The Fremont Fair Solstice Music Festival is happening this week and we couldn't be more excited for the headliners of the Friday night mainstage, Deltron 3030! The group, consisting of Del the Funky Homosapien, Dan the Automator, and Kid Koala will be bringing their sci-fi infused hip hop and taking fans through an intergalactic tour to help kick off the start of summer.
We struck the Milky Way jackpot and got a chance to speak with Del, the main voice and creator of Deltron 0 - our futuristic rap battling hero, and got him to talk about returning to the character for the sequel album "Event II", his creative process when it comes to sci-fi, and probably the most important issue of all time - his favorite video game console. Read up and then make sure to snag tickets for this Friday or enter to win our giveaway!
Seems like you guys have been touring non-stop since the release of Deltron 3030’s 'Event 2'. How has it been touring behind new material and being on the road again?
Del: I love touring. It’s fun, you know? The band is all great and I get along with everyone in the band and I learn a lot from them being musicians and me being a musician too. They’re more advanced than I am but I learn a lot from being around them. As far as the touring and the shows go , it’s fine. Touring is work though.
Photo by Michael Donovan, L-R Kid Koala, Del, Dan 'The Automator' Nakamura
When I last saw you - you had the Deltron orchestra in tow - how was it doing the tour with the orchestra?
Del: Sure, well we don’t bring them along per se, we basically rent out an orchestra wherever we’re at, we’ve got a band leader that we fly out when we do it, but as far as the rest of it we seek out players wherever we at. It’d be too expensive to fly around with an orchestra obviously. It’s cool, you know what I’m sayin', I think it’s more a spectacle for the people. For me, I kind of prefer a more pared down rock band version more because it’s a little more intimate.
For this June is it just going to be You, Dan The Automator, and Kid Koala? What can fans expect?
Del: Since this one is without the symphony it’s going to be Me, Dan, Kid Koala, Taka on guitars, Alex on the drums, and Juan on the bass, and Juan is from the Mars Volta band actually. Juan is awesome man, the whole band is.
Image by Robin Ha
You’ll be stopping by the Fremont Solstice Festival this June, which is Seattle’s official start of summer bash which includes naked bike riders, music, and more. Since you guys are from the future - can you tell us about how people celebrate the sun in 3030?
Del: Man, I don’t know (laughs). We’re already living in the future now though. As far I’m concerned, if you were born around this time maybe it ain’t nothing to you, but to me it's like the Jetsons is here, ya know?
Fremont Fair
How do you celebrate summer?
Del: (laughing) I hate summer, to tell you the truth. I’m hella sensitive to heat, so, like when summer comes, that's like BAD for me. You know what I’m saying. I like it when it’s rainy and gloomy looking outside.
Probably plenty of people in Seattle that would agree with you
Del: Yeah - you see, that’s the climate I like right there!
Seattle is known for being crazy about science fiction and even has a museum dedicated to it. What is your relationship like with sci-fi and what made you want to work in the genre?
Del: My main relationship with Sci-Fi would have to be through video games and Anime/Manga because I was never a big Star Wars fan or into Star Trek like that. They’re cool but I was never fanatical about them. Matter of fact, I think when Star Wars came out I actually went to the theater to see it and I think I fell asleep, basically. I went to the screening with a Star Wars comic book and ended up paying more attention to the comic and passed out in the truck. This was at a drive-in, that’s how long ago it was.
My main connection would probably be through Anime and video games - that’s how I arrived there. Now back when I started writing for “Event II” I started studying how to write science fiction, you know like the different genres of science fiction and what makes each genre tick, you know. Just to kind of find out what would be my niche, you know, my angle to come from. Because I didn’t want to just fill out anything, like, if you’re a sci-fi fan I wanted stuff to be there that you’d be excited about or for it to be real to you, so I did my research and came across The Encyclopedia of Star Wars, that was floating around somewhere, stuff like the languages of Star Trek. I actually got that one for A-Plus (Hiero), he and his sister are big fans so I got them a book on the Physics of Star Trek and I sank my teeth into that a little bit because I wasn’t into it that much, I’m just more into robotech and stuff like that. Giant Mecha and stuff like that.
Essential Anime that you think everyone should see?
Del: Akira is definitely one of them - as far as one of the best movies of all time. Let me think. Another one... Ninja Scroll is also one of the top ones - not sci-fi but great. There’s also another one called Legend of the Oberdine, but I don’t know if that one is for everybody, know what I mean, it’s crazy.
Akira
We know that Automator is behind the production with Kid Koala working in the extras - how do you go about getting in the creative space for Deltron 0? You mentioned you did sci-fi research for the last album?
Del: Yeah, like that is pretty much what I would do. I would think about world events and social type things that I, you know, have a problem with or whatever and then try to translate that into a sci-fi world. Because that is all it is - its my concerns and political views. Things that I think are wrong or whatever, or things that can be corrected or just pet peeves or whatever. Basically it’s the same thing I do as Del, But I just put it in the futuristic context instead of like a street context like if I was Del. Deltron is on a more futuristic space age type of level. It’s a lot of work though. It’s not as easy because you have to fill in the blanks with all this other stuff, you know what I mean?
