• So my previous touch point with your work is Emo Girl Ex Machina and your feature on Fax Gang’s Dataprism, and both are very different in many ways from the digital hardcore leanings of Prepared to Die. What led you towards this change of sound?

So I recorded Emo Girl Ex Machina at the same time that I started transitioning. The album just came naturally as a part of realizing I was trans, and the flood of emotions that followed it. It was a very unique time in my life and the actual process of creating the album was a blur. Because of this I didn’t really have any direction to go once I started to settle into my transition. Creating a follow-up album became a real challenge, and I fell into a bit of writer’s block. I ended up combating this by experimenting with alot of different musical styles, and alot of it ended up going in a heavier direction.

• Rat Judah feels very tongue in cheek with the play on your name, and the sound of it reads as a real homage to around the fur-era Deftones. What made you choose that track as the tone-setter and opener for this record?

A big part of dealing with writer’s block was going back to my roots. I absolutely loved Bionicles as a kid, and the music they used for theme songs was a big part of why. Songs like ‘Creeping In My Soul’ by Cryoshell blew my mind back then, and I remember falling in love with heavy music right then and there. The Alternative station on the radio ended up being a huge part of my musical development, and led me to discovering some of my favorite bands like Linkin Park and Deftones. Fun fact, the original name for the album was going to be ‘Bionicle Soundtrack’.

• Lots of these songs are very short but have a ton of individual personality, from the pop of girls to the hardcore of the doom fulfilled to the gamey synths of new game plus. Did you intentionally cover a lot of ground as far as genre, or did that come naturally?

I’ve always been a pretty genre agnostic artist, as I really like to mess around with a bunch of different styles and techniques. Experimenting with different genres also helped me with my writer’s block, so the variation of the album happened as a result. 

• Priestess of the godless valley in particular strikes me as feeling very new for you with those synth harps and the intense, thrumming breakdown. Do you think that in the future you’d like to expand on that kind of duality of sound more?

I was really happy to have the opportunity to work with Cacola on Priestess of the Godless Valley, and I’m very happy without it turned out. The harder side of electronic music is definitely something I’m looking into for future projects, although it may not be as Rat Jesu.

• Being an artist whose growth and style is owed very heavily to the internet, what parts of this new age of music do you enjoy and what things do you find limiting? Are you surprised to see yourself where you’re at now?

As someone who grew up with the internet, I think it’s probably the best thing to happen to music since the invention of tape recording. The internet has allowed so many people to get their music heard who otherwise wouldn’t be able to. A ton of my favorite music has come from this era, and I don’t think my music would have found an audience otherwise. While there are certainly some drawbacks, especially with streaming services not paying very well, I think there are more positives than negatives.

• How’d you link up with PK Shellboy?

So Maknaeslayer of Fax Gang actually contacted us after Unimon Superstar dropped. They were a big fan of the record, and sent us some beats that were orginally intended for Aethernet. That’s actually how Poison.jpg got made! I then got to meet PK and Glacier Baby in New York for a No Agreements show, and we’ve been great friends ever since. FXG3000 was a huge inspiration to Emo Girl Ex Machina, so getting to be on a Fax Gang album was a dream come true!

• Where does your sound “come from,” and how would you define HexD? Do you identify with that genre label? Where do you fall in terms of mixing HexD with outside influence?

I would say the biggest influence on the early Rat Jesu albums was Black Dresses and Fax Gang. When I was younger I really didn’t pay too much attention to newer music, so when my friends showed me Peaceful As Hell it really blew my mind. I just knew I had to try and make music that sounded like that. Hearing FXG3000 was also huge for me, as that was the first time I had ever heard bitcrushing used so heavily. For influences outside of the scene, I’ve always been a little obsessed with late 2000s internet culture. Things like nightcore and AMVs were a big part of Emo Girl Ex Machina’s aesthetic, and alot of music popular at the time like MCR and Fall Out Boy bled into my musical style.

• My close friend and listening partner Sophie is a trans lesbian and really connected with some of the lyrics on Concrete, saying she’d never heard that confusion between desire and envy towards other women articulated in a pop song. Was that inspired by a specific experience, or is it more general, and how do you feel about pop music (or music generally, whatever) as a medium for ideas like this?

One of the best parts about being a queer artist is being able to draw on unique experiences when writing songs. Most popular music is written from a cis-het male perspective, so when you hear music written by a bi girl, you can tell. As for Concrete itself, the song is really driven by dysphoria, particularly the type that comes from comparing yourself to a girl you have a crush on. It’s a really complicated and difficult emotion, and I think music is the only way I can personally express it.

• The gamey synths on the back half of the album give it a really characteristic sound; did you have any games in particular you took influence from?

I grew up playing on my Dad’s old Sega Genesis, so when I’ve incorporated synths into my music they’ve always had a very 8-bit sound. I’ve always had a deep love for the orignal Sonic The Hedgehog soundtracks, and really any games from that era. Newer titles like Celeste and the Dark Souls series are also a very big influence for me! 

• I notice after following you on instagram we both like a lot of posts and reels related to frogs, cats, really any animal. Could you give me your top 3 favorite animals?

I really love all creatures and critters, but right now I would have to say my top 3 favs are Frogs, Cats and Sharks!

• Can you give the fans any hints as to what styles of music you’d like to play with in the future?

Metal >:)

The post Rat Jesu Interview appeared first on SCAD Radio.

Megan: Hello SCAD Radio. This is your general manager, Megan Atwell here today with… 

Avey: Avey Tare, Dave, Davey Tare.

Megan: Davey Tare. Is that where it comes from? 

Avey: Uhhuh.

Megan: Gotcha. Well, thank you so much for sitting with me. I appreciate it. 

Avey: Thanks for having me.

Megan: First of all, you said this is your first time playing in Savannah. How are you enjoying it?

Avey: I enjoy it quite a bit. Yeah.

Megan: The scenery is very different from a lot of places in the United States, right?

Avey: Yeah. I’ve been to Savannah a lot of times. I’ve just never played music here before. So, it’s good. I made a point of being like, I wanna hit Savannah.

Megan: Well, I’m glad you did because when I saw that I was like, woo, because I have, personally quite a history with your solo work. I actually got into Slasher Flicks before I got into Animal Collective. 

Avey: Oh, nice. 

Megan: On that end, how do you approach working on your solo and spinoff work as opposed to working on group projects with guys?

Avey: For me, it usually started just from relationships I had with people, friendships. Doing stuff on the side. I mean, that’s how animal collectors started too. And collaboration has always been a really big part of playing music for me. A lot of the things I started doing outside of Animal Collective were just other collaborations, and, that one (Slasher Flicks) was just based on, you know, close friendships, and relationships. My girlfriend at the time was in the band and happens to be a wonderful musician. And Jeremy is a wonderful drummer. I didn’t really know Jeremy that well then, that’s when we first started getting to know each other. But I knew him as a drummer and the ponytail and, and had seen him do some other things around Baltimore and just loved his drumming. So, I just thought it would be good, having time to do that just started happening on my off time from Animal Collective because Noah started doing Panda Bear stuff solo more and so, that became like, our pattern, where it’s like we’d have this time off when he would go do that. So, I just started writing. I have him always writing songs and yeah. Just seems to work that way. 

Megan: Yeah, that’s, that’s funny that you mentioned a pattern. Cause it was kind of funny to see Time Skiffs drop and then immediately Reset from Panda Bear and then 7’s from you. I was like ‘okay, we’re getting a full cycle’. Was there any overlap, speaking of Time Skiffs, in the time producing this album and 7’s? 

Avey: Tracking ended for times skiffs when the pandemic was really hitting hard, and quarantine was still in effect. We had finished tracking Time Skiffs, and it really came out of being just a little bit depressed. I was cut off from collaborating with people again, and collaborating most importantly with Animal Collective. We didn’t plan on doing Time Skiffs at home, obviously, we wanted to get together and do it in the studio. And I had done Cows on Hourglass Pond, my previous solo record in my home studio too. So, I was just kind of like, ah! I’m tired of being alone in my studio recording music, you know? So, Adam McDaniel, who’s become a close friend of mine in Asheville, has a great studio called Drop of Sun. And I was just kind of like, I need to collaborate, you know, let’s just get together. And we’d worked on Cows, he mixed Cows and we had done stuff here and there together. So, we just, in a very relaxed manner, started being like let’s schedule three days here and work on some stuff. I started just writing songs again, around the house, and came together that way. 

Megan: Have you found that some of the creative decisions that you make on your solo projects inform what you’re doing on the next Animal Collective record?

