the ARE

In sports the greats don’t always get drafted in the first round. Tom Brady, Terrell Davis and although Michael Jordan was selected in the first round he was picked third. Translate that to Russell Gonzalez aka the ARE, born and raised in Houston, TX was not noticed until maybe last year when he re-chopped the classic Midnight Marauders and select songs from the Jackson 5 discography. The recognition came immediately and with the platform of rappersIknow the ARE is well on his way. With the goal of keeping his roots by continuing to work with the underground scene the son of a Irish mother and Mexican father also plans on working with everyone from Mariah to Mary J. Blige and give hip-hop and music a dose of what’s been missing, a little balance.

Scheme: Where did the name the ARE come from?
the ARE: Basically the ARE is just my initial spelled out. Along time ago there were a lot of different names here and there, overall when it came time for a production name that would stick and stand out besides a regular name. So I just wanted to put a twist on it but not put to much thought into it.

Scheme: For you what was it like growing up in Houston?
the ARE: I grew up pretty much in music period. I had an uncle that was in the music business and kind of exposed me to a lot of things musically, instruments, studio work so I kind of took in instruments and had an ear for things early on. My uncle did a lot of studio work and did work with Archie Bell and the Drells in the late 60’s early 70’s. He was their base player on the road for a stretch so early on I was exposed to the music in that way. Being young, music was one of those things that was part of the family. My biggest touch on music would probably be the skating rink as far as hip-hop. That’s where we were able to hear things and we were poppin’ and breakin’ because when I was young I couldn’t drive myself to the store and pick up the latest cassette.

Scheme: What instruments did you play?
the ARE: I played the drums. I put my hands on a lot of other instruments but I won’t claim to play them (laughs). Drums are a craft I started playing when I was about ten.

Scheme: When did you start playing around with the production side of the music?
the ARE: In 1991 I lived in New York for a little while, and I actually knew DJ Premier from being in Houston and he was already in New York doing the Gangstarr thing. When I got to NY, we were some what of acquaintances and I would go to the studio here and there with him while he would be doing remixes. Being around that made me think, this is what I want to do. Premier was a big influence of me wanting to make music. At the time I was in New York I was young so it was a bit of a struggle so I couldn’t go out and buy a drum machine. So once I got back to Houston I was able to get stuff and start to working. Around 1992-’93 was when I physically started making beats.

Scheme: Why did you decide to move back to Houston?
the ARE: At the time I was only eighteen or nineteen years old (laughs). At the time I was working for Billboard Magazine in New York and I was just trying to pay the rent and it wasn’t easy, that’s why I came back to Houston, my family was here and it made things a little bit easier to get that drum machine or that sampler and things like that.

Scheme: Do you remember some of the first beats you made?
the ARE: Absolutely, my influence in music as far as hip-hop goes was more or less and east coast sound. One of my biggest influences from the beginning was Marley Marl, and from the time I was able to pick what I wanted to hear it was all Juice Crew, Big Daddy Kane, Masta Ace and that was my foundation. So when I started making beats it was a jazzy kind of street sound with a lot of horns, Lords of the Underground and stuff like that. Honestly the second beat that came out of my machine was something descent and I think it was from being around things and hearing things, I knew how things were supposed to sound.

“it’s a lot better when you’re building from the ground up and you have a half million people download your music for free versus selling 1,000 to 2,000 copies…”

Scheme: If you could go through your discography, who were some of the people you’ve worked with thus far?
the ARE: My early work consisted of my group K-Otix and we were actually formed when I got back from New York. At that time I was giving most of my time and attention to the group thing and I wanted the group to develop and really grow because in those days the goal was to get signed. I really didn’t step outside of that realm until years later. My early work would be with my man in Dallas Headkrack but it’s weird because at that time Houston was really disconnected from the rest of the world. We all kind of worked with everyone down here. Once the late 90’s hit I started working with other groups but things really started to change for me when I left the group thing, and a switch went off in my head that I have to move out and start hustling and working with many artists and networking. It came down to where I started building with artists like Supastition and I still kept my main crew like Headkrack in Dallas and Kay of the Foundation but eventually I did some work with Masta Ace, Punchline & Wordsworth and most recently I started working as a part of Trackmasters and did the Lil’ Kim single.

Scheme: How did that relationship come about?
the ARE: I actually met Poke & Tone through Punchline. Being that I worked with Masta Ace’s group E&C they linked me up with Poke & Tone and they liked the beat stuff I was doing. They called me and brought me to New York and I’ve been up there working ever since really.

Scheme: If you can describe what the pulse of Houston is now that Houston is in the discussion when it comes to Hip-hop now?
the ARE: It’s so weird now because the music game is so big now across the board. You have artists from Houston selling platinum records which before was unheard of unless you were Scarface or the Geto Boys. Otherwise you would have these groups that would have mass distribution through Priority Records or something like that but they would always do like the bare minimum. Today you have this glitz and glamour and you have this big south movement which is turning out every type of group and sound in Houston with the exception of an east coast sound, which is basically turning out the same type of keyboard sounds and things like that. So it’s turned into a snowball of a lot of different names coming out, the problem is only one or two artists that are coming out of that are gonna really pop. Down here it’s a little different, it seems like down here no one really wants to pay for music (laughs). I don’t know what it is but it’s like even when I was doing bigger things anybody that wanted to work with me down here but they never wanted to pay the money.

