Talk to most producers and deejays in today’s industry and that of yesteryear they will have something positive to say about Miles Tackett and his constant contribution to music. He plays cello on the impending release from Damien Marley and Nas, he has shared the stage with the late James Brown and he and his “brothers” formed L.A’s longest running night period. And those are just a mere smidgen of what this musical mastermind has achieved.
With the unfortunate absence of his long time partner, the iconic DJ Dusk, Miles has been making sure that the sounds Dusk and the whole Breakestra collective became famed for are still coursing through the veins of the L.A scene and way, way beyond.
Tours across to Europe for the Breakestra family, who recently delivered their recent album Dusk Till Dawn, are as common as a T-Pain feature. Because, even though your regular dude on the corner might not be familiar with the west coast’s very own funky bunch, the authenticity and enthusiasm they depict in their music is recognized by a myriad of global followers. Dublin to Dusseldorf, Berlin to Birmingham, this outfit have infinite devotees.
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Talking about the things that matter in this interview one can easily come to understand why he is known in his circle as “Music Man.”
HipHopDX: So what’s been going on with you guys since your last album?
Miles Tackett: A lot has been going on since then. We opened for James Brown in Australia, and that was a huge thing to share the stage with him and it was just unfortunate that [Mix Master] Wolf couldn’t make it. But then shortly after that tour, maybe a month or so, my deejay partner at Root Down, DJ Dusk, his life was taken in a hit-and-run accident. It was tragic and that was a huge deal for me.
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DX: I was sorry to hear about that, and I can’t begin to imagine what you guys must have gone through. What sort of a vibe did you get off Dusk when you first met him?
Miles Tackett: Actually, it was real casual. It was at a party about 12 years ago, and we were introduced but didn’t really exchange many words. But then I was working with an emcee called T-Love and she was trying to get some show happening in L.A. and she mentioned Dusk, and that they were going to do a radio show together. I said I would check them out. I didn’t know what he was about musically, but slowly and surely, we starting bonding from doing a live thing with T-Love and then a year later, right after I had stopped The Breaks Party, our keyboard player, Kevin and I decided we needed to keep something going in L.A. so we created Root Down. We were pretty much experimenting with the party and the sound. So we brought Dusk in. Even though I had worked with him and vibed with him, I had never seen him rock a party. There, Dusk came into his own and he helped shape the direction of the Root Down sound. I learned a lot from him.
DX: I wanted to ask what you had learned from him personally?
Miles Tackett: First of all, a love for Hip Hop and understanding the Jamaican connection. I mean back then I would just turn up and play records. I wasn’t a serious collector. But being around it for a good many years and then going to being around Dusk every week and watching him do his thing, it inspired me to get into it and start spinning. I expanded into different music. It was him who opened me up to really funky Salsa. He was one cat who knew how to have a party in a club and bring in some music in and make that connection to Hip Hop. Whatever I have picked up it’s in some way down to him as he was both a great teacher and a great communicator.
DX: The underground scene in most cities is actually a very close-knit community, is it the same in L.A?
Miles Tackett: Yeah, we have pretty good connectivity even though L.A is so big. That was another thing about Dusk; he was able to connect with so many different people all across L.A. He was “all-city” in every respect.
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DX: How long has Root Down been going now? It has to be close to a decade?
Miles Tackett: Eleven years, we are the longest running party period in Los Angeles and we are still having big parties.
DX: Do you ever see it slowing down?
Miles Tackett: The truth is we have had nights where we have thought it might be time to step back and make room for someone else, as there are a lot of people with the best intentions, using a similar format to that which we have. But there is generally enough room for everyone.
DX: What have some of the highlights been over the years?
Miles Tackett: For Root Down? Man, the first night that it cracked was when Cut Chemist [click to read] came through in ’98. That was definitely the night that set it off. Dusk was handling the mic and that night, I will never forget it. Also the Soundclash [click to read] with Madlib and Cut Chemist, that was pretty great too and then there was an unannounced event with [DJ] Shadow and [DJ] Nu Mark [click to read].