Avey: Maybe only if I think about it, which I don’t really. It’s just to do something in a conscious moment, not because I’m thinking about it like “I want to do something different,” but more just like I feel emotionally, or, you know, organically, like it’s time to move on to something else. Yeah. Cause that’s kind of what I thrive off of and what Animal Collective thrives off of. It’s just like a new challenge. And like going somewhere different, sort of an intuitive push. I think I–and the other guys as well–feel like I can do stuff on my own that I maybe wouldn’t do with Animal Collective, you know? Because we have different tastes in a lot of regards. 

Megan: Yeah, of course. I wanted to ask about the tracking of 7s; It feels like it almost goes through three different movements on the album. There’s that first opening kind of naturalistic poppy section and then it’s sort of percussive, meandering, then it goes out into some, ambient sort of development towards the end. Was that intentional or did it just kind of happen that way?

Avey: I think because of the nature of the songs, to me, it felt more like a yin and yang kind of thing. It’s more like two movements to me, but I can see what you mean, how Hey Bog is kind of like the centerpiece. Hey Bog was the first song that I had. So everything was based on really wanting to release Hey Bog and have that on an album. All my other solo records kind of have been based off of just having all the songs and having this vision in mind. And this one came together more in like a very quick, you know, I just have these songs. Everything kind of had to be based around Hey Bog as the centerpiece. It just ended up that way, that there were three songs that were more poppy and good vibes to me. They kind of went together. And then there was like the darker kind of part of the latter part of the record where those songs kind of went together to me, and Sweeper’s Grin I actually wrote playing Hey Bog naturally. You know, Sweeper’s Grin is basically on this open, like one-chord thing that it’s kind of two chords, and they just came organically out of Hey Bog. So that’s kind of how it kept it on record. 

Megan: You can definitely sense that. I was actually gonna ask about that, about how much each of the songs kind of influenced each other.

Avey: Yeah. I mean, Hey Bog definitely influenced Sweeper’s Grin. The rest were kind of all independent, and it was kind of more like having these little individual worlds and wanting them to just fit all together rather than thinking they were all one cohesive movement. 

Megan: There are seven tracks on the album, and the title is 7’s, right? So, what came first?

Avey: The tracks on the record. It just seemed like… a lot of how I see the world, the universe, is in signs and symbols and things like that. It just started happening that way where it’s like, I wanted to release the record when I would be 43 years old, that added together would be seven. All these sevens just started coming up and I like repetition and numerology, and so I was just like, I want to push that and go with that. 

Megan: Yeah! I mean, seven’s a very significant number in like every context everywhere. I wanted to ask, too, what your creative process was like for these songs? Cause there’s some kind of sound collage elements with the natural sampling and stuff like that, and then on others, they’re very open and atmospheric. How did you start each of these? 

Avey: They all kind of started differently. A lot of them started on acoustic guitar. Cloud Stop Rush started on acoustic guitar, so I wanted to go into the studio in a very relaxed, kind of open-minded way, because there’s also just a lot of fun stuff to play around with at Drop of Sun, and Adam really likes experimenting with sounds and collecting sounds too. We work really well together in that way. I think it was just sort of like, go into the studio every day with a couple ideas and what can we do today? And if we accomplish that, that’s good. And I don’t know, I just like to collect sounds and like to use alternative kinds of things for percussion, not straightforward. I like a lot of samples and that kind of thing. So it was kind of more like finding a balance and just what fit with the songs, you know?

Megan: I wanted to ask about the cover art too. I believe Abby Portner?

Avey: No, I did it. 

Megan: You did it! Really?

Avey: Yeah, I do collaborate with Abby a lot. But my visual art has just been something that’s progressed over the years and started because I was sort of the person that hung up all the flyers in New York and that kind of thing. More just cause I took it on, you know, and I was interested in it, and doing visual art has always been this very cathartic thing for me. It’s not like music, but it’s very attached to music because I like putting on music and making visual art. But I don’t think a lot about it, you know, as much as I think about music. Whereas music’s become this thing I’ve done for so long, it’s very heady. Visual art for me isn’t like that. I think it’s more intuitive where I just sit with things for a while and they sort of come to me and it’s very subconscious or something like that. I’ve just been working with collage for the past couple years. I like to mix mediums a lot, I’ve done mixed photography, and I’ve done a lot of the album Animal Collective album covers and they’ve all been kind of like a mixture of photography or watercolor and just blending a lot of things together. And now I’m just doing that in like a very hands-on cut and paste, like collage kind of thing. I had done something that was a little bit more to me, like straightforward collage with the Times Skiffs album cover. I just wanted it to be something a little bit different. I wanted it to be more imagery, I guess… Like concrete imagery, but also, like a dream. Kind of like a dream image, you know?

Megan: Now I’m curious, which of the animal collective covers did you do?

Avey: Fall Be Kind, Feels, uh, Strawberry Jam-

Megan: Spirit?

Avey: I didn’t do the original Spirit, No. And I didn’t do the new one either. I did some of the inside writing stuff like that. I kind of have the ideas sometimes behind a lot of the covers, like Sung Tongs. I described the image I wanted to Abby. And I don’t really draw, you know, so that’s more illustrations, more her thing. I like her style. So that’s the kind of thing where I’d be like, I want this weird collage kind of illustration of these two animal collective fans that are like dead punks, like, you know, I have this new punk kind. And so that’s where that came from. So yeah, sometimes I just have the ideas, but I can’t put it to paper, you know? So I kind of get somebody that can, same thing with our music videos. Sometimes I’ll have an idea, but I can’t make music videos. I mean, I made a couple, but yeah.

Megan: I remember when I was younger, I saw the music video for Floridada and it put me on my ass. It was crazy. I was like, whoa. I got to give compliments to the chef because Strawberry Jam is one of my favorite covers of all time, so awesome. 

Avey: Yeah. I was really into micro-photography at that point in doing a lot of it, like water curses as well. Combined like macro photography and collage textures.

Megan: I love how meaty it looks. It looks like bruised tissue. On I guess a personal note, Animal Collective has been working together for so long. How do you guys maintain a healthy collaboration and not end up in that sort of toxic space that a lot of long-running artists do?

Avey: I think because it’s always been friendship first for us. Yeah. And it’s more like we’re family, we’re brothers, and I think always just realizing that to keep it going. We all need our own space. I think it was really Noah that kind of pushed us in that direction, he’s a person that needs a lot of solo time to be creative. I think he’s a very creative person. I respect him a lot. And so, wanting him to have that space and just not getting caught up in the industry and the need to tour to the end, tour till we can’t do it anymore. We’ll do it for a short amount of time, and then when we feel like we need a break from it. Then we take the break and we’re fortunate that at our label, nobody really minds. The people around us that we work with really respect the way we go about things, so I think we’re very lucky.

Megan: That’s fantastic. And it’s definitely cool to know that you’re doing that because it definitely feels that way. It doesn’t feel like you’re churning out albums just to put them out, they all have very distinct feelings and styles to them, and they all feel like a step in a different direction.

Avey: Yeah. It’s just like when it feels like the right time to make a new AC record at this point, then then we’re all game for it and if we’re not, then don’t.

Megan: Thank you so much for talking with me, I appreciate it! Once again, SCADRadio, this has been Megan Atwell with Avey-Davy-Tare, thank you for listening!

The post Avey Tare Interview appeared first on SCAD Radio.

Megan: Hello SCAD Radio. Welcome to another interview. This is your production director, Megan Atwell,
here with…
Shadanté: Shadanté.
Sahm: I’m Sahm.
Megan: Otherwise known as One Ten Percent. There you go! All right, so for the people at home, can you
guys introduce yourselves as far as what you do in the band?
Shadanté: Yeah, I’m really either. We both co-create at the same time, a creative director so far with the first music video and stuff. But I always just go with songwriter and creative director.
Sahm: Yeah. And I usually handle most of our production and our engineering. And then also the vocal side of it, some singing, some rapping, you know.
Megan: Awesome! Yeah, so on that note, as far as what you guys both do in the band, I would like to ask, how do you guys start a track? Is it pretty democratic or do you guys start with one person kind of leading the way?
Sahm: I think it really depends, like per song. I think most songs are usually democratic, a healthy mix of both of our opinions, but sometimes, like Shante being big creative guy, he’ll come up with so many ideas and kind of just bounce them off of me. And sometimes we’ll have a song name or a cool lyric that he wrote down and we’ll start. We went through different eras, right? So sometimes I’ll just sit in front of my computer and I’m just making beats by myself and stuff like that. And then because I’m so excited, I’ll just start rapping on it early, record some early stuff, and then just send it off to him.
Shadanté: Yeah.
Sahm: And then sometimes he’ll be like, oh, maybe we should talk about this, you know, and then we’ll maybe try to weave it in or change topics so it really depends on the song.
Megan: Yeah. So it’s pretty free form?
Shadanté: Yeah, no, honestly, that’s funny– fact is, that was the title for one of my songs actually, Freeform. He really helped out with that, so it’s funny you mention that word, .
Megan: I got the feeling, I guess! So for Leftside Story, the single that we’re going to be discussing, where did that kind of begin? Where did you guys start with that?
Shadanté: You were saying, I think Sahm was really going off–he just listened to certain distinct songs at the time, certain sounds was just going on. Really, I don’t know, he just kind of hit me with it. He would honestly have to go with the explanation on that one. I can’t take that from him, I don’t think.
Sahm: Yeah. So I think at the time we were listening to more upbeat music, so this was kind of one of the first attempts of making something a little bit more dancey.
Megan: Mm-hmm.
Sahm: and I don’t know if there was a [certain] song influence, but I do remember we were listening to a lot of different Latin music and stuff like that, so that kind of went into play. And again, it’s a very free form process and it went through a bunch of beat changes, a bunch of different evolutions. And then we kind of just got to this point and that’s when sometimes he has to stop me cause I’ll just keep going, but he’s like, I like it where it is. We should stop and just do this.
Shadanté: Mm-hmm. . .
Megan: Yeah, I definitely get that. Being a visual artist, it’s definitely hard to stop on a piece. You can always keep working it and then before you know it’s overwrought and you’re like, oh man, well now I can’t go back. Forgot how I got where I was in the first place.
Shadanté: Yeah, exactly.
Megan: So I definitely get that. Did you face any challenges with creating the track? Were there any
roadblocks?
Shadanté: At points there was. It was just like how the song was structured out, like going back to the
skeleton of it. It was going nice, but then we got to a roadblock, I think just a certain lyric that Sahmmy said or that I said, we just was just [putting it] into play and we were just seeing like, “okay, wait, no.” I believe I
added on that we should just cut off from that point and go on somewhere else, and then honestly Sahmmy just did his magic, made it happen.
Megan: In the lyrics department, I noticed with the repetition that you kind of play with across the song, it
reminds me a little bit of Young Fathers. It sort of has that really building progressive feeling by stacking on itself. So how did you come to approach doing this theme of gun violence, as we’ll talk about, through sort of a motif rather than outright?
Sahm: Hmm. That’s a great question. I’m really glad that you’re paying attention to that. Cause very early on in the process I was thinking of a way–because gun violence, it’s very prevalent [in rap], right? So it’s a topic that’s always spoken about and whether it’s good to continue to talk about it or whether we shouldn’t. And I’m of the opinion that it’s part of our expression, it’s part of the things we experience, so it’s something that I don’t think I or many people will have power to stop, you know? But, so I wanted to talk about it in a way… kind of use it to tell the story of where we are, where we’re at, where we were at, kind of relationship wise. I’m using it as a metaphor for kind of hitting the streets, you know, and meeting people and meeting new women and stuff like that. Kind of using that to get some like commentary almost on how much we romanticize gun violence in rap music. So to use guns, gun language, talking about a relationship is kind of that, you know, representation there.
Megan: Yeah. On that note of romanticization and like your experience, I know that right now there’s sort of a contentious thing going on where A$AP Rocky just dropped a track where he was kind of reflecting back on his previous music and saying, did I add anything to the world with this, or was I just rehashing pain over and over again. Was I ever evolving past it? So I think that this is definitely an interesting evolution on what you might have thought outright, “well, I should talk about this because I need to bring attention to the brutality,” but instead you’re bringing attention to the romanticization, which I think is very interesting.
Sahm: That’s awesome. I actually didn’t even know that he was talking about that in his latest song. That’s a good thing because I think I’ve thought about that with him specifically as well.
Megan: Yeah, he released that track and I remember, Ghais Guevara posted on his story about that song and people were on two sides of it where they were mocking Rocky and saying, come on man, like you gotta stick with it, your music was influential, don’t go back on it now. Like you’re letting cancel culture affect you, whatever cancel culture is, and Ghais was like, you guys are stupid because this is him evolving past being on the streets. As soon as you’re able to be elevated above that, you look down and you realize the systemic issues that are keeping you there, it’s not your fault that you were in that, but also you weren’t helping yourself [by discussing those topics]. You weren’t helping your peers. So it’s, it’s so stupid to expect him to stay down there when nobody should be down there in the first place. So I think that it’s definitely a cool spin to hear, a lot of people talking about this issue in a lot of different ways.
Sahm: Yeah. That’s awesome. That’s a great point, honestly.
Megan: I wanted to ask too, because Rocky, being from America, has a different perspective on it from you guys being from Canada.
Shadanté: Mm-hmm…

