Friday 30 May 2008

EXCLUSIVE - Conspiracy Worldwide Community Count Bass D interview 2008

Psalms 37:11 - COUNT BASS D INTERVIEW

INTRO
If well deserved respect was bankable currency, this idiosyncratic multi-instrumentalist emcee-producer would have become a zillionare years ago. Dwight Farrell has worked with many a giant of modern jazz and legend of underground Rap - and yet, his riveting (and heavily bootlegged) rough’n’ready records still, somehow, remain absent from too many Heads’ collections. Here’s what Dino found out about The Count’s creative process, professional goals and attitude toward the record industry in an interview originally conducted and published in the autumn of 2006.

“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord and has made the Lord his hope and confidence.”
- Jeremiah 17:7

“Your Father knoweth what things you have need of before you ask Him.”
- Matthew 6:8

It’s easy to believe that higher forces have, for some time now, been exerting a gentle guiding hand to keep this preacher man’s son on his right path. A precocious musical talent at an early age, Dwight Farrell was awarded a scholarship to the Wyoming Seminary Boarding School in Pennsylvania. It was there that he would have his love of Jazz well nurtured and his drum, keyboard, bass and guitar skills honed. It was at this school moreover, that Farrell would discover both a love for and an impressive mastery of hip-hop’s musical elements. Still in his teens, Farrell (adopting the Jazz-inspired alias Count Bass D) got himself signed to Hoppoh Records (Pete Nice and Bobbito’s Columbia imprint) through which he dropped a largely overlooked landmark live hip-hop LP. At a time when most of the big names were looping up either P-funk or Stax samples, Pre Life Crisis found Count Bass D rapping, scratching and playing most of the beats’ live instrumentation.

“In time of trouble . . . He shall set me upon a rock.”
- Psalms 27:5

The following years may have seen Count Bass D fall through the cracks in the record industry but his intense creative urges and admirable work ethic would never be left to go to waste. A parade of high-profile, high calibre musical names have always been quick to line up to help the Count to realise his own potential. When times have been good, collaborators have included Dionne Farris, Van Hunt, MF Grimm and 7L & Esoteric. When times have not been so good, such artists have been even quicker to lend a hand (or their drum machines) to enable Farrell to conceive, develop and deliver his own ideas into the world.

“Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with all thy might.”
- Ecclesiastes 9:10

Much like hip hop itself, Count Bass D and his sound have come a long-long way from the straight-forward boom bap of the South Bronx. A Tennessee native ever since the launch of his rap career, the Count long ago eschewed the compromises of formal conventions and genre boundaries in order to say and play whatever he’s felt in his heart – and he stands by his refusal to paint by numbers within any set lines. He’s released many records (both on several different labels and via the DIY route) and thirteen+ years into his recording career, he remains as enthusiastic and driven as ever. Nowadays, the Count stands by his decision to eek out a hand-to-mouth existence; making the most raw and honest music he can and answering to no one but himself and God.

“Seek ye first his kingdom and righteousness and all these things will be added unto you.”
- Matthew 6:33

Some seek stardom and for most that do, Rap “stardom” is embodied by the unholy trinity of fat stacks, flash cars and cheap women. With a CV spanning two decades, Count Bass D has
apparently done well enough for himself to drive a stretched limo seen - but for this happily married father of four, this seemingly extravagant vehicle is in fact a practical necessity rather than a trapping of success. Count Bass D does what he does to express himself and to help the Farrell family go wherever they may want to go in the future. Despite maintaining a safe distance
from the Rap Star crab barrel, Count Bass D is anything but reclusive. When it comes to building and maintaining a rapport with his ever-growing cult following, if he’s not rocking shows he’s blogging and chatting with his fans online.

“The Lord will guide you always, he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land. You will be like a spring whose waters never fail.”
- Isaiah 58:11

The prolific Count may play down his abilities and ambitions in order not to jinx himself but he’s clearly deserving of greatness. Today [October 15 2006] this remarkably self-effacing artist is here on Conspiracyuk.com to publicise the release of his latest album, Act your Waist size. Here’s what he had to say for and about himself- enjoy…


…..

Hmmmmm….Where to start? Given your track record – and now that you’re releasing this LP via Fat Beats – can you tell me, have you got your own gear now? Have you now got your own sampler or are you still begging, borrowing and stealing?

