Sunday, June 29, 2014

L'Orange interview -2014

L'Orange quickly became one of my favorite producers in 2011. When i first heard his Manipulation EP I was immediately hooked. His beats to me are like a art form. Every beat has a story to tell. Here is my interview with him.


Cratez -Where you from and grew up? How long you been a producer? and who were your influences coming up?
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L'Orange -I'm from North Carolina. I grew up there and that's where I found my sound musically, growing up with influences from Little Brother and the Justus League. I was also heavily influenced by the scenes from DC, Detroit and New York- Kev Brown, Kon Sci, Oddisee, J Dilla, Pete Rock, DJ Premier, Dan the Automator, etc.
I've been writing music since I was ten; I've been producing hip hop since I was sixteen.


Cratez -What is your weapon of choice when your cooking up beats?
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L'Orange -I'm exclusively an MPC guy. I mostly use an MPC 2500 and an SP303.
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Cratez -From your samples ,to layering, and piecing together a beat is true craftsmanship Take me through your process of creating a track?
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L'Orange - I first create what I call skeletons- basic versions of beats to get an idea of the direction. This usually doesn't take much time, but it helps me weed out good ideas from bad ones. Not every beat is meant to see the light of day. From there I develop the arrangement and textures, building on the original idea, then I go into mixing. I usually have a story I create while this process is going on and try to express that as best as I can through old radio samples off vinyl.
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Cratez -Lets go back  to "The Manipulation EP" from 2011. Tell me about that Instrumental EP and the meaning behind it? Oh and  btw the" Rainy Night" joint goes hard .




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L'Orange - That was my first project. It was an effort to separate myself from my influences. I had been making beats that felt good to me, but nobody around me understood my direction. I put together a dark and quirky story about a man who loses a love in his life, then goes through the process of finding himself. It's a dark story, but I think it's as funny as it is dark.
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 Cratez -Now to the "Mad Writter "Album.Dope cover, beats, and guest mc's. How did you link up with YU,Blu, and Has lo ? 




L'Orange -Those MCs are three of my favorite MCs on the planet. I was really excited to be able to work with them. I reached out to see if they'd be willing to, and they agreed. It was an honor to share tracks with three of the best.
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Cratez Tell me about your connection with the legendary Billie Holiday? and tell me about the Old Soul tribute.




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L'Orange -I've always loved Billie Holiday since I was a kid. Her music always resonated with me. She's so beautiful and imperfect. That's exactly what I wanted my music to sound like. When I started Old Soul, I wanted to pay tribute to my favorite musician of all time.
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Cratez -Your release on Mellomusicgroup with Stik figa for the album "The City under the city" hands down is one of the best hiphop albums of 2013. How did that album come about with stik figa? and what's the meaning behind the name of the album?




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 L'Orange -That means a lot. He and I had connected before on a remix for MMG, so when they were looking for a producer, I was honored to be asked. He's such an incredibly talented and underrated MC. He and I are so different, but we connect musically in a dichotomous way. We complement each other. He is as fun as I am melancholy, so I wanted to create a world where we could both do what we do best, going back and forth between a smoky, sad world above to a vibrant and fun world under ground. 
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Cratez -What's in the future for L'Orange ?any current projects your working on?
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L'Orange -I just released the Orchid Days- a love album. I'm currently working on my next project, which should be out early 2015. 

 

 

 

 

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