UNTAPPED TALENT: MARLON LUMBA (DJ ASTRONOMAR)

GODDAMN THAT DJ MADE MY DAY-- SMOKIN\' JOE BLOW SITS DOWN WITH JUNEAU, ALASKA\'S OWN DJ ASTRONOMAR TO TALK TECHNIQUE, TURNTABLES, TRAVEL, AND 101 USES FOR A SHARPIE.
Smokin\' Joe Blow: Could you spell your name for the record?
Marlon Lumba: M-A-R-L-O-N L-U-M-B-A.
SJB: So, how long have you been part of The Animatronic Stage Show?
ML: We formed about three years ago. The first gig we worked was the 2001 FolkFest.
SJB: Really?
ML: Yeah. We practiced for seven months just for that one gig, and then just kind of kept going after that.
SJB: And how did you get together with them?
ML: Well, I\'d been DJing for about a year and a half before then, and word travels fast in a small town, you know? They were looking to start a funk band, and they heard I could DJ, so we just jammed one time at my house. It started sprouting from there.
SJB: Who else is in the stage show?
ML: It consists of Lacy and Sadie Ingalls-- they\'re brother and sister. Lacy plays guitar, and Sadie plays bass. They\'re pretty rockin\'; very theorized and funky. There\'s Dale McFarland on the drums, and Doug Bridges on saxophone. He didn\'t join until after our first FolkFest gig because our original sax player, Jim Buckley, had some issues in his home; some relationship stuff, so he was preoccupied with that.
SJB: So you\'ve been doing this for about three years. What were you doing prior to that? I mean, where did it all start?
ML: Well, for me, I got turntables, and started making tapes; lots of recordings and stuff, messing around, flipping crazy records and sound effects. I let some friends listen to them, and they started talking to other people about what I was doing.
SJB: After getting some practice on the tables, the Stage Show was your first gig?
ML: It was my first exposure to Juneau, and as a package with a group. I got a lot of my performance experience with the Stage Show, because we played bar gigs, we did the FolkFest, and the Concert in the Park twice.
SJB: It\'s tough getting exposure in Juneau.
ML: It is kinda hard. Because it\'s so small you can throw out anything, but actually being accepted and having someone say, \"This is cool,\" is hard. People can be pretty snide about stuff here.
SJB: When did you get into radio? Was it offered to you, or did you have to chase it?
ML: After I had spent so much time and money collecting records, I wanted to be able to play them, so I had to hunt down the president of KBJZ. I was leaving messages and trying to contact him through other people, and when I finally got a hold of him, he said, \"We\'d love to have you!\" He\'d heard about me from the Stage Show. He was really embracing.
SJB: How long have you been doing that?
ML: Since October 2003.
SJB: How often are you on?
ML: Every Friday from nine to midnight. I host a freestyle rap show called \"101 Uses For A Sharpie\".
SJB: I understand you have a couple of CDs out?
ML: I have one full-length mix/compositional scratch, but I\'ve only been pushing it for awhile. I\'m working on newer stuff, just recording some songs. My first, well, my only release is called Old Native. It\'s kind of a homage to Old Navy; it\'s some compositional scratch and about a half-hour mix of stuff I like.
SJB: What about your new stuff?
ML: I\'m working on beats and trying to build an album with rappers from different areas. I know some guys from Vancouver, and some guys from Sitka.
SJB: Who would you say your earliest influences were? I mean, there you are as a kid, and one day you hear this sound; it\'s usually the same response for people who get into music. \"What the hell is that?\" It turns them on like a switch. What did it for you?
ML: For my first delve into rap and hip-hop, my friend gave me a bootleg copy of Snoop Dogg\'s Doggystyle. I\'d always hide it under my pillow and listen to it at night with my Walkman!
SJB: (laughs)
ML: Then one day it wound up in the wash and it got all messed up. I was like, \"No!\" It was all I had at that point.
SJB: Oh, no.
ML: Then I found De La Soul somehow-- I don\'t know exactly. I heard the scratching, but I couldn\'t grasp what the hell it was. It was interesting.
SJB: Did you find many influences outside of hip-hop, like jazz or instrumentals?
ML: When I was a kid I was in G.T. music and G.T. art, and then I quit G.T. art in fifth grade for some ridiculous reason I can\'t remember--
SJB: G.T. art is...?
ML: Gifted and talented. I think it was because I couldn\'t go to recess on Fridays. Yeah... I quit because I couldn\'t go out.
SJB: What medium are you into?
ML: I do graffiti tags. I don\'t go out a lot, and I do it in legal spots, mainly. I don\'t want to risk getting arrested or fined.
SJB: Are there legal spots around town?
ML: The skate park, pretty much. I know the manager out there; she\'s really cool.
SJB: Has any of your work brought you local notoriety?
