Interview: Bados Beats' Allan Lee Talks About His New Song "Electroc"
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“If I’m working on a certain project I will explore not only the musical background/history but also anything else that surrounds it, the time period, the culture, fashion, state of art at the time.”
Congratulations on the release of your new song "Electroc"; tell us about your creative process for its development.
I was diving deep into early rap and breakdancing so I hooked up all the drum machines and synths I had and started experimenting with beats, manipulating the beats, twisting knobs, adding effects. Once I had something solid like "Electroc" then I would spend time orchestrating it.
I would record several different takes and decide which one had the best overall feel and orchestration. "Electroc" in particular is quite long with many different sections reflecting the trade off in breakdancing battles between the two crews. During the orchestration I was totally visualizing the trade offs between battle crews and tapping into the energies from it.
Do you plan on filming a music video for "Electroc"? If not, do you have another single on the way soon?
Yes, eventually there will be a video for "Electroc" but essentially it really is just the audio that is most important because it's meant to take into a breakdance battle and pumped out of a PA or old school ghettoblaster.
I'm thinking that there will be a few more singles released eventually leading to a Bados Beats compilation titled "Body Breakers" and that's when some videos might be presented. Bados Beats "Body Breakers" comp should be solid by early next year.
Tell us about Crucified Music and the Bados Beats project, and your goals with these creative endeavors.
Bados Beats is one of many projects within the Crucified Music production company. Crucified Music showcases exclusive and collaborative art, film, and music works. Photography, drawing, painting, sculpture, poetry, films, videos, and music and beyond. Crucified Music is only half of it though.
Amasia Music, the mother company, mirrors the creative menus of art, film, and music. Crucified Music and Amasia Music are yin and yang companies, separate but interconnected or innerconnected, light and dark, sharing certain similarities of course. Between the two they cover the entire spectrum of creativity and content.
Crucified Music contains more raw or heavy extreme work ranging from country to grinding industrial/black death and speed metal to geto rock like Bados Beats and punk and punk pop. Crucified Music has come to mean many things, giving yourself over to the entire world of music and or/arts, exorcising the ego to be open fully to the muses/inspirations from all directions of creation, devotion to being possessed by creative passion.
I went as far as contacting Ruben Enaje in the Philippines who has re-enacted the Crucifixion several times around Easter for several years literally being nailed to a wooden cross in an extreme display of faith asking if the nails caused nerve damage to the hands. No was his answer. I was feeling strongly enough to want to incorporate my arms being outstretched and hands nailed to a couple stacks of guitar amps during a performance for a certain project that was filmed.
Guitar being my main instrument I felt hesitant about possible damage and never being able to play again. The performance was filmed but I alternatively was lashed to the amps with guitar strings. I felt I had still expressed devotion to how I felt about the artistic path I was giving myself over to.
Crucified Music and Amasia Music are just labyrinths of creativity open to the universal arts. Amasia Music, Mother Amasia, the mother company is as equally important in it's creative focus. This is where you find a somewhat different garden of groove, the light of acoustics, or root music from all over the world and a brighter palette of art all from the angel of art inside.
Both companies are multifaceted in every scope. For every project already within or conceived being exclusive or collaborative, the goal has been to house, showcase, and share all efforts with other creative entities and business avenues that might be interested in collaborations, production, licensing, or booking performances of any Crucified Music or Amasia Music project.
What are some things/people/places that inspire you creatively when you are working on new music?
Inspiration can arrive in so many forms at any given time. Some days can be a challenge to get anything out but even then there might be decent moments. The Edge had mentioned sometimes the energies are just not always there in full capacity but then there is the floodgate and clarity when you create something when the elation is overwhelming.
There have been times when I can fill page after page front and back in an afternoon in a hurricane of thought, might be lyrics for whatever project, titles, or mapping out ideas. Then I have to go back and decipher and piece together the furious scribbles to place the information. It's a madness. Definitely inspired by a broad musical soundscape from all over the world and genres.
