Ben Niespodziany also known as Neon Pajamas heads Mishka Records, is an indefatigable music enthusiast and one of my favorite writers in hip hop. His releases with Mishka Records have added enormously to the culture and created sounds that we otherwise would never have heard. I have consistently been turned on to new music through Ben’s writing and he’s been mentioned frequently in the interviews that I’ve done with artists as being rare and totally sincere in his intention of bringing musicians a bigger audience. When I mentioned this to Ben his response was modest. “I can’t play music, but I love to listen and I love to write. Why not spread good sounds?”
As of today Ben has curated ten instrumental projects: Three in the Windchill series which focus on the producers of Chicago, Surf n Turf is a compilation of nationwide instrumentals and Seasick and Jetlag are comprised of music from producers worldwide. These projects have put the producers center stage and I believe the exposure has also influenced many in the audience to pay more attention to beats. W3NDCH3LL is upon us. The first two installments, Soul and Space are out, Slap drops on Friday, May 29. Musician and artist Via Rosa made the artwork for all three EPs.
“The Soul segment kickstarts our Chicago adventure (hence the tour bus in the artwork provided by Via Rosa), taking you back into the past for some sample-heavy goodness. The entire project was mixed and engineered by Kawaakari at Classick Studios in Chicago.” Ben
You have brought a lot of appreciation and shine to producers. Have you always been drawn to instrumentals? Any particular producers get this started for you?
Yes, absolutely! In college, I really started listening to instrumentals when I was writing and doing homework. Blockhead, Black Milk, Madlib, and Yonderboi really started doing it for me. Then names like Wax Tailor and Emancipator and L’Orange crept into the rotation and I was hooked.
Do you play any instruments?
Nope. I played trumpet for three years in middle school and never practiced. I took guitar lessons for three months in high school and hated it. I love listening though. It’d be cool to learn piano.
When did you start DJing? Did you receive training or self taught?
Yeah, that all started at Beauty Bar in like February of 2014. Myself and my buddy Ethan (who helped with mixing/intros for a bunch of the albums I’ve curated) were asked to spin for a show put on by Kyle Garcia (Smoko Ono’s older brother). Ethan and I just went back and forth on iTunes and had a blast, but it probably sounded horrible for everyone else. I eventually downloaded Virtual DJ and played around with it for a few hours a day and now I’m pretty comfortable with it.
I understand you got about 150 tracks submitted for W3NDCH3LL, how tough was it narrowing down to 39?
For sure, it was tough. We received 144 instrumentals from 47 producers. I started writing down all the producers I missed on the first two compilations (Glassic and Noah Sims especially) and I kept reaching out to artists until I was in a bit over my head. I love the way it turned out, but hopefully it isn’t too much to digest for the public.
How do you put the instrumental projects together, are all the producers invited to submit? Did any unsolicited applicants make it to the finished project?
I make a list of artists I want on the project and reach out to them. Once they start flowing in, I might make a few mentions on Twitter for open applicants. I was a bit more vocal about this newest one (W3NDCH3LL) so I received a lot of outside submissions. And yeah, a bunch of people I didn’t reach out to made the cut. Shout-out to Savier. Both beats he sent me blew me away.
How did you go about finding the tracks for Seasick and Jetlag, instrumentals from the entire world?
That took so long. I have over 50,000 songs on my iTunes so I scrolled, writing down names of producers that I knew weren’t American. That’s how I got a lot of artists I hadn’t listened to since like 2009 (BLK JKS, Yonderboi, Arts the Beatdoctor), then I browsed Soundcloud for the newer artists. Italdred Records are the homies and they go nuts with instrumental compilations, so I really jumped into their comps as well.
Any particularly funny stories with that? I can imagine possible language complications, time zones…
I wanted a producer from every continent and it was really hard finding a producer from South America. I finally reached out to this guy SVT, who makes really cool, Adult Swim/donut style instrumentals, and I speak Spanish, and he speaks really broken English, but refused to respond to me in Spanish. I always read his messages three or four times trying to figure out what he really meant to say in English.
Have you ever been surprised by how well a project does or doesn’t do?
Not really. I think all the instrumentals projects I’ve released thus far have been average in plays/circulation. We dropped CRASHprez’s album, more perfect, back in February, and that one really took flight and it took me by surprise.
I love Treestrumentals, was much time involved in putting that together?
So much time. The idea popped into my head last fall and I reached out to Tree. After months and months of sending instrumentals and pitching artwork submissions, we finally went to Tree’s crib and shot the documentary (with Bryan Lamb and Andrew Zeiter, who shot the artwork). Once that happened, the momentum was there and we released it about a month and a half later. I love that tape. Thanks to Kawaakari for mixing it at Classick Studios.
Who are you currently writing for in addition to Mishka?
Pigeons & Planes. I started doing a column with them where I interview artists and we talk about their first time recording/spending time in the studio. The first one was with Aesop Rock. I’ve also been writing for Viper Magazine. Our summer issue just dropped and I interviewed Jean Deaux and Joe Freshgoods. I used to write for Potholes in My Blog, but they kind of put the site on hiatus 🙁
Do you write fiction as well?
Haha yes I do, but that’s for myself and for my close friends. I have a few children’s books that no one will ever read, and I write little quick stories (like one or two pages each) that about ten people have read, including Zach from 1833. So rare.
Favorite bands at the moment?
Ratatat! They’re back! After being quiet for six years, they have an album coming out in July. I can’t wait. Easily my favorite band. I also really like TV on the Radio and Glass Animals. Chicago based, I have to shout-out The Walters and Beach Jesus.
Summer reading suggestions?
I need a separate interview for this question. Train Dreams by Denis Johnson might be my favorite book. Read every sentence twice. Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned by Wells Tower is my favorite book of short stories. Narcopolis by Jeet Thayil for some of that poetic weird. Much love to Lemony Snicket, Karen Russell, Salman Rushdie, Tom Robbins, Mark Z Danielewski, and Roald Dahl.
Do you ever get overwhelmed with music and need some quiet? What do you do in those cases?
Never. Well, I can’t say never, because I had too much hip-hop at SXSW and needed a break, so I went and found some live bands. I’ll get tired of one genre or one artist, but I’m never overwhelmed with music. The only quiet time I have is when I’m sleeping and showering.
Do you have a favorite interview that you’ve done?
So many. The in-person interviews are always the best, but I loved the opportunity to interview Lemony Snicket even if it was via email. Hurt Everybody delivered both times. Leather Corduroys were fun. Chuck Inglish was funny as hell. Papi Beatz and Knox Fortune was a really cool piece.
What do you do when an interview subject is really dull?
I pump up the intro as best I can. I’ve had a bunch of artists give me brief answers, or artists who don’t say much with a lot of words. When that’s the case, I try to compensate with visuals and a strong lead.
Where are you now on your planned 23 releases this year?
W3NDCH3LL will be 14, 15, 16. I made that statement in January, and I won’t retract it because it’s a fun goal, but I’m turning 27 on May 27th (tomorrow). My golden birthday, as they say, so why not change that goal from 23 to 27? We’ll see haha
Happy golden birthday Ben! We look forward to the rest, I’ll bet he ends up at 27 for the year. For further insight, also read Ben’s Existential Little Interview with 1833.
“While Soul remains stuck in the past, Space, the part two segment, skyrockets you into the future of Chicago, with plenty of bass and plenty of space. Strap on your jetpack and prepare for lunar mode. We are now orbiting the Windy City, above the clouds, nearing zero gravity. Did I take the metaphor too far?” Ben
