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Interview with John Hughes of Slicker/Hefty Records
By: Patrick Steven Patterson
 John Hughes, a.k.a. Slicker, and the artist behind Chicago's
Hefty Records has been into tempo and groove since he was
a child: "In my parent's car on the highway, I was making
beats timed to each light post we'd pass." Creative through
his formative years, Hughes grew up listening to the likes of
Kraftwerk, Herbie Hancock and Grandmaster Flash, going on
to form his first Indie-Electronic band, Bill Ding.
On his most recent release, We All Have A Plan, the artist has branched out with an anything-goes
mixture of Funk, Soul, beats and samples. His past
successes have afforded the artist the opportunity to
collaborate with some of Soul and Jazz music's forgotten
heroes, namely Motown superstars Phil Ranelin and Wendell
Harrison, Sugar Hill vocalist Khadijah Anwar, as well as
current Detroit Hip-Hoppers MC's Phat Kat and Elzhi (of Slum
Village).
A very busy business-, family- and renaissance man, John
made time for a little one-on-one with NowOnTour which he
slotted in-between Chicago and New York City listening
parties for the launch of his new record. The following
ensued:
NowOnTour: Where are you at?
John: I'm just outside of Chicago at my house, down, uh, in
my basement, my studio.
So, I suppose, 15 years ago, I could have asked a
Metal guy, or a Rock guy what his "Number One Guitar" was,
and he'd say, "I've this 1974 Les Paul" or whatever. Do you
have a "Number One" laptop or computer you use?
I've always stuck on a Mac, but probably my go-to piece
is...I've got an old (EMU) SP-1200. It's like a sampling drum
machine. I've had it since maybe I was a freshman in High
School, and that's definitely what got it all started 'cause I
was using that to sample off records and that got me into all
kinds of different music. That's the thing I know like the
back of my hand.
What's the hottest new gear or hottest new
application that you have?
I'm definitely rockin' a ProTools rig that's awesome. A TDM
rig...that's what I'm doing on the computer side. I don't use
a ton of software, actually. I use Reaktor and a couple of
other sort-of sound processing programs, but I try to keep a
lot of my gear on the analog tip too, especially with EQ and
compression and that sort of stuff where I think that's the
only way to go. I'm definitely into Spring Reverb units and,
I don't know, I could keep going...(laughs)
No, that's cool. See our site, a lot of readers are
kids just starting groups, and on that level, a lot of Indie
kids, and you never know - they might want someplace to
start.
I think what it all comes down to, really, is computer music
is pretty easy to make now, as far as just access and how
everyone can have the same sort of setup. I think it's more
just what kind of color you bring to it, and that's where I
sort-of step back, especially on my new record, [where I]
wanted to inject some more dirt into it. Use ProTools and the
computer as just a means to get the work done.
Talking about 'dirt,' I've read where you use that
term...
Yeah, definitely. I mean, it's the only way to.... Well, I
really like recordings that have character to them. That's
why I listen to a lot of older Soul and Funk and Jazz. I
mean, those recordings are one of a kind. I think that the
recording styles now with computers, so much of that stuff
comes out sounding the same that I think if you want to do
something different you have to go back, and work
backwards and sort of throw the dirt back on it.
It could definitely get stale, just sitting in front of
the computer. It would be easy for an Electronic guy to lock
himself in a dark room somewhere and work. Do you find
yourself sitting around too many late nights just by
yourself...or is that where you start thinking about
collaborating with people because you're too much inside
your own head?
I love collaborating. That's what it's all about for me
because 90% of my time I'm not collaborating, I'm mixing,
or especially on the new record where all the recording took
10% of the time and the rest was going back and shifting
through it. That's the hard part. Collaborating with people is
fun because you can actually enjoy your own music for a
second. You can listen to it and think, "Wow, I really like the
performance they laid down." Which, when you're sitting
down by yourself, especially with me as I don't have a full
time collaborator, it's like you're just beating yourself in the
head trying to get something to sound good. When you
work with someone, you get to have some perspective, you
know, and listen to it in a different way. It's not all
you.
