Tony's Diary


24/05/04

Wow – its been ages since my last entry I deeply apologise to  my regular readers (both of you!). While surfing some of my favourite sites the other day I noticed The Roots have established a tour diary on their site Okayplayer.com and reading ?uestlove’s downright honest entries I was inspired to get my own communication happening with the real people. (That dude ?uesto is inspring in so many ways – as a drummer, producer (see D’Angelo’s Voodoo, Common’s Like Water and Electric Circus et al.), musical messiah (bringing people together through his okayplayer conduit), DJ and his coolness in giving an unknown flute blowing nobodiness (ie me, Buchman) a solid 15 miniutes backstage at The Roots show in Sydney a couple of months back. He gave me a peek into his universe when we searched through his laptop pic collection for a shot of Dawn - another Philly all round nice person who is helping me with contacts there and who I’ve never met in person. Passing over photos of every Soul and hip hop luminary currently active in the US who he’d hooked up with on their US tour – pharell, erykah, ... They were all there. Freaked me out a bit.

Speaking of Philly, I’ve been flat out preparing for a trip I’m taking to LA, Philly, NYC and London to meet other producers/writers and hopefully MCs (they’re the hardest to get to unless you’ve got copious amounts of cash to offer – why else would they record with some Australian dude with a firewire drive and some beats?) Not that they don’t deserve the $. We all do, but I guess its about hooking up with the right dudes – people that believe in a collaboration enough that they know it will pay off  for them some day too.

Anyway – very excited and a bit nervous about the trip. Taking a massive amount of music over as well to try sort some deals with people in the know. Baggsmen, Buchman, plus you know who... (maybe not, but you’ll see).

Music – two albums high on high rotation on the Buchman pod right now:

Phoenix’s new one Alphabetical – much more coherent record than their debut United which had some super cool 70’s Hall and Oats style summer afternoon pop sung in a bad french accent (does he actually understand what he’s singing?). This album is full of beautiful, warm acoustic guitars, muted electric quincy jones guitars, 70’s synths and lots of handclaps (they’ve been listening to Musiq, Rahael Saadiq and Erykah for sure). Check it.

Jaylib – Champion Sound. This is a collab betw two of the most respected producer/MCs in the us right now Madlib and Jay Dilla (AKA Jay Dee of Slum Village). These guys make beats that ?uestlove attempts (and succeeds) to play live on his kit. Loose, dirty, organic and funky as all hell. They take turns rapping on each other’s beats – madlib odd numbered tracks, Jay Dilla on the evens – one of the coolest ideas to come out of the us hip hop scene in a while. This is real hip hop equally based in musicianship and sampling selection – Timbaland: stick to the pop!

Take care. Will see ya’ll at the next Baggsmen (30 July at The Basement, Sydney) or Andy Bull (TONIGHT! Monday 24 May at Candy’s Apartment, Sydney) show.

Peace
Tony (Buchman)

16/12/03

Feeling a bit under the weather today. I’ve been working harder lately than I’ve ever worked before. Amongst all the things I’ve been producing in the studio I’m totally excited about an ep I’ve just finished for Lordz of The Fly (Big Buxx and Rudy Jackson who both feature on  Eleven Stages). They’re some of the most accomplished mc’s I know in Australia and its been fucking great putting together the music and beats for their debut. Check it in 2004!

Lots of stupid season parties on right now. Weird how humans feel the need to compartmentalise their time - even opportunities to get fucked up and vomit on their girlfriend’s new stilettos... I feel pretty new to all the music industry events and half of me keeps saying – you should be in the studio busting out more tracks... Not schmoozing and boozing.  But hey, gotta get you inspiration form somewhere right (from industry parties? Yeah right!).

Got sucked in to this season of survivor somehow. As much as he was a morally corrupt arsewhole, I kind of dug that Johnny Fairplay dude’s brutal honesty – great for the show anyway.

Been checking some beautiful music lately. Missy Elliott’s newy This is Not a Test, Alicia Key’s record, Gangstarr’s The Ownerz (still going strong – esp Premier), Nappy roots and I’m eagerly anticipating Meshell N’Degeocello’s new one (I learnt so much of my bass technique and feel from listening to her). From what I’ve heard, its a real soul record – so can’t wait. I also unexpectedly checked out a gig at the Gaelic by US band the Shins the other night. Superb simple rock with great vocals – the dude sounds like a young Robert Smith, the music like Beach Boys meets Crosby Stills Nash meets something harder.

Saw that the Roots have been putting on jam sessions in Philly of late in an attempt to workshop new songs for their next album. How much would you pay to be there? At least as much as they found on Sadaam the other day.

Dabaaz (MC for Paris group Triptik) has apparently put down his parts for a track off my forthcoming Buchman record. Finally! Can’t wait to hear what he’s come up with. Triptik is some of the damn funkiest French hip hop I’ve heard. Check it out at www.triptik.net

That’s all for now. Music get me some more mint tea. Keep truckin’ and have a great break whatever you get up to.

