Cut Chemist talks the art of digging and the spiritual sound of first pressings
As Cut Chemist, internationally renowned DJ Lucas McFadden has traveled the world, been a member of both hip-hop act Jurassic 5 and Latin rock band Ozomatli, and has inspired a whole generation of kids to take to the ones and twos to create music. H
is current tour is based around the 50th anniversary of hip-hop, and sees him playing the roots and influences of the genre’s genesis.
Due to a recording failure, we spoke with McFadden twice within a week’s span. This is the second of those interviews, and we had a blast talking about record digging and his relationship with Kansas City/Lawrence ahead of his set at The Ship [1221 Union Ave] on Saturday, April 29.
The Pitch: When was the last time you were in Kansas City?
Lucas McFadden: I’m trying to think. It might have been with Jurassic 5 in 2014-ish, maybe.
What memories do you have of performing in the Kansas City or Lawrence area?
Lawrence was a major stop for J5 in, I guess, the late ’90s/early 2000s. In Kansas City, not so much, but Lawrence was always on the route. One thing I always remember about Lawrence is going to this record store called Love Garden. A great store, great selection, and those cats, and the creaky wood floors and stuff. It was an experience. I loved it.
As a DJ, I assume you’re always on the lookout for, if not new copies of things, then more copies of things. Do you program in time to hit record stores while you’re on tour?
Yeah, definitely. I always try to preemptively map out my schedule in each city just so I can get some time and it’s difficult ’cause there isn’t a lot of time. You get there pretty much right before sound check and after sound check you have a little bit of downtime and usually the store is closed by then, and then you do the show, and then you leave the next morning.
It’s seldom that you get any time, but if there’s a day off or a travel day and you get into the city the night before–which is seldom, but it happens–then you start doing your research: “Okay, where can I go? How far away is it? How many places can I hit? Are they open tomorrow?”
When you’re digging, are you going exclusively to record stores or are you hitting weird places like pawn shops and antique stores, as well?
It depends. Sometimes it’ll be private people selling; sometimes record stores. It’s been a while since I’ve done thrifting on the road or pawn shops or anything like that. I wouldn’t say that I hit those. But I would, if I was tipped off. If somebody was like, “Hey, this antique shop is where I go to buy records and it’s great,” then yeah, I would definitely hit it.
When we talked before, one of the things you mentioned is that you like to play original pressings. You’re carrying around not cheap records. How do you ensure these stay safe so you can continue to use them in your DJ sets?
You know, handcuff it to my wrist. [laughs] I just find that the energy is different when I play originals versus reissues or bootlegs. That’s just me. I don’t expect other people to do it. I know other DJs do great sets on bootlegs and reissues, but I don’t know–there’s something about the energy and the history of it being an artifact of the time that gives me a certain energy that I think people can recognize just from my excitement of playing them. It translates to the audience differently.
To that end, regarding the 50th anniversary of hip hop projects you’re doing now, are there any essential cuts that you haven’t been able to find that have turned into white whales for you?
In the context of hip hop on 45? I think I’m pretty good. I’ve scooped up the last couple of things I didn’t have for this set. Things like “The Mexican”–Babe Ruth, you gotta get the Brazilian one ’cause it’s the only one that has the full version of the song and that’s a hip hop break classic favorite of mine, so I had to play that. So I got that.
I got the “Apache,” it’s just got an album version–the Italian one. Can’t get the American one. There’s little tricks like that that are where I’m like, “I found it. Oh no, that’s the US one. It’s a totally different version. It’s not the right one.” I’ve got burned on that so many times. But yeah, I think as far as my hip hop classic break set on 45 is pretty solid.
Are you a person who prefers to dig or do you Discog it? So many people’s buying habits have changed over the last three years.
I’m what’s known as a lazy digger these days. My fingers do the tapping on the keyboards more than they skip across records in the crates but I’ve put in a lot of time over the last 30–oh man, almost 40–years, so I feel okay about that and it’s tough because when you go to stores their inventory’s online anyway, and a lot of the times they’ll be like, “Just go online and you could see what’s in my basement. It’s all cataloged.”
Or they’ll have Discogs prices in the store and I’m like, “What’s the point of that?” I still try to make it out because it’s kind of my way of seeing and experiencing the city. Meeting with people and the music they’ve acquired in that area is a great way to get to know the city’s culture. Music and food really is a gateway to getting to know any area. I try to experience that as much as I can.
I’m a sucker for walking into any record store in a new town and just being like, “What’s the album that I can’t get anywhere but here?”
Right. Yeah. And in the age of the internet, where records are just getting shipped all over, it’s harder to find that. You’d walk into a record store and they would have a local section and it would be fruitful in things of that area. But now, it’s like, “Oh no, we have this French record with breaks on it.”
Well, how did you get it? “Oh, I bought it on Discogs.” I mean, that’s cool, but I want a Kansas City local record that came from here and stayed here and is gonna come home with me, you know, so it happens still.
Are you a Discogs or an eBay person, or are you just doing some really hardcore Google search queries?
Well, let’s see. I got an auction ending right now. Well, let’s see how I’m doing. I’m everything, you know, I try to spread it across evenly–a little bit of eBay here, a little bit of Discogs–and then I’m lucky enough to know friends that take me to people that have records, their contacts like store owners, friends who have record stores and they’re like, “Hey, I got the tip. You want to come with?” which is always great. And then yeah, just the community.
The community of record digging is a great way to get more records ’cause everybody’s out there trying to get records and the list of contacts that they have, they can share with you, and vice versa. I think today people are less stressed about sharing their record contacts because you know, when you see a seller or when you meet a seller, obviously they’re gonna wanna bring you back, if you give them a bigger sale, and the more people you bring with you, the bigger the sale is, and the more likely it is that you’ll come back. That’s been great for especially for the last year or two, up and down the coast.
Have you ever bought a record and then gone and dropped that into your set?
Yeah, I did. I did that a few times, actually. I love that it’s like instant ratification: “I just found this today. Boom.” People love that. They’re like, “Oh shit, you found that in my city?!” I’ve done that so many times and it feels so good. I’m glad you asked that. I don’t think anybody’s ever asked that.
That is the best advertisement for a record store you could possibly hope for as a business owner. It’s just like, “I heard you guys had this. What other stuff you got?”
In Italy, I bought this record called “The Feed-Back.” It’s a really great Ennio Morricon-related record from ’70 and it’s just outrageous. You wouldn’t even believe it when you dropped the needle. But, yeah, I played it like when I got it in Milan. We took the train out from Rome to Milan to go record digging at this guy’s spot and I got that. We went back to Rome and I played it in the club and it was it was great.
Cut Chemist plays The Ship this Saturday, April 29, as part of Platinum Disco. Details on that show here.
