Digga Mindz, an Austrian MC and producer, is the man behind some sweet beats you hear on some of our videos. We recently had a conversation about him and making music to get to the bottom of this master-mind’s head. Check out some more of his tunes and enjoy this little interview…
What’s your name?
Yo! My name is Frederic but people call me Digga ’cause I’m diggin’ through tons of crazy vinyl to get those sounds to make my beats.
Where in Austria are you from? How long have you lived in Vienna for?
I’m from Spittal which is a little city in Carinthia but I’m living in Vienna for about 10 years.
What is your favorite thing about Vienna?
I can’t really say what’s my favorite thing in Vienna because there are a lot of things I love like walking around and nobody knows me, the flavour and vibes of this big city, my local recordshops (deep soul records and teuchtler) and the fact that my girl, my brother & my sister and most of my friends live here.
How long have you been making music for?
I’ve been making music since I was about 15, now im nearly 30, so like half of my life.
I started with writing rhymes and freestyling with my cousin’s boyfriend the first time, but the fact that nobody we knew was making dope beats we had to do it ourselfs. That’s how I started, on a PC with the most shitty program I know.
Who are your biggest influences, both producers and non-producers?
My biggest influences in hip hop, or the guys I always loved to listen, were guys like all the D.I.T.C. stuff, WU-TANG, DJ Premier, Pete Rock, Jay Dee, NOTTZ, Madlib and others who aren’t in my head right now…
When you’r starting a new beat or a new song, what is your approach? What kind of things do you do to prepare and get inspired?
When I’m starting a new beat or something it all starts with inspiration I get from records I sample or just the feeling I have to make something creative. It’s like an addiction.
I’m experimenting with a lot of differnt styles of music, like rock, jazz, soul, everything… and it all starts with records or instruments I’m grabbing and fucking with.
Who is your favorite rapper? Favorite DE/AT rapper?
My favorite rapper? Hm… that’s not easy, but I would say ag from D.I.T.C. …
In Austria/Germany I would say those boombokkz dudes, can’t find anybody who’s more dope… sorry, haha.
What is your opinion on the Austrian hip hop scene?
I’m not really interested on any scenes, ’cause like how I see it, scenes are people who talk, drink and pose 24/7 on parties.
But the real people who are really creating dope shit are at the lab, being productive, not giving a fuck about stupid hypes.
Who else have you gotten to produce beats for?
I produced beats for a lot of austrian rap cats, mostly for my crew boombokkz and some stuff for people like K Skillz & J. Sands, Ghetto Dwellaz and some others.
What is your set up in your laboratory? What kind of machines are you using to make your music?
I have a nice little studio in my crib with some samplers (mpc´s, sp303), some korg keyboards, some instruments like guitar and bass, some percussion instruments and a lot of records to sample.
Why do you call it a laboratory?
I call it a laboratory because I’m a crazy professor who’s doin’ crazy shit all the day, hehe.
You’ve told me that you have 700 plus beats, how do you keep things fresh and stay inspired to create something new and original?
Yeah, I really have about 700 beats, but they were made in the last 5 – 7 years. I’m always inspired, I love to make the music that doesn’t exist but I want to listen to. I love making music so I’m always inspired. when I dont make music 3 or 4 days I get crazy like junkies on Karlsplatz… You know?
Where do you see yourself going with your music? What are your goals?
Hm, my goals… I want to create great music, start a revolution and teach people that they mostly listen to bullshit music which washes their brains with nuclear dirt…
Why do you think hip hop and skateboarding go hand in hand?
I started with this hip hop stuff through skatevideos.
To me skateboarding is an art, music is an art, and arts go hand in hand.
Anyone you would like to give a shout out or a thank you too?
Yeah, shoutouts go to my mom who always bought me new decks (I don’t know how she was doing this because shit was really expensive!), BBZ/SAG, my old but classic skatecrew S.A.D. (you know), especially Mario Wirnsberger, Matt Phi’s for hooking me up with skatersatlas.com and the police in Carinthia who’s acting like skateboarding is a violent crime.
Cheers man, thanks for all the sick music.
Thank you!
