first contact
Chakra Kahn by Charlie Griffi n
Alexandra Love Sarton and DiViNCi have long , overlapping musical histories here in Orlando . They both co-founded the hip-hop quartet Solillaquists of Sound , and more recently formed a duo working under the band name Chakra Khan . They appeared on my WPRK radio show , Zero Crossings , on February 6th , to discuss their upcoming album release , The Cope Aesthetic . What follows is an excerpt from a two-hour conversation .
Charlie Griffin : DiViNCi , you ’ re a producer and an MPC-ist . Some people may need an explanation of what that means . DiViNCi : Basically , I play drum machines live . An MPC is a MIDI Production Center [ MIDI stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface — the code protocol used to translate musical information from electronic instruments to computers ]. I ’ ve been called a fi nger drummer or a controllerist . It ’ s got a lot of names because it ’ s a newer art .
It ’ s a series of pads into which you can load audio samples of any kind , with the additional capacity to run those samples through filters and reverbs , or otherwise process the samples in real time with all sorts of effects on them . And you can layer them , loop them , and create entire songs this way . Right , right . I can assign any sound I want to any pad . I can add in drum machines and guitar effects pedals too . It ’ s like a science experiment on stage . The same thing that I use to create all the music in the studio is the same thing that I bring on stage .
You ’ re self-taught . When it comes to music , there are only so many formal learning pathways , and they ’ re very traditional . There are only so many mechanisms available to a curious , creative mind interested in new technologies . The existing mold doesn ’ t fit everybody . I ’ m really fascinated by the trajectory that you wind up taking , where you have the passion , you have
55 the desire , and you have a developing skill set , but there ’ s nobody there to guide your thinking . Which is a benefi t , I think , because there are new molds to be made . I ’ m giving a talk at Full Sail University this month , for their Hall of Fame Week , about all the different careers that exist now because of all these different molds . I attribute my secure place in the industry to my unconventional musical upbringing .
In the beginning it can look like a completely foreign , scary territory , and at some point you turn around to look back and discover that you ’ ve carved something out for yourself . Luckily , I started when I was a kid . My ignorance was also a part of my musical upbringing . Because I was driven just purely by passion , with no working knowledge , it brought me to a place where I found my own voice . I grew up in a small town called Womelsdorf , in rural Pennsylvania . My mother was a caterer and a waitress . My father was in the National Guard and Army Reserves . Martial arts was the fi rst thing I got passionate about , and it colors how I look at everything else I know . I pull a lot of things from my martial arts training into my music . I studied a few different martial arts . A lot of Okinawan Kempo . My father is Filipino , and the thing that stuck with me the most was Filipino martial arts , like stuff you ’ d see in The Bourne Identity . The Holy Grail of martial arts , as taught to me by my father , is the experience of being in flow . When you get a technique down well , you practice it so long it becomes refl exive . You don ’ t have to think about it . The greatest part of music to me is performing . And that ’ s where I found the greatest example of the fl ow in my art , where I don ’ t think , and things just happen spontaneously . I ’ m taken care of by something greater . I let the music come through me rather than try to control it .
Is it safe to say that there ’ s a certain physicality to how you approach the MPC , then ? ( Do ) you build up a muscle memory around patterns ? Right , right , right . It ’ s defi nitely all about physicality because the thing
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