RBMA Promo.

Spoilt.

After dinner they fill this fridge top to bottom with food for people that stay late in the studios. Sandwhiches. Cakes. Meat. Cheese. Fruit. One night each shelve had sushi in them. Cotdam!


As you can see though, it gets rummaged!

12x20 Party & Zen Club.

My Day With Chuck.

So today was Chuck D. Was mad excited so i got to the academy early and decided to work on some beats.


First in the lecture room.




The lecture was incredible. It went for 3 and a half hours! He spoke on everything. Work. School. Technology. What is was like to work with Spike Lee. Working out a sitcom deal with Flavor Flav. How perth is one of his favourite places to gig! Yeah, hard to believe huh. The election in the U.S. How he misses females in hip-hop culture. How he fell in love with music. How he wanted to be a sports announcer...i could go on. It was inspiring.


Later that night Chuck sat next to me at dinner. Its amazing that these people that you look upto as pioneers are just like you and me. We talked about everyday things, he asked if Metro City in Northbrigde is still open!! Hahaha. On the shameless plug i gave him a copy of my lp!

Day was surreal.

Fabra i Coats.

Chuck & Bunn

2nd day of the academy saw two unforgetable lectures from 2 hip hop heavyweights!

Chuck D. Rebel Without a Pause. Spoke on how Michael Jackson started his journey in his music career, the US election, Spike Lee, technology and the state of todays hip-hop culture.

Bunn B. From the legendary UGK. Spoke on how artists from the dirty south are percieved as stupid, getting over the death of Pimp C and how to handle a Jay Z verse correctly.

Yesir!

Aint No Time...

The academy is over. We are all depressed. We dun wanna go home. It has been a life changing experience.

New outlooks. New perspectives. New networks. New family.

We were all wondering what the catch was. Why were they treating us so good? Surrounded my musos. In decked out studios. Flights, accomadation, transport and food all paid for. Lectures from great people. I guess Janno from Estonia sums it up pretty well here.

I mean where else could you have dinner with Chuck D one night. Jam with Dennis Coffey another night. Chill in a recording booth with Mario Caldato (Beastie Boys) the next. Jam it out on the Korg with DJ Toomp (Producer Kanye, Jay Z, T.I). Experience the heartfilled lecture from Mr Tom Oberheim. Watch Sly & Robbie tear it up at a secret gig at the Barri Gotic square. Travel to a spanish island with like minded people to have a 4 course meal. Experience an exclusive nightime audio/visual ambient electro gig from Wolfgang Voight at Park Guell. Best two weeks of my life.

The academy was so full on i had no time to blog, it does the academy no justice to sum up the time here in photo blog form...but here goes.

Harlem Jazz Club

Spinnin' at the Harlem Jazz Club in Barcelona...

Big ups to DJ Baboa for an awesome set aswell and Onra for his dope live mpc set!

Day Two

The academy is nuts! Your days here are so full! Classes start at about 11am. Just after breakfast. Lectures go all the way to about 7pm. Then we have studio time till about 11pm-12am. After that we head to our gigs till about 5 in the morning. Sleep. Then do it all over again! Its bananas!

Before we all jumped on the bus to head to the academy, Ruari from Ireland sporting this little kiaora tee! haha.
We got there and it looked amazing! Local architect Frank Dominiguez repurposed an old textile factory, Fabra i Coats, in the district of Sant Andreu for this year’s Academy headquarters. The massive space contains eight preproduction studios, a rehearsal room, two control rooms and a recording room, plus a terrace to chillax with a 150-yr old olive tree.

As soon as we sat in the cafeteria, Benji B from BBC1 came and said hi!

The cafeteria. They feed us too well!
Red Bull Music Radio.
Marek aka Eltron John wasted no time to get on the decks. Playing obscure polish disco to deep house. This guy is the most interesting person ive ever met. Hes a little odd, but got so much knowledge its NUTS! He speaks truths on everything!!!
Chairman Jeff Mao (from the renown EGOTRIP) said whats up!

These guys below are the pioneers. They started the academy back in 1998 and drink a ridiculous amount of sugar free redbull.

Waiting patiently.
This is fellow participant Natalia LaFourcade. She is amazing. Beautiful voice and talent. She has won 3 latin grammys!!! Crazy huh?! Still she aint got nothing on my year 4 basketball runners up medal. Sit on that Natalia!!!

These mini fridges are in EVERY room!

There are also various art installments around the academy..


There is not much i can say about the studios. Except. Sweet Sassy Molassy. The place is incredible! So many resources. There are like 4 of each machine in the equipment room so that no-one misses out. All these photos explain themselves really...

Out the window...



Fellow aussie participant NHJ from Melbourne...

Teebz from LA - part of the beat scene in LA, Flylo etc...
Eltron John from Poland speaking on philosophy and how the RBMA is not "real" in the conventional sense. ???
Natalia representing Mehico!
Benji B.
Pursuit Grooves from NY.
Goldie.
Sauce81 from Tokyo.
Piper Davis from Canada. Crazy bluespop artist.
Lecture room.

Onra from Paris. In my opinion. The dopest beatmaker here. His style is unbelievable!
The prolific Nino Moscshella. He is an amazing singer songwriter. Drums, bass and keys. The man.
Jammed in the studio for a bit with Brazils DJ Babau.
Academy at night. Looks amazing.

At this time im absoulutly wrecked! Time to skip the gig and catch the shuttle back to the hotel. My eyes were so red. Bah!It has been a surreall experience. So grateful and count myself blessed. The next couple of days will never leave me. Im a bit delayed with this blog and am currently on DAY 5 of the academy. More photos to come...but..can i add...last night was one of the greatest things that have ever happened to me...if i thought 5 years ago id be eating dinner with ChuckD from Public Enemy in Barcelona, Spain. Id probly pass out...and its probably time i should. Will show you Chuck D pictures soon.

Stay tuned!