Producing is no longer "just a hobby" for Clams Casino. He's set himself up as one of most prominent producers over the last five years. From a physical therapy student in New Jersey to a full-time producer, Clams, born Michael Volpe, has worked with a wide variety of artists like A$AP Rocky, A$AP Ferg, FKA Twigs, The Weeknd, Blood Orange and many more.

His wide range of music can be attributed to his everlasting journey to discover new sounds. Clams was at the forefront of the cloud rap movement but continued to build and developed his sound over time. His Instrumental mixtape series has been well received and featured some of the most progressive and innovative production in not only in hip-hop but in music in general. The guy is always evolving.

"There’s always got to be some kind of forward thinking or forward elements for me because that’s what keeps me into it," he tells XXL over the phone.

On July 15, Clams will release his debut album, 32 Levels, with guest features from Lil B (who he finally met in person for the first time even though they have been working together since 2011), Kelela, Sam Herring of Future Islands, Joe Newman of alt-j, A$AP Rocky and Vince Staples. The songs that have already been released from the 12-song LP have been fantastic so far and each one takes you on a distinct sonic journey. As the release date inches closer, anticipation is building rapidly.

XXL spoke with Casino about 32 Levels, exploring his sound, creating samples and hoping to do a project with Lil B.

XXL: Describe 32 Levels. Full-length debut, how do you feel? The music you’ve been releasing off it has been fantastic.

Clams Casino: It doesn’t feel like a debut. Technically, it’s my first full-length album but my previous projects, my mixtapes, those are full projects to me. I feel like I’ve been out for a while now. But I think what it’s about, it’s just really about exploring new sounds and new things that I haven’t done and working with new artists and just seeing what will happen.

The whole process for me is not knowing where it’s going to end up. I didn’t know if this was going to be an all hip-hop album or all instrumental album or all singing stuff. I just wanted to make music, see what I came up with and figure it out later. Up until last summer is when it really started to take shape and feel like I was making an album. It was very much exploring and digging deeper into my own sound and having these collaborators help me explore that.

You touched on exploring your sounds in particular in the past before.

It’s a goal for me because it keeps me wanting to do it. I get bored with doing the same thing. There has to be something that keeps me interested to keep going. If I’m doing the same thing, I’m not going to be interested. For another producer they may feel differently and I can’t talk for those guys but for me that’s the number one thing. Keep progressing and keep evolving. Make sure its natural too. Not trying to do too much or too hard, staying true to what I do but naturally progressing.

How would you describe your sound? It’s so unique, man.

I think most of the stuff that [people say] like woozy or trippy. It’s hard for me. I don’t really put it into words. It’s tough for me to describe, especially the music I make for myself. I usually don’t put it into words too much.

So out of 32 levels, hypnotically, what level do you think you’re on right?

I would say I don’t know if I will ever get to the end, 32 levels. Maybe level 31. 32, that’s the thing, that’s the progression, the evolution. If I’m lucky I won’t ever get there, I just want to keep exploring. Hopefully, I won’t get to level 32 you know? That’s how I look at it.

The lettering on the cover of 32 Levels looks Game of Thrones-inspired. Are you a fan or just a weird coincidence?

That’s a coincidence [laughs]. I seen people saying that but I think that’s because it’s the same time the show is on television. But that’s not on purpose on anything. The lettering is kind of an evolution from my first mixtape [Instrumentals]. It’s hard to see because of the black lettering but the cover of the mixtape has similar lettering. It’s just a little bit kind of evolved from there.

What is it like for you when you’re making beats? What do you feel?

It comes down to something has to click for me when I'm making it. Something has to stick out to me; [something] that I haven’t heard before or haven’t felt before. It comes down to what I put out. I’m very selective with the music I put out for people. If I don’t feel anything from it or I haven’t done something that hasn’t surprises me on accident or something interesting or something new in the process of making it then I usually don’t put out. So everything that I put out is something that I’m really happy with or struck something in me. A feeling or something like that, its hard for me to explain.

What does that feeling actually feel like? Is it like nirvana?

