(2010 Nov 11) Clint Catalyst publishes 'Drag. Drug. Drugged.' - an interview with Nattymari

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(2010 Nov 11) Clint Catalyst publishes 'Drag. Drug. Drugged.' - an interview with Nattymari

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Drag. Drug. Drugged.

November 11, 2010 by Clint Catalyst

Hear It Here
:: first ::

“Ph4D3 70 9R3y”

by

N△TTYM△RI

:: Cue & Ey!ed* ::
(as in: “Ey,” the exclamation used to attract attention…ya naw mean?)

E A V E S D R O P ± W I T H ± Y O U R ± E Y E S

[Clinty] So you do drag, huh? That’s cute: a straight dude who cross-dresses. Very James Franco-for-Candy-Magazine.
[N△tty] I’m comfortable with the term drag because it was one of the earliest terms used to describe “Screw” music.

Oh, I’ve totally screwed to music. “The Fudge Punch” by Wiseblood gives some serious soundtrack, if you know what I mean. Got any faves that rev you up for a sesh of runp-wranglin’, ol’ nasty Nattymaster?
I really consider my only influences the dub pioneers: Robert Earl Davis (DJ Screw), and probably The Early Sheffield (Cabaret Voltaire, The Future, etc.) I’ve been a fan of Screw music since about 1998. Incidentally, I also listen to a lot of darker music; so of course when artists started blending the two I got very excited—especially since I’d been leaning in that direction already, [experimenting with drag remixes].

Now, hold on just a durn minute. Dark music? You mean that Kiss-The-Goat kindly stuff them anhk-wearin’ P.I.B.s listen to?

Image
image source: his dark nostalgia

Geraldo Riviera did a special about that whole…”scene”…a bunch a years ago. Yeah, I know me a thing or two about “dark music.” Sure as shit, I do!
Basically, during the 90s, I toyed with the concept of being a working DJ. I was writing for the [L.A.] New Times and doing occasional dj gigs: mainly art openings and loft parties. These led to a short residence at The Parlour [club]. Back then—and still on my blog—I fuse[d] a number of sounds: disco, house, minimal synth, electro…all in the style of Ron Hardy and Larry Levan, who are still my mentors as a DJ [in addition to] the Cosmic DJs (Danielle Baladelli and Beppe Loda), who I didn’t find out about [till] later. Oh—and as far as live DJs, I was really influenced by the Wicked crew out of San Francisco, and the Idjut Boys and Harvey.
[At any rate], this sound remains intact in my blog mixes. As a producer of tracks, I am really trying to do something more. I try not to get too high concept about it, but there’s definitely a ‘MEDIUM IS THE MESSAGE’ component to my music.

All-caps, huh? O I C. Hearkens back to the early ‘Aughts when the phrase MASHUP was being spread around as insistent & insidious(ly) as a scabies outbreak from a strip-club’s dressing room. Some remixes are just remixes, you know—but when they’re really remixed, they get an extended title: complete with parentheses and clever little phrases signified by caps-lock. The most srs of bsns, maing.

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:: experience . the inspiration :: via international download lovin’, provided by Electrocasts ♡ ::


Never mind my obnoxious enthusiasm over A + D (ditto, their rump-shakin’, world obliteratin’, full-on overtakin’-the-gayme endeavor: Club Bootie), Girl Talk, & D.J. Raw-burt; matter of fact, consider this a rare instance in which I acknowledge—
[interrupts] I pretty much despire the term or concept of mash-up.

Oh, c’mon Natty! Sure, the term remains so frickin’ mashed to this day that more often than not, it’s denied a hyphen. But insofar as the act thereof? When it’s done well, it’s not just brilliant; shit’s incandescent. Proof/pudding: HawkinsxXx.
DJs have been blending and fusing styles from day one. The [categories] “disco” or “house,” for example, were really blanket terms used to describe the music played in clubs.

Or not played. Someone much witter than I am described Witch House as “the genre for people who don’t leave theirs.” Unfortunately, I’m not even sharp enough to recall whom it was, nor where I read it. All the same—
Ron Hardy played a fusion of really gay disco, italo disco and new wave/synth…and later included minimal beat tracks created by his friends and club-goers.

