whattup y’all– Dave here, in a stunningly-unslept state– I just got back into NYC this morning at 530am after playing some great shows in the Middle Atlantic with goldspot, and tomorrow me and my better 5/6ths are off to India for a family wedding, a gig in Delhi, and some downtime in Mumbai.

So what does a sleep-deprived Sub Swaran do on his day off? HE RECORDS!

As much as we’d like you to think that we work in a room full of training ninjas, dancehall MC’s and SWAT team members, the truth is that we often are developing ideas solo, and then bringing them to the table for collaboration. This happened last week when Dhruva brought in a nearly-done tune called “October” for a mixdown. He, Haj and I thought it could use some hype vocals, so we started coming up with names who’d be good. One stood out immediately for me: HIRED GUN!

I know HG from doing gigs with Nomadic Wax; he’s a killer rapper, poet, and one of the most intense freestylists you’ll ever see. To put it simply:

Dude is nice on the mic.

HG dropped by after teaching urban poetry to his after-school classes (!); I set up a mic/pre/compressor, let him rip, and he gave us 300% more than we were looking for in ONE take. Take heed, young musicians: that is how you do it. Couldn’t have been easier or more enjoyable.

So while we’ve got our sonic work cut out for us, fitting such a huge vocal performance into a song, HG and i sat down to listen to some less-developed ideas. I pulled up a dubstep thing i’m working on, and he just started spitting fire. I jumped to grab the flip and…. check it:

i’m like YO!!!!!!!

so in a month we’ve had Shamik, the Genie, and Hired Gun drop by to share their talents; feeling completely blessed by that.

gotta go pack but– next update from INDIA! If you’re in Delhi, i’m playing BASSFoundation’s party on 12/4 at Café Morrison– should be a blast!