Count Bass D: Hahahaha! Yeah finally! By the time I did the Nine years 12”, and there was like a Seven Years 12” I decided to do all those bonus beats with my own MPC60. That was like the first thing that I had since about 2002. It was a good four years of a blank period. I had some equipment when I started but there was that period in between when I went without for a while. But Yeah I do have a few things now.

So what have you got? Because in your latest album’s lyrics, you refer to both the Triton and the Trinity?

Count Bass D: Right now I use a SP1200 – but mainly though the MPC60. For this album I used the Casio CZ101 and I think my next project, I’m going to start working with the EPS, just for fun. I like to work with new equipment – just so it doesn’t get boring y’know?

Okay then..we’ll move on to talk about your creative process a bit. Can you tell me what is the first thing you pick up when you start making music? Do you pick up an instrument first or do you head straight for the record collection or…?

Count Bass D: The best thing I try to do is not to have any pattern at all. A lot of times, I get inspired from listening to some of my favourite records but outside of it spawning from records? As for the process of how I record and how things are connected into the Digital-Audio workstation? I try to make sure that everything is new each time. That’s the only way I can keep myself from doing the same things over-and-over-and-over again.

But do you have a preferred instrument to work out ideas – y’know, to work out melodies, riffs and ideas like that?

Count Bass D: Not really I don’t. I just have the Casio CZ101 which has to be my melodic tie between anything I was using from records and anything I wanted to do musically. I just used that to embellish anything that I was tieing together and that was it. I don’t have a guitar at all anymore. I don’t have a bass guitar or nothing anymore. I don’t have anything but those things. I’d have like a little toy drum set I’ve been using for a couple of months now but I don’t even have a drum set now. I don’t have any instruments – and even if I did have them, I don’t even have the microphone to record them. So instruments is like the last thing from my mind right now.

When I spoke with Doom a few months back, we talked about his creative process and he said how he quite likes to go into seclusion when he’s writing. I gather you’ve got quite a big family there (with four kids and your wife ‘n such) so how do you find the creative process with a big family around you?

Count Bass D: It’s tough because I usually like to be in seclusion myself. I like to just steal away – at least into a room of my own in the house – but the house where we’re at now, I didn’t even have a door on the place where I made the music so the kids were just around. I have a two-year-old, a five-year-old, a seven-and-a-half-year-old and I have a nine-year-old and they could come and go as they pleased so it had to just become part of the music. Sometimes you might even hear – well you’ll think to yourself “do I hear a child in the background?” And you probably do. I just got to the point where it had to be real that way because I didn’t have any means of going to the studio or of isolating myself in the house. Understand me man, you’ve just got to make do with what you’ve got and make it work. If it’s in you, you will be able to make it work –that’s how the people started making instruments out of turntables. I’m sure Jazzy Jay (or any of these guys) didn’t have a studio; they just had a little bedroom in their house and that’s what they was making their hip-hop in. I still look at it like I’m Kenny on Beatstreet: I just take a whole bunch of junk and try to make a good sound out of it – and it’s a lot more fun that way to me. That’s all.

When you do compose, do you compose with a genre in mind? Because I’ve listened to a lot of your stuff and it’s all sorts of music on the one record

Count Bass D: Nah, I’ve never been into being genre-specific. My music is just Black Music of some sort. I don’t really try to step out of the Black Music comfort zone – that’s just basically my forte. So anything that’s steeped in some sort of Negro Spiritual musical base – whether that be Blues or Rhythm & Blues or Rock’n’Roll – well I can handle that. But if it starts coming down to some of the other genres? That’s just not me, I just can’t do it and I’m not going to try either. I may enjoy listening to other music but I just physically don’t have the ability to do it. But I don’t even try to do what I’m doing. I really don’t even know what to call it and what to define it as. I’m just happy that the people give me some kind of voice to continue doing it.

Your latest album is on Fat Beats. Did you come to them with a ready-made product or did they give you a remit of what to do?

Count Bass D: Nah it wasn’t a ready-made product. I did have maybe four or five songs finished – or at least ideas pretty finished. But no, it wasn’t a full product done. I finished recording the record from…well I started recording it last October and turned it in on February 15 of this year.

What sort of guidance did Fat Beats give you if any?

