It’s been a while since we covered a podcast with a Latin angle or a Brazilian flavour. In fact my apologies go out to you as it’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve covered any podcasts!

To make up for it I’ve found an absolute gem to proudly present to you this week. It’s all about Mr. Phipson’s Incredible Podcast this week!

The description goes like this: Sportive Baile Funked up jazzy audio joints. Berlin based Mr Phipson presents you an urban mixture of tunes from the past and future. Bossa Nova, Jazzed Up Beats, Electronica, Tropicalectro, Brazilian Beats, Tropicalia, Rare Grooves, Afro-Latinized Funk, Drums’n Breaks, Drum’n Bossa, Deep Beats, Baile Funk, Hippy Hoppy and other funky oddities.

From the good old times back in the days to the era of dual processor powered favela funk. The sound of shantytowns worldwide from underground to Roots Jazz and all the good things inbetween. Stay open minded, discover krazee urban soundtracks and tune in to Mr Phipson’s incredible Podcast!

After listening through a few episodes at Blunt Beats HQ, I was tasked with catching up with Mr. P for an interview. The following is the transcript of a Skype convo we had last week:

BB: So you’ve been doing the podcast for a while now and there’s a good 23 episodes chalked up. What’s the story behind it and how has it progressed?

Mr. P: “Yeah I’ve been podcasting since 2005. The idea behind was just playing my favourite music, presenting my taste to people that maybe like the stuffs I do. I was always fascinated by lots of styles, playing diverse music but sharing the urban aspect, of it.”

“I started playing Hip Hop, House music, UK Garage/2step switching many styles, but I grew up with funk and soul and especially jazz. I was fed up just being a DJ for the masses or for the club so I took a break with DJ’ing for 2-3 years. I even sold one deck! Unbelievable, eh? And travelled to Brazil for the money I got for the turntable.”

BB: That would explain the heavy Brazilian influence on your podcast and the website, in both the audio and the visuals. e.g. Baile Funk to retro footie pics.

Mr. P: “For sure. When I visited Brazil for couple of times I found a deep passion for its music: bossa nova, traditional stuff and all their urban creativity coming from favelas.”

BB: What made you choose Brazil as the destination?

Mr. P: “My parents were musicians in the GDR (east Germany), my mom a soul/jazz singer and my father bass player. Later they ran a jazz club in Frankfurt, where I grew up with Jazz and also Brazilian music we had in the club. I knew Brazil also from musicians in our club. Brazilian musicians, I said fuck I have to go to Brazil!”

“I also went there to find myself. I was fed up with my everyday life. I wanted to discover a new place for me, to break out of Germany. So this trip to Brazil was the ignition for all the podcast stuff.”

“The podcast series is a very personal thing. It is exactly my personality being shared with a worldwide audience. If people like it I am happy. If they don’t like it they don’t have to listen to it. I play all the things I feel connected with or can identify with.”

BB: So in that sense the podcast episodes are much more than just plain ol’ mixtapes?

Mr. P: “That’s right it is an audio adventure. I put a lot of passion in it but I don’t do it because people want me to do it. So I will only play tracks that I like, be they slow, fast, electronic acoustic, whatever. I try to make all those diverse styles fit in a compact mix. I want to introduce people to urban sounds and feelings they might never encounter or see.”

BB: I picked up on the educational angle you put into it by introducing different genres of music and giving a little background on each of them. It makes for a sort of audio magazine. I mean, the Kuduro thing was an entirely new one to me.

Mr. P: “Yes, maybe I try to educate people in music genres, but I don’t want to be a person with the finger. I am not your musical teacher, but if you can feel what I can feel you are free to learn more.”

“I got my ears open to exotic styles, so I grabbed out the Kuduro stuff. There are parallels with Brazilian baile funk. The focus of the podcast is heavily on Latin language based culture.”

BB: For those not familiar to Berlin, what’s the scene like out there for Baile funk etc. (or new Briazilian, Latin or African music in general)?

Mr. P: “We have a crew around here producing and performing baile funk – the Favela Funk MCs. There’s also a label based here publishing baile funk on vinyl - MAN Recordings with Daniel Haaksman - that also brought out the “Favela Booty Beats” compilation.”

“Berlin is a very open minded city but people in general don’t know Kuduro or Baile funk. They are still quite young & fresh styles on music I suppose.”

“The Berlin club scene is heavily involved in electronic music. The underground scene celebrates minimal house, techno and similar styles, but you have the clubs for people like me as well for example Bohannon. Gilles Peterson has been there, Jazzanova’s residence club. Nu-jazz, funk, oldschool and even baile funk was played there.”

