Now one of the most sought after underground hip hop-soul producers in the world, it hasnt always been an easy road for Nicolay. It has taken a lot of soul searching and many years as a struggling musician just looking for a shot. Through his sheer, undeniable talent, and a unlikely collaboration with Little Brothers Phonte Coleman, Nicolay has built a successful career for himself ,and the kid from Netherlands is only just getting started. In these days of formulaic, generic music being crammed down our throats, the world is craving for something different, something real, and someone to take them into musical nirvana. More than likely, Nicolay will be the producer to take you there.
At what age did you start getting into music?
A long time ago, probably when I was 13 or 14, taking up guitar lessons in high school. After high school I went to University to study music there for a period of years. So from the ground up, Ive been into music for about 15 or 16 years, something like hat. When did you start getting into hip-hop?
Well that was when I was around 15 or 16 years old in high school, you know , and just from watching Yo! MTV Raps. It was something that stood out to me more than anything else I was seeing on television at that time. Its kind of been that way until as of late. Id say for the last 15 years hip-hop has been the most important influence that Ive taken up musically.
What were some of the Yo! MTV Raps era producers that you felt influenced your music the most?
I dont think any of the older producers necessarily influenced my style. In those days sampling was still the in thing, looping and reusing bits and pieces here and there. I use sampling but I never got too deep into it and the looping. When it comes to influences Im more talking about a J Dilla or a Pete Rock, than for instance Da Bomb Squad or Muggz, stuff from like 1992.
When did you start doing music professionally? Is it true youve been doing this longer than a lot of your fans realize?
Yea Ive been doing it longer than a lot of people realize. I played in bands for a long period of time, thats how I made my money. We used to open for some big artists, people like Boys II Men, and K-CI and JoJo. But it was just really really hard to make a living as a musician, so I felt I had no choice but to find a job, I worked at an internet firm just to be able to pay my rent and my cell phone bill and all that. I took up producing in the evenings just to stay at it and have something to continuously challenge me. Thats where it got out of hand, because I turned out I was doing something that a lot of people were really interested in. And thats when you made that first connection with Phonte?
Pretty much. Hes definitely the one who introduced the world to my material. We were joking about it the other day that, he basically was the artist that got the world ready for what I was doing. He took a chance to work with someone that he didnt really know all that well, thats definitely where it all started.
Now that youve got years of experience as well as recognition under your belt, do you work with just any artist or a particular type of artist?
I dont work with just any artist at all, in fact I never wok with just any artist. I feel that when you work with somebody there needs to be more than just a message on Myspace, there needs to be some sort of a personal connection . In the past Ive made decisions on who I worked with based on the fact that I needed to get some money , but now Im much more interested in developing a working relationship with somebody . Honestly, I have to turn down a lot of people because I only have two hands, so theres only so much I can do. With Myspace being as big as it is now, I have a lot of people on a daily basis asking me to do something with them and the reality is that 99 out of 100 do not expect to have any kind of a financial agreement involved. The reality is, I dont have a big job, this is how I make my money, so there has to be something coming in. But besides that Im just really picky when it come to who I work with. Theres some people that Im a really big fan of, but theres more people that just dont really do it for me, and so working with them wouldnt even be really fair to them.
So the main thing for you is a connection and certain level of talent?
Yea. I have to be really into what someone is doing. If the respect level is not there, then I cant even really do my job like I should. I usually try to talk to the artist to find out what their background is, what music they like, and what they are into, see if we have a common ground. Im not really interested in just selling a beat, like here, have this beat and somebody pays me, Im not interested in that. I want to develop creative relationships that can potentially develop into an album or maybe an EP.
So youre more interested in working on bigger projects with a few artists rather than making tracks for a huge number of artists?
Right.
When youre working, does the artistic concept come first and then the beat? Or is it the other way around?
In 99% of the cases the beat actually comes first, because its really what the artist usually prefers, theyre like hey can you send me something to listen to. Every now and then, I work with an artist and come up with the beat together but reality 99% of the time that really doesnt work, it starts with the beat.
What artists are you working with right now?
Right now Im working on the new Foreign Exchange album, and that pretty much is taking up most of my time. A lot of people really loved the first one, so weve got big shoes to fill, but at the same time, we really want to do something different this time around. Theres no point in repeating ourselves again.