Megan: I think that gun violence is typically associated with America, but Canada has its own history of
violence with like native erasure, stuff like that. Do you guys think that Canada has a similar issue with gun
violence, and do you think that maybe the fact that Canada’s thought of as a “soft” country keeps it from being held accountable for that?
Shadanté: I don’t think we’re really a soft country. I think that’s a skewed perspective that the world has on us and that we also have on each other at times when we go out and try to enjoy life and so on and so forth. I would say I think it comes back to how, if you look at certain laws being in place, people go around 3D printing guns and using that at times and we hear in certain shootings and so on. But I think the level of how it’s being shown in the media, it’s just not the same caliber, it’s not the same degree of how we’re seeing either school shootings left, right, and center in America. But back here we have one shooting and then we had a whole lot put in place and it just kind of just put practically a halt to it all. So I don’t think it’s in the same ball field, the two, but it still finds its way here and there.
Megan: Yeah.
Sahm: I was thinking about the question and I don’t think the outward perspective on us effects the legislation and how things are changed. But I think our inward perception is very distorted because of the way that Canadians have taught history; as much as we’re seen as progressive and very polite and whatever, Canadians have been very destructive. We’re the main force behind why native and aboriginal people have such difficulties now. And I think that we don’t see the violence around us because we weren’t educated on what that kind of violence looked like. Because we do see ourselves as soft. We tend to look at America as like, “oh, you guys are a problem. We don’t have gun laws like that, so we’re not the problem.”
Megan: Yeah.
Sahm: But we have different kinds and different forms of violence and I think at times it could be worse, you know, depending– I’m not too deep on like American history, but I’ve been looking into Canadian history and it’s not as squeaky clean as like everybody likes to think, you know. But gun violence is a little bit different. You know, we’ve had some incidents with, like, crossbows and different kinds of weapons because of the fact that it’s harder to get guns, but it’s still definitely an issue.
Megan: Yeah. That’s interesting. That’s a commonly discussed thing in America too, that if you were to
outright ban guns right now, it wouldn’t stop people from being violent towards each other. I think that at the end of the day, guns are obviously an issue because they are just readily accessible here and easy to use for extremely destructive purposes. But also there’s something to be said about structural violence and the ways that you’re raised that make it feel okay to lash out in that way.So that’s a global issue, I think. I think that the fact that you have a lot of global influence on this song is also an interesting way to sort of play off of the global effect of gun violence. It almost implies that in some way. Speaking of the cultural influences on the song, I wanted to ask: knowing that you guys are second gen immigrants, I wanted to ask– I don’t know where your parents are from, but wherever they are from, [how] their cultural music influenced you wanting to of break free of maybe typical rap trappings of just sticking to 808s and stuff like that.
Sahm: Yeah, well for me specifically since I do handle a lot of the production, I’ve taken a lot of smaller
elements and mixed them in here and there. Like a lot of our early tracks that we unfortunately never got to release had a lot more Asian influence ‘cause my mom is Chinese, and I used a lot of Chinese instruments and kind of chord structures and scales. It’s not even something I grew up listening to, like honestly, my mom, a Chinese woman, listens to more dancehall and reggae.
Megan: Oh, interesting.
Sahm: And like my Jamaican dad who likes to listen to a lot of different other kinds of genres, you know? It has affected the more new music, [but I can’t say] how much [of] it’s in there cuz some of it is so instilled in me. Like it could be even just the samples I choose, could be based off of some of the songs I listened to when I was younger, you know what I mean?
Megan: Mm-hmm.
Sahm: I’m sure it’s influenced deep in there. I can’t even say like where in those songs, but for sure it’s, it’s
affected me.
Shadanté: I would say for myself, my parents being Jamaican and coming here during their high school years and so on, we would be listening to a lot of reggae, a lot of dance hall, like in the car going to places growing up. And I would say, you know, maybe not exactly how I speak per se, but the gestures of how I was raised under all of that influence did find its way to my lyrics, find its way to some of the big choices like you were saying before.
Megan: Yeah, I definitely hear a unique voice in the music that you guys are making, and I think that the
unique cultural heritage is definitely poking through there. I also wanted to ask about being in Montreal. So that’s a large city, right? How have you found that being in that area with so many people has that affected yourdevelopment as artists?
Sahm: Hmm, that’s a good question.
Shadanté: I’d say it was just meeting so many different faces, different ways of how they were being raised. And especially when you find the ones that are artistically inclined, at least for me, it just made me question exactly where I see myself, what moves me visually, sonically or so on. And honestly, I don’t know, just tippy toeing and finding what just feels right at the moment. Then my friends that moved from New York–when I lived in LaSalle came, he just came on the block at some point. Then he said, “Hey, let’s try to pick up rapping a little bit” and messed around back when we were growing up and just seeing how that felt. It felt nice, but I didn’t really push forward with it at the time. And then at some point Sahm just came to me after graduating and just like, “Hey, you wanna rap?” I’m like, “Not much.” I mean, let’s see. I do have a feeling for it, but let’s see where I can really go with it from this point.
Sahm: I think for me it affected me more in terms of like, I got to see a lot of different people and all the
different cultures and I got to see the different forms of oppression that these kinds of people have faced. And it made me like… as much as some songs might seem like they’re not about much, there’ll be small notes and comments on certain things that I’ve seen. It’s made me want to talk on these things. Like I think maybe if my environment was different, I wouldn’t be so aware of all these kinds of problems and I wouldn’t see it as a need to talk about them because I see that they’re not spoken about now. I want to be a voice that can spread those messages, you know?
Megan: Yeah, definitely. Do you think that Montreal is home for you or do you think that you would like to go somewhere else in the future?
Sahm: I mean, it’s home for now, but I do have dreams of going to Japan and moving into a nice traditional Japanese house. But yeah, it is home and I want to leave really badly and get somewhere where it’s hot and there’s no snow. That’d be great, no super cold, freezing temperatures. But like, I do think I would miss it, you know? Cause I haven’t got to live anywhere else. I think eventually I’d like to come back. So it is for sure home.
Megan: Yeah.
Shadanté: No, I’ll have to say the same thing too. Like, I want to go to Jamaica at some point, live there for like a couple years to really like bring up my Patois and stuff like that and just absorb the heat and everything else that the world has to offer. But yeah, no, it is like Sahmmy said, I’m not a fan of the snow. Last weekend was just too cold, honestly. It was disgusting. And it was supposed to be a birthday weekend, no less. But it’s home. It’s the familiarity of it all. You can’t just abandon it like that. It’s gonna creep back on you. Just like how winter does, it’s gonna come back. You’re gonna want to come back.
Megan: You can’t take the Canada out of the man. I’m from California, so I’m used to it being very warm, and I’m the opposite. I wanna go somewhere cold, so I’m trying to live in Seattle or something. Or like I could see myself moving to Norway or something.
Sahm: That would be cool. That would be interesting.
Megan: It is interesting that you mentioned Japan though, cause Japan is a musical scene that I’m very
interested in as far as their mixture of culture and stuff like that. I’ve even thought from back in the day, like city pop, there’s so much cool Caribbean influence and stuff, so do you listen to a lot of Japanese music?
Sahm: Yeah. Well, we’re big weebs.
Megan: Same.
Sahm: So we’ve been like, at least me personally, I’ve been diving into it. I’m so happy you mentioned City
Pop, I have not gotten to like, speak about it. But like, I’ve recently discovered it and it’s so beautiful. We’ve gone to some city pop events in the city where some friends of ours were DJing. It’s the best time and it feels nostalgic, like it’s such a great style of music that I’m so late on and I’m mad at myself [for that].
Megan: Yeah! I’ve been listening because I’m also a huge weeb, and I was getting into like city pop back when like I was on Tumblr, like people were making edits to it. Now I’m getting more into like, J-Jazz and their punk scene and everything, and I feel like even more of a weeb being like, “oh yeah, I listen to a lot of Japanese music.” And I’m like, “but it’s not anime openings! It’s not all anime openings.” There are some bangers, but that’s not all . So what did you guys grow up watching as far as anime?
Shadanté: Ooh, we have to give it to Naruto. We have to give it to, I mean, argue whoever you wanna argue
with. Yu-Gi-Oh! Dragon Ball Z, Pokemon, Metabot…
Sahm: Digimon, Spider Riders.
Megan: Some deep cuts there.
Sahm: My dad put me on the classics before I could walk.
Shadanté: Mm-hmm.
Sahm: Basically he put on like the Ghibli movies and Akira, and there’s this one called Spriggan.
Megan: Dude, that’s hardcore watching Akira as a kid!
Sahm: Oh yeah. My mom didn’t like it. And even Ghost in the Shell. My mom didn’t know about Akira, but
then he put on Ghost in the Shell and my mom saw that the woman almost looked naked.
Megan: Yeah.
Sahm: Which was like, no, no, no, no. And so he turned it off. And a year later on my birthday, he gave me the
Ghost in the Shell manga, and was like, “don’t tell your mom.” It was the best.
Megan: That’s awesome. My mom did that with us too, except she hated like Ren and Stimpy, like the gross out humor type stuff. But I grew up on Dragon Ball Z Kai because I think I’m a little bit younger than you guys. So I was like watching it with the improved pacing and I was like, “this rock!”. Then I went back to watch GT and I was like, “this is so slow.”
Sahm: GT sucks! GT sucks.
Shadanté: Yo I know I don’t hear GT slander on this right now…
Sahm: I didn’t see Kai though. I watched the original and I went back to it after I had my daughter. Cause I
was like, we’re just sitting out watching stuff at home and I was like, lowkey like this kind of sucks. I was like, I’m waiting 20 episodes between Goku preparing to fight Frieza and then he fights Frieza? 30 episodes, 20 episodes is too long.
Megan: Yeah. Kai has better pacing, so I didn’t get as bored as a kid, but I remember my brother and I would look up highlights to watch the tournament arcs back, like over and over and over again. But then I went on my own over to watching, I watched all of Bleach when I was like eight. And then I went and watched Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood and then Fruits Basket. So those were my three. And to this day, Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood is my favorite. I watch it annually. I think I’m on like my ninth time now.
Sahm: I love Fullmetal. I think I watch it three times and I’ll cry every time at the Mr. Tucker and…
Megan: …and Nina. Oh, it’s so sad. I’m that way with–have you watched Hunter hunter?
Sahm: Of course. So I’m on like my third, fourth one of that one too.
Megan: Yeah. When Meruem and Komugi have their last scene together, I will look that up and I’ll watch it
for 30 seconds and it’ll make me bawl. Like it’s too much.
Sahm: No, that’s so sad and it’s so beautiful. It’s like I get, I’m so easy, like with anime, you give me a
flashback in the middle of an intense moment and I’m bawling my eyes out and I got chills.
Megan: Like the best example of that is the Obito/Kakashi fight.
Sahm: That’s the–oh my God!
Megan: That’s the one!
Sahm: You’re so cultured–oh man, you’re so cool. I love that. My favorite Naruto fight is that one.
Megan: It’s so good.
Sahm: I still study that to this day.
Megan: Right now I’m getting one of my friends into anime cuz he thought that he never could. So we started with Samurai Champloo because he likes Nujabes. And then we went to Chainsaw Man because I wanted him to be on that early and now we’re watching Bleach on his request. He was like “I wanna watch Bleach,” I was like, are you ready for a 400 episode anime?
Shadanté: Yes..
Sahm: No, that’s actually crazy because back to, back to back is some of the best music in anime.
Megan: Yeah. Dude, the bleach soundtrack is underrated. That shit is amazing.
Sahm: I didn’t even finish Bleach and I know that the Bleach soundtrack is exceptional. The bleach opening one might be the best, arguably. I’ll argue it.

