It’s been quite sometime since I’ve caught up with the bossman to chat about music and life or to grab a good burger before going hitting the record shop to see what he’s feeling these days and with the way that the Coronavirus has been spreading, it looks like it’ll be sometime before we catch up in person again. One thing is for sure though is even during these times, Skeme Richards is always busy so I figured what better time than the present to lock him down for a quick telephone call especially since his new mix CD for Diggers Dozen dropped.
I feel like it’s been a while since we’ve linked up, even though we do shoot a text a couple times a week. I see you’ve got quite a lot on your plate lately with your new streaming app on NerveFM and the new mix for Diggers Dozen.
Honestly, during these crazy times that’s all an artist can do is be in create mode. If we’re going to be on lockdown, then why not make the most of that time? I’m a homebody anyway and when I’m not traveling, I’m in the lab creating or thinking about creating. When all this is over, I want to have a years worth of projects in the can ready to be released.
So before we get into the new mix for Diggers Dozen, what’s up with the new streaming app?
I’m working with the folks at NerveFM who recently put together a streaming service for artist to stream their product and have fans subscribe directly to you. So I’ve knocked out a bunch of mixes and exclusive content for my subscribers of all sorts. It’s a really dope way to give people something exclusive. All people have to do is go to https://nerve.fm/skemerichards/ to subscribe, then download the app and you’re all set. I do new mixes weekly so there’s always new content plus some really rare other stuff.
Let’s talk about your new mix for Diggers Dozen because I know you love doing physical product that people can actually hold. http://www.diggersdozen.com
First I have to say that I love what Diggers Dozen is doing and how they are preserving the culture in a traditional way but still keeping it relevant. They do a monthly live Diggers Dozen series in the UK then from time to time they’ll do a mix cd edition with guest DJ’s and collectors which mine is volume 9. It took me a second to think about what theme I wanted to do (because you know I love themes) and after listening to the other mixes, I knew I wanted to go left with it and since Japan is my favorite place to travel to, I did an all Japan mix. The mix features a dozen heavy funk, psych, soundtrack joints pulled from the bag. All were 45’s except one of them I think. The thing I really love about the series is that they keep it the way it’s always been done, “Originals Only, No Bootlegs, No Compilations, No Reissues” which is what separates diggers from each other.
So what was your selection process for pulling only 12 records out of all of the Japanese records that you own?
I tried to go across the board and choosing from the extremely rare to the under the radar slept on common to the oh this is weird but funky and should be sampled to the this is just a dope record. Also no one outside of Japan has ever done this type of mix before and being that I’ve been digging Japanese records for years, it was kind of a no brainer.
So what’s next up on the agenda for you?
I’ve got a couple of cassette releases spread out through out the year, a 45 and keeping good music lovers covered with content on both here at Nostalgia King as well as my NerveFM app.
Always good to catch up with you chief, until next time!
-Massimo Chao