So would you say it’s more of a challenge to create in the sci-fi genre?
Del: Oh, definitely. It took me years to write Deltron, whereas like a regular record that’s here on earth, doesn't take that much. I think that’s one of the things that makes it a special thing for people. Because it takes a lot of work to do. It’s also a niche too, The people that dig my Del stuff, I'm not saying that they don’t dig my Deltron stuff but it’s kinda like over their heads - so it’s a niche kind of thing too.
What was the greatest video game console of all time?
Del: Man! Like what made me feel the best?
Sure - or if you have any nostalgia for a certain console?
Del: I mean, I’m like a kid with it. If you show me an NES I’m like “ok, What’s the big deal?” You know what I’m saying, these graphics were terrible actually! (laughs) I mean, I was there so I can appreciate what it represented but it ain’t touching the graphics nowadays, it’s like watching a movie - an interactive movie. My favorite system of all time would probably have to be the Colecovision, because that was just so advanced, all the video games that was in the arcade that was raw - they had it on there. That was the first time you could really play arcade games that had the same graphics as the Arcade. Like, Donkey Kong looked dead on to the arcade. It wouldn’t touch today, but back then it was big. They had a lot of sega games. After that (favorite console) would have to be the Dreamcast, because Dreamcast was so raw, yeah, it’d be a tie of Dreamcast “slash “Sega Saturn”, because Saturn was raw too but people slept on because it was just 2D, basically. But the graphics was so raw, they took it to a whole new level, they just didn’t count on 3D picking up like it did, because they were still on ATARI block graphics. You know what I’m saying, it was 3D but it was BLOCKY. The Dreamcast, basically, is what the 360 and XBOX One is now - it’s the same technology basically, because Microsoft built that too.
Colecovision
One other form of media I often hear you reference is comics. What are some of your favorite comics/graphic novels?
Del: Whew, hold up and let me see - because I got a few on my iPad maybe right now.
Rat Queens is definitely one of them - don’t know if you’ve heard of that one but it’s a DOPE comic. It’s pretty ill.
Rat Queens, via Image Comics
I’ve also got the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - from 1 to 25, the original ones, you know. I bought them all when they came out back in the day, so. Now I’ve got them on my phone and it’s crazy. I also have all the Howard the Ducks, I have a lot of obscure Marvel comics like the “What If’s”.
What If...?
I also have all the Transformers graphic novels. I’m talking about the O.G. Transformers, you know what I’m saying. Like you know, Hasbro, with the figures and shit. I’m not talking about the movies. I got ALL them, like the Beastwars series, like all the graphic novels - the art and graphics be hella clean, so I bought all of them, I think there were 18 of them out there and I have the physical books of those actually.
Transformers
You let anyone touch them?
Del: No, but no one wants to touch them, no one is trippin' on those, the just come over and are like “whatever”. Ain't nobody reading. You have to read these, there ain’t no animation or nothing. I’m a reader though, you feel me. So like, I like taking the time to read something. It makes your imagination work because you have to put some work into it. It makes YOU come up with your own vision of what it is, it ain’t just fed to you like you were watching it.
In your work as Deltron you often paint a bleaker vision of the future, one that can be dystopian with giant corporations in power and over commercialization, when it comes to you personally - are you optimistic or pessimistic about our future?
Del: I see good and bad in everything. There’s a duality in everything and you can’t have one without the other. So, of course if there is going to be good, there is going to be a bad side to it. Like with the technology. Technology is great, but at the same time I feel like people are getting dumber and dumber. I people like driving and stuff and people just be doing dumb ass stuff when they’re driving. They’d just sit there and honk the horn for hella long because they want somebody to move. And I’m like “do you think they’re going to move just because you’re sitting there on the fucking horn, don’t you know it’s for an emergency? It’s not just there because you want to go!”. People will run through a red light and damn near hit someone because they're like “Oh, I’m in a hurry”. People feel like they’re owed something. Pretty soon robots are going to be doing everything for people and it’s going to be like you can’t even pick up a fork without someone being like “Oh god, I have pick a fork up? ugh!!!”
What about the perils of having access to instant information - think people retain anything anymore, or just know they can google when needed?
That’s one of the things I’m talking about. But see, it’s tight though and I’m just getting used to it, because I’m used to retaining information and stuff, but now, maybe in the last year or so it finally hit me that if I want to know something that I can just go to Wikipedia, or go to Google, and actually look it up. I don't have to sit there wondering, I can actually figure it out right then and there. So it’s tight, actually, because if you need that information, like even a kid - I know a couple of kids and they got things they want to do when they grow up or whatever and I’m like “You can do that now. You want to be a programmer or something? Get on Youtube and start learning now!”. There’s no filler or buffer, you can figure it out. You can also learn how to do bad stuff too, but that’s just the nature of life, ya know.
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Catch Deltron 3030 this Friday and a huge thanks t Del for taking the time to chat with us!
Interview by Rich Hobby, Content Manager and chief geek of Do206
