Utter Trash--Zone Music Inc.

Rise of the Humachine

An interview with Jerome Lee Miller of Zone Music, Inc.

By Bob Ignizio

It’s often said that it’s not quantity that matters, but quality. But who says you have to choose? Certainly not Jerome Lee Miller, aka Humachine aka D.J. Fatbrain aka M.T.K. the Digital Master aka D.S.R. aka Dubtek and (finally) aka Futurefunk. Under these six aliases, Jerry has recorded over 60 CDs worth of original music spanning hip hop, techno, funk, and just about every other kind of electronic music. While this guy obviously spends a lot of time in the studio, Jerry also performs live at various venues around Cleveland.

UT: What got you interested in electronic music?
JM: It was way back in the early seventies when I was in grade school. That song “Popcorn” was the first song where I could tell it was all electronic. It was new and fresh sounding and it caught my ear right away. I started to imagine how it was made and what was being used to do it. Then I remember hearing that “Fifth of Beethoven”, that had to be 1974 or 1975, and I knew it was all electronic right away. So right then it had already gotten my ear. In about 1977 a friend of mine got me into Parliament/Funkadelic, and I was loving the bass and synthesizer in there. So I picked up bass and played that for a while. I sounded like Stanley Clarke, Bootsy Collins, those kind of people, and by 1984 I was real good. But it was limiting as far as the sounds and types of things I could create. By 1983 the kind of stuff I was listening to was becoming really electronic, really sequenced and programmed. Art of Noise came out around that time, and were basically the first sampling act. And I knew then that samplers were going to become the ultimate instrument as far as diversity. It’s pretty much everything you can hear in one instrument. You can create a whole huge orchestra that would cost thousands of dollars to hire. It gives that possibility to an artist who could never control a whole orchestra, they can do it on computers now at their house. It opened up a whole new range of possibilities for musicians.

UT: When did you actually start playing?
JM: Probably 1978. I was in high school bands, but I always wrote the material. Then I would basically agree to or not agree to the other member’s parts. And that eventually led to me wanting more control and just performing it all myself.

UT: Do you ever collaborate with other people on your music, or is it always just you?
JM: I worked with a few other people. A friend of mine who lives in Syracuse New York right now, he used to live in Lakewood, and we had a two man act. Very industrial. From about 1988 to 1994, that was called Digital Demons. I had another act with another friend of mine who now lives in Arizona called M.A.S.S. I can’t even remember what it stands for, something like Mathematical Audio Sampling Scientists or something crazy like that. Not too many other people after that. I enjoy being able to have complete control over the project. I can work with other musicians, but it has a really separate feeling to me.

UT: You use a number of different alter egos for your music, even though it’s all you. What’s the reason behind that?
JM: I did that because I wanted to be able to separate off the genres when necessary. If you want hip hop, then I’ll be DJ Fatbrain, for example. Or I can be all six all together. I prefer to mix it up because that shows the diversity.

UT: How does your live performance differ from what you do in the studio?
JM: Each one of my performances I try to have different aspects of things occurring. I have a backbone or a spine I play over, but I improvise a lot of sounds, mixing and panning, keyboards live over the top and live vocals. So each night’s performance will be pretty drastically different. It’s planned, but it’s always different.

UT: Is Humachine your primary alter ego?
JM: That’s the one I put most of my emphasis on. I spend the most time on those tracks. If I use that name on a track, it’s taken me a long time to create it.

UT: Where did the name come from?
JM: I pretty much devised myself knowing that it probably had existed, but not having heard the term used. It was a track originally that I’d made in 1992, and then after that I used it as a title for a full length album. Then it just became my main name. I’ve found one or two other guys who are using the name, and I’ve communicated with them and they’ve agreed not to have any beef about it because they’re doing drastically different stuff than I’m doing. Then I heard from those guys that some guys in Sweden contacted them once and said, “we own the worldwide trademark name of Humachine and you can’t use it.” But they were never able to do anything about it, so. 2 or 3 acts have called themselves Humachine, and I may or may not have been the first without actually knowing it, but when I chose to use the name I had not heard it used before.

UT: You’ve recorded a lot of material. How many album’s worth?
JM: I’ve done 64 CDs, maybe 50 are full length albums with an average of 12 songs on each. It’s pretty much all I do is record, so it adds up.

UT: Is it hard to still find inspiration for new material?
JM: I sometimes try to think about how I create my stuff. It’s never forced, it just flows out of me. Maybe it’s a muse. I always imagine I’m receiving some sort of cosmic signal or something. Who knows. A lot of people have creative talents and abilities and just haven’t had the opportunity to use them.

UT: It seems like your music would lend itself well to film soundtracks. Have you done anything like that?
JM: I just did a soundtrack for a college student film for a guy in Columbus. I’ve done a few other things locally. Minimal.

UT: Tell me about the TV show you have.
JM: That’s in its fifth year. That eventually started through my friend Zuma Dog, who has the number one public access show on the West Coast. He’s just stuck in public access and can’t get a break. He was originally from Beachwood, I knew him in high school. He was on Howard Stern one time and I didn’t recognize him. I had sampled from the show him speaking, and made a theme song for him. He heard the song and was amazed, and he used it. Anyway, he told me I could have my own show on public access. I had never really thought about it. I filled out the paperwork and turned it in, he showed me a little bit how to edit, and it’s increased in complexity quite a bit in the five years. The early episodes are almost embarrassing. It’s on Friday and Saturday at 11pm on Adelphia Cable channel 21.