Shadanté: Mm-hmm.
Sahm: It’s maybe, it’s, it’s top three for sure, but for me it might be the number one.
Megan: Like, it’s so good.
Shadanté: Bro, for sure it’s too nostalgic to listen to the songs.
Sahm: Feels like Adult Swim, feels like staying up. And it’s the best feeling ever.
Megan: Yeah. I know that anime is becoming skate culture in some ways, which is really interesting. Like,
you got the MeganThee Stallion “p***y like like a wild fox, looking for a Sasuke,” something like that. Have you ever felt tempted to add in anime stuff to your music? Like as far as the beats or the lyrics.
Sahm: It’s in all of it.
Megan: Really?
Sahm: In all of it.
Megan: That’s awesome.
Sahm: There’s this one song, that’s unfortunately to this day, I’ve never spent more time working on a song.
Shadanté: Oh, yes.
Sahm: And it’s called The Kickback. It’s off our first EP, and it’s at least listened to song. And it’s so sad cause I worked the longest on it.
Megan: Aw.
Sahm: I think there’s a Killua bar in there. I think I mentioned–
Shadanté: There’s s a Naruto bar.
Sahm: There’s Naruto, I think I’m talking about. Oh, “it’s the kyuubi kick back cuz we never stopping”. It’s
littered in everything and then other songs like I think in…what is it? There’s a song where I start off with Attack on Titan references.
Shadanté: Yes. Breadcrumbs.
Sahm: Breadcrumbs. I think I say something like “I might lose an Armin a leg,” slipping it in there.
Megan: Yeah! Dude, I’ve been, I’ve been looking forward to hearing more people move on from like Dragon Ball Z and Naruto like I want to hear more of the deep cuts. Come on.
Shadanté: One Piece. It’s not a deep cut, I guess. Well, I mean, it’s a deep cut to the world right now.
Megan: Yeah.
Shadanté: Yeah. No, no. One piece is, by far, I would say in the best fiction of all time.
Megan: I need to get into it. My brother is cracked. He’s read the manga three times and watched the anime twice.
Shadanté: Hell yes.
Megan: He’s goated with it. He was funny, I was so intimidated by the length of it, cuz I haven’t watched a
reoccurring shonen like that since I was like 10, and he was like, “don’t worry, I got you.” And he sent me a list of what you can skip on your first watch for the sake of pacing and all that.
Sahm: Yeah the filler list! Shadanté hit me with that too. Cause he was the one that begged me for years. He was like, Sahmmy, God. Cause I’ve known him since I was, how old? I was like 12.
Shadanté: Exactly.
Sahm: And, since then, he would do like the One Piece laugh and I was like this guy is a loser. You tell me
every year “watch it,” every few months “watch it,” I’m like, “bro, I’m never gonna.” And I cracked and I
watched it and I was like, “I was sleeping. I was walking around with my eyes closed.”
Shadanté: It’s beautiful. Like your brother, I’m sure he knows. Growing up I was like 10, 11, I was at my
grandparent’s place. Chilling on the bed with my, where my mom used to be and all of that stuff. Watching it off the computer screen. I’m like… it is one of the few instances that I could say, “I am happy.” I can still remember to this day, it’s a show that really brings me to tears even when the pacing is bad and all of that other stuff, I couldn’t give a fudge honestly.
Megan: Yeah.
Shadanté: It’s just, it’s beautiful to just see that smile and hear those laughs and the cinematic presentation. Just sonically, like the third opening, I could put that on right now and I can honestly just feel the shivers down my spine. Like I understand what some people are saying–”I can’t die before One Piece ends.” I hope I convinced you.
Megan: Yeah, dude, I’ve been feeling like I need to, but I need to be watching dubs, since I’m doing
homework, I can’t be looking up at subs all the time. And I feel like a disgrace starting a show on a dub for the first time.
Sahm: It’s not bad. I did it.
Megan: Is it a good dub?
Shadanté: It’s good dub. I mean, it’s alright, but like, because one piece is really good, like you can kind of
get over it.
Megan: I’m just afraid of the old school 4Kids dubs, [they’re] so cheesy.
Shadanté: You know that’s a “lollipop.”
Megan: Yeah, exactly! Like Brock in Pokemon, the onigiri. It’s a “jelly donut.”
Shadanté: Dude–
Sahm: Oh my god, I remember that. How terrible.
Megan: Yeah, I know.
Sahm: You’re so good.
Megan: Thank you! It’s so funny. It’s like, “Americans are too stupid to understand what a Japanese snack is. This is a jelly donut.” That’s so bad. On the note of media that you guys are like pushing on each other: my brother and I have very similar tastes, so we’re always begging each other like “this is the one thing we don’t share. You need to listen to this.” Do you guys have any albums that you’re like begging each other to listen to?
Shadanté: I remember back in the day, I was begging him to listen to that 21 Savage tape. And he hated it.
Sahm: I’m just a hater.
Shadanté: And afterwards he came out and then finally accepted. I’m like, oh, okay.
Sahm: If Shadanté–if anybody tries to put me on anything, I don’t like it. Like I don’t know what it is. I need to
find it on my own.Like he tried to put me on Young Thug, on 21 Savage…
Shadanté: Slime Season three finally came out.
Sahm: Yeah, like, this was like 2016, like my friend was playing early Playboy Carti. And I was like, bro, he’s
saying one word the whole song. Now I’m stage diving, like I’m at the Carti concerts.
Megan: Now you’re trying to be Cardi.
Sahm: Yeah! So it’s like but I don’t know any albums that I’m like…
Shadanté: There was I guess in 2018, you showed me Veteran from JPEG Mafia.
Megan: That album goes so hard.
Shadanté: Yes, yes! I listened to it for the first time. I’m like, I don’t understand what’s going on here. So I
played it again and it made complete and utter sense.
Megan: that’s exactly how I felt.
Shadanté: It just captured me. Like my favorite song from it right now would have to be I Just Killed a Cop
and Now I’m Horny.
Megan: Yeah, dude. Best song title of that year. I swear to God,
Sahm: Easily.
Shadanté: Like, I even asked him on a stream one time, “why did you change the progression or the sounds of the song,” he answered and was just saying like, it was just outdated. And I’m like, I guess, but I loved it. I remember listening to it back on like a bus ride. You know, the clouds were just doing their thing, being blue and purple and stuff like that. And I’m just like, I don’t know…it just made sense to me listening to that, I always picture that moment. I’m like, why did you take this from me?
Megan: Yeah.
Sahm: Put me on Ghais Guevara.
Megan: Yeah!
Sahm: Shadanté was telling me about interviews, like, “oh, she wrote this article about him, we don’t know
anybody that’s really on him.” He’s really tried from time to get me onto him.
Megan: He rules. I love him. He just put out his Job’s Not Finished Pack, [and] there’s a Binging with Babish bar on there and it made me lose my mind. I was on the bus and I laughed out loud. He was like, “she’s in the kitchen bald, like Binging with Babish” or something.
Sahm: That’s amazing.
Megan: It was so funny.
Sahm: A very specific bar.
Megan: Yeah. He’s hilarious. I mean, like, when I interviewed him we talked about Guilty Gear, so there’s always these– like, I swear every cool rapper out there is a nerd.
Sahm: oh yeah.
Megan: Like, you do not have these good references if you’re not in the books and you’re not on like social media, if you’re not on like fucking Reddit looking at game walkthroughs. Like there’s no way.
Sahm: Yeah. Honestly, I’m so like this and, I don’t mean any offense by this, but I’m so shocked because you’re like whipping out these references. You’re so cultured, the deep rap cuts, the anime stuff, like all this. It’s awesome.
Megan: Aww, thank you! I don’t really have much else that I wanna talk about, so I think that that’ll do me.
Shadanté: All righty.
Megan: Thank you guys so much for talking, I appreciate it!
Shadanté: Thank you for having us.
Megan: If you guys would like to plug the single and your socials?
Shadanté: Oh, yes, yes. Leftside Story. It’s out right now, music videos are out as well! Creative director, moi and everyone else, we have Mel, we have V. Sean, we have Ty, we have Alif, if it wasn’t for them, the music video would not be where it is right now. Thank you very much to everyone else that’s watching it. We’re here and we got something new and we’re loving it.
Sahm: Yeah. We’re also @onebytenpercent on Instagram. My Instagram is @saminja, his is @plaguedbythird.
Shadanté: Yes, yes.
Sahm: And, yeah, we got some stuff coming, so if you guys are interested, I’m definitely excited to get more people to listen.
Megan: All right! And once again, this has been SCAD Radio, more than music. I’m your production director, Megan, and that’ll do us

The post Montreal duo 110% break down “Leftside Story”<br>and talk shop with Radio appeared first on SCAD Radio.

Ghais Guevara is a thrilling, tactful, brash voice in the modern rap space, emerging out of the storied streets of Philly and gaining acclaim both in his city and online. He generously took the time to sit down with SCAD Radio to discuss the political under- (and over-) currents of his music, his process for beat making, and Guilty Gear mains. Listen to the audio and read the transcript below

Megan: Hello Scad Radio. This is your production director Megan, and I am here with Ghais Guevara. So, for the people, who are you, what do you do? What kind of music do you make? 

Ghais: My name is Ghais. I am a rapper producer from Philadelphia. I make politically-charged underground hip-hop/rap. I don’t- I’m whatever people say I am at this point. 

Megan: Yeah.

*Laughter*

Megan: It is a very eclectic, kind of hard to categorize, which I think is somewhat the goal, I would assume, right? To be a little bit subversive. 

Ghais: Definitely. 

Megan: Yeah.You are from Philadelphia and Philadelphia is sort of similar to Savannah, where we are, that it’s a very historically-charged city. There’s a lot that has happened and a lot that is still happening there. So, how did growing up somewhere with history like that city inform your artistic development?

Ghais: Well, that’s a good question cuz a lot of it, you think about like the Declaration of Independence and-

Megan: Yeah-

Ghais: -all that other mess, but being somebody that’s- I mean, I’m from North Philadelphia, black kid, you know, I don’t really have any room to really give a damn about all that stuff.

