Old To The New - Ryan Proctor’s Beats, Rhymes & Hip-Hop Nostalgia

Born and raised in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, emcee / producer Asaviour has spent the last decade on a constant grind to reach the upper echelons of the UK rap game. Debuting back in 1999 on fellow Northerner Jehst’s first release “Premonitions”, the wily wordsmith has amassed an impressive discography, collaborating with a long list of Brit-Hop figures such as Ghost, Braintax, Tommy Evans and Kyza.

2006 saw Asaviour’s hard work pay off with Low Life Records releasing his full-length project “The Borrowed Ladder”, an album that fully captured Savvy’s artistic potential, combining his unapologetic Northern delivery with off-the-wall humour, worldly subject matter and true-school beats.

Having recently released the “Play 2 Win Vol. 2″ mix-CD, Asaviour is now ready to embark on the next stage of his musical journey. With the long-awaited “A-Loop Theory” album with UK production heavyweight DJ IQ dropping soon, and his own “Next Skool Klassics” project in the pipeline, 2008 looks set to be a busy year for the multi-talented individual.

Old To The New caught up with Asaviour recently to get a sneak preview of what to expect from his next wave of material.

What made you decide to drop another mix CD before putting out your second ‘proper’ album?

I guess it was because of the development I’ve made since my last album. I wanted to put some material out there that people might not have heard from the past, plus stuff I’ve been doing with other artists, and I also wanted to prepare people for the onslaught DJ IQ and I have been working on, which is our album “The A-Loop Theory”.

So how do you feel you’ve developed as an artist since “The Borrowed Ladder”?

I’ve moved on in leaps and bounds. Don’t get me wrong, “The Borrowed Ladder” represents my development into a proper solo artist and I’m proud of that album, but I also learnt so much while making it, both as a writer and a producer. My vision is a lot less polarized nowadays. I’m trying to draw on as many influences as I can and I’ve learnt to be myself more in my music by working with sounds and tempos I’m into rather than what I think the scene will be into. I’m going against the grain a little bit more now and feel comfortable taking risks.

DJ IQ ft. Asaviour - “Kaleidoscopes & Tightropes” (Mancan Music / 2006)

What can people expect from the “A-Loop Theory” album you’ve recorded with DJ IQ and when are you planning to put it out?

Well at first “A - Loop” was me just getting a little bored and experimenting by wanting to make tracks bigger than just drums and an eight bar loop. It was me developing my playing and sampling techniques, learning about chords and progressions, stuff like that.

IQ and myself often work together gigging and at the time we were touring with Jehst. We’d all play each other beats on the way to shows, we were both into each other’s sound, and we’d talk about how to improve each other’s beats. After a while we were like ‘Let’s combine some of this sh*t as these beats really complement each other.’ Then we started to make a few tracks and the whole concept started to come together. The lyrics and guests on the album kinda fell into place due to the tracks having such a strong identity.

I guess what you can expect from the album is change and a fresh twist on sh*t, so to speak. The album’s roots are in Hip-Hop but you can expect us to slide into genres like rock, electro, jazz, grime, soul, blues etc. We’ve brought in some really talented musicians to play on the album, so you’ll hear violins, violas, trumpets, electric guitars, keys and vocalists. I’ve tried to inject a variety of emotions into the album in terms of my lyrics and I’m always gonna try to find new angles to approach subjects from. We’ve just tried to make good music really.

We’re looking to have it out by summer and we’re at the contract stage now. We’ve got interest from a few labels and one of them is a new kid on the block in terms of UK labels but it’s an exciting possibility. We’re really just trying to get the best deal possible. So if there’s any labels with money interested then gimme a shout! Let’s do lunch (laughs).

Talk about the “Next Skool Klassiks” project you’ve also been working on . Who’ll be featured on there and is it just yourself handling production?

Well the title is just me being a little cocky I suppose. It’s basically just a statement of intent. The album is me looking towards the future of music from the UK and just trying to develop and push my sound forward.

I’m just making my mark in my own way. To be honest I don’t really wanna give away too much on this one as it’s all about “Play To Win 2″ and “The A -Loop Theory” right now, but you can expect a mixed bag of tricks with some names you might expect and some you most definitely won’t. My approach to “Next Skool Klassiks” has been more from a music producer’s point of view rather than just a Hip Hop standpoint.

Even though you’re known primarily as an emcee do you feel it’s important for you to establish yourself as a producer as well?

Yeah I’m mainly known as an emcee but I reckon I only started rhyming about six or seven months before I started making beats. The thing is, writing rhymes costs f**k all, you just need a pen, pad and some brain cells. To make beats, however, you need equipment. I got a little break a while back when I was in college and a teacher let me f**k about in the studio when no-one was around. I learnt how to use a sampler and that was the beginning of me making beats. I wasn’t a music student though so it wasn’t easy to get studio time.

Eventually I got together the money to buy a second-hand Akai S1 and an Atari. I got a copy of Cubase from Jehst, which allowed me to make beats at my yard. Through the years I learnt about digging and different tricks in sampling. I bought and sold equipment to improve what I was working with. I had some sh*t stolen and had to buy new sh*t, plus I studied music technology at university and also learnt a bit about musical theory, which all helped get me to the point I’m at now.

Production’s just something I’ve been doing pretty much as long as I’ve been rhyming, but it’s a side of me people haven’t heard that much of yet. Hopefully peeps will feel what I’m cooking up.

If you could only take three UK Hip-Hop albums to a desert island what would they be and why?

Ah man! Can’t I just take like an 800 gig Ipod or some sh*t? These questions are impossible and please bear in mind my choice may change in the next thirty seconds (laughs). But it’d be Task Force’s “New Mic Order”, London Posse’s “Gangster Chronicle” and Asaviour & DJ IQ’s “The A-Loop Theory”.

Ryan Proctor