Count Bass D: I’m not sure.. I don’t know how I can really answer that question and be fair about it…. I’m not sure if they gave me any guidance. I think it was just a situation where I do what I do and people just have to deal with it – because I have to deal with it. I don’t have the ability to do anything else. There is no tweaking or things like that that go on with me: it’s just kind of a free-flowing art stream with me and that’s basically it. I don’t have the ability to polish it up and do pretty things with it.

That leads me to my next question. How do you know when a song is finished? How do you know when you’ve finished one of your short or long pieces and its time to stop fiddling and tweaking?

Count Bass D: I’m not really sure. For me, it depends on what kind of mood I’m in. When CDs and then mp3s came along, I think my attention span for music just got a lot shorter. I found myself listening to maybe the first verse, the chorus and then moving on – or maybe the first verse, chorus, second verse and then as the second chorus got to the bridge, I might move on. So I would find myself not really like when I used to play vinyl records and let them ride – or with cassette tapes when you’d have to fast-forward or wait for the next song. So I think that changed my thing to where now I just like it to be very concise and so I can allow the new digital mediums to just play and run. A lot of my newer compositions’ll be a lot shorter and there’ll be a lot of them. I think it’s just a situation where, as soon as I begin to feel as if I’m labouring over the music, I’ve just been in a mode to where I’d just cut it off at that point. I just go ahead and rap it up at the ideas stage and say, “that’s all it needs.” When it starts to become a chore, and you’re starting to say, “I just need some horns here for horns’ sake” you’re running into problems. Grindin’ is one of the greatest beats I’ve heard in the last ten years and that beat didn’t need much of anything

Heheheh.

Count Bass D: Yehehehh. It was just pure brilliance. Sometimes you’ve just got to know. They could have really ruined that beat had they started layering a bunch of bass lines and things like that on top. It just worked out.

In terms of form and structure of your work, I feel you’re going in the opposite direction to somebody like Buck 65. He started out doing albums of untitled tracks and then albums with say four tracks comprising lots of little songs…and then he moved onto the conventional verse/chorus full songs. Whereas as you’ve evolved, you’ve kinda gone the other way in that your stuff is becoming more and more conceptual and more to be appreciated as whole albums or EPs. Would you say that’s a true assessment of your work?

Count Bass D: It depends on when you start y’know… I did the album pre life crisis – I’m looking at the 2” reels now – it was January 20, 1994 and here I am and it’s twelve-and-a-half years later (nearly thirteen years) – and I’ve done so many different things up to this point so right now, I don’t have any rhyme or reason for anything that I’m doing. I honestly don’t know how I’ve been doing it this long. I was on a radio show the other day for two hours and we barely only played six-years-worth of the records I’ve put out. We didn’t even get to Begborrowsteel, Dwight spitz or anything like that. I don’t know… I’m happy that everything’s just flown past me because I think that if I just sat back and just thought about everything I was doing, I’d get stuck trying to do it again. So I really don’t know. I’m living life from hour to hour and that’s pretty much the end of it.

You’ve said in previous interviews that you’ve made certain decisions just so to feed yourself and your family – and you’ve said that you’ve got a non-musical, “blue collar” day job. I was wondering that given you have got such musical chops, why don’t you go into things like commercial production or incidental Music? I mean, have you gone down those avenues at all?

Count Bass D: That’s what I’m saying though y’know: I don’t know how great my musical chops really are. I like what I do and I think for hip-hop, it’s fine. But when I play with guys like Victor Wooten and some of the guys I’ve had a chance to play with, it just changes my whole spectrum as far as what I’m even aiming towards as a musician. I know my forte and my direction is definitely in a different direction. And also, even in commercial production and things like that, they don’t use music anymore – they’re not even musicians who are doing those things anymore. They’re just a bunch of computer wizards who know how to piece together a lot of different sounds and that’s not my forte. I don’t even have Pro Tools or anything like those types of programs. And not only that but the situation with me is, once I do something one time, I’m onto the next thing so to have to come back and tweek things up or if they wanted me to change a line here or there, that really wouldn’t suit me. That’s something I would have to more train myself for. I really don’t have the chops to really handle those types of gigs. It takes a special type of musician to be able to do that – just like it takes a special type of musician to be able to make these big songs on the radio. I don’t have the chops and the ability to do that. I’m not like Will Iam: he can just say, “Look. I’m finished with this underground thing here for a minute so let me just jump over here” and he had the ability to do that; that’s the reason why he’s here doing it. When Ja Rule decided he wanted to stop being in the Cash Money Clique and that thing dissolved and he wanted to blow himself up? BOOM! He had the chops to do that. Even if I tried, even if I started carrying a pistol around and started doing a bunch of things, I could never cross over…I wouldn’t even know where to start. I wouldn’t even know how to even feed myself without doing just what I’m doing. I think that’s what makes people gravitate towards me because they see a one-way collision-course between me and art happening and I think they just try to check it out for what it’s worth.

