Pitchfork: How long have you been making music?

Ezra Rubin: My whole life. I've tried to learn a couple of instruments. I took piano lessons and stuff like that when I was a kid. But my piano teacher actually was really into computer music, and she was the one who taught me MIDI when I was 12. She was the one who started me on software. I started making dance tracks around 2003. I've always liked dance music.

Pitchfork: On your MySpace, some of the first influences you mention are fairly obscure recent R&B singers, people like Yummy Bingham and Teedra Moses.

ER: R&B is definitely one of my first loves; I think it shows in my music. In particular, I like the more soulful, raw vocalists that don't get that much shine. Some of Yummy Bingham's songs are amazing. She has, like, a four-octave vocal range and this raw, childlike sound to her voice. But most people didn't hear those tracks because her album was shelved, and she's considered kind of C-list or a failed R&B singer, a dropped R&B singer. But her shit's actually really good, and same goes for some of the other people on that list, people who haven't had career success. In terms of what they do with their voice and the productions that they've sung over, I've been really into their stuff.

Pitchfork: That reflects on your music. Especially for newer dance music, your stuff has a really strong melodic sensibility.

ER: Yeah, I just think that's a good spectrum to work with-- for there to be a sweet or melodic or female element to it, and then try to always bring in the dark or the spiritual or the bass-heavy side to it. I think they balance each other really well. There's a lot of music that's done that, too. That's why UK garage is such an influence on me, because there's often been that balance of-- I guess you could say-- the feminine and the masculine. There's that kind of broken, bass-heavy, clubby sound mixed with R&B samples or really melodic elements.

Pitchfork: Your music seems to have this classic house diva element.

ER: It's definitely true. I take early rave music as one of my huge influences. Chicago house, acid house, UK hardcore, early jungle: all that is very influential to me. All those musics really had that soul, as well as being really good club music. I think some of my "Mind Reader" material is stuff that I started on a couple of years ago, not to discount it in any way. More recently, I'd say there's slightly less of those easy-to-hear 90s rave influences, but I am definitely still influenced by that.

Pitchfork: How has your recent work been progressing?

ER: I haven't been pursuing as many vocalists, so it's slightly less vocal. I don't know why the shift, but I guess the stuff's slightly more ambient. I've been influenced by kind of some new age music, and ringtones, and some ephemeral sounds like that. So some of the songs have a strange, alien type sound to them, slightly more of a new age sound, mixed with the heavy bass and the dance sound.

Pitchfork: How did you link up with Fool's Gold?

ER: A few things came together at once. I actually met Nick Catchdubs, who runs the label with A-Trak, at a shoe launch at Nike in New York. The designer, Cassette Playa, had chosen us both to DJ. We exchanged information, and I sent him my tracks. I didn't really send it for a demo for release; I just sent it because he was a DJ and I was just sending my tracks around. A few months later, I heard back from him. He said that they wanted to release this stuff that I sent him, so it was just a chance meeting in that way.

But also, simultaneously, DJ Bok Bok in London had sent "Mind Reader" to this online blog network called Grindin. A lot of the good music blogs are a part of that, and tracks get sent around to that network as promo. Patrik North from Acephale Records is on that list, and he got it. He actually had called me first to release a limited-edition vinyl of "Mind Reader". Then the Fool's Gold thing happened, and then they decided it was cool; they were just going to kind of collaborate on it. Acephale would do vinyl, and Fool's Gold would do digital. It all ended up working out.

Pitchfork: Now that the EP is out, what are you working on?

ER: I'm working on an EP for Night Slugs, which is Bok Bok and L-Vis 1990's new label. That's going to be a six-song EP, and the tracks are pretty much picked out; I just have to finish them. It's a chance for me to get out some tracks that are a little newer to me, and it's mostly instrumental, but there are some vocal moments.

Pitchfork: You've remixed Telepathe and L-Vis 1990. Is there anyone else you're planning to remix?

ER: I have a few remixes coming out. The next Night Slugs release is an artist named Egyptrixx, who is Toronto-based, and I did a remix for that release; that's the second release on Night Slugs. And I'm actually really happy with how that came out. I used some vocals from Shyvonne, the vocalist from "Mind Reader".

Pitchfork: Anyone you're hoping to remix?

ER: I would actually love to be commissioned to remix a mainstream R&B song; that would be a dream of mine. I'd love to remix a Jazmine Sullivan song or something. That would be amazing.

Posted by Tom Breihan on March 10, 2010 at 10:30 a.m.

Tags: Interviews, Kingdom, Rising