You may not know James “Tony” Simon, AKA Blockhead, by name, but if you’re a fan of alternative hip-hop you’ve certainly heard his work. After befriending Aesop Rock during a brief stint at Boston University he became heavily involved in the production and beatmaking of the acclaimed rapper’s early releases, among other things responsible for the bulk of the tracks on seminal album Labor Days. Over the years Tony has amassed production credits for a host of rappers on El-P’s Definitive Jux label, including Cage and Murs.

Production for rappers aside, Tony has endured his reputation of an important voice in the instrumental hip-hop community. Known for his sample-centric approach, his pieces weave together wildly different and unlikely sounds into powerful sonic collages, crafting tracks that retain the drive of hip-hop while pushing a wildly intelligent psychedelic vibe. Since the 2004 release of the trailblazing Music by Cavelight, Tony has released four more albums on storied UK label, Ninja Tune, including the popular The Music Scene, the spread of which was bolstered in no small part due to its title track’s trippy, instantly viral music video.

Things are changing in the world of sample-based music, so much that Tony decided to self-release his new album, Bells and Whistles. Despite pushback within the industry, he has no plans to change his approach to production. As he heads out on tour once again, with a stop at the Middle East tonight, we chatted with Tony about odd Q+A sessions, living in Warren Towers and “Blurred Lines.”

Allston Pudding: What’s your process of assembling samples? Do you just listen to music until your hear something you like and earmark it for later?

Tony Simon: Kind of. Its changed a lot. I used to just sit there with a pile of records and just pare through them looking for a sound that attract my ear. But I’ve gotten more organized in the past five or six years, where I have to have everything in mp3 form and I arrange them into what sounds they are— if it’s a horn, if it’s a basetown or whatever. Then I go through this massive library of sounds looking for the one thing that pops out to me, and then I go from there. I just seek out sounds and build off of whatever I think would make a good foundation.

AP: Does your approach to production differ when you’re crafting a solo track versus one for an artist?

TS: Yeah. I mean, it starts in the same place. All my beats—the solo stuff and the stuff I do with rappers—starts as beats. The only difference is that when I do a beat for a rapper, he takes one beat and that’s that, and when I do solo stuff I tend to take two or three beats and meld them together. I mix them and get them to line up with each other and that’s where the songs come in. But the initial process is exactly the same.

AP: What was your time at Boston University like?

TS: I lived in Warren Towers, fifth floor B tower! It was brief. I went to school and roomed with my oldest friend. I wasn’t really the most social person, not because I was an antisocial person but because I had my closest friend there. I didn’t venture too far off of campus.

I’m not a school person, so it didn’t really work out for me and I dropped out after one year for a reason. I can’t say I got much out of it, but I don’t really blame BU for that. I blame just me and college not being a good match.

AP: What was the music scene like when you were there?

TS: I don’t really remember. I saw a few shows, I think I saw Souls of Mischief at The Paradise. I wasn’t really paying attention to it at that time. At that point I was still rapping. I met other rappers on campus—I met Aesop there through rapping and just being rap fans. But I wasn’t really checking for local shows. The only music scene I really knew about was people who I met there who were also making the same kind of stuff as me. I wasn’t really active in any music scene at all.

AP: You put out a new single, “Cat Food,” with Aesop recently. Are there going to be more collaborations down the line?

TS: I don’t know! That kind of popped up. He lives a far, far distance from me and he likes to work closely on things. He had the idea for me to produce a track, that 7”. But I don’t know. It’s never off the table. We’re still friends and it’s definitely not impossible.

AP: All your previous releases have been on Ninja Tune. Why did you decide to self-release Bells and Whistles?

TS: It wasn’t really as much of a choice as it was—well, it was a choice. Ninja Tune didn’t really want to deal with samples anymore, understandably. There’s not a lot of money to be made on samples anymore. Having to pay for samples is not something that record labels want to do. I approached a bunch of different labels and they said “yeah, we like it but this is just too full of samples.” So I was just like, “fuck off, I’ll put it out myself!”

