Behind The Scene: Party Ben, part 1

Oh, you didn’t know?

Your posterior might want to dial the phone and be connected with someone knowledgeable, my friends.

That’s right, just when you thought the Island was slipping we got a big-name major domo like the King of Bootie hisself in the chair to talk about everything and especially his career. In fact, the interview is going so well…we had to chop it up.

So, in an Island exclusive, you’ll get this part 1 that lets Party Ben talk about everything leading up to getting to being a name. Then, in a couple weeks, part 2 will go up with a discography review including 20+ Party Ben tracks and the stories behind them all–even the ones he didn’t write! (oops.)

Get your snack and beverage and choice.

The Party Ben show begins…right about now.

Even the great Party Ben must confirm he is, in fact, a down-ass G and not a wack-ass buster, or terms that have been used in the last 15 years. Just remember, to cheat at the Island’s Notorious Three-Pronged Old School Quiz is to have an asterisk placed next to your name in the history books forever.

Holy moley, I have no idea what you’re talking about. Wack-ass G? Is this some kind of future talk? Anyway I’ll do my best to answer your questions although they have lots of big words.

1) The short essay portion of the quiz: in 25 words or less–there’s no such thing as a musical guilty pleasure and you can be a straight adult male who sings them at the top of his lungs. In theory, o’course…

What? Um. First, being gay, I can’t speak for straights, but singing at the top of one’s lungs should be done alone in the car, either way.

2) Fat Boys : Eric B & Rakim :: Shop Boyz :: _______________

Lil’ Wayne

3) And let’s bring back Finish The Lyric sure chief why not– went to the disco, couldn’t believe my eyes/_________________

Looked on the dance floor / saw so many people wondering what the fuck I was playing

And thus, Party Ben becomes the first man at BTS to complete the Prong with a clean sweep. Of course. Let us find out more about this…Party Ben.   If that is your real name.

What gets you awake in the morning? Domestic or imported? Planning or procrastinating? The way things were or the way they’re going to be? Jessica Biel or Jessica Alba? Goody-goody or naughtay-naughtay?

Having to pee…Either as long as it’s vodka…I’ll answer later…The way things are in my mind…Jessica Rabbit…Naughty, then guilty.

How’d you make the transition to toying around with instruments to full-on deejay?

Actually, I’ve always done both. My family is pretty musical, especially my mom, and I had some piano lessons early on, but mostly wanted to play TV theme songs on the piano instead, so I spent a lot of time figuring those out; but at the same time I was making my own, er, “remixes” of my favorite Pet Shop Boys hits on my Sears stereo. I realized I could make, well, mixes, by plugging a tape deck into the left channel and a record player into the right channel and then matching them up. I DJed junior high and high school parties and stuff, and got more into it at college where there was more of an audience for acid house.

Was your mom the one who taught you the piano? Do you still remember any pieces of music you learned in your youth?

Honestly, although my mom was the more musical one in the family I did kind of teach myself a lot, since I would just take a tape player down to the piano and plunk out whatever Howard Jones song I wanted to learn, or whatever. To this day reading notes is really tough for me, since just learning “by ear” was always easier, it was a bit of a crutch. I could probably still pick some of those songs out if I tried.

Do you have a problem explaining mashes to people who’ve never heard them before? What sort of reaction do you usually get from there?

Well, I’m kind of used to it at this point. My parents even have a vague comprehension of what I’m doing at this point, and that’s about as tough as it gets.

When and where did you hear your first mashup?

Well, again, it’s hard not to look at it as a kind of evolution, instead of just hearing one specific mashup. I was always more intrigued by the segues on DJ mixes than anything else, was an early fan of sampling and cross-referencing in house music and hip-hop, and all that. So I guess Fatboy Slim’s “Satisfaction Skank” was an early inspiration, actually I made my own version after reading about his. Of course, like everybody, Freelance Hellraiser’s “Stroke of Genius” really opened my eyes, er, ears, to that specific kind of cross-genre mashup.

Were mashups something you grew into or were you hooked instantly?

Like I said, it feels like I’ve been doing this my whole life, it’s just technology caught up with me, or I was able to afford the technology I wanted, at least.

What first made you think, “Hey, I can DO this!”?

Well, I still don’t really feel that way. I try a million things and only a few of them don’t sound like complete crap to me, and I still don’t feel like my production skills are that good.

What was the first one you personally ever cobbled together? Who showed you guidance (in person or just audially) in giving you a guiding light on how to do the work?

Nobody taught me nothin’. My first actual computer-assisted mashup, per se, was the Satisfaction Skank thing I made, in like 1999, using a crazy piece of software called “Session 8″ on an old 286 the radio station had sitting around that nobody else knew how to use. It was called “Session 8″ because it only had 8 tracks to work with.

If there is one piece of advice you can give aspiring mashuppers, what is it?

Jeez, just stop, or resign yourself to a life of being a complete musical outcast, a jester, a novelty, with no critical respect or financial gain whatsoever. Be a cool electro DJ with a hip hairdo, you’ll get a lot more attention.

What sort of reaction are you looking to get from your mashes?

A good chuckle would be nice.

What differentiates a good mashup from a great mashup?

If I knew that I’d be Go Home Productions, now, wouldn’t I?

What was more memorable for you: the worst insult or piece of hate mail you ever got or the best comment or most glowing praise? What was the nature of the comment?

Oh boy. Honestly I don’t mind “insults” or people saying they don’t like my tracks that much, but what’s bothered me has been press or interviewers getting quotes wrong or just making me look like a douche. A thing I did with MTV News still keeps me awake at night, they changed around everything I said to make it sound like I was bigging myself up in this ridiculous way and that I was serious about wanting Damon Albarn to call me up, when in fact I was making a joke about my career path following Danger Mouse’s… anyway, I was mortified. I guess they thought the whole mashup thing was funny and they could take the piss but I’m a human being dammit! Ah well, better being talked about and all that.

What is the most important piece of DJing technology of the past five years?

Derrr… I dunno. People like DJing off of laptops but I sure don’t. CDs are fine by me. I sure like those Pionneer CDJs, are those within the last 5 years?

How do you find out about new mashups? Is it through GYBO, or other DJs, podcasts like Ramdom Thoughts, or other friendly bootleg avenues?

Boy, I’m kind of a slacker on that score these days, since I don’t have a radio show any more and I like to make my own stuff to play. I find out about new stuff when A & D play it at Bootie and I go “What the hell is that? That’s awesome!”

Part 2: would you like to know why you can’t get “Tender Umbrella” out of your head?  What does he really think about “Boulevard Of Broken Songs”?   Why aren’t there more Fugazi boots?  And what really was the hardest track of his career to make?

I suppose at the risk of sounding even more like old-school Batman–tune in next time and find out!