INTERVIEW: KINGDOM

For many, Ezra Rubin (aka Kingdom) is a party-rocking, globe-traveling DJ on the cusp of big things. With a new record label (Fade to Mind) and releases featuring R&B club-killing chicks, he might be a famous pop producer one day, as well. After living in NYC for 10 years, he even made the move to the pop paradise of Los Angeles. But here in Boston, we remember him as the loveable cat who would come occasionally to spin at Todo Mundo at the Milky Way or at Zuzu with DJ D’Hana. We’re just so gosh darn proud of him, and he returns this weekend.

Where are you right now, are you in New York?
No, I’m in LA, I moved to LA a little while ago.

Nice.
Yeah, it’s good but it’s very early though in the world time scheme, it can be strange sometimes you know?

That’s what happened when I moved out there, when I was living in San Francisco for two months and all of a sudden I was waking up at seven in the morning, you know? I would be the first one at work and they would be like “What the fuck are you doing here?” And I’d be like “Dude, I’m up.” But then it’s ten o’clock and I would be so tired.
Yeah, then I thought I called my mom at ten PM and she’d be like “It’s one AM!” And I’d be like “Oh fuck, I forgot.”

Takes some getting used to I guess.
Yeah, it does, but I miss Boston a little bit. I lived in New York for 10 years, but in August last summer I moved to my parent’s house near Framingham area and I lived there for a few months to gear up and pack and figure out what I wanted to bring. Then in October I drove out here, so I’ve been up here since October but I’ve been out of town and moving around a lot.

So you’re a DJ and you’ve been moving around a lot? Do you bring a lot of records? Because every time that I move my records they weigh a ton, do you bring them or put them in storage somewhere?
My records are all at my parents’ house. I love my vinyl collection but I’ve been playing CDs every day that I started DJing, I’ve ripped a few things but apart from CD’s, which are built into my routine, I really didn’t come out here with much, just clothes basically.

I know Electric Daisy Carnival out there and they had all of those massive events. It’s really hard to pull that off in New York unless you are on Randall’s Island. Catch me up on what you’re working on, I know that you’re playing Fabric and at every cool club in the United States, but production wise are you working with someone new or doing your own thing? What are you working on now?
I started to travel more as a DJ; I actually just got back last night from a European tour I played Fabric in London, which is a nightclub. That was the whole crew of the nightclub scene and that was really fun. And then record releases and I am also starting a label called “Fade to Mind,” and we’re doing club nights with that label. I’m working on this Fade to Mind Los Angeles party on September 30th and that is going to be a big deal for Fade to Mind.

When is Girl Unit?
Girl unit are playing September 30th out here in LA.

I saw Nguzunguzu when they played at the Midway Café with D’Hana. It was a last minute thing but it was really fun.
Yeah, so they’re going to be out here. I have an EP that came out with a featured vocalist called Naomi Allen, she is in an R&B singer and in a girl group called Electrik Red. Most people don’t know about it, but it is a Def Jam signed girl group. They had an amazing album produced by The Dream that came out a little over a year ago. That is the work that I am promoting right now.

Do you want to be a pop producer?

I do want to be a pop producer, but I only want to do it on my terms.

But there is kind of a standard way that you can enter that world, a lot of young artists will give their beats for free to a major label artist and go unaccredited.

I prefer if I can to build my profile as an independent producer to the point where I can get a corporate collaboration going. This recent single is the first song that I produced, the lyrics and the melody. I’ve done a little bit.

You wrote the melodies too?
Yeah, I wrote the lyrics and the melody and Naomi and I finished up the lyrics together.

You should talk to Ke$ha.
I like Ke$ha but she is a little more pop than the R&B slant that I go for. R&B has fallen out of favor in the charts in a way.

That’s what I mean, there’s a great article that I keep reading by Philip Sherburne in Spin about the rave revolution. There’s something going on and here you are in LA with the record industry around the corner, have you met with X manager or walked into Geffen yet?
There haven’t been a ton of industry connections happening yet, but this girl group Electrik Red has developed quite a fan base even though a lot of people haven’t heard of them yet. The group that Naomi Allen is from want to work together, so I will be working with them soon.

I’m also building my own little universe around my label.

I am going to be releasing a lot of music as selected singles and I can put a song out myself now, just to get it out there.

I have a lot from the past few years that I haven’t released, all different sounds.

That’s it for what I’m working on and I also have a new EP on Night Slugs that is going to be coming out in late October. In general things are going well.

Do you have any LA stories yet? Did you run into the guy from Entourage at a shoe shop or something like that?
I haven’t yet, I’ve been traveling so much that it cuts down my time here to about half as long. I think that I’ve lived here about four or five months so if you consider that I am out of town about half of the time.

