Q&A: Dam-Funk shares his thoughts on modern funk and how music has changed over the years

Damon Riddick, also known as Dam-Funk, will be performing today as part of Campus Events Commission’s free concert series. Riddick, an L.A.-based modern funk musician, spoke to Daily Bruin’s Marjorie Yan about modern funk, his recording process and his view on how music has changed over the years.

Daily Bruin: You say you stand for modern funk. How would you describe modern funk?

Damon Riddick: I would consider it to be the era after The Diggers, after looking for 45 James Brown sets and chicken scratch guitar links. … It’s just modern because I wanted to make sure that when people would reference me as far as being connected with the musical style of funk, it’s not that platform shoes, commercial-type funk. It’s not a comedy type of thing. It’s more about the messages involved and melodic chorus and synthesizer funk.

DB: What’s your recording process like?

DR: My recording process is starting from scratch. I don’t use samples. I play everything live all the way through. I record a song for eight minutes and it is eight minutes (of) music interactions with the listener. It won’t be a loop phrase … every minute, it’s human interaction. The note I slipped on, you’ll hear that. It’s just like the aesthetic of a live band. … Some of my inspirations are Prince and Stevie (Wonder). I’m still making each track, laying it live all the way through. The drums are the only thing that’s sequenced. I like to keep the drums sequenced into the grooves. I don’t use plug-ins too much.

DB: You grew up listening to heavy metal and Kiss. How did they inspire, if they did at all, the music you make?

DR: In terms of music, just the freedom. Metal and those types of genres were the cousins of rock and roll, and funk is this traditional style of soul and R&B. … I related to metal all those years because it was like we were the ones swept to the side. That’s why I felt funk is connected with those subgenres. As far as metal groups, especially Rush, they took you to a fantasy type of world. … Metal had a fantasy type of thing to it. The big giant posters I had on the walls, they gave you a little more to hold on to as far as the regular radio rock. … I never turned my nose up to heavy metal.

DB: What do you think of how music has changed within the past 10 or 15 years or so? Has it influenced your music?

DR: Later sounds that came never rocked me off of my bass. … It just never really moved me because even though I enjoyed drum and bass and a lot of different styles out there, … I always stuck to the funk. The way I noticed it’s been changing, … a lot of music stores that made it really easy … to pick up a box or a program and make “music,” … you really have to navigate nowadays … within a big crowd of music makers. It’s easy thinking that you can make music just because it’s easy to go to Guitar Center and buy a program. … I respect all types of music being made. I’ve been trying to get to legacy level to leave it for people who come after me. The thing is, I do consider progressing music and funk. I just don’t forget my elders. … It’s not about a cool factor, it’s about a real factor.

DB: How would you describe your music to someone who’s never heard it before?

DR: My stuff is influenced by things I’ve lived and seen in Pasadena and on the West Side of L.A. It has that street vibe to it and the experiences we all know and are familiar with. I like to put the beautiful chords in it and it just makes it music that people would only scratch the surface within the urban experience. There are a lot of beautiful experiences as well, and I want to let people know that. It’s related to beautiful music but still something you can beat down the street.

Email Yan at [email protected].