interviewsofrecordingartists.com
Although they've been labeled as "too soft" by some of their hard-core, hip-hop peers, the duo P.M. Dawn, proved some time ago, with their discs "I Had No Right And Three Looks Back", "The Bliss Album...?" and "Jesus Wept", that their unique brand of innovative hip-hop and pop music, could make for some really easy listening with Top 40 radio programmers across the country. "Pop music is not a dirty word to us," P.M. Dawn frontman Prince B said with a laugh. "No, not at all. I think of myself as a pop artist and our work as being from pop artists more than anything. Pop is really the universal code for music. A lot of people around the world understand pop music. Some artists (in rap and hip-hop) are scared of pop music. Hey, you've got to like it if a lot of people are into it and understand it around the world." Prince B says that he and his brother / partner J. C. / The Eternal, are huge fans of not only pop, but all styles of music. "It's really hard to find something that we dislike," he said. "It's like that's what comes out in our music. We're always trying to be experimental and to find new ways to do the same things over and over again." Since their work requires crafting songs that are heavy with samples taken from other artist's recordings, Prince B says he's always on, "a constant elevation" to maintain what he refers to as," a sense of appreciation", for all musical styles. "To be an artist who samples music, you have to have a sense of where music is going. Being a DJ and a sampling artist, you have to have a wide variety of music and a wide appreciation of all types of music. We're always trying to figure out where we stand with the music." P.M. Dawn's latest album is titled "Dearest Christian, I'm So Very Sorry For Bringing You Here. Love, Dad", and is available on the GEE Street / V2 record label. Prince B says a major part of his work as a DJ / sampling / recording artist is his quest for the right mix of sound samples and sound bites that he weaves in with his own lyrical style. "I've got a huge record collection," he said. "Straight up, I've got about 50,000 albums, there's jazz records mixed up in there with my rock records. I'm cataloging it right now and I'll tell you it'll be quite a chore to get it all organized and cataloged." The collection is massive and constantly growing. It's gotten to the point where the two brothers have rented an apartment in New Jersey where they live, just to store their collection. "Our records literally have their own apartment," Prince B said with a laugh. "There's a recording studio in one room and then there's all the records. We've got about three other rooms for just storing the records. So cataloging all of that is going to be a nightmare (he laughs). But that's something we have to do, we're going to eventually have a massive data base that it is all cataloged on for accessing the albums and for our future recording projects. It'll be fun." Much of the music on their latest album features songs with catchy pop hooks, soft rock samples and R&B melodies. Prince B even arranged string sections and played instruments for the recording. "We couldn't just do the same thing,' he said. "We just sort of write it and there is no real barrier, we just want to go with how things are feeling to us at the time. After all, it's all universal and there's only 88 keys (on a piano)and they all run into each other."
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