“…we were down here and we felt like we were getting overshadowed by a lot of other artists in the industry and we felt like we really weren’t getting heard to the degree that we should’ve been.”

Scheme: Elaborate on your process when you’re in the studio, I saw a few clips of you on youtube making beats in about seven to ten minutes. Is that the process you use all the time?
the ARE: That’s the process in a nutshell. There’s obviously vinyl involved and the ASR-10 and chopping and certain things like that. What you saw on those clips is pretty much my process when I’m at home or in my room making music, of course there’s a lot more to it in terms of adding stuff and adding baselines and things like that.

Scheme: What’s in store for you this year?
the ARE: Well right now I’m working with Trackmaster’s and did the track with Lil’ Kim “Chillin Tonight”, and in New York it’s getting really good play and popping off really well. The goal is to branch out and start working with a lot of major label artists. I never want to stop working in the underground and the independent scene and to notch up with the Kweli’s and the Pharoah’s too. I’m never going to abandoned that because to me that’s the fun side of hip-hop, making music that’s fun and doesn’t cater to any one person and we can just make the rawest shit possible. The other part is the business part and that’s where I’m trying to work with other major label artists and being in the studio from everyone from Busta to Mariah. So that’s my goal in ‘08 is to organize both sides from the commercial and major label side as well the independent and the underground side.

Scheme: Talk about your involvement with RappersIknow and how that all came about?
the ARE: It was started by my man Frank FWMJ, He was into web design and did graphic covers and things like that. There was a point in time like I said being down in Houston it was really tough where you really couldn’t work with people as well except if you went to New York or you went to LA. So we were down here and we felt like we were getting overshadowed by a lot of other artists in the industry and we felt like we really weren’t getting heard to the degree that we should’ve been.

Frank just put up the site and it was like one page and he would put up music and say check out my friend. He was also a message board dude so he’d be on okayplayer a lot and people knew him so to have someone like that on the boards people would give positive feedback. So when that happened it was kind of like this is actually working. So Kay and I knew that we were going to be able to supply the sight with music and it was kind of a thing were the traffic kept building and before we knew it we were getting a lot of love from message boards and blogs. So we just started giving the music away, it’s a lot better when you’re building from the ground up and you have a half million people download your music for free versus selling 1,000 to 2,000 copies and why not Fat Beats isn’t talking about giving us shit, Groove Attack in Europe isn’t talking about giving us shit so we gave it away and then when our name has a little bit more weight then you can start getting some money here and there and then you can get a little but more valuable. So that’s what happened and then we got affiliated with okayplayer and Frank was able to get the front page which turned the hits up from 150,000 a month to 500,000 a month.

Scheme: So working with trackmasters do you see yourself moving back to NY or are you comfortable there in Houston?
the ARE: I was there from Oct. 10th to Christmas, and Trackmasters had me in an apartment and I was going back and forth everyday into the studio and making beats every single day. We had Battery Studios for three months and I did a lot of reference tracks and so I need to be there because I need to be in the studio all the time and look people directly in the eye and play music for them.

Scheme: Talk about your cultural background and how much that played into the music you create. Speak a little more on the Marauders and Jackson chops, why not Harold Melvin& the Blue Notes or the Delfonics?
the ARE: Personally my heritage is Hispanic and Irish, my dad is Mexican and my mother is Irish, but to be honest I don’t know where that played a part in music, I think it’s just a taste factor. I’m a huge music collector and I have records you wouldn’t imagine. I love Michael Jackson and who doesn’t like the Jackson 5. Their melodies were so great it was almost too easy to be honest, and when I chopped them up they always seemed to work no matter what I did with them. As far as the Marauders I think that album is a big taste factor with everyone and it was one of those monumental albums that was at a time when hip-hop was in it’s “Golden Era” and it was one of those albums that solidified hip-hop. I actually did that record in about six days.

Scheme: I ask all producers and beatmakers do you look at album covers or do you listen to the records then select what you want?
the ARE: Back in the day it was different. I would go by the cover or names, if you had a bass player with a name like Mike “Funky Fingers” Jackson then I would be like, this dude must be crusty and he is about to play his ass off. It kind of changed, because after a little while I was chopping so much shit up and making songs my own, I could use anything and I could stop looking for the “look”.

Scheme: You have a clip which says you can save anyone’s career, without naming names do you think there are some careers that could be revitalized?
the ARE: I was actually on the verge of doing a documentary or a book called chasing the artists and it was based around trying to get to that artist and the politics involved because you don’t know this person or that person you can’t get in this artists circle. That phrase comes from me trying to get at certain artists that everybody loves but just couldn’t maintain the albums. I would get frustrated because if I could only get to these artists and play him these joints I know they would feel it!

Scheme: So what’s your take on hip-hop, beatmaking and producing? Are you one who says this is rap and this is hip-hop and separate them?
the ARE: I used to be like that and say this is hip-hop this is not hip-hop. Really its all music and its all rap and hip-hop period. You can use the word rap or hip-hop to describe and or paint your picture.