Now I feel that’s a bit of modesty on your part because I know you are a professionally trained musician and I’ve seen a list of some of the people you’ve worked with. You’ve worked with Branford Marsalis

Count Bass D: True

And people like that…So…

Count Bass D: I like what I do and I like my abilities but...I think of Bill Evans when I think of a piano player. I had an experience where I ran into a keyboard player when I was eighteen. He’s a friend of mine now (he just did a couple of songs on Christina Aguilera’s new album) but he and I were friends and he was the first keyboard player in my first band. After I met him was when I really knew that I was not a keyboard player. The standards I have for my stuff and what I aspire to and the musicians that I’ve met, I just knew that yes, for hip hop I could be considered – I could walk around and smell myself and act like I’m really great – but there are people who would destroy me at every instrument that I even claim to play. There aren’t too many people who I feel could destroy me on the sampler anymore so I just kinda work towards my strengths. I respect everybody but I don’t feel like I could get destroyed by anybody (on a sampler). But at the same time, when it comes to the keyboard, there’s people in every city in America who would destroy me – so I just hold reservations as far as calling myself any type of musician in those terms. My goal has been to legitimise the art of using the drum machine because I feel like that’s my instrument. Using a drum machine is a lost art so that’s the reason why I have the SP1200, the MPC60 and now the EPS thanks to Captain Coolout. I’m just running those and entertaining myself – not relying on records because I only go record shopping a few times a year. I don’t rely on the records: I’m relying on the instrument. So that’s more the musical sense that I’m coming at it from. I’m trying to find more ways to make it more musical.

On the subject of buying records, I’m quite interested by your choice of samples –
especially on begborrowsteel. There’s the Bob James samples…There’s the Grandmaster Flash samples


Count Bass D: Heheheheh: Is there? Is there!? IS THERE!?

Yes there is. They’re all quite well known samples so I take it you don’t have any snobbery about samples? Because previously there was quite big conservatism within hip-hop where by you had to find the most obscure breaks. I take it you don’t subscribe to that school of thought?

Count Bass D: There was a time when I went through an elitist phase – when my friend Egon [Egon Alapatt of Stonesthrow] was finding all the ill records and I felt like we had commandeered the record corner of the world. But after a while, I never even used any of those records he found. He was the main digger out of the whole situation: I would just kinda go along and, once in a while, they’d throw me a record here and there. I’ve never really been all super hardcore into the record shopping. I’ve always been a fan of the cheesy pop music. I like the old cheesy jazz (the stuff that they considered cheesy even back then). If it’s cheesy pop from the eighties? I like that and that’s the type of stuff I use. It’s not even like I’m breaking the bank or anything like that. It’s a situation where none of the people who put my records out really pay me so it doesn’t even matter – it’s just a matter of just getting the records out and getting my name known. It’s a situation where I’m just happy to be able to do whatever so none of that stuff even comes into play. But as far as trying to find the illest break and trying to find the most obscure thing? I think that was cool back in the day when everybody was finding it by honest means but after Google, the secrets kinda burst open – yeah the veil was rent in two and all the secrets were opened. Now it’s a situation of “well Okay: what can I do with the things that are right in my face?” And I think that’s when you notice some of the beatmakers even starting playing the samples first (at the top of a track) like “I’m going to show you what I’m going to do to you first because you wont get the full scope of what’s happening.” It wasn’t until the honourable MF Doom dropped Operation Doomsday which really blew wide open the notion that the obscure is more chic or more underground. I think that at that point, Operation Doomsday blew everything open. I think that album is what completely blew the lid off of this whole rap thing and saved it for a few more years… It was like a defibrillator [Count proceeds to impersonate an EKG flatlining and somebody then applying the cardiac defibrillator].

