Black Dynamite: Adrian Younge Interview

When I called Adrian Younge up on Saturday, he sounded tired, like he'd just got done sleeping on a plane or taking a nap. From listening to the score for the film Black Dynamite, I would guess he'd just stepped out of a wormhole that reached back in time almost forty years to when funk tied one's heart and soul to the hips and the spine, drenching the dance floor with blood and sweat, banging authenticity through mics and out of speakers and into the ears of the people. In composing the score for the film Black Dynamite, Younge somehow managed to forget that disco ever happened, which is where my time machine theory is born, and made fourteen songs that fit seamlessly next to any classic funk and soul of the late '60s and early '70s. I know this is true because I shuffled my playlist while grilling chicken, in my kitchen, and I could barely discern the difference between Younge's work and that of his predecessors.

If you have a need to lean in your car while driving or to strut down the hall of your apartment, then I would suggest picking up both Younge's score and the collection of '60s and '70s library funk that Wax Poetics has also released for the film. The following is the exchange between myself and Adrian Younge:

Teach: So how many of these interviews have you given now?

Younge: This is the fifth one, so not that many. This is pretty exclusive.

Teach: Yeah, thanks for turning down Rolling Stone for us.

Younge: No problem.

Teach: The press release lists that you "command" everything from pianos to cellos to kazoos on this soundtrack. Having a knowledge and understanding of so many instruments, which ones do you naturally go to when writing a song?

Younge: It all depends. When I'm doing a fast, funky song. I start with the bass guitar. If I want more depth and emotion to the song, then I go to the piano.

Teach: The soundtrack is extremely visual. The lyrics and the music almost feel like a comic strip. Did you view the film and then write the score, or did you receive bits of the film and fit music to the scenes?

Younge: Well, I edited and scored the film, so, when editing, I edited in a way that allow me to synthesize the film with the music. When I'm editing, I'm thinking as a composer about the timing and trying to cast emotion through instruments and applying it to the cuts of my edits.

The first scene that I cut was the funeral scene where "Jimmy's Dead" is playing. When I saw the scene, I had an emotion run through me that sent me immediately to the organ.

Teach: So you're occupying both the visual and the audial aspects of the scene at the same time?

Younge: Exactly.

Teach: Speaking of the song "Jimmy's Dead," the title sounds like a direct reference to Curtis Mayfield's "Freddy's Dead" from the Superfly soundtrack. Also, the Baraka-esque speaking intro to "Black Dynamite Theme" reminds me of Mayfield's "If There's a Hell Down Below." What musicians served as your inspiration on this score?

Younge: Well, I was directly influenced by Curtis Mayfield. Across the board in blaxploitation films, there's always somebody dying, and it's usually the main character's brother. Curtis Mayfield's compositional style is an influence on me, especially how he always puts the bass in the forefront to cultivate that driving gangster feel. The bass line from "Kung Fu" gave me "Black Dynamite Theme" and "A Man with the Heat."

Teach: Anyone else you wanna add to the list?

Younge: Isaac Hayes, Ennio Morricone, and Wu-Tang.

Teach: That's funny. I wrote a note to myself while listening to the score that I needed to bring up the RZA in this discussion. While listening, I immediately envisioned RZA and Madlib lifting samples from your work. If someone were to do that, who would you want it to be?

Younge: A lot of people would do a good job. I can see either of them doing it. RZA would do a darker version... like some Enter the Wu '93 type stuff.

Teach: Yeah, that would be cool. (Note: Younge did such a great job recreating the funk sounds of previous decades that some of the songs sound like they've already been worked into samples for hip hop songs.) Describe the recording process for the album.

Younge: I recorded everything by myself. Everything is through tapes. It's all analogged--everything. All my equipment is from the '40s, '50s, '60s, and '70s. Every piece of equipments adds character to the score. It's like certain songs can exhibit different types of sound from what I consider the golden era of recording: '68 to '73. I love that era. What I would do is do certain things to cash in on the charm of the time. I would record vocals all the way into the red. It's the minutia that creates the ultimate sound. That was my focus.

Teach: We touched on it earlier, but how does the visual aspect of film editing affect how you write and listen to music?

Younge: It does. If I want a scene to be short, I've got to have a short song. If, for example, I want emotion on a certain part, I go slow-mo where I need to. As a composer, you're trying to explore the both the audio and visual possibilities of the film. You want to make what's on the screen have more of an impact that it normally has. If you walk into a liquor store, you can get shot and fall, or you can have the door to the liquor store open in slow-mo, a guy enter, flash to the gunman, do a close up of the gun, and watch the guy get shot in split screen. Those two hypotheticals determine how to write a song that has a lot more depth.

Teach: So the better the scene is the better the song?

Younge: Exactly.

Teach: One more thing, are you touring right now, or do you have a new project you're working on?

Younge: Still staying in this Black Dynamite world, doing some local stuff, and staying in New York later.

Teach: Alright, just one more question cause I know you've got a show tonight. Are there any other acts that you want to plug while such a big spotlight is on you?

Younge: Starkiller is doing some good stuff. I like El Michals Affair.

I suggest we all step into the Black Dynamite world; see the film and get the soundtrack. Also, Adrian Younge is not a racist.