AJ: I understand Teo Macero (Miles Davis’ legendary producer) helped out with one track. That’s very impressive, how did that come about?
Logic: Teo’s an old friend. I met him back in the early 90s when I recorded with Vernon. He’s just like a legend, a true genius. He took our shit and pointed it in a whole new direction. On the tune he worked on, “The Abyss” he just came in the studio like a mad scientist and started experimenting. He even busted out his horn and played! We all felt honored to be in his presence. And that was the first tune we mixed, so it kind of set a precedent for the rest of the record. There was already a “Bitches Brew” type of vibe on that track so I just had to have his blessing.
AJ: What kind of guidelines did you give the musicians during the making of the record?
Logic: Absolutely none. We all just fell right into a groove.
AJ: What was the production/editing process like? How did you choose the tunes from so many hours of tape?
Logic: Well, we just recorded live everyday for a week. It was me and Melvin and Skoota and Leon Lamount. Everyday we invited different guests to jam with us out at Bill Laswell’s studio in East Orange, NJ. We had like 40 hours of tape. After the recording sessions we all went back, listened and edited all that down to about 20 tunes. Then we did overdubs on those 20 tunes and picked the best ones for the record.
AJ: How would you describe your approach to the turntables?
Logic: My turntable is my instrument and I’m just doin’ my part just like any other musician would do their part. I try to show a different type of texture around the musicians by adding colors and sounds. I’m just trying to blend into them.
AJ: How do you communicate musically with the other musicians on stage? How do you and your turntables fit in with the rest of the musicians?
Logic: I don’t like the groove to stop. If it slows down, then I go into something different or something abstract. I play different colors and different textures to go off of what the other musicians are doing. When they like the sounds I bring out, the musicians will follow right behind me and we come up with some nice, funky stuff. I don’t want to be scratchin’ all over everyone. I don’t want to clutter everything up. I just want to blend in with everyone and watch everyone groove. I like making my guest musicians feel like kids again. I want to see everyone have a good time and be creative.
AJ: It seems like you have played with practically every musician on the planet. How did you meet all of these people? The diversity and amount of musicians you’ve played with recently is staggering. John Scofield and Joshua Redman are two heavy hitting jazz cats.
Logic: I’ve been doing tons of festivals lately, so I’ve been meeting lots of people at those. At the festivals different bands ask me to sit in with them and vice versa. I met Karl Denson at the Berkshire festival and he is one of my favorite sax players so I said to myself, “I just gotta hook up with him.”
I met John Scofield at the Vibes and also through MMW. Someone else hooked me up with Joshua Redman. He was in the middle of trying out some new stuff with effects like the wah wah pedal. I said that’s it. That’s Logic right there, experimental and steppin’ out. It was a great privilege to play with them. They never played with a DJ before and it was great to get them to open up, and have a good time doing something different than what they normally do. It was over the top and funky. I used to be in an alternative rock band called Eye and I. That band was part of the Black Rock Coalition so I met Vernon through that and then Vernon introduced me to MMW. MMW invited me to sit with them and everything turned out fat. They asked me to join them on a few recording projects and gave me tons of credits and helped me build my resume. I know Mark Ribot through the downtown scene and from sitting in with MMW.
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