Transcription
What up Leslie? Hello, hello. Sorry, I'm, uh, kind of doing errands and stuff, so I might have my camera off. Okay.
I just want to say hi. Hi, Damon. Hi. Hello. Hey, so good to see you, Damon. Thank you. Right on. YouTube. Oh, Juniors. [Music] Hey, bro. Good to see you. Ass. You almost got that bow tie you were asking for. [Laughter] Hi, Das. Hi, Genius. What's up, Leslie? What's up, House? Hey, how you doing? What's good? What's good? How you guys doing today? Good night to you, man. Looking good. Good to see everybody today. I thought I was going to pop right in here right when things were, we're getting. I did say that. That happened. I, I, I said popping. Sorry about that. I was, I wasn't trying to be punny at all. [Laughter] So, are we gonna go live soon? Yes. We had to restart the meeting because the broadcast button wasn't available, but it is now, or should be, at least. Okay. Yeah. Hey, House, it's hot. What up, dog? What's up, Hannah? Hey, yeah, so it looks like there's some update and, um, it wants me to broadcast as myself instead of as Hannah, instead of Urban Artistry. I'm trying to work it out. Um, yeah, I, I wouldn't recommend that you broadcast as Hannah. Yeah, I wouldn't recommend it. Not saying that that Hannah isn't a wonderful name and a wonderful person, um, but if they look closely, they'll see you're from Vermont, and that's where Ted Bundy is from, and that's a bad thing. You don't want to be associated with, with Ted Bundy. So, therefore, you power. Yes, that's right. Executive decisions need to be made based on serial killer mythology. I'll just say that's a craftful line of succession. Like, you know what's there. I'll tell you what, man. Dude, in this world right now, I'm trying all the, you know, I got, I gotta find a way to like, flip it and get in there. Like, it, it may not make sense at first, but I'm working on it. See the white man trying to hold this Zoom call down. That's exactly. That's exactly the half white woman. Okay, there you go. Trying to keep us from zooming. All right, I think I got it. All right, let's try to switch over. Okay. Uh, guys, I have a, a two o'clock, um, uh, pitching session I'm doing. Um, so I, I'm gonna have to, I'm gonna have to probably cut out a little bit early. I'm not here to get in the way. I just wanted to come and say hello and and show love and, um, uh, the, it's over at three, so I should see you guys in the workshop. So, okay, just wanna let you know. I'm gonna do my best. I, I've tried to change it up. I thought I could be Asian, but, you know, since, uh, they are now the, the target of so much unwarranted aggression. Thanks, man. Like, I'm trying to keep my glasses like my shoes, you know, I need options and they need to match. So, all right, we live, baby. We're live. We're on. Are we saying? Are we here? What is this? What are you? All right, we are live. We are streaming. Word. Yo, peace, everybody. Is everybody coming in? I can't see what's in here, but, you know, peace. Gorilla Will, Assassin's Creed, Urban Artistry, and I am here with the one, the only, Rubber Band Man himself. And no, not T.I. Frost, how you doing, brother? I'm good, man. Nice to talk to you. Happy to be here, too, man. Yo, Damon has been an outstanding, uh, contributor to dance culture here in America, as well as over in Europe. Um, incredible music producer with Hearing Aid and some other stuff that we'll probably get into a little bit later on. Um, and just an all-around good guy. So, I'll fix that up wherever, man. So, um, where are you originally from? Let's, let's start there. I, I was born in Los Angeles. Okay. Born in Los Angeles. So, and I've been, uh, traveling up and down, uh, California, and, uh, in my teens, I lived in the, uh, the Bay Area. But before that, I was, I lived in Hawaii a bit. I've been hopscotching like, um, all over California and, uh, in the 80s. Then I started trying to go to New York, you know, to, to on behalf of dance and, and hip hop and all that exciting stuff. And then in '85, I moved to Sweden. Uh, it wasn't the plan, but it became the plan. And then I, I've been in Europe, so since the, the mid-80s. So that's basically the path. How? So, what, what brought you to Sweden? Um, my, my, my girlfriend from the United States was, uh, an exchange student at first, and then an au pair from Sweden, and, and she lived with me, and she kept telling me about, uh, you know, maybe you'd like to come to Stockholm. And I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, not gonna happen. Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, not gonna happen. And an opportunity, uh, presented itself where I was to be doing a show in France, and, uh, I took that opportunity, and I figured that since I was in the neighborhood, so to speak, that I would, uh, come and meet her parents and stuff. And that's, that's what got me over there, or over here. Nice. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, that's how it happened. My lady. Where? Hey, look, that's amazing. That's the greatest news for most things in American history. So, I'm very glad you did, man. So, how would you find your way into, uh, into dancing? Um, it's a good question. So, so for me, it has two layers to it. And the first layer is my family dances, and I've been exposed to dancing from the very, very beginning. So I didn't know that there was a, not dancing. I thought that this is basically what everybody did. Um, and I just always danced all the time, trying to imitate James Brown, you know, the Jacksons, Jackson Five, you know, you're trying to do everything I saw. When Soul Train came around, when I'm eight, then I'm trying to do, you know, what, trying to figure it out, you know, and just a little. It's always been with me. But, uh, I didn't get really heavily, heavily into it until the late '70s. About that's when I really started to make an effort, you know, trying to, trying to do robotics, kind of puppet stuff, trying to do some of the styles that I saw, uh, that they were doing in the Bay Area at that time. So I'm in fourth grade, in fifth grade, and I'm trying to, I'm giving it my all as much as the little kid can do. I'm focused, but, uh, yeah, it, it didn't really go deep until I had a, uh, an accident which broke my wrist, and it stopped me from doing bicycle motor, uh, BMX freestyle. So I, I had reached a very high level in BMX, and when I couldn't do it anymore, or when I had to stop for like, at least a year, I