Megan: Yeah. 

Ghais: But it’s an impressive revolutionary history.  MOVE is from there. Paul Robeson lived there, Co-train lived there, so it’s a lot of like-

Megan: Yeah. 

Ghais: -very important black history, especially with the soul music movement and a lot of that. A lot of that that tends to come not from being in like Riten House and Independence Hall. But just being in those more impoverished neighborhoods where it’s a bit more people of color and black people and so on and so forth. So just by extension of just being there, you tend to just take all of that in just by just living there. 

Megan: Definitely. And I would assume that in a lot of ways that revolutionary history being sort of, in a lot of ways whitewashed to this day, would inspire you to be as brash as you are with your statement so that there’s no room for interpretation.

Ghais: Yeah. A lot of people like to blatantly lie. They just blatantly lie about things. So I’m like, if you can lie to my face, it’s, it’s so funny- I always say this- that people excuse sinister acts or misbehavior because they’re not loud about it or cuz they’re not violent about it. It’s like, it’s still f***** up curse. Just because it’s more psychological doesn’t mean it’s decent. I should be allowed to go ahead and yell about what I want.

Megan: Reminds me of the monologue at the beginning of Free Mirror.

Ghais: Yeah. Pretty much.

*Laughter*

Megan: So going back to sort of the eclectic nature of your music, you have some very, for lack of a better term, wacky sample usage. When I was listening to the album for the first time through, I was in public. And when I heard the steamed ham cliff, I laughed out loud. I was like, whoa. So, I wanted to ask about, for those samples, where do you start with those? And for really well-known samples like the Silk Sonic one on Patrisse Cullors, does that affect the well-known nature of the sample affect the way that you use it at all?     

Ghais: So essentially- it’s kind of my approach- is I hear something that I like and I’ll write it down. I’ll jot it down and be like, I’ll use this for later. I’m not much of a pro. I guess I am kind of prolific. I don’t know, but I don’t make five beats a day or something. I usually just sit down. I’ll make three beats in one week and then keep going. You know, it’s sporadic. 

Megan: Yeah.

 Ghais: So things like the steam hand clips or stuff like that, like the SpongeBob clips and the memes. It usually comes from, I have an idea in mind and when I come up with that idea, the back of my mind is just unlocked. It’s like, oh, well this fit perfectly in that idea so let me just search for that real quick. So it really is just a bunch of mental notes. It’s nothing really planned ahead and nothing like that. As for the more well known stuff, it’s pretty much the same thing. I always get scared a little bit cuz they like to crack down on stuff like that. It’s all about what I think sounds good and I’m just gonna use whatever I think sounds good. And if I get in trouble for it, then, I mean, I’m a political rapper, I’m always gonna be in trouble, so… 

Megan: Yeah. Exactly. I know that there’s been some- well, a pretty well known case of- well actually two pretty well-known cases of samples getting people in trouble. I’m thinking of Kelis for the new Beyonce album. She tried to, I think, interpolate Milkshake and it got her struck down. And then JPEG Mafia, he had to pretty much rework his whole album, uh, lp cuz there was a ton of uncleared samples.

Ghais: I remember when Pharrell got cracked down by Marvin Gay’s Estate for blurred lines. The people you’re naming are a bit like more established.  For me, I feel like I could just pass it off as, oh, it’s just a mixed tape. I may have to take it off like streaming services or some shit like that, but by then, I’m gonna already be through the stratosphere. It’s not really something I’m really tripping about. I mean, the day that they started cracking on like Chief Keef and DJ drama, they already cracked down on DJ drama, but the day that it really becomes like a big wave of anti sampling, then maybe I’ll quake in my boots a bit, but right now, I’m cool. 

Megan: Yeah. Well that’s good to hear. And I wanted to also- playing on talking about those other artists, since your music does have a whole lot going on as far as different sounds all packed into one song and stuff like that, I wanted to ask about what musical influence has kind of led you to where you are.

Ghais: Usually it’s not really anything specific. Of course, I have a couple of people that I always have in mind that I wanna show off my appreciation for, but it’s never really- it depends on how I’m approaching a song. If the song is going to be more political, more heady, more intellectual, for lack of a better word, I’m not gonna approach it like Future. If it’s a rap song, I’m not gonna approach it like Kelis or Justin Timberlake. So much influences and knowledge and music bouncing around through my head. It’s just nice to be able to- it’s like a deck of cards. Just pull it out whenever I need it. Who do I want to channel? Who do I want to kind of gain inspiration from based off the specific track or album?

Megan: Yeah. There’s this whole concept at school here that we like to talk about- “Stealing like an Artist”- where you kind of exist as this artistic sponge and you soak up all the things that you love and then eventually, by the time that kind of, I guess bringing it out to put it into a project, it’s all meshed together. It’s just a big amalgam of everything that you love and the influence is there, but it’s kind of indistinguishable from each other. Cause it’s all you. 

Ghais: And I always try to tell people when people ask me for advice. And I know it sounds so like corny and cliche, telling people to be theirselves. It really is because every person’s unique. Everybody, every person has different experiences, different environments, different influences and inspirations. So, so long as you’re being yourself, you’ll never sound just like somebody else. I think that’s how I really approach it. Even if I do want to do something more mainstream inspired, I’ll never take myself out of it. I’ll still throw in a random cartoon sample or something to just set myself apart.

Megan: Definitely. Kind of on the note of your own process, I guess, where do your songs normally start? Do you start with a beat, with a bar?

Ghais: Technically I guess it starts with a bar. My writing process is pretty funny. It’s the same way I approach samples. I like, think of a line, think of a concept, I’ll jot it down. Then when it’s time to write, then I sit there. And people always say, “Oh, you work so fast.” Because I have this foundation to go off already. If they want a verse and I would get it done in 15 minutes, they’re like, “Yo, how did you do that?” You know, well I had this idea from 2019 that I just had my phone and I could just build off of that. So that’s pretty much the process. I usually start by finding the beat. I don’t really like writing without a beat because you wanna be able to match the tone and match the mood, and so on and so forth. There’s been times where I’ve used an old verse for a new beat, yeah, but for the most part, I start with the beat. 

Megan: Yeah. I would imagine that writing without the beat in mind would kind of make the bars feel a little bit unhoused, like you don’t know where you’re putting it, so you can’t really pace it at all.

Ghais: Yeah, exactly.

Megan: I have to know. How long were you holding onto the Queen Elizabeth song before she kicked it? 

Ghais: I made that- that was a day-after idea. 

Megan: Really?

Ghais: Somebody was like, “Why don’t you just make the track?” And I was like, “Okay, I’ll do it.”

Megan: That’s awesome. 

Ghais: Yeah, the day after. It just- was this spur of the moment. I got up, I didn’t even brush my teeth, I just stood in front of the microphone. I had the beats sitting around and I was just, “Let’s record this.”

Megan: That’s so funny. Yeah, Queen Elizabeth pack watch was more urgent than self-care at that moment.

Ghais: Definitely. 

Megan: That’s awesome. I see in the album credits for “There Will Be No Super Slave” that there are a few producers aside from yourself credited. So, do you find that music is collaborative for you or do you find that those contributions kind of come towards the end as a cherry on top? 

Ghais: I wanna be way more collaborative. I think I was kind of forced in a hole to not be. People don’t have any reason to really believe in you. I’m not gonna sit here and be like, you know, “N****s ain’t, n****s ain’t see the vision, dadadadadadada…” Everybody wanna be a rapper, you know what I mean? I do- I am a bit more of a collaborative person, especially, I’ve been getting in studios with people, doing a lot more features. I do like the idea of bouncing ideas off of each other. Again, everybody being their unique selves and just culmination. It’s something to be more proud of because it definitely is harder to work as a team than it is by yourself. But at the same time, the ideas, the more minds you have, the more endless the ideas are. So, I’m always looking forward to that kind of like maximalist type of thing, 

Megan:  Yeah, for sure. I know that there’s a whole thesis that’s been going around about people who are one man bands and how they kind of produce fairly similar sounds. Like a full album will kind of have a very consistent, almost too consistent sound throughout it. The one that comes to mind is, not to knock him, but Kevin Parker Tame Impala. You got some bangers, but you can listen to the album and kind of zone out and you’re like “where am I?” you know? So I think that that collaborative, multiple heads coming into one thing can really lead you through a different path than you might have taken on your own.

