Amongst all the noise of 2008 there was one album that really laid down a challenge – Starkey’s ‘Ephemeral Exhibits’ on Planet Mu. Taking elements of grime, dubstep, house, bassline and blending them with the flavours of hip hop from his home in Philadelphia the record emerges with its own brand of bass-heavy sounds. It’s something that Starkey’s classically trained creater, PJ Geissinger, likes to call ‘Street Bass’.
After four years of dropping massive remixes and 12″s on us all, “Ephemeral Exhibits” has brought Starkey a much larger profile. His mixes range from floating synth lines to crushing bass weight, supported by some great vocal interludes. And, as the co-owner of Slit Jockey Records and a founding member of the Seclusiasis and Trouble and Bass crews, Starkey is at the centre of the American wave of bass heavy producers.
Starkey’s affinity for bass culture and the UK Grime/Dubstep sound has seen him embraced by those scenes around the the world. On the line from Philadelphia, he explains the core of his music: “Street Bass for us (me and the Seclusiasis crew) is kind of the anti-genre. If you listen to our Street Bass Anthems mix CDs you’ll hear all of those genres you mentioned represented. However, there’s something in there that holds it together. It could be the vocals, or something in the production that makes the tunes work on listen from beginning to end, but that’s what I think is unique and interesting about what we are doing.”
Before producing as Starkey, PJ was making mostly breakbeat, triphop, electronica, downtempo-ish stuff under the name Aunt Jessica, with an MC and female vocalist. “Halfcast, the MC on some of my dates in Australia, is in Aunt Jessica. We’re actually working on some new material, which is sounding really nice. That’s the music that kind of got me into producing electronic music in general. The early Tricky stuff, Portishead, Alpha, then onto Aphex Twin and Boards of Canada.”
But it was whilst he was studying in London during 2001 that Starkey was turned on to the UK Garage/Grime sound. Upon his return to Philadelphia he met Dev79 who was also heavily into Grime and the emerging dubstep sound. Together they started the first party in Philadelphia to play Grime, mashing it together with other bass/street genres. They have since gone on to throw some hot parties around their hometown, release some crushingly good tunes, and feed us with some more great radio every month (check it out at seclusiasis.com).
But wait.. didn’t I mention that Starkey was classically trained?! “Yeah I’ve been playing piano since I was very young,” he reminisces, “We had a piano in our house. In grade school I picked up woodwinds, then in my later years bass. But I’ve always said that I have some sort of music A.D.D. – that’s why I never went into performing as a career!”
“I wasn’t really into playing other people’s music. I always wanted to write my own things and experiment. So I studied production in college and that’s where the electronic music really took off. It was my way of practicing what I was learning in class in my room. Before that, I was in all sorts of bands… from jazz to punk and hardcore.”
Still – alongside knowledge comes dreams of being able to break out of the box. “I wish I could wake up one morning and not know anything about formal music theory,” he laughs. “It would be interesting to hear what the music I made that day would sound like. But to be honest, I don’t think about it that much when I’m writing… but I know it sneaks in there. I play all the synths on my stuff, so my hands gravitate to certain positions on the keyboard that feel most comfortable. Anyone who plays piano knows what I’m talking about; there’s certain scales and chords that just feel right.”
After a few years of singles and remixes, Planet Mu asked Starkey to produce a record and ‘Ephemeral Exhibits’ was born. “It’s been great to hear such a nice response for the album,” he says. “It’s interesting the diversity of the people at my shows as well. I think there’s a little something for everyone on the album, it doesn’t quite fit into any one genre. Yeah you can hear moments that are more dubstep or more grime or more house or hip hop – but overall, it’s more about a melding of genres.”
This melding of genres really shines through on Starkey’s numerous remixes. It gives him a different platform to start from and sound palette to explore. “Yeah definitely,” he agrees, “I’ve done everything from booty-esque remixes to more dub-influenced. I think with remixes I can go on more extremes. Although lately I’ve found that the remix work I’m doing is shaping the original productions much more. And the MOVES!!! and Starkey stuff is coming closer together at times.”
“Originally I started producing some tunes as MOVES!!! because I didn’t really want the Starkey stuff to be straight dancefloor 4×4 with simple arrangements and structure. But the two worlds are colliding. I’m having an identity crisis,” he says laughing.
http://www.starkey-music.com
http://www.myspace.com/starkey
Starkey plays..
Fri Mar 6th – Phoenix Bar, Sydney
Sat Mar 7th – Stepp Inn, Brisbane
Wed Mar 11th – Double Happy, Auckland
Thu Mar 12th – Ambar, Perth
Fri Mar 13th – Higher Ground, Adelaide
Sat Mar 14th – Laundry Bar, Melbourne
Check out Starkey on Generation Bass…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Dd8NgurHBM
And his mix for Symbiosis on Overlap.org:
http://overlap.org/tag/symbiosis/
http://overlap.org/2008/01/symbiosis-episode-2-part-2/
