Born in San Diego, William Bensussen, The Gaslamp Killer has been on the tongues of countless fans, peers and journalist for the past several years. The Los Angeles-based producer/DJ helped establish the now infamous Low End Theory night at The Airliner in 2006 along with Daddy Kev, DJ Nobody, D-Styles, and MC Nocando. His career has skyrocketed since then and he's one of the most sought after electronic acts in the biz. In support of his new album, The Gaslamp Killer: Live from Los Angeles, he's about to take off on a sizeable tour, which starts June 4 in Arkansas. Visit http://www.thegaslampkiller.com/ for more information. GLK took some time to talk to RAPstation about changing his name, the birth of Low End Theory and scratch nerds.
Why did you change your name from DJ Willow to The Gaslamp Killer?
My sound stopped matching with my name. Willow was the hip-hop, rare groove, hip-hop sampling, mixing and matching beats, scratching, and having dreads guy. Willow was about being this happy hippie hip-hopper. Then I started getting serious about the bass and the heavy beats. I started feeling like I didn't have much of a connection to the name as I used to. I left San Diego and I could start fresh. I felt like, 'Ok, nobody knows me in LA and nobody knows me in San Francisco.' It was a really awesome opportunity to start over under a new name and see if I could start again in a new city.
How did Low End Theory come to be?
DJ Nobody and I were booked for this party in San Francisco and Los Angeles called Space Invaders. The promoter is still one of my closest friends, Art Don't Sleep. He booked us to play these parties so he got these vans. Everybody got in the vans and Daddy Kev hit up DJ Nobody out of the blue and told him he had a gig in SF and needed to hitch a ride. We asked and Andrew said 'Yes, if he has gas money.' [Laughs] It definitely wasn't cheap for him. Kev kind of kept to himself in the back of the van. I was in the front of the van with these guys from England and I was obsessed with them. I was talking and talking to them until five hours went by. Nobody knows this part of the story. I don't know why I'm remembering so many details. Kev got in the back with and they were like the misbehaving ones in the back on the van, drinking tons of alcohol. British people don't smoke a ton of weed. They're more into their alcohol. Eventually, the conversation just started to die. Then I got to the back of the van to smoke and they were like, 'Hey willy, we have an idea. We want to do a beach party because guys like Flying Lotus, Ras G, Daedalus and Free the Robots are so amazing and none of them have a home except for these parties that Art Don't Sleep was throwing.' We were always in the side room. We were never the main attractions. I was in the side room with FlyLo and that was the first time we ever performed together. FlyLo was like, 'My beats take too long to load up. Will you play something on this next track?' Then we started doing that all over the place.
What happened next?
This was a big van ride. Kev went to his gig and we went to ours. Mine was with FlyLo and I was playing with Prefuse. It was such a big night. The next week, Kev hit me up on an email saying he got a venue and to meet him there. That was the inception of it. Just one van ride.
So you've had Erykah Badu, Questlove and countless notable artists play there. Did you ever imagine it would grow to be so big? You certainly had all of the talent.
We never expected it. I think Daddy Kev expected it. He has the vision and he's been in the scene for so long. I think Alvin, DJ Nobody and myself are the selfish artists that just get stoned and make music to be in the mix with people, where Kev is a visionary.
I couldn't believe I had to dial in for a conference call with you. It's like that now [laughs]?
[Laughs] No, no I just started working with some new management. They're really nice and it's hard for me to relinquish responsibility to people. I don't think anyone works as hard for you as you. They're just trying to show me how awesome they can be and how they can help me control my life a little bit. Obviously it's great when I get on the phone with somebody who is enthusiastic. I had an interview with somebody yesterday and after every answer, he would like ,'Ok.' That was it. I knew he was recording it to chop it up later, but he could have least pretended he was interested at the time so I can answer the next question with a little energy. He was just going to cut and paste, which is fine. I'm a rambler. I just thought, 'Holy shit. This is so painful.'
That's terrible. I'm very partial to print. What, if any sounds do you think would make your music recognizable as your own?
Really hard drums, my drums are always live and they're always a little bit on the distorted, compressed side. They sound pretty funk or rock oriented. I def think my drums have a lot to do with my sound. I use a couple of modular synths and a 303 doctor sample for all my delays and echoes. Now I use a space echo. It's crazy. You hear heart drums and then you hear echoes coming in.
