Post by LUGER on Oct 20, 2004 4:28:31 GMT -5
Rza interview from Blueyonder
As main brain behind The Wu-Tang Clan, rap's most influential and original super-group, he has developed as many colourful pseudonyms as he has talents; The Abbott, Prince Rakeem, The Rzarector, Bobby Steels (Robert Diggs to his mother); a producer of huge respect, a skilled and witty lyricist, a diverse and compelling film-scorer and of late, a credible player in Jim Jarmusch's star-studded art-flick Coffee & Cigarettes. He is The RZA.
Taking time out from his busy schedule The RZA kicked back with blueyonder and waxed lyrical on life, the music and everything.
You scored music for both Kill Bills how did you initially hook up with Tarantino?
Well Kill Bill was kinda funny. Quentin's company was promoting a movie called 'Iron Monkey', and I am a geek-fan for Donnie Yen, the star, who was at the press junket! I know all his movies, as well as all of Quentin's movies. We all started talking Kung Fu movies - Donnie had done so many, he didn't know all he'd been in! But me and Quentin knew them aaalll! So we were naming movies back and forth, and Quentin and I became, shall I say, 'Kung Fu brothers'!
You've just finished scoring Blade Trinity 3 - what's the music's flavour?
The main thing about Blade 3 I'm excited about is, I got to lay out string orchestrations. We recorded the orchestra in Seattle, and when they played my orchestrations over the soulful bits it took me to another level! The studio execs said 'RZA, look we're not taking anything away from those guys, but you've recorded a bigger orchestra string section than Barry White and Isaac Hayes ever did, and you've just started!' And I said 'whoa, wait a minute, they are my icons, my idols!' If you read my early articles I'm always saying my dream is to have my music played by an orchestra!
So you're inspired by classical music?
I have a super-passion for classical music: Bach, Mozart, Scott Joplin, Tchaikovsky, those are the fathers. In fact Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf is what I studied before I did Ghost Dog -- I listened over and over to decipher what he was doing, and I tried to apply that to my own technique. Chopin? I love him. A lot of his music was just 3-fingers and I've learnt to copy it. Quincy Jones - who a few conversations with is enough to gain years of knowledge - suggested I go backwards to jazz and classical to pick up knowledge.
Is there a link between Martial Arts and the theory of music and motion?
There's a definite link at one point, and then there's a disconnecting point. The link with martial arts and music is that everything starts with emptiness, and that emptiness wants to be filled. Wants to be completed. Martial Arts' emptiness is called Wu Chi. From Wu Chi you get Tai Chi, and Tai Chi is the two extremities of all things (Yin and Yang). In other words, the motion-extremity of positive, and the motion-extremity of negative. Now, if you look at a musical octave, it's the same thing. It starts from emptiness, (silence), and goes from that extreme to another, and repeats itself over, and over, through endless variations. Martial Arts and dancing like ballet have a lot of similarities. I like to call my art 'lyrical martial arts'.
You were the first Rapper to perform in a Shaolin Temple - tell us about that?
I went there with my Sifu (teacher), a 34th generation Shaolin monk named Shi Yan Ming. He defected from China and founded The USA Shaolin Temple. I met him in '95 and we became immediate friends. He took 50 students back to China, and it was a privilege to show them what I'm now regenerating back towards them. It was a super-honour.
Can you drop us anything about Wu-Tang's reunion?
We have a DVD out in a few weeks called The Disciple of the 36 chambers, which is Wu Tang live on stage, including ODB. That hasn't happened for many years. Wu-Tang never disbanded officially though, everybody was just so engulfed in their secondary markets.
What's next up - will we see Bobby Digital again?
At first I declined to do another Bobby Digital, but after last year's memories popped in my head I'm planning on releasing one last album called 'Digi-snax'...I've recorded about 7 songs so far. So if I get the inspiration to complete it - then I'll release it. But I feel comfortable in this new career, and I've grown more knowledgeable. Bobby Digital was an expression of me without knowledge, trying to gain knowledge, for me to regress back feels contradictory. I know it's music, it's entertainment, I could probably get away with it, but I've got to get that vibe to really do that again. And I have some hip-hop, some underground acts I'm producing, as well as me and Method Man talking about going into the studio for his new album, and taking it back to the original sound that he had.
