Recorded on 1/19/2020:
Welcome to Episode number 1 of Vaulted Vinyl, a new podcast that celebrates the record collections of DJs and curators in the Metro Sessions community. Each month, we send a standard list of intimate vinyl collecting questions to a selector. Then, we visit the selector and the collection in their natural habitat to record the answers. I’m Heather hdubs, and today, I am so pleased to be visiting the DJ who has been a cornerstone of the Metro Sessions community from Day 1. Chris Cabatic aka P.hazeone is an artist, dancer, DJ, general genius who plays and pops with the Activate LA and Rhythm and Untz crews. He has rocked so many of our live streams and events, and he’s a natural choice for our inaugural episode. Chris, I’m so excited to hear about your record collecting journey. Thank you for having us over!
Chris: Thanks for coming through and thank you for those kind words!
Heather: I mean them so sincerely!
Heather: We are joined by photographer Mike G of Jamtop Studios who is taking some very slick photos for the interview that will be featured on our website, www.metrosessions.live
Let’s get started!
Which record have you owned the longest?
The record I’ve owned the longest is MF Doom, Volumes 3 and 4 of The Metal Fingers Special Herbs. They are actually the first records I purchased. I was on a trip in London at this shop called Sister Ray. I got my MF DOOM fix because I felt my trinity at the time was MF Doom, Dilla, and Madlib. Then, when I saw those records, I had to pick them out when I was up there in 2016 or 2017.
Can you tell us about a record or some records that you inherited from friends or family?
So a couple of records I inherited when I was first DJing were from a great friend of mine, Eric DRTYSoap (of Soul Source.) I told him I was just starting, that I only had a couple to play on, not enough to do a whole set, and he said “Hold on. I got you.” The next time I saw him, he gave me a thick little collection, and one of them was this Pennye Ford Dangerous and Change Your Wicked Ways on the B side, and that was like a like a little funk staple I would play in my funk sets.
What is a recent record that you bought that you have been really enjoying?
My recent purchase has been Kerr Back at Ya, and I’ve been playing it heavy at all my recent sets that like a funk and a boogie sound and that modern funk sound, so I’ve been playing it a lot at Sorry Not Sorry and any guest spots I’ve been doing, I’ve been making sure to play this one or circle my sets around this one.
What are some of your favorite records, and how did you acquire them?
One of my favorite records is my copy that I was able to get of of Tried by 12 by East Flatbush Project. It’s one of those boom bap hip hop records, and this instrumental I feel is like a classic freestyle instrumental I wanna play is someone says “I want to freestyle, I want to flow,” I’ll put this on. This is a classic 90s beat that I just love, and I feel like it’s the epitome of that hip hop sound.
What kind of sound system do you use at home?
My room DJ setup is my starter setup, which are two Stanton turntables and a two channel mixer, just a little 2 channel Numark mixer. Nothing too fancy, just so I can do some mixing and fading, and all the practicing goes down on those.
Which of your records would you say your most familiar with, which one do you know the most about, maybe because you have a lot of personal connections to it?
One of the records closest to my heart, I feel, just because I have a personal relationship with the producer and the singer on the tracks is XL Middleton’s 2 Minutes til Midnight. His latest G funk album where he is throwing it back to some nice G-funk sounds. We’re even close friends with a lot of people he collaborated with such as Zackey Force Funk, I, Ced, Moniquea, and with XL Middleton, he’s just been a great friend and someone who supports as well as goes out there, so I love supporting him and Moniquea and the Mofunk record sound that they’re bringing out. The collective of people they work with are just so supportive of each other. That’s what I love about it.
Do any of your records have an interesting backstory or something unique about them that you can share with us?
A couple of records that I picked up that have a nice backstory were from Salt Box. XL [Middleton, who also owns Salt Box Records] told me that this collection of L.A. hard house records that he picked up were from a classic DJ called DJ Oso Big from the mid 90s. These came from some of his record collection, so it’s a lot of UC, Underground Construction tracks. This one the A.J. Mora, off Aqua Boogie, I Found Something Real. This is an awesome banger, and this is a UC track that I love, it’s I Love God, and it’s a very LA, hard house, 90s banger.
What would you consider your best dollar bin or low budget purchase?
I think my latest budget zone purchase or “come up, this Lenny Williams that I picked up Salt Box Records. I was digging and Ghost, DJ Ghost, happened to be there, David Zylberman, and he recommended this from the dollar bin. It’s called Love Soldier by Lenny Williams. He goes “This is a great boogie sound,” he goes, “ you would dig it, “ and then I played it, and I fell in love it. I knew he wouldn’t steer me wrong.
Can you tell us about a time that you found a Holy Grail record in the wild?
A holy grail record I did come across, actually I was digging with Tremaine out in Japan. We were looking for specifically, like, some Japanese stuff, and we both came across a Junko Ohashi track with this song Dancin. I was just getting into Japanese boogie, and this was to me a little treasure trove, a little gem we found while we were both digging in Tokyo, so it had that sentimental value and it was just that special track to find.
We’ve talked about a lot of records here today. What’s one that we haven’t talked about that you just want to bring to everyone’s attention?
An awesome record that I think should be on people’s radar is this Pink Fink record. I just love it, because it has this dark, horror funk, if that makes sense. You can tell by the album cover that is very occult looking, and then it gets into a very heavy boogie sound. It has this nice pink, you know, “Pink Fink” vinyl.
And that wraps up our episode number 1 of Vaulted Vinyl, the new Metro Sessions podcast that explores the record collections of some of our favorite DJs and selectors. I want to thank Chris Cabatic aka P.hazeone for letting us into his home and showing us his collection. You can catch P.hazeone with the Rhythm & Untz crew on Fridays at Sorry Not Sorry LA. I also want to thank Mike G. of Jamtop Studios for taking some great photos of P.hazeone in his element. Those photos and a nearly full transcript of this recording are available on our website www.metrosessions.live. Finally, I want to thank you for peeking into the vault with us. Have a great week.
Our theme music is The Return of the Boombap by Ashwan and is registered under a CC BY-NC 3.0 license.