Total Eclipse Interview
Total Eclipse is one fourth of the X-ecutioners and one half of the production team the Playmakerz. He’s known for the energy he brings on to the stage, with a strong presence, and easy to follow routines that cater to any crowd and technical enough for the DJs to relate. If you like funky music, hip hop, rock or alternative he believes you can dig his music. Simply Eclipse’s style is different from others, and complicated enough not to be duplicated.
Do you have an earliest musical memory? A first time you heard something and realized, “That’s music, that’s what sound can do.”
When I was five or six, in the back of my father’s car coming home late from a family get together, I discovered hip hop on the radio. I memorized the time
slot– Saturday between 9pm to 12am. Friday and Saturday were the only days you would hear hip hop music in New York during the 80s. I became hooked as a student.
When you are creating music where do you draw your inspiration?
Listening to other music or other musicians I’m working with. For example my man Matt Stein (the other half of my production team, Playmakerz) plays the guitar, he can play a certain riff and I’d get inspired to scratch over him. That’s how an idea starts from scratch.
From a creativity stand point how different is it to create an album as opposed to making a mixtape?
When composing an album every track you try to think of concepts. How to make the last track different from the next and make it reflect you has as a whole as opposed to a mixtape, which is about one concept from beginning to the end.
How did you join the X-ecutioners?
In 96′ the fellas put me down after proving I was worth enough. I had a relationship with them for about two years before. It was the first year I battled internationally, with good results (a World Title), leading to becoming a member of the group.
What’s your formula for building a dope routine?
Taking some of the old, and blending it with the new as a complete arsenal. I gotta keep it in historical standards to learn to build with the new technically. Start with introduction on where I want to go with it, and build to climax, then outro. 
Which do you think was your best “battling” experience?
My best battle experience was my worst battle experience. If I had won the 95′ Zulu Anniversary, I think I would’ve settled with my style, but when I lost I knew why and had to go back to the lab to redefine my style.
Have you ever done anything that was so far out that you kind of bugged yourself out?
I aim for that every time I come up with a routine. I try to be new and fresh every routine.
Do you like to listen to your own music?
No, not really. I don’t like to get in a comfort zone. It’s like a journey from one to the next.
Where do you think turntablism is going in the coming years?
As long as technology is geared towards using the turntable, I think the sky’s the limit to where it can go.
In 1993 DJ 8-ball pitch tone techniques performed two years after Q-Bert, revealed it in 1991, Is it biting or an evolution of style?
Q-bert’s routine had all sorts of shit going on with a segment with tones. However 8-ball’s whole repertoire was tones, which was dope and different at the time. It was done with original tones using songs like Dr. Dre’s Ain’t Nothin’ but a G-thang and flipped to the Black Sabbath Iron Man shit. That was Classic.
Do you think that production is the natural progression for a DJ?
Yes it is. DJing is a source of production. I think where people get it twisted is when they think production means strictly making beats. I feel as an artist, if you record and package your material to sell as your shit that’s production. I think creating is production period.
Out of all the tracks you’ve released, can you pinpoint one or two as particular favorites?
Mad Flavor off the X-ecutioners’ Xpressions album. It was a team routine we recorded and performed live. A lot of the songs on that album were tracked up. The track Ill Bill of the X-ecutioners Revolutions album.
Do you think that music as a whole is suffering due to the follow the leader type of style?
Yes. That’s why I just look and analyze shit as a whole and get inspired by how dry it is out there. I can’t complain about it– I just learn from it.
What artist do you believe we should look out for in 2007?
X-ecutioners and Playmakerz mixtapes.
Any last words, shout outs or plugs?
You can hit me up on the web www.djtotaleclipse.com and the whole Myspace thing at myspace.com/djtotaleclipse for coming events and bookings.
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