Scott Thorough is a music producer, and a good friend of mine. We sat down (at our respective computers) – it is 2012 after all – to talk about music. Since this issue of Glasschord is all about intent, I figured I would pick out a few of my favorite songs from his catalogue and ask him to think about what he had in mind when he was producing each track. The songs I picked were “Henry Miller” by Big Urban, “Mouth to Mouth” by The Boys And Girls Club, “Tender Moments On The Thorough Side Of Town” (a remix he did for Instant Cities), “Forties” by Tone Tank & Scott Thorough, and “The Golden Mean” by StarPower.
BAJE: Tell me about “Henry Miller.”
SCOTT: This song came out of a discussion I had with Kray. At the time, there was a lot of interesting electronic/sparse-ish music dropping out of many regions (Hyphy, Snap, Crunk). A lot of the music had exciting production but while the lyrics weren’t bad, a lot of the raps were slow and/or not very lyrical. Kray and I were listening to “Tell Me When to Go” by E-40 and Lil Jon (E-40 is one of the top ten best rappers ever… ever), and we were like “Oh shit! This is what happens when lyrical cats get on these beats.” Kray wanted me to make some pop type beats. I tried, but I am a weirdo, so somewhere in the translation, this dark gloomy composition with nasty bass and 808 drums happened.
BAJE: I know what you mean about translation. I feel like some of the best songs happen when weirdos try to make pop stuff. I remember when we put out the Big Urban album you guys called it your “Failed attempt at making a pop record.”
SCOTT: We really, really tried. All those beats were intended to be pop hits, but they just came out very strange, even though they had some pop sounds and knocked like pop records. Whenever I try to make something that is supposed to sound like something, it becomes a telephone game played between my brain and my beats. I like to think it is because I am creative, or stubborn. In my head, these beats could have been played in strip clubs. If they were to be played in strip clubs, it would probably be sad hipster strip clubs. I’ll be dat.
BAJE: And what about the title?
SCOTT: Kray and I were heavy into the writings of Henry Miller at the time, hence the title (though I think the original name of the beat was “Darryl Strawberry,” another folk hero/loveable fuckup that we respect). I made this beat strictly for Kray to see what he would do with a big drum beat. I wanted to create something big and dark, but not too crazy, something that would allow Kray to be free in his rhythm. Kray killed it, and I was happy with where he went with it thematically. We made a whole record like this which no one listened to. This was definitely the sleeper hit for the six people that heard this album.
BAJE: Let’s talk about “Mouth to Mouth”.
SCOTT: Wow. I made this beat a very long time ago. My whole process was different. I remember I had these flute-type noises stored away for safe keeping and a bass line that I had hummed into my phone for the right moment. I remember sequencing the bass and programming the synths and being really happy with how they mixed together.
BAJE: Did you make this beat specifically for Mike (McGuire – of The Boys And Girls Club)?
SCOTT: Yeah. Actually, I make almost all my beats with an artist in mind. Mike has one of the most unique singing voices of people I know, so I always try to give him stuff that has range. While it is a cumbersome process, it makes for a more personal final product. Anyway, I really wanted something with big rap drums at points and Aphex Twin-type drums with a pretty bed of chords for Mike to sing on. Mike’s lyrics are vague, but relatable, so I am not super sure what this song is about to him, but to me it is a song about that first kiss and how equally uncomfortable and awesome it is (a few people have told me they had similar feelings about it).
BAJE: This next one is kinda different. “Tender Moments on the Thorough Side of Town.”
SCOTT: This is a remix I did for this dude Instant Cities. I have only met him once. I think he is from NYC, but lives somewhere in Europe; and that is kinda how his music sounds.
BAJE: Exactly. He’s from Hoboken. You know that me and him went to high school together right?
SCOTT: Well, Hoboken has a city-light feel to it.
BAJE: It reminds me a lot of Brooklyn.
SCOTT: I think I did know that y’all went to school together. Now that you bring it up, when I played this track for a friend who went to the same school, she was like, “How do you know Eamon (Instant Cities)? I had such a crush on him in high school.” And I was like “I don’t know the guy, but he makes dope music somewhere in Europe” I don’t sample much these days, so remixing is a real treat: you are sampling an entire song and hopefully changing the nature of it. I heard the original of this which is mad cinematic and cold in a good way (a lot of my favorite beats have a coldness to them). I immediately wanted to remix this song, and I remember you got in touch with him to get me the vocals. On this cut, Instant Cities delivers a personal and beautiful tale with reserved delivery. There is something dope to singing emotional shit with a laid back restraint. It kinda reminded me of how Stephin Merritt might sing if he had a New York accent. I wanted to make a beat with some dirty low end, weird percussion and interesting drum programming. Also, I had these iphone recordings of my friend’s girlfriend playing piano that I wanted to chop up. They show up throughout the track. This is one of my favorite things I have ever made.
BAJE: Tell me a little bit about “Forties.”
SCOTT: Me and Tone made an album where all the beats were synthetic/electro interpretations of punk/ska/hardcore type stuff. I made this beat and I totally ripped off the progression of Wire’s “The 15th” and changed it a bit and added some thunder bass. I didn’t know where Tone was gonna go with this. I just wanted him to go in, so I gave him a beat with a tempo where you could go fast or slow comfortably. Tone gets all the credit on this one. This is not one of my favorite beats, however, as a song I love it. Anyone who had a delinquent youth loves this song.
BAJE: I hear you on loving the song but not your part in it. Sometimes I feel that way about my rhymes. But at the end of the day it’s all about the song. Like it might not be your favorite beat but Tone probably couldn’t / wouldn’t have written all that to any other beat.
SCOTT: I worried the beat was too serious. Tone was able to be serious, wistful, and lighthearted at the same time. As extremely independent artists, all that matters is if someone can relate and enjoy the song. Tone had that chorus forever! So, he would’ve eventually made a song like it, but it would be different. There is an alternate universe somewhere where the song is different.
BAJE: True. Ok, last one. “The Golden Mean”…
SCOTT: StarPower is one of my favorite rappers. His skill for being moral and disgusting at the same time is fucking awesome. I wanted to challenge him. He had made a song over no drums years ago, which is one my favorite songs ever. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yk1CettHnKc). I wondered if I gave him an almost too emotional track with no drums if he could kill it. He killed it. I made this beat thinking about the golden ratio and how it exists in everything. It bugged me out. Still does. I think it affected Star as well and he kinda just went off. His song opener “Why ain’t nobody tell me that this was a new adventure?” is how I feel often when I wake up. Some of the truest shit to me.
BAJE: I like when he says “they leave me for Jackson, Scotty, even Brenda.” Ha. How did that make you feel?
SCOTT: I never thought about it too much because I didn’t really understand what he meant. What does that mean?
BAJE: I thought he meant that women leave him. Sometimes for other men, even sometimes for other women. But I guess I would have to ask him to be sure.
SCOTT: StarPower raps weird things about me in his raps all the time. The first song we did, “First Shot”, which was seven years ago or so, he cursed my rap group (and his). We didn’t even know each other that well. That’s how he does.
BAJE: True.