MUSIC BLOG

Don't hate: Check out Al Lover

• Author: Mike G
• Published: Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Al Lover is a busy man. He's remixed everyone from rappers like Das Racist to garage rock bands like Ty Segall to 60s psych hero Captain Beefheart, and is also the DJ behind the beats for the Bay Area-via-North Carolina rap crew Fist Fam. Along the way, Al has been relentless in the pursuit of perfecting his "garage rap" sound. His newest release still samples plenty of what his label, Impose, calls "icky guitar loops," but it's one of the first times I've heard him stepping out completely on his own, and I dare say Al is pretty damn close to realizing his vision, no doubt.

If you came up to me in a bar and asked me to tell you why I like Al's music, there's a particular story I'd tell. I tried to get Al to tell it himself, but as you'll see in the interview below, he's far too diplomatic about it all and kinda ducks the question. So again, I'll turn to the words of Impose:

"Our love for Al Lover was one of those instantaneous things that people claim happens. His Woodsist Remixed mix made us believers, even though Jeremy Earl of Woodsist was not down with his scuzzy breakbeat treaments and politely requested he desist. Al's refusal to give a flying F gained him further points in the cool department and we've been casually stalking his releases ever since. We even befriended the Bay Area producer and enlisted him to join our tape series."

Al's contribution to the tape series is called Satanic Tambourines and while it's more Al's original sonic creation than a remix album is, it actually does sample all the other releases in the Impose tape series to date. Which is pretty cool in a meta-way.

There's a release party tomorrow night at Milk Bar featuring Al Lover, Burnt Ones (psychic sleaze fuzz), Fist Fam (psychedelic country rap tunes), and POW (disco punk). You can check out the first single from Satanic Tambourines, "Black Magick Starter Jacket," here.

Peep my interview with Al Lover below.

WTM: You've done some pretty badass concept remixes in the past. What's this new album all about? What inspired it?

The new project is a few beats I had sitting in the vaults for a while that I really liked, but never put on any projects. Impose approached me about doin' the tape and I figured that was a good excuse to utilize them. They sent me a bunch of tapes they had released prior (mostly experimental noise and lo fi rock stuff, really cool). We had discussed possibly sampling the tapes to make beats out of, but when I heard them they inspired me to try and create a real muddy noise vibe to sit under the beats. I sampled all the tapes and ended up looping them into the erie soundscapes that sit under the beats and really create a cool tone to the project. It's pretty spacey.

WTM: Where did the inspiration come from for your "garage rap"? Have you always listened to both rock and rap equally or what?

I think it came from just getting board of digging through the same stuff as everyone else for samples. Old jazz, soul, r&b, psych rock, just old stuff. I love that stuff, but I just wanted to try something else out, plus there's so much good Rock 'n Roll being made right now. I don't know when the moment of inspiration struck, I guess around the time of the "Woodsist" project (most of which isn't garage). A lot of the stuff I've been digging on lately has heavy r&b and blues vibes, which is my favorite shit anyhow. I've always listed to both rap and rock n roll though, the first tapes I remember having as a kid were Guns 'n Roses, and NWA. The rap rock combo can be pretty bad if done wrong though, I try and tread these waters very carefully.

WTM: How'd you hook up with Impose?

They just showed me a lot of love from the gate with the Woodsist thing. Then I met Derek and Blake at the last SXSW and they were super cool, good dudes. They asked me if I wanted to do the tape and I of course said yes.

WTM: I think more people should hear about the Woodsist remix debacle. Care to share?

Old news, basically after I made the project I gave a copy to Jeremy Earl, I hollered at him via email to see if he had peep'ed it out and he and his publicist gave me the old cease and desist. I'm not trippin', I understand why they did it, but it was still kinda funny. I actually ran into him at a bar a few months back and apologized for causing them any distress, he said it was all good. I don't want any bad blood with other artists, it was a good learning experience for sure.

WTM: When and where can people hear you spin live?

I play 45s at random shows every once in a while, but also every 1st and 3rd Saturday at the 540 Club on Clement St. in SF. It's a little dive, but it's fun. I'm more concerned with perfecting a live show for the music than spinning records right now. I'll be playing my first live beat set at Milk Bar for the Tape's release on Nov. 23rd. We'll see how it goes, should be pretty trippy.

WTM: You're also a part of the Fist Fam crew. How do you decide which songs to use for Fist Fam and which to use for your solo stuff?

Yeah, shouts out to the Fist Fam. Some beats just sound like they need rapping on them, some don't. Engineering them for rap is a whole other ball game though. I don't engineer my shit for rap most of the time, I don't really engineer it at all. Most of the time I just want it to be instrumental. I don't want it to sound too polished, but I have been cleaning up the sound a bit lately just because it seems like a natural progression. I still favor the grimy shit any day. We have another project coming up that I'm producing. I trying to get my EQ game a little tighter first. I don't care for over compressed sounding stuff though, so it'll still be a little ugly and hollow.