Talking To: Vagrant Real Estate
On SWEETHEARTGRIPS, Vagrant Real Estate’s latest album, the Aberdeen based producer disregards both genre and international borders. With elements from ambient, trip-hop and grime, and features from musicians across the globe, this album is a powerful example of the artistic freedom the internet now allows.
This 55 minute stunner of an album samples 60’s rock legends and modern day sit-com writers alike. The entirety of the production, arrangement and artwork has been handled by Vagrant Real Estate himself. This is a masterfully crafted album that could only exist in 2019.
We asked Vagrant Real Estate a few questions about him and his music.
Take us through your setup.
I currently use FL Studio, it’s seen as the entry level DAW to some but after experimenting with Logic and Ableton I’ve always found myself gravitating back to it. In terms of hardware I have an Akai MPD32 for drum programming and a midi keyboard, I normally run Omnisphere through that. That’s probably my most used plugin, it’s so powerful and versatile.
What’s the Scottish hip-hop scene like? Any artists we should check out?
In terms of Aberdeen, Ransom FA is killing it right now. He’s fresh off the BBC’s Rap Game UK and I produced one of his recent singles Standard Procedure which got a really great reaction. Scotland wide I get a lot of inspiration from guys like Madhat, Gasp, Loki, McRoy and Shogun. Production wise you’ve obviously got the likes of Hudson Mohawke and Sam Gellaitry, but I also love what Polonis and Fida Gul do.
There are a lot of interview samples throughout SWEETHEARTGRIPS from the likes of Paul McCartney, Stephen Merchant and Action Bronson. In the sample from Action Bronson he says ‘To make music using YouTube … It’s a new age of digging in the crates’. This appears to be an ethos you produce by. What’s your sample selection process when digging through the internet?
It’s normally something tactile that grabs me, I love working with a specific texture when I’ve got a sound in mind. There’s a few YouTube channels that are great archives of world music as well as some blogs that I’ll trawl through.
Can’t give too much of the secret sauce away though!
The internet has also enabled you to collaborate with Artist across the globe such as Mayday in Birmingham and Reno KOQ of New York. How did these collaborations come about?
Reno was one of the first people who really believed in what I was doing. Back in 2013/2014 I tweeted out some hashtags like “beats for sale” and we came across each other through that,.
Mayday is another artist I came across through social media who impressed me across the board. From his music to his work ethic, that guy is one of the hardest working in the scene right now.
What else has the internet allowed you to do?
I feel the internet is an intrinsic part of what I do now. Being in a slightly more remote part of the world than say London or New York it opens the door for me to communicate and collaborate with anyone no matter where they are in relation to me. It’s also an incredible research tool, anything I want to find out is just a Google or a YouTube tutorial away.
Finally, what’s your favourite track at the moment?
I’m a big fan of what Griselda are doing right now. They’re a hip-hop group from Buffalo in the states who have an amazing gritty soul style of production. My favourites are currently “Lunchin” off of Westside Gunn’s album from earlier this year “Flygod” or the 2015 track “Mr T” produced by Apollo Brown.
From my new project, I really love the outro track Supplication, I feel the final breakdown in it is one of my strongest compositions to date.
