip is a good example of that, as boring and old school. And I really made a style out of being in and out of the grid. I don’t think it was understood and appreciated like that cause people in general need patterns and repetition to latch on to, but that was my jazz period and I’m happy that I got to explore it. And now, since I’ve exhausted it and the beats that I started to get became more dancefloor friendly, I’m getting high off of writing into the grid to support the track with a steady straight groove. It’s a bit tricky cause once you’re in the grid the flow dictates the choice of words, so it’s definitely a mission for me to try to push the songs on a lyrical tip still, while simplifying the flow, but I love the challenge of it.

What do you fear most?

I think I fear fear the most and how if you allow it, it could paralyze your freedom and gridlock your flow as a living entity. Back in the day when I dipped into the world of hallucinogens for a second I had my epiphany about it. I really saw it in the raw and how in the end all fear derived from the fear of death or the fear of not being – all of it. And I remember telling a friend of mine: life is like a street and at the end of it there’s a firing squad and you you’ll never know when they will open fire, but they will at some point, so you can either choose to ignore them and enjoy everything that this street has to offer or you can allow the thought of the triggers being pulled to stifle you and paralyze you from enjoying the moment. And I really believe that we do have a choice. And that’s not to say that I don’t get got by fear, but I push hard to overcome it at every level.

If we pressed Shuffle on your iPod while you went to take shit, what would you be embarrassed to come back to us listening to?

No shame here – I love it all: from the ambitious to the down right cheesy. I had a short period between Hip Hop and Metal when I was all into Italo Disco, so now I’m on a mission to dig out those jams and it ain’t easy!

If you had to mud wrestle anyone in history, who would it be?

Heather Hunter

What is on your shopping list?

Right now all I really need is a proper recording set up. A vintage mic and a vintage preamp would be nice – I want to get that warm fuzz in my voice. I have too many ideas these days to wait around for studio time and then work on a limited time budget.

If you were lost in a supermarket, what aisle would we find you in?

It would definitely be the magazine section. I’m a sucker for my glossy ink and the compact way of pushing information across. It’s too bad though that magazines are so overpriced these days and it’s cheaper to buy a book, so I just flip through them at airports and train stations when I travel.

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Lover’s Voodoo from RQM Visual Propaganda on Vimeo.
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rqm_barely_evil1

‘Barely Evil’ – Trailer – Single Drops 07/09! from RQM Visual Propaganda on Vimeo.