P-10
| P-10 An Exclusive Interview 10/13/09 Download his albums! |
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P-10 is Patryk Tenorio, I am 20 years old, from Rzeszów, Poland, and I live in Austin, TX. I currently run a company named Cavalry. Currently we are a record label and apparel company but I hope it can grow from there into something more. I really want our company to represent the arts (music, video, art, poetry, etc) as much as possible on the most personal level possible. And I absolutely love soccer; it’s my next passion right up there with the arts.
So what’s the story behind Cavalry? Tell me about that.
Sure, Cavalry is like many things in my life, a product of my musical background/passion. I officially formed a sole proprietorship my senior year in high school (2007) and incorporated in 2008. In high school I was already recording a lot of music and had just produced my first two albums (which I hope no one finds, haha) and I wanted to put out some actual CD's so me and my roommate at that time put some money together and printed something like 100-200 CD's and literally sold almost every last one to our friends, so then we were like, "Why not take this further?" which is when we formed a sole proprietorship. Then in my freshman year of college I became close friends with Dave Wyllie, the drummer in my previous band, and also now our clothing director, who was really into fashion and after talking about it for a while we thought, why not? We were tired of a lot of the shitty styles you see around colleges and we didn't want to be a part of it so we decided to do our own thing. Cavalry is really a company based on the point of appealing to people on a more personal level and really exposing the new and exciting things in art that people DON'T see because of the mainstream media. I mean, when was the last time the owner of Adidas or Hurley personally called you to thank you for your purchase? When was the last time Interscope Records sent you a free CD for buying all of your favorite artist's records? It's all just so impersonal and I hate it. I believe things/products need to have more substance then just something shot out of a factory onto a store rack. Also when was the last time you heard a small artist NOT from a huge label being played on the radio regularly? When was the last time your favorite local band that is probably 100x better then Nickleback was on the radio played every 10 minutes? haha. Exact same thing can go for graphic art, photography, movies, etc. Cavalry wants to represent those smaller artists, that actually are doing new and exciting things but don't get any love because they don't have $1 million dollars or some suits with contacts. We believe substance and true passion should prevail over dollar bills.
So how did you get into mashups?
Well I started out playing guitar and singing in a band called Falling Short of Silence, and we even toured the east coast for a solid summer. However, touring is a wonderful thing because it really brings out your true self and some of the band members weren't feeling tour as much as me and our drummer so we are kind of on hold for now and I decided to do something that I wouldn't have to rely on others with. Our drummer, Dave Wyllie, was the one to really introduce me to mashups and encouraged me to try it out. So now it’s just me and my own decisions; I don’t have to rely on others which is nice.
How long have you been mashing now?
I started mashing in the Fall of 2008. So about a year now.
And how did you learn how to mash?
Well, the other part of my story as a guitarist/vocalist is that in Austin, TX there is a HUGE music scene (Live music capital of the world). So I became involved in recording and producing and worked in different studios and started producing albums for people ranging from acoustic to rock, hip hop, and even dance music. So now I have about 4-5 years of music production under my belt and I even run my own studio which is really nice. I just took my experience and knowledge of producing and applied it to making mashups.
So I guess that means you have some pretty nice software and hardware?
Oh boy, haha. This is the stuff I live for. I use several different programs. Mainly Cakewalk Sonar Producer Edition 7 as well as occasionally Reason 3, Kinetic 2, Sony Acid Pro, and Serato Scratch Live. As for hardware, I use Technics turntables, a Casio midi keyboard, a lot of Behringer (really great stuff surprisingly!) mixers/speakers for random things, Lexicon and Presonus controllers/interfaces, and a lot of other random mics and accessories, haha. I use way more than anyone should but I love experimenting with new things though half of them never make the final cut.
So do your mashups include original stuff you make from scratch, or is it all other artists’ music?
Its actually a mixture, some of the stuff you'll hear such as the AC/DC and Eleanor Rigby mix is almost completely remixed by me, but a lot of the time I try to just keep to the original version of other artists’ music as much as possible. I plan on getting into the remix game a lot more when I'm done with my masterpiece PT.4.
What inspires you in terms of song choice in your mashups?
What inspires me in terms of song choice for my mashups is really a mixture of the music that I love and what’s hot out there. I love dropping older songs such as "Back that ass up" by Juvenile because no one can hate, that was the jam back in the day at everyone's high school dances, hahaha. Then I absolutely love Electro house music from people like Crookers, Afrojack, Daft Punk, Justice, etc; stuff that you either hear if you’re in Europe, or at big clubs in LA, Miami, Las Vegas, etc. I really want to get that music into more people’s ears. Then there are my musical roots in Pop Punk, Metal, Hardcore, etc and I always look for a way to sneak in some Blink 182, Weezer, Brand New, A Day To Remember and other bands like that. And of course I'm not going to deny any current or semi-current hits (that are actually good) like Kid Cudi, Jay-Z, etc. And don't forget the REAL hip-hop from back in the day: Biggie, Run DMC, Beastie Boys. Hell yea! What would a mashup be without the greats from back in the day?
What about favorite mashup artists?
I actually really do appreciate Girl Talk, and I think he has done a lot for mashup artists in the mainstream which is awesome, but I just have something against performing with just a laptop... I just really love the art of turntablism; it's roots and how it feels more organic and interactive. So with that you have my heroes like DJ AM (R.I.P), Z-Trip (Inventor of the mashup, check him out!), A-Trak, Mix Master Mike, Qbert, and some other amazing DJ’s. No hate on those that do perform with just laptops, but again its my roots of being more hands on (i.e. Playing guitar, using turntables).
What is your process in making a mashup? Song choice, etc...