went nuts, and I went deep into dance. That was like the, the other thing I went into, like, to save me from not being able to ride my bike. So the, the first tiers, I've been dancing a little bit all the time, but then really focus on it, maybe post my, my big bike accident. Okay. And I, from, if I'm correct, you actually developed a wave style from the actual accident, right? Uh, not that I'm aware of, but, but it sounds great. I, I want to say yes for the sake of Lord. Well, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. There, uh, I had a full arm cast on, and, um, they, they forced me to have this arm cast. I had it on like for four months, and then I sawed it off to be able to straighten my arm and get back on my bike. And I started riding my bike again. Went back to the doctor, and they're like, no, we have to put you back in this cast again. And so what it did is, it didn't allow me to to tut like the way a lot of people were were tutting at the time, and it didn't allow me to to start my wave from my wrist and elbow on my right arm. So in that regard, yes, it did. It made me focus on my from my elbows, from this part, and just and and getting all this together because that was a little bit more limited in my range of options. So, yeah, yeah, exactly. So I'm gonna tell you right now, right? You're gonna try to escape these flowers, and you're not gonna be able to, right? All right, let's. All right, let's dive into one of my, my sort of off-topic questions. Um, what's one song from like, I'll say from childhood, I feel like that's fair, one song from childhood that when you hear it, you absolutely have to dance? Like there's no other option. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Hold on just one second. Oh, man, my kid just gave me my chicken wing delivery. Thank you, babies. Okay, there's a few songs. There's, um, there's a lot of songs. Okay. Um, but if, let's go talk right here, if I hear "Money (That's What I Want)," oh, honey, got to get my hands on something. But if I hear that, I have a, a fond memory to that because that is when I, uh, uh, had a, my first talent show experience on the stage when my parents were there, and it was a big, a big deal for me at the time. So that, maybe that. But if I hear, if I'm out and in a song like, like "Aqua Boogie" or maybe Bootsy's "Roto-Rooter," or some, there's a lot of songs. But, um, if, if I hear "Cool" by The Gang's "Rhyme Time," people that I, uh, if I hear, uh, Parliament's, "Let's Play House," "Let's Play House," it, it just, it, yeah, I, I short circuit, but I have that, like, I get stuck, and I have to like, go in. And, you know, the funny thing, my mom is the same way too. Really? Yeah. So, so, uh, it's great because a lot of people don't expect this on my mom. So, just, uh, she's, uh, she's an English lady, and, and she's white, and she just doesn't look like she would be that person to like do this when the P-Funk song comes on, but she is from the soul. And it doesn't matter out in the street, in public, anything, if she hears a song, she will have a moment. It's like, "No, Mom, not here. Not no, no, no, not here, Mom." It's like, you know, should go into one too. "The funk shall join us." Let's, let's edit that. Somebody write that down somewhere. One of y'all. "The funk shall join us." We're gonna solve all the problems with funk. It's its own reward, isn't it? Lay it on your speaker, your little name. All right, cool. So, on, in the other direction, what's one song that you never want to hear again? Like, every time you show up where there's like no dancers, and they know you dance. Oh, okay. So here's a, here's a funny thing. Because of my age, if I go out and people like, and if, if I don't tell the DJ what to play, you know what I mean? Like, and I go out, they always put on some electro song because they think that that's what I'm gonna feel. And I just really don't feel it. Like, so if I hear "Electric Kingdom," like, it just doesn't boom, boom. No, not for me. It's just, I need something slow. I need some monkey. And, and there's some electro music that I, I do like, of course, you know, like when it came out. Like, I've been a Kraftwerk fan since 1973. So, and when "Tour de France" came out, that was it. But if I hear it now, and the people give me that look like, like, "Now, Dave, now it's your, that's yours." No. Yes. So, um, yeah, something, something in the electro classic realm. There's a few of them. I knew I liked you for a reason. My best friend is in this chat right now, and he wants to tell you, if, if I hear "Planet Rock" one more time, I might watch somebody. Never again. And for Mobile, it's double because I have fond memories of locations and the people, and normally that's supposed to generate this loving feeling that makes you want to dance, right? I remember the pictures, the faces, and the people that I missed, but it doesn't generate that feeling. 100%. That's the best question. That's a really good question. Thank you. Yeah, I'm trying to be a proper. And, and so, but here's, here's the thing. So, I, I gotta let you know how I think. So, there was a time I was a battle strategist. I'm not anymore. But I would have never admitted that fact because I would think that, okay, now someone knows that I don't like dancing to electro, so they're gonna choose their moment to an electro song and think they have an advantage. So that's what I'm, I'm trying to let this go now. I'm revealing now. You can put the sword down. All right. So you left L.A. Yeah. Sweden, and this is, uh, mid-80s. So, so I, I moved from Los Angeles when I was like four and five, okay? And started traveling with my mom. So I was born in that lake, but a lot, my, my funk years, uh, when I really got in, I was living in, in the Bay Area, okay? So, but I have folks from to live in San Diego, and, uh, and we'd go down to San Diego and visit them, my cousins and stuff. Uh, much love to my, my family down there. And, and they were the ones that first getting me on, on Bootsy, and stuff. And I was like, that's just weird. And they're like, you'll see. Watch. They kept playing it to me until finally, I got, I got hooked. And then, and then once you're in, there's no going back, you know? It's so, yeah, man. Yeah. I remember when the "Hollywood Squares" album came up, like the album, then, then I was, then it was full-blown from there. All right. Everything after that, Rick James, everything, and it was just, I was all