B-Roc interview on LOLA Blog

by HeavyRoc Music on June 25, 2009

 Our friends up the street at LOLA did an email interview with B-Roc the other day asking about the label, the artists, and the future plans for HeavyRoc Music. 

lolanewyork.com

LNY:  Can you describe the typical goings-on at the studio?

BR:  It depends on the day...Sometimes it will be Jpatt and I working alone for hours and hours on music with or without our artists Julia & Samuel, those are the best days.  Other days there will be other people using the room (we rent it to outside clients), so we will just be hanging out doing "office work" for HeavyRoc.  Usually there are people in here working most hours of the day, whether they are interns, the studio manager etc.  At night things go down too but that's another story.

LNY:  How began your collaboration with JPatt?

BR:  I was moving out of my New School dorm and needed a roommate, so a mutual friend introduced me to James (Jpatt) because we both were really into making beats and hip-hop at the time.  So we moved in together.  He would be in his room working on stuff, and I would be in mine doing the same.  More and more we started sitting in with each other and kind of critiquing each other's stuff, then said fuck it let's just put our brains together and make all our stuff together and the results were awesome.  That's how we got our name "The Knocks", because our neighbors used to knock on the floors/walls all day and night because we basically had 2 small studio setups in a 2 bedroom east village apartment.  Thin walls...

photo by Isaac Brest

 LNY:  How do you achieve a successful balance between The Knocks and Heavy Roc?

BR:  I basically am busy 24 hours a day.  I have an awesome business partner (shout out to Dan Pappas aka Danny Rather aka Papplington) who can hold down a lot of the business stuff when I have to be working in the studio.  Our office is in the same place as our studio so it's easy to run in and out when I need to.  We also have wonderful interns (shout out Marielle, Chris, Monica, Madelyn, Dylan). I am never not working basically and it works out.  I also dj 5 nights a week so that takes up most of my nights.  The nights I have off I am usually in the studio until 4-6am.

LNY:  What was working on “American G-Funk” like?

BR:  Dj Benzi hit us up like "yo I have the acapellas of the Jay-Z album before anyone else, I need you guys to remix the whole thing asap".  This is before we had the studio, so Jpatt and I both split up the acapellas and went to work in our rooms running back and forth to check out how each other's mixes were sounding.  We basically banged out the whole CD in 2 days and it was up instantly.  It got 50,000 downloads in 2 days, got us in URB Magazine and on a bunch of websites. It basically was the first thing to put "The Knocks" on the map.

LNY:  What stories do you strive to tell with your remixes? 

BR:  Like those adult books that you find in grocery stores with the really cool covers, but on the dance floor.

LNY:  You’ve mentioned in an article that you owe a lot to your sister for her musical influence. What other sources of inspiration do you pull from?

BR:  My parents are huge music fans.  I grew up on classic rock and Motown from my mother and father, and my oldest sister Carly got me heavy into Punk Rock and underground music.  She used to be on all the mailing lists for 7" vinyl from all the DIY punk labels etc, and I found that whole scene really intriguing and cool.  Other than that, I basically get inspiration from all sorts of music I listen too.  I could say something corny like I get it from "art and nature etc" but that's just not true.

LNY:  Mind telling me about the Rude Boys?

BR:  Yikes, dug deep for that one eh. The Rude Boys was the first band I was in. I was in 5th grade when we started. We were a punk/ska band that practiced in my basement after school. My mom would cook all the food for us and we would write/record songs onto a karaoke machine. I wrote a lot of the songs as well as played drums in the band. We had 2 trumpets, guitar, bass, drums & vocals... We recorded a demo tape in my basement. I packaged it and sold them at school with artwork and everything. Our big show was my friend's 15th birthday. That was our first and last show.

LNY:  So, you’re launching a new website!

BR:  YES. The new HEAVYROC MUSIC DOT COM is a beautiful thing.  It is about time we got our dot com game up and I am very thankful for the kind people of GIN LANE who made it happen.  It is going to be updated constantly with videos, free mp3s, show recaps, band/album reviews etc. We are all super excited about it. 

LNY:  Your logo...were you a big fan of “Schoolhouse Rock” growing up?

BR:  To be completely honest...no.  I was a Sesame Street guy.  My ex girlfriend actually came up with the concept for the logo and I was into it.  I think it fits our sound.  We make fun pop music. I think it's a fun logo...Maybe it will adapt to our sound as it changes, we'll see.

LNY:  What song or artist do you highly recommend we listen to or look out for?

BR:  Obviously I have to plug my artists Samuel and Julia.  There is going to be a lot more original music coming from The Knocks very soon as well.  Right now I am listening to a lot of Ellie Goulding, she's awesome.  Also look out for our boys The Postelles as well as the lovely miss Niia who is one of the most talented musicians I have ever met. 

LNY:  What's in the future for Heavy Roc Music?

BR:  Right now Jpatt and I are working hard on Samuel's album which will be coming out on Columbia Records on the top of next year.  He is going to be something that nobody has ever heard before.  Something fresh and new for mainstream pop music.  We are also starting Julia's EP with Max Barbaria (LOLA LOLA LOLA) which is going to be put out independently through HeavyRoc.  This will be our first official release as an indie label.  Other than that we are always looking for new artists and creative people to work with so if you know any hit us up!

LNY:  What mark do you intend to make on the music industry?

BR:  We want to make pop music for the masses in a do it yourself fashion.  The music industry is drastically changing, and people who used to have it locked down are now turning to people like us for the new sounds.  Same thing goes for fashion/art etc.  I am just happy to be apart of the new generation and can't wait for the next couple of years.

Tags: press b-roc