APRAP WEB June 2005..

APRAP talks to Chris Chetland about his work as head of Kog
Transmissions and one half of breaks duo Baitercell and
Schumacher.
“We just wanted to play in the studio with bass”. A master of
understatement, this is how Chris describes the formation of
internationally successful Baitercell (Chetland) and Schumacher
(Timmy Schumacher). Such understatement
extends to Kog Transmission’s recent successes
in the arena of ad production: “things fall into
your lap to a certain extent.”
Having been through a series of shifts in
personnel and focus since its establishment in
1997, Kog Transmissions now operates as a
production facility. With Chris joined by John
Chong-Nee, Dave Baxter, Dave Holmes (of Venn
productions) and Mike Carpinter (promotion) it
produces albums (recently Gramsci and
Autozamm), masters recordings (including Savage
and Tourettes), and produces music for
advertisements and TV (such as Nokia Calimero
(Asia), Guinness (Asia), Coke New Releases (TV
2), Coast Theme (Maori TV) and Burger King).
Chris’ production and mastering skills also mean
that Kog informally serves as a training ground
for new producers.
Chris sees creative value in commercial composition work: “the
good thing about doing an ad is that people come to you, and request
reggae or hip hop, and you have to step out of your comfort zone
and get a whole new style… commercial work gives you a lot more
intellectual freedom, like learning a new language and ending up
with a whole new vocabulary.”
He also suggests that “in another sense you could say my
commercial work is my art. Look at the KLF - the greatest band of
all time. They’re art theorists who operate within the commercial
world. Their book The Manual (how to have a number one the easy
way) is the most important book about the music industry.”
Commercial work as art, art as commercial work, Chris reveals
“we used ‘the rules’ for “Lay It Down”, which got to #1 on the Alt
Charts for last year. All done using their systems.” “Lay It Down”
has also been released in the US by DJ Icey – America’s biggest
breaks DJ.
The KLF ‘systems’ involve “looking at basic structures. It’s just
knowing what’s going on at a particular time, music-wise. You need
to have good hooks or words that you can remember after one
listening. Kylie, Spice Girls, Abba, Soundgarden had these hooks,
these elements. Such music is just as much an art statement; you’re
just approaching art in another way.” Hooks and words
notwithstanding, Chris maintains that the “imperfections in the mix
are the most important part.”
But it requires a great deal of skill for imperfections to ‘work’.
Chris asserts that to become a good producer “you must spend all
your time, every waking moment that you can get away with on it.
10 hours a day, 6 or 7 days a week. I question whether you could
become a really good producer if you go into a commercial job. You
are going to be constrained to do specific things.”
Timmy Schumacher agrees about the value of the non-commercial
and non-institutional path: “it’s like what David
Mamet said about acting schools: they are institutions
with a set of rules and a set of expectations about
what you can turn out as.” Having trained in acting
at South Seas, Timmy has “done institutions”: “they
are good for young people – they’re there to inspire
you. But I’m a big proponent of teaching yourself in
a way you can understand. That’s the cool thing
about production: you can buy a $3,000 PC and you’re
there. DJ Ali has made beats on a PC with a
SoundBlaster Sound Card – the shittiest sound card
you can get, but it sounds great. The ethos is to do
with how much work you put into it and where you’re
coming from. My one year on Logic has been good,
but my 14-15 years as a DJ is valuable experience
as well.”
Getting Logic down in one year is no mean feat,
as Timmy explains: “Logic is translated from German.
It’s like finding a needle in a haystack if you want to do one simple
thing. Normally to learn Logic off the bat would take a couple of
years – at least – to learn it as well as, say, Paddy from Pitch Black.
But Chris is really well-versed in Logic. He has used the programme
for many, many years and knows all the shortcuts and tricks. With
Chris I learnt what I needed to in a year. He’s also got a really great
way of describing things. For a person who’s an academic [Chris
did a Masters in non Darwinian evolutionary theory] he’s able to
strip things back to a laughably simple form of explanation.”
In Chris’s opinion, being a producer is “all about working with
people and taking things from them. You are as much a social
worker/mum/dad/brother/sister as a producer. You need to be sure
you can get the best from them. You need focus but also the ability
to let go. Training others, Chris sees himself as a facilitator: “you’re
looking at potentialities… they need to be working on their own stuff,
they’ve got to create their own adventure.”
Chris’s own next adventure is a trip to Australia, Europe and the
US to work with some “big mastering engineers”, train up in “southern
style hip hop, particularly crunk, and learn some tricks for RnB”. He’ll
also be “shopping beats”, confident that between him, Timmy
Schumacher, John Chong-Nee and Dave Baxter they have a broad
range to offer. In terms of international export, he notes that “it
depends what you are trying to export: artists, beats, or advertising.
Different environments have different sets of rule to work in.”
Fortunately, juggling different systems seems to be Chris’ specialty.
www.kog.co.nz
All member profiles by Catherine Langabeer
APRAP June 2005
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