Rain Dog is the King of Sampling Weird Art House Films

We often pidgeonhole musicians into two-dimensional characters rather than seeing them as fully realized human beings. Extracurriculars is a series that uncovers unknown, surprising, and often super weird non-musical interests of DJs and producers—and lets them explain how it all relates back to their work. 

Like many sample-based, bedroom producers, Rain Dog (Samuel Evans) is a master chef with a knack for chopping up and throwing together bits of collected samples into feasts for the ears. His debut LP, Two Words, out on Project Mooncircle last week, proved that he wasn't just another airhead with a drum machine—he actually put that art school degree to work. The album is a buffet of references to crazy-good indie films, including Yorgos Lanthimos' Dogtooth and Jim Jarmusch's Stranger Than Paradise, plus vocal snippets from Tom Waits, Joni Mitchell, and Ella Fitzgerald. Those samples are layered with sunbaked, organic synths before getting finished off with scattershot basslines. The result, in his own words, is "like a nice pie—warm, hearty and crusty."

Given the impossibility of diciphering the amalgam of ingredients that went into Rain Dog's sonic spread, we asked him to illuminate the most important (and obscure) bits of cultural ephemera that went into his album—including his own drawings from his art school days. We also snagged an exclusive stream of Two Words, right after the jump.

KELLY REICHARDT'S FILM, WENDY AND LUCY (2008)

"Like A Lame Man Stepping" off my LP is an edit of a track I originally wrote three years ago. I was living with filmmakers, and as a result, I got to see a lot of really interesting films—including Kelly Reichardt's Wendy and Lucy. The movie's delicate simplicity struck such a chord with me—pun unintended, honestly—that I ended up sampling lots of snippets from it, including ambient sounds for percussion and some vocals. I have some kind of loyalty to low-budget films. Or rather, I have a lot of respect for people who get the most out of the materials they have at their disposal.

A STILL FROM JIM JARMUSCH'S FILM, STRANGER THAN PARADISE (1984)

This screen print hangs on my wall between my speakers, right above my desk. It's a still from Stranger Than Paradise by Jim Jarmusch and reminds me of when I first left home and had to start making decisions on my own (ish…). It's probably the one image that makes me the think of the project as a whole.

YORGOS LANTHIMOS' FILM, DOGTOOTH (2009) 

The track "The World Is My Shotgun" contains samples from Yorgos Lanthimos' surreal movie, Dogtooth, which is about a family that has raised their kids without any contact from the outside world. As a result, the kid understand everything in a completely warped way. I loved one of the lines about "shotgun" meaning "beautiful white bird"—hence the track's title. I suppose this appropriation mirrors how a lot of artists use samples, and how by putting elements in different contexts you can influence the meaning of things. I also sampled Joni Mitchell in this song, as with a lot of other tracks on the LP.

DRAWINGS FROM MY ART SCHOOL DAYS 

I often found I could get a much more comprehensive image while using my left hand, presumably because it didn't have any bad habits. With music I have found you have to do the same. I have played the guitar since I was pretty young and my hands always go back to familiar chords and arrangements.  Whereas I can't play piano particularly well, so using a keyboards is hard work, but I find that I think a little more creatively. Tom Waits once said, "You have to be careful when playing is no longer in the mind but in the fingers, going to happy places. You have to break them of their habits or you don't explore." He's right.

Michelle is an airhead without a drum machine - @MichelleLHOOQ