Ghais: Yeah. I’m not sure why people try to individualize music. I mean, I understand the whole “I did it myself” thing. Trust me, I’m proud that I did bullshit big by myself, but that was years and years of ideas. That’s different eras of ideas mashing into one project. So, technically, it almost is like three or four people that’s working on a project. A lot of these folks are putting out project after project after project every month, every week, every year. And there’s no way that within the time span that you’re gathering enough influences and inspiration and ideas to separate yourself from what you previously did, which if you wanna remain consistent, that’s cool. There’s a lot of rappers that remain consistent in their content that are doing extremely well. But I like to play around with things. 

Megan: Do you think that a lot of that is attempting to not succumb to the grind culture that’s really prevalent in rap? The “started from the bottom” kind of thing? I think that sometimes people invest way too hard in that and end up producing mediocre stuff in the effort to really grind.

Ghais: Yeah, I think people put quantity over quality, ethic over quality and stuff like that. We do live in a very fast, demanding… People don’t really buy physical copies- I mean they do, but it’s not- you’re not selling 500K off CDs no more. This isn’t the 2000s. So, we live in a very fast demanding era where you’re here today and gone tomorrow. That’s why I’m kind of proud of the way that I came up cuz my fan base is a bit more organic, so they’ll kind of stick with me and wait for me. But a lot of these people, they blow up one hits on TikTok. [Don’t] really know anything about this person, they just like the song. They don’t care for an album. So I don’t really blame people for trying to get that next paycheck very fast, stack their money and then retire a year later. But I’m here for a long time.

Megan: Yeah. And I think that a testament to that is that you were able to do a successful vinyl release. A lot of people, like you said, a lot of people are there for an artist for a song, or maybe even 30 seconds of a song that they like. So being able to sell out a full vinyl drop is impressive.

Ghais: That was incredible. I think I kind of owe it to the politics a little bit. I think people are finally like, finally somebody we can relate to that’s not a lame- they’re kinda like sticking with me. I, I, I hope I don’t let them down.

Megan: I saw you tweet the other day. Somebody was like, “I named my cat after you.” And you’re like, “Cool, I’m gonna do something that makes you hate that soon.” 

*Laughter*

Ghais: Make them regret it. Yeah.

Megan: Yeah. 

Ghais: Yeah. That’s- that’s a lot of power. People naming things after me. That’s crazy.

Megan: I know, yeah, At the end of the day, I have my artists who I adore. Like I have a tattoo on my ribs for Fleet Foxes. I’m a big fan of them, but at the end of the day, like Robin Pecknold, the guy who is their front man, he’s just a dude.  He’s just a guy. He’s not a god to me. I’m not gonna name my firstborn after him.

Ghais: Exactly. . 

Megan: So I actually wanted to talk a little bit about the title of your recent album, which is “There Will Be No Super Slave.” So, from my research, I found that it comes, correct me if I’m wrong, from a book, “Blood in My Eye.” Would you be able to tell us a little bit about that book and the intent behind the title?

Ghais: Yeah. So, George Jackson was a political prisoner. I think he was arrested for robbery. I may be wrong. He was held in prison for pretty much the extension for the rest of his life after that because, I think- did he become a communist in prison? I don’t a hundred percent remember. Usually when we talk about political prisoners, it’s like Tulu Shakur, George Jackson, people that are very communist ideologically and from within the prisons try to spread their work from beyond the walls or within the walls. He was a very- he’s very influential on a lot of the people that I hang with, a lot of people that I love, a lot of the prison abolitionists love George Jackson to death, and I also love George Jackson to death. I’ve read the book, I didn’t finish it, but there’s this excerpt where his brother, Jonathan, who died at 17 trying to break his brother out of prison. He wrote a letter to George and he was talking about the urgency for revolutionary organization amongst black people. He made, he said the quote, “There will be no super slave,” essentially saying like, we can’t wait for like a messiah or a prophetic figure to come save us. We have to organize and do this now or else it’s gonna be the end of this. 

Megan: Definitely. And I think that- I mean, what you were saying before about how your fanbase, it’s like I finally have someone to relate to. It’s almost a statement too on your part to say, I’m not that either. 

Ghais: Definitely. No. Hell no. I don’t- like I said, I read five books last year. I didn’t touch a single one this year. I’m, I’m not, I’m not flawless. I don’t know everything. I don’t know a lot. I’m just outspoken. I admit my mistakes, I’m willing to put myself on the line for others. Please don’t expect me to be that person.

Megan: Yeah. I think that a lot of the time right now, especially in this era of a leftist come-up on Twitter where there’s such a push for people to be very theory literate in order to be respected in that space and I think that’s- it’s sort of gatekeepy. Why are you trying to keep people down from believing in [an] ideology that you believe in as well? Just because they don’t have time to break down marxism?

Ghais: I mean, you look at Lennon and the peasantry and what he did with the peasantry, like what Castro did with the workers, what Shay did with the workers- the literacy rates before the revolution were garbage. Nobody knew what they were reading. For people to have this expectation that everybody else should have this knowledge already, it’s kind of ridiculous.  I don’t, I, but I feel like, and I’ve said this before, I feel like a lot of these people are just cosplaying trying to be these prophetic figures. Trying to be that dude, trying to show off their knowledge and what they know over what others don’t,  and they don’t really care about the people for real. They just wanna be… In that sense. 

Megan: Yeah. They wanna be the person to ratio a Republican. 

Ghais: Exactly. 

Megan: Yeah. And speaking of that, leftist politics have a big ubiquity across the album. They’re pretty much all across it. So was that a very conscious choice? Just something that happened as a result of thoughts?

Ghais: It’s pretty much all that I know. We always talk about, I, I really hate when people talk about, “Oh, hip hop’s only guns and drugs and women.” But like, but that’s cuz that’s what they grew up around- guns and drugs and women. That’s all they know, what are they supposed to rap about? Sorry that these 20 year olds from Brownsville aren’t well-earthed and globed, like? So kind of, I grew up- my parents were revolutionary. They did revolutionary work. I grew up around a lot of them, a lot of revolutionary families. And around my teenage years, towards the end of high school, I started meeting with revolutionary orgs as well on my own. So it’s kind of like all that I’ve really known, even since I was really young. Just saying shit that would just get me in trouble. Like my parents, like, “You’re not supposed to say that out loud.” When I approach a microphone, that’s kind of just like what comes to mind first, so 

Megan: Yeah, definitely. I think that that’s very interesting. It’s a very different, sort of, growth than a lot of people might have, cuz that sort of revolutionary upbringing is not, not very common I think in a lot of the United States. That’s a very interesting perspective. 

Ghais: Yeah. So many people… Like, “How do you know this stuff?” They think that I’ve shut myself out, closed the windows, turned the lights off, and just crammed a bunch of books. And like documentaries and videos, and it’s like, no, these came from conversations with people that all considered, you know, legends. So,  not to be the antithesis of what I just said about being a prophetic figure, but it’s kind of, it’s kind of funny that I personally happened to go through that experience and also happened to have the talent to market it the way that I did, you know what I mean?

Megan: Yeah, definitely. 

Ghais: Kind of just like a destined thing.

Megan: Yeah. I think, too, going back to what you were saying about people saying that hiphop is all drugs, guns, and women. I think that it’s also interesting to go back to how hip hop has developed because back in the day there was still revolutionary sentiment, but it’s a lot less. It was on the down low a little bit more. Even now, the remaining rappers- the Griselda kind of group, they’re still- the recent Benny the Butcher project, he is still talking about selling crack, you know? There’s still a lot of that and it’s interesting now to see how, like you said, since you’re political, you’re always kind of in a hot seat, but also those old school rappers are now getting targeted by states trying to use their lyrics against them in court and stuff like that. So it really feels, to some degree, rap as an art form is never gonna get its moment to really win cuz people just wanna keep you down.

Ghais: Definitely not. And it’s so funny cuz it’s such a young genre. It’s like 50 years old. And throughout that 50 years, you’d go insane trying to name the amount of rappers who have not gotten in trouble for being rappers. Whether you’re a revolutionary- you can be a damn backpack rapper rapping about skateboards and they’re gonna find something to RICO you about because it ends with this gang member. So it’s not, it’s never really safe, and I think people should look at it as, it’s not even that they’re just targeting rappers. We’ve always been targeted as black people, period. Rappers, jazz musicians, poets, authors, no matter what field that we choose, if we aren’t assimilating, we’re targeted. So I don’t… I don’t understand why people try to act like it’s us.

Megan: Yeah, definitely. I also wanted to ask, this comes from my good friend Sophie, who  actually put me onto the album. So shout out Sophie. She asks, “As a socialist who often feels conflicted about putting explicitly socialist themes in my own work, on narrative songs like Luminescence and Face Off, how do you go about blending storytelling with agitprop while avoiding being preachy?”

