New Release and Interview with King Britt-Looking Back and Moving Forward

‘This is…King Britt’ is a decade retrospective to be released December 9, 2005 on the V2/Nurture Label, seeking to answer the question “who is the real King Britt”? I had a chance to interview King Britt about his classification-defying career. Elusive as a chameleon, King Britt seamlessly flows from performer, to remixer, to producer while always maintaining a keen, fresh signature sound - including his DJ career in 1992 when he became the wax poet for the Grammy award winning Digable Planets.

Caldwell: Welcome King Britt, it is a pleasure to be chatting with you! What was the incentive to release this retrospective, ‘This is…King Britt’ at this time?

Britt: Well, we thought it was a good time to bring all my favorite pseudonyms and projects under one roof. Scuba, sylk130, etc.....it is good for those who know maybe one album to see what else I do and how diverse the remixes are. V2 was perfect as they are doing retrospective albums on their favorite artists. So perfect timing!

Caldwell: How does this retrospective answer the question ‘Who is King Britt’?

Britt: It answers the question by showing all my sides musically as a producer. It shows the diversity and that I can handle any production put in front of me. It shows my hunger to keep pushing for new sounds and also my ability to write lyrics.

Caldwell: You are known for merging the past with the future musically. How has creating the retrospective changed you approach to the future in your music?

Britt: It showed what I have done already, so now I can move on to more envelope pushing sounds that I have always wanted to explore. I don't want to backtrack.

Caldwell: What was your favorite part of creating ‘This is…King Britt’?

Britt: Listening to the end result and saying to myself, damn I've done a lot of serious music. U don't realize it until its all laid out in front of u.

Caldwell: What was most challenging to you about it?

Britt: Picking from the massive catalog of my productions and remixes....we may do a part 2.

Caldwell: How did you decide what from your immense rich musical legacy so far would be included and what would be excluded?

Britt: Hahahaha....I picked my favorites, then V2 had their favorites and we also asked the fans!

Caldwell: If there was room for 3 more songs, which would you include?

Britt: 1.- Sshhhhhhhhhh! (Sea4miles remix)- Miles Davis

2. - Our Time- Scuba, featuring Lizz Fields

3. - Adore (Scuba mix) - Ice Cube

Caldwell: ‘This is…King Britt’ is a wondrous journey through your musical growth over the last decade. How have you grown as a person in heart and soul during that time?

Britt: Well, I am a father of a beautiful 11 year old daughter named Summer. To watch her grow allows me to grow and realize why I do what I do. To help shape the music of the future and continue what my parents laid down....musically I have grown as a producer, but most of all as an engineer....creating the sound I want and the environment to achieve those goals. My heart is still into djing and my soul will never die.

Caldwell: What, if any, music would you forbid Summer to listen to, and why?

Britt: There is a time and place for everything. Her mom has amazing taste in music as do I, so she is surrounded by good music.....she will hear some ying yang twins and laugh, cause she knows its shit.....we try to explain it all to her.......

Caldwell: Did you have mentors that taught you...are you mainly self-taught?

Britt: I watch everyone i have worked with...take notes....read......and all of us trade secrets. And I learned a lot from vinyl....and how older records where mixed on hardly any equipment.

Caldwell: What is next for King Britt?

Britt: Just finished an amazing multimedia project on sister gertrude morgan, a famous painter/evangelist for the Rope a Dope label.....I am moving more into performance art and politics.

Caldwell: Please give us a little overview of about the Sister Gertrude Morgan project! What were the multi forms of media involved in that project?

Britt: Sister G was an amazing African American painter who died in 1980....she was also an evangelist and recorded an album in the 70s.....just her voice and tambourine.....Andy from Rope a Dope got the rights to it and asked me to re do the entire album. The rest is history in the making. My friend and colleague Tim Motzer and I did the album, created a touring band and Eluminati from North Carolina created the visuals.

Caldwell: Sister Gertrude Morgan sounds fascinating, she is said to have not taken credit for her work, as it came from God, quoted as saying "He moves my hand". Do you feel the same way about your own work?

Britt: I agree to some extent. I believe a higher power created us to create and procreate.....i don’t think the supreme makes our movements, but just allows us to be free to make whatever comes to mind...

