What producers influenced your sound?

All the usual suspects: Primo, Large Professor, Pete Rock, of course. Also, Jel, Buck 65, and Sixtoo are huge influences.

You seem to have a good sense of tone and subtlety in your music. What do you attribute that to?

Mix tapes. Doing them helps you see the whole, instead of just 10 songs. It makes you look at music a little differently. Also, my love of kraut-rock and psychedelic rock made me very interested to add those elements to hip-hop.

Why were Sage Francis and Buck 65 the only rappers on your debut album?

They’re my favourites. That, and because I had an overall idea for the album and I knew they could get with it. I dunno if any other rappers would understand what I was trying to do.

Are there any other rappers you’d like to work with?

If we’re talking pure fantasy, I’d love to work with Kool G Rap, circa 1991. Here and now, I’d like to work with Busdriver, as well as with some rock singers. Actually, I’ve never wanted to make instrumental music more than I do now. I’m getting really hungry to make a full-length instrumental record. I want to make a down and dirty, hard instrumental album with no rappers.

How did you end up with Lex as your label? You seem to be loosely affiliated with Anticon.

Sage Francis came out with the Non-Prophets album on Lex and he played some of the work in progress that I was working on, and they really liked it. Very early on, they contacted me and told me they were interested. So when I finished it, I thought it would be a good idea to go with them.

Which is harder: scratching or making beats?

Making beats. You know what: actually, it depends on where your head’s at. It all boils down to skill. It’s like saying what’s harder, drums or guitar?

What would one do to get a beat from you?

Call me crazy, but I don’t like remixing things that I don’t like. I’ve had it a couple times where people have asked me to remix something and they’re, like, just "Send me a beat CD." I’m, like, "Well, let me hear what you want me to remix, and if I like it I’m totally down." And they act like I’m crazy for asking that question. People treat beats like an afterthought, when they’re talking about the actual music. They’d have to pay me some money, obviously, but much more important to me than money is the fact that I like them as artists.

How did you link up with Sixtoo for this tour?

Sixtoo’s been a homie for years and years, and we happen to be of a similar mindstate in a lot of ways. He’s found a way to interpret his music live with musicians and samplers. I’d much rather be in a band than just doing DJ stuff. So when we thought about doing the show, it was a pretty obvious thing to do.