In a candid conversation with TheIndustry.Biz’s Ural Garrett, rising singer October London shares his experiences transitioning from Doggy Style Records to Death Row Records.
London expresses his sense of accomplishment and responsibility as a leading artist in the new phase of the label historically known for hardcore rap. He reflects on the surreal nature of this transition and his interactions with Snoop Dogg, emphasizing the support and guidance he has received.
London also discusses the impact of technological advancements in music, such as NFTs, on his creative process and business strategies. He acknowledges the rapid changes in the industry and his efforts to adapt by exploring various musical genres and production techniques.
Throughout the interview, London provides insights into his approach to music creation and business, highlighting his personal experiences and challenges within the industry. He mentions the importance of having creative control and financial stability and credits his improved circumstances to his relationship with Snoop Dogg and his current affiliation with Death Row Records.
Garrett’s questions led London to reveal his methods for composing music and his views on the industry’s evolving nature. The discussion offers a glimpse into London’s artistic mindset and his journey as a musician navigating a complex and ever-changing industry. (interview already in progress)
Ural Garrett: …. Yeah so a lot been a lot has happened since then. I guess one of the things for sure is you know this transition from being with Doggy Style to the new Death Row you know you’ve been working with Snoop for a while now. What goes through your head being one of the first artists to represent the new Death Row records?
Death Row’s New Flagship: October London Discusses His Role and Impact
October London: It’s surreal man because you know to think you know, Death Row is Death Row you know, you talking him [Snoop] and Pac and and Suge and all that just hardcore rap man. So just the feeling of being the flagship for Death Row is crazy, man because I’m R&B like you know, I’m saying, you know, like, it’s wild man even think about it and I had a call with Snoop.
The other day, we met him always calling each other stuff all the time and a few times a week, but, you know, he was just like, hey, man, you know, you helped build you know, Death Row, the new Death Row, you know, I’m saying and that made me feel good man is just like you’re doing an amazing job representing you know, the label and everything that that you know, we’re standing for now. So that definitely made me feel good.
October London: Reinventing Himself with “Rebirth of Marvin” and Beyond
UG: And then last year, you dropped “Crypto Winter” I guess. Can you describe how your mind and thoughts on the business has changed with the evolution in technology considering Death Row’s kind of initial leaning into things like NFTs?
OL: Yeah, yeah, cause, you know, Death Row’s first initial thing was always gangsta rap and all that. But, you know, the evolution of just music and where it’s going and how people are making tracks.
Now, as is I commend it, I stand up and give a standing ovation for it, because I don’t want to say it’s easier to make tracks but it is a little bit more complex to do, like, you know, like the EDM and, and the house music and even R&B at times, but I think the evolution of music alone is just moving so quickly, and people are starting to open their mind to doing or open their mind to new ways of doing music and not making it so cookie cutter. But I love where it’s going, Man, I commend it. I’m in the studio all the time.
You know, I pride myself on being a multi-genre artist. So I’m always in the studio trying to reinvent something or recreate something that I think maybe it’s getting a little older or something like that, but I’m always doing just different genres and just trying to touch on on just different fields and different vibes and different ambiances.
October London Talks About Previous Experience in The Music Industry
UG: Gotcha. With that said, I guess how, like seeing the evolution, just how your mind is kind of like evolved with the business aspect with you know, Death Row getting into NFTs and knowing all of that stuff. How has your mind evolved when it comes to the business of making music.
OL: The business to make it’s always been janky man, you know. I like to I think I might have one of the best contracts in the business signing with Death Row and having gamma. back me as well.
The business side of music is always trash, man doesn’t take care of the artists and doesn’t pay them well. You got to go out and be a slave to this industry if you want to make money, but I’m glad I don’t have to worry about that business-wise, Snoop has always had my back. He’s always made sure that I was financially stable even being with him in 2016 up to now.
You know, because I was in the background with him from 2016 to 2020 up until now. He’s always made sure I was good. Anything he was working on. Whether it’s like Corona, he got that major deal with Corona but then I was doing lime squeeze.
You know, just being back to he did Martha Stewart Well, I did the beginning of the music for the intro for it. So we always made sure I was good. business-wise. So I haven’t had anything to complain business-wise of that. Now before Snoop. It was just trash all the way every deal that I’d signed before Snoop was just completely and utterly trash.
And it didn’t take care of me financially. It didn’t take care of me mentally. And just you know, being with Dogg and being with Death Row and gamma. is I have creative control. You know, incredibly financially stable. I’m able to move around how I want to work with whoever I want. I won’t say the label name but label that I was going to sign with not too long ago, before the Death Row thing came about.