in. Do you have any fun, like battle memories from those years? From like, from the Bay Area years? Yeah, I, I have a, a lot. And, uh, some of my actual fondest memories, uh, don't include me battling. Okay. One of my favorite, uh, battles that I've seen was a battle between Melvin, Mr. Fantastic, and Boogaloo. And the thing is, they're both friends of mine, but they're not friends with each other. And so, yeah, and it was just, uh, amazing, really, really amazing. So the scene was every weekend in Berkeley at Cal Berkeley, the University of Berkeley, um, on the campus, right where the campus meets one of the streets, which is a Telegraph Avenue. It was a popular sort of place where everybody would meet. And what happens is it just got to be known as the spot where the dancers would go. And so when the Fresh Festival tours were happening, my friends that I'd known from New York were sometimes traveling on the Fresh Festival tours. And one of these, uh, friends was, uh, God bless the soul, my, my brother, Shake. And so when he came to California and stuff, like we were building, everybody would always meet at Cal, Cal Berkeley. And the amount of people there would be crowds of like maybe 1,500, 2,000 people to watch people dance. Wow. So it became like a thing. And that, on one of these weekends, um, you know how people egg people on, you know, people gasp. He was talking. He thinks he can. He thinks he could have let him get away with this. And they, when they went for it, and their crews were there, and people were placed, and, yep, it went down. And so Melvin is a, was a fantastic technician, God rest his soul, really on another level when it comes to doing multiple coordinations at the same time. It's also one of the reasons I'm also into layering coordinations and being able to do different things at different parts of my body very meticulously at the same time because that was a part of the concept that we were going for. And Vic is super funky and is this incredible waver. So Melvin Fantastic has ground moves. Vic has incredible flexibility and these weird waves that no one had ever seen. And it started out with Melvin coming out and people like going like, you know, thousand and a half, thousand seven, just like a lot of people in this huge circle on on the bricks on the campus. And he goes in, and he does a cobra, waves his stomach, he has this net see-through shirt that you can see his body, and he does this with his back, like with his shoulder blades, gummy back, and he's gliding in a circle, and his stomach is doing this, his back is doing that, and he's doing this. People go like, like he can't believe it. It's like, and, and he does this incredible round, and people just, they're dying. And they don't see it's like, what can Vic possibly do to answer this? And Vic comes out like, like, yo, like, like, you, you got me, you know? And he shakes his hand, and everybody thinks the battle is over. And as he turns around, he starts walking away, and as he starts walking away, he goes into a back bridge, back then, and looks at Melvin upside down from his back, being completely bent over from the back, like this, and he shakes his head like, "Nah, it's not over." And then starts looking, just like pandemonium. People are screaming. It's like, these guys go back and forth. And this was, let me see, 1980, [Music] for maybe, towards, maybe I'm thinking around, around April, May, around then. So this is the highlight of top-tier Bay Area soloists. Barry is known for having both soloists and, uh, fantastic groups, right? But these were some of the, um, Melvin was young, and he's like an up-and-coming soloist, and he would travel all over the Bay to battle everybody. Uh, Victor didn't come from Berkeley, and he was also, uh, well-known all around, but all around the Bay. So that brought people from all over. This spread out Bay Area, people from San Jose are going to Berkeley, if people from Sacramento were coming to Berkeley, it was like a big deal. And so, in my mind, that's one of these Super Bowl moments for me that I, that I was, I feel lucky enough and privileged to see, you know. Yo, shout out to Vic, because that's hard to answer. Listen, uh, here's the thing, uh, Vic, I have, if anybody ever about, uh, doubts Vic's capability, um, I was there, right? Like, I, I, I'll co-sign. Like, I remembered the things he did. I remember the things he showed me, the moves we traded. He, like, top-tier. He was 100% that guy, like, really. So, um, he's, he's very boisterous, and a lot of people don't like people just talk, but he, he could back it up. And the thing is, a lot of these, uh, events, and a lot of these things, like, people don't have footage of it. So now, him being boisterous, and him not being able to show people the evidence of it makes people question it. But, uh, I'm a witness. After co-sign, this is the Boogaloo. Vic was, was one of those cats in the Bay Area, most definitely. Nice. Um, so when you got into popping, um, did you have any teachers or mentors along the way? Was it kind of like a community thing where everybody was kind of like learning all at once? It was, it was more of a community thing. But, um, when I started practicing with, um, so, so people knew me as BMX Damon, so people didn't know me as dancing Damon. And they're like, uh, Damon's gonna come to practice. And like, we met, it was like, oh, okay, like, all right. So, uh, people like, I, I think I got like a, a pass from the fact that I, uh, I'm very loyal, and I wasn't, um, [Music] you know what I mean? I wasn't turning on my friends and stuff. And I think it gave me access to a lot of areas. And I have like, a lot of friends in the Bay Area that were cool enough to show me stuff from Berkeley to Oakland, from Richmond to San Francisco. Uh, I've been waving ever since junior high school. But like, some of the first people that I saw were "Demons of the Mind" perform at a talent show at my junior high school. So I've been seeing wild stuff that I couldn't, you know, I didn't understand what it was. And, um, so I was already influenced by the way people were moving. I had already been trying to do some of these steps and some of these patterns, [Music] since I, I was in elementary school. So ever since, uh, fourth and fifth grade, I'd already seen people. I'd already seen like incredible robots. Incredible robots. There was a kind of Boogaloo, Dana introduced me to, for him himself, he was an incredible