Three Questions With RZA
- 12 hours ago
- 3 min read
Well, this one is a true honor! The one and only producer, director, writer, composer, rapper, and de facto leader of the Wu-Tang Clan: living legend RZA was kind enough to answer three questions!
We sat down at Vidiots in Los Angeles between a screening of his 2012 film, The Man With The Iron Fists in 35mm (of which he directed, and co-wrote with Eli Roth), and The Mystery of Chess Boxing, a classic 1979 Joseph Kuo Kung Fu film, renowned for its influence on Wu-Tang Clan: "Da Mystery of Chessboxin'" appears on their 1993 album Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) and its depiction of the Ghost Face Killer is where Wu-Tang Clan member Ghostface Killah derived his stage name from!
The screening was put on by 36 Cinema, RZA’s new distribution company, which is set to release his new film, One Spoon of Chocolate on May 1st. Directed by RZA and presented by Quentin Tarantino, I highly recommend going to catch it in theaters if you can!
Without further ado...
Synth History: What are a few of your top pieces of gear of all time?
RZA: For me, my top instrument or piece of gear of all time is gonna be the Ensoniq ASR-10. I made so many of my Wu-Tang songs on that keyboard / sampler. It was like my pioneering instrument. Even though I bought many, many things over the years, that is gonna have to be my number one.
For number two, I'm gonna have to say the MPC. I was late to the game with it. I only had the SP-1200 and ASR-10 for a while and I didn't get the MPC until, like, ‘96 or ‘97. I combined the MPC with the ASR-10 and that’s how I made the track “Triumph”. I also used a Nord Lead and the Roland JV-2080. Put those all together and you got the Wu-Tang Forever album.
For the third piece of gear, I'm actually gonna come up to date with it. Well, not that up to date, but yeah. I really love the Arturia MicroBrute. It’s always fantastic, easy to modulate and manipulate. It's just a special piece of equipment.
Synth History: What is one of your favorite memories, either recent or from the past, from either recording in the studio or working on a film? First thing that comes to your mind.
RZA: Well, you know, too many things come to my mind at once! But one of my favorite memories is always being at Firehouse Studio, recording the first album with the Wu-Tang Clan, with all my brothers coming in and you just never knew what was going to happen. It was so unpredictable, so raw, such a unique moment of being. Kind of struggling, kind of ambitious, wishing. All these different things happening all at once. Making that first album will always be special.
I'm gonna add on to this answer, though, because that's the same feeling that I had making [One Spoon of Chocolate]. I feel like my new film is a new 36 Chambers in the way of bringing talent together, taking the rawness of the tools I had to play with and really carving out a story that I'm very proud of, from the process of shooting the film to getting into post-production. Then with the music, I was able to collaborate with Tyler Bates and learn something different about composing. He actually bows this guitar [GuitarViol] and he’s got all these fucking pedals. That along with a crazy synth collection gives you some very unique sounds. There's definitely two crazy cues in the film where you're like, “What the fuck is that?” It's like that Bernard Herrmann type shit.
Synth History: I’m excited to watch it! This is the last question and I’m sure you get asked this often. As someone who writes, directs, produces, composes and has a clear vision for art direction, how important is that unified perspective for you?
RZA: For me, it’s everything. Right? And even if you don't activate every thought, knowing how to communicate with others through knowledge. I could tell my DP, “I want to put a 40mm lens on the camera.” Knowing that. I could throw an ISO number out. You know what I mean? I could talk to my gaffer, everybody in my crew, and have enough communicative knowledge to execute my vision. When something is going wrong as a director, sometimes you gotta turn to the writer because they know the ins and outs. Well, I turn to myself for that! I will honestly say it's not easy, but it's so fulfilling.
Synth History: Thank you!
RZA: Thank you.
Interview conducted by Danz.
Big special thanks to Vidiots.
Photos at Vidiots by Caroline Mariko Films.
RZA in the studio by MikaV, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/.
