Professor Ojo Interview

Professor Ojo - Schemes and Plans (BR026) - snippets by Bedroom Research

BH. Hi Ben. You've just released the excellent Professor Ojo album 'Plans and Schemes' on the Bedroom Research label. At the moment you're a bit of a mysterious figure at least in the sense of the information about you online. If you're comfortable with shedding that anonymity, can you tell us a bit about yourself?

Ben Yeah it's not really a conscious effort to be anonymous, probably more that I'm terrible at writing biogs!

Although I do like the idea of the music coming first you know?

Based in Newcastle, been making music on and off for maybe 8 or 9 years now, it keeps me occupied. I live with my lovely girlfriend and a cat who's not so lovely.

BH That's Newcastle in the UK right? Bio writing is pretty horrible, I can relate to that--the idea is to present the music, not necessarily the person who made it. I'm curious about the names, 'Professor Ojo' and 'Schemes and Plans', what do these mean to you, do these labels have (or have they come to have) special significance for your project and album respectively?

Ben Yeah Newcastle in the tropical North East of England! Well the music came long before the name, basically I felt that I had some stuff to show people so I 'borrowed' the name from DC comics. Just seemed to fit really, plus the DC Ojo stole an atomic submarine which is something I'd like to do one day.

Again the album title came after the tracks were finished. I guess it means a couple of things, the tracks on the album vary between 2 or 3 years old and brand new so for that period of time (and before) there's always loads of scheming and planning going on i.e trying to get somewhere with the music or whatever and just in general life. Someone's always got some kind of big idea: sometimes they go somewhere, sometimes they don't. I quite like the idea of all these half-formed plans and ideas bubbling around everywhere, gathering momentum.

BH The album sounds very coherent both stylistically and sonically so it's perhaps surprising to hear that they were produced over a few years. Was it challenging at all to make a selection and 'pull them together' for the release?

Ben That's good to hear. I think when I'm producing I've got a certain vibe in mind and it's quite specific, so even though they weren't necessarily made in the same time period I probably approached them with the same mindset if that makes sense? I do tend to work on a few beats at a time so they may end up sharing certain qualities, depending on my mood etc.

I'd been sending Matt quite a few tracks so he was the one who eventually made the selection. The tracklist has changed a few times, I lost a 500gb drive with a tonne of beats on it so some of the original selections are gone. Which reminds me I really really need to back everything up!

BH Ouch about the HD loss! I've been using Mozy home over the last couple of years. It's an online backup thing--I know that if its not automatic, I'll end up not doing it.

Schemes and Plans has a strong organic feel that comes, I think, primarily from having overtly digital sounds placed off the DAW's grid, way further than traditional ideas of groove would have pushed them. Can you say something about your approach to sequencing with this extremely loose feel?

Ben Ah nice I'll check that out.

Yeah that's it exactly I just like the idea of quite unnatural sounds put together in a bit of an organic way.

I probably sequence in the simplest way possible- everything's just played in live from either the MPD pads or my keyboard. I never quantize anything. I think a lot of the looseness is a result of trying to get shit done as quickly as possible. I try to get a track pretty much done in about an hour so a lot of the time all the parts I use will be the first thing I bash into Logic. I tend to work best when ideas are fresh, even if i'm not sure where it's going to go , I'm not one for sitting about tweaking a riff for ages, it's more about grabbing the idea at that particular moment in time. I try to keep things on the right side of wrong but it probably doesn't always work. That's it in a nutshell: just switch off quantize and bash pads!

BH It sounds appealing! You mentioned you use logic, is that your primary sequencing/arranging environment? Are there other applications/instruments/synths/plugins that you use particularly heavily on this album?

Ben It is. Pretty much everything's done in Logic with a bunch of plugins. There's a few plugins that always seem to go for, vintage warmer, I've recently discovered the camelphat which is fun. The synths are all soft-synths, I think I used a mini-moog quite a lot. I'd love some more hardware really though, stuff like a space echo and some analogue goodness but the prices are just way too much.

BH Do you play your material in a live setting? How do you approach that, and what's it like playing in Newcastle venues?

Ben I do play live, although I've only played a very few times. Normally just with laptop and the MPD24. I just render my tracks into 2 or 4 or 8 bar loops and try to build a set out of them. really it's been the same kind of thing right through, I started with Ableton live 3, but i recently got 6 ( I think) which does a lot more!

I think Newcastle's definitely got a lot better for this kind of music recently, no one's thrown anything at me yet.

BH What's your favourite track from the album at the moment?

Ben Probably Zebras, maybe My Island. It's weird I don't really "like" or "not like" my stuff.

BH Do you currently have any music related plans/schemes/directions/experiments/plans you're excited about developing/working on?

Ben Welllll, I've got a load of stuff to release, probably 2 more albums are ready about now so just final touches then maybe try to find them a home or put them out through bandcamp or similar. Also i've got a load of 130-140 bpm stuff that no one's heard so might do something with those.

BH Is there anything related to music making that you wish you'd known a few years ago?

Ben Yeah, that it would kill my bank balance!!

BH Anything else you'd like to add/mention/promote/announce?

Ben Don't quite want to jinx things just yet but there should be some vinyl soonish. Also as I mentioned some bandcamp action soonish aswell.

Also anyone in Newcastle should check this: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=153740574659359

and this

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=156655187702148

BH Thanks very much, and more power to your beat making elbow!

Ben haha thanks lot man, really appreciate you doing this :)

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