Tell us about Captain Funkaho
Back in the late 90s days of 4-track cassettes I was living in oakland.
This guy use to come around wanting to borrow my machine, but I was afraid
he was going to sell it, so we just recorded some stuff at my spot. I was
into early 80s space jams – jonzun crew, ose – and he was into goats and
guitar solos, so it just happened like that.
We got a 45 out on stones throw that no one ever got paid for. I\’m trying
to figure out who I can sue for that.
> -Who or what is your primary artistic inspiration?
Minor inspirations are always changing – I spent an hour last night in a
book by the illustrator Raymond Pettibon, he\’s always been a favorite – but
"primary" inspiration? Probably just staying busy.
> -You and Wolf are old friends right? Aside from that connection, how did you
> end up bein the Stonesthrow in-house artiste?
We met in High School, doing music, various projects like that. Back then
I realized I really liked doing the demo tape covers more than the music, so
it evolved from there.
Jump forward a few years later and Madlib comes on the scene. Wolf played me
this low-fi record madlib had recorded on a cheap cassette machine just like
the one used for Funkaho. It was the Quasimoto album THE UNSEEN – instant
classic to me. He asked me to do the cover – stuff I scribbled out at a
coffee shop over a couple afternoons, but then had to spend a month figuring
out the computer end. After that I was basically doing stones throw all the
time, but it wasn\’t planned out at all. Egon came on and starting running
the biz around then and stones throw moved into being a real group company,
beyond being wolf\’s one-man deal.
> -Do you have a fave record sleeve that you have done for Stonesthrow?
Right now, YESTERDAYS UNIVERSE. It\’s props to John Jagel\’s cover for
Ornette Coleman\’s ORNETTE from \’61. I met John Jagel in NYC on the day
Dilla died, and he passed away not long after that himself.
The one that bugs me most is DONUTS, probably my favorite album on the
label. It was a crazy time for Dilla, so we ended up with this video still
of him for the cover. Good photo but bad quality. I actually wake up
nights thinking about how we might fix it on the repress.
> -Have you done cover work for anyone else, aside from the crew?
I did a few for Blue Note, the jazz label. David Axelrod is a favorite of
mine, and I got to do his Capitol/Blue Note anthology. He signed it, "fuck
you, go back to nebraska." he\’s a little cranky.
> -Do you exhibit or do any t-shirt print design type of work?
Nah.
