With the release of their first full-length album ‘Seven Bridges’ and now on the debut tour of the Pretty Lights live band, Adam Deitch and Borahm Lee, the duo behind renowned Pretty Lights Music act Break Science, would surely say that 2013 will be a year they never forget. Break Science is a two-piece composed of the aforementioned two, with Adam Deitch, the drummer for the neo-funk band Lettuce, playing drums also for Break Science, and Borahm Lee on the keyboard, an accomplished musician who has worked with the likes of Kanye West, Lee Scratch Perry, and more. WRR writer Jay Laiche recently had the great opportunity to talk with these two musicians about the new album, what it’s like on tour, and much, much more.
NOTE: ‘A’ signifies a response from Adam, ‘B’ signifies a response from Borahm.
B: We’re both born and raised out of New York, and we met through other mutual musicians we were working with, and also through the Fugees, Wyclef, Lauryn Hill camp, we were both working respectively with those artists. Adam started a group called the Adam Deitch Project when I first started getting into electronica, and I got recommended to play keys. We had another good friend in common (Stu Brooks from Dub Trio) who was a bass player and we did our first gig together with him.
How did you two then get involved with Pretty Lights Music?
A: I got recommended to Derek to be his drummer after his first drummer (Corey Eberhard) left. I did a fall tour with him in 2010 and we had a really good time. He got an interest in Break Science and we ended up on his label, and that’s how it evolved into us being the Pretty Lights live band right now.
How has the musical production and style of ‘Seven Bridges’ evolved from your previous releases?
B: We basically took everything we did before, but added on a lot of stuff we’ve gotten better at or learned about. It (our music) is always a constant work in progress. This was our first full-length record so we were able to fully express our music and emotions. We never limit ourselves to one method or one process. We do what works but we’re always trying new things as well. This record was a good opportunity to try a lot of different situations to showcase in one album.
What does ‘Seven Bridges’ mean to you two, both as a title and as an album in a whole?
A: It’s cool that Break Science is five and seven letters and so is ‘Seven Bridges’ but that was just a coincidence. We’re just trying to bridge a lot of different styles. In the words of Miles Davis, “take what you like from certain music and leave the rest.” Our concept is just taking a lot of different styles that we’ve been fortunate enough to be apart of and cultures of that style- like, for instance, Borahm was playing with Lee Scratch Perry so we have the reggae influence, we also have a funk influence, hip-hop, modern electronic- like a little bit of dubstep and a little bit of trap- so, ‘Seven Bridges’ is almost like seven major styles that we’re trying to gap.
B: Seven is also just a very symbolic style. It’s not like we’re restricting ourselves to only seven styles, but it’s just a sense of seeing how many different styles we can bridge. Also, we can see the seven bridges from our apartment in New York. Seven is just a number representing bridging many different things together, and all bridges lead into the city.
With the two of you having a lot of side projects and other work going on, how did the production of ‘Seven Bridges’ come about?
B: This record took a good two years almost. As you know, Adam and I are very busy and constantly on the road so we try to find time whenever we can. It’s not easy when you have so many shows going on. Everywhere from our apartments, to tour buses, hotel rooms, rooftops, really nice recording studios- every kind of imaginable space to work in to get it done. It was worth it because we got to hear it in a lot of different spaces and that’s why we think it has a lasting effect.
On ‘Seven Bridges’ you have a ton of vocalists. How did you go about picking who you wanted on certain tracks? Did you structure songs towards vocalists, or was it more of finding the right vocalist once a track was written?
A: For the most part, the song existed before the vocalist was there. So like, we do a track, and for instance, if the track needed some rap vocals in it, we would consider getting one of our MCs that we know are really dope to go on the track. Or, for example, if an early version of a track had some female vocals, well we know a lot of amazing female vocalists that could replace that and put a human spirit into it. That’s how we approached it. We replaced our samples, and cut up the vocals of the artists who we worked with and gave it that “sampley” kind of feel without actually cutting from other tracks.
What’s it like being with the Pretty Lights band now? Could you explain to us what’s going on while the band is up on stage?
A: Derek has a microphone through which he can talk to the band, and I have a microphone where I can talk to him, and also remind people of certain things and he can remind me of certain things. We have a full-on musical conversation about spontaneously arranging what we’re doing. It may be time for just the horns, or just the drums, or just the bass, so it’s our way of communicating things on the spot without it being pre-rehearsed and worked out. With that happening, it allows us to really dissect the arrangements every night and play them differently every night so it’s not a stagnant thing.