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DX: Do you still have folks coming through on Thursdays that have been down since the beginning?
Miles Tackett: Every once in a while someone will come through that remembers it at the original spot. I mean I don’t expect anyone to stick with us for all that time; people’s lifestyles change. [Laughs] I mean mine might not have changed.
DX: A three-year break between releasing albums in some genres could be career suicide, but here you are with another classic under your belt. Does this prove that certain sounds are timeless?
Miles Tackett: It proves a couple of things really in my case. One, I juggle too many things and it also proves my unorthodox technique of making a record as I record a lot of the tracks myself, and it becomes a longer process. It’s not the most efficient process and it proves that I love making Funk music in different varieties. Plus, I am a perfectionist and that can definitely make sure it takes four years. I have also been doing this around touring too.
DX: How was Europe last year?
Miles Tackett: Well I was debating actually going out as just getting the gigs and then the organizing, I knew it was going to slow down the process of the album, but I decided we should pop our heads over there for a little bit. But touring does get in the way.
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DX: Your father is quite an influential musician in his own right too; how influential was he when it comes to your music and recreating some of the samples that you have over the years?
Miles Tackett: Well only in so much as him having introduced me to music that is in anyway connected to me and what I am doing now – Playing Soul and Jazz in the house when I was a little kid and that in a way planted a seed. You know it was that exposure got me open in a way later on. It was probably 10 years after hearing music like that that I got involved in sounds that were related to it. The first Live Mix for Stones Throw was all classic breaks and Funk and then the last record which was all original tracks with no samples where I had fun putting together a set like that so I keep it going. It connects the dots of the music and the original tracks tell the story musically and still rocks the party.
DX: So that was the intention with the live mixtapes, connecting the dots?
Miles Tackett: Exactly that. It was inspiration from having Breakestra happen in the first place and these exemplify what happens with Breakestra live. You can sit and listen to it, deejays can use it and walk away for 20 minutes and leave it playing. It is funny, as I have had so many deejays tell me that they have taken a break and had [The Live Mix] playing. There wasn’t anything like, “I’m trying to educate people,” but I do think that through this people became more familiar with us and how the Hip Hop deejays got the music to flow.
The inspiration for Breakestra Live was me watching Rare Groove deejays 15 years ago, watching them go from one jam to another and looping it up. This was the foundation, as I liked how it sounded. I would hear Hip Hop tracks and realize where they had come from.
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Also, it was in a way paying homage as well as a tribute to all these foundations for the deejay. Even the first Rap records were live bands, sometimes re-creating usually Disco and Funk breaks. That is how it started: emcees on wax, The Fatback Band. The foundations of Hip Hop was Funk and then you have Funky-Rock and Funky-Jazz.
DX: Will there be a Volume 3 of Live Mix?
Miles Tackett: I don’t know, as it is kind of difficult. It’s impossible to do financially and legally, so it hard for me to put time and energy into something, you know that kind of project where putting it out is like rolling a dice. It has to be done where money is put behind it and promoted.
It’s funny because it can’t be done legally. I mean I could put together something but getting all the publishers to agree on a reasonable rate where it could actually fit and so the mechanicals of it could get paid would be a legal and logistical nightmare. I would have to do the recording and just put it out there for free. It takes so much time and I would be more inclined to spend time writing and recording songs. I have been playing and writing music since I was 15, and within the Funk medium, I have been unavoidably feeding that outlet personally. It all relates to what Breakestra is. I mean I am conscious of my musical expression, having to come out and there is only so much time as I am juggling deejaying and promoting. When it comes to my priorities, I am more inclined to be writing music and composing in the studio, so it becomes hard.
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But I have thought about a Volume 3. I mean I have a couple of ideas for putting some more stuff out but it wouldn’t be the same medium as the mixtape.
