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Brian Ellis says no to sampling for Campus Christy collab
“Someone 30 years from now could sample it, knowing it’s purely original”
Brian Ellis: it is better to be sampled than to sample.
“If you’ve never seen a band of four guys and one girl all wearing bikinis in solidarity, performing the ‘Star-Spangled Banner’ before telling you if you don’t call your mom tonight that you can ‘go to hell,’ you’ve probably missed your only opportunity.” That’s Escondido’s Brian Ellis, recounting his recent opening for Sacri Monti and Mondo Drag. (He’s not specific about who rocked the bikinis).
Never foot-dragging when it comes to music, he took the stage at an early age. “I started playing shows when I was around 12, back when the Metaphor Cafe and the old Soma sidestage still existed,” recalls Ellis. “Some highlights would be all the shows my old band Los Machos opened for The Aquabats, my side project Birdzilla headlining over Powerman 5000 at the Jumping Turtle, having a Magic 92.5-sponsored gig with my band Reflection alongside XL Middleton and Moniquea and Egyptian Lover, and hearing my name on a 92.5 commercial.”
Outside San Diego, “one of my recent favorites was playing the Gathering of the Juggalos as Egyptian Lover’s keyboard player. It was unbelievable to share a bill with KRS-One, Sir Mix-A-Lot, and Slick Rick, and to get invited on stage during Insane Clown Posse’s last song, only to instantly be Faygo-showered by Shaggy 2 Dope himself. I had to take an Uber back to my hotel at 4 am to make a very early flight back to LA, to play the 808 Day celebration for Roland. Not sure I slept at all before that flight. But I definitely took more than four showers.”
Asked about his childhood in Escondido, Ellis emphasizes having to make your own fun. “Something about the lack of anything to do as a young person in Escondido, at least in my growing-up years, seemed to foster a unique, creative group of kids that took having fun into their own hands. It’s also always felt much more inclusive and embracing as an artistic community, rather than competitive like I’ve seen in bigger cities. I started producing electronic music around 12 years old with MIDI, and later discovered FL Studio around 14. But I only really had one or two friends that were hip into being into old-school rap or funk at all. Producing that music when I was young always felt sort of private, like it was just for a few friends. It was so great to realize I could pursue those styles more seriously.”
Ellis is a vet of local psychedelically-inclined bands such as Astra, Birth, and the Psicomagia, and he also produced EDM music under the name Brian E. His newest project is the Campus Christy album, a collaboration with Stones Throw Records’ founder Chris Manak, aka electro-rapper Peanut Butter Wolf. PBW is handling the vocals while Ellis provides the instrumentation. Ellis met PBW through the long-running old-school electro-rapper Egyptian Lover, and started working with the Wolf during Covid. PBW took “Campus Christy” from the name of his old garage band, and the project lives up to the nostalgia so implied.
“The album is a covers album,” Ellis elaborates, “mostly very obscure songs that PBW curated. A huge part of the beauty of the record is PBW’s ability to curate a play-list of tracks that very unassumingly work well together, and even create the feeling of a story or journey from start to finish. I love the idea of a collection of songs all written by different artists that feel like a cohesive singular album. I play every instrument on the entire album, other than some percussion and a couple random solos here and there. I didn’t use any samples whatsoever. I think sampling is very cool, but being a modern musician proficient in over 14 instruments, I made the decision to avoid sampling completely. I like the idea that someone 30 years from now could discover one of my records and sample it, knowing it’s purely original.”
Not that shaking it old-school with the Wolf is the whole of his passion. “I have a new solo album called Lifetime Supply coming out on CQQL Records on January 24. I’ve been working on it for the past five or six years now. I’m always constantly working on new music in the studio. I like Bandcamp, since I can release music very quickly — music a label might not take a chance on. Unfortunately, I broke my shoulder a few weeks ago, so I will be on hiatus from playing live while I recover.”
The Campus Christy video for "Little Wing" was recently announced as one of the winners of Night Flight's Music Video Festival 2024.
Video:
Campus Christy "Little Wing"
Here's something you might be interested in.
