Q: Hey, can you tell us a bit about where you come from, and what made you want to start a career in music?
A: I’m from the sticks outside of Ann Arbor, Michigan. Technically Whitmore Lake. I had a psychotic breakdown when I was 17 after I started taking drugs and after that, I was going through so much pain I needed an outlet. I was always a musician since I started playing banjo in 3rd grade, but I gradually moved more towards something where I could invent my own way of doing it because I wanted my own sound really badly.
Q: And what other artists have you found yourself listening to lately?
A: Lately I’ve been listening to rap (Therevada, Jadasea, MIKE, Akai Solo) and jazz (Jaki Byard, Grant Green) and soul (the Soul Finders, the Impressions). I listen to crazy shit too when I’m looking for samples.
Q: Who were your first and strongest musical influences?
A: My strongest musical influence was probably RATKING because the energy was so wild and the music sounded really sophisticated to me too. It made me want to rap more than anything. Before that I was into all kinds of rock and soul and rap. When I was a really young kid I was into Pink Floyd and Beastie Boys, and Metallica too.
Q: You have just released your new album, ‘RESURRECTION’. Is there a story behind it?
A: There’s no story to RESURRECTION. It’s just a point on my journey where I felt, “this is my shit, no one raps like this but me, this is who the fuck I am and it’s dope.” That’s why I called it RESURRECTION. I felt like a dead man for so long. I had no hope and my mind was shattered, and the world was cruel to me, yet I am so blessed still so I wanted to make something feel kind of biblical.
Q: How would you describe the overall sound and musical style of RESURRECTION?
A: The sound on RESURRECTION is basically slow groovy beats and soul raps where I just spit the poetry I wrote and feel it as deep as I can. I try to feel through my pain and bring some beauty into the world. I am also really influenced by visual arts, so I wanted my sound to have a strong cinematic feeling to it. Like watching some bizarre art films.
Q: Can you share any memorable or interesting anecdotes from the recording process of “RESURRECTION”?
A: One of the best moments of the journey recording RESURRECTION was one night I had two of my boys from Ann Arbor come to the crib and I showed them some of the tracks I was working on. I had to sit and really listen to the tracks and maintain. I was pretty sure I was doing something that worked musically at this point, but I was still insecure showing people new joints. So we all listened really deeply and had a big spiritual experience. Then we went to Whole Foods and ate some frozen pizza and went downtown and freestyled on the streets in Ann Arbor with a bunch of random kids. The whole night felt like a shift. Almost like the first spiritual battle I’d won since I started tracking the album. I’ve had a lot of nights like that now, but it was great since there was such a huge gap in my experience of joy.
Q: Could you describe your creative processes? How do usually start, and go about shaping ideas into a completed song?
A: My creative process is pretty constant. I feel an idea coming and I write it down on my phone or I make the beat. I can work for hours at a time. I’ve recorded 30 minute long albums in 4 hours from scratch and they’ve been gas but I really prefer to wait on my music now. I pretend I’m a master whisky brewer and I’m steeping my songs in time. If I record something and I still love it in a month, or two months, I know I did something special.
Q: What has been the most difficult thing you’ve had to endure in your life or music career so far?
A: Life is hard, I think the most difficult things I’ve endured I’ve already endured though. Drugs and trouble with the law really sucked the life out of me. I’ve been through a lot of painful shit I still don’t talk about publically. I think some things are there for us to battle privately with our people. I think I know now that you gotta be really smart in this world because turning a wrong corner or trusting the wrong person can invite bad omens to fuck you up. I was dumb as a kid. Now I’m jaded and suspicious and it’s serving me really well so far. The most painful part of life is feeling pain. You gotta feel through all your mistakes and all your inner darkness. I’m wading through my own bullshit all the time. It always hurts. Now it hurts but it’s not my fault. It’s just spiritual gardening at this point.
Q: On the contrary, what would you consider a successful, proud or significant point in your life or music career so far?
A: It’s great getting some press about my album, I really needed the validation. No one wants to make shit music. I love having friends around who don’t mind telling me if something is wack or not too. I’m just happy to have made it this far. HMU if you wanna buy a RESURRECTION cassette. Big victory for me too is getting a show at the big Ann Arbor venue the Blind Pig. That means a ton to me because I’ve been going there since I was a kid. I don’t make the kind of music that you can just go and play a gig with either. It’s really harder to get a gig when you don’t play covers and you’re doing your own weird thing you believe in. I’m proud of myself.
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