Salva is all about the real. In a world where an email’s CC field can be the closest that rappers get to their producers, the LA resident has endeavoured to create a project where things happen in reality. Peacemaker, his latest full length project, is a who’s who game of epic proportions. Recorded at Red Bull Studios Los Angeles and loaded with “futuristic street tracks” that range from sparse rap fire-starters to G-funked groovers, the album roll calls Freddie Gibbs, E-40, Schoolboy Q, Young Thug, Kurupt, Problem, Paul Fisher, Ruckazoid and Starship Connection, no less.
Ahead of Salva’s BR exploits alongside album buddies Kurupt, Freddie Gibbs and Problem, we swooped in on some Skype time to find out about the whole project-making process; along with enticing info about musical fads, Roger Federer and of course, rap punctuality.
The vast majority of the project is firmly stationed within rap, but it opens with the funk of “Freaking U”. What was your thinking process behind the track order?
The funky shit is at my core because I love funky, melodic music, and it has been since I put out my first release back in 2011. It was always that style versus the more UK-based stuff that I was into at the time. I’ve always kept that in there with my remixes and obviously, the guys like Ruckazoid are my funk squad. I try to work with them on R&B production when I do pop tracks. I just peppered those in there to show how wide my versatility is, but this is most definitely a rap project. I wanted features on every track.
Not only is it a rap project, but rap in its healthiest, most stripped back form. There are smidgens of the old school west coast approach in there as well as your ventures into the new. Was that always the plan?
I come from hip-hop and have been DJing for about 15 years. I was exposed to house music and everything at the time because I grew up in Chicago, so I was lucky enough to get a lot of those sounds starting as a turntablist and being involved in DJ culture like that. I was always a fan of the whole hood, Southern rap movement, and I guess you can use the ‘trap’ word to coin the electronic stuff that’s been coming out for the last couple of years (which I’ve inadvertently become a part of because of my remixes). This is my statement; a futuristic take on rap music because stylistically, that’s what I wanted. I didn’t want all sorts of crazy build-ups and breakdowns, I just wanted straight up rap songs with some veterans – and some of the new guys, too.
More than anything, I think I recorded 25 tracks with rappers over the last year, so I have a ton of dope stuff that’s also not on here. There are some bigger names on that list but for one reason or another, I sequenced the record how it was. I got a lot of tracks that I’m sitting on because I didn’t blow my whole load with this. On the flip side, the rappers that I worked with on the record have me on beats on their records so I didn’t pay anybody to be on the record. It was all very organic.
How much of a difference did it make to actually be one-on-one with the lyricists?
I sat down with pretty much every rapper on the record, which is why it took me a year, because I just did things how I thought the right way of doing them was. Not just emailing somebody and getting a verse back. Especially with these collaborations that are three or four guys on a record, I was in the studio with all of them, helping curve their stuff. Even doing some lyric direction and arrangement direction for the rappers. Plus I mixed and mastered it all myself so this is definitely all of my shit.
It was really ambitious. I think, undoubtedly, the only reason I was able to pull this off is because I’m in LA. It’s not because of my hype or my Soundcloud, it’s because you really have to drop in on these guys. The scene has so many beatmakers, and especially in rap, the radio is full of shitty, throwaway rap beats that a homie makes. It’s really about the hit song these days. I aspire to do stuff like Timbaland or Dr. Dre but the average street rap song is not about musical prowess. It’s a time where a lot of the beats aren’t really complex; anyone can do them. With so many rappers and beats out there, the only real way to execute anything properly is to actually hang out with people. It probably took some of them back and a lot of the guys probably thought I was a house producer because I’m white, so I had to prove to a lot of these cats that it was real shit. A lot of it was gaining respect. Now I have really good relationships with these guys. Especially some of the OGs like Kurupt, who I grew up listening to – that’s really dope.
Logistically, was it quite difficult to organise? Rappers are notoriously known for their bad punctuality.
I think a good portion of the stuff that I did was at my studio, which is a small but really functional joint in LA. With Schoolboy Q, we worked at a really fancy studio while he was working on his album. Nicki Minaj was next door and there were security guards around. He was polite but didn’t really say much during the session. Freddie Gibbs, Problem and Kurupt, these are guys I’ve had half a dozen sessions with. The people that I brought out to Boiler Room are the people I connected most with.
Alongside the release of the project, you’ve also gone and designed some merch. I need a Roger Federer shirt in my life…
[Laughs] I don’t want to have shirts with my name on it because that’s super corny, but we wanted some merch that people would like. We’ve got about 20 more shirt designs to come, so it’s a slow build, but we’ve got some crazy designs that look really crisp and aesthetically pleasing – hopefully it will kick off.
Was it a case of you catering your ideas around the rappers, or was it very much you coming in with a template and the rappers slotting into that?
A little of both. Problem is very production minded and he knows how he wants every bar to sound, so the track “Motivated” was a co-production that we made together from scratch. For the guys that are into that, I love it – I’m totally into collaborating; if anything, that’s a better creation. Other rappers don’t really have the mind for that and just prefer to rap over a beat. I definitely wanted things to sound West Coast-centric, so there’s a lot of that with that Chicago/Southern influence too. With most of my catalogue, I like to be diverse.
Diversity is a great trait to have. It’s way too easy and dangerous to get sucked into fads. How do you feel about operating in a world where DJs and producers are shifting towards rock star status and away from their traditional role as behind-the-scenes orchestrators?
I wanted features because the art of being a producer has been lost a little bit. The Rick Rubins and the Mike Deans have something special about them where they provide all their energy into something for someone else to apply an equal amount of energy and creation. That’s when I feel that the best songs are made. Taking nothing away from instrumental beatmakers, because I do that too, but maybe in the pop/rap context, there’s something special in the role of the producer as producer. Unfortunately that has been lost and more so in the States.
I follow a lot of UK/European music and as soon as BBC hit iPlayer, that was it for me, because that’s where I cut my teeth. So seeing artists like Jackmaster move on stylistically, you can see the frustration with some of their stuff moving into more of a pop context. It’s fashion basically. There’s not a place for the technical DJ. I try not to be a relic and say things are fucked, but things have definitely changed. Even things like, when to play a song, when’s the right time to cut all the music and play an old soul song. Crowd control. Maybe that’s down to how the crowds have moved on. I was doing a BBC residency and touring around every couple of weeks, plus having a baby meant I hadn’t got out to Europe in a while.
Out in the US, the club scene has been ruined because it’s basically people throwing a mini-festival in the club. I’m talking LED walls and all this smoke. It’s fun and everything, but you can’t put a DJ like Benji B in front of a bunch of frat boys, which is unfortunate. The culture is still there but the culture isn’t popular. I try to mix both, as you can see from Boiler Room. It’s a lot of bangers but also a lot of tasteful stuff; just trying to make it all meet in the middle. This album is also a calling card, I wanted A&Rs and rappers to take notice and understand that I’m not some random 20-year-old beatmaker. I can bring more to the table – like arranging, mixing and mastering the whole album. My aim is to be a big producer one day.
Salva is joined by Kurupt, Problem, Freddie Gibbs & The Starship Connection in Los Angeles for the Boiler Room to celebrate the release of his new album Peacemaker. Check the session page for that HERE. You can also catch his previous appearance from a while back below: