Alias (Brendon Whitney) is a hip hop master known for his lengthy catalog of taste-making beats. His fifth solo LP, Fever Dream, is bound to garner streams of new fans. A product of pure pleasure crafted in his hometown of Portland, Maine, Whitney’s new project combines sensuous threads of R&B with the classic hip hop he grew up with. His instrumental beats channel countless genres to varying degrees; a diversity that’s mirrored in his love for artists spanning the likes of Yeasayer and The Weeknd. Whitney’s ability to continually redefine and bend the genre he works within is accentuated in the following interview. On the heels of a physical release for his latest album through the alt label Anticon, Whitney took out some time to tell us about his early days as “Bren tha Mikafone Wrecka”, the transforming musical landscape of Portland, the influence of his growing family, and why he thinks Christina Aguilera’s “Dirrty” is relevant to the LA beat scene. Fans of Alias can currently preview the lush soundscapes of Fever Dream over at 3VOOR12. Like the vocal sample on the opening track reiterates, “Only a fool would ignore this…”
You’ve been immersed in the sounds of hip hop since you were a young boy. How are you able to extend your passion over so many years and still keep the creative process fresh and exciting?
I started out as a hip-hop fan and then at a certain point i became a fan of music in general. it was pretty gradual. in my late teens/early 20′s I started checking out other music that was similar to hip-hop. like DJ Shadow, Portishead and acts associated with Mo’Wax. From there, I started checking out other music like Radiohead, Bjork and Aphex Twin. From there it was Autechre, Boards of Canada and other electronic instrumental stuff. Within the last 4 or 5 years, my listening habits are all over the place. Some of my favorite artists now are Grizzly Bear, Beach House, Bibio, The Weeknd, Burial, James Blake. There’s so much good music out there, it’s easy to remain inspired to make my own music.
Your taste in music is incredibly eclectic. Which artists would you jump at a chance to collaborate with?
I would love to work with Yeasayer in some way, be it a remix or a whole new song. I’m a massive fan of their last record, and I’m looking forward to their new album. Also high on that list would be Thom Yorke. I’ve been a huge fan of Radiohead since The Bends came out. The fact that he has worked with other artists whose music I love like Flying Lotus and Modeselektor makes me want to work with him even more.
Can you tell us a bit about how you transitioned from battle rapping as a young teen to your current trade as a producer and hip hop instrumentalist?
I was never really a battle rapper. I never entered into any battles, because I would have gotten slaughtered in them. I’m a terrible freestyler. I started making beats about 3 years after i started rapping, and it really clicked with me. I continued with writing and rapping for years afterwards, but then in 2002 I worked alot on producing songs for Sole’s album “Selling Live Water”. I had also started producing for other artists and it was just something that I was more interested in and something that came much easier to me than writing down lyrics. It also probably had alot to do with my listening habits at the time. I had been listening to lots of Warp artists for years, and that sound sort of worked it’s way in and pushed the boom-bap sound aside a bit.
What was the young Brendon Whitney like? Did you always go by Alias or did you rap under a different moniker?
I’ve gone through a bunch of terrible, terrible names. My very first name was Bren tha Mikafone Wrecka. Keep in mind, this was like 1991 or something. After that, I had this dude who was pretty much my mentor as far as writing raps goes. He was a college DJ and he took DJ Mayonnaise and I under his wing. He was insistent on giving me the name “Lunch” as a rap name, which I was kind of iffy about, but it was a step up from Bren tha Mikafone Wrecka, I guess. Later on, probably in like 1995 or 1996, i decided my rap name would be Mysterious. I had that name until around 1998, when I met Mr. Dibbs and he said “Mysterious like fairy dust”. So when Sole told me about meeting Dose and Slug and wanting to do Deep Puddle, I knew Mysterious wasn’t going to fly. And I went with Alias. It was a literal word and it was pretty open ended with no real attachments to it. It’s stuck and I can’t imagine coming up with another moniker. Maybe I’ll go back to Bren tha Mikafone Wrecka.
Why was leaving Portland so essential for you in your formative years?
At the time, in 1998, Portland Maine had zero hip-hop going on in it. When I did get gigs it was opening for bands who sounded more like 311 or Incubus. There was never any really good hip-hop coming through. There was hardly any clubs to perform, and the ones that were here, were weirded out by letting some weird white kid rap for 30 minutes. So when Sole moved out to the Bay Area, I knew I would have more opportunities and be with more like minded people out there. It was strange to come back to Portland years later and sellout shows and find all these kids who knew our music because they liked it, not because we were homies with them. It’s much, much different now. There is a main street called Congress Street in downtown Portland that is worlds away from the Congress Street of the 90′s. It was basically deserted when I moved to California in 1999. Nowadays there are venues big and small all up and down it. tons of shops and restaurants. It’s really crazy to think back to how it was 12 years ago and see how it is today.
You received your first drum machine in 1992. Have you ever revisited earlier material or been inspired to rework early sounds for current projects?
I haven’t really gone back to any of that stuff from the early years of my music. I do have tapes of me rapping from when I was 14 years old. I’ve got a tape of the first time I rapped with Sole at Moodswing9′s apartment in 1993. I’ve also got boxes upon boxes of floppy disks from beats I made over the years. I’ve never really gone back to them though. maybe one day I will and put up some beats for free somewhere. who knows. I did use that first drum machine on my Eyes Closed EP. and I still have it in my studio.
Why did eventually decide to move back to Portland from East Oakland? What has changed about the music scene in Portland since you last resided there?