mover, still is an incredible mover. And he introduced me to a magician/robot, a crazy illusionist. This guy named Malford. And his name is Malford. And I think he was trying to work as a professional magician, but this guy was, when he saw this combined with like his effects and stuff, and his roboting, and his animation, and, you know, he would like, you wouldn't have noticed, but at some point, he had put his hand in his pocket, and then later he'll hit, bing, and glitter would come out of his hands or hat, and you hadn't seen that he had a bag of glitter. Who does that? You know? So I remember seeing incredible stuff, but it wasn't, uh, it wasn't like they were teaching me, but I had, uh, was privy, privy to the access. And later, when I started training with certain individuals like Melvin, uh, uh, there's a person named Verndell from a group called UFO Encounters from from Berkeley, would show me stuff. He's the person that taught me my, uh, Pac-Man walk. There's a, a person named Anthony, his, uh, dance name is Boneless. He's the one that showed me like some of the shoulder stuff that I do. So it's really spread out. There's a, some of the people, uh, in the crew I was with, um, I was with a group called Master City Breakers, incredible B-boy crew from the, the Bay Area. Um, it just so happened that some of the members, uh, were from Sacramento, so they knew how to sack, so they had all these sacking styles. I've never seen this stuff before. It's like amazing, amazing stuff. Uh, one of, one of the members' names is Toy Master, and he was showing me all kind of stuff, you know, and, and the style was just incredible. I used like a lot of that stuff today. A lot of my footwork, uh, that I, I give them credit for showing me some of the, the Sac stuff. So, um, a very small handful of like, a older mentor teaching me. It was more like, I, I was still older than everybody, and they're letting BMX Damon like, come and do some of this newfangled stuff. And I, and just how I am, that my obsessive nature, once I go in, like, I go in. And, uh, yeah, started to come up. That's a beautiful thing. That's, I don't think you give that enough credit. Like, just because you're older than someone doesn't mean you can't still learn something. And like, our, like, that's my life story. Like, I'm still learning, watching people moving, like, "Oh, oh, oh, crazy." I, I, I'm, I'm like active on Instagram. Instagram. I, I love watching, and I see, and it's, it's still incredible to me. I still get amazed, and, and I'll tell people, you know, and I'll go, "Whoa," and I'm, I'm really feeling these emotions. I hope people know it's coming from a genuine place. You know, what was, what was the dance scene like, if there was one, when you got to, uh, to Sweden? Um, Sweden was very heavily influenced by, uh, the three movies that it came out, right? So, of course, the first wave they caught was the "Flashdance" thing, right? So, um, a lot of Swedish, uh, elders, you know, you put on Jimmy Castor, you know, and they'll have an emotional moment, you know. Um, and then, of course, "Breaking" and "Beat Street." And just because of how the information came to Sweden, they got a lot more of the New York media than the Los Angeles media, absolutely. So when I got here, people were wearing like Puma windbreakers, and that, you know, everybody, you know, Puma collides, and, you know, you see a few shell toes, but people were like, comb it out, you know? And then some of the, the, the other, some of the football brands, uh, I think Kappa, there's a couple things. But anyway, people had like windbreakers and tracksuits. So that was the thing. Everybody looks like straight out of the battle from from "Beat Street." And, uh, yeah, and so when, when I got here, um, two of the B-boy crews, um, I see Rockers and Throw Down, they, they were, uh, heavily influenced by, you know, from the, from the New York scene. And the poppers, they were kind of more looking into the Electric Boogie sort of way of moving. Um, Mr. Wave was like one of the first people that we brought out to Sweden because of the popularity of, uh, Electric Boogie in Europe. So that's kind of like the first scene. So I just completely broke that. Like, people didn't know what they were seeing, you know? It was the popping scene was a little bit on the decline, just, just a bit here, because people like, "Oh, yeah, that, you know, yeah, that's that's so '83." You know, and I'm like, "It is." You know, and, and then, and people are like, "Whoa, we've been the world, we've never seen that." You know, and, and slowly, um, I, I was teaching a few people in Sweden and in Copenhagen, you know, your friends as well, you know, Steen and Thomas. And, um, and slowly, um, not by any master plan, it started to come up. The quality started to, to come up. Yeah. Nice. So, uh, you thought, uh, Thomas, Steen, was there anybody else like that? Yeah. So, so they, they came up from, from Copenhagen. So in the south of Sweden, there's a town that borders Copenhagen, and so that's where I meet, uh, Steen and Thomas Addict at a contest. And, uh, you see, but there was a, a person from down south, another person that is, uh, go-go, that was like one of my first partners here. There's, there's a guy, uh, named, uh, Abda, his name is Andreas Abdeh, for short, and Swedish. And, uh, his dance name is Too Easy. He was a person that I was, uh, uh, showing him my techniques and stuff. And, and he was also coming up in the ranks. The, yeah, yeah, there, there's, there's a few, a few people. Later, when things get up and running, I get a group together, called New Position, by way of Steen, who a year before had went to the UK. And I'm thinking, I think he must have been like 13 or 14 years old when he went to England by himself to battle people like Boston. I'm like, like, who, who does this? But anyway, he battled a bunch of people, and, and, and, and he wanted revenge. And so when I started training with him, he had a list of names was ready to go back and cut heads in in the UK. And so I go there with them for Fresh Fest '86, and to my, uh, to my delight, I, I meet my first, uh, real, uh, partner that, that we just really developed a lot, and that is, uh, Richard, uh, who, uh, his dance name at the time was Bebop. And we, our names were synonymous with with each other. And I met him at Covent Garden, Covent Garden, in in London, which is an area where a lot of people dance for money in this sort