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C-Lance Interview
RnB/Hip Hop | Friday 9th August 2013 | Matt
Guestlist Interview C-Lance
For those of you who don’t know about C-Lance, you will do soon! In only a few years, he has worked his way up from being a college student to producing tracks for some of the biggest names in the hip-hop underground scene, including Jedi Mind Tricks and Swollen Members. I was fortunate enough to catch up with him via. Facebook and find out a bit more about the world of C-Lance!
Guestlist: Yo C-Lance, thanks for taking the time to do this interview. Firstly, could you just let us know; where did you get the name C-Lance from?
C-Lance: Thanks for having me; well it's pretty much just from my regular name. People in high school called me Lance... and my first name is Craig... so C-Lance haha. Not much thought to it.
Guestlist: Was there any particular moment in your life when you got that kind of ‘eureka’ moment and realised that music was what you wanted to do?
C-Lance: I think every musician has this moment. For me it was when Vinnie Paz reached out to me, asking to send some beats through. Obviously, you always have hopes and dreams of doing music for a living, but when an actual artist like him reaches out, that was the moment for me.
Guestlist: Yeah I can imagine. How did it come about then, Vinnie Paz (from Jedi Mind Tricks) getting in contact with you?
C-Lance: Well basically I was just in college and I sent some beats to Doap Nixon of Army Of The Pharaohs. Doap played Vinnie some of my beats and basically I just woke up to an email from Paz one day, and here we are.
Guestlist: You have pretty much worked with the entire current cream of the crop in underground rap including Swollen Members, Jedi Mind Tricks and R.A. The Rugged Man. Is there anyone left in the underground that you would like to work with?
C-Lance: I'd like to work with Evidence and Dilated Peoples, as far as underground goes. Other than them, I'm working with my favorite artists anyway.
Guestlist: How about if you could work with anyone in the whole world, no matter how big, who would that be?
C-Lance: Eminem, hands down. He's my favorite artist of all time. There are a bunch though. I'd love to work with Everlast. He's in my top 5 artist of all time.
Guestlist: This one is for any aspiring producers out there that might be interested. What do you use to make your beats?
C-Lance: I use a Yamaha Motif Xs6 keyboard, and to sequence everything I use FL Studio. I've said it many times, it doesn't matter what you use, if you don't have talent or an ear for good music, you could spend thousands of dollars on top notch equipment and it wouldn't matter. I always like to make this comparison. Alchemist could make a better beat with pots and pans then a no-talented kid who has a 5000 dollar drum machine.
Guestlist: What inspires you in your music? Do the artists you work with specify what kind of sound they want beforehand, or do you just make some crazy shit and see which artist you think it would suit the most?
C-Lance: Everything inspires me; when I hear other artists I get inspired. Um, sometimes we do that. Like Madchild will be like... "I need something emotional, some real life stuff", or then he'd be like "I need that angry aggressive, smash ya head stuff". But most of the time, I just do me, and make my own sound, my own ideas and I send them off to Vinnie or Bill or Mad and they do their thing with them.
Guestlist: You recently produced a number of beats for the new MadChild (of Swollen Members) Lawnmower album which I personally think is your best work to date. The response has been overwhelmingly positive; you must be pretty proud of that? Will you continue to work with Madchild on his future projects?
C-Lance: Yeah man, thanks appreciate it. We have gotten a crazy positive response to this album. It's our vintage sound with new ideas and sounds so it’s very cool to see the fans react like this. Of course, Mad is my brother, we already have a bunch of new material recorded for the next Swollen album and next Mad album.
Guestlist: The title Lawnmower Man is obviously a reference to the Stephen King novel. What fictional character do you think you would be and why?
C-Lance: Haha good question. I would be Sonny from A Bronx Tale because I just go about my business, and I respect everyone. Plus I'm 100% Italian and I'm all about family.
Guestlist: Quite a lot of your beats are dark sounding. Is this darkness represented in other aspects of your life?
C-Lance: Haha, funny you caught that. A lot of my beats are dark. The darkness is definitely represented in other ways. For one, I can't stand the sun; I wish every day was raining and dark out. I'm a huge fan of horror, that is my favorite genre. My wife and I watch horrors all the time. A fan once called me The John Carpenter Of Beats which I thought that was pretty funny.
Guestlist: What’s your favourite horror movie?
C-Lance: Devil's Rejects.
Guestlist: What can we expect to hear from C-Lance in the next 12 months?
C-Lance: A lot of good music with my team. Enemy Soil squad. Vinnie Paz, ILL BILL, Heavy Metal Kings, OuterSpace, AOTP, Madchild, Swollen Members, Slaine... and I'm working closely with DJ Lethal right now of House Of Pain/La Coka Nostra fame.
Guestlist: I think it would be really awesome if you made a producer album where the entire album is produced by you and features guest verses from an array of people you have already worked with and perhaps some up-and-comers we may not be familiar with. Is this something you would ever consider doing, I’m sure there would be a market for it?
C-Lance: This has been on my mind for a while now. I've spoken to Paz about this too. I just wanna plan out the right moment to do it. I don't wanna just put out an album with 16 random beats, and put a bunch of rappers over them. I wanna plan it out, so there is sort of a concept to the whole album. I want to build up more of a fan base and more connections too, so I can have a lot of incredible artists on it.
Guestlist: Is there any up and coming rappers or producers out there at the moment you would recommend to Guestlist readers?
C-Lance: Yes. G-Mo Skee. and Out of Canada Snak The Ripper & D-Sisive.
Guestlist: Ok, I will finish with a few random questions now.
Coke or Pepsi?
C-Lance: Coke.
Guestlist: Drugs or Alcohol?
C-Lance: Neither.
Guestlist: Obama or Bush?
C-Lance: Obama.
Guestlist: Michael Myers or Freddy Krueger?
C-Lance: Michael Myers.
Guestlist: Dr Dre or RZA?
C-Lance: Dre.
Guestlist: Night or Day?
C-Lance: Night.
Guestlist: Thanks again for your time dude and good luck with the future! Can’t wait to hear more stuff from you!
To stay up to date with C-Lance be sure to 'Like' his facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/CLanceEnemySoil
Interview by Matt Watkins