Brian Ellis says no to sampling for Campus Christy collab
“Someone 30 years from now could sample it, knowing it’s purely original”
Brian Ellis says no to sampling for Campus Christy collab
“Someone 30 years from now could sample it, knowing it’s purely original”
Brian Ellis: it is better to be sampled than to sample.
“If you’ve never seen a band of four guys and one girl all wearing bikinis in solidarity, performing the ‘Star-Spangled Banner’ before telling you if you don’t call your mom tonight that you can ‘go to hell,’ you’ve probably missed your only opportunity.” That’s Escondido’s Brian Ellis, recounting his recent opening for Sacri Monti and Mondo Drag. (He’s not specific about who rocked the bikinis).
Never foot-dragging when it comes to music, he took the stage at an early age. “I started playing shows when I was around 12, back when the Metaphor Cafe and the old Soma sidestage still existed,” recalls Ellis. “Some highlights would be all the shows my old band Los Machos opened for The Aquabats, my side project Birdzilla headlining over Powerman 5000 at the Jumping Turtle, having a Magic 92.5-sponsored gig with my band Reflection alongside XL Middleton and Moniquea and Egyptian Lover, and hearing my name on a 92.5 commercial.”
Outside San Diego, “one of my recent favorites was playing the Gathering of the Juggalos as Egyptian Lover’s keyboard player. It was unbelievable to share a bill with KRS-One, Sir Mix-A-Lot, and Slick Rick, and to get invited on stage during Insane Clown Posse’s last song, only to instantly be Faygo-showered by Shaggy 2 Dope himself. I had to take an Uber back to my hotel at 4 am to make a very early flight back to LA, to play the 808 Day celebration for Roland. Not sure I slept at all before that flight. But I definitely took more than four showers.”
Asked about his childhood in Escondido, Ellis emphasizes having to make your own fun. “Something about the lack of anything to do as a young person in Escondido, at least in my growing-up years, seemed to foster a unique, creative group of kids that took having fun into their own hands. It’s also always felt much more inclusive and embracing as an artistic community, rather than competitive like I’ve seen in bigger cities. I started producing electronic music around 12 years old with MIDI, and later discovered FL Studio around 14. But I only really had one or two friends that were hip into being into old-school rap or funk at all. Producing that music when I was young always felt sort of private, like it was just for a few friends. It was so great to realize I could pursue those styles more seriously.”
Ellis is a vet of local psychedelically-inclined bands such as Astra, Birth, and the Psicomagia, and he also produced EDM music under the name Brian E. His newest project is the Campus Christy album, a collaboration with Stones Throw Records’ founder Chris Manak, aka electro-rapper Peanut Butter Wolf. PBW is handling the vocals while Ellis provides the instrumentation. Ellis met PBW through the long-running old-school electro-rapper Egyptian Lover, and started working with the Wolf during Covid. PBW took “Campus Christy” from the name of his old garage band, and the project lives up to the nostalgia so implied.
“The album is a covers album,” Ellis elaborates, “mostly very obscure songs that PBW curated. A huge part of the beauty of the record is PBW’s ability to curate a play-list of tracks that very unassumingly work well together, and even create the feeling of a story or journey from start to finish. I love the idea of a collection of songs all written by different artists that feel like a cohesive singular album. I play every instrument on the entire album, other than some percussion and a couple random solos here and there. I didn’t use any samples whatsoever. I think sampling is very cool, but being a modern musician proficient in over 14 instruments, I made the decision to avoid sampling completely. I like the idea that someone 30 years from now could discover one of my records and sample it, knowing it’s purely original.”
Not that shaking it old-school with the Wolf is the whole of his passion. “I have a new solo album called Lifetime Supply coming out on CQQL Records on January 24. I’ve been working on it for the past five or six years now. I’m always constantly working on new music in the studio. I like Bandcamp, since I can release music very quickly — music a label might not take a chance on. Unfortunately, I broke my shoulder a few weeks ago, so I will be on hiatus from playing live while I recover.”
The Campus Christy video for "Little Wing" was recently announced as one of the winners of Night Flight's Music Video Festival 2024.
Video:
Campus Christy "Little Wing"