With the other members of Little Brother changing their relationship with 9th Wonder, do you see yourself playing a larger role in their future albums?
No, not at all. Ive been asked that a lot recently but thats not really what its about. Phonte and myself are the Foreign Exchange, thats our group, thats our thing . On the side we do other things together, I do tracks for Little Brother from time to time, but I dont think Im gonna be a bigger part of their sound necessarily. It wouldnt be clever thing to do because you would just end up getting a lot of the same. Compared to Foreign Exchange Little Brother is more the hip-hop side of things. With Foreign Exchange we can do a lot of other different things, it takes people into different directions.
Do you feel youre creating a genre with Foreign Exchange, fusing hip-hop, jazz, r&b, and a lot of other things?
Well its funny you should say that because the other day I was talking to Phonte about a song off Foreign Exchange, and it was just one of those songs where I could not categorize it in terms of like what is it. You couldnt say its this or its that. I dont think necessarily were creating a new genre, but I do think were good at fusing a lot of things into something special. On the new album we have jazz, we got soul, we have hip-hop, down-tempo acoustic elements, weve got Latin bossa nova and samba shit. Those are all genres that we really love, we want to make an album that is really wide spectrum.
When should that be coming out?
Well, were looking at late this year.
Third Quarter, Fourth Quarter?
Fourth Quarter yea. Any other artists we should be checking for you working with soon?
Well I did a single for EMC, the group that Masta Ace just formed with Wordsworth and Punchline. That single should be coming out in May. I also have 3 tracks on the upcoming Median album. I have a whole album Im doing with Kaye of the Foundation. Theres a new Dutchmasters mixtape coming out where Im working with some new people I havent worked with yet like Zion I, some new connections Im making. Just a whole lot of stuff Im working on.
The artist youve worked with pretty much all fall under that underground or indie label, do you ever aspire to work on more commercial hip-hop?
I wouldnt be afraid of it. I think that it could definitely be an interesting situation. But at the same time, theres something really cool about working with people on the come up. Its really exciting to see a project that you worked on with an up and comer become well-known and successful. The cool thing about Foreign Exchange was that when it came out, we both were still very relatively unknown, but it still did really well. Phonte had a name from Little Brother but they were just starting out, and I was definitely a rookie so that cool thing about that was we made something out of nothing. I would be a lot easier for me to do a track with insert name of major label recording artist here, it would probably be really good for my resume, but at the same time it would probably be an easier situation. Its much more of a challenge to find someone hat youre totally blown away by, who doesnt have a record deal, doesnt have any connects, doesnt have nothing, but to still be successful with them, that is the true challenge.
You alluded to it earlier, myspace has made it easier than ever to market your music, while the programs like Fruity Loops etc make it easier than ever to create music. Do you have any advice to all these budding producers out there thats trying to get on in a big way?
Well a lot of these cats are really young and they expect to reach a certain level in a really short period of time, thats just not gonna happen. A lot of these cats need to learn the concept of patience, and the concept of paying dues, putting time in to learning your craft. I get a lot of people on myspace that hit me up like yo can you check my beats out. I usually try and do that, but its becoming harder and harder because theres over 25,000 people on my list now. A lot of cats though will hit me up, you check out my page, this is like the first beat I made, I downloaded Fruity Loops last Friday night, Im not interesting in hearing all that. Im not interested in hearing your first beat. My first beat was garbage. Ill say to anybody give yourself a period of 2 years, study the art, study the craft and become good at what you do, then, you can come out and promote your stuff. The Music Industry has become much more quick paced, people dont take time to give people multiple opportunities, so you have to take this very seriously. You can definitely download a program and fool around with it on a Laptop, but that does not make you a great producer, it takes more than that. If people take that concept to school yourself and perfect your craft, thats the most important thing. Its not about being famous, its about making music and getting experiences so you can become a better artist and person at the end of the day.
And leaving a legacy.
Exactly. Common is playing with that concept in his next album, that music more or less makes you immortal, which I believe more or less is the case. Youre building onto something that can potentially be your legacy like you said. If you do something really good, people will be playing it for a long period of time, and there is no better feeling.
Whats that myspace address again so people can people get at you and hear your latest work?