Blockhead and Cut Chemist

Son to a well-known sculptor and a social worker, Simon grew up in Manhattan, New York and immersed himself in the lyricism and music of hip hop. His first musical endeavour came as the group the Overground where Simon and friends first made music in their early teens. In 1994 Simon enrolled at Boston University, though the producer dropped out after only a year, it was in Boston he met Aesop Rock. Also a student at Boston University, Simon and Aesop Rock began working together after which Simon dropped the idea of becoming an MC and focused his time on producing.

In 1999 Simon made his production debut on the Aesop Rock track “1,000 Deaths” from his “Appleseed” album and produced the majority of his subsequent releases including the album “Float” in 2000, “Labor Days” in 2001 and a number of tracks on his 2002 album “Daylight”. The producer has also worked with the rappers Cage, Hangar 18 and Open Mike Eagle and is a member f the comedy hip-hop group Party Action Committee.

In 2004 Mush Records asked Simon to create an entirely instrumental album and as a result the producer crafted “Music by Cavelight”. After its completion however Mush Records stopped returning his calls and Simon sent into to other labels before Ninja Tune offered to release it. The release has led to a string of similar material including “Downtown Science” in 2005, “Uncle Tony’s Coloring Book” in 2007, “The Music Scene” in 2009, “Interludes After Midnight” in 2012 and “Bells and Whistles” in 2014.

Despite the fact that Lucas MacFadden made his musical debut about half a decade or so before the internet became a major part of life for a hell of a lot of people on this planet, Cut Chemist is a great signifier of the way music tastes are changing in day by day. Thanks to the instant access that the internet allows us we’re becoming far more open minded about the music we listen to. As a result musical “tribes” and people defining themselves by the music that they listen to are slowly becoming a thing of the past.

It’s now reasonable to assume that the folks that you see wearing Beatles t shirts quite possibly listen to Slayer as much as they listen to Kendrick Lamar and, as it is in the case of Cut Chemist, the musician famous for playing hip hop has successfully dabbled in ska-punk and bossa nova as well. His origins come from the L.A based group Unity Committee, who joined with another group, Rebels of Rhythm to form legendary rap group Jurassic 5. MacFadden served as the groups producer, helming every album of theirs save one, leaving the group in 2006 but returning to the fold when they reunited in 2013.

While being a prolific and experienced DJ, it was during his time in Jurassic 5 that he was introduced to remixing, a skill he was developing alongside his peers DJ Shadow and Liquid Liquid, he has since done work for the likes of Roots Manuva and Jem. Just before the turn of the century he joined the Latin funk band Ozomatli as their turntablist during his downtime from his main band, but by the mid 2000’s he’d completely struck out on his own, releasing his debut solo record “The Audience's Listening”. This was the kind of record that took three and a half years to make, with one of those years alone spent clearing the sheer amount of samples on it.

The album was a massive critical success and since then he’s branched out into acting, with bit parts in Juno, Up In The Air and Jennifer’s Body. In June 2007 He also headlined a concert with DJ Shadow at the Hollywood Bowl, making them the first turntablists to ever do so and has generally become one of the most well respected names in the DJ community. He knows as well as anyone how to put on an amazing live show as well, so he’s one to be seen as soon as possible.