The Range Pulls the 'Potential' Out of YouTube Unknowns to Make Weirdly Emotional Electronica

We’ve all spent countless hours falling down rabbit holes on YouTube. That sidebar on the right always knows just what we like. The most that ever comes from it is maybe the sharing of some link with a friend or co-worker, or repeated viewing of something in hindsight probably wasn’t worth 15 minutes of your time. But after that, we often never give these videos a second thought. For Brooklyn producer James Hinton, these trips down the rabbit hole have been the impetus for his second album as The Range.

YouTube sourcing is nothing new for Hinton. He did the same thing for both his previous album, 2013’s Nonfiction, as well as its subsequent EP, 2014’s Panasonic. But something changed while making Potential. He began to discover music videos by unknown artists that had uploaded their hopes and dreams to only receive hundreds, maybe even one thousand views at best. These videos had a deep, and profound effect on Hinton, and he began to re-contextualize their stories and use it as the thread for his album.

But for Hinton, Potential was also an opportunity to give back to the struggling artists he sampled. Along the way he realized the impact he could have by using his album as a way to publicize those who helped him create it. The idea came in a forthcoming documentary called Superimpose, which shines a spotlight on the aspiring artists in their homes across the globe. We had the opportunity to ask Hinton all about his YouTube habits, his unique subjects and why he chose to sample an unknown hopeful singing Ariana Grande instead of the real pop star herself.

Noisey: How much time do you spend searching for videos on YouTube?
James Hinton: It’s a lot. I’m a little nervous to do the math on it because it’s a lot. So a YouTube session can be two hours or one on the short side, up to six or seven hours. Who knows? A lot of my sessions tend to run quite late. Usually after dinner at nine or ten and then work until four or five in the morning and sleep super late. So that whole time is when I’m in the mood and not writing, and going through all of the search terms for the project, filtering and clicking and watching as much as I possibly can. Then taking it off the site to see if it’s any good. So it’s very time intensive and it ends up with a low number of videos out of the ones I search. Maybe five percent I even consider pulling into a project, and then maybe half or a third end up on the record. So it’s a heavy, heavy filter about those YouTube samples fit into the work.

Do you find it tedious at all?
I go back and forth. I think there is clearly some part of me that enjoys it immensely. No one has a gun to my head. The only times I ever feel bad is when nothing’s working, but the actual process itself is great. I do get the sense that, yeah a lot of the videos have hundreds of views, but there’s this thrill, like, “Oh my God, this is insane and nobody knows about it!” That drives a lot of the excitement around it for me.

So there are specific keywords or users you search in order to find something?
Yeah. There is a set of specific search terms that are sort of secret or whatever that I stuck to for the project. About four or five.

Did you restrict the videos you sampled to a certain number of views?
Yeah, that’s the idea. Maybe aside from the fact that on “Florida” is a cover of a big, huge pop song by Ariana Grande, and that video has a lot. But as of the actual view counts, it’s under 3000 on Kruddy Zak, the guy on “Copper Wire,” was probably the biggest. It’s all part of the filtering. I don’t want to have a huge amount of views. I think that’s part of the process.

Obviously if you’re sampling someone singing Ariana Grande, you can run into obstacles clearing it. Is that ever a concern?
Yeah, we went through the same clearing process even though it isn’t the original song. Once you have contact you can talk and figure out what makes sense. And then you’re in the major label system, which can take a very long time. I think in a lot of ways, a few of those songs that were covers are theoretically correct. That is part of the YouTube experience, is this idea of covers and I think it works out so I’m happy we went through what was a very tough and long process trying to make sure all of it was done legally. Because it does make the record better conceptually to have that well represented on the album. And especially with it being the first single, because a huge component of YouTube is its cover culture. So I’m happy that it worked out.

I can just imagine some people at the major label wondering, “Why would he want to use a cover when he could just license the actual Ariana Grande vocal?”
[Laughs.] It’s hilarious because at some point we realized that if I used just a little bit more of the original and called it a cover it would have been way easier because of the loophole between parody and cover legally is pretty protected. So you can use that much more freely than sampling a smaller amount, which can be a little weird or correct, depending. But obviously at a certain point that comes to mind, but I’m happy we did it this way because it makes so much sense. And the fact that the record is consistent and doesn’t use Ariana Grande’s voice, it would make no sense in the context.

It’s funny because without reading about the YouTube samples I never would have guessed you lifted the vocals from these obscure, amateur clips.
I’m incredibly happy about that. I did try really hard, and I started using these techniques on Nonfiction, but I got better at it. That’s part of why the record exists, to say it’s valid. This might already be a trope in electronic music, but I’m trying to say that you can totally make music like this and it will be accepted if it comes from YouTube. And I think a lot of the qualities that are intrinsic to YouTube itself makes the work better on top of the processing. I’m happy that that reads and I think it was certainly part of the process.