“We had a couple of Baile funk parties out here last year. All the big baile funke heads have been here: MC Tati Quebra Barraco, Mr Catra, DJ Sandrinho and DJ Marlboro. Especially before and during the time of World Cup 2006. But those baile funk parties are very sporadic.”

BB: Yeah I bet the World Cup summer was a pretty good time to be in Berlin. Were you involved in any of those gigs?

Mr. P: “I played in an outdoor bar during the Brazil games and some other. I played during the breaks and after it but didn’t want to miss German games. The big hope of mine was that Brazil meets up with Germany in the finals!”

“I just try to share my musical horizon with my radio so everything fits in those episodes. I am a Berliner but feel home everywhere so that I am from Berlin has no impact on my podcast.”

BB: So have you seen yourself becoming more of a producer of music and audio content like the podcast, rather than a traditional DJ?

Mr. P: “I don’t really consider myself as a DJ, playing dance music all night long. I feel more like a presenter profitating of DJ experience and knowledge. I am a kind of creative producer that joins all aspects.”

BB: So how much work goes into a typical episode of Mr Phipson’s Incredible Podcast?

Mr. P: “Producing jingles, intro and outros, spinning and mixing the music, and modifying, or call it remixing, beats. Usually a single episode with musical content takes 2-3 days sometimes more. Probably more time if you consider the time of researching.”

“I like to record it in blocks. Several blocks of tunes are recorded either as vinyl or digital. Everything will be arranged properly in sequencing software like Logic Express or even Garageband. Lots of software is used to produce the final podcast episode. The aim is that every episode is truly unique and stands for itself.”

“All the baile funk stuff is completely digital. The people out there have little money to produce it on vinyl - it is spread via CD-Rs on the streets. So its tricky sometimes bringing all these different media types down to one podcast episode.”

BB: I see a few podcasts are beginning to make full use of the web as a multimedia communication tool. Multimedia in the sense that you can deliver video, text or graphical content along with the audio. Is that something you’re moving towards?

Mr. P: “Yes, definitely! I plan doing some video podcast features as well. Maybe you see some clip of Berlin in summer while the mix is running. But is a lot of work doing a nice video, and I always have high approaches that also video content fits to Mr Phipson’s incredible podcast.”

“It is already lots of work taking care of the web things and producing episodes, but I might do some little documentation on certain people or artists, let’s see what time allows me to do.”

BB: “As can be seen by visiting your site, and the identity you’ve built up around the podcast, graphic design is a big part of what you do. Is that the day job?

Mr. P: “I don’t live off it, it is more a kind of extended hobby. I study visual communication, design here in Berlin at the University of Arts, so that’s my main job, after that comes the podcast.”

BB: And the ‘Stick-A-Thing‘ identity is an alter-ego to Mr Phipson?

Mr. P: “Haha! Yeah definately, as my music styles are diverse so I am too. Stick-A-Thing is a street art project where I can express my feelings as a visual artist”

“Both personalities Mr Phipson and Stick-a-thing are working for each other so influences of Stick-A-Thing get into Mr Phipson and vice versa…”

BB: Well that’s covered quite a lot of ground. Thanks muchly for your time. Anything you want to add?

Mr. P: “I would like to announce a fresh radio stream I am doing with my friend JazzDJ from UK. It’s all on NovaLujonRadio. A live monthly broadcast from London and Berlin only on Nova Lujon Radio with JazzDJ & MrPhipson.”

“First Sunday of every month beginning 1st April, no foolin’. 18:00h – 22:00h London / 19:00h – 23:00h Berlin. It’ll be explorations in Jazz and much more with JDJ and all the goodies you know from my show, so be prepared and don’t miss this one.”

Update 5th April: A recording of the show is now available for download.

“I’m in the middle of building the next episode too, so keep a look out for that. I feature some hot guest mixes next one. Tunes that you can feel - fit perfectly but from little known artists. Be prepared! Hip Hop VS Sample originals… And by DJ Zezinho from Brazil some hot Baile Funk Tamborzao mix straight from favela Rocinha.”

“Thanks for the interview mate! Stay open minded and be prepared for some next episodes that give credits to the past and future. That’s all to say about my humble podcast pirate station. Word!”

Many thanks again to Mr. Phipson for taking the time out to do it. It was fantastic getting the lowdown on what goes into producing a top-quality podcast.

ps - If you’re wondering what Baile Funk is all about Gilles Petersen did an interesting intro podcast in a series I blogged about last year. It’s a great history of the sound and its culture and well worth grabbing while you can.