The Automator follows his own lane
San Franciscan’s eclectic route as music producer led to food, movies — and now ‘Always Be My Maybe’
There was a time in the 1990s, when Dan “the Automator” Nakamura was still making beats in his parents’ Sunset District basement in San Francisco, that the music producer was told he should try to sound more like Dr. Dre, DJ Premier and other successful production wizards of the time.
“No, I’m cool. I’m going to do what I do,” Nakamura remembers thinking. “And either no one is ever going to hear about me, or I’m going to have my own lane. … And that’s kind of what I did. I just made my own lane.”
Dan the Automator has been involved with eclectic musical collaborations — some with huge mainstream success — including the Gorillaz, Handsome Boy Modeling School, Dr. Octagon and Deltron 3030 with Oaklandborn Del the Funky Homosapien. But his “own lane” has led him in some particularly eclectic directions in 2019.
Nakamura worked with Los Angeles chef Roy Choi on “Broken Bread,” a KCET public television show that explores social justice issues through the lens of food. He
scored Olivia Wilde’s acclaimed teen indie movie “Booksmart.” And perhaps most memorably, he produced the music for the San Francisco band in the Netflix romantic comedy “Always Be My Maybe.”
That movie is filled with charming nods to hiphop, the Bay Area and food — three things that Nakamura seems to love equally. The jazzinfused rap band Hello Peril, with romantic lead Marcus (played by Randall Park) at the mike, is one of the most authentic and memorable parts of the film.
“Welcome to the city which used to be free of suckers/ Till the techies came in Hummers and colonized the gutters,” Marcus raps, in the first of three Hello Peril tracks that appear in the movie. “If I see another hipster openin’ a coffee shop/ I’ll make a body drop with my signature karate chop.”
Nakamura says he collaborated with “Always Be My Maybe” star/producer Ali Wong and Park, who is from Los Angeles but knows the Bay Area well from his time as a touring comic. Park wrote the lyrics, and Nakamura handled the beats and some of the staging of Hello Peril.
“It’s really their experience,” Nakamura says, “which is kind of our collective Bay Area experience.”
Nakamura was born in San Francisco in 1966 to a father who worked for the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency and a mother who taught at San Francisco City College. His first musical memory was playing the violin, which he started at age 3, but he put down the instrument when he became immersed in hiphop culture in high school.
“I would have been good,” Nakamura says of his classical music skills, “but not ‘headed toward the Symphony’ good.”
His earliest pursuits were as a turntable DJ, until he went to an exhibition in Stockton in the 1980s, saw two younger scratch artists tearing up the turntables, and thought, “I’m never going to be that good. I’m going to focus on the beats.” (Those two artists: turntable legends DJ Qbert and Mixmaster Mike.)
Still producing beats in his parents’ basement, he collaborated in 1996 on “Dr. Octagon ecologyst,” his first Dr. Octagon project with Kool Keith. The first Handsome Boy Modeling School album with Prince Paul arrived in 1999, “Deltron 3030” the album dropped in 2000, and the virtual band Gorillaz debuted in 2001.
Despite that flurry of success, Nakamura continued to live in San Francisco, with a home studio in Bernal Heights, and frequent visits to Los Angeles and New York.
His style is by nature everchanging — with jazz and R&B elements, an occasional dreamlike quality, and a willingness to get silly when the project requires it. (See his 2003 album “Lovage: Music to Make Love to Your Old Lady By.”) But Nakamura fits the overall creative vibe of San Francisco, preferring to take his own path without outside influence.
“I best fit in here and New York, because in my mind, they’re the most international cities,” Nakamura says. “You go and get different cultural food, you can see the impact of culture. … There’s something to be said about that kind of vibe that we don’t have in a lot of other cities. Spend a few days in Indianapolis — either that’s all for you or not for you at all.”
The advantage of his own lane: Nakamura says he doesn’t have to hardsell a lot of projects. “Booksmart” and “Always Be My Maybe” came to him organically, from his existing relationships with the creators. When he talks about “what’s next” on the music front, he speaks about creating beats like it’s gardening. He’s working on a new Handsome Boy Modeling School album and a collaboration with hiphop producer Just Blaze. Another Deltron 3030 album may come out before both of those.
For now, Nakamura is very happy with how 2019 is going. He says “Always Be My Maybe” was a very special experience. He stresses that his contribution to the movie was small, but he was proud to be a witness to a movie that authentically embraced Bay Area culture and, especially, Asian American culture.
“When you see it all happen, you’re just like, ‘I can’t believe this was made,’ ” Nakamura says. “I can’t believe I was a part of it ... and it’s gotten to the point where this could actually exist.”