It was definitely a learning experience. I kind of like the control aspect of it. I don’t like the work aspect of it—all the extra stuff you don’t think about. But it was just a matter of time. Since records don’t sell, there’s no money to be made and since I sampled, it’s not like you can license the songs and make money off of them. It wasn’t a win-win deal for me and a label, so I did it myself.

AP: As someone who crafts songs primarily with samples, are you worried about the “Blurred Lines” ruling affecting your craft?

TS: I thought that ruling was kind of crazy. Certainly the first time I heard that song I thought “oh, he’s biting ‘Just Give It Up,’” but at no point did I think he’d get sued for that! It’s a variation, it’s not the same thing. So that does kind of scare me a little bit. At the same time, I’m so far under the radar of the major label’s that it’s not really an issue. Also, I’m not interpolating Marvin Gaye songs! I tend to sample under the radar and my career has been under the radar thus far. It’s scary on a larger level but not for me, personally.

AP: There’s a lot of great stuff on your blog, but the most impressive is the Answers for Questions segment. Very few artists have that level of open communication with their fans. What inspired you to?

TS: Back in the Myspace days, I had an Answers for Questions post where I let anyone ask me questions, because people would just ask me questions all the time and I got tired of answering them in private because a lot of them would be the same questions over and over again. So I said “hey, here’s a forum, ask me anything, I’ll answer it,” and it turned into this thing where they weren’t even asking me questions about music. I actually preferred that, because I’m pretty bored of talking about music in general, so I’d rather answer silly questions about who would win in a fight or whatever random thing they come up with!

When I started my blog, I figured I’d keep it going since it was a popular thing on Myspace. It’s been four or five years now!

AP: Does any question come to mind that really took you off-guard?

TS: Not off-guard, but there are always people trying to rattle some gossip out. They’ll ask me about other rapper I know and ask “well, what happened with this thing?!” I just kind of ignore that. That’s the one thing I don’t really want to get into. It’s not my place to put anyone on blast just because i know them.

Also when people ask me what I think of an artist. For the most part I ignore those, because it’s pretty boring and it’s people trying to bait me into saying something I’ll probably regret.

AP:  What have you been listening to lately?

TS: Mostly rap stuff, I’m trying to open my iTunes so I can remember some names!

…. Yeah, I’ve been listening to Earl Sweatshirt, I’ve been listening to the new Billy Woods album. On kind of an embarrassing level, there’s a few Drake songs I like. I’ve been trying to wrap my head around that one! Your Old Droog’s newest album. Vince Staples. Pretty much whatever the newest rap is, I’m gonna bump that for awhile.

AP: You’ve spoken a lot about your love of hip-hop over any other genre. How do you feel about the increasing influence of EDM in the popular rap sound?

TS: You mean the popularity of the build up? The “eh-eh-EH-EHHH”? I don’t listen to that kind of shit. I mean, you can find good in a lot of that stuff. For me it’s always more about the rapper and if I like the beat, and if I like the beat and it’s got a bit of an EDM influence then that’s fine. If it sounds like something you’d hear at a rave then I’m probably not going to like it too much, but if the rapping’s good then I’ll give it a listen. Luckily those two things rarely cross paths—where the EDM-tinged hip-hop beat and the good rapper are on the same track. That doesn’t happen very often!

AP: Any future releases in the cards?

TS: I’ve got a couple other things that I’m working on, but nothing I can give an exact date on. I’m working on another solo project, kind of.

The only thing that I can say is that I’m in a band called The Mighty Jones, which is me on percussion and a female vocalist and a guitarist and a bassist. The album’s done and there’s a video we just put up on Youtube. Hopefully it’ll be out in the next couple of months called Long Gone.

Blockhead will be performing Friday, May 1, at Middle East Downstairs with Mono/Poly and Mariano Xavier. Tickets are available here.