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Issue link: https://digital.macdirectory.com/i/898
164 MacDirectory
INTERVIEW
of Keith Wiggins, known as "Cowboy",
had this Ringling Brothers announcer
voice and could get people to stop
looking at me so I could play the music.
About that time, I tried teaching a few
DJ's and my partner, Mean Gene, had a
little brother who I saw working on their
stereo. I asked Gene, "Can I show him
some things?" He was my very first
student and so little; I made him stand
on milk crates to play. Later he became
Grand Wizard Theodore. I'd been
teaching all along, but didn't realize it. I
didn't want to be the only person doing
what I was doing. Now, I teach and
lecture all over the world.
MD >
How have technological changes
over the past twenty years affected the
way you make music?
GF > Not so many years ago there was
this talk of DJs using CDs and MP3s. I
was like "Huh?" I'd carry my eight boxes
of records into a club and a DJ opening
for me walks in with a laptop and I ask
where his records were. He says, "In the
laptop." That f***ing blew my mind.
They put pieces of vinyl in a laptop!?
More records than I could carry.
I went crazy investigating all the
different systems and finally began using
Tracktor Scratch by Native Instrument.
It's time-coded on the vinyl, but the
music is in the laptop, so I'm physically
doing what I'm used to doing, but it
wasn't easy to pick up because of the
way that I play. I'm physical when I work
and very animated and have had to
adjust for a quick pause in the center of
my moves to look at the laptop. That
threw me at first — like learning a new
instrument, but it gets easier and easier.
MD >
Describe how you felt being
inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall
of Fame.
GF > I didn't believe it. I'd had a few
false alarms before when there were
rumors I'd been inducted, so when this
guy calls late on a Sunday night and
tells me I've been chosen for the Rock
and Roll Hall of Fame, I didn't really
believe it until I saw it on TV the next
day. Then, to be in inducted in the Hall
of Fame, as a musician, with all the
great musicians that have been
recognized, was truly special.
MD >
Do you use any Apple products?
GF > Steve Jobs is a saint! I may own
more Macs than he does. Seriously, I am
a Mac fiend. I still have my Mac Classic
and use the Qbase sequence to write
music. I use a whole system—including
a G5 and an Intel Mac, with six terabytes
of drive space and I'm a slave to each,
setting it up so my computers can all
talk to the other ones. It's so different
now, unlike when I did
Adventures of
Grandmaster's Wheels of Steel
(1982)—
which was done all by hand and is one
of my favorite recordings. But it's still
good. This is my favorite place to be at
home—in my basement with all my
equipment. When I'm composing, I may
be down here 20 hours without even
knowing it. My girlfriend hates that, but
it's where I have to be.
For more on DJ Grandmaster Flash,
including a complete discography, visit
his Web site at