It's all part of a bigger plan

Alexis Ong caught up with Philly's finest, Diplo, for a quick chat before his set at the Gilles Peterson Worldwide Festival.

Safuan [Johari, from festival organizers Kinemat]: This is Alexis from Singapore Time Out.
Diplo: What was that, Super Time Out?
Alexis Ong: Haha… no, sadly, it’s Time Out Singapore.
D: Aw, I was going to say, it sounds like, mad Japanese-like. Like Super Time Out Yeah!

AO: I wish I worked for Super Time Out. So, we’re doing a story on online music distribution – you know, everyone following Radiohead’s lead and putting their new releases online for free. What’s your take on it?
D: The whole reason I’m doing anything is because I gave my music away from the beginning. Even with the bootlegs. It’s what I do, and it’s the best thing to do. It’s the whole reason that there’s good stuff out there. Everybody should have free music. Like what Radiohead did was really cool and all, and more and more people are starting to see it like that. As a label owner, you have to stay current and give people what they want.

AO: Yes, but Radiohead is still releasing In Rainbows on CD.
D: Well, you know, the CD is always going to be around. Not gonna change.

AO: Like what you did with Piracy Funds Terrorism? [infamous Diplo/MIA bootleg that was released on www.turntablelab.com – it couldn’t be released in the conventional way because of all the samples used]
D: Well yeah, we still sold that, but it didn’t make that much money.

AO: I heard you got in touch with dj/rupture after you read something he wrote about [Diplo’s Philly-based DJ collective with Low Budget] Hollertronix… [Diplo laughs] Haha, should I stop talking now, is this a touchy subject?
D: No, not at all. The thing is, I have a lot of critics who talk about what I do. There’s always going to be these critics. But if it’s someone like dj/rupture, who is a peer in the business, we move around the same circles. I like to have dialogue with people like that. I want to know what he thinks and why. We know the same people, have a lot of the same friends. He’s a cool guy.

AO: So you’re clearly into literature from the American South and obviously a fan of Faulkner [the novel Go Down Moses inspired his album Florida, and Sound and Fury was inspired by Faulkner’s eponymous novel]. What’s on your reading list now?
D: The Bible! [Bursts out laughing] And Super Time Out, of course!

AO: Naturally. So you’ve described hip hop as a true example of postmodern music. Is that the film graduate talking?
D: Ha. Well, you know, these days everything is a mix of everything. Down in Brazil, in the favelas [shanty-town ghettos] you’ve got a little red-headed brown kid next to a little black kid with blond hair, and they’re all together next to a kid with a boom box and they’ve all got guns and listen to baile funk and NWA and it’s the craziest s***. There’s less distinction between cultures now and it’s not in just hip hop, it’s everything.

AO: That’s pretty crazy. So speaking of the favelas, I hear you go down there a lot, to party. What’s the craziest experience you’ve had down there, where you’ve thought, ‘Shit, I have to get the f**k out of here right now!’?
D: Man, it’s such a different world down there. It’s actually the cops you have to watch out for down there. I’m not out to do anyone harm. I make music for a living, I’m just down there to hang out. But I’ve seen kids getting pulled off motorbikes by police and they’ll hit him in the head because they think he’s carrying drugs.

AO: I’ve heard you have to drive with the lights on in the car so that everyone can see that you’re cool and don’t mean any harm.
D: Yeah, definitely, so they can see you’re not cops. I don’t have enough money to bribe them off. [Laughs] I’m just a musician. Like there was this one time we went into this back alley in the favela…and ended up in this room with these real rough guys and they just had s***loads of guns and bags of cocaine around, and we were thinking: ‘We should probably get out of here’.

AO: Yeah, definitely. Something less intense: what’s the last film that truly impressed you?
D: Night at the Museum? [Laughs]

AO: You’ve got to be kidding. Ben Stiller?
D: Yeah man, I think I’ve seen it like three or four times on the last few flights I’ve been on, it’s always on. But nah, really, hmm, let me think. I saw this one about West Virginia… I forget the name, I think it was Matewan (1987 film by John Sayles) and that really left an impression on me. That’s M-A-T-E-W-A-N.

AO: Cheers. I’ll look it up. Back to music: in February you spoke to [website] The Smoking Section about how ‘right now is a good time to be a DJ’. Do you still feel the same, what with things like Myspace really opening things up for people?
D: Yes, definitely, I still feel the same. There’s all kinds of stuff you can find now. It’s a good time to be a producer, too.

AO: Could you tell me a bit about what you’re doing with Heaps Decent?
D: Yeah, it’s basically an initiative to encourage kids to make their own music. We started it down in Australia, where the [Aboriginal] kids have always had a long tradition of music in their culture but now nobody actually makes their own music. But you might hear Aboriginal influences being used in other people’s music [perhaps a reference to MIA’s song ‘Mango Pickle Down River’ off Kala]. And the kids down there, they all listen to rap like NWA and The Game and stuff y’know? So with Heaps Decent we’re trying to help move them on from that. It was chill, I was hanging out with these three kids and they were just doin’ their own thing, making music. So what we do is provide the equipment and let them do their own thing. Once they get going it’ll be great to hear what they come up with. ‘Heaps’ is Aussie slang [Diplo’s label is called Mad Decent], y’know down there they always say ‘heaps’ instead of ‘lots’, like ‘it’s heaps decent!’. [Laughs]

AO: I used to live down there. It’s great. But why’d you choose Australia, of all places?
D: It was easy to do in Australia. No language barrier, everyone speaks English. I had a great time down there.

AO: Nice. Any plans for a Piracy Funds Terrorism II?
D: Maya’s [MIA] not really into that kind of stuff now…

AO: Oh, I didn’t necessarily mean with Maya, I meant in general.
D: Yeah, we’ve got something going, we’re working with Atlantic [Records] on it. We’ve got Santogold, to kind of keep her buzz going… Like she does a little more of a different indie sorta thing, but it’ll definitely have heavier beats and stuff…

AO: So, more like ‘Creator’ (Santogold song)?
D: Yeah it’ll be more like ‘Creator’. We’ve got all kinds of people on it from all over. We’ve got like, Panda Bear [aka Noah Lennox from experimental outfit Animal Collective].

AO: Yikes, Panda Bear. So you mentioned Atlantic – you’re going to a big label with this? Are you planning to clear samples this time, and release it big?
D: [Laughs] Nah, we’re doing it through Mad Decent. We’re not clearing samples, nah. We’ll have like Santogold and all that. We’re an independent label, we’ve got no money, they can’t sue us! But we make [the original songs] sound way cooler, why’d they go after us? [Incredulously] Like Panda Bear? What’s he gonna do? [At this point Alexis is told her time is up] Yeah, that’s a good place to leave it at. Watch out, Panda Bear! [Laughs]