of, uh, tourist spot, you know, and there's a lot of foot traffic, a lot of people go there, and there's lots of circus artists and stuff. And he was like a well-established dancer that had so much performance skills that as soon as I, I met him and we hooked up, as soon as he, when he came to Sweden, he didn't tell me he's coming to Sweden, he just showed up. He barely speaks, you know, and, and we, we just got really tight, and he just convinced me to like, "Ready to dance on the street?" I'm like, "Here?" Really? Like, "Okay, let's go." You know, I was doing this in, in San Francisco and, and in Berkeley as well, so I was like, "Okay, let's go." And we just cleaned up. But that was probably my, my right-hand man. We were like inventing things, pushing each other. That was that thing. No, the, a lot of the other people, just in the, in the very beginning, were like my students. But this guy was not my student. We were each other's teachers because he was equally as skilled as I was, definitely. Which also connected me to a few other, uh, UK dancers. There's a, this gentleman by the name of Danny Francis, who is, um, he's, he's, he's a jeans, he's a style genius, really. Later connected me to another gentleman by the name of Mark Dias Johnson, who was just this wonder of nature. Just was, just, I think, I think he was a high jumper in high school, and this guy just had other standards for himself. He was studying the Nicholas Brothers. So this guy would come into a, a club suited and booted, you know, would sit down, have a drink, run up the wall, and do a flip into the splits, and just out of nowhere, just like, like, "Wait, what?" Yeah. And of course, uh, uh, my, my brother Anthony, you know, right? T-Root. So, yeah, later, when I get a group up and running, Anthony, who is also an influential member of Out of Control, when he moves to Stockholm, starts dancing with us. We have a group called New Position. There's a person by the name of Carl Dial, who, uh, it's one of the first people I met when I was in, when I first arrived. They showed me around. And, uh, yeah, that, that's kind of what it looked like when I, when I got here. These are the, the first people that, that got me into this routine of like, "Okay, what am I doing here? I'm here to dance. Okay, I got my partner. I got my focus. I got my ambitions. I got my goal. Okay, it's working out. It's making money for me. Okay, I have, uh, my baby girl, my daughter, Bam Bam, and I'm like, "Okay, gotta provide." And we're just out doing shows. It's just where we're, it's, it's on. Yeah. That's amazing, man. Yeah, man. All right, where we going next? Yeah, yeah, just, um, I, I, when I talk to you about it now, it's, I, I recognize the blessing, you know, and I also recognized beating a lot of statistical odds, right? Off with, with the people in the area that I come from. It's like, I get it. I didn't see it until someone had pointed this out to me when I was like, in my, uh, late 30s. It's like, you know, you beat the odds, right? I'm like, "What do you mean?" And they, and they gave me some statistics of numbers of, you know, that's right. Like, have you been arrested? No. I said, "Do you have, have you been stabbed or have a bullet wound?" I said, "No." Have you ever been, you know, incarcerated? Have you ever, like, not have you yet? And I was just like, "No." And he's like, "Dude, you're, you're, you're a freak of circumstance." And I didn't understand it until someone really broke it down to me. And when I think now, I'm like, the fact that I go into this dance, and this thing becomes, you know, like a saving grace for me, and is still providing for me to this day because of my interest into this thing, it's, you know, this is otherworldly, right? They, they always say you get out, I mean, and you've put in a bunch over the years. Yeah. Like, uh, so for those of you who aren't aware, uh, Thomas and Steen from Out of Control taught House, who in turn taught Future, who in turn teaches all of you, you know what I mean? So, like, and me included. And it's an honor to be in this, this bloodline of incredible movers that, you know, that come from, you know, Damon Frost, which is outstanding. Um, are there any dancers that you see now that you're really excited about, and that you think, loads, loads, loads? Oh, my gosh. I did that. Oh, every loads, loads, loads. Like, like, I am, uh, okay, that's how I had look. So this is what was going on in my mind, okay? At the time, when in the Bay Area, before I moved to Sweden, and when the word hip-hop and breakers, when this becomes a thing, in my mind, this becomes a threat to my only ticket of anything I could do good besides BMX, right? So when I, when I think about breakers, I'm like, trying to do bigger moves, and popping ground moves, I'm trying to do bigger things, you know? And now, with the fact that the stage, a lot of times, is much bigger for people to do their presentation on, now people are doing bigger things, big ground moves. Like the small, close, intricate detail game is like highly intricate and tight. The big power move-ish ground moves, things are on on another level. People's grooving abilities, being able to flip styles mid-step, all these things, the musicality game, all these things, I, I recognize and appreciate. And, and everybody from, I, I've been a fan of of great individuals since since day one, and, and not a thing has changed. There's this young, let me see, there's, uh, there's one, uh, let me, he calls himself, uh, Just Breaks. You can keep like, he, I, he puts up a lot of footage. I'm like, I'm a fanboy. It's incredible. These people are like, like problems, you know? The, uh, Julie Tricks. Julia Tricks is crazy. It's crazy. Um, let me see. Oh, I have, uh, I, it, there's, I, I could go down a list of people like from from now that I'm watched that I'm super impressed to a few years ago, to a decade ago, to 15 years ago, to 20 years ago. There's loads of people from all over the world. The Paris scene is crazy. The Asian scene is crazy. The, uh, what people are doing in different places, craze. Just, I, every, every place has a pocket of highly top-tier individuals. And, and I see people specializing in different niches in this span of what we do. And, uh, I know a lot of formulas, but what happens is, depending what you put into the formula, will give you different results. So even though I know the formulas, the result of what people happen to put into