By Justene Taua. Since Red Bull Studio Auckland shifted across town from its original location on Hargreaves St in Freemans Bay to its new home in Red Bull HQ in Grey Lynn, the space has been a hive of activity, with in-house engineer Ben Lawson working solidly with artists from David Dallas to A$AP Ferg; The Wyld to Third3ye; @Peace to John Newman. And unlike any other studio in Auckland City, this is a world-class facility that can’t be hired – if you get the invite to work here, good music gets made and no money changes hands. Simple as that.
The latest invitees to take charge of the control room are San Francisco-born, Hawaii-based beatmaker Mr. Carmack and Wellington Red Bull Sound Select production talent Beat Mob aka Artur Aldridge, heard most recently via his Eastern Bloc partnership with Wellington club mainstay, DJ Marek. Just a day after Carmack and Aldridge first met when they played the Capital’s Boat Cafe, the two beatsmiths are residents at Red Bull Studio Auckland for a one-day Soundselect session.
“Jerry Poon, my friend who helped get this Australia/New Zealand tour together, came to me a couple of weeks back and said, ‘Do you want to do a couple of hours of work in Auckland with a local producer?’,” says Carmack, hovering over the laptop that he’s been trading ideas from. “I didn’t actually get this guy’s name until Saturday! I just dealt with it on a whim – like, if it happens, it happens. And it happens to be that we’re here.”
The plan to form this Mr. Carmack x Beat Mob alliance was cooked up between Madcap Music’s Haydn Middleton and Red Bull Culture Marketing Specialist Dan Woolston, who partnered on the Madcap-curated Sound Select back in February. That plan was only announced to Aldridge after a recent Rustie after party at his flat, a reveal that had the Wellington producer reeling. Now, just a week and a half later, he’s already seeing results from this beatmaking master class.
“I’m just grateful that I can spend some time getting to know a person whose music I care about,” says Aldridge. “Mr. Carmack’s definitely been influential to my process – what I DJ and what I associate with good dance music. Whether it’s been him giving tips about how to make my drums sound better or helping me out with a remix, this whole collaboration’s been awesome.”
“My favourite part is that we haven’t really been talking about the process – the process just unfolds,” Carmack adds. “Sometimes we play music for each other; sometimes we play music together. We’re vibing out, with none of the time pressure you’d have at other studios. That’s been the best bit of this whole day.”
*redbullsoundselect.com
*soundcloud.com/beat-mob
*facebook.com/arturaldridge
*twitter.com/djbeatmob
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