Sydney producer Jamie Olsen, aka Rephrase, has been breakin’ it and keeping things funky on the local scene for quite a few years, culminating with the release of his Little Victories album late last year which saw him perfecting his trademark funky, chilled breakbeat sound and hooking up with a number of international MCs.
And he’s got a massive summer coming up: as well as a gig coming up at the end of the month at the Roxanne Parlour in Melbourne, he’s got high-profile slots lined up at the likes of BREAKFEST in Perth and the iconic Field Day NYD event in Sydney. ITM talks to him about his influences, then joy of working with international MCs when they’re not even in the same room and about his social networking addiction.
Who are you local and international influences?
I’d list my local influences as Fdel, Flow Dynamics and Hermitude. On the international front, I’d list A-Skillz, Fort Knox Five, Smoove, Featurecast, Quantic and Mr Scruff as the names that inspire me.
Are you cool with other cats remixing your work, but ever secretly scared they might do a better job?
I love producers remixing my work, I’d rather they do a really good job and take their time with it instead of sending me a half-arsed effort that I can’t play out!
Have you ever released any cheeky white labels, or have you always done everything by the book?
In the pipeline at the moment, I’ve got a bootleg coming out on a UK label called Goodgroove with other artists Featurecast and Qdup Foundation.
Are you a multi-instrumental or do like to author all of your sound sources from your studio/computer?
A bit of both, I play a few instruments and combined sampling with my own music.
Do you prefer to be a collaborater or a solo rider when making tunes?
I tend to do the solo thing because I can work on stuff at any time of the day or night – no waiting on the bass player to turn up to rehearsal, so to speak. But it’s good collaborating as well, because you approach music from the other persons perspective.
With your vocalists and MCs, are you more inclined to search far and wide, or is it a case of working with people you’re familiar with already?
On my album Little Victories I hooked up with a lot of the vocalist/MCs via the internet. Most of them are from overseas, so I’ve never even spoken to any of them on the phone funnily enough. Files were just transferred back and forth and I would just edit and mix the acappellas to my songs. I think that’s the beauty of sites like My space. People contact you and are up for sharing their talents.
Seemingly everyone is cottoning on to the ‘live’ idea: do you think the industry is a progressing culture of ever-fading DJs?
I don’t think that the dj is going anywhere, Vinyl is such a strong culture. But it is also great to see some live instrumentation. I tend to combine the two so people can get a bit more of a visual element at the gig, I play sax and use Albeton live when I perform.
If you could be anyone or anything for a day, who/what would you be?
Good question! Maybe an astronaut, you’d get to experience a pretty amazing view of the earth. But I’m happiest most when… I’m with my wife and my dog.
Can I Facebook you? Are you into the whole social networking thing?
I’m not on Facebook, but I’m on MySpace. I’m not into putting personal info up for people to view, but i like using MySpace because you can pimp your alias and post new choons on the MP3 player.
Funky breakbeats your thing? Catch Rephrase at the following dates…
15th Nov: Loft Bar, Sydney
16th Nov: Opera Bar, Sydney
17th Nov: Fresh Jams @ Will & Toby’s, Sydney
17th Nov: Ab Hotel, Sydney
18th Nov: Henry Afrikas, Sydney
24th Nov: Roxanne Parlour, Melbourne
30th Nov: Opera Bar, Sydney
2nd Dec: Ab Hotel, Sydney
7th Dec: Opera Bar, Sydney
14th Dec: Woolongong, New South Wales
15th Dec: Loft Bar Xmas Party, Sydney
21st Dec: Bank Hotel, Sydney
22nd Dec: Ab Hotel, Sydney
26th Dec: Breakfest, Perth
31st Dec: Cerutis, Manly
1st Jan: Field Day, Sydney