Peace

2/11/03

I want to thanks all those people who came down to the Gaelic Club in Sydney on Friday night to help us launch our new record 11 Stages. There was a chunky vibe in the room and we put 100 percent into our performance. To be honest I was totally rooted by the end of the gig. Album launches always feel more intense to me because they’re like the summation of so much hard work and expectations – not only for the gig itself, but for the whole album. Anyway, I had a great time and it looked like people were having a good night.  Special big ups to our team who basically did all the work putting the night on and making sure people turned up – Jules, Mel, Jordan and Richard. Also to Rudy and Jake for the best costumes I’ve seen at any gig – you guys looked amazing – although Jake I felt strangely attracted to you with that blonde wig.

Back in my studio today working on a remix for a Sony artist called Sandrine. Also pushing on with our development of some special talent. Can’t wait to unleash these people on the listening public. More to come...

There was a funny moment I wanted to mention when we were playing at Wollongong Uni last week, Jake consumed a little too much tequila form our rider (he drank one or town more than his usual limit of 2 shots) and went kind of wild. I don’t really understand what he was thinking when he lay down in the dressing room shower recess and writhed like a snake. This culminated in jake dancing on stage behind Meem with his pants around his ankles. After a good dacking, he was left with some testicular protrusion while trying to escape the stage... The bizarre thing about this sordid tale is that when we finally said goodbye before heading back to Sydney, Jake staggered up to us with the smooth confidence of Jack Nicholson and reported to us that he’d just had a nice pash in the parking lot. That dude just continues to surprise...

Once again. Thanks to all this who came to the launch at the Gaelic. See y’all at the next one.

Oh – I almost forgot. Check out the clip for our new single Long Strong Diamond on Rage, MTV and Channel V. Playing Now! And of course let us know how you feel about it on the guestbook.

9/10/03

Damn its good to be home. We've been on the road for the last 4 weeks and it just makes you realise how much you love having a day to chill in your home town. The gigs were awesome on the whole. Most memorable for me was the show in Byron at the Beach Hotel. Sydney Swans were playing Brizzy on the big screen next door so i feared that once again live music would suffer because
of our national obsession with the game, but thankfully most of the crowd by
far were right into the gig. Big Buxx and Jake hit us up with a freestyle jam which resulted in some of the fastest, coolest rhyming I've heard in Australia for a long time. Thanks to Buxx, Jake and Rudy Jackson for putting in for the tour - I appreciate every word... Word.

Funny touring moment no. 547:
Getting to Melbourne 4 hours late due to a snapped clutch on our dodgy Torago 5 minutes outa Bondi, we arrived at a mate's place to pick up keys for our accommodation at another friends pad. It happened to be Jewish new year that night which is always a massive family event with a banquet of Judaic delights. In classic Woody Allen fashion a friend of mine runs out of the house with plates of gefilte fish (a jewish delicacy consisting of 5 types of fish minced into balls and served with aspic - sounds gross, tastes beautiful) for the band. Seeing our fine MCs eating what i grew up on as a nice Jewish boy out of my eastern suburbs hood brought a smile to my face. Now that's indoctrination... Funny thing is, I think Buxx actually liked it! Not sure about Rudy though. The whole episode kind of reminded me how ethnically diverse our little Baggsmen crew is. Anglos, Jews, Indonesian, American... eating gefilte fish on a cold Melbourne night on the sidewalk somewhere in a place called Kew...

I've been super busy back here in my studio in Sydney. I'm continuing to work on my solo album under my moniker BUCHMAN and i have an MC in Paris called Dabaaz from a crew called Triptik recording a track for this record right now.  French rhyming has always been so nice on the ear to me and< Dabaaz is one of the most talented French MCs I've heard. Forget the genteel rambling of MC Solaar - this guy is real. Buchman will be launched next year so look out for a fat live show to go with the record.
I've just signed a deal with Warner Chappell for my publishing and have been busy writing songs for some pretty diverse artists. If I could mention names, I don't think you'd believe me. But hey I listen to a lot of music and I'll work on anything as long as its GOOD music - which means that it has to incite some kind of reaction in the listener - whether it be an urge to dance, cry, laugh, crack a hard on.... whatever. I'm developing a couple of artists in the studio right now who you'll be hearing about soon for sure. Let me just say this - I have a vision to make Brighton Boulevard Productions a creative powerhouse. I want to make music with artists that have something to offer not only Australian audiences, but have a worldwide relevance to what they do. There are some fine vocalists and songwriters out there and its time to get them OUT THERE with production that doesn't sound 5 years behind what's going on in the States or Europe. Don't mean to ramble, but I'm just really excited. Special thanks to all who have bought the new Baggsmen album and have some out to the shows - it keeps me going. see you at the album launch in Sydney on Oct 31.

Tony




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