Former member of Canterbury rap duo Dark Tower Jody Lloyd is now based in Bali and goes by the name Trillion. He talks about his talent for finishing things and how he could have been Moby.
Trillion AKA Jody Lloyd Photo: supplied
Universal Music asked Trillion to oversee a mixtape of mainstream rappers on the label. Jody knew he wasn't the right person for the task, although it eventually came into being as DJ Sirvere's Major Flavours series. Jody instead suggested a Blues remix record. All was going well until Universal merged with PolyGram and they had to cut their budget. The Trillion Blues compilation was no longer an option unless Jody contributed heavily to the costs.
Jody opted to move on but the loss of the project was magnified at a Friday drinks do at the Universal offices. Jody explained that "somebody put on Moby's album Play which ended up selling I think 10 million copies". Moby's breakout hit record was also built around Blues samples. " The boss at Universal was like: "Hey Jody, Jody! Come here, listen to this. This could've been you!" You can imagine that feeling", says Jody wonderingly, "Yeah, this could've been me".
Trillion AKA Jody Lloyd Photo: supplied
Two decades on, Jody noticed when preparing DJ sets that the sampling style that he had been toying with had undergone a resurgence, and decided that now was the time to tackle the ideas he had left behind back in the 20th century. Fire Works doesn't contain any of the material from Jody's original sessions but it certainly fulfills his artistic hopes for that project.
In addition to the Fire Works album; Jody's recent projects include the healing frequencies focused Perfect Freq record, a remix version for use in yoga classes, and an unusual compilation called Number Ones.
Number Ones is made up of the first track from the beginning of his multitude of albums. "I guess it came from feeling a bit disillusioned", Jody shares, "like, I'm never going to have a hit. So one day I just thought: "Aw I'm never going to have a number one", and then I thought "Aw, no, actually I've got about 30 number ones." Why don't I put the number ones on one album?".
The other half of the compilation concept is that these songs share a common purpose that "there's something different about the first track in a lot of my albums. They're kind of created to draw the listener in".
This conceptual focus for records help Jody understand where he's heading in his work. In the works are a reggae record and an album for kids.
He says he's always ambitious, continuously striving to be "new, different, and groundbreaking".
Music Details:
Artist: Trillion
Song: Blazing Trails to Nowhere
Composer: Jody Lloyd
Album: Fire Works
Label: Monkey Records
Artist: Moby
Song: Run On
Composer: Moby
Album: Play
Label: Mute 133226
Artist: Trillion
Song: Old Nick and the Pits of Hell
Composer: Jody Lloyd
Album: Fire Works
Label: Monkey Records
Artist: Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee
Song: Sonny’s Thing
Composer: Terry
Album: Sonny & Brownie
Label: A&M 397200
Artist: Trillion
Song: Cold Touch of Dawn
Composer: Jody Lloyd
Album: Silent Invisible
Label: She’ll Be Right 021
Artist: Trillion
Song: Perfect Freq – The Yoga Mixes Sampler
Composer: Jody Lloyd
Album: Perfect Freq – The Yoga Mixes
Label: Self Released
Artist: Trillion
Song: Tap Tap Tap
Composer: Jody Lloyd
Album: Number Ones
Label: Self Released
Artist: Trillion
Song: Autumn Pull
Composer: Jody Lloyd
Album: Number Ones
Label: Self Released
Artist: Dark Tower
Song: When I Was A Kid
Composer: Lloyd, Foley
Album: Number Ones
Label: Self Released
Artist: Trillion
Song: Cinders on the Dancefloor
Composer: Jody Lloyd
Album: Fire Works
Label: Monkey Records
