Photo of Paul White by Owen Richards
Detroit rapper Danny Brown made quite a splash yesterday when he shared a new music video for "When It Rain," his solo recording since 2013's Old LP. In addition to announcing that he'd signed to veteran English imprint Warp Records for what appears to be a new album, the track itself is delightfully electric and unglued, pairing Brown's formidable skills as a lyricist with a kitsch spooky, vintage-styled, and unspooling beat courtesy of previous Danny Brown collaborator, Paul White.We liked the instrumental so much, in fact, we had to reach out to White ourselves to get the story behind it.THUMP: What can you tell us about the the recording process for the "When It Rain" instrumental?
Paul White: The process is always just crazy fun, a journey going somewhere else, leaving earth a little, going somewhere—I'm not sure where. I remember finding the sample and feeling so much energy off it, just soaking it up and tripping out in my head with the sonics! I'd just got [Native Instruments production equipment] Maschine on loan so I was playing with the percussion hits on there—that's what your hearing on the track, put through mad long delays. I hadn't put drums through such long delays in years! I remember jamming around with some synths over the top to enhance the track's energy as much as possible. After the bones of the loop was done, I got to be able to listen to that a lot without getting bored so I know it's got a good backbone to add to. Then I just chanted to myself through a vocoder for the choruses and made a rough arrangement with an intro verse and choruses, added some more effects here and there for transitions, and the job was a gooden. Next beat time, hooray!You and Brown have collaborated a few times now. What makes your artistic relationship so productive?
I think we just similar as souls, maybe we have the same kind of spirit, or the same kind of musical goals, or similar ears, similar experiences and surroundings growing up, similar life values, a similar passion, a similar intensity, the same love for music, open ears and minds…something anyway, it's something spiritual for sure.Can you tell us anything about his new album? Will you have more beats on it?
I got more, but I'll leave the rest as a surprise!! Danny's always pushing, and we share the same views on that, I'll say that much!Follow Alexander on Twitter.
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Paul White: The process is always just crazy fun, a journey going somewhere else, leaving earth a little, going somewhere—I'm not sure where. I remember finding the sample and feeling so much energy off it, just soaking it up and tripping out in my head with the sonics! I'd just got [Native Instruments production equipment] Maschine on loan so I was playing with the percussion hits on there—that's what your hearing on the track, put through mad long delays. I hadn't put drums through such long delays in years! I remember jamming around with some synths over the top to enhance the track's energy as much as possible. After the bones of the loop was done, I got to be able to listen to that a lot without getting bored so I know it's got a good backbone to add to. Then I just chanted to myself through a vocoder for the choruses and made a rough arrangement with an intro verse and choruses, added some more effects here and there for transitions, and the job was a gooden. Next beat time, hooray!You and Brown have collaborated a few times now. What makes your artistic relationship so productive?
I think we just similar as souls, maybe we have the same kind of spirit, or the same kind of musical goals, or similar ears, similar experiences and surroundings growing up, similar life values, a similar passion, a similar intensity, the same love for music, open ears and minds…something anyway, it's something spiritual for sure.Can you tell us anything about his new album? Will you have more beats on it?
I got more, but I'll leave the rest as a surprise!! Danny's always pushing, and we share the same views on that, I'll say that much!Follow Alexander on Twitter.