Producer known for working with local rap stars releases solo album.
In making his first solo album, E. Dan didn’t have to go shopping for a producer. He is, after all, the man behind the controls for some of the great music by Wiz Khalifa and Mac Miller, among many others.
On Friday, the founder of ID Labs released “Play How You Feel,” a dreamy trance beat album for those times when you just don’t want words in the way.
Over his 17 years at the studio, launched in Lawrenceville in 2003 and now residing in Etna, Dan (whose first name is Eric) never thought much about making his own album, partly because he was clicking on all cylinders.
In recent years, though, he’s been doing more mixing and production and leaving recording to other producers and engineers.
“The only time I’ll actually do any recording these days is if somebody bigger comes in or if I’m working with somebody on a project directly or Wiz comes to town or something like that,” Dan says. “Recording rap, in particular, because, you know, you’re just recording a vocal, there’s just not a lot to sink your teeth into. Recording a vocal, it’s just really boring.”
During the harshest days of the pandemic, fewer people were flowing through ID Labs and fewer projects were in the works
“I just felt myself getting a little bored and disconnected,” Dan says, “and as I get older and get a little bit less in touch with what’s happening right now in rap and my tastes start to skew a little bit older, I just felt the need to do something that felt more in line with what I was listening to, which is not like super trappy, 808-driven rap. It’s more jazz-influenced or a little bit olderstyle rap, I guess.
“So, I thought, why don’t I just make a project without having to imagine who’s going to rap over it, without having anything in mind other than, ‘Do I dig this as an instrumental? Does it keep me interested as an instrumental?’ Which is a little bit different than making beats for people where you’re trying to leave space for a vocalist.”
He reached beyond his hip-hop influences to the downtempo stuff he likes from Massive Attack, DJ Shadow, Portishead and artists of that ilk to create something with a lot of groove that wasn’t just a beat tape. He composed the tracks on synths, keyboards and guitar, and he brought in his friend Stuart Bogie, a session man associated with such acts as TV on the Radio and Antibalas, to add sax and flute.
“I mean, I’m a hack at all instruments,” Dan says, “but I can make noise on all of them and with technology, I can make it sound like I know what I’m doing. But horns, I can’t do at all, and Bogie is a friend that I’ve known, and he’s spent some time in Pittsburgh. It crossed my mind that it would be really cool to get some saxophone on some tracks and even flute. You need a focal point if you don’t have some vocal component.”
The one voice on the album, appearing on opening track “Simplest Thing,” belongs to jazz legend Chick Corea, talking about the ideal of the artist’s singular vision. After Corea’s death in February, Dan found the soundbite on an Instagram page for what he calls “nerdy engineers.”
“I heard those clips, and I thought, man, the stuff he’s saying really describes my thoughts on this album — just, just doing something that inspires me, not worrying about how anyone else is going to perceive it,” he says.
After putting them over some chords on an old Roland JUNO, he discovered the Corea clips came from an interview he did years ago on a Pittsburgh cable access program.
“It felt like one of those serendipitous moments that made me feel I was on the right track. That just made it sort of extra cool.”
“I very nonchalantly put it together and I’m very nonchalantly putting it out into the world,” he says. “I’ll just be happy that anybody at all listens to it, and I think I’m going to continue making more of them, just because I really enjoyed the process and I feel like I’m in a place where I can indulge a little bit and work on something for myself. So it’ll be really interesting to see if it connects with anybody at all.”
To let people know about it, he certainly has some pull with a few well-placed social media influencers.