Yea, that is probably the toughest thing for me, haha. Before I would just sit down for hours at a time and literally just kind of wing it in terms of actually making a mashup. I have a folder FILLED with so many acapellas, instrumentals, sound clips, samples, you name it. I would just pick a song that I really felt and then start adding stuff, taking away stuff, redoing things, etc. Then after one song was mashed up I would add the next song coming out and would again, just go through my library and find something that I really felt. Now, I've decided to become way more organized (Though I'm still not sure its that much better, haha) and I write down all of the songs I want to use beforehand and things that would sound good with them and start composing the mashup, but a lot of things always end up sounding differently and in the end I'm just improvising again really, haha. It is nice to have the Turntables though because I can mess around with a lot of different stuff before wasting time laying something down only to find it doesn't work and 4 hours worth of time was wasted.
So does hardware play a big role in your mashup creation?
I'd say it doesn't necessarily play a big role, but it does help make things more smooth and efficient. In the future I want to move towards something like 4 turntables and just mixing everything together that way, like a really intense live mashup, haha. But that's just a thought right now; I probably wouldn't even try that for another 5 years or so.
How long does it take you to make one mashup track?
Haha, this is the part that bothers me the most. I am a perfectionist when it comes to music production and live shows. So when I work on mashups, I have literally spent almost 5 hours on a 3-4 minute segment. Other times though, things just click and I can get a 2-4 minute mashup done in about 2 hours or so, but I always go back every day and make sure it still sounds perfect to me.
Are there any artists you won’t use in your mashups?
Hell Yes. I believe in one thing, and that is that as a mashup artist or DJ, you are exposing people to new music a lot of the time. So I feel that in order to actually perform that role properly and to encourage more good music in the music world you really need to weed out the good artists from the bad and make sure that its the good artists on top not the bad ones with a ton of record label money backing them. My ONLY exception is that if the actual music (beat) sounds good then that’s fair play, but please avoid the lyrics if they are stupid. Personally I'm not a fan of Asher Roth (I Love College? Really?) and several other artists who probably don't deserve mentioning, haha. But overall I try to keep an open mind about all music, so I don't want people to think I'm like a music elitist, haha. I'm honestly the least music elite person you could meet. That all probably sounds like a big contradiction though, hahaha. It's tough for me to explain in brief...
So how much time do you spend on your mashups in general? What are you doing in your free time?
Overall? Well PT.1-PT.3 have taken me a little less than a year so I spent quite some time on them, PT.3 being the real long one to do. I get a lot of my work done on weekends just locking myself in the studio and I get up at 8-9am every morning to do some work early in the morning too. I'm finally getting to a point where it's getting a lot more efficient though which is nice. In my free time I am usually answering/sending a million emails, reading music blogs/news, searching for music, and barely squeezing in some Hell's Kitchen, The Office, and Entourage. I basically don't sleep, hahaha. I will stay up anywhere from 1-3am and get up at 8-9am. But it's all about being on my grind. I just have the mindset that hopefully my hard work will pay off someday... Or I really just wasted a lot time, money, and energy...shit. hahaha
What are some of the favorite mashups you’ve made?
That's tough... It's like picking your favorite child, haha. But, if I was stuck on an island and I could only take several mashups with me, I would take "The Anthem", "Boom Boom Brightside", "Too Much Rock For One Hand", "Lick Me Like A Prayer" and of course "Old School Jerks". What would an island alone be like if I didn't have my old school Warren G or Eazy-E? But honestly I love every one of my mashups, I legitimately crank them when no ones around and dance my ass off, hahaha. It's weird, yes. But what can I say?
Do you have any tips for aspiring mashup artists?
Don't do it, I don't need any more competition damn it! hahaha. No, I'm just kidding! On a serious note, if you’re passionate about music and mashing/mixing music by all means go for it! My biggest thing is try to be as original as you can because in all honesty mashups can be pretty restricting but the genre can only progress through innovation, look at rap and rock, the base is there but it has also changed/progressed so much from what you heard in the 60's for example. Just keep it as original and innovative as possible!
And what are you views on the legality of mashups?
Well my thoughts are that there shouldn't really be a problem with it because honestly your putting together a new song or version and there shouldn't be a problem because some guy in a suit working for a big record label is upset that they didn't think of it first or aren't getting royalties for it. Look at Andy Warhol's "Campbell's Soup" picture. Anyone could have easily said, "Hey, your selling another companies picture" But he wasn't, he had made it his own picture by modifying it. If labels wanted to get royalties and have everything done by the book then they shouldn't make the process so hard... It can literally take months to clear one sample... No one has that time. Check out the Creative Commons stuff, I'm just learning about it but it seems really smart. Music should stay an art form first and foremost, something you can alter and change. Not treated as a product made purely for financial gains.
What are your goals for the future? Any other comments?
Well, I am just hoping to finish PT.4 hopefully by the end of November (Fingers crossed) so stay posted on that, and I have applied for some music festivals such as SXSW, NXNW, and am working on booking shows everywhere I can (Book me!). Also everyone should go check out my website at www.cavalryrecords.com/p10 and then peruse the rest of the site! I usually have a bunch of cool things going on there including an interview coming up with Tiesto, one of the best Dance DJ's in the world! Also, as crazy as this sounds, I am waiting to hear back from The Guinness World Records people for possibly making a world record of "The longest Continuous Mashup/dance mix ever made". I just got info today regarding the steps I need to take to verify/prove my record so I am waiting to hear back. I think it would be really badass to accomplish a world record in the mashup genre, haha.
Favorite pizza topping? Candy? Color?
Canadian Bacon (No competition), sour gummy worms, orange!
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