The Revelations on creating Ghostface Killah's 36 Seasons [long read]

[IronFist]

Wes Mingus of The Revelations offers some inside on the unique production PROCESS behind 36 Seasons:

From the beginning, it was obvious that 36 Seasons was no ordinary hip-hop project. The initial meeting of the minds was not one that discussed producers, MC's, or beats. Rather, the table was set for the album by Matthew Rosenberg, a comic BOOK WRITER whose story would become the narrative backdrop of 36 Seasons. The Ghostface Killah had been re-imagined as a sort of hip-hop superhero for the 21st century--a Staten Island vigilante inspired by a quest for personal retribution and bent on saving his community from the grips of crooked authority and urban decay. This story, told in fifteen stanzas, became the lyrical and musical backdrop for the songs on the album.

Musically, it was decided at the beginning that this would be a very non-traditional, more organic hip-hop album-- one where all of the sounds created would be by real players, on real instruments, while still maintaining the spirit and boom-bap purity of classic hip-hop. No digital keyboards or samplers were used. Everything would be analog. All "samples" would be extracted from original music performed by live musicians--Brooklyn soul band The Revelations. While the natural performance and fluidity of a live band is evident on songs like It's A Thin Line Between Love and Hate and the curtain-closing A Love For All Seasons, the beats of the other songs adhere more closely to the traditional sound of producer's machine-derived beat. Only in this case, The Revelations become the beat machine, capable of creating an infinite amount of sounds or "samples" to be used as the sonic tapestry for the song at hand. The result is a unique, organic sound that owes greatly to traditional, sample-based BEAT MAKING , but with the warmth and humanity of a crack musical, ensemble cast. Just as the rappers play characters in this story, The Revelations set the stage sonically to reflect the given musical journey that is 36 Seasons.

Between the lines, the album also tells the story of The Revelations themselves as a band. Emerging in 2008, the band then featured Tre Williams as lead vocalist, who appears on the opening track of the album. Josh Werner, the group's original bass player, also returned for the project to cover the lion's share of the low-end duties. The Revelations' history of providing hip-hop instrumentals for Wu-Tang, Cormega, M.O.P. and many more is REFINED and distilled here. And The Revelations' current singer, Rell, who is also featured on the album, brings the story up-to- DATE , conveying a tale of evolution, not just of the Ghostface Killah, but the band itself.

 

[IronFist]

Gintas Janusonis of the Revelations added:

The initial concept for this album musically was for the Revelations, as a band and production team, to write, track, and arrange all of the musical parts and elements that would become the songs/tracks of 36 Seasons. There were reference tempos and rhythmic feels, and the framework of the storyline to work within, with each track (or scene) needing its own atmosphere, mood, and feeling. The challenge production-wise was to create an undeniably banging hip hop album that stayed true to the sound and feel of sample based, drum machine created classic hip hop, without the listener ever being aware of or distracted by the fact that all of this music was created by real musicians, playing real instruments. Musically, the challenge would be to authentically play and create the vast variety of styles of music and feels required for all of the different parts of the album. This is where the talent, musical depth, breadth, and experience of the Revelations as a band and a production team come into play. With everyone involved in the crew being multi-instrumentalists and vocalists, outside of their main instruments, and with a collective musical background and experience that ranges from European Classical music, the entire spectrum of Black American music, African music and music of the African diaspora, to South INDIAN Carnatic music, the Revelations were well prepared to meet those challenges.

A large component of making the record sound the way it needed to, aside from the Revelations' work as the players and producers, was the COMBINATION of the right studio, with the right analog gear, and the right engineer who understood what needed to be accomplished and who had the particular skills, ears, and enthusiasm to make it happen. These needs were met by Daniel Schlett at Strange Weather Recording. Daniel's skill and experience working with the plethora of vintage microphones, analog gear and console at his disposal and his knowledge of mixing techniques, combined with the Revelation's sonic choices and performances, were an invaluable asset to the entire process of making this album.

There was an over all desire to recreate the musical vibe and sonics of the original source material of sampled hip hop, thereby self sourcing our own "samples", and then CONSTRUCTING the final whole.

 

[IronFist]

Andrew Kelley, longtime collaborator with The Revelations (including Chamber Music, Legendary Weapons and The Man With The Iron Fist OST), gave this input on the unique process that resulted in 36 Seasons:

36 seasons is a hip hop album in every sense of the definition, but its core & foundation is a classic soul album. Gone are sampled RECORDS and in their place are the live recordings of Brooklyn soul band The Revelations, chopped & mixed like the old soul records they replaced. This process of replaying samples has been done before with varying degrees of success, but never before has the outcome been this great.

At first we needed Ghost to record his parts of the album before he went on tour. At that time we didn't have any music ready for him to record to. Given the 10 song script, I PICKED various instrumentals that I felt matched the feel & energy of each song that he needed to write to & sent them to Ghost. When we got the pieces back I was preparing to get married & go on my honeymoon for 3 weeks in Bali. I attended the first round table discussion with all the guys & was excited for the process to begin but at the same time disappointed that I'd miss the opportunity to work on the album. I left the meeting saying "email me things as you make them & I'll try to listen & give input when I can", not thinking much about it. True to their word the music started flooding my inbox while I was on my honeymoon.

Initially I was blown away by what the guys had come up with. They had taken these very rough tracks that ghost had recorded to and took them to an even bigger and better soundscape. With Daniel Shlett at the helm, engineering the recording sessions & mixing them like dusty old records, they expanded on the initial ideas tenfold. Only in the case of "Love Don't Live Here No More" did they follow the beat I provided ghost with. It is a beat produced by Malik Abdul-Rahmaan, that is essentially a looped up doo wop record. With Malik & The Revelations working together, the result is a powerful, lush production that is a soulful throwback to ghosts "Camay" or "All That I Got Is You". Their JOB really wasn't to follow the roughs that ghost recorded to, but in this case they had to because the initial foundation Malik provided worked perfectly.

As my honeymoon went on & the music started coming together is when my real work began. Much like my role in Ghostface killah's & Adrian Young's "12 Reasons To Die", my JOB was to build upon what ghost & the guys had started making. I wrote these really in depth emails with notes on all the tracks, as well as descriptions of what the skits & interludes should sound like. I also wrote what the subject matter of the verses should be from the co-stars of the album: AZ, Kool G Rap, Nems & Pharoahe Monch. I wrote these emails, hit "send" & enjoyed my honeymoon.

3 weeks later I got back to Brooklyn & was completely thrown when I saw my emails printed out & used by the guys as the blueprint for the album. We made some minor adjustments to a couple of the tracks, put together the skits & sewed the whole album together. This new combination & process between the revelations & Daniel, along with Fizzy Womack & Malik, really couldn't have made my JOB any easier. They built these soulful, rich landscapes that let me just come in & add my little sprinkles & sequences & keep it moving. The overall process was completely unorthodox & backwards but in the end the listener is getting Ghost sounding the best he has in years over a gritty soul record that sounds like samples from Rza's deepest most secret vaults