I see.
Do you know who Tobacco is?
No, I haven't heard of him.
Tobacco is part of Black Moth Super Rainbow.
Oh, ok. I know that group.
Basically, his synth sound, you know it's him right away. He uses same one on every type of track so you know it's him. For me, it's not the same synth but it's the same type of drums on every track. Drums and delay and a little modular synth. It's not completely new every single time. We don't completely reinvent ourselves every time. I mean, we reinvent ourselves, but we bring back the sounds you remember us playing.
How important is digging to your process today?
I'm more interested in digging through my collection I own already. I'm always going, 'Oh shit!' When I was a kid, I was obsessed with samples so I'd only listen to the one song, but now I listen to those records I bought 10 years and it has amazing music on it. I just let them slip through the cracks.
What's that moment like when you find that perfect sample to complete a song or an album?
It's such a magical feeling. It ties your mixtape together. It ties your album together. When I find a sample that completely describes how I'm feeling and what I'm thinking perfectly and I just found it randomly on a record, and that's going to end up being my album title or the song name, when that type of shit happens, it's super magical.
What's your live show like? I saw Flying Lotus recently and his light show was on point.
I don't have the cube thing or anything like that. I don't bring visuals people with me. I'm more of the show. I like being in the front and having people engage with me. I'm more concerned about having that type of shit tin the background for those people high on drugs to enjoy. I'm down for it to just be me and not have any lights on. I like when it's just me in a dark club. The live show is me.
What's your audience like?
Nobody understands how a samplers works. Five percent of your fans are going to know what just happened and the other 95 are just waiting for the next drop. It's really not that complicated unless you're playing a show for the intellectual music people. This show is for the scratch nerds and they know. The average listener is just like make me smile, make me laugh and make me dance.
I think I fall into the scratch nerd category.
The scratching stuff, people don't even know what it is and when you're doing it, people's jaws drop. I don't do it the whole time. I just do it in key moment and make everybody lose their shit.
The Gaslamp Killer: The RAPstation Interview
Born in San Diego, William Bensussen, The Gaslamp Killer has been on the tongues of countless fans, peers and journalist for the past several years. The Los Angeles-based producer/DJ helped establish the now infamous Low End Theory night at The Airliner in 2006 along with Daddy Kev, DJ Nobody, D-Styles, and MC Nocando. His career has skyrocketed since then and he's one of the most sought after electronic acts in the biz. In support of his new album, The Gaslamp Killer: Live from Los Angeles, he's about to take off on a sizeable tour, which starts June 4 in Arkansas. Visit http://www.thegaslampkiller.com/ for more information. GLK took some time to talk to RAPstation about changing his name, the birth of Low End Theory and scratch nerds.
Why did you change your name from DJ Willow to The Gaslamp Killer?
My sound stopped matching with my name. Willow was the hip-hop, rare groove, hip-hop sampling, mixing and matching beats, scratching, and having dreads guy. Willow was about being this happy hippie hip-hopper. Then I started getting serious about the bass and the heavy beats. I started feeling like I didn't have much of a connection to the name as I used to. I left San Diego and I could start fresh. I felt like, 'Ok, nobody knows me in LA and nobody knows me in San Francisco.' It was a really awesome opportunity to start over under a new name and see if I could start again in a new city.
How did Low End Theory come to be?
DJ Nobody and I were booked for this party in San Francisco and Los Angeles called Space Invaders. The promoter is still one of my closest friends, Art Don't Sleep. He booked us to play these parties so he got these vans. Everybody got in the vans and Daddy Kev hit up DJ Nobody out of the blue and told him he had a gig in SF and needed to hitch a ride. We asked and Andrew said 'Yes, if he has gas money.' [Laughs] It definitely wasn't cheap for him. Kev kind of kept to himself in the back of the van. I was in the front of the van with these guys from England and I was obsessed with them. I was talking and talking to them until five hours went by. Nobody knows this part of the story. I don't know why I'm remembering so many details. Kev got in the back with and they were like the misbehaving ones in the back on the van, drinking tons of alcohol. British people don't smoke a ton of weed. They're more into their alcohol. Eventually, the conversation just started to die. Then I got to the back of the van to smoke and they were like, 'Hey willy, we have an idea. We want to do a beach party because guys like Flying Lotus, Ras G, Daedalus and Free the Robots are so amazing and none of them have a home except for these parties that Art Don't Sleep was throwing.' We were always in the side room. We were never the main attractions. I was in the side room with FlyLo and that was the first time we ever performed together. FlyLo was like, 'My beats take too long to load up. Will you play something on this next track?' Then we started doing that all over the place.
