By Keith Walsh
Just in time for those spooky October vibes, Black Market released their dub remixes of sounds from the Phantasm soundtrack. It was great fun for me to listen to these, as I had just watched the cult classic film for the first time a few months ago and experienced some creepy horror chills.

Nate Bridges records Black Market Dub out of his studio in Nashville, Tennessee, bringing considerable skills and collaborating with some other exceptional talents. In the case of the Phantasm mixes, his long-time friend Ben Zuiderweg, also know as Chudan, who works as a film composer and instructor in LA, contributes analog synths including the legendary Arp 2600 and the Moog Subharmonicon. I’ll feature an interview with Ben in the weeks to come, but for now, here’s my interview with Nate about Black Markets dub remixes of music from Phantasm.

The Phantasm remixes are really just dub covers? I don’t imagine you had access to the actual tracks?
NB: Yes that is correct, these are basically just covers and reinterpretations of the original theme. I always search for as much original stuff to use as possible but I knew with this one it would be pretty tough to find any stems if they even exist anymore. But using the original track as a template and listening carefully is an incredibly fun way to work, and really different from how I might approach a Bowie track for example.

What is your collaborator’s role? Can you tell me about Chudan and what skills he brings?
NB: Chudan is Ben Zuiderweg, a close friend of mine who I met at the Berklee Valencia Campus in Spain while we were both students there. He is based in LA now and works at the LA Film school as an audio instructor and works in film as a composer. Chudan is his outlet for synthwave, outrun, and future funk, which are all genres I love and he’s been pretty instrumental in helping me wrap my brain around those styles. He uses a Korg ARP 2600, a Moog Subharmonicon, and a few other analog synths to make his stuff. He is incredible. The 2nd track on this Phantasm EP I got to add a bunch of big guitars which was incredibly fun.

Did you feel the creepiness of the movie while creating these?
NB: Chudan actually introduced me to Phantasm and I fell in love with it immediately. He and I are both die-hard horror movie fans. When we both lived in LA, we would hang out at my apartment and watch Halloween or A Nightmare On Elm Street, and one day we both decided we should try and make some music like that together since we were both so passionate about it. I always try and match the vibe of whatever I’m remixing, and the same goes for Phantasm. It’s such a unique and weird movie that had the benefit of being made by people who didn’t have studio clowns breathing down their neck the whole time. It’s a perfect Halloween movie.

 What is the balance between software plugins, synths and fx and the use of hardware gear in your studio?
Right now I am still mainly in the box, but I’m actually about to undergo a complete studio overhaul. I recently started a mixing/mastering service called High Noon Audio and decided that I needed to make a significant investment in analog gear to supplement my current studio. I just bought an Allen & Heath GSR-24M console, a new studio computer, a few Warm Audio compressors, an API 2500, a Revox Tape Machine, and an SSL Fusion. It’s going to be a completely different studio going forward and Black Market is going to really benefit from the changes. So for right now, I’m mainly in the box. But starting in 2021 I’m going to upset that balance a bit and use much more analog gear on all of my material.

And finally, any new gear that shows up on these? Please tell!
I recently got a Nord Electro 6 that I love. Super versatile keyboard, that has become an essential piece of almost all of my material. However, my absolute favorite thing I’ve purchased this year is the Magic Death Eye plugin bundle from DDMF. Ian Sefchick is a mastering engineer, and former coworker of mine, at Capitol Studios in Hollywood. He creates the hardware version of these compressors by hand, and he even winds the transformers himself. There is an insane waitlist for the hardware compressors, not to mention they go for about $5000 for the mono compressor and $9000 for the stereo one. He collaborated with DDMF on a plugin version of these compressors and I literally have never heard a better sounding compressor plugin. Magic Death Eye Stereo on a mix bus is just beautiful to my ears. Someday I’ll get one.

Find out more at:

Blackmarketdub.bandcamp.com
Patreon.com/BlackMarketDub
Instagram.com/BlackMarket_dub
HighNoonAudio.com
Instagram.com/HighNoonAudio

Chudan
chudan.bandcamp.com
Instagram.com/chudanmusicofficial

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