Wednesday 20 October 2010

Louis Den Beat Cypher 12 Spotlight - Pete Cannon

Finally in what reads like one of the most informative spotlight joints I've done is the larger than life Pete Cannon!, Mr Dick (as a lot of us Den people still call him) was one of the first producers ever to lace the Beat Cypher; back when we had a tight venue and even tighter budget and ZERO rep, Pete was down to ride just for the experience..

Well it paid off seeing as 2 years we're still able to do it, come to think of it I'm pretty sure the only cypher pete has ever missed was one when he got stuck in a traffic Jam with Tactical Thinking (thats going back a year now) so despite hittin up almost every joint and providing plenty Open Beats and Bucks Fizz battle antics he's had a gang of placements and even a name change since his debut on the production showcase so it's about time Pete hit the cypher again!



1) Hey!! Please introduce yourself to everybody; let us know who you are what you do and how long you've been doing it!
Mate, my name is Pete, Pete Cannon, ladies like to call me Barry big spuds and guys like to call me their mate as. I have been a human for 20 odd years now and making music since I was 5, yeah I said it 5. Well technically I started playing the piano at 5 but I got my first synth which was a DX7 at the age of 11 from cash converters Blackpool for Christmas, Christmas stats.. Before going through puberty I was manipulating fm synthesis through the joy that is algorhythm. At this point I loved old skool hardcore, which was basically sped up hip hop breaks and samples and collected rave tapes on the regs.

So the next Christmas I blagged a set of dex and started record collecting big time. Buying every record that any crack head would sell in blackpool meant that the collection grew quickly and I was getting into collecting breaks by 15. At this time I rocked an Amiga with 8bit sampling and midi capabilities with a boss dr5 drum machine. Anyway everything developed over the years and after studying a B.T.E.C, H.N.D and a B.A degree in music production it just meant my obsession grew stronger to the point where all I do is speak about bloody music all day. Now days I collect synths and make wonk/hop/tech/step/drumcore/folk bass, on the real though I've got my 70s drum kit set up and planning on taking this no sample shit to the next level, making music that can evoke emotion. You'll see what I mean with some of the new shit that's coming out. I could go on for a million years but now I'm going to stop.


2) Was there a defining moment (event / hearing a record etc) that led you into making beats / becoming a producer?
Well, daddy Cannon used to play the Beatles to me all the blooming time when I was real young and tell you what he still does today. He tells me he gave me a record player when I was 4 or so for my room. It had 78rpm on it which plays normal records really fast as it was intended for 78 old records. He gave me a load of his old records and left them in my room, he said he came back to me playing Jimmy Hendrix on 78rpm so it was fast as fuck.

He told me "No peter, its not meant to be played at that speed" so he changed it back to 33. The min he went out of the room, I put it back to 78, from then he just let me play them all at 78 speed. The point is, it was in my mind to make horrible banging noise from a young age, these days I just try and make that same horrible banging noise with my beats, I rarely make smooth shiz. I just knew from then I loved this stuff and wanted to be involved with making music.



3) What was your first peice of equipment and what were those beats like? Any interesting stories about things were doing to begin with / finding your feet?
Yeah man, when I got the boss dr5 drum machine/sound module when I was 12, I linked it with midi to the DX7. The boss had 4 tracks on it, drums, bass, lead and extra. I could layer and record shit in little parts into its patterns.

I then figured you could put all the patterns together to make a sequence, that blew my mind. My dad also had a four track so I could layer dx7 sounds over the sequenced dr5, well that was it, I was off making tunes every min I could. Funny thing is, ive still got these tunes, they are shit but it was all so exciting finding shit out then. I mean when you first "clock" midi when your that young and no one has ever told you about it, it was like shit your pants good, "So that sound can be played on this keyboard but it records in there....boooom" Anyway I got the Amiga and then I could sample my records in 8 bit and separate its 4 channels into the 4 track. This all continued till I got a pc and learned Cubase 5 at college (the old one, yeah Jon the old one) which I still use today. From there I kept going and I suppose here I am.

4) Whats the one bit of advice youd give to anyone starting out today?
Wow its all a wee bit different now, ha ha that makes me sound old. The whole process of how we learn and advance has sped up with the introduction of the web, which I didn't have when I started so I guess I would just say to get obsessed with music. Learn about all aspects from instrumentation, harmony, rhythm, arrangement, recording techniques, engineering techniques, research the crap out your fav music and get into stripping tracks down to figure out how they made them. I don't want to preach as I know I'm always going to be learning, I guess I could say never be scared to experiment, people might not like what you first do but as long as you want to do it and progress with it, it will happen if you stick it out. If not just ring Sivey and ask him for his mastering settings
ahahahaha.


5) What can heads expect from you at LOUIS DEN BEAT CYPHER
A pissed northern boy who's surname should have been Pan. However I have been practicing my air producing in the mirror at night and with just a bit more practice, well, I may just be able to air produce the crap out of this next cypher BRAAAAAAAAAAP.

  • Follow @PeteCannonBeats on Twitter
    Pete Cannon Youtube Exclusives
    Jam Baxta | Stig Of The Dump
  • Pete Plays Synths Video
  • Rustie - Neko (Pete Cannon is half Scottish remix)
  • MC Northern - Summertime (Petes ldbb entry for 'Summertime Beats' homework)
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