Caldwell: Sister Gertrude was an Evangelist. What is the role of Evangelism in art and music?

Britt: Well we look at it as spreading a message of spirituality and awareness.....

Caldwell: How do you hit that balance of flowing art from an Evangelistic or Spiritual source, yet be universal and not "preachy"?

Britt: Its a fine line, but I think its the context you present it in.....and that’s what we r doing....

Caldwell: These days Evangelism is linked to President Bush and the war in the Mideast. Can spirituality be separated from politics?

Britt: Yes.....it needs to be and people are starting to realize religion and spirituality r 2 separate sources....

Caldwell: You mentioned going into performance art, multimedia - all your directions seem to lead to the convergence of varying art forms. Will there be a time when art is just an experience, without having to be delineated between different aspects of that experience?

Britt: Its on its way.......sources are becoming more condensed and you will be able to virtually experience anything in your own home!

Caldwell: If you could have done something differently over the last decade, what would it be?

Britt: Spent more time with my then wife and maybe I would still be married. Music can take over your whole being.

Caldwell: How do you slip from one persona to another so effortlessly: DJ, remixer, producer?

Britt: They each feed each other....djing allows me to be close to my peeps....and feed off of their amazing energy and tastes......this goes into my production, because I know what will work and what won't....but I never stick to the formula!

Caldwell: If you were on a planet with no music, what would your passion be?

Britt: Writing books.....and visual presentations.

Caldwell: Are you planning to write a book, and if so, what subject?

Britt: I started writing a kind of journal/book.....very scattered.....jotting down ideas.....based on the power that music and djs have over creating utopian environments for short periods of time!

Caldwell: If there was a movie biography about your life, what actor would you want to play King Britt?

Britt: Lorenz Tate....smooth, handsome and great actor! Hehehehe

Caldwell: How do you explain the decidedly International appeal of your music, coming from Philadelphia but being so popular in, for example, Japan and the UK? Is there a quality in your music that intentionally defies borders such as countries, and what is that quality?

Britt: Its funny. I'm more popular in Europe and Japan than in my own home....I think that due to the American brainwashing techniques of playing the same shit over and over and not having a voice on radio hurts me. But the real heads know.....there is a universal appeal to my sound because it comes from the heart and is very emotional. Music is the universal language, and I speak many different dialects of sound.

Caldwell: Always decades ahead of your time, what do you see as the technology of music ten years from now?

You will be able to think of a song....send the idea via brainwaves and poof....the song comes out....hahahahahaha!

Caldwell: Since this is a decade retrospective…if you had a crystal ball and were looking at King Britt in 2015, what would you see happening musically? How about in your life?

Britt: My daughter will be 21!....probably saving the world....I will be living in europe creating music with my future wife hopefully!

Caldwell: Say Summer is 21 and wants to follow in Dad's footsteps. What advise do you give her making it as a woman in the entertainment industry? Would you more encourage or discourage her?

Britt: She is 11 now, when she is 21, I hope she has her own path. But if she were to follow in my footsteps, she would already be a strong independent woman who could take on anything in the world because that’s how we are raising her. The possibilities are endless. Here are the tools.....do what u need to do to be happy!

Caldwell: What type of music do you love now, that you thought you would never like ten years ago?

Britt: Country....but only the older legends...Loretta Lynn, Johnny Cash, Charlie Pride and never thought I would like the Beatles....but I love them now....

Caldwell: How is spinning to a roomful of people in an ecstatic trance induced solely by your music like a spiritual experience?

Britt: Because I am creating the atmosphere from combining the sounds that I love and I'm sending that to them....so when they feel this the energy returns 10 fold.

Caldwell: Is there anything you have always wanted to create, but never seem to have the time to get to?

Britt: A rock album....its coming!

Caldwell: One more question (from my hubby!): Who is playing the horns on the song 'When the Funk Hit the Fan' and where can we hear more of them?

Britt: Hahahaha. Sylk130 is a studio project.....so on that track was Jaffar Barron, Stan Slotter and Norman Jeff Bradshaw......they all have solo records and Norman Jeff plays for Jill Scott now!

Caldwell: Thank you very much!

Printed with permission from Fly Global Music Culture at www.fly.co.uk.