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Music

Kutiman: The Mash-Up Master [Interview]

Israeli musician Kutiman answers some questions.

Kutiman is the musician responsible for the Thru-You project, which features mash-up music videos made from footage of amateur and professional musicians found on YouTube. It’s a clever piece of digital remixing and collaboration (although, admittedly, the musicians were unaware of their involvement), continuing the traditions of hip-hop sampling culture. The tracks have a range of styles from bass-heavy funk to reggae and soul, and if you haven’t seen them you can watch all the videos in the series here. Above is his latest piece, “Smile 2 Me,” shot in and around the streets of Tel Aviv, and he recently performed at the Guggenheim for YouTube Play.

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The Creators Project: How did the idea for Thru-You come about?
Kutiman: I was surfing YouTube and I came across a video of a drummer [the legendary session drummer Bernard Purdie] explaining how to play this funky groove and I had the idea of playing over the top of his video, so I did some tests [watch here]. I really loved the idea so I decided to do another one. I found another video of the same drummer and just before I plugged my guitar in to play over it, I thought to myself, maybe I can find someone on YouTube to accompany him instead of me playing the guitar or bass? And that was it. After that moment I didn’t get up from the computer for about two months.

What was your creative process for making a song work?
I usually started with the drums. I’d type something like “funky drum groove” into YouTube and sometimes the first video is perfect and sometimes I’d watch 50 different people playing drums in their living room before I found my loop. Then, I’d download the movie and edit together some kind of drum loop on the software. Then, I’d let the drum loop play in the background while I type “funky bass line” on YouTube and look for a bass line. And so on.

What technology did you use to cut and paste the clips?
I used a utility to download the YouTube clips and Sony Vegas to edit them.

Is the internet a double-edged sword for artists? On the one hand it allows for mass distribution but lacks the ability to monetize on this.
I think it is and I think it’s beautiful. For me as an artist from Tel Aviv, the internet is pretty much the only way to spread my art around. In Israel you don’t really make money from music anyway, so at least I get to reach millions of people. I think the internet leads to a lot of new creativity both from artists that explore new ways of making art and from the industry trying to understand how to make money out of it. It’s not every day that you see the world’s music industries changing form and it’s very exciting.

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_The first in the _Thru-You_ series “Mother of All Funk Chords”_

You’re both a producer and a musician. What’s the difference creatively and do you have a preference?
I think the only difference is that with the sample-based projects like Thru-You I have boundaries. I can only work with what’s out there. With my own music I can do whatever I want. Sometimes I like to have boundaries and sometimes I like to do whatever I feel like, but all-in-all, I think the creativity stays the same .

Who are your influences and inspirations?
It’s really hard for me to point out a specific artist that inspires me these days. I mean, 15 years ago I used to listen to Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix albums over and over. Today, I get my inspiration from so many different videos that I see on the internet every day. I guess you could say the internet is my main inspiration.

What are you opinions on the current copyright laws?
I leave the laws for the law people. My main focus in life is to be as creative as I can be and to keep on creating new stuff all the time. It’s actually exciting to see everybody freaking out from this new situation, it feels like a 1960s-style revolution of a new and different age.

Do you think the trends we’re seeing now, like digital collaboration and mash-ups/remixes, are the next step in music’s evolution?
Definitely, but hopefully not the only one.

What’s next for Kutiman?
I guess Thru-You is over for now. I’m currently working on my music and also experimenting with video. I surf the internet as always and hope the
combination of them all will lead to new projects.