them surprise me all the time. I'm like, "Why didn't I think of that?" So, yeah, I'm influenced all the time and impressed. I'm, I'm a fan of the stuff. Oh, man. All right. So you invented a movement called the David Byrne? Yeah. So it was actually, uh, Bebop created it. Yeah. Me and him, we, we developed it. So we were, uh, so we liked the song "Once in a Lifetime." The greatest song of all time. It's a bass line, right? Like, right? So anyway, so we're watching this video, and David Byrne, I, I know he's been, uh, taking dance classes with Twyla Tharp, and so he's heavily influenced by, um, African dance, and he's trying to freak. David Byrne's trying to be funky in any way he can, from having members of Parliament-Funkadelic in his group to doing these dances. And at one point, he, he kind of goes down and it just kind of does this. He doesn't bend his knees, but he just is kind of like standing up and he goes like this and goes over, kind of makes a circle with his upper body somewhere in this video. And Bebop goes, "Oh, okay." So he does the top part. And once he's there, then he tries to make the bottom part, his knees and his legs go. So we wanted to be like this, this, and back up. And so we, uh, Bebop dubbed, dubbed the David Byrne wave, and then we developed this thing. So, yeah, that's how, like, one connection or another connection. But would you mind telling them of your, your David Byrne story? Yes. Okay. So I'm working in a music studio called Breaking Bread, under the the direction of a gentleman by the name of Gordon Cyrus. Gordon Cyrus is a creative genius, and he's also a musical genius, and a fantastic producer, and a video producer, and an architect, and he's just, he's a gene, like, really. And these ideas, he's like, he goes, "Why don't we make a place?" And put, and he's just good, and, and everybody goes, "Yeah, yeah, yeah." But then he does it. So we're in the studio, it's a converted warehouse, and it's called Breaking Bread. I'm in the studio because he insists that I'm there. Uh, there's a few other members. There's a person named, uh, Ski, which is also one of the first people I met in Sweden, who hooked me up and was patient enough to show me MIDI, and I got my first sampler, and got me into music production. He's working there, uh, and what happens is, David Byrne liked Gordon's music production, and he wanted Gordon to produce his next album. One day, I go to Breaking Bread to my studio. Gordon goes, "Hey, damn, there's someone I'd like you to meet." I go, and I go, uh, he goes, "Yeah, it's David Byrne." And I go, "What? You get David Byrne?" And go, said, "Dave, David, this is Damon. Damon's David." I'm like, and I have to stop. And he's, uh, um, he's quite a reserved person. And I'm like, I'm like, "No, you don't understand. I know who you are." And he's like, "Oh, okay." But it's like, he's very reserved, you know? And I go, "No, I said, I'm friends with Pop and Pete, and ever since Crossfire and Painless, like one of the first popping videos ever." You know, I said, "And he's like, 'Oh.'" And Gordon goes, "Yeah, he's a dancer." He goes, "Always." And, and, and then the conversation opens up. And, and yeah, I'm like, I can't, I can't make this up. So one of the, so he wanted Gordon to go on the world tour with him, wanted him to play bass or guitar. And, uh, Gordon decided not to do it. And another person that's in our studio fold by the name of Desmond Foster, uh, incredible bassist, winds up going on the world tour with the Talking Heads and the Tom Tom Club. So he's playing all the, you know, the genius of loves, he's playing all these, you know, and he, he wasn't even familiar with all these songs from the onset, you know? So, so it's just, it's just a small world. It's, it's just incredible. That's an incredible. Did you know David Byrne? V, David Byrne? No, I didn't. That would have been the one. He was really shy. So, so he, um, like, I've seen him on stage. I remember watching him come out in the big suit. I remember all kind of stuff. And I thought he was a much bigger person, a taller person than he was. But so here I am, this tall dude, and I'm all boisterous. He's really reserved. After life, I'm like, "Okay, I'll be in here if you need me." I had to back up. I didn't know how to like overwhelm this guy. For those that are underwear, Damon Frost is 7 foot 9. [Laughter] Man, that's that's an incredible story. All right, so perfect segue, music production. Yes. Uh, Ski gives you your first sampler. What was your first sampler? Uh, the S 1100, Akai S 1100, rack unit. They gave me that and an Atari 1040 STE with 1.4 megabytes of memory. And I was running, no, Notator and Creator, which were the precursors to Logic, like when it was on the Atari format. Yeah. So all the sequencing was done from the Atari, which had this amazingly tight MIDI sequencer, amazingly tight. And all the, the vocals, either you would do it live to tape, or later the ADATs came. So, yeah. Nice. Is there a song that you hear and you're like, "I wish I would produce that first"? Old and new, uh, one each. Okay. So, so I'm, I'm a funk fan, and I'm not, by any means, an accomplished piano player at all. I'm like, barely, you know, just learning things now, theory. So I've been sonically manipulating little microscopic bits of samples to do what I want them to do for decades. And, uh, there's this one group that came out that did this crazy thing that I didn't know how they were accomplishing it because I pretty much thought I understood how everything was made, but there were some sonic things I just didn't understand. And this, um, the group is called, uh, Art of Noise, and the name of the song is "Gantz Graf." And it comes within a, a video, and it's not funky, but it's just unapologetically on some other stuff. I don't know how they did it. This is before Ableton. This, I don't know how they got the samplers, I don't know how they made these sounds, how they did it, but it's just on some other stuff. So I, I wish for my sort of futuristic sounding stuff, I wish I would have did this. Uh, and, and I'm a fan of funk music, you know? So I, I wish I made anything. I'm still trying to make funky music to this day, you know? There's, uh, let me see. There's a song produced by a producer named Michelangelo, and he did it for Busta Rhymes, and the song is "You Ain't No Competition." This song, I finally got a hold of him back in the MySpace days. I'm like, I'm like, "How did you do