They didn’t even want me to work with Snoop that much anymore. They were like oh, you have to separate yourself. You have to do this.
You have to do that. You can’t do this. You got to stay in this lane. You got to there were so many rules and regulations with that much money involved? You know, I’m saying like, it was It was wild and I’m glad I didn’t take that deal. Snoop made sure I didn’t make any bad decisions. You know?
UG: Absolutely. There’s, you know, the Rebirth of Marvin. I mean, a huge project. Huge project, especially, you know, “Back to Your Place.” Do you remember the initial conversation about the direction you want to go with this project?
OL: No, like I said, that kind of goes back to creative control. Dogg was just like, you know, Snoop was just like, hey, man, you got access for free access to the studio, which I have full access to Dogg’s, you know, compound to do whatever I want and walk, you know, so I was like, I’m, I’m there. And I’m just working on music consistently.
So he was he just expected me to be in the studio working and stuff. And I initially came up with trying to build this album because he was playing old-school music throughout the compound. He’s, you know, Snoop in his compound. He plays in the studio, he plays, you know, old school music throughout the day through his radio Cadillacc Radio (Dash Radio).
And I know Marvin Gaye was playing consistently and Al Green and all these greats, but Marvin Gaye came up three or four times that day. So I just went in the studio and started making a song and then I just caught that vibe. So it wasn’t like Dogg was like, ‘Well, I want you to make an old school album and I want you to call it Rebirth of Marvin,’ and like, I didn’t even call it that I wasn’t going to call it Rebirth of Marvin. That was Snoop’s idea.
I was scared to call it that. I was like, I don’t want nobody thinking that I’m trying to fill his shoes or do that, which, obviously not, I don’t want to be the new Marvin, I was just in a vibe and he wanted to call it that. So I gotta I gotta give him his credit on calling it the rebirth and Marvin, that’s just how he was feeling. But you know, just coming up with a song like Back To Your place.
A lot of people don’t know. I mean, in the blogs that I’ve said before, maybe but “Back To Your Place” was a freestyle. I didn’t write that down. The whole album was a freestyle. I did it in a week. It was really quick.
And I was just putting it in my hard drive. I was putting it away. I was like, Alright, I did this. This is cute. And said beside and I was like, no, no, no, no wait, wait, wait. Let’s listen to this a little bit more. And yeah, that’s how that came about. So Rebirth of Marvin wasn’t even supposed to be coming out. The title was supposed to be that and I freestyled the whole album.
October London’s Creative Process
UG: What are some of the things that you’ve developed when it comes to muscle memory? And how do you create and how do you pull out a dense project like that in a week?
OL: I don’t know man. To be honest, it’s always been weird to me that I can just come up with stuff on the fly like that. Like like the second album. Hopefully, we drop in February. I don’t know don’t don’t quote me on the date. I’m hoping for February. That’s how I was just in the studio last night it’s already halfway done already.
I was just in the studio last night. You know, I’m saying so it’s like I hear a track and my rule of thumb is when I’m in the studio, if I don’t have a hook in the first 30 seconds if I already have a hook or melody of where I’m going in the first 30 seconds I don’t even do the track and Snoop knows that too. Snoop will send me a track if he doesn’t hear from me.
He knows that I don’t want to do it. You know, so if we’re in the studio, and I don’t have a hook within 30 to 45 seconds max 45 seconds. Next track, you know I’m saying so the muscle memory just it’s I don’t know if it is something that I’ve just had for a while I haven’t had it all my life, I haven’t had all my life or all my career.
I’ve only been like that since I don’t know. I couldn’t I couldn’t give you a specific date. But it hasn’t been long, but I’ve had it a little bit before Snoop but just creating like that, man, it’s just there and it just happens I let the track speak for itself and I let the track tell me where I’m gonna go. And I just do it. That’s it.
UG: Okay, how many completed songs can you do in a like a day?
OL: Yeah I don’t even take a full day to do a song. If it takes me a full day to do a song, it’s probably trash. I don’t do it for a while. I don’t I knew no way in hell if I spend a whole day on a song I shouldn’t have I shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.
Like I don’t even spend that much time. It takes me maybe I’m trying to think last night I knocked out this new record. It was a new record for the new album. I don’t know maybe I don’t know I was producing it too. So I’m producing it. I’m producing and doing all that myself as well.
So I give myself two hours. Two hours if I don’t have the full song done, or at least 80% of it done I need to mix it and master it two but I spent a day on mixing and I spend another day on mastering but yeah man a couple of hours max full day or doing a song drives me nuts. I can’t sit in the studio with people. They try to get me a studio people to sit because you know they have these writing rooms. You will never catch October London in a writing room, I can’t do it.