It's got to feel great when you're in the studio
watching someone else play tracks for your record, totally
vibing off of something that you've written.
Yeah, man. Especially on the new record, I was surrounded
by people that were superior to me. People who have done
a lot more in their lifetime and were a lot more schooled on
their instruments than I was. So it was like sitting back,
enjoying. I'm pretty confident in my songwriting and
production, but you know, performance...you're really
making yourself naked with a performance. It's really nice
to be able to work with other people.... On the new record I
played all the keyboards and the bass and did some of the
vocals. I just think it's good karma to keep musicians who
are your superiors or who have been around it a lot longer
than you, to keep them alive.
Do you have a certain audience in mind when
you're writing?
Not really. I don't really think about who I'm making a
record for when I'm making it. I start to think about it as
I'm finishing it up, but when I first doing it I just try to
stumble across something alien – something that works on a
level where I feel it could hit a lot of people, maybe,
but...
But it's got to hit you first, right?
Yeah, it has to move me first and it has to be unique. It
has to be something that in some way hasn't been tried yet,
but that connects in a way that people are familiar with.
That's a lot of what the new record's about – doing this really
weird record but making it fairly structured and having some
sort of Pop elements to it...choruses and verses...
Well, "Knock Me Down Girl," for instance is super-
funky. Where does the inspiration come for something like
that? Is that the old Soul? I mean, Justin Timberlake is
trying to do old Soul, but is it being done well?
I'm not trying to do 'throwback Soul." I'm trying to do a
throwback to the spirit of old Soul, and Funk music, and
Jazz, but I'm trying, obviously, to be futuristic about it. So it
was really important to me that this record didn't sound
Retro; that it didn't sound like I was trying to make and old
record or trying to make all the parts sound like they were
sampled from records. I wanted to be progressive at the
same time. It was more just about me working with these
older musicians who had played back in the day; it was just
about capturing a spirit that I think is missing in
music.
Who is buying your records? Is it the DJ crowd, the
Indie kids?
I think... I would hope... I'm sure Indie kids are buying it,
the people that are into Indie Rock and that sort of stuff and
branched out. I don't know if club kids are buying my
records, I hope they are, it would be good. I'm not from
that background, I came from more early Hip-Hop, then I
got into Indie Rock and Jazz and...I got into everything. I'm
really not in touch with clubs at all, so I hope those people
are buying my records. I hope people that listen to Hip-Hop
are buying the new record, I hope people that listen to Jazz
and listen to everything buy the record. I don't care who
buys it.
You recently scored a film, you have this new
record...you've got to be crazy busy. Are you still involved
in the day-to-day at Hefty (Records)?
Yeah, that's probably what keeps me busiest. I'm trying to
pull myself away a little bit now so I can break this record,
but that's my day job. It keeps my busy. I like it. I have a
family and I have this business and then I have my music,
so I have this built-in structure in my life that I really love.
If I had all day to experiment, I don't know how good the
music would be.
There are some great visual and interactive
elements to the Hefty Web site - is that something you'd like
to incorporate with a release at some point, something
multimedia?
We want all that stuff to work hand in hand. I want to be
progressive visually, Web, musically, everything. I want it
all to work together. Luckily, I've got people around me that
can help me do that.
When you perform live - is it usually just you or do
you incorporate other musicians?
I haven't played yet on the new record, but on the last
record (The Latest) I played by myself and I
did it like Dub style. I had all the elements feeding out into
eight separate channels and I could effect them live. I sort
of have issues playing laptops...I think they're pretty boring.
I want to do what I did, with the same set-up, but have live
instruments and be able to flip that stuff real-time. I think
that would be real fun. It's a really big undertaking, though,
to get some of these people to go on the road, and get
rehearsed... The thing is, I don't view my record as 'I'm
going to go tour this record,' I'm throwing it out there like,
'hey, here is how I produce records and I want to work with
anyone.' I want to spread my sound that way: working with
other people and collaborating and remixing and being more
of a producer than anything else. A producer/
songwriter.
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