ML: Kinda. People are like, \"Hey, you\'re that DJ!\" I don\'t know. People blow it out of proportion, like I\'m some superhuman musician guy, but I just play records. And scratch.
SJB: Yeah, that\'s a line crossed. Once a person does something-- reaches up and touches a vein of something or gets their name out there-- it\'s as if they\'ve become a step removed somehow. We can\'t grasp that they still put their pants on one leg at a time. Celebrity is a strange animal.
ML: Yeah.
SJB: So, where do you want the Stage Show to go? You guys are damn good!
ML: Hopefully we\'ll get a studio album out sometime. We\'re all busy doing different things; Sadie goes to school in Ireland, Dale travels a lot, and Lacy and I are pretty much stationed in Juneau. Well, for the time being.
SJB: I really think an album of the Stage Show would sell hot here in Juneau. Definitely. You can count me in for a copy. But what do you want to do? Do you plan to make a career of this?
ML: Not really a career, because it becomes a job, like something you have to do. I\'d rather do it when I\'m in the mood. When I make beats, I just go when I\'m feeling it, and just put some work in.
SJB: What kind of stuff do you use? What kind of samples and pieces make the whole?
ML: Recently, it\'s been a lot of rock; just little breaks and riffs, and I just chop it up and rearrange it to my liking. With any strong music, really, I can take something and turn it into my own thing.
SJB: Do you hear it in your head first?
ML: Well, I get a sample, and then think about how I could rearrange it and let it unfold; rearrange the melody somehow, or stuttering the beat or something.
SJB: Do you ever do themes? Some artists build toward a specific story, an idea or theme. Do you see yourself doing that?
ML: Maybe on a mixtape or a scratch composition album; I\'m not really vocal when it comes to recording.
SJB: Well, not like vocalizing, but taking some of the stuff you\'ve put together and turning it into a story.
ML: Actually, I have done that without really thinking about it-- a space theme.
SJB: Do you do a lot of experimentation? Did you ever wonder what would happen if you were to bring in a piece of equipment that was completely on the outside of what you\'d normally use? Or is it pretty much vinyl and tables?
ML: I\'m still kinda premature as an artist; I\'ve only been doing it four years, so I still have a lot more area to chart.
SJB: Have you been approached by anyone who said, \"Hey, how do you do that? Will you teach me?\"
ML: I have, yeah. But it\'s hard to teach someone, because I had no one to learn from, myself; I just jumped into it blind and developed my own system of putting things together.
SJB: I\'ve always been curious about DJs. What is the system? I mean, when you watch someone put a show together, it\'s like they have two brains working in concert with each other. One of them, Brain A, is monitoring everything out on the floor: how the crowd is reacting to what they\'re putting out. The other one, Brain B, is two minutes in the future looking for the next tool in the toolbox, and then they merge for that instant, and a chill runs up your spine. You know you\'ve just heard something incredible, and then it starts all over again. What process do you use to keep all this information straight? Because, it\'s a hell of a tight show to run! So what\'s your system?
ML: If I have a planned gig where I have to put in some real work to make it worthwhile, I try to have some foresight about what I\'m doing. But when it\'s time to throw down, I just throw out what I was gonna do!
SJB: You just free flow.
ML: Yeah. I try to stick to what I had planned, but sometimes I just take it someplace different, you know?
SJB: Cool. So, your space theme, what brought you into that?
ML: Just being in awe of it, the vastness. There has to be more intelligence out there. We can\'t be it in the whole universe.
SJB: Exactly. Have you read much Carl Sagan?
ML: Not yet.
SJB: Okay, I\'ve got some I can turn you on to. He had this theory, right, like a math formula, about the number of planets capable of sustaining life. I mean, when they turned Hubble to the dimmest point in the sky and enhanced the picture, there were more universes like ours. They picked another dim spot among those, enhanced it, and saw even more universes. I don\'t know, I\'ve always been into space and time.
ML: Yeah.
SJB: I don\'t have much of a background in hip-hop, but I know what I like. I\'ve damn near worn a hole in my DJ Shadow CD, that, and the DJ Signify CD you gave me. I\'ve almost worn a hole in that, too. Have you ever heard of Einsturzende Neubauten?
ML: Heard of, never listened to.
SJB: I think I read someplace that they used to go around to junkyards and build their own instruments from stuff they found, like electrified shopping carts, and just get crazy.
ML: Whoa! No shit?
SJB: Yeah. They were doing flamethrowers for awhile; it gave off this hell-driven bass. Their words sound so guttural and savage, but the translated lyrics are so beautiful.
ML: I\'ll have to check them out!
SJB: Do you ever see yourself leaving Juneau, and traveling abroad?
ML: I spent a year in Vancouver, so I have some connections there. I might go back. I just want to travel and check out the world. I went to Singapore once when I was seven, and that\'s the farthest I\'ve ever gone. But I definitely want to go country to country and check out different lifestyles and customs and music and everything, and explore the differences between.