It drives me nuts because they’re working on the record for an hour straight. And I won’t say who I’ve been to the studio that takes three days to do one song. I won’t say it, but I’ll still be sitting there.
And I’m like, I had to hook 30 minutes ago, 45 minutes ago, and they’re working like they’re working on like the third word. You know, I’m saying like, they’ll be working on. Oh, baby. I’ve been thinking about you. But I had it 30 minutes ago, and they’re like, oh, oh, baby. And I’m like, No, it drives me nuts, man. I can’t do it, bro. I can’t. So you got two hours. You don’t have to produce and write the record.
Working with Producers
UG: Jazzy Pha said it was crucial in introducing you to Snoop Dogg. What was it? You know, what was kind of the stark differences in like, creativity that you noticed between someone like him, who you know, is from the south, and that specific style compared to someone like Snoop who’s known for West Coast rap?
OL: Well, yeah. And you’re right about that. Yes. Jazzy Pha is who introduced me to Snoop in 2016. He’s the one who took my record Colorblind, on the way to go link up with him and let Snoop hear it, and Snoop loved it.
And then Snoop flew me out. March 16, 2016, which always remember the day that, you know, I signed to him, I flew in and got to meet him. And that was that, but I had only maybe done a couple of records with Jazzy. And at that time, I hadn’t even met Snoop.
So, you know, it was different man to be in Atlanta and hear those sounds and how they do things like, you know, Jazzy, we’ll call a pianist over he’ll call a guy who does bass he’ll call a guy who does this, and this, this and this and that, and all that pieces. You know, and I, you know, I’m sitting through that and they’re just trying to try to figure out how, you know, the Atlanta people move as far as the music and then going flying to LA.
And then that not be the first thing he does, you know, because Snoop’s not a producer, he is in a sense, but, you know, Snoop was like, Alright, I got the beat from Battlecat, figure it out! You know what I’m saying, but that was where I went in, you know, and I can do it really quick.
So, it was a difference, man, it was a little bit of a learning curve just learning how different people I mean, different people move or people move differently in studios so, Jazzy, it was different from working with Snoop. I’ve worked with I’ve worked with Diddy. Just recently on this last album, the way he moves, he has people there who want certain things a certain way.
I’ve been in the studio with Nile Rodgers, a legend, and Jerry Barnes. They move differently in a certain way for Nile it’s more of a vibe which I love. I’ve worked with Dre been the studio he calls a bunch of people over and he has 4 to 6 writers.
Everybody moves differently but where my sweet spot is man is just being in the studio on my own and being on my crew right here I’m in Indiana I’m in South Bend and look last night I knocked out half of the album already you know so I don’t call I don’t call anybody I don’t say hey you know I need a bass player I need this.
I figure it out and then later on if we need to do that, do that, but you know for me I just can’t stand it I like to do it … I want to do it myself or have a couple more people that are my day-ones right with me or or produce with me or something like that.
So they know we got two hours to knock this out and then or you’re going to waste your time we just sat here for three hours and now I don’t even want to record anymore. I’m saying by the time an hour rolls by we should already be well into the hook and half of the track then. You know so yeah, everybody has their style.
If You Want Something Done…
UG: So within those two hours to when you know that the song ain’t working. What is that process like?
OL: 30 seconds 30 seconds and I like it if I don’t love it by now or I completely trash it. Fall in love with it. If I don’t love it in an hour. It’s a rap and if I love it in that hour, I’m really gonna love it in the two-hour span.
UG: What is the key thing that you look for when you know if you love something or not?
OL: It’s the vibe of the record. It’s the, just the sound of it. It’s the sound of that sense, or the sound of that string, or the sound of that piano. And then how it matches with the tone of what how you’re saying the record, like Back to Your Place.
Back to your Place when I got that track sent. The beat sent. I was already like, Oh, I see the spotlight on stage. I see the crowd I see the ambiance. It’s like a Great Gatsby theme. I see the Las Vegas residency, that type of thing you know, when I’m here.
And then everything anytime that I do record those oohs always came first because you’re you’re you’re trying to capture how the song is going to sway. So once I get there, once I get that down, I know where I’m going to go on the track. “Oh, Baby.” That was the first thing that I sang on that record. And I was like, Oh, I was like, oh, shit, this is gonna be the song. So that was the first 30 seconds. And then I’ve been thinking about you and then right then I was like, Alright, this is it.