Ghais: I don’t usually… I don’t approach it like I’m trying to teach somebody. I don’t approach it like it’s a socialist track. Again, this is kind of a, I know it’s a shitty answer, but because I grew up around it and because it’s within me, it’s kind of like it just comes out no matter what I try to do or say. So I think from somebody, I don’t really know Sophie’s background or anything, but I think how you should approach it is what would I personally want to hear? Would I want to hear a story of- you take Face Off and Luminescence, you know, these are stories about struggles and strife, and you use those stories and give an explanation as to why you’re in the situation that you’re in. Don’t sit there and give data and statistics and so on and so forth. Nobody’s trying to hear all that. What they want is to relate to you on a personal level. And, you know, that’s kinda something that I learned through like tabling with people, being on the streets and having conversations about police budget and shit like that. Wanna approach it like, “All right. Your life sucks. My life sucks. Here’s why. Here’s how we can fix it.” You don’t wanna be condescending and be like, “I’m telling you what to do, this is what you need to do.” So I pretty much approach it just like that. Like I want to be able to relate to you emotionally and mentally, first and foremost. So I’m gonna tell you my deepest, darkest tragedies. You tell me your deepest, darkest tragedies and let’s figure it out together.

Megan: And I think that that’s definitely resonant also just in politics in general. At the end of the day, if you look at how people vote and what they want, everybody wants the same thing. They want workers to be protected, they want their kids to be safe, they want everybody to get their dues, but they just are being told how to get there by bad actors or people with bad faith arguments or people who are spreading propaganda against a worker revolution or unionization and stuff like that. And it’s so difficult to win people over with facts when they’ve been shown other facts. It’s much easier to communicate with someone on a person to person basis and figure out, “What do you want?”

Ghais: Exactly. Nobody wants to be treated like a robot. They don’t wanna be given instructions, so.

Megan: Yeah. And a lot of the time it can be more frustrating if you’re trying to show somebody empirical evidence of a certain thing, and they’re like, don’t care. I’m like, dude, what do you want from me?

Ghais: Yeah, exactly. 

Megan: It would be really difficult to put a statistic in a bar too.

Ghais: Yeah, exactly. That’s kind of, I guess, I mean, Mos Def kind of did it with mathematics. But I mean, that’s Mos Def.  He’s special, you know what I mean?

Megan:  Some people can just do it different, built different. So, being from Philly, I would like to know your thoughts on the election results. It was a very bizarre race there with f****** Dr. Oz.

Ghais: I was, it’s so funny cause I mean, I don’t know, is he ever gonna hear this interview? My pops is big on voting, and I just outright just didn’t show up to the polls. He works at the polls that I’m supposed to go vote at. He’s probably gonna be mad at me, but I wasn’t paying any attention to it. Honestly, I knew Dr. Oz was running. I honestly didn’t know that he was Turkish before he was running. I didn’t know he was f****** Mehmet. Yeah. Like, I was like, oh  shit, this n***-

Megan: I saw that on the polls. I was like, what?

Ghais: Fetterman was gonna win. We’ve been Democrat for the past whatever years. I mean, it’s not like we’re much, I mean we are in a red state kind of. You go outside of Philly, it’s kind of like, what the f***? But… Look, Federman won and then a day later, 11 students got held at gunpoint at Temple University and got robbed. Same shit, different day. I’m not really impressed by any of these- I mean, it’s good that we can get abortions and stuff like that, and so on and so forth. That’s always great, but at the end of the day, as a- we can talk about women’s rights all we want, but you know, as black women, what about black trans women? Always gonna be neglected no matter who the f*** we vote for.

Megan: Yeah, there’s very little room for intersectionality on the election campaign trail, which is really unfortunate. You don’t hear anybody really talking about it other than explicitly leftist candidates who are like running on a progressive ballot. The big example would probably be AOC, who’s- even then, she has some very unfortunate positions I think. Mostly foreign policy related, but she has some good progressive stuff going on and it’s very difficult to point out other people in the United States who have been able to pull that off, which is unfortunate.

Ghais: It’s freaking, it’s insane. I know, like, Kshama over in Seattle. I think she’s like, City Council. She’s openly socialist, she’s war against Amazon, stuff like that. Other than that, I mean, and this is what I’ve been saying is like the thing with electoralism is that these n***s cheat. They cheated Bernie and I don’t even f*** with Bernie. He don’t f*** with ASATA so I don’t f*** with Bernie. They won’t allow you to win. It’s their game, so I don’t understand why we’re trying to beat them at their own game.

Megan: There were some- I mean, the rest of the world already considers American politics to be a little bit of a joke, which is really becoming evident, I’ll say, in how weird a lot of the candidates were this time. Especially coming from Georgia. The election here was nuts. Guy who threw a football once versus well-respected pastor from like an ancestral church. And it was neck and neck. It’s like, what is happening?

Ghais: They’re letting anybody do anything- it’s a reality show, honestly. I said, how many people know where their voting polls actually is? How many people know these people’s policies, know their family history background? Don’t nobody know that stuff. It’s about who’s the funniest, who’s the silliest.

Megan: Yeah. So who’s got the charisma and who’s backed by what color. Which is sad. So another one from Sophie and a little, a little quirky one to finish us off, she says, “I gotta ask, who’s your main in guilty gear?”

Ghais: It’s Ramlethal. I haven’t played it in forever, I gotta get back into it. But yeah, I play with Rammy. I like playing with black characters and her swords. She’s a great mid-range. You know, all you gotta do is press triangle or circle and you’ll break anybody’s combo because that mid-range attack is just so… and combos is pretty easy. I can get a wall break easily with her. I’ve kicked so much a** with Ramlethal.

Megan: Do you play any Smash Ultimate? 

Ghais: Yeah. I used- it’s actually funny. So when me and my brother, back in our impoverished days or whatever, all we literally had to play was smash. We just did Smash Brawl like for eight hours straight every f****** day. So we were like, really good. So when Smash Ultimate came around, I kind of dropped it a bit, but I can always just pick it back up. It’s so funny. But yeah, I love Smash Ultimate.

Megan: Who’s your main on there?

Ghais: Either Snake or Wolf. 

Megan: Ooh, you’re on that- the melee shit with Wolf. Some of the Falco strats. Sophie and I are both Corrin mains.

Ghais: We hate- every time I play with my friends, we just hate fighting Corrins. 

Megan: Corrin- It’s because Corin, it’s like the same thing that you have in guilty gear. That mid-range, the side b is nuts. Sophie is competitive in Connecticut, so I watch her on Twitch whenever she’s playing. 

Ghais: That’s hilarious.

Megan: It’s awesome. She was on the other night and I was like in chat like, “My goat! Sophie!”

Ghais: That’s funny as hell.

Megan: Yeah. Well, it was lovely talking to you.

Ghais: It was nice talking to you too. Thank you for that.

Megan: Of course. And  if you would like to plug your socials and all of that.

Ghais: I’m Ghais Guevara. G-H-A-I-S Guevara, like Che Guevara everywhere. My name is Unchanging. I have, I chose a really unique name, so nobody’s-

Megan: Easy to find-

Ghais: Yeah.

Megan: Good SEO. 

Ghais: Check out ghaisguevara.net for upcoming shows. I got like four shows coming in December. Thank God.

Megan: Yeah. All right. Thank you guys for listening. This has been SCAD Radio More Than Music, and this has been your production director, Megan. So, check out anything else on the website if you’d like. If not, thank you for listening.

The post Hip Hop Iconoclast Ghais Guevara talks shop with SCAD Radio appeared first on SCAD Radio.

Audio and transcript are located below:

Megan: Hello, SCAD radio. This is Megan, your production director. Today I’m here with the lovely band Heffner. 

All: Hi! 

Megan: So for the people who are you guys, what do you do in the band?

Reagan: I’m Reagan Byrd. I sing, play guitar, and do a little bit of keys in Heffner. 

Taylor: I’m Taylor. I play guitar and sing in Heffner. 

McKendrick: I’m McKendrick and I play bass and other things sometimes in Heffner.

Will: I’m Will, and I play the drums in Heffner.

Reagan: I’m Lars and I play guitar in Heffner. 

Megan: Awesome. So finally, we get to sit down with the namesake of the band! Last time it was just, just our first two, but, nice to meet you. So real quick, I wanted to start out with the fact that on this album and the last there’s a real sense of kind of nostalgia. There’s a lot of references to childhood being young, like a first friendship on the last one with James Kim versus this one, like 2005, stuff like that. So what drives those? Do you wanna call back to that or just, just kind of happen? 

Reagan: I think Taylor and I are–and for the rest of the band, I guess I’m gonna speak for them too– but we’re all kind of big kids, you know, I feel like my personality stopped developing when I was around 12 or 13 and so, you know, a lot of what makes me me comes from that sort of formative period of my life. So I like to write about it.

Taylor: Yeah. Yeah. Reagan and I grew up together. So he can, we have a lot of stories to