I had kind of gotten to a point where I felt like I did what I needed to do in Oakland. I did my first full US tour in 2001 and I started touring Europe in 2002. from that point up until 2007, I toured alot. Touring Europe was especially difficult at times. I would take trains and planes everywhere by myself on solo tours. I found myself getting sort of depressed and feeling like I was free floating through life. I hated being away from my wife for months at a time. I was fortunate to bring her with me a few times for a week or two at a time. But it was getting to be too much. Some people can tour like crazy and be completely comfortable with it. But I was starting to want other things out of life. My wife and I wanted to buy a house, which was impossible to do in Oakland. A fixer-upper in Oakland was $400,000 in 2007. It just wasn’t possible. We had been back to Maine alot and I had played there a bunch on different tours. Portland was just where I wanted to be. It’s my favorite city and always has been. Even with all the touring I did, I love Portland the most. And the housing market was way more affordable. We ended up buying a house 2 years ago. And then last year my daughter was born. These are the sort of things I was starting to want in my life. In Oakland, I was just feeling like I had accomplished everything I had set a goal for and I just wanted a change. So we moved back in 2007. The music scene here is awesome. There are people who are doing music of all types of flavors. There are venues of every size for bands to play, no matter how popular. It wasn’t like that before I moved to Cali. There were a few bars and tiny clubs and then there was the Civic Center for huge Top 40 bands. There wasn’t alot of in between. Now the in between space is completely covered. It’s great.
Your priorities have definitely evolved with focus shifting towards your newborn daughter and settling down. Has this impacted your music in any way?
It’s made my time to work on music a little bit more confined, but that hasn’t been frustrating at all. My wife is very supportive of my music, so at least once a week she’ll take my daughter, Aiko, and hang out with her so I can lock myself away in my studio. It’s actually made my music making time way more productive because I have all this inspiration and ideas built up that when I sit down to work on music, it all comes pouring out quickly. Having these smaller time frames to work on music has made them feel alot more rewarding because they are always productive.
Can you tell us something unique/quirky about your creative process? Do you have a tried and tested formula or does it depend on the project at hand?
My process is always changing really. I haven’t really made a record the same way twice. I used to do the drums first then the melodies. Then I started doing the melodies and the drums last. But it’s never been a static approach. One thing that has remained consistent is I always kind of zone out and I forget how I got a certain sound or wonder how I did a certain part when I listen back a few days later. That’s always been consistent and it’s probably why making music is still so exciting to me.
Your creative process is always changing, but what can you tell us about the equipment you use? Any equipment you always have on hand? Anything you’re excited to incorporate in the future?
I used to use the MPC2000XL to do all my drum programming and sampling. but I’ve completely bypassed it and have been just using the grid in Pro Tools to do all my arranging and drum programming. I can’t remember the last time I powered up my MPC to be honest with you. I do still use my SP-303 all the time though. I have my turntable and mixer running into my SP-303 and that running into my Digi002 to Pro Tools. From there I just chop and slice bits and rearrange drums and record new parts. Run things out from Pro Tools into the SP-303 and back into Pro Tools with effects on them…that sort of thing. I also have a number of different keyboards that I’m always using. If I had to pick a favorite, it would be a toss up between the Novation K-Station and the Roland JP-8000. Both are really easy to use and they both have knobs and sliders for every parameter which is great to not have to scroll through different bits on a tiny screen.
What would you say stands out about Fever Dream in comparison to your previous discography?
Fever Dream is way more loose sounding to my ears than anything I’ve done before. It’s not as rigid and locked in as my past albums. And I feel like it has a way more spaced out vibe to it. lots of my past music was either aggressive or pretty sounding, but Fever Dream sounds way more trippy to me in comparison to anything else I’ve done.
You’ve stated that you’re strongly influenced by R&B. Which artists are you currently into at the moment? Has your love for R&B expressed itself in your work?
I rediscovered Jodeci a couple years ago and I listen to them pretty regularly nowadays. Especially their “Diary of a Mad Band” album. Devante Swing did some insane production on that album. And the more I listened to it, the more I noticed some little techniques that I’ve done to my beats in the past. That album influenced my production style more than I knew, really. My favorite current R&B artist is The Weeknd. That “House of Balloons” mixtape is in constant rotation in my headphones, in my car and in my kitchen when I’m cooking. And now that the “Thursday” mixtape is out, it’s been the same thing all over again. I think production for R & B songs is way more adventurous than hip-hop beats. You go back and listen to instrumentals for “What About Us” by Brandy or “Dirrty” by Christina Aguilera and those beats are insane! You could play those against anything from the LA Beat Scene and they would go together perfectly. And they’re from 8 years ago!
You clearly have a vast knowledge of music from the past and present as you back both Brandy and the Weeknd’s brand of R&B. In your opinion, who are the beat scene game changers and how are they being innovative in their field?
Timbaland is someone who I’ve always admired. You can tell he has an idea and can get it out of his head into his sampler with ease. He’s always made interesting beats too. One thing I like about his beats is he’ll do a switch up at the end and add something completely new to the beat as the song is fading out. I like that kind of stuff. I’m also a big fan of Rockwilder. His beats are always dope and exciting. The beat for Method Man and Redman’s “Da Rockwilder” is bananas! Also, just like almost every other beat maker, I’m a huge fan of Flying Lotus. I love how excited he is about making music and how he’s always wanting to try new approaches and wanting to keep things moving. I’m always looking forward to hearing new stuff from him. I’m also a huge fan of Bibio. He really switched things up with “Ambivalence Avenue” and I have alot of respect for artists who are wiling to totally throw people off by coming out of nowhere with a new sound and can still make some incredible music.
What can fans of Alias look forward to in the future?
I’ve gotten a whole new inspiration after completing Fever Dream. I’ve been working on music since I finished it, so I would assume a new album would be coming down the pipeline sooner than later. I don’t think there will be another 3 years between albums like I had with Resurgam and Fever Dream. Definitely feeling a second wind.
