I've been meaning to interview my childhood friend Matt Friedman for ages, and today seems totally appropriate.

Why? Cause the track he produced for Kid Cudi came out today on the album "Man on the Moon"

The song is called "Enter Galactic" and you should buy it.
So where do I begin?
...Around 1986 I went over to Matt's house after school, and he whipped out one of these:

The Casio SK-1. State of the art sampling technology. You could cough, and record it, and then play pitched coughs all day. We must have spent hours that day sampling everything in sight. Two little kids just going crazy for sound. Things got over the top when we took his cat, squeezed her, and sampled the "meow!"
Fast Forward to 1993 and Matt asked me to play trombone in his new band. A direct inspiration at the time was Nation of Ulysses frontman Ian Svenonius, because he would sing AND play trumpet, and it was awesome.

During the 90's we wrote numerous EP's and released numerous tapes. Played numerous shows in NYC and then everyone split for college.
Around 1997 Matt got an MPC and that changed everything. If you are reading this blog then you probably know that feeling. Also during this time Matt was cast for the movie "Private Parts" and played Howard Stern as a 16 year-old.

The thing I wasn't ready for was only 1 year later Matt taught himself Logic and was basically like "Check this out, this is the future."
I was the dude in the studio going "How did you do that?"
From that point on we were producing electronic music full steam, and sampling all our own instruments. In 2000 we got signed to an indie label out of Miami, and proceeded to release music under the name Secret Frequency Crew...

Fast Forward to 2005 and Matt started a production duo with Jed Cappelli called Illfonics. You know when you meet dudes in NYC and they talk like they got beats but they got nothing? -Well Illfonics has been the exact opposite of that. Their relentless work in the studio has led to their production speaking for itself, and thus landing beats with LL Cool J, Jim Jones, Mickey Factz, and many more.
Check out their myspace

After numerous negotiations with shampoo companies (it's fashion week) I caught up with Matt Friedman and got him to answer a few questions:
M: On Cudi's "Enter Galactic" what kind of instruments did you use to make the song?
MF: I did it all in Logic. Played live bass on it, there's piano, rhodes, Juno-106 (bloops), few other odds and ends, then programmed all the drums using Battery. Yoko Ono sang backup vocals on it, but I had to cut that part out.

M: Did you have Cudi in mind when you made the beat?
MF: No actually. It was originally made with a singer in mind. I had been sending stuff to Cudi for a while at that point and my manager was the one who was like "I could hear Cudi on this". My first reaction was "really?" Ha. But I agreed and he was right, so I guess he's a better A&R than me.
 
M: When the song was finished what kind of tweaks did you do to the
final mix? Did you team with engineers on a big console?
MF: No, I wish. I love the mixing process but the whole album was mixed by Manny Marroquin out in LA. He does all of Kanye's stuff, mixed for Rihanna, TI, Alicia Keys, etc so it was in good hands.

M: From your perspective, How involved was Kanye with
assembling/A&Ring the album?
MF: Its interesting, I thought he would have his handprint all over it, but really he only did two tracks on there. From what I heard he trusted that Cudi, Pat and Emile knew what they were doing and really just supported their vision. 

M: Now that you've produced a hit on the radio (Jim Jones' "Na Na Nana Na
Na") has that changed the way you approach an album such as this?
MF: No not at all. And I definitley would call the Jones track a "single" and not a "hit", ha. This project was different for me in general though because from an artistic standpoint I really wanted to be a part of this album. I felt like the type of stuff I do is really in line with Cudi's music and I went at it for months making beats with him in mind and sending them through, so I'm really fucking excited that it actually made it on there.
 
M: These days I can buy an album on itunes and still not get any liner
notes. Are there any heads behind the scenes you'd like to shout out?
MF: Whatup to Jed (my partner in ILLFONICS), Toshi (manager), Lena (Lawyer), Nigil (Cudi's A&R), Kaslow (his DJ), Pat & Emile, Fabian Guiseppi (Hair), Christepho (Makeup), Mom, Dad, You, Everyone ever

thanks!