Have you ever run into any problems with communication?
A: No not at all, it’s more of a problem preventer. There are also a lot of funny things that go down- if, for instance, one of us gets drunk and starts talking crazy…you know, just anything can happen among us. Jokes start flying and all kinds of stuff. It’s a good time.
From the band’s first performance at Red Rocks, to the Future Analog Tour, there obviously has been a lot of training and practicing by you all. Some people complained at Red Rocks that night two had many of the same songs as night one. Could you describe what the practicing and preparation up to this tour has been like?
A: One point of playing a lot of the same songs was to educate the “DJ crowd” that when a band is playing, it’s not necessarily the same way every night. We wanted to showcase some of the different arrangements of the way we were doing stuff. We rehearsed every day for 12 hours a day for two weeks prior to Red Rocks, so it wasn’t a matter of rehearsing, it was just more of trying to get different arrangements of the original music we were playing. Derek was more concerned with playing the new breaks that we’re playing together and having those be the brand new creations of the band, and the band understood the concept of playing in a hip-hop context. That was the focus of rehearsals, as opposed to learning 50-75 new songs for both nights. A lot of people get that, but it’s good for the “DJ crowd” or just people who insist on having different songs every night, just to kind of get a feel for what we’re doing as far as arranging stuff.
Can you describe what it’s been like recording ‘Color Map’ and what to expect from the new live album?
B: With the production of ‘Color Map’ and being apart of this big whole machine that’s going on, we’re definitely growing from that and learning a lot from it. We don’t want to divulge too much about what’s to come with the live album, but we’re all writing, we’re all co-producing it with Derek, so it’s got this culmination of us all spending time together and coming out with new music every day and I think you guys will be pleased.
A: We kind of fine tuned the whole ‘Color Map’ process of recording, so we’re giving him a lot of elements to mess with and cut up and arrange in Ableton. It’s fun; he’s got a lot of really cool ideas and instrumentals to work with, so it looks like it’s going to be a good flow of creativity.
Break Science has been playing tons of afterparties on the Pretty Lights tour. What’s that like for you guys? What’s the transition from the band to Break Science like?
A: It’s a fresh of breath air, actually. Me and Borahm have spent so much time touring and working on the album, and to perform it live – now that the crowd knows a lot of the songs, knowing the drops and the words – it’s a lot of fun for us.
B: The only hard part is trying to get to the next venue in time! (laughs) That’s the challenge.
A: But actually getting up there and playing ‘Seven Bridges’ is awesome. The next big one, House of Blues in Chicago, we’re really trying to go big with that one. We’re really excited to do the afterparties, and we’re excited to play the new album.
Adam, I know you offered to give drum lessons to fans before tour started. How has that gone for you?
A: The reception was insane, like I was just really honored that I would get that many responses. It seems like there’s a network of drummers in every city who want to take the next step with their hip-hop, drum’n’bass, electronic meets jazz meets funk concepts. It looks like I’m going to maybe start doing some Skype lessons. I haven’t been able to have a chance yet to do a lesson because I’ve been so busy, but I’m putting everyone in a database and just eventually hit everybody up.
Borahm, you’ve got a background with Kanye West, Lee Scratch Perry, Kanye West, Lauryn Hill and more. How has that background influenced the Break Science sound and just your playing style in general?
B: Working with those great artists, I just tried to learn all I could and how to operate with that stage presence. From every little detail, I just tried to learn from people who did it and are doing it. Same with working with Derek. As Break Science, we could continue being freelance musicians but we both decided that we want to do our own thing and make our own music. And right now, we’re doing a little bit of both, and Derek is paving the way for a lot of our audience by sort-of creating this unique genre, so working with him is a great thing for Break Science. I couldn’t really say a specific thing about working with all these artists, but musically and also organizationally it’s helped me. Being a keyboard player or a sound person on a high-level gig, it’s my responsibility to make sure that the sounds and parts were concrete and sounded good. In those situations, you can’t mess up and you have to make sure you’re on point. It’s taught me to take everything importantly. With my background in doing sound design for them too, it’s helped me to make sounds for Break Science instead of just going with presets, and making samples and just making Break Science sound the way it’s supposed to sound.
Share On
