Introducing K Murdock

Ten years after first trying his hand at production, the producer who a Roca-fella executive advised to “keep his day job”, is finally garnering the attention he deserves. K Murdock is quickly forging his own path into virgin territory. Responsible for the rich and eclectic sound of his music group Panacea and countless others, K Murdock is just as likely to draw upon his affinity for progressive rock as he is to find inspiration in his love for anime cartoons. What began with a Gemini mixer, a Tascam 4 track recorder, and an Alesis SR16 has evolved into a production space built around his trusty MPC 2000 XL. The tool with which K Murdock has painstakingly created a sound that is all his own. Recently, between sessions, K Murdock took the time to sit down with Scheme Magazine and give us a guided tour through his world.

Scheme: For those just now learning about K Murdock and Panacea, describe your production style as well as your group’s style of music?

K Murdock: We say its progressive hip-hop and when we say that we mean very forward thinking. Coming up, I patterned my style after producers like Q-Tip, Pete Rock and Large Professor and I consider J Dilla to be a genius. Currently, my style infuses samples of folk music, progressive rock and new age music to create what I call Neo Sonic, which means a new sound. Essentially, I blend different genres and it comes out hip-hop because sampling is a hip-hop trait. People tend to compare me to producers like DJ Spinna and cats like Nicolay, who also inspire me to push boundaries because they’re so progressive and they try different things.

Scheme: There are so many beat-makers masquerading as producers these days, what does it mean to be a producer to you?

K-Murdock:That’s actually a really good question. There’s a big misconception when it comes to the title, producer – a cat who sits at home and creates the ideas and then can step in the studio and give input as to the arrangement, how it’s laid, can do the sequencing, recording and engineering, that’s a producer. I’m not trying to just be a beatmaker, I want to be the next Quincy Jones.

Scheme: Beyond being a producer, but as an artist, what do you strive to accomplish via your creations?

K-Murdock: My goal is to make music that touches different emotions. The best music to me creates a feeling. It would be ill for me to have people listen to a Panacea song and have it connect with something they’ve been through or felt. Also, I want to be able to live off producing, which will come by making music that’s timeless and something people can hear and connect via some memory or emotion.

Scheme: What has been your largest obstacle to date and what advice do you have for others who may have or will encounter the same?

K Murdock: The largest obstacle has been dealing with negative criticism and not allowing that to defeat me. One of my folks at XM Satellite got one of my beat CDs to Kareem “Biggs” Burke who told them “yo them joints are wack, tell dude to keep his day job.” But instead of giving up when you get negative criticism you have to keep pushing yourself to make stuff you like and craft your own sound, don’t try to be the next Premo or Dilla they already did that, just keep being progressive.

Scheme: Why did you name your group Panacea?

K Murdock: Panacea is a Greek word meaning ‘cure all’. Music has always been my panacea whether I was getting amped up to play in a football game, or dealing with a death, or when I was in love, or when I was younger and in lust. And I want our music to do for others what it has always done for me.

Scheme: You seem to have many varied influences. What are they and how have you combined them in your music?

K Murdock: Video games like Final Fantasy and anime have been big influences. Eastern philosophy is also a great influence. My music reflects my childhood and keeps me cutting edge. I grew up playing Final Fantasy and listening to Low End Theory. So I mix them together when I can to reflect my individuality. I recently took a vocal sample from the anime cartoon Naruto and flipped it over a beat. Now I have people hitting my Myspace page just to hear that. After hearing enough people ask for it, I’m now working on an album fusing anime clips and hip-hop beats. Should be interesting and hopefully it’ll introduce people who love anime to my music, and people who love my music to anime.

Scheme: Which artists have you worked with? Who would you love to work with?

K Murdock: I’ve worked with a lot of local cats like Grap Luva, Asheru from Unspoken Heard and Raheem Devaughn. Me and Raheem have like 2 or 3 albums of material that we’re kind of sitting on due to his label situation. W. Ellington Felton gave me my first break. When I first got my gig at XM, I told a co-worker that I produced, and my co-worker connected me with W. Ellington Felton. He heard some of my music and asked me to produce his album which became Soul Sonnets. That actually spoiled me because now when I work on projects I want to produce every track. Soul Sonnets is a very special record because that was my first serious production credit. We released it through [Felton’s] Art! Hurts Records which led to meeting Prince Paul and of course, Raheem Devaughn. As far as who I’d like to work with, A Tribe Called Quest comes to mind, Lupe Fiasco – despite the situation with Tribe – is a dope lyricist and the stuff he raps about is very forward thinking, De La Soul, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Pharoah Monch, Common, Kanye West, Coldplay, Justin Timberlake, Alicia Keys, Erykah Badu, Dwele, Bilal and Jill Scott are all on my list. No one too outside the box, except maybe Coldplay, but they’re all great talents and I think they’d work well over my production.

Scheme: What projects do you have coming up?

K Murdock: Well we just released the last Panacea record on Rawkus, but since it was a limited release nationwide it’s pretty much sold out of stores but it’s still available on amazon.com and ughh.com. I have a bunch of lost sessions with W. Ellington Felton that we recorded from 2001 to 2007 that will be available soon through my Myspace page at first and then iTunes. Then I have a gang of instrumental projects including an instrumental series called Mood Muzik. The idea behind Mood Muzik is a series of six track EPs focusing on one particular season or mood. Right now I’m doing seasons. I already dropped “Spring” which is a collection of instrumentals inspired by the season Spring. Then I dropped “Summer” and the next will be “Fall” after I drop all the seasons, I might start on “Love.” The best part about the instrumental series is that it’s allowing me to get music out there that’s just been sitting on my hard drive and gives me a continuous presence.

Scheme: For those interested in learning more about you or accessing your music, where should they go?

K Murdock: They can find me at myspace.com/neosonicpride and they can find out more about Panacea at www.myspace.com/neosonicprod.