Derrick Pryce is the man behind Kebomusic, one of the most intriguing producer led projects on the indie soul scene. We raved about his excellent The Soul Prototype last year, featuring the EP as one of the first posts on SoulCuts. A year on from its release, SoulCuts caught up with Derrick for a chat about what he’s been up to, his thoughts on the challenges facing independent artists and what we can expect from Kebomusic in the coming months. Derrick started the interview detailing the inspiration for the name and the concept behind the music.
Derrick: Kebomusic actually came to me a few years back at like 3 in the morning. It started out as just a production company. I just wanted to collaborate with artists and put music out there. I didn’t have a name at that point and it just came to me. A lot of people have asked me if it means anything, but it doesn’t (laughs), I just liked the name, the way it flowed. It kinda rolls off the tongue pretty easily. I actually googled Kebo and didn’t find any definitive meanings. And as for the music, it just started as my music production company and I started off shopping tracks to local artists. I had four tracks on an artist called Ian’s project, then did some stuff with Derwin Daniels, who’s playing sax on Cadillac Dreams from The Soul Prototype. So I was going around, trying to shop tracks to different people and it was somewhat successful, but I wasn’t really getting the traction that I wanted, so I thought, you know what, let me try to put out my own music under Kebomusic. So I started to establish a brand for the music I make which is just positive, soulful, funky music, for lack of a better term, and I incorporated all the music I love into it, namely jazz, hip-hop, R&B, neo-soul. I try to incorporate a lot of emotion in the music.
SoulCuts: Who are some of the other artists that might sit nicely alongside Kebomusic in a fan’s music collection?
Derrick: You always try not to pigeonhole yourself, but if you’re playing The Foreign Exchange, Dwele, Erykah Badu, I’m sure my upcoming CD will fit right in there!
SoulCuts: Would you consider yourself a producer or musician first?
Derrick: I don’t think the two are mutually exclusive. I started off as a musician and was classically trained in piano. I didn’t get into production until my twenties. But I still love to play live, it’s a lot of fun.
SoulCuts: What have you been doing since the release of the Soul Prototype?
Derrick: I’ve been working on the new album. I never really planned to released The Soul Prototype as a teaser for the album, but I had a number of songs finished and thought let’s just put them out there as a digital EP and the response has outstanding, with a nice little buzz. The original plan was always to release a full-blown, actual physical CD.
SoulCuts: How important is it to have an actual physical CD?
Derrick: It’s very important. I’ve noticed some roadblocks without a physical CD, by only releasing the Soul Protoype as a digital release. Some radio stations will only deal with a physical CD and sometimes, if you’re talking to somebody, a lot of times there’s that impulse buy, or if you’re at a show, people are more likely to buy the CD there and then, rather than going home and downloading the music. And Pandora, in order to get on that, your album has to be selling as a physical CD, at least it was the last time I checked. You need both digital downloads and the physical CDs.
SoulCuts: When are we going to hear the album?
Derrick: (Laughs) You know, when you’re an independent artist, doing things on your own, it’s really hard to actually commit to dates (laughs), but I am shooting for first quarter 2012.
SoulCuts: Is that the most challenging part of being an independent artist, holding down another job, trying to actually finish a project?
Derrick: The most challenging parts for me have been financing and marketing. So, for the first part, I’m funding this whole project myself, so without being a millionaire or having a huge major label, there’s a lot of cost, like studio time, mixing, mastering, paying writers and artists, pressing up your CD. So when you’re finished, the challenge is how to get your music heard. I mean, there’s a lot of tools out there, like Facebook, Twitter, your website… You’re always trying to reach markets, but it’s a struggle doing that within a budget.
SoulCuts: There’s a lot of noise online, the tools help you reach people, but it sometimes feels like the market’s flooded. Maybe it’s even more challenging presenting a producer led project rather than having a specific marketable face?
