SNAFU

Photo by, Saskia Kahn

Meet SNAFU

As SNAFU Jimmy breaks down the beats of the world to build them into something new. Boom bap has a rich history steeped in the culture of NYC, and as long as it’s been around artists have been tweaking and modifying its sound. SNAFU blends and distorts it deeper bringing out lush tones and warm feelings. Their clear understanding of the genre leads to some pretty fantastic innovations. Get to know the artist as we chat it up in our latest interview.

“MASTERPIECE THEATER” A Fill in the Blank With SNAFU

No story ever told seems to GROTESQUELYcapture the hearts and BATTLE BEASTS of LUMPY readers as does the legend of King Arthur and the DENTISTS of the GIDDY table. If we choose to believe the Arthur legend and go along with the story that this FLEET-FOOTED king removed from a CACOPHONOUS stone the REASONABLE sword called Excalibur, then we are giving ourselves permission to enjoy this evening's performance. So without further ado let us visit the kingdom of Camelot, where PETULANT knights perform on MICRO MACHINES, rescue a HOUSE HUSBAND HOBBYIST with a POCKETWATCH, and ride off on A majestic SLEUTH (OF BEARS) in search of adventure.

Would You Rather

all the glass in the world be made of stained glass, or every light in the world is replaced with a disco ball? Why?

Both sound horribly confusing. I do not like sunglasses because they give me the wrong colors of the world. I don't like my senses being muted or muffled - like hoods blocking peripheral vision or winter hats muffling sound. So the stained glass option sounds like a worldwide colored sunglasses disaster... On the other hand, refracted light everywhere sounds potentially more confusing... So do I want to be confused or uncomfortable all the time? That's a tough one. Then again, both might be pretty as well. I'll go with stained glass forever. Seems like I can just open the windows in the summer.

Some questions with LONE PHONE BOOTH

Your 2019 release ‘Now This Is Happening’ blends boom-bap vibes with samples from turn of the century films and music. What inspired this juxtaposition?

A part of me has always approached creating music with an archaeologist's sensibilities. A lot of the records I started sampling I found on the street or trash or someone's parents were getting rid of them, etc. There's a reason why looking for samples is called beat digging. Whether flipping through records in a crate or sometimes, quite literally, digging them out of the trash and dirt. The other part of the equation is that of an artist, particularly those working with found media and assemblage or collage. The fun is not only in what you find, but how you re-piece it together and what you pair it with and how all the parts talk to each other. I love that there's no bias in where the sound comes from. The source material can be beautiful or corny. It's how the pieces sit and talk together that make it work - that is, when it does, in fact, work.

How do you go about sourcing samples for new songs?

A bunch of my friends are DEEP in the digging game. And some people have a memory for specific keyboard players or imprints or any host of other clues that could help find that perfect piece of the beat. I've usually gone on intuition. Sometimes I'll remember a name of a producer or studio musician listed in the credits that I've appreciated in the past, but often it's based on gut feeling. Either that or travelling with a portable turntable. As far as bits of audio and such, It's as simple as what b-movie is on the tv that I'm watching, or in the case of this album, I went around and got most of the audio just walking around and recording off the street. I have a nice little stereo field recording mic for my phone and when I sense something interesting coming up on my walk I'll plug it in. It would just be on my person ready to go on my travels for a while.

One day, I was walking with my brother in downtown Manhattan, and he stopped to use a restroom in a coffee shop. I saw Kool Keith. He was talking on his phone, and seemed to be talking suavely to a lady, so I didn't want to interrupt him. He passed by, but since I grew up as a giant Ultramagnetic MCs fan, I had to get a drop from him. At this point in time, he'd actually rapped on a beat I co-produced, but we never met in person. So I ditched my brother (text him sorry) and started trailing him, waiting for him to get off the phone so I could bother him. But it started to go on for too long. He was chatting it up on the phone and we had walked many blocks by this point. So now I'm feeling like a weirdo stalker, and there have been a couple spy movie close calls, where I have to pretend to tie my laces or stop in a phone booth to make a pretend call as he checks his reflection or looks around at his surroundings. As I'm about to give up since I feel like the Weirdo Threshold is about to be crossed, he gets off the phone and I get to talk to him for a bit. He wound up being such a cool down-to-earth guy. I told him how his music had influenced me (and influenced music in general) and asked if he wouldn't mind giving me a drop for my album. And he did. Nice.