But they’re all at LAX anyway; they’re all flying out so eventually you’ll bump into Tom Cruise or something.
I’m sure. LA has been the experience of leaving New York, a city where you are in the midst. LA isn’t really like that. I would have to be living on the West Side to run into a celebrity. I live on the East Side, near downtown, near my friends. In a big city you are part of the world that you put yourself in. It can be isolated, but I am enjoying living in a more suburban area. I enjoy collaborating with my crew and building it from there, DJing during the day at our apartment and producing things together late at night. It is really easy to drive to the water or the mountains; we do a lot of that.

There is a lot of nature nearby. We do a lot of crunchy things.

So is Kevin [Driscoll, aka Lone Wolf] part of your crew? Are you dragging him back into production here? Have you pulled him out of the classroom kicking and screaming?
He is definitely part of the crew because we are hanging out with him quite a bit. He hasn’t done a lot of music stuff that I have heard. I know he does still makes some edits and stuff. He really hasn’t turned anything over recently. We talk about music a lot and he definitely really likes what we do. He comes to the parties and is still really involved in what we do out here. He still have a lot of things on his plate to focus on now and he has a pretty amazing perspective on that.

I’m looking up some old Todo Mundo stuff here.
Totally, Yeah. But, I’m making hits with, DJ Rizzla, a lot. He’s going to be releasing something this fall on Fade to Mind.

Awesome.
Yeah, He is definitely part of the crew. I do come back to Boston every now and then. I still feel connected there. I feel like my roots are there.

Yeah it’s cool. I’ve had this conversation with a couple of people lately. There isn’t this kind of disconnect anymore, I guess because of the internet with Facebook and Twitter. Friends that move to New York, Volvox just moved there and I still talk to her quite a bit. You know, it feels like the world is smaller. There also isn’t really this “you moved away” feeling anymore. Who knows maybe we are just older.
Yeah totally.

You said you have a car now.
I have a car.

You picked driving right back up again?
Well, actually, I am a driver. I like to have access to a car. The ten years that I lived in New York from 2000 to 2010. I actually had a car there. I was living out in Brooklyn in a slightly off the beaten path area. I had parking and I managed to make it work. There were a couple of gaps here and there when I didn’t have one, but, essentially I was still driving while I was there. It wasn’t a huge adjustment, but I do drive a lot more here. Now I have to constantly try to not drive sometime because I get sick of being in the car.

How long does it take you to get places? You have to drive places to even get milk and stuff, right?
Well, I am lucky enough the side of town that I live in is more open. I can walk to the little shop that has the basics. It’s right nearby, just around the corner.  But, you know to go to the grocery store I have to get in the car and drive 10 minutes. It’s not that bad.

But, there are more vocalists out here to work with.

The thing that I have noticed probably since the last time we talked that there has been a big change in music in America. I think that a lot more people have gotten into this R&B/UK bass mixture.

Actually, it has become significantly more popular. Even if it’s mixing lots of genres together and dropping R&B club music and whatever UK bass sounds are happening at the moment.

Yeah that’s my shit these days. It’s all that Bristol stuff and what you’re doing.
Exactly.

It’s just crazy, everyday I hear of some new thing. It’s almost hard to listen to anything old, it’s like oh I have to hear this and I have to hear that.
There is so much new stuff coming out for sure.

You should have a USTREAM. You talk about having these people over to your house. When they’re DJing you should turn on the USTREAM.
Definitely, we have done a few. Sometimes the chat-rooms get a bit annoying. As the USTREAM’s get bigger and there are all these people watching them and being like track ID, track ID, track ID.

I wish we could shut the chat off and be like you are supposed to just be listening really.

--Right, right. Those are the trolls, the track ID trolls.

Seriously.

Well and it’s like give me a break why am I going to tell you. Give me break.
Yeah. I mean I tell them when something of mine is out and to check it out on iTunes.

Or use that iPhone app that recognizes songs. People use that and I’m like that’s not going to work. They are like no it always works, but it never recognizes the songs.

That’s because they are trying to use it at new music night.

Yeah, totally.

Alright. I’ll let you go and I’ll see you next Saturday.
Yeah cool.

FUNKTION
WITH KINGDOM, DJ RIZZLA, G NOTORIOUS AND MORE

FRI 9.23.11
GOOD LIFE
28 KINGSTON ST.
BOSTON
617.451.2622
10PM/21+/$5
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@GOODLIFEBAR
KKINGDOMM.COM
@KKINGDOMM