this?" He goes, "Oh, that was just the MS2000." And, yeah, and I got the MX, the MS2000 like that week. I'm like, just trying to get these sounds out of there. But, uh, it was special in, in the regard that, so I'm a sound guy, and so, and I'm a bass person. And so I think I know most formulas to get anything that I wanted. And I relied because of my lack of harmonic and theory prowess, I would compensate by with my sound design. So the thing about this song is that the sounds themselves aren't anything special, but he played it so funky that it made me realize, "Okay, it's not the sounds. You can do this on anything, but you just have to have it." And if you listen to the song by Busta Rhymes, um, there's, "You Ain't No Competition," I think, "Wit." If you hear it, and you look at the date that it's made, it's, you can't believe it. It's, it's an achievement in my mind. Hats off, Michelangelo. Oh, man. Okay, so we know you're a funk dude, like, and if you hear your production, there's, there's no doubt about that. What's that? I'm stuck on it. Yeah. Are there any hip-hop songs and or producers that when you hear their music, it gives you like the same feeling? Like, uh, yeah, yeah, absolutely. So one of my favorite producers, um, is Nottz. N-O-T-T-Z. He's been very good for a very long time. Absolutely for a very long time. Um, of course, uh, when, so I'm, I'm working for a, I'm doing production for a girl called, uh, China Moses. China Moses is the daughter of Dee Dee Bridgewater, funk jazz diva, just bowed down. Uh, she's in Breaking Bread studio, and in the house, different people in the house are doing production for her. And under this time, uh, Bob Power is mixing in Breaking Bread. And so I meet Bob, and we have a mutual friend, my, my first Boogaloo dance partner from the Bay Area named Danny Wyatt, who's a platinum award-winning, um, producer and mastering engineer. Through him, I say, "Oh, Danny told me about you." And Bob goes, "Oh, you know Danny's stuff?" And that opens that door, and we're talking, and he's listening to my music, and he goes, "Oh, that's hip. How you do this, this stuff?" And he goes, "Oh, you'd really like this guy named James." You know, he said, he kept saying about James, he'd like him. They called him JD. They called him, "You're gonna, you're gonna like him. You're gonna recognize a lot of this stuff." And then later, when I heard, you know, the fantastic volumes of one and two, and I started listening to the stuff, I was like, "Oh, you know," and I'm like, "That's the dude that Bob was talking about." Ah, okay. You know? So, so, the
Late great Dilla is definitely one of these people that is just that that is that has got it. And and the thing that I call it is as a culmination of three things. It's you to have a sound that you just like, and whether or not it's fashionable or not, you decide to no, this just makes me feel this good, and you stick with it. One, two, the equipment that you're working on, no matter what it is, that you're gonna make it be something that people will recognize regardless as you. This thing. And the other thing is, where somewhere, the third thing is that there's an area or an envelope that people decide to push.
So not on like, I consider myself an exponent of all the great funk music that I've heard. And but I also don't want to just remake those songs like they did. I also want to put my own personality and the things I like into the formulas as well to reveal myself, right? And and and maybe or maybe not this has been something that's been heard before, and it might go against the grain, maybe maybe not. But uh, it just so happens that when those three things come together from anybody, it gets me. Knots was one of those people. Michelangelo was one of those people. Uh, Dilla was one of these these people. So yeah, there there's a few, there's a few that's outstanding.
Um, thank you for saying not. Yeah. So I'm from people don't under, I don't think they understand because the thing is he makes so much music and he puts a lot of songs out just because he's like excellent. But I don't think people really underst, I I don't think so. No, absolutely. Okay, so so for example, uh, what producers does Dilla go to to produce his rap album? Talk about it. There you go. You know what I mean? Not is there Madlib? Is there, you know, these are the people that make music for him. So I hope this lets the die-hard Dilla fans understand that, you know what I mean? Who is he listening to? You know, it's yeah.
Like I'm from uh, 757 Virginia, where where not still lives, Norfolk, Virginia, never left. And the thing is, you know, we have Tim, and we have uh, Pharrell, and Chad, and Missy. And people always skate over Knots like he isn't like like there's like this dirty Norfolk sound that he has. And like every independent artist from Norfolk, uh, every major artist is coming to work with Knots. They all get that Norfolk sound. You can't you can't like replicate it. And it's such an incredible thing. Yeah.
And also remember I say about these three things, the thing you stick with, the quinn, the equipment that you use, and you know how what you can get out of your sounds, and where you decide to push it. He did all these things. I so um, from the wolves, the stuff he did for for the DV Alias Christ, stuff for the Busta Rhymes solo album, stuff like that. Stuff is nuts. Knots is nuts. It should have been just called nuts. He was just it was ridiculous. The thing he he first did for um, Raw Digga, the first Raw Digga, if you listen to a song called, what's it called? Oh, what was it? Um, the Showdown. Listen to the bass line on Showdown on this Raw Dude. It's like it's it's ridiculous. And the fact that he had the harmonics sort of almost distorting, you know, now people are getting into distorting the 808s and stuff now, you know, the fact that he had this gritty thing on the but the sub bass was was clean sine waves. And the fact that he was doing this when he was doing it, and the musicality that he was putting with these sounds, he was on another tier. So he was um, I I I'm sorry, I say was, he is just on some real true like underground feeling stuff. If he, even though he's a platinum producer, he he makes stuff that I identify with that that's the only way I can describe it. It gives, you know, people that influence the blues, the influ different kinds of jazz in into the funk in the the to make like I I I feel it. I I really feel it.