‘Really gay’? How do people respond to that? I mean, ‘some of my best friends are‘ queers & flamboya feministing fagocytronics & everything—but HAPPY?! That’s a ‘lifestyle choice’ I’m just not sure I can accept…
Well, I’ve been receiving really encouraging emails all along from artists. Gyratory System and Yellow Ostrich had contacted me about the ‘post production’ I did over their tracks, but my main introduction to the drag community actually was by way of a disagreement I had with GuMMy†Be▲R!

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(.GIF created by “Freeny”)


LIES! I thought you guys were partners in draggification? O.K.—you are, obviously; nonetheless, once upon a slime… [Tell Me Everything!]
I had slowed-up Panda Bear’s “Slow Motion” for a mix, and I felt he had stolen that sound for his own remix. The sound was too similar, and there were certain degrees of separation that made me feel uncomfortable.
During a lengthy email battle, the two of us decided it would be better to work it out in a mix: old school hip-hop style. In collaborating, we found out we really shared a lot of common goals musically, and that mix became “Witch Made Knicca.”

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:: download :: & :: low-down, available at one of my blogospherical faves: Not For Resale ::

You can still hear the jabs in the mix, even though we ended up friends because of it.

Which—& note: I’m resisting the urge to rock any homofication via homophones or homonymmin’—wasn’t very long ago!
Super recent.

As I thought, As I thought…Matter of fact, I can’t recall a time in which you weren’t associated with Herr Gummy Himselfness.
I’m a nOOb when it comes to trying to put my stuff out there. A self- professed recluse.

Hold up! A bit of retraction action needed on my end. Matter of fact, I can—& I do—recall my introduction to you/your dragonometry. On the techs, I suppose it’d be GummyBear-adjacent: though when the link-of-whatever-link linked me there, the first of your work I heard was a remix of Adam Glambert’s “If I Had You”. Didn’t I pretty much go fan-girl ape-shit & comment bomb you from here to infinity? Yeah, yeah—it was something like that…
I really didn’t even expect or desire any attention [from the music I create]. I know that sounds like false modesty, but it’s true.

Aww, truth is over-rated, anyway. Don’t even get me started on the notion of “truth” the general public is fed these days with manufactured ‘reality T.V.’ & bogus best-selling memoirs by heinous author/publisher/publicist/management grift-o-matic representation machines; it’s infinitely more interesting to chalk everything up as artifice & revel in the honesty of emotion that often results from hyperbole. Then again, I need to clap my trap & pass the proverbial floor back to you. So! Nattymari. What attracted you to Adam Lambert? The inherent ability to be on-point in terms of which leather fineries he chooses to drape himself for an evening, the overt drug references that he manages to weasel into our conservative country’s Top 40?
I initially choose songs because I hear something in them that can be extracted via WAV manipulation.

[Dramatic caesura in response]
If I were to deny a ‘cheeky’ aspect to my use of pop, I’d be lying – but honestly the over-processed production in modern pop and R & B really lends itself to this sort of thing.
Once you play with pitches you tend to breakdown the over-saturation of pitch correction—which often leads to some deliciously demonic results. The odd thing is that the trick has been turned, because by working on this stuff and living without so much, I’ve developed an appreciation for it.

Yet still, in terms of emotional gravitas: of how that pendulum oft referred to as ‘the human condition’ tends to sway with its Aww, Now-I-Wish-I-Would’ve-Ordered-The-Peanut-Butter-&-Banana-Sandwich fickle tendencies. It’s cute that you’ve made your mark with a little bit of this & a little bit of that, but what you really want is…?
If I were to put myself in big shoes, I’d like to be the W.S. Burroughs of this scene.

[Envision coaxing gesture of "&...and..."]
And as a grumpyish older person who saw it long before it came, it makes me happy to see it come to pass.

Well, Smell You, Nancy Drew! Already predicting the grand demise of everything that rises, hmm? Then again, I suppose it’s the one thing of which we can all be certain: [We]. Will. Definitely. Die.
However, before that time?

I guess you can just say that GuMMy†Be▲R! and I are working on a split cassette, which should see a physical release by the beginning of next year.

Ah, but first: Not just one, but a second

N△TTYM△RI
:: exclusive/premiere! ::

Selena Gomez sansThe Scene

a lá
NattyTubester‘s

“5C3N3 QU33N”…

E N J O Y ± I T !

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