This is gonna be it. So it’s the, it’s the sway of the record. It’s how I how I’m how I’m looking at it. Like, like this TV. Right? Okay, cool. I always have my laptop or my friend’s computer, something like that. Like this has just given me a vibe. I don’t know what it’s giving me I can make a Christmas record right now can make an R&B record, I can talk about love.
I can talk about making love by the fire to what the vibe has given me. Now, is this gonna match with what that sound is? And if that matches, we’re already we’re already on the way, you know, I’m saying. Then when that hook comes, get ready, because that song would be done in an hour. And it’s weird for me to explain it because I don’t want to sound like a crazy person explained it to you. But …
Working with Nile Rodgers
UG: No what you’re what you’re saying makes total sense. You mentioned working with Nile Rodgers. What was the biggest lesson you learned from working with him?
OL: Hmm. One thing I did say in the studio I learned from him. And I have to say it lightly because I want to seem like it almost seemed like an ass. But he was just, I was just we did a song called Move your Body. Which isn’t out. But I don’t think it’s on YouTube. And I’m like that it was crazy, I think. And if I do find it anywhere, I need to take it down.
So I can re-upload it because it’s a it’s a big song. To me it it is I think it’d be a great, great record very, we get around that Pharrell “Happy” time when that came out. But we were doing it. And I was like, Ah, man, that’s a Grammy right there. And he just stopped and he was like, Don’t worry about the Grammys. Don’t worry about getting awards, don’t worry about none of that, just focus on the track. And that’s what I learned from him.
And that just and that, you know, that’s what I learned from him this is not to worry about that just worry about the track and how it makes you feel and how it could possibly make others feel. And that was, that was honestly it came back to not to bite me in the ass. Just recently, I got nine considerations for a Grammy for this whole album for Back to Your Place.
And they gave me 0 nominations. You know, I’m saying and I’m just like, there’s no way and it’s just like goes back. I should not even worry about it in the first place because I was hyped up. Like nah, I gotta get the least one off dismal you know, I’m pumped up and then you get nothing. Same thing with Soul Train Awards 4 nominations. 0 wins.
You know, I’m saying like, so. It’s just something that you got to just, you know, at the end of the day, man as long as my son is eaten and he has a roof over his head and you know things are taking care of I ain’t trippin.
And that was one thing that I learned from Nile. Just don’t worry about the Awards. Don’t worry about none of that. That’ll come when it comes. It’s only it’s gonna happen in God’s time. And anyway, we’re not gonna rush it, so just worry about recording.
Rebirth of Marvin II?
UG: So you mentioned that you’re working on a project for February. Where are you sonically?
OL: With the success of Rebirth of Marvin, I wanted to do it at least one more time. And then that this might be my last old school type of because I want to move to something else. So I’m huge on being a multi-genre artist I never want to sit in the same space.
I didn’t plan on doing another one. But you know, I was talking to Snoop and Larry and the team and they’re just like, Man, I gotta do one more bro. So you know I’m not trying to do the Rebirth of Marvin 2 we’re not gonna do that I’m titling it something else. I don’t I don’t want to give the title yet because I’m kind of changing it.
Cover art is already being made for stuff like that of where I’m going, the vision. But I want to go I gave you the Back to Your Place and the Mulholland Drive and Sensual Conversations and all the slow records. I’m going straight Studio 54. Funk, Rick James.
You know, I’m saying like, Ghetto Life. I’m going I’m going there. Just straight bass. You know, like I want straight disco funk again. Oh, yeah. It’s crazy. Like I said, it’s, it’s almost done. You know, I’m saying like, I just, did a couple more tracks earlier.
So my guess is this hasn’t taken me long at all to do either. So you know, it’ll be done. It’ll be done probably by leave. I think at least Friday afternoon for my show in Ohio. It’d be done by probably Friday morning.
I’ll be mixing it and oh yeah. It’d be mastered by Monday morning. And I’m doing and I’m doing all that I mix, master, record myself I do everything produced right mix, master, engineer, everything that’s why I can get it done so fast.
I ain’t waiting on nobody to come in there block out the studio for 12 hours waiting on a producer waiting on a guitar player, waiting on a bass player waiting on this guy No. I got two other writers on my team that are my people got I always put my son as a writer and for just you know that longevity so he can make money you know and all that kind of stuff and he gets older but same usual suspects my boys and then I just knock it out. Get it done.
UG: All right. Well, yo, thank you so much for your time man. Happy holidays as well.
OL: Yeah, for sure. Most definitely hit me up anytime. We can’t wait to talk to you after we drop the new project.