DX: With mainstream acts such as Jay-Z using the Menahan Street Band on his “Roc Boys” track, did this exposure have any knock on effect for the likes of Breakestra?
Miles Tackett: No, but the thing that is funny is about that is that a year before that track came out, Jay-Z [click to read] asked me to send him all of Breakestra’s stuff to check out and consider, but I never heard back. So I guess I lost the gig to the Menahan Street Band to be perfectly honest. But I was pleased to see that, as those guys are great. [Thomas Brenneck] is a natural music composer and producer. I have nothing but respect for them. It is cool seeing it around the planet, seeing people use more soul stuff that comes from that magical time in the ’60s and ’70s and they build on that.
DX: The new album has to be quite personal due to the loss of Dusk, would I be right in saying that?
Miles Tackett: Yes, definitely, where the lyrics are concerned; the lyrics Wolf wrote and the ones I was writing. I would say there are moments that are really personal and then there are those that aren’t; you know the ‘Party Rock’ songs.
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DX: Is there any track that has more meaning than others?
Miles Tackett: It would have to be the very last song, “Set the Sun.” It is a very literal tribute to Dusk from me. It is also a kind of way of me letting go, yet celebrating and accepting him in a beautiful way. Your experiences with a person are what get you through things and this was just me paying homage to the brother.
DX: Has there ever been anything you have wanted to recreate but haven’t been able to?
Miles Tackett: [Laughs] Yeah, but only because I just haven’t got around to doing it yet. I have this one idea, but again, when it comes to recording things become a task and a challenge. This just hasn’t been my focus right now. You know you pay dues in life and then you die, but at times you will eventually stop paying certain dues and then start paying others. But this is a good thing as you are just getting all this experience.
I did this side thing where I re-created a Johnny Cash track about four or five years ago. It was a song written by his wife [June Carter Cash], “Ring of Fire,” and I did like a Jamaican Rock Steady version of it. I just do things as they come in, the most natural way. I don’t like things to be too premeditated or contrived.
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DX: This question if I asked it to someone who had just started in the game might sound a bit clichéd, but when you look at someone like you who has all this history and passion when it comes to music and sounds, I can’t help but ask what is it that inspires you now?
Miles Tackett: I mean still hearing records and just digging in my own crates and discovering things that I just hadn’t gotten around too. That’s another reason, as a record collector, I don’t like to rush it; I don’t need to know everything or have everything. Also seeing music performed live, that can be inspirational.
DX: What has been the best band/artist you have seen performing live recently?
Miles Tackett: There are some artists in L.A. who go by the Boogaloo Assassins and they are doing this really good funky Latin sound. They just played at Root Down and they did a great set. I haven’t actually seen as many live bands recently as I would have liked.
DX: One of your favorite loves is of course the Hip-Hop from the ’80s and early ’90s. What are your views on today’s Hip Hop contribution?
Miles Tackett: I am not feeling most of the production or most of the sounds and that almost stops you from listening to see if someone has got lyrical skills. For example, N.W.A. [click to read] had incredible beats and what they were doing lyrically was in a way a dramatic, cinematic way of storytelling and the way things were presented with the production, the better it worked. I mean I am not sure I agreed with what they were saying, but what they were doing was theatre, it was art.
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Today, people aren’t doing anything like that, they are just strictly capitalizing off the hype and production-wise, sonically, the commercial Hip Hop I have heard just doesn’t interest me. I am not trying to come off as narrow-minded, as I do keep an open mind, but the more underground stuff, the Dilla-inspired stuff, I think it is good. But it doesn’t inspire me. I think that comes down to the fact that I am a little bit of a country boy who grew up with a more organic sound. I am just really hooked on that funkiness and it is hard to get it out of my system. I got a Soul vaccination at a young age. Sometimes I feel out of step but then that’s nothing new to me at all. I mean I can still recognize some of the underground stuff as solid and recognize that an artist like Egon is definitely doing, or has done, something interesting and progressive. I can definitely feel that from his music.