A favorite production of your own that's like like your, you know, magnum over soda? There's different things at different times. Um, there's some things of from the the Boom Lucy album that I did in 2004. Uh, it reached some platforms in 2005. There's there's some things I I like for its simplicity. Uh, some things I like for its some of its deceptiveness. Some things I like for um, [Music] some magic moments that I I fought for. For instance, there's a song called "More" on this album. "More" was a song where my partner Aaron uh, Peary, he plays some chords and he says, "Now, these chords are corny." I'm like, "No, do it again. Do it again. Record it." Like, "I gotta quit." And he goes, "No, no." I'm like, "I'm like, dude, you know." And I'm not. And he's like, "I don't like it." I said, "Listen, Aaron, recorded them chords." You know, and and so he records them in MIDI, and I start manipulating and chopping them up and stuff, and I go into my thing. And when he comes back to the studio, I play him the song, and he goes, "Now we're talking. That I like." I said, "But Aaron, that's the chords." He goes, "Yeah, but you did, you've changed. You you changed." I like, "That's what I was trying to tell you." So I fought to make the song happen.
Fast forward a little over a decade after this, there's a friend of mine that was in a really bad way. Went to Thailand to end their life. They were gonna go to the beach. They bought a one-way ticket and was gonna swim out into the water and not swim back. This person had a a CD Walkman with the album in it. And when they put on the song "More," that it clicked in this person's mind that they were supposed to live. More. Wow. And the fact that we're joyous and happy on this thing, which is totally, you know, you know, happy ain't in happy on music isn't trending at all. So so the fact that we go for it, we do this thing, and it comes out the way we want. And the fact that it's not just in my mind, but this person comes back and says, "Damon, I have to tell you what happened." And when I heard it from this person's mouth, explain it. And I tell Aaron, I'm like, "Can you remember this? The song that I had to fight you for to get the chords?" And he's and he's a very spiritual person. And he was like, like, "We're we're all just vessels here, you know?" Like that that was like a like a moment that that tripped me out.
[Music] That's a that's that's an incredible story, brother. Like that's yeah, yeah. One of those moments, man, where that's you're in your room and you're by yourself in your room, and you got your friend, and you're making music, and you just have this feeling that it's gonna go out to the world, and you're just hoping and that someone will catch it, you know? And then decade plus, you get this message back to you like like, uh, yeah, we saw your message in a bottle. Uh, yeah, you know, we popped the cork and we listened to it and yeah, we got it. Thank you very much for that. You know what it's like, you can't make this stuff up, man. You can't. Uh, I bet. I I don't think I can go past that. I think that's a good spot for for our actual conversation to hold for now, man. Like, okay, brother. Thank you. Thank you so much. Uh, any time, man. Man, um, are there any questions? I know I don't have my Facebook open right now, but if there are any questions for anybody in the chat for Damian, we got a few minutes left, and then we're gonna let uh, everybody get ready for the workshop. Yes, so but man, yo, while that's loading up, thank you so much, brother. Like, any time. And I told you that any time that I was online on any platform, I was gonna let the world know about you and your musical skills. So I'm not gonna let this pass up with people not understanding that you're a very gifted music maker, you know? So please, you know, take take that and and run with that torch, please. That's her. I appreciate it, man. Thank you so much. I had tears bursting my wig out here, man. What are we doing? All right, where are we at? Where are we at? Any questions, anybody? Oh, Russ. Uh, Russ actually had a question. He said, "Is there any footage of your mom dancing online?" Oh, I can't tell her under the bus. That means this. Ah, Iron Man, why are you trying to incriminate me, man? Um, on my, yes, there is. Where where why? Okay, so there's a hip-hop song called Zig Zag. Zig Zag. Zig Zag. Zig Zag. You say ever found some sounds today at the end with with uh, some friends of mine named Quote Stugga. Now, uh, yes, there's a hip-hop song called Zigzag, and my mom is the white lady on the end of it getting down. My daughter's in it. My son uh, Macio shot the video with his talents itself. And uh, Martha and Nicky are in it. Uh, A-Train Lock-in is in it. Uh, Mark. Yeah, it's cool. Uh, Zig-Zag. Check out the Zig-Zag video. It's it's spelled the funny way. I'm gonna have to send you the spelling of it of the name of the group. It's S J U K. Yeah, Swedish. S J U K. S-T-U-G-G-A. Quote Stugga. Yup. Whatever. And that and that uh, directly translated, that's the sick cabin, the sick house. Anybody else any questions? Going once, going twice. Now, come on now. All right. What Damon, always a pleasure, brother. Um, if you have not signed up for the workshop, the workshop starts at 3 p.m. Correct, Ryan? Yeah. Yep. 3 p.m. Uh, you still have time to register. Um, the last workshop fried every last brain cell that I have, but I'm better for it. So make sure you're here for today's workshop. Um, brother, thank you. We'll see you in a little bit. Any time. Any time. Peace, y'all. See you on the other side. You go. Where's my stop recording?