It’s just phenomenal. It’s quite different and it’s all done from bits and pieces of things, until they have created a whole new work. A lot of the other artists may be taking a guitar lick or a drum loop, all of which is fine. But what the Avalanches do is just something amazing that nobody else has ever done.

I guess that’s why it takes them 16 years to make an album.

Right. Like I said, they’re really perfectionists.

How rare is it that you’re actually interacting with the artist or composer? Is everything just going through a publishing company?

For the most part, depending on whether the work is an independent work or not. Usually I’m dealing with the publishing company that owns or controls the rights, or an administrator who controls the work, and the record label. Every once in a while I find an independent artist and have to track down an actual human being. Sometimes that can be very, very difficult, to actually find that person and try to explain to them how it is, and make a deal with them. Everybody’s got different ideas about it.

Some artists have a lot of ego about their material, and they don’t want anybody else using it for anything other than in its entirety as a whole work. Like, to put in a film or something. Then others love the idea. It’s just up for grabs when I start off how it’s going to go.

What was the first album or release that you cleared samples for?

It was for a Prince Paul album.

Do you remember which one?

Not off the top of my head. It’s been quite a long time. I don’t recall the title of the album. I would have to look it up and see. I have a whole roster list, but for some reason that one isn’t on there, and I don’t know why.

Was there a certain point when you realized, “Wow, I’m really good at this?” Do you have any memories of trying to track down a particularly hard sample, or doing something that no one else had been able to do for that artist?

I never thought of it in those terms. I just don’t have that kind of ego. I think of it as always trying to do the best job I can for my clients and get them what they want, no matter what it takes. I just go to the wall doing whatever I can. I’m very, very persistent. I do have one story that’s kind of fun. One of my clients wanted this sample, this East Indian recording. Couldn’t find the owner anywhere. Finally, through a series of calls, I found that the guy who would know, or who controlled the rights, owned a record shop in India.

I somehow got a number for his record store and I stayed up all night to be able to reach him at his timezone. I think it was four in the morning our time that I called him. I got him on the phone and he didn’t speak any English, and I, of course, didn’t speak his language.

He finally found someone there who spoke English – not real good English, but I was trying to find out if there was anyone in America who represented the rights to this recording. It turned out that he understood me well enough that he put me in contact with somebody in New York who actually controlled the rights or was able to help me reach the person who controlled the rights, so that I could license the sample. I go to the wall, you know!

Would you say that’s the most extreme length you’ve gone to track down a copyright owner? Have you actually had to go to someone’s house, travel across the country, actually catch them in-person?

I had a very interesting experience once with Johnny “Guitar” Watson. Bless his heart – he was such a amazing artist, but he wasn’t very trusting. I ended up going over to his house – he lived here in LA – to conclude the deal with him. He wouldn’t sign the license agreement until I gave him the check. We met, and I literally had to hold the check in one hand while he signed the license and handed it back to me in the other hand. We simultaneously exchanged the check and the license. That’s how that one finally worked.