Where does a track start for you when building a new one? Is there a pattern you come back to or is it more organic?

I mean, the basics are the drums and the samples and any other musical bits played or used in-between. Sometimes it's the drum pattern stuck in my head or drum break that I find that sparks the creative flame. Possibly more often it's the samples. I've had a host of different samplers over the decades, and I recently started messing with an SP-404sx (I know, very late in the game) as I thought the limitations and freedom of getting away from a laptop would be romantic. The wildest part about the SP-404 is that the pitch shifting is dreadful! Insanely bad. Notoriously so! Some may chime-in and say that it's part of the aesthetic and charm of the machine, but not me. I still really like the device as a performance tool, but with no real ability to pitch or stretch samples... I dunno. smh. I always like finding some fruity loop and pitching it down into strange warm off-key worlds and then taking it from there.

What is your favorite word/phrase?

"There's a storm hitting us in six hours... Then we're going to find out who's who." -R.J. Macready

What has been your brightest moment of 2020 so far?

I came out of 2019 spending half the year in Japan, attempting to learn the language, studying Kyudo (Japanese traditional archery), teaching English, biking around Nara prefecture, exploring southern Japan and attending Tenri University. I met amazing people, made friends for life, had a few gigs, and basically had an amazing time... Then came back and shortly after the virus hit and we've been living this life ever since. So in the midst of all of the crappiness that has been 2020 I'd have to say the best thing for me has been seeing people's appreciation for nature again. People are out hiking. Bikes were sold out all over America for a time. Campgrounds have seen incredible surges. It's as if a light bulb lit up over so many heads like, "Oh right. We have this. This fucking beautiful nature." - I just hope it carries into attitudes of stewardship and conservation for the future.

What gear would you say was essential in helping you find your sound as a musician? Why?

One of the first setups I had was this thing called a Lexicon JamMan which was essentially a rack mounted looper with a pedal switch and I had a Gemini mixer with a built-in couple-second sampler. Maybe it was the "Scratch Master" I can't completely recall. So I'd have some sprinkly change-up bit on the mixer for maybe a chorus part or just bonus bits, and on the JamMan I'd make the main part of the beat. What was fun about the JamMan was that it was completely free-form, without any quantizing, just a loop. After you made the loop it repeated indefinitely but you could remove sections of the loop or layer over sections. So I'd constantly be catching the record, releasing it on time with the part of the break I wanted and cutting and pasting into the loop live, often using the foot trigger to sample. Very organic feeling. Drums would be offset, things would come out just a bit funky and out of pocket in a lovely (or horrible) way. So way before the whole post-DIlla movement of intentionally sloppy unquantized drums I had been forcibly having to do that from the beginning when I was learning. It was a great way to start. Then when I moved on to various other samplers, notably the Akai MPCs (2000, 200XL, 1000, etc.) where everything was very strict and timecoded and "professional" - I intentionally wanted to keep some sloppiness in the mix. I'd mainly keep the quantizing on, but I'd leave a little blank air in the sample before a snare, or let the hi-hats stay after the kick, etc, so once it's all placed - something different is going on. Something slightly "off" is going on. I've tried to carry this looseness on to some degree throughout all my music career, regardless of what machines I'm working on.

What is your dream bank robbery scenario? (location, methods, is it a success/mess,)?

The dream bank robbery scenario has already been formulated! In the day/hours/seconds before it was confirmed as a joke hoax, the best idea for a caper ever was alive in our minds. In 2015 when supervillain Martin Shkreli bought the single copy of Wu-Tang's "Once Upon a Time in Shaolin" for two million dollars, this "clause" in the contract was leaked:

The buying party also agrees that at any time during the stipulated 88 year period, the seller may legally plan and attempt to execute one (1) heist or caper to steal back Once Upon a Time In Shaolin [the album], which, if successful, would return all ownership rights to the seller. Said heist or caper can only be undertaken by currently active members of the Wu-Tang Clan and/or actor Bill Murray, with no legal repercussions.

For the fleeting time, before it was debunked, anything was possible. The world was more surreal than it had ever been - up till now.

Any final comments? (This is your electronic soapbox for one last answer.)

Buy art. Really. Support artists. Living and dead. Make art. Music, visual, written, whatever. Do it.