Derrick: That does give it a different spin. I mean, I don’t sing. If I was to sing on the project I don’t think anyone would buy it (laughs). There’s not really a face to the album, per se, as a producer album, it does have its challenges, but on the flipside, I let the music just speak for itself.
SoulCuts: Will the album follow the same mood of the Soul Prototype?
Derrick: I’m going to take a couple of tracks from the EP and I’m writing a lot of new material. There might be a couple of ‘different’ tracks, but it’s pretty much in the same vein: smooth vibes, funky beats.
SoulCuts: Who can we expect to hear on the album?
Derrick: We have LeNora Jaye, Kenny Wesley, Jeff Hendrick, LaSonya Gunther, Dawn McClain, Steve Wallace and Dion. Hopefully I didn’t forget anybody.
SoulCuts: How did you hook up with these people?
Derrick: A lot of it is by chance and by me just asking artists if they’d like to collaborate. The artists on the Soul Prototype came from meeting the artists at the Indie Soul Mixer in New York. I went a couple of years back and met LaSonya Gunther and Steve Wallace. I met Kenny via MySpace when he posted a comment on my page, back when MySpace was big, and he said, ‘Hey I like your music’ and I checked him out and thought, yeah, he’s pretty good, and then I asked him if he would like to be on my album. Dion and LeNora were on this compilation that I was on, 111 East Nu Soul – After Dark Vol. 1. I then met LeNora and reached out to Dion and asked if they’d like to be a part of the album.
SoulCuts: What’s the process you take working with different artists?
Derrick: I will write the track and come up with all the music and send them an mp3 saying, what do you think and they’ll add lyrics and melody and we just put it all together.
SoulCuts: So who’s the ideal guest list for Kebomusic?
Derrick: I have a wide-range of tastes, so this is a tough question. I’m a great fan of Questlove, people like Dwele. As far as female singers, Mary J Blige. I loved her back in college. Those are a few that come to mind.
SoulCuts: And what have you been listening to recently?
Derrick: I’ve been really inspired by stuff coming out of the UK and Europe, 4Hero, Silhouette Brown, Zero7…and then I’ll have some old school hip-hop in the car: Nas, The Roots, and I have this track by The Globetroddas, Love, you know that, right. Growing up in high school, I listened to a lot of hip-hop (A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, Jungle Brothers, the whole Native Tongues movement ). I think hip-hop has influenced my drum patterns, trying to get that hip-hop sound. I’m also very influenced by gospel. Playing in church definitely influenced and inspired my playing.
SoulCuts: What are your thoughts on artists giving away their music for free?
Derrick: It’s an excellent marketing play. You know, there’s nothing better than free. It drives people to your website and your brand.
SoulCuts: Does the consumer then expect to get their music for free?
Derrick: The industry has contracted, there’s not the same money in albums, maybe it’s now just about making money at the show. As an artist in 2011, you need to do more than just release CDs, like shows, merchandising, licensing your music, placements on television etc. Will it devalue the music? Hopefully not on a whole. I think there will still be fans who want to buy CDs and download music.
SoulCuts: It’s undoubtedly tough to make soul music and money at the same time….
Derrick: I can’t see myself not creating music in some form or fashion, regardless of whether I just make a cent or a million dollars. I will definitely always keep doing music, because I just love it.
Kebomusic remix of Jazzanova’s I Can See featuring Ben Westbeech
SoulCuts: And the remix for Jazzanova that you did some time back is going to be on a new Jazzanova album. Congratulations!
Derrick: Thanks. Yeah, they contacted me to let me know that they’re releasing a remix album. They had a remix competition a couple of years back that I entered, but didn’t win. So, for them to then call me up a couple of weeks ago and say they wanted the track on their album, I was excited. I’ve been a fan since In Between.
And with the stamp of approval from tastemakers such as Jazzanova, there’s little doubt that Derrick Pryce’s Kebomusic is destined for big things. Watch this space!
To find out more about Kebomusic and pick up The Soul Prototype EP, head on over to kebomusic.com!