There is a lot of genuine emotion coming from some of these videos you’ve found. It’s hard not to listen to “Regular” and feel something for the artist. Does the vocal sample ever dictate the music or does it always come in after?
It’s honestly pretty 50/50. I really wanted to set out on this record to make sure the music and the vocals were talking to each other when possible. I know that sounds a bit wonky, but I think it was incredibly important. In the case of “Regular,” I heard that vocal first and then the music came after. Which I’m hoping reads, because I think it’s intentionally left a little rough and leaving a lot of the grit and presenting it more in a raw state against the music. In that case it was an eye opening moment when I heard those words, “Right now I don’t have a back-up plan, if I don’t make it…” I was on the road, a little tired and it hit me pretty hard. So the song came to me really quickly after the vocal came in.

Obviously it’s pretty heavy. I still think about it a lot. You do find these moments where the people forget that the camera is there and they really let their emotions out. And that was a moment where that happened. When he’s off message. It’s a funny video because mid-way through he states that line and it’s pretty emotional. But then he kind of snaps right back, “Like my page! Subscribe!” He comes back to reality, but in my read of it he totally went somewhere special in the middle.

You’ve been in touch with the artists you sampled. What has their reaction been like?
It’s been fun. Obviously it runs the gamut of emotions, but the first thing I was surprised with was there was no real negative reaction. I think the music is general in a sense but also pretty specific to me and the stuff that I like and the references. And the fact that no one came back and said, “What is this? Why did you do this to my voice?” I think it speaks to the nature of the project that everyone was excited and happy with it. The funniest one was Zak on “Copper Wire.” We had to do this big detective search to find him on Facebook and we didn’t even know if we could contact him. But when we did he was like, “Are you joking? I made that video so long ago. Is this a scam?” So it was pretty funny in that case. But honestly I think it’s pretty miraculous that it’s all gone as well as it has.

You’ve got a documentary about the album coming out soon called Superimpose. When did it hit you could tell a story about this album through a documentary?
By the time we had contacted everyone the songs were pretty much in a fully formed state, and I definitely had listened to them each a hundred times and over thought how much the lyrics meant to me. They definitely helped me deal with a bunch of stuff. Once we started reaching out to these people and we found that they were everything we hoped they’d be, like as emotional and earnest and happy about the project, that I realized we need to go meet these people. That was really the impetus. OK, I spent so much time going through this medium, let’s see if they’re up for meeting in real life. And then when you meet people and realize they’re just incredible people—I won’t ruin the story in the documentary for you—but they’re just awesome. It really makes for a great statement to wrap around the meaning of potential and the reason why people go on YouTube.

Has anyone from YouTube contacted you about the project? It seems like great publicity for them.
[Laughs.] You would think! We premieed the documentary at South by Southwest with YouTube, so I think they’re excited. I just think, from their angle they’re such a big company that I think a lot of it is making sure people understand the nature of the project. YouTube is such a gigantic thing that I made sure to research everything I could about them before the record was out. And it’s in no way a plug, but I think YouTube is pretty special and historically will continue to be an important way for people to get their emotions out there. The fact that with only a camera phone you can upload something for the entire world to see is amazing, and it’s both a trope because people are very aware of it, and also blows my mind that I can work with them in any way.

You also sourced samples from YouTube for Nonfiction,but didn’t publicize them the way you are with this new album. Why did you make such an effort this time?
I don’t think it had really coalesced in my head. I think getting out and playing the record touring helped. Remember, I was just a dude in my room with nobody paying attention in the slightest when I made that record. I don’t think I had much of a grasp on what was interesting about it until I spent time with it and I kept coming back to songs like “Metal Swing” and “Jamie” because I was curious about the voices on them. Back then I think I was more interested in tempo, and the palette and merging the genres, but in my own stance. But then it was the voices that stuck with me. Sometimes these things just take a while to coalesce in your brain as to what you’re interested in. I’m already trying to think about the next album and what the hook will be, having done such a specific statement on Potential.

Does the idea of collaborating with another artist and recording live vocals appeal to you?
I’ve always thought about it, and there are many examples of producers that do it. But if it were to happen, I don’t necessarily think I’m done with YouTube yet. I can sort of see something along the lines of what may push me into a studio. But I think there is also something valuable about sound work. Something that is complete and someone has something that is almost like this explicit hand off to you. Whereas in the studio it is so iterative, and you can nit-pick and re-record and be so specific that it can almost become dangerous. I think it can be negative. Obviously the best music in the world has been made in a studio, but I think for my process it involves so much of living with something complete and then trying to transform it. So I’m a little hesitant, even though I know there are massive advantages.

The Range's new album Potential is out on March 25 2016 via Domino.

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