The interviews with The Make-Up, Blonde Redhead, The Spinanes, Jonathan Richman, Versus, The Swirlies, and Butterglory are all from when Dan was living in North Carolina in 1995 and 1996.
The rest are current.
questions
If you were making a mix of disturbing songs, what would you put on it?
If you had to pick one song to start every mix, what would it be?
How do you title your mixes? Favorite title?
Any helpful hints?
Rebecca Gates - Keep the songs short. Use lots of genres and lots of songs. Guided by Voices is always good for a mix tape. A trademark of my tapes is that my sides always end in the middle of songs and sometimes I’ll get bored with a song while I’m taping it so I’ll stop it and go on from there. I don’t bother to rewind the tape and record over it. I’ve gotten a lot of complaints so I’m trying to work on that.
Debby (Butterglory) - It is best to try give to people who are not very critical and sort of unsuspecting and sort of impressionable young people. I make many tapes for my younger sister who isn’t too opinionated so I can push what I’m listening to on her. (Debby imitates her sister- "Oh yeah, I liked that. I liked that. It was all good.") Try to guide them in the right direction. I started her at a young age so I think that she’s come out okay.
Matt (Butterglory) - Record the whole record. Get to know your LPs from beginning to end.
Steve (The Make-Up) - The most important thing is to maintain a groove, a lot of problems with mix tapes is people try to make them too eclectic which is fine. I’m not saying eclectic is bad.
Simone (Blonde Redhead) - Set the levels correctly.
Amedeo (Blonde Redhead) - Pick songs that people might not know that they might like.
Kazu (Blonde Redhead) - Make sure you can dance to it. 2 turntables ideally. Some old soul music.
Adam (Adult) - Make spines on your CD-Rs so they are easy to read when in a stack or on a shelf.
Skippy (March) - Don't think too much. Let it flow. You will pick the best next logical song in the chain if you just let yourself get in an unconscious state. Keep your library floating around in your head instead of labouring over it, combing through the stacks. See how it sounds at the end. It could be brilliant.
Mark Mallman - If you want them to really pay attention, make it on a cassette not a CD. This way the person has to go out of their way to listen to it.
Calvin Johnson - Don't forget the 45s!
Bob Weston - I usually just listen to whole records. Or let the radio DJ make up a "mixed-tape" live on the spot while I listen to him on the radio.
Jason (The Bronx)
- I'm a novice, you guys are the ones devoting cross country trips to the
ghost of mix tape past, and I tend to fall behind on the whole report card
thing too. So obviously I have no real advice for you, the devoted, serious
students of mixtapes.
Rishi (Space Mitten) - You can't go wrong with The Doobie Brothers.
Jamie (Leka) - 1. If you can learn a few basic things in Photoshop, you'll never run out of cover art ideas. 2. If you can utilize time and materials from your job and not feel guilty about it then that's definitely the way to go. 3. You should always give feedback to a person who made something for you. But someone who requires you to grade the mix they made for you did it more to satisfy their own ego than to give you some enjoyment. Requiring grades is different from asking "Did you like this?"
Jen (All Girl Summer Fun Band) - If the record skips, leave it in. But for chrissakes don’t let the tape run out in the middle of a song.
Tim (The Sames) - Don't be afraid to keep the mix for yourself if after completing it you are especially excited with the way it came out.
Jack (The National Trust) - Don't go changin'…
Chris M. (The Hecklers)
- Don't be too smart for your own good.
Jeremy (Arctic Skies) - Don't put too many instrumentals in a row unless that's the point of the mix. Too many similar sounding breakbeat tracks in a row can kill a mix. Try to avoid anything with children singing.
Dan (Crispus Attucks) - There is a fine line between only giving someone stuff that you know they will like and giving someone music that you think they will like. The key is to never make a mix for someone of music that they should like but you know that they won’t. However, when Rob "grows up" at the end of "High Fidelity" by contemplating making Laura a mix of "stuff she’s heard of, and full of stuff she’d play" is taking it a little far. I would never make a mix for someone full of stuff they already know. What’s the point? Expanding horizons and exposing new bands to people should be the goal of a mix.
Eric Plumley - When one of your old ladies asks for a c-note for her trip to the clinic, call her bluff and tell her ok, but you’re going with. This tidbit would have just saved one of my boys a few hundred. You can’t trust some of these sluts anymore.
