Adrian Younge

I know all my different formulas to get certain sounds. I've been doing this so long that I don't experiment anymore. Or let me rephrase: I've been doing this so long that I don't have to experiment as much. You always want to evolve and change, but if I go in and I know it's a certain type of song, I know exactly where I'm going to place the mics.

It's the ownership of what's off that's the beauty in art. Its not about being exactly perfect.

Change the sound. Make people rethink what they're doing. That's what I really wanna do.

Luke Cage' came out in 1972 at the height of the blaxploitation era. It was a literary response to this notion of blaxploitation movies. It was the first time in American culture that Hollywood was embracing black movies.

Sometimes, a concept is needed to spark myself and the vocalist; sometimes a concept isn't necessary for that spark. It all depends on the moment, because I don't want to be that dude that every album has to be this story or that story.

When I did 'Venice Dawn,' there were times where people would cry after listening to it.

I like golden-era hip-hop because they were recording on a 2-inch tape. There was dirty, raw sampling. It's nasty. It has a vibe to it.

We love high-end art, but when you're looking at high-end art in music, a lot of the time, it's appreciated academically, but you can't feel it as much.

I don't do anything digital. Everything is analog, and that's a limitation for me. However, in my world, it's not a limitation at all because I don't create the type of music that would generally be created by musicians that work with digital recording studios, and/or digital equipment, as far as production is concerned.

The ramifications that you set for yourself can inspire you to do things that you would have never thought of because, once you're trapped, your job is to persevere.

Basically, if you work hard and practice an instrument every day, you'll learn how to play like a professional. You'll get better and better each day. And that's how it works for me. I wasn't magically inclined to play. I had to keep practicing and practicing to train my fingers.

A lot of people record on a laptop and use plug-ins, which might be OK for the kind of music that they're doing. But for the kind of music that I'm doing, that just doesn't work. I can't cut corners; everything has to be organic.