NobodyFresh said

"It’s on fire. It’s really great. This is the first day I’ve heard everybody’s vocals on the tracks and I produced some of these and to hear these vocals over my beats is really special. It’s a treat to hear everybody all working together again. It’s going to be a very special record. There’s music from Fritz the Cat, Seven did some of the beats and they’re fucking fire. From what I’ve heard so far, this album is going to be super duper devastating."

 

- Kuma.

Source?

NobodyFresh said
It was in hatchet herald. Kuma was interviewed by Sugar Slam.

http://www.psychopathicrecords.....index.html

Hey, Juggalos! This month I sat down with one of the main musical architects at Psychopathic Records…Kuma. From directing videos to crafting beats to manning the soundboard in the Lotus Pod, Kuma is one of the most important behind-the-scenes ninjas at Psychopathic. But as I discovered, there’s more to this talented man than just producing the wicked shit. Much, much more.

--Sugar Slam

You’re a worker extraordinaire at Psychopathic Records, meaning you do many different things, so let’s start at the beginning. You’re Michigan born and bred. Where did you grow up?

I grew up in a small town 15 minutes north of Detroit around the East Side area. The same area where Twiztid and Blaze grew up.

So you’re an East Sider. Did you go to college here in Michigan?

Yeah, I went to Macomb Community College and then to Central Michigan for a couple of years to study video production.

You’ve done both video work and studio work for Psychopathic. Which do you prefer doing?

Gosh, that’s tough. I guess my heart is more in the audio world. I think without music and sound there’s no life into the imagery so I definitely swing towards the musical side of things.

Before we get into the music, I want to get into wrestling for a minute because Psychopathic is synonymous with wrestling. You have a really incredible background in wrestling. Can you tell us about that?

When I was growing up my father was a photographer for Cobo Arena and used to shoot all the big time wrestling events in Detroit and he used to work for the original Sheik who is Sabu’s uncle and he did a bunch of photography for The Sheik, Bobo Brazil and all those big time wrestling guys. He used to press up wrestling programs in his mom’s attic back in the ‘60s, ’70 and early ‘80s. But growing up with his influence I had a strong interest in wrestling. I grew up watching Ric Flair and Nikita Koloff, Ronnie Garvin…

And your father is also an author and has published a couple photo books?

Yeah, he’s published a few books. He did one called “This Saturday Night” which references all the old Cobo Arena shows. Back in the day before WWE and WCW took over everything there were a lot of different wrestling circuits all over the country and Detroit was the hotbed for wrestling in the Midwest. They would run shows every month at Cobo with The Sheik and Bobo Brazil and they would draw between 15,000 - 20,000 people. So growing up I was really into wrestling. I’d see wrestlers like The Great Muta, who had this crazy gimmick and was the first guy I saw who could do a backflip from the top rope onto somebody. When I was 18, a couple buddies and I went and trained in California and Tijuana and wrestled.

What was your wrestling name?

I can’t tell you that (laughs). It’s a secret. If somebody can figure it out, we’ll send them a shirt or something. But I ended up getting hurt and I saw a lot of things on the inside of wrestling that kind of turned me off. If you’ve ever seen the movie “The Wrestler,” it was like that. But I also blew out my knee really bad. I was doing lucha libre Mexican style wrestling and in Mexico the ring is like landing on a piece of plywood with no padding.

Some people have sex tapes floating around, you have wrestling tapes out there so somebody needs to go on the Internet and find them (laughs). So after your wrestling career ended, how’d you end up doing music? Who were some of your musical influences?

Being a kid growing up in Detroit, it was all over the gamut, from Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg to the Geto Boys and Smashing Pumpkins to Nine Inch Nails to Radiohead. And then getting into Detroit techno is where I really got into music. At 16 or 17, I didn’t realize that dance music was cultivated here in Detroit. It was such a huge part of people’s lives and it had this underground feeling and I felt lucky to discover dance music for myself. But of course, rap influenced me.

What was the most memorable concert experience you had when you were young?

This is gonna be funny but I think seeing The Offspring and smelling weed for the very first time. I mean, I was just a young suburban kid and I was really sheltered. I saw The Crystal Method when I was a teenager and another group I really liked was Underworld.

What year did you start working with Psychopathic?

December of 2005.

How did you set foot into Psychopathic Records and what made you do it?

Well, I got very lucky to find a job posting by a ninja named Nathan Extra. He was looking for a video producer/editor and I had been going to school for video and was honing my skills. Nathan brought me in, showed me around. He didn’t show me the studio, however; that was top secret.