Okay you’ve mentioned MF Doom. One thing that’s kinda distinctive about your latest project is the amount of namedropping and referencing of other rappers

Count Bass D: Uh-huh?

Can you tell me, was that a deliberate decision to do that and if so, what was the thinking behind that decision?

Count Bass D: I always have. I always do – If you listen to my music, that’s just something that I always do. I like to send shoutouts to the people whose work I appreciate – so if, at any time, I mention your name in my music, it’s just because I like to send shine out to anybody out there who I feel is doing good things. I always have – I think one of my first lines off my first album I shout somebody out so y’know…I’ve always done that.

And given the nature of how you write and record, I’m quite surprised why you haven’t done more guest spots or taken the career route of the cameo rapper? Or maybe I’ve missed something and you have done?

Count Bass D: I’ve done some of that

Yeah I know you did the interludes on the Meet Jon Doe album by Jon Doe

Count Bass D: Oh yeah… I do a lot of that in Japan. You got a discography [http://www.countbassd.com/v3/discog_detail.php?id=23] there man? You should see it because it will blow your mind open to see how many records I’ve been on in like just the last couple of months. I think I’ve been on four records in the last couple of months. I’ve done some work with a lot of different genres and that’s the thing about me. I’m a musician and that’s what a lot of people, a lot of times, have a hard time grasping. There’s never been somebody who gets respect in the music world who gets respect in the underground rap world. There’s a lot of rappers who get respect in the music world but not in the underground rap world. So I’m doing things, like you said, with Branford Marsalis or Victor Wooten or Van Hunt and it’s a situation to show what sort of range I have. I’m not on a commercial level. I’m not a major label cat. I’m not a big dog. I don’t know nothing about that lifestyle so I don’t even know how to do that. But in other genres, I do do a lot of guest appearances.

Which brings me to my next question regarding your discography. You have a lot of Japan-only and Europe-only releases. Is that by design? If you had a second chance to reissue everything would you like to go via, say, a Warner or a Universal and release your whole back catalogue?

Count Bass D: Nah. Nah that’s silly pimping right there. I would never do that ever. That’s my kids’ money right there: that’s not my money. Second of all, as far as signing with somebody like that? I only mess with who’s messing with me. I’m not going to go to labels’ doors, knock them down and shop myself like that. When I put Begborrowsteel out, I went down to Kencos, made up a business card, pressed up one hundred copies, signed them and sold them. This is just something I do to keep me afloat. I don’t care about getting famous from it. I want to own it so I can do it just how I want to do it. If somebody’s willing to come and licence it and put it out under our terms? I fine with that. But never will I try to do something just to blow it up, get it big or to get a lot of money or something like that. The only reason why a person should sign a record deal is out of desperation. Never should you sign a record deal to try to be famous – that’s asinine.

With this release on Fat Beats, are you signed to them now or is it a one-off deal?

Count Bass D: I don’t comment on my business dealings as far as my record company situations. I choose not to comment on that.

That’s cool. Okay then. Coming back to your work: given that you do have a background in “proper” music, when it comes to live performance of your work, do you like to rework and build on what you’ve got or do you stick closely to what you’ve recorded?

Count Bass D: I usually just stick with what I’ve recorded. Budgets for rap artists (especially underground rap artists) don’t really come through for the expectations of the kind of catalogue I have. Usually I have to end up giving them more of a “Rap” performance – which is cool – but I think a lot of people don’t really have the type of energy to handle that. It takes a lot of energy to make up the difference for not being able to have more instruments and instrumentation on stage with me. So the live Rap performances really take a lot out of me because I try to make up the difference with just performance, energy and sheer showmanship. So it’s really hard but it all depends on what the compositions call for – because I’m not just trying to have a big stage show just for the sake of having one but if the compositions call for more instrumentation on stage, then I’ll do it. But I think that the compositions should dictate what type of show you make.

Who do you turn to for feedback and quality control on your work? Who do you trust to say, “this is good” or “take this back to the lab?”