-Elsa O'Toole.
As main brain behind The Wu-Tang Clan, rap's most influential and original super-group, he has developed as many colourful pseudonyms as he has talents; The Abbott, Prince Rakeem, The Rzarector, Bobby Steels (Robert Diggs to his mother); a producer of huge respect, a skilled and witty lyricist, a diverse and compelling film-scorer and of late, a credible player in Jim Jarmusch's star-studded art-flick Coffee & Cigarettes. He is The RZA.
Taking time out from his busy schedule The RZA kicked back with blueyonder and waxed lyrical on life, the music and everything.
You scored music for both Kill Bills how did you initially hook up with Tarantino?
Well Kill Bill was kinda funny. Quentin's company was promoting a movie called 'Iron Monkey', and I am a geek-fan for Donnie Yen, the star, who was at the press junket! I know all his movies, as well as all of Quentin's movies. We all started talking Kung Fu movies - Donnie had done so many, he didn't know all he'd been in! But me and Quentin knew them aaalll! So we were naming movies back and forth, and Quentin and I became, shall I say, 'Kung Fu brothers'!
You've just finished scoring Blade Trinity 3 - what's the music's flavour?
The main thing about Blade 3 I'm excited about is, I got to lay out string orchestrations. We recorded the orchestra in Seattle, and when they played my orchestrations over the soulful bits it took me to another level! The studio execs said 'RZA, look we're not taking anything away from those guys, but you've recorded a bigger orchestra string section than Barry White and Isaac Hayes ever did, and you've just started!' And I said 'whoa, wait a minute, they are my icons, my idols!' If you read my early articles I'm always saying my dream is to have my music played by an orchestra!
So you're inspired by classical music?
I have a super-passion for classical music: Bach, Mozart, Scott Joplin, Tchaikovsky, those are the fathers. In fact Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf is what I studied before I did Ghost Dog -- I listened over and over to decipher what he was doing, and I tried to apply that to my own technique. Chopin? I love him. A lot of his music was just 3-fingers and I've learnt to copy it. Quincy Jones - who a few conversations with is enough to gain years of knowledge - suggested I go backwards to jazz and classical to pick up knowledge.
Is there a link between Martial Arts and the theory of music and motion?
There's a definite link at one point, and then there's a disconnecting point. The link with martial arts and music is that everything starts with emptiness, and that emptiness wants to be filled. Wants to be completed. Martial Arts' emptiness is called Wu Chi. From Wu Chi you get Tai Chi, and Tai Chi is the two extremities of all things (Yin and Yang). In other words, the motion-extremity of positive, and the motion-extremity of negative. Now, if you look at a musical octave, it's the same thing. It starts from emptiness, (silence), and goes from that extreme to another, and repeats itself over, and over, through endless variations. Martial Arts and dancing like ballet have a lot of similarities. I like to call my art 'lyrical martial arts'.
You were the first Rapper to perform in a Shaolin Temple - tell us about that?
I went there with my Sifu (teacher), a 34th generation Shaolin monk named Shi Yan Ming. He defected from China and founded The USA Shaolin Temple. I met him in '95 and we became immediate friends. He took 50 students back to China, and it was a privilege to show them what I'm now regenerating back towards them. It was a super-honour.
Can you drop us anything about Wu-Tang's reunion?
We have a DVD out in a few weeks called The Disciple of the 36 chambers, which is Wu Tang live on stage, including ODB. That hasn't happened for many years. Wu-Tang never disbanded officially though, everybody was just so engulfed in their secondary markets.
What's next up - will we see Bobby Digital again?
At first I declined to do another Bobby Digital, but after last year's memories popped in my head I'm planning on releasing one last album called 'Digi-snax'...I've recorded about 7 songs so far. So if I get the inspiration to complete it - then I'll release it. But I feel comfortable in this new career, and I've grown more knowledgeable. Bobby Digital was an expression of me without knowledge, trying to gain knowledge, for me to regress back feels contradictory. I know it's music, it's entertainment, I could probably get away with it, but I've got to get that vibe to really do that again. And I have some hip-hop, some underground acts I'm producing, as well as me and Method Man talking about going into the studio for his new album, and taking it back to the original sound that he had.
-Elsa O'Toole.