In an interview with DJ Umo 1 of KGNU, producer Sirplus of the Dirty Science Crew discusses his background, recent U.S. tour stops, and latest album Squares. Sirplus, who hails from Orange County, details his collaboration with Exile and their recent tour stops. He talks about Squares, an instrumental project featuring 16 tracks, and shares his production process using the MPC 2000XL. Sirplus and Exile have a free show July 19th at the Bear Creek Distillery in Denver!
DJ Umo 1: Umo 1 for KGNU. My guest today is from the Dirty Science label, Southern California producer, Sirplus. How’s it going, Sirplus?
Sirplus: I’m doing well, man. How are you?
DJ Umo 1: Going good. Thank you for calling in.
Sirplus: Yes, of course, man. Thank you so much for having me, Umo.
DJ Umo 1: Right on. So let’s start off with, who is Sirplus? Where’s he from? I already said Southern California, but where at?
Sirplus: Yeah. So I’m from Southern California. I’m in Orange County. I grew up in a little area called Placentia, and I’m a hip hop fan. I’m a fan of hip hop. That’s what you want to call me. I’m a beat maker slash producer. I’m just a purveyor of the culture.
DJ Umo 1: Right on. Let’s talk about your recent U.S. tour. How was it? What cities did you go to?
Sirplus: We just got back from the East Coast side of things. It was great. Pretty much right after my release. So we started on the 19th. We hit Florida for a few days. We were in Miami, Jacksonville, Tampa, and then we went out to Atlanta. From Atlanta we ended up driving to Virginia. So we’re in the DMV area. After that we went to New York and then Boston. So that was a good time. A lot of driving. We’re doing what we can.
DJ Umo 1: Yeah, that was you and Exile doing a tour, right?
Sirplus: Yeah, that’s right. He executive produced the squares project that I just put out. So he’s been my mentor for some years.
DJ Umo 1: Nice.
Sirplus: He took me under his wing. I’m really appreciative of that and all the help that he’s been able to provide me with.
DJ Umo 1: Nice, man. Let’s talk about your new album, your new project titled Squares. It’s an instrumental project, with 16 tracks. I’m really digging “More Parties in L.A.” That’s a jam.
Sirplus: Thank you, man. Appreciate it. Yeah, pretty much just 16 joints to resemble the 16 pads on an MPC, because I work on the MPC 2000SL. We tied it all in with that theme, but I’m wanting to leave that perspective up to the listener, so you can create your own interpretation of what Squares means. But yeah, it’s my first instrumental LP, or instrumental project, because I did a 45 a while back called Brandy vs. Moesha, and this is a culmination of what I’ve been working on over the years.
DJ Umo 1: Okay. Yeah, I saw on the new project, on the Squares project, you actually put that Brandy Moesha song on there, or one of the tracks. I like that last one.
Sirplus: Yeah, actually both of them are on there.
DJ Umo 1: Oh, nice.
Sirplus: The whole Brandy vs. Moesha thing. They were one after another, like how that 7” release was. So that’s the lead off singles, I guess you could say. And then this came out like four years later.
DJ Umo 1: Oh nice, okay.
Sirplus: We wanted to make sure that we put those on this project because it was, in a sense, introducing me to the community here. So people can get more proof of my name.
DJ Umo 1: More exposure.
Sirplus: Yeah, I’ve been putting in work for many years, but I’m still virtually unknown. Not too many people have heard of me, so that was my first introduction right there, the 7”, and here’s my actual debut.
DJ Umo 1: Yeah, man, the people of KGNU know you now, so that’s what’s up. So this month, I believe on July 19th, you’re gonna be performing in Denver. Where and how much does it cost to get in and stuff like that?
Sirplus: So we’re gonna be at Bear Creek Distillery, it’s gonna be a free show, me and Ex are gonna be rocking from 9 to 11. It’s a great place, they make the best cocktails, all the spirit driven stuff. Obviously it’s a distillery, so if you’re a whiskey person, that’s the place for you if you like good drinks. Regardless, music and drinks are gonna be flowing.
DJ Umo 1: For sure man, yeah, I’ll definitely be there and some other KGNU cats will be there. My next question is, what instruments do you use to produce music on? I know you use the MPC and what else?
Sirplus: I hook up everything on the MPC, so I have an MPC 2000XL, and then I dump all the beats into Logic, that way I can put them into the 404. I do my live sets on the SP-404, but all the beats that you hear coming out of it are from the MPC 2000XL.
DJ Umo 1: Oh, okay. Nice.
Sirplus: That’s my baby. Yeah, I’ve been rocking with the MP since – I got the 2000 first, and I sold it a few months later for the 2000XL I have now. I got two of them, but I still have the one that I had gotten 18 years ago or whatever. It’s one of those dinosaur pieces of equipment, but that warm sound, I’m used to it. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it, right?
DJ Umo 1: That’s what’s up. My next question: who are some of your musical influences and producers and stuff like that?
Sirplus: Man, there’s a wide array of producers, composers, everybody in between. I was always big on Primo and P Rock, Dilla, Bomb Squad, Marley Mall, even Timbaland. Got more crossover sound. Take it back to the Kev Browns and the Black Milks, Jake One, Hi-Tek, Khalil, Exile, I can go on for days. D.I.T.C, Showbiz, Buckwild, Diamond D. There’s many influences. Curtis Mayfield, Barry White, and I can definitely give you a whole list if I just sat down for a little bit.
DJ Umo 1: Yeah, for sure. Do you have any upcoming projects, future projects? I know you just released the Squares album that you can get off of fatbeats.com, but what else you got going in the pot?
Sirplus: I’ve been cooking up various projects for a while. You know how it is. You can’t just focus on one thing. That’s how I am. So I divert my attention to different projects or certain nuances, like trying to fix things here and there, or making something new for a project. So I’ve been loosely working on a funk project, a gospel flip project. That was something that me and Shoes were planning on putting out. It’s pretty much in limbo right now. We’re trying to figure out what to do. But yeah, I also got a feature project that I want to put out at some point as well because I’m going to be working with a bunch of emcees. Just emcees that I’ve respected over the years and ones that I’ve built relationships with. Not like on some, let me reach out to all these emcees and get this crazy all star lineup. I could do something of that nature, but I want to put out a project with folks that I got love for and don’t make me pull teeth to work on music.
DJ Umo 1: For sure. All right, any last words, any shout outs you want to give to anybody?
Sirplus: Shout out to KGNU, shout out Umo 1, shout out to Exile, Dirty Science, Dirty Science all day, Blu, all the homies, my people know who they are. Thank you again for having me bro. I appreciate it.
DJ Umo 1: For sure man. Thanks again for being on KGNU and hopefully to talk to you soon.