Count Bass D: I don’t follow the Barry Gordy method. I don’t play my music to people with the intention of getting feedback. As a matter of fact, when I send music out to people, I tell them “The only thing I ask of you is that you don’t give me any feedback what so ever. Nothing positive, nothing negative, just nothing. This is just something I want you to have and that’s it.” I prefer not to have any feedback what so ever. It’s not because of anything other than if somebody tells me that they like it, man, they can’t like it as much as I like it. When I’m in front of that microphone, I feel like I’m the most arrogant son of a bitch ever in the world. That’s just the zone that I get into and that arrogance belongs there and it stays there. When I don’t like what I’m doing, I feel like I’m the worst artist…worse than anything ever made EVER – to the point where I get super depressed about it. And even with the songs that people might like, if there’s something about it that I don’t like, it tares me up inside for a good while until I get over it. I really hop on my old mistakes on my past albums and when I work on new material, it just gives me a fresh canvass to do over. Now that’s a terrible way to create because you really have to put yourself through drama in order to do it but hey! That’s how I’ve been doing it ever since I’ve been making music. When you’re a church musician, you kinda get like that. If you play a service and the people don’t really shout a lot or if you don’t really feel like the offering plate really got filled up, then you kinda feel bad about it. Yu feel like you let the church down; you feel like you let god down; you feel bad about a lot of different things. So I think that musically, the demands that I put on myself are just beyond anybody else’s’ opinions. When I feel like I have to start getting peoples’ opinions to decide whether or not I like my own shit, then Imma stop doing it because it wont be me. I have to like it for I like it’s sake – that’s the way songs like T-Boz got out there. That’s the way songs like New Edition karaoke got out there because if I was to play that for somebody and ask them what they really thought? I dunno: they might have just laughed or whatever. This is just what I do: I just have fun, I don’t give a shit and that’s the attitude that I hope everybody has when they listen to the music (that I’m not really taking myself too seriously).

Now this is what I find interesting because you’re one of those artists who has quite a close and open relationship with their fans. You’re one of the first artists to do the all direct-web-marketing and blogging and all that – which most rappers try and get away from as soon as they release a record. Do you think that’s something you’re going to continue doing (having such a close relationship with your fans) or do you see a time when you’re going to have to cut yourself off and employ more publicists?

Count Bass D: I think that if I get into a situation where I keep exposing myself to a lot of people who aren’t necessarily looking for music like mine, I may have to do that. If some of those people start to buy my records that buy some of the records that I’ve seen them buy by other people, then I can tell that they’re not going to fit into the vibe that I have on my message board or to the way that I post on my journal. They’re not going to really get it and understand it and I think that at that point, it’s not going to be fun to do like this anymore. I just hope that I’m able to stay under the radar and not blow this up too crazy because I’ve seen what happens to the biggest rappers of all time and what happens to those considered “The Greatest of all time” – they’re just no longer here. I’m not trying to do that to my family and I think that’s the only path you can go through when you start blowing up in this weird genre and culture. It’s a terrible thing. Me? I’m able to stay close to the people who support my music because I see them as people. I’ve always wanted to be an artist to where, even if you hated my music, you would still like me. There’s a lot of friends that I have who don’t necessarily like my music. My best friends listen to other forms of music but we like each other as people. I want people to be able to see “Count Bass D,” not as one of these “Rappers” or as one of these “Recording artists” but simply as a cool-ass nigga. That’s it. Like “when I ran up to dude at this club he gave me a pound and said ‘thank you. I appreciate it’ and I’ll support a dude like that.” That’s the only dude that I’m really trying to be in this whole music thing. I’m not trying to be cooler than the next man or anything like that. I’m definitely trying to keep up my chops as a musician because that’s what I do – but the only thing I’m trying to do outside of that is to be the most down-to-earth dude with the same problems as everybody else has to go through. I’m wearing the same clothes that I’ve been wearing for the last twelve years. If you go back and look at old photo shoots, you’ll see the same clothes. I don’t buy clothes or none of that shit. I’ve got like four pairs of pants; three-four shirts; a bunch of t-shirts - but I don’t have much clothes or nothing like that. I don’t buy new outfits or nothing like that. I just want people to understand that I’m the same thing as them. You don’t have to treat me any different and I don’t expect you to treat me any different.

Do you have a goal or notion of success because it’s obviously not the popular notion of “success.” Is there something you are working towards?