I absorb what comes my way and I explore it to the fullest then it filters out. I've amassed quite a collection of instruments being touched by certain musics and put a lot of time into an invested instrument involved in whatever area it might be. If I'm working on a certain project I will explore not only the musical background/history but also anything else that surrounds it, the time period, the culture, fashion, state of art at the time. What can really add to the spiral is always one thing leading to another and discovering something completely off the wall and fresh. A few of my main musical inspirations/influences are Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page/Led Zeppelin, Slayer, Ice-T, Miles Davis, Beethoven, Niccolo Paganini, Ravi Shankar.
Places I have and haven't been to are always inspiring. Growing up in Hawaii affected me deeply musically, the ancient mele, contemporary hula 'auana songs, and slack key guitar. A 17 song album recorded with authentic Hawaiian instruments and a short film arrived out of that affection.
Haven't been to Greece yet but own and experiment with the aulos, the ancient double flute. I've been playing sitar for almost ten years but have not made it to mother India. Yet. I can conjure India though on a hot day burning Vrindravan incense playing sitar on the shores of Holy City located about 20 miles west of here.
There is a short film capturing that scenario titled WAKATAKEHMUKWA featured on both Amasia Music and Crucified Music Youtube channels. Even though it's an artistic dead zone and got Kanye West harassing wildlife ripping up and altering the landscape just outside of town then in contrast the local KKK klubhouse downtown in the next town over is all boring and uninspiring except for possible fuel for some metal projects, my home base of Wyoming is sacred to me and has influenced much music and many projects and continues to do so heavily.
It's unfortunate that most venues, the arts councils, and public media cap out at the Americana or country and western genres and imported lounge acts here. That's why I designed Crucified Music and Amasia Music to cover all areas of music, art, and film and to be a true reflection of the open wonder of Wyoming. You won't get that from any other organization here.
With "Electroc" now released, what are some of your goals musically for the rest of 2021?
There are a handful of projects that I will be focusing on for the remainder of 2021, some will probably not be finished until early 2022 or deep into 2022. I hope to get the Bados Beats "Body Breakers" compilation of all the singles together and a video for "Electroc" finished fall/winter 2021.
There is an exclusive (solo) project performance that was filmed this summer that just needs to be edited and released, hoping by October. This one in particular is somewhat of an extension of the Bados Beats raw urban energy with influence from Mos Def "Ghetto Rock" Queen "We Will Rock You" Gary Glitter "Rock'n Roll Part 2" Jimmy Page/Robert Plant "Yallah", Robert Johnson, the Kaaba, and the 2001: A Space Odyssey monolith. It consists of a percussion loop, guitar, and theramin. This song is the gem that got singled out from a 20 song electric blues guitar album completed this summer.
For an Amasia Music release there is an all piano invitation/collaboration album I would like to get started on inviting various pianists to submit a track to. Piano is cool I've managed to get a few original pieces out of it. Mutilated Vomit is a collaborative death and speed metal entity which there are about 50 drum tracks recorded ready to add guitar, possible bass, and vocals to. That won't take too much cuz some of the tracks are only one minute grinds or less. 50 songs spread over 4 different album concepts.
Funeral For A Prostitute is the main master creation of Crucified Music. My main solo industrial/grind metal effort. There have been several filmed performances so far with music from a handful of albums and now focused on the next Funeral For A Prostitute album. It will be started but definitely won't be complete until 2022. Another solo project is the vast and wild tribal UXU with a planned filmed performance just outside of town in the Chasm, a rock climbing area where eagles and huge ravens hangout and I think a few giants because there's this big rock staircase leading to the upper level looking down upon the area where the performance will take place. Didgeridoo, cajon, djembe, darbuka, toubeleki, quijada, ocarina, cuica, & ocean drum are on the instrument list for the performance. I have a specific pedalboard for looping so that will be utilized heavily. I was looping some cajon the other day and the grooves were so fat that i almost considered them Bados Beats. There is a Miles Davis inspired project the beats could be worked into.
Bados Beats is best electric, electroc, synthesized. Being the lead guitarist and other half of a country/50's rock duo called Small Country can be very demanding with performances booked into the fall/winter so that is also a part of the handful of things going on for the remainder of 2021.
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