This interview was definitely a labor of love. Matt being one of my homies, I was stoked to get to hear what he was all about, and he was stoked to tell me. Matt is definitely one of the “diamonds in the rough” out of the seemingless endless flock of sheep I have met, and I can’t logically see any way how this kid can not make something happen with his amount of skill and dedication. He’s also not THAT big of a douche! (just kidding, man)
So, I heard the Halloween [at 555 Haight Street] party was off the hook this year?
Yeah, that was a rager, we had a lot of fun. Me and [DJ] 87 had people goin’, bitches getting naked on the dance floor and shit. Solid dance floor, too. It was packed the whole time and between the two of us we played like a 6 or 7 hour set til like 7 AM.
Was it the craziest party you’ve ever played?
Oh, yeah with that many people in such a small space. I’ve never played in front of that many people and still had so much fun. There were probably 250 people through the house that night. Randoms started coming in off the street, at one point there was a line around the block and my homie had to go down and play like a doorman. He was wearing a panda suit so it was even funnier.
What was your first party?
The first party I played at was when my buddy’s mom owned this school and on the weekends it would be closed. They had big speakers and a mixing board and stuff, like for putting on plays and stuff. So we would go in there on the weekends and throw parties. We’d set up a little bar and everything, get a bunch of randoms in. It was pretty cool.
(Laughing) Shit man, I never asked you the important stuff. Who are you and where are you from?
(Laughs) Yeah, you skipped that. My name is Matt Spencer, I DJ under the name Basspop, and I am originally from Orange County, which is a fucking hellhole. Such a disturbing place.
And you’ve been living in the city for….?
Like almost 2 years, and I love it.
Why is it so much better than Orange County?
Just the people. I love weird and open minded people and they seem to come to San Francisco in droves. Also, this city really lets you do your thing. As long as you’re not hurting anyone, you can be as weird as you want, express yourself any way you want. I see crazies all the time walking around screaming at the sidewalk. No one even cares. In Orange County that same guy would have had 12 cops on him, you’d never see the guy again. They’d drive him out and drop him off in Riverside or something. (Laughs)
You’re also an illustration major?
Yeah, I take illustration at AAU. I’ve been doing that forever, drawing and stuff. I love to draw…and I’m fairly serious about that.
I hate to sound like a stereotype machine, but aren’t the ones who groove the hardest usually on the largest amount of drugs?
(Laughs) Which I condone, by the way. I think more people should do them.
So you usually get pretty lit before a show, too?
No, man I think it’s actually better to be sober when you’re playing live. It’s like there’s so much going on and you have to pay attention to so many things. In the lab it’s all good though. Experiment, ya know.
What about when drawing or painting?
(Laughs) Oh, anything goes.
What’s the craziest thing you’ve seen at Burning Man?
Craziest thing? Actually one of our last days in camp this last year some Russian guy that didn’t speak any English wandered into our camp at like 6AM. We don’t know what he was on or anything but he came up and grabbed a gallon of water off of our bar and chugged it. Then he like doubled over and shit his pants, took his pants off and started screaming and woke everyone up.
(Laughing) Dude shit his pants?
Yeah, I don’t know if he got some kind of toxic shock from the water, or he just couldn’t handle it but he shit his pants and just started screaming in Russian. That was probably the craziest thing.
So where do you think this electronic music thing is going?
Where is this going?
Yeah, is it gonna fall off like disco?
No way man. It’s huge in other countries, all across the globe. Not as much in the US but… I don’t know the west coast has it’s own sound when it comes to Breaks or Electro and Hip Hop and stuff is moving in that direction. Like Dubstep is HUGE right now, especially in San Francisco, but I can’t really see Dubstep being huge in the Midwest, and maybe it is, I don’t know. As far as the west cost goes though I think a blend of Hip Hop with a G Funk sound, like with more of a Breaksy kinda sound is really popular and I think it’s gonna continue to build steam.
Until the world ends in 2012, right?
I kinda hope it does, like I wanna be around to see it happen when it happens.
Erik Estrada or Harry Connick, Jr.?
(Laughs) That’s a good one! I don’t even know if I can answer that.
Would you take death or an eternity of TJ Hooker?
What’s that? Like you can’t stop fuckin’ a Tijuana hooker for eternity?
No, TJ Hooker is an old TV show….
(Laughing) Oh shit, I totally took that wrong.
Interview by Frank Summa
Pictures & Illustrations courtesy Matt Spencer
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Listen to “Midnight Blossom” 
For shows, music, and art, visit Basspop on Facebook.
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Matt aka Basspop is the shiz. Covered in drywall powder-like playa dust, armed with goggles, a bandanda-dustmask and his skills, I saw him spinnin’ out of the pack of a Penski truck at BMan 09. He was breakin’ it down to a bunch of hot topless burner chicks, a group of hoopers, dudes dressed in tutus, one guy wearing a donkey head, and the good people from Bad Advice Camp. Epic talent. Anyone interested in being possessed by this madman and forced to dance like a lemming on acid should check out Basspop…SO much fun!
I saw Basspop throw out his credit cards, smash a silvertone, strip and turn into stardust. What you need to realize is Basspop is actually an aural representation of the cosmos – his body disappeared thirteen trips ago. His molecular spirit electronically bumps the haunted bounce-house dance floor.
God rubbed one out and basspop appeared. his tasty licks were sent as an avatar from the heavens. his tears turn women into angels. his breaks turn water into funk
he also makes malcolm x look like bryant gumble
“He could not see the green of the shore now but only the tops of the blue hills that showed white as though they were snow-capped and the clouds that looked like high snow mountains above them. The sea was very dark and the light made prisms in the water. The myriad flecks of the plankton were annulled now by the high sun and it was only the great deep prisms in the blue water that the old man saw now with his lines going straight down into the water that was a mile deep.”