Count Bass D: Yeah my bills being paid. That’s it. As long as I can cover my bills around this house and for my family, I’m 100% a success. Like I said to you, there is no Grammy award that I could ever receive that could make me feel better than when I’m standing up in front of the mic. There’s a song I have that I haven’t even released yet called Speaking that shit and it was probably the most elated that I’ve ever felt about myself and I let the world know that I felt like I was untouchable no matter who, what where when or why. That feeling is a complete, full on high that can’t be touched by anything. It’s almost like a gambling rush. I can’t get that from outsiders: this is only something that I can give myself or God gives me when I feel I’m doing the right thing. I don’t feel like any type of success as far as with monetary excess. Don’t get me wrong, I love nice things and I would love to be able to do nice things for my wife and do nice things for my family and things like that so they could have that type of experience. But I’m not in a race to be more rich and more famous and more successful than anybody. There’s only a certain level of dough that I’m really trying to have period because I can’t see myself standing here with a couple of hundred million dollars whilst my sister has to have a day job or my mother is working or some stupid shit like that. It shouldn’t be like that. I don’t think that anybody in your extended family should have a job if you have a couple hundred million dollars – but that’s just me though. I’ve never had a hundred million dollars so I don’t even fucking know what I would do. I could become some greedy bastard. I want completely just wide open, to leave it wide open, don’t make no judgements, don’t make no absolutes and leave it wide open to whatever’s going to happen because I never know. I’ll just follow the music and see what’s going to happen with it. It’s really-really wide-open Jack. I really have no goal as far as trying to get this. I would like to have an honorary doctorate from some college somewhere. That’s one goal I’d like to achieve at one point: I’d like an honorary doctorate. But I don’t know if I’ll ever get enough money to donate to a college for them to give me one heheheh. So that’s probably the reason I gave up on all those goals and all that stupid fame shit. When you see the inside of how it all works, you can lose focus. I want to do different things.

Speaking of academia, I’ve read that you actually home-school your children?

Count Bass D: I don’t, my wife does. My wife went to college and got her degree to teach other children in public schools so we said, “who better to teach our own children if their mother is trained to be a teacher?” We just decided that rather than having my wife run and go get a job simply to make all that money just so we can pay for day-care and all that, we just set it up to do it this way. We had this crazy idea and we tried. Just the same way people try to get by day-to-day, we try to get by day-to-day – except we try to get by doing unconventional things like home schooling our children. That’s all. I don’t think it’s for everybody but it’s definitely for us.

I take it your kids are aware of your musical career?

Count Bass D: Right.

So how do they feel about you in relation to what they see on BET or MTV and such?

Count Bass D: My children toured with me for the last two weeks so they see it full on. My children will be able to see the ins and outs and the ups and downs of this business and if they decide that it’s something they want to do, they’ll be going through it with a full understanding – that’s as opposed to just seeing somebody on television driving a car or something like that. So they’ll understand what it means to be an artist and whether or not they just want to be an entertainer of some sort. I’m trying to be an artist in an entertainment field and I’m just happy to still be alive and able to do it period. I really don’t belong here. This isn’t the place for people like me but the people keep me here. This has nothing to do with what record labels demand or what distributors want from Count Bass D: the people are the ones who are having me here. It’s not like I’m running around here with big promotional budgets, videos and all that type of stuff: it’s the people keeping me here. And I accept what the people give me. I’m not looking for any more or any less: I just want what the people want me to have. When gatekeepers try to block that, that’s when I get upset with the industry. When they try to block you from the people, when they want to try to block the love of the people from the artist, that’s not right. My record comes out today and when people go buy that record, they want to see me make certain money from the sale – else they wouldn’t give $15. When the consumer starts to find out that, in most cases, the artist isn’t getting any piece of that $15, you know what they do? They start illegally downloading it – and that’s what’s been happening. So for me, none of that other stuff matters because the people want to see me successful and it’s a situation where they can come to my site and have full amnesty. If you’ve illegally downloaded my stuff? Well hey! Leave me something in this [online] tip jar. [http://www.countbassd.com/bboard/viewtopic.php?t=1877] Let me know that you want to see me and my family survive off of this music. That’s the way that I run it. The people keep us here and that’s it. The music is stronger than any of these peoples’ opinions on what’s hot and what’s not because none of these people know – otherwise they’d be making this shit themselves and getting rich. They don’t know and I’m not going to let them fool me into thinking they know because I don’t know and I’ve been doing this shit for twelve years. That’s how I keep running. I have no clue how I was doing this. If anybody tells you that they’ve got this process of how to make a foolproof beat, either all their shit sounds the same or they’re lying to you. There’s no fool-proof method: you’ve got to be open and receptive to receive whatever you get and hope it’s coming from a right place. That’s real right there but I’m not going to get all that deep.