Just something powerful, like all of a sudden I hit on some kind of sound or melodies, whatever it is, or even textures. Something powerful that can make me feel this uplifting feeling or something that just feels big. It can feel sad; it can bring back memories. It’s always different. But it’s always kind of coming from the same place. I guess just coming from the heart.

What program do you use?

The main program I use is Sony Acid Pro. I use mostly that. Everything I do will go through there in my laptop. I record my own samples rather than finding them since things have changed over the last few years because of legal issues and clearing samples. It’s tough sometimes and sometimes music will not be able to get released properly because of that.

I kind of got to a new process of recording all the samples that I use and making them sound like maybe old things that I like but I’m creating them from scratch in the studio or at home. I also use my iPhone and my iPad a lot. I plug a microphone right into my iPad and record things on the street or wherever I go. Nowadays everything is going through the same program that I always been using but now the process is much more about recording those samples myself instead of finding them.

You make your own samples and find your own sounds. Walk me through that?

A lot of it is just in in the studio. For example, on this album I’m playing drums on it. It may not sound like that because it’s so process and stuff, it may sound like I took it from a record. But I’m really in the studio playing drums or recording key words on old synthesizers then I’m running them through a bunch of specs and pedals and things. I take reverse guitar pedals or delayed pedals and running things through there and affecting it a whole bunch. Or even get it in my computer and then once I get it in my computer I do more and more.

About this time it's so effected and tweeked and personalized the way that I want it; make it sound great and stuff. Sometimes, nowadays, right before I even get into my program, I mess with it even more from there. And then if I’m on the street I carry around a little microphone with me that I plug into my phone or iPad to get samples, if I can pull something real fast with what I hear. I can get that down and plug it in into my computer and start flipping it like a sample.

Is this time consuming?

No, its really not. It’s really fast because when I first started to make the switch to finding samples from sampling songs that are already sung, I had a hard time of making things sound like the way that I wanted them to by recording it myself. Because it sounded like I was recording it myself. it took a long time learning how to teach myself how to do it and get faster.

Now I can walk in anywhere or go home and I know some many different ways where I can get things to sound the way I want them and really fast. Now it's not time consuming at all now. The process, it took a long time to get there for me, a few years to get to that point, but now I can make it happen really fast because of trail and error. Now I can make things sounds the way that I wanted. Definitely not time consuming now but teaching myself was the time consuming part.

In your opinion, why do you think it’s getting so hard to clear samples?

It’s tough, you never really know why. Sometimes some people no matter what feel like it’s 100 percent there’s even if you completely used it in a really creative way or took it to a whole new place. Sometimes people don’t care, it’s their music and they don’t care what you do with it. If you used even a tiny piece of it, they own the whole thing.

Part of that is you wouldn’t have made what you made without it but that doesn’t mean you’re not doing it in an innovative way. Sometimes if you didn’t reach out to them and tell them that you sampled them they wouldn’t even have known it. It’s a funny process. It can stop a lot of things from coming out. That’s why I started to teach myself a new way.

How do you find the people you collaborate with?

I have a hard time finding people who work well with my music. I don’t know if it got a lot going on with it already and a lot of it can stand on its own as an instrumental. It seems like a small group of artists that know how to work with it. I’m always working with new people and I get inspired by working with other producers, other artists and vocalists. I'm always meeting up with new people and see what happens because I’m interested in where we can take it with music. And things like that. That keeps me inspired. A lot of people find different ways to work with my music. Some have a hard time and some it comes natural. Whatever ended up on the album is through experimenting with different type of artists just to see what would happen.

Producing is no longer a hobby for you now, huh?

It’s been about five years since it’s been “just a hobby,” now I’ve been full-time professionally since 2011. It’s still a hobby but thankfully I’ve been able to make a living out of it. It doesn’t feel like work but it is.

You’ve been working with Lil B for years. With the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals again after coming back three games to one to beat Kevin Durant and the Oklahoma City Thunder, do you think the Lil B curse is real?

I think by now its clear that’s it’s real, especially after Game 6 [in the NBA Conference Championship]. We dropped a video before that and things started turning around. [Durant] should apologize to him.

Would you ever do a whole project together with Lil B?

Yeah, of course, when the time is right or whenever we both work it out. I’m down, I’m ready to do that.

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