Who is Doctor Rosen Rosen? Why did he remix the whole Lily Allen Record? Clues here…
– People started calling him Doctor Rosen Rosen in 9th grade- a nickname inspired by the movie Fletch
(“paging Dr. Rosen Rosen.”)
– First instrument was a bright yellow electric guitar– he wanted to be like Prince
– He formed NYC rogue-pop band, THE HANDSOME PUBLIC with his friend Vickers Bastard Gringo. THE HANDSOME PUBLIC played The 2006 Iceland Airwaves Music Festival as well as dates in the UK.
– As a solo artist, he has played all over NYC (Joe’s Pub, The Annex, Galapagos), Los Angeles (The Roxy, Bordello), and at the 2008 North By Northeast Music Festival in Toronto.
– He dove into bootleg remixing, starting with a very dark remix of Britney Spears “Womanizer” that took off on the internet and put his name on the map. Just two months later, he got my first big break and was hired to do an official remix for Interscope records, remixing the Timbaland produced Scream by Chris Cornell.
-DOCTOR ROSEN ROSEN’s debut single “Weekends” was mixed by Matt Gill and mastered by Legendary Engineer BOB POWER (Tribe Called Quest, D’Angelo, Common)
-Doctor Rosen Rosen fell in love with Lily and her music after seeing the video for Smile while touring in Iceland in 2006 (month’s before her stateside introduction). He then travelled to London with his band The Handsome Public to play a few dates and most importantly pick up Lily’s debut record.
A few minutes with the Doctor!
Name?
Doctor Rosen Rosen
Have you always wanted to be a Doctor?
No, not always. When I was a kid I wanted to be a part of the “royal family,” which was Michael Jackson, Prince, and Madonna. Unfortunately, I had no shot at being a part of any royal family though, because I was 1/2 Jewish and lived in Idaho.
When did you know you wanted to be a Doctor?
In 1992 when Dr. Dre’s “The Chronic” came out. That record was like nothing I had ever heard before. The sonic formula sounded so fresh and amazing, mixing hard spare beats, melodic samples, slick bass lines, and nasty synths. I was 13 at the time, so the foul language and drug references definitely seemed cool too. I even had a marijuana hat like Snoop Dog wore in the Nuthin’ But A G Thang video. I can’t believe my folks let me wear that thing.
Tell me a little about your background and family.
I grew up in Hailey Idaho, which is a small town outside of the Sun Valley Ski Resort, where people snowboard in the winter, skateboard in the summer, and party in canyons. My Mom is a teacher, my Dad is in the auto-parts business, and my older brother is a musician (He gave me my first sythesizer, which was a Yamaha DX-100; I still use it 20 years later). It was a great place to grow up – I snowboarded in the winter, skateboarded in the summer, and partied in canyons. For college, I went to the University Of Montana, where I snowboarded, skateboarded, and partied in canyons.
What is the reason for your poor grades sophomore year of college?
I would have to blame the grades on a Tascam 4-Track Cassette recorder, an Alesis SR-16 Drum Machine, and Old English Malt Liquor.
What was your score on the MCATs?
1,000?
What do you think about euthanasia?
Well, the Japanese are notoriously huge music fans, especially the youth population. I would love to tour there.
Tell me about your research.
After college, I moved to New York City and started a band called The Handsome Public with my friend Vickers Bastard Gringo. We split vocal duties, I did all of the keyboards and production, and Vickers played guitar and made videos for our live shows. We called our sound rogue-pop, which was like a mix of Talking Heads + Danzig + Duran Duran + Justin Timberlake. One of my favorite moments was playing the Iceland Airwaves music festival.
Where was your residency?
At a really shady hip hop studio in New York. The hours were crazy and I never got paid, but there were some amazing producers coming through, so I stuck it out. I met Styles from the production team, Dangerous LLC, who was producing 50 Cent songs. He liked my stuff, gave me a CD with drum samples, and told me to get to work. That CD changed my life – I became obsessed with making hip-hop beats, and the next thing I knew, I was delivering my beats to G-Unit Records.
I understand, you recently set up your own practice. Tell me about that.
After Living in NYC for 8 years, I decided to focus my concentration on producing, so I moved to Los Angeles and set up a studio (aka: The Lab) in my house. I dove into bootleg remixing, starting with a very dark remix of Britney Spears “Womanizer” that took off on the internet and put my name on the map. Just two months later, I got my first big break and was hired to do an official remix for Interscope records, remixing the Timbaland produced Scream by Chris Cornell. Everything has grown from there – I’ve been holed up in my lab working on tons of remixes, original productions, and my debut solo record.
Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
In N Out Burger having lunch with Mariah Carey.
Where do you see yourself in the next 10 minutes?
In N Out Burger having lunch by myself.
http://www.myspace.com/drrosenrosenmusic