That’s funny because now you practically run the Lotus Pod and at first you couldn’t even see it.

Yeah, that’s pretty ironic. I interviewed with Alex (Abbiss) and he was like “We like your stuff and it says here on your resume you have music experience. What’s this on here about you running a record label?” I explained that I ran an independent Detroit techno record label and he was like “That’s great.” Then they hustled me outta there. A week later, Alex called me and said “We hired a video guy who’s the shit but we also like your shit too because we saw some wrestling stuff on your reel and we like your style. But we have an engineer in here named Fritz who is working on a project that we’d like your input on.” That project turned out to be Shaggy 2 Dope’s “Fuck the Fuck Off” album.

What was it like meeting Violent J and Shaggy for the first time?

Well, seeing the operation for the first time I gained an instant respect. I walked in through the doors and saw like 30 people working there and I was like “Whoa! This is big time shit.” There’s two sides of Psychopathic—the business side and the family side but it’s all really family at the end of the day. The first thing that Shaggy 2 Dope said to me was “What’s up?” He was really quiet with me and pretty respectful. He was working really hard on his album in the studio with Fritz at the time. When I got into Psychopathic, I worked with Fritz for two weeks and trained my ass off. I learned a lot and kept myself in check. I didn’t really meet Violent J until I started working with Boondox and Axe Murder Boyz . The first time I think I met you and Joe, you two were all dressed up for the Big Ballas Party. In the studio it takes some time to get to know someone and for the first couple of months, I was working with the Axe Murder Boyz and since I was new and they were new, there was a little bit of conflict at first, but once you get comfortable, you can see what a person can really do.

Something I’ve always observed about you is that you have this quiet confidence about you. You’re not boastful or loud and I think it speaks to your longstanding place here at Psychopathic. You’re a producer, a video director, a musician and here you are still working at Psychopathic. You’ve never changed.

Wow, thank you. I appreciate that. The reason why I’ve kept my ego in check is because I once had an artist on my label who ended up blowing up and becoming one of the biggest house DJs in the world and it’s not like I expected anything from him because I never wanted to springboard off anybody but this guy was a friend first and an artist second and once he became super popular he just left everyone behind and he really was a jerk about it. But I’m thankful for that situation because it helped me check my ego at the door when I came to Psychopathic. Joe is a super giving person. He takes chances on people and I saw that right away and I just wanted to do my job and school it.

I know you’re super professional and a hard worker but there have been times when I’ve walked into the office and asked “Where’s Kuma?” and they say “He’s in Ibiza.” So I want you to tell everybody about your DJ career. You are very successful and are known worldwide. What’s that like?

Managing a label and being a musician and DJ yourself and then working for other musicians is hard work. But I live and breathe music and I’m very thankful for it. I have a group called Reference and me and this guy Luke Hess (http://www.reference-detroit.com) work together on both solo and group projects. It’s classic Detroit techno. It’s not dubstep or house—it’s kind of the roots of where all those styles came from. We’re very fortunate to be able to travel the world. We put out music on different independent labels and people in Germany, Japan, The Netherlands, Russia really love dance music. We play a lot of clubs and festivals. They’ll call our agent and book us…

So they call your agent, you’re at work Friday, you fly across the world and then you come back to work at Psychopathic on Monday. What’s that like? You’re so grounded.

Well, everyone at the office is really supportive – Bill, Joe, Joey, Rob – and I really appreciate that. The experience is that we put a lot of work in on nights and weekends. We play live, we don’t just DJ. Luke and I both have computers and we’re both mixing there live on stage. You take a Friday off, you get on a plane, you fly 12-16 hours to get to a gig, you sleep, you do the gig, you wake up, you get on a plane or train, you meet some really nice people who are into your music. We just played some dates in Germany that were amazing. This one place we played at looks just like the Detroit train station and is one of the best clubs in the world and we were fortunate to play there. So we go to all these clubs, then we come home and you take it all in and you’re like “Wow. Was that real?” And then you’re just humbled by being back in Michigan because you’re like “It’s 20 below zero and now I have to get

I just wanna say on the record that Kuma is an incredible beat master. So tell us about your label so people can look you up online.

My label is Beretta Music (http://www.berettamusic.com) and we specialize in dance music and you can find my collaboration with Luke Hess, Reference, at http://www.reference-detroit.com. We’re playing at the upcoming Moog Festival in Ashville, North Carolina so if you want to come and say “Hi” come on out. Oh, and my alias in the techno world is Kage (kah-yay) while Kuma is my alias at Psychopathic. There is a difference!

 

This interview?