What happened next?
This was a big van ride. Kev went to his gig and we went to ours. Mine was with FlyLo and I was playing with Prefuse. It was such a big night. The next week, Kev hit me up on an email saying he got a venue and to meet him there. That was the inception of it. Just one van ride.
So you've had Erykah Badu, Questlove and countless notable artists play there. Did you ever imagine it would grow to be so big? You certainly had all of the talent.
We never expected it. I think Daddy Kev expected it. He has the vision and he's been in the scene for so long. I think Alvin, DJ Nobody and myself are the selfish artists that just get stoned and make music to be in the mix with people, where Kev is a visionary.
I couldn't believe I had to dial in for a conference call with you. It's like that now [laughs]?
[Laughs] No, no I just started working with some new management. They're really nice and it's hard for me to relinquish responsibility to people. I don't think anyone works as hard for you as you. They're just trying to show me how awesome they can be and how they can help me control my life a little bit. Obviously it's great when I get on the phone with somebody who is enthusiastic. I had an interview with somebody yesterday and after every answer, he would like ,'Ok.' That was it. I knew he was recording it to chop it up later, but he could have least pretended he was interested at the time so I can answer the next question with a little energy. He was just going to cut and paste, which is fine. I'm a rambler. I just thought, 'Holy shit. This is so painful.'
That's terrible. I'm very partial to print. What, if any sounds do you think would make your music recognizable as your own?
Really hard drums, my drums are always live and they're always a little bit on the distorted, compressed side. They sound pretty funk or rock oriented. I def think my drums have a lot to do with my sound. I use a couple of modular synths and a 303 doctor sample for all my delays and echoes. Now I use a space echo. It's crazy. You hear heart drums and then you hear echoes coming in.
I see.
Do you know who Tobacco is?
No, I haven't heard of him.
Tobacco is part of Black Moth Super Rainbow.
Oh, ok. I know that group.
Basically, his synth sound, you know it's him right away. He uses same one on every type of track so you know it's him. For me, it's not the same synth but it's the same type of drums on every track. Drums and delay and a little modular synth. It's not completely new every single time. We don't completely reinvent ourselves every time. I mean, we reinvent ourselves, but we bring back the sounds you remember us playing.
How important is digging to your process today?
I'm more interested in digging through my collection I own already. I'm always going, 'Oh shit!' When I was a kid, I was obsessed with samples so I'd only listen to the one song, but now I listen to those records I bought 10 years and it has amazing music on it. I just let them slip through the cracks.
What's that moment like when you find that perfect sample to complete a song or an album?
It's such a magical feeling. It ties your mixtape together. It ties your album together. When I find a sample that completely describes how I'm feeling and what I'm thinking perfectly and I just found it randomly on a record, and that's going to end up being my album title or the song name, when that type of shit happens, it's super magical.
What's your live show like? I saw Flying Lotus recently and his light show was on point.
I don't have the cube thing or anything like that. I don't bring visuals people with me. I'm more of the show. I like being in the front and having people engage with me. I'm more concerned about having that type of shit tin the background for those people high on drugs to enjoy. I'm down for it to just be me and not have any lights on. I like when it's just me in a dark club. The live show is me.
What's your audience like?
Nobody understands how a samplers works. Five percent of your fans are going to know what just happened and the other 95 are just waiting for the next drop. It's really not that complicated unless you're playing a show for the intellectual music people. This show is for the scratch nerds and they know. The average listener is just like make me smile, make me laugh and make me dance.
I think I fall into the scratch nerd category.
The scratching stuff, people don't even know what it is and when you're doing it, people's jaws drop. I don't do it the whole time. I just do it in key moment and make everybody lose their shit.
