Andy Kent – a.k.a. Innereyefull has been exploring the outer reaches of downtempo beatmaking for some time now. Inspired by the kings of old-school hip-hop, funk and dub he’s been blending his influences into tripped-out digital psychedelia just ripe for sound-tracking your next herbal-fuelled mind-excursion – if you catch the Monkey’s drift and two Innereyefull E.P.’s are currently available for download totally free!:
Haunted E.P
Jus’ Believin E.P
…so now you too can hitch a lift on Andy’s magic carpet ride! Monkeyboxing has long been overdue for a chat with the man himself – here’s what he had to say when we finally hooked up:
Monkeyboxing (MB): Tell us a bit about how long you’ve been making music and what got you into it in the first place
Innereyefull (IEF): I’ve been making music for over 20 years now, I got into scratching after seeing a video in the early 80’s of Grandmaster Flash in his kitchen mixing and scratching on 3 decks and I was hooked! And I got into making music through my brother who is a bass player, he had an old ARP AXXE keyboard which made some splendid sounds, we use to jam with my cousin who played drums and make a right noise!! From there on I just wanted to make music and in 1989 I moved from London to Wiltshire where I continued to make music. In December 1994 I was in a studio with a mate doing some tracks under the name Transmit Zero, it was sorta breakbeat stuff with scratching of course, anyway a band he knew heard me scratching and asked me to put some stuff over some tracks they had recorded and a month later I was doing a gig with them in the Fleece and Firkin in Bristol which was wicked! I then joined the band and we did loads of gigs all up and down the country and had a mental time for a few years! After that I decided to do my own thing and explore what I could create with my ideas and that’s where Innereyefull came about.
MB: I thought I read somewhere that you had a previous incarnation in some sort of hip-hop crew – would you care to confirm or deny this?
IEF: Mmm……well I grew up in London and on the estate I lived on me and some mates had a hip hop crew. I used to make beats on a tape deck doing pause loops stylee. Man – it took ages getting a 3 minute drum loop, we would then go breakdance on a huge piece of cardboard which we spray painted, and rap over my beats which were banging out on an old school boombox (haha…what a word!). We didn’t really last long as our breakdancing wasn’t really any good so I stuck to making the beats instead.
MB: What equipment do you use for production?
IEFI use a Mac G4 running Logic and plenty of VST plugins, TC Electronics M300 rack fx, Akai S2800 sampler, Roland & Yamaha midi keyboards, Makie mixing desk, Technics & DJ mixer, Wharfedale Diamond Pro studio monitors, bass guitar, electric guitar & acoustic guitar plus I have a massive sample library I’ve built up over the last 20 years and plenty of imagination!
MB: Have you got any plans to collaborate with vocalists or rappers and is there anyone you’d really like to work with?
IEF: I’ve been working on a project under a different name with a friend of mine who plays guitar, keys and vocals, we hope to get some of this stuff out there in the future. I’m also gonna be working with another vocalist in the new year which should be pretty special if it comes off and I’d love to work with a rapper – it would bring a new element to the Innereyefull sound. As for who I’d really like to work with…well anyone who fits with my sound and keeps it real.
MB: Other than that, what’s next for you in the world of musical performance and production?
IEF: Well I have played live but not for a few years and I’d love to take my sound out and do a live Innereyefull set in the future, it’s a great buzz!!! As for production, just to keep moving forward and doing more collabs and digging for more dirty breaks!
MB: ‘Trip-hop’ got to be a dirty word back in the 90s. Where do you stand on the usage of the phrase ;-)?
IEF: I honestly can’t remember it being a dirty word, I don’t really get caught up in the politics of genres, I just keep doing what I’m doing and that’s what matters.
MB: True dat! The last word is yours. Anything you want to say?
IEF: Yeah……”Get an earfull of this!”