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Name: Dan "the Automator" Nakamura
Trademark saying or philosphy: I guess my philosophy
is not summed up that easily but, in general it's enjoy what you
do and do the best you can do at the time because A.) you'll probably
be better tomorrow, but you can't keep pushing off till tomorrow
and B.) It's like you know most mistakes or decisions you make
in music and probably in life to a degree..If you follow what
your feeling it was the right decision at the time even if maybe
you'll go out later and go done that now, we all grow up and look
at decisions through life and go i wouldn't have done that...but
if you were never able to trust umm your instincts and do it...you
would never get anywhere...you'd still be in the beginning.
Hometown: San Francisco
The first record you ever bought/owned? The
first record I ever owned my parents bought me and it was Saturday
Night Fever album, there was a couple 45's I had bought maybe
before that but I dont know what they were or I know what they
were but I know they were like top 40 hit's from the top 10 at
that time, but the first album was Saturday Night Fever.
Most influential records(s) in your life? Well
there are alot or records that have altered the way I about music
but one I want to talk about is Do You Like Scratching
by the Worlds Famous Supreme Team, it was kinda intresting cuz
the skill level was moderate which was what made it intresting
I can hear t and go these guys are rubbing records and I want
to do this, I mean it came out fairly early about 82-83 not quiet
sure it was rite when uh people were thinking about hip-hop and
rap music and the rhyming, I'm from the west coast so like that
was the first exposure as far as I ever knew, but that record
Do You Like Scratching had alot of movement and stuff that
was a little ahead of it's time for what was going on I mean there
was scratching in other elements in stuff but that was really
the first time I could really pin it down and know what was going
on.
When did you first DJ? I dont know exactly but
I guess it was about 1983...84 sometime around there. I was just
starting to DJ, but in 84 I was DJ'ing at various party's, high
schools and stuff.
What is most memorable performance of your DJ career?
Well, I mean over the years...one of the great shows i ever did
as far as i'm concerned wasn't nececarily a great show, in the
realm of shows, but i did a house of blues show with Prince
Paul one year it was a purely dj'd thing, uh it was the night
before the Tibetan Freedom concert in Chicago, Wisconsin..Chicago
so it was umm it was pretty packed, and we went out there to play...we
had just...I think Handsome Boy Modeling School wasn't
out yet but we were about to debut it and umm we brought it out
there and we were playing records and talking to the crowd kinda
in general and we brought out Del with us...Del tha Funkee
Homosapien...and he had just done this song for us called
"magnetizing" and "magnetizing has this incredibly
long verse...it's like 26-28 bars..it's weird and um Del comes
out there and starts rhyming...by the 8th bar he's totally lost
place of where he is and all the words are wrong....but he keeps
rhyming cause Del can freestyle and that's cool, cause Hiero's?
freestyle...haha hiero's! But he keeps going and going and going
and then all of a sudden he just stops when the hook ends...and
to the life of me to this day..I can't figure out how he did that.
In your opinion who is best DJ of all time?
DJ QBert. While obviously there's all different kinds of DJ's,
but Q's probably the best DJ there ever was...he's brought so
many different things out there and so many different levels of
skill. He can do things with records that no one thought was possible.
Partial AUTOMATOR Discography: Automator, Music
to be murdered By (1988), Automator, King of the beats
(radioactive records 1990), Dr. Octagon, Dr. Octagon
(Bulk, 1996/(Dreamworks, 1997), The Automator, A Better Tomorrow
(Ubiquity, 1996), Dr. Octagon, Dr. Octagonecologyst,
Dr. Octagon, Insrumentalsyst (Dreamworks, 1997), The
Automator, Bombay the Hard Way (Motel 1998) Part II,
Handsome Boy Modeling School, So…How’s your girl?
(Tommy Boy, 1999), The Automator, A Much Better Tomorrow (75
Ark, 2000), Deltron 3030, Deltron 3030 (75 Ark, 2000),
Gorillaz, Gorillaz (Parlophone/EMI, 2001), Wanna
Buy a Mokney, mixtape session (2003), 12" "Bear
Witness Part 3" (2003), Dan the Automator, Music to Make
Love to Your Old Lady, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (Dan
the Automator with Prince Paul & Mike Simpson), Sammy’s
Romanians (Dan the automator & El-P).... and many more that
he contributed to such as Cornershop and track on a BOMB Hip Hop
flexidisk that came free with the zine.
Best website or way for folks to find out more about
you? You know I really don't know I mean there is a www.DantheAutomator.net
that's coming up soon...
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