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Going against the digital grain
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July 19, 2009
By Evan Milton
Philippines-born and New York-based Russ Elevado is such a calm, genuine presence that it's hard to believe his CV reads like a covetable Greatest Hits double-album.
He recorded and mixed D'Angelo's epic Voodoo (which earned Elevado a Grammy); mixed the Alicia Keys uber-hit Fallin'; has worked with Saul Williams, Al Green, Talib Kweli, The Roots, Roberta Flack, Jay-Z, Common, Blackalicious and Erykah Badu; and has done an honour-roll's worth of tours as a Red Bull Music Academy lecturer in Canada, Amsterdam and Barcelona.
This month, he added Cape Town to that list as a lecturer and recording wunderkind at the South African Red Bull Music Academy Taster - and loved the city so much that he changed his flights out of the country so he could stay for some down time.
"I heard about the academy for the first time in 2006," he says after a game drive where he saw lions, "although only from afar".
He continues: "My manager was asked if I wanted to be part of a lecture in Toronto. When I saw I was in pretty good company, I figured I'd give it a shot. Now, four lectures later, I've been part of the Academy Tasters (four day-courses in multiple countries, encouraging artists to apply for the full two-week academy), and I did the full second term in Barcelona, where I spent two weeks with the participants.
"That meant no lectures, but a bunch of workshops and trying to help produce a little bit of their music. It was lots of fun."
The experience of the Red Bull Music Academy is hard to put into words. It's a unique gathering of 20 selected musical participants with a wide range of skills and interests and, although there are lectures by established industry figures like Elevado, it's an implicitly symbiotic relationship.
The days comprise "on the couch" sessions, where Elevado shared the hot-seat with master mixer and Output Records founder Trevor Jackson, Springbok Nude Girls producer and co-founder Theo Crous, veteran South African music icon Sipho "Hotstix" Mabuse, DMC Turntable Champion DJ Sibot and sound-meets-visuals duo VJ Grrl and Mr Sakitumi, among others.
Then there are the night-time sessions, where bit-masters grab their laptops and head into the small studios, while live instrument musos head for the upstairs sound-booths: and where Elevado and Jackson hold court, imparting snippets of advice worth their sonic weight in metaphorical gold.
"What makes it all so unique is the social aspect of it," says Elevado. "You're surrounded by people who love and live music - DJs, instrumentalists, producers, singers… It is incredible, and I met so many people, from local DJs and Grammy winners to Mexican singer-songwriters. Sly and Robbie gave a lecture, and we played and hung out one evening."
His delight in this is refreshing - even with a handful of Grammy nominations under his belt, widespread industry accolades and one Grammy on the mantlepiece, Elevado still gets excited by music and the people who make it.
"Of course I do," he says, "I mean, I met Tom Oberheim (dubbed "the shaman of polyphony"), who invented the Oberheim keyboards, and Mario Caldato, who did all the early Beastie Boys albums.
"It was really nice, not only to meet them as a producer or a fan or whatever, but to hang out with them in a relaxed environment."
No one could begrudge Elevado his recuperation time in and around Cape Town. When he returns to his US homebase, he has various projects lined up.
"Some are pretty cool," he says modestly. "I did a couple of songs for Angelique Kidjo, including a duet with Peter Gabriel, and one with Alicia Keys, and they did pretty well, so she wanted me to mix some more material for her.
"This year, I was contracted to do an entire album and I got a bunch of tracks down last month. We cut about 15 songs so, as soon as I get back to New York, I'll be finishing up the album.
"Right after that, there is more work for D'Angelo, on an album we've been working on, on and off, for eight years. It's very much an 'awaited' album so, hopefully, we can finish it and people can finally hear it. And, after that, I'll be working with Lenny Kravitz."
As engineer, mixer and producer, Elevado is renowned for having a unique and particular "sound", one that is achieved, in part, by his insistence on using analogue gear and getting the recordings down on actual tape.
Why would he bother? "I tried to work on digital and it just doesn't sound the same to me," he says, simply.
"I have the real pieces of equipment - I've been collecting vintage analogue gear for the past 15 years - so I can get the authentic sound. It's just a fact that it sounds better than what you can get from recording on a digital multi-track system.
"If you play analogue recordings back to back with digital ones, it is immediately apparent and obvious. My style complements an artist who's going for something special and emotional with their music, and it always brings out an organic feel in the artist.
"It's not quite retro or throw-back, but there's an impression of a sound that is reminiscent of the past in a way I think most people can relate to."
Does Elevado have any advice for local musicians? "For anybody who's reading this and is interested in music, whether they are professionals or just starting out as a DJ or a singer or songwriter, I'd say it's well worth it to apply to one of the academies.
"Since I've been involved, they've actually been pretty life-changing for me. I'm very conscious that it falls short when I try to explain it all in words. People should just try to apply and get in and experience it for themselves.
"In the music world, there are so many influences, and even though you can have a lot of achievements yourself, you can still be inspired by the participants. The whole academy is a very humbling experience and it was nice to be able to share my experiences and inspirations."
His final comment, though, sums up Elevado as both a champion of a human being and as a committed analogue-head in an increasingly digital world.
After asking that a copy of this interview be e-mailed to him, he pauses and then adds, "But what I'd really like is if you get an extra copy of the newspaper, and I give you my postal address, and you can send it to me? I'd like to have the original." And more power to that.
More on Russ Elevado at RussElevado.com. Applications for the 2010 Red Bull Music Academy, to be held in London in February and March, must be postmarked no later than July 27 2009. Get application forms and details - as well as Red Bull Music Radio and clips from previous academies - from RedBullMusicAcademy.com.
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