These are the transcripts of an interview with Controller 7. The interview was conducted by Neoteric, early 2001.
MVRemix: What was your favourite cartoon as a child?
Controller 7: I dont really know. I was always excited to see those Hanna Barbera all star olympics things. I liked Scooby Doo too.
MVRemix: What is your fondest hip hop related memory?
Controller 7: First time I got something on vinyl I guess. I don't know. I have seen some cool shows. I listened to Vertex everyday for a couple months. Those were good days, I was always happy when I listened to that tape.
MVRemix: What about your least favourite memory?
Controller 7: Although Kool Keith is one of my favorites; he puts on really shitty shows. I guess it was an experience. He did two versions of Blue Flowers, but he said the same lyrics.
MVRemix: What was the last good book you read?
Controller 7: I am reading The Mole People right now. It is pretty good. I read a book called The Story of the Eye because Bjork said it changed her life. That book is nuts. I used to love it. I read it a couple times.
MVRemix: What musician would you most like to work with?
Controller 7: I would really like to work with some singers. I would love to do a song with some of the members of Belle and Sebastian. I want to work with a lot of people. I would love to see how DJ Shadow works and how he puts his stuff together. I would like to do a song with Chan Marshall from Cat Power. I don't know, I like so many groups. Oh yes, Godspeed You Black Emperor.
MVRemix: One moment, if there is one, where you decided you wanted to pursue music as a career, make it serious and whatnot…
Controller 7: I wouldn't call it a career. I am still going to school and I plan on getting a job. At this level there isn't all that money rolling in my way. I would love to do this as a career though.
MVRemix: What is your favourite cereal?
Controller 7: Cap N Crunch or Rice Krispies. I love the Cap'N, but it gets to be too sweet after awhile and sometimes they make the top of your mouth bleed. Rice Krispies are a good standby.
MVRemix: Are you originally from California?
Controller 7: I lived in San Jose, California for the first 20 years of my life. I moved to Berkeley this past year to go to school. I like Berkeley a lot. It is just way too expensive to live here.
MVRemix: What was your favourite school subject?
Controller 7: I am majoring in Sociology, but I like a lot of stuff. My favorite class was Human Sexuality, but I bet anyone who has taken that loved it. We watched this video that was produced by some university. It was basically a porno without the music. It is kind of uncomfortable watching a cheesy 70s instructional sex video with about 30 other guys and girls in the class.
MVRemix: Did you get in many fights as a kid?
Controller 7: Nope, no fights. I punched my brother a couple times. Some kid punched me in third grade or something, I wouldn't call that a fight though. We were playing kickball and I went to grab the ball and accidentally scratched him...he then punched me. My mom was a yard duty so I had my comfort zone.
MVRemix: Whats wrong with the world today?
Controller 7: I don't know, people aren't always nice.
MVRemix: Where did controller 7(the name) come from?
Controller 7: Controller 7 came about a couple years ago in this class I was taking at a junior college. It was a music class and we had to compose songs on a computer. I made my song and there was a glitch in it. The teacher couldn't figure out what it was and then he told me about some famous problem that happened a while ago. Evidently there was a problem in some software thing with Controller #7, which is the volume controller on computers and on sequencing type things. Anyways, he said he was going to call me Controller 7. He never did, but I made my first tape about a month later and I couldn't think of a name so I used that.
MVRemix: What were/are your past and current projects?
Controller 7: I made two tapes "A Waste of Paper and Tape" and "Cross-eyed Dyslexics." I don't really like either of them anymore so they are completely discontinued. I recently made a cd called "Left Handed Straw." I did a remix for the Deep Puddle Dynamics "Rain Men" 12 inch. I did several beats on the forthcoming Stuffed Animals album. I did two beats on Sole's "Bottle of Humans" album. I did a couple other random things for different albums and compilations.
MVRemix: OK..word association time. Please tell me the first word that comes to mind when you read the word
MVRemix: What is the best advice you've ever received?
Controller 7: Dont take bad money
MVRemix: How do you as an artist, feel about the Internet as a tool?
Controller 7: I like it for email and for spreading information. I have issues with people downloading stuff that hasn't come out yet. I don't really like it when artists who are struggling to get started have their stuff MP3ed without their request. Hopefully people will still buy stuff in the future. I don't know, I really don't know much about MP3s.
MVRemix: Where do you hope to be in 5 years?
Controller 7: Hopefully still making music and enjoying life.
MVRemix: What question are you tired of being asked?
Controller 7: People ask what Left Handed Straw means. It doesn't mean anything. You can't have a left-handed straw. I am not tired of being asked about it though. People don't ask me all that much.
Controller 7: I don't see many movies, but I really like Paul Thomas Anderson. He is the guy who did Boogie Nights and Magnolia. He uses really cool shots and I like how he incorporates music into his films.
MVRemix: If you didn't express yourself musically, how would you?
Controller 7: Maybe art. I don't know. I played the drums in fifth grade, so I have pretty much always done something musically. I used to love to draw.
MVRemix: What's something, anything, that you are absolutely sick of?
Controller 7: I don't know. Nothing really.
MVRemix: Tell me about left handed straw…
Controller 7: Left Handed Straw is not an album of mine, it is more of a mix tape of stuff I put together. It started as a two week project that was supposed to just be all the beats I have done for Anticon, but it ended up being a six month project that came out a little better. I had to go to school while I did it, so I was always limited on time, but I am proud of it. It is just like a little mix cd of some of the beats I did for Anticon albums, some of the records I sampled for some of those songs, and some of my favorite records. I make them all by hand. I cut every single cover out by hand using a razor and a metal edge.
