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On My Job​/​Lost in Thought

by skymning

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about

j hus' second album 'big conspiracy' was released in january 2020 following a whatsapp leak, right before everything turned to shit in a lot of the world. this album had me hook, line and sinker. the closing track, 'deeper than rap' was by far my most played tune of the year.

before leaving to new zealand, for what was supposed to be a very short trip, i ripped a slowed down section of this track on to my computer. i had an idea for a juke track built around the sample 'i was in a bad mood until i smoked on a bud'. i thought it was a funny line.

fast forward a few weeks and i'm sitting in jet park mangere managed isolation quarantine facility for two weeks. the rest of my flight went elsewhere but i had a runny nose, as i often do, from spending my adult life in cold houses, so there you go, we were transferred at the border. i didn't make a lot of music in this time but i did some drum programming on my drumbrute (which i hadn't used much and planned to leave with my friend reuben when i stayed with him after quarantine). i chopped the sample a little and laid it over the drums and then closed my computer and sat back down to watch the chase.

i'm one day out of quarantine and driving a friend from auckland to tauranga. we arrive, i fall asleep in a spare room, wake up an hour later, coffee (and now i think about it, even more the chase) and hit the road. i'm offered a bed to spend the night numerous times but i politely refuse. i want to see my friend reuben so i thank them and retrace my steps north.

it's dark when i arrive in titirangi but the timing is just right. i pull up the steepest most uneven driveway in the city blasting 'halftime' by young thug. a curtain shifts by the window and there he is, looking at me, the dumbest grins on both of our faces. the rest of the night is spent hugging, smoking weed, watching real house wives of auckland and discussing how a star of the show, the champaign lady, who is also the owner of the house, is responsible for numerous roosters being let loose in titirangi. the SPCA and city council refuse to remove these animals.

the next day reuben and i are catching up how we often do, over coffee sharing each others new music. i heard some absolutely unreal totems tracks in that house and was, as always, excited and nervous to show him what i'd been working on.

the first two tracks were so-so and i knew it. while he was encouraging, his face changed so violently when i played him the demo of this tune. 'the one'. i told him i wanted to finish the track with him.

we went to a gig and hit up some sensory deprivation tanks and the best supermarket in the city tai ping new lynn, but the majority of the rest of the weekend was spent working on this tune and being served some of the best meals i've had in my life. if you know reuben you know he's tekky - in the kitchen and in the studio. we re-recorded the drum machine, individual outputs through various pedals which he picked up instinctively and explained which effect he wanted on what instrument. i recognised one of them, a badstone clone, as one he'd used when recording guitar for an album of mine back in 2015.

next was the bassline. i wasn't even sure whether i had planned to add one as the kick is so low end heavy, but the boy knew what he wanted and laid this down in no time. i would never have thought to use this style bass on this beat but there you go. bro was built different. we added synth (he did the first section and i did the last), nintendo DS (recorded trapaholic vocal samples in and changed pitch and speed of replay with touch screen) and volca drum (he did a snare pattern and i did an open hihat). that was pretty much it.

i gave him a usb for the stems which i forgot and had posted to christchurch. i later left the same usb in a television in greytown for weeks before realising where it was.

by then reuben was dead. reuben killed himself about six weeks after we made this track. we've made tracks before this but never as collaboratively. i mostly shared ideas and watched in awe at him creating and then had my name slapped on it because i was in the room. but this was a genuine moment where we had fun and made something new and exciting. and i'll never have another moment or another friend like that.

the file had been called 'bad schmood' but after reuben's death i didn't want the song to be called that anymore. i still loved the tune, loved the sample, it's funny to me. that's why i chose it. but i didn't want those words slapped on the last thing we did. the other part of the sample j hus says 'i'm so on my job that i sleep in the lab'. and that's reuben. boy was on job. every fucking day. working relentlessly at whatever project interested him at the time. and that's how i'll remember him.

eternal thanks to iona winter for raising an indescribably amazing child and encouraging me to release this music, even though it's painful.

credits

released October 18, 2021

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skymning New Zealand

this is a place for my back catalogue, odds & ends. follow the link below for new releases through bankrupt records ✌️

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