One thing I would like to see (or hear) is you hook up with Doom. Is there any chance of you doing some sort of collaborative project in the near future?

Count Bass D: Well maybe if he starts to fall off or something. I don’t see him looking back any time soon and I’m definitely not trying to blow it up that big. I think that he should stay out there and get that big money just in case I really fall on hard times; I can give him a call and say “Ayo brother! Do you think that you could pay this rent for a couple of months?” If the music industry calls for it and the people anoint me to the point where they say, “Look. Count, we’re going to buy so many of your records to get you to a position where Doom has to do a record with you.” Then it would make sense. But if he’s selling a certain amount of records and I’m selling a certain amount of records, I wouldn’t do it. He needs to go out there and do projects that’s going to get money – as opposed to stuff that’s just going to be for some people that’s going to download it.

So I don’t suppose there’s any chance of you intervening to mediate between him and Grimm? Because I would really like to hear the original Daybyday family reunited.

Count Bass D: Yeah I’m not really aware of that situation. However that works itself out is however it works itself out. I don’t know all the inner-workings of that. A lot of people know me as somebody who’s done some work with a lot of people but I don’t know the inner workings of things. Remember, I live in Nashville Tennessee: I’m just a country boy down here.

Okay. We’re on kinda the homestretch now so just a few general questions. Have you got any plans for Halloween?

Count Bass D: I’m going to church for a harvest of blessing celebration for Halloween.

Wow! Which denomination are you?

Count Bass D: I don’t have a denomination. I believe: I don’t get involved in the ‘isms, skisms, rifts and trists of religion.

And on a similar score, next month will be Thanksgiving Day. Is that a date you commemorate and if so, how do you plan to be spending it this year?


Count Bass D
: I spend every day with my family so there’s no such thing as holidays round here. Every day is a holiday around here. We don’t have any denoted days when daddy gets off work and comes home and does something special. We spend every day together. Today is a holiday because my record came out so we’re celebrating that. The same things that somebody might do on those holiday days, we’re doing today. I’ve been up since two o clock in the morning. I’m running it Jack. I used to work for Fedex and throw boxes for a living so this is nothing to me. Being in this record industry is a big joke. Anybody who’s complaining about it as far as the stress? It’s not that raw: you just have to get your perspective in order. I’ve done the ditch digging work and it’s not cool – and the pay is not as nice as this. Heheheh.

Okay. Well just to wrap it all up then, if you’ve got any messages you want to send out to people? Any shout outs? Any words of wisdom? Basically just the usual stuff to draw it to a close?

Count Bass D: Indeed-indeed! I’d like to say, definitely support this movement with your finances – that’s the only way you’ll be able to continue to hear any art period. You can support me online – that’s definitely the best way to do it. Most of these physical pieces of my work are bootleg imitation copies (it’s not right but that’s just the way it is) so if you’d like to support me, you can support me online – I’d really-really appreciate that. I do understand about the vinyl and I do try to do some things to help that but we continue on. Visit my website when you get the opportunity and I spit game like this almost daily. I thank the people for continuing to reach out and support me to be the rebel and the punk that I am to this entire industry. I’m really grateful to the people for all their support today and every day of my shit because I mean it. I bleed for it every day and that’s it. Thanks man.


Many-many-many thanks go out to Dwight/Count for his very humble (and humbling) words. Cheers also to Michelle for the hook up. Count Bass D’s latest collection of spontaneous creative outbursts, Act your waist-size… is out now on Fat Beats. Those interested in hearing anything else from this guy’s vast back catalogue of enthralling Shabbiness should first go to www.countbassd.com and then on to itunes where you can be assured that the money you pay will be going to the right people.

http://www.myspace.com/countbassd
http://www.countbassd.com

Are you an artist (or an artist’s management, label or publicist) who is as righteous as Count Bass D and his grooves? If so, you need to drop a line to Dino (dinogoldie@hotmail.com) because an interview with you is long overdue. False prophets, Jiggy whores and dollar-chasing demons need not apply.

© Copyright 2006 D Goldie for Conspiracy Worldwide.

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