Hudson Mohawke Interview
Listen closely – there's something rumbling in the streets of Glasgow...
Words: Ben Murphy
A new sound is bubbling to the surface in the Scottish city, emerging from the underground and taking all the hipsters, hustlers and new sonic seekers along for the ride. This is the fresh instrumental, electronic hip hop crunch of Hudson Mohawke, a young producer already being touted as one of the figureheads of a new movement, alongside fellow Glaswegian Rustie, and Stateside amigos like Flying Lotus and Samiyam.
Influenced by house, dubstep, grime and electronica, his releases on small independents like Wireblock (a sick recalibration of Tweet's 'Oops!') and remixes for Ubiquity have got the big dog independents sniffing, and a debut single for Warp Records drops soon. DJmag.com decided to find out a little more about Glasgow's young contender…
Where does the name Hudson Mohawke come from?
"It was the name of a weird statue that was at a house I used to live at, a house that was built in the 1700s."
Your productions are blowing up, with many hailing you as one of the freshest producers out there – what do you make of all the attention?
"To be honest I was kind of enjoying it for a while but at the moment I'd rather keep oblivious, keep my head down and not get caught up in it."
Having seen you at Sonar, your DJ persona is insanely diverse – do you delight in keeping the crowd guessing with what's coming next?
"Very much so, I started DJing when I was ten years old, I've been playing records longer than I've been producing. I love to keep it as varied as possible, to keep it diverse. I like to turn up and play it by ear, but not give them what they're expecting, that's not the route I want to go down. Got to keep 'em guessing!"
What do you think of hip-hop at the moment – both the mainstream and underground?
"I prefer the mainstream stuff to be honest, I spent years and years listening to underground hip hop, and it hasn't really progressed the way it should have done. Obviously 80% of mainstream stuff is poor, but there's a lot of it that pushes forward more than the so-called underground. People like Danja, Timbaland, Polow the Don. There's a lot of guys that don't really have a name but are coming up right now."
Do you feel part of a scene, with the likes of Flying Lotus, Rustie, Samiyam etc.?
"We're all friends. For me, it's important to be as diverse as possible, and it's a scene but it's not a scene that's based around one particular sound. The basis is instrumental hip hop but I wouldn't say it's limited. It's the same with the DJ thing, I get a lot of pleasure out of not really allowing it to become a set sort of thing."
What have you got coming production wise?
"My first thing for Warp Records which is coming up soon. I'm doing some guest production for a couple of people, an MC, and a couple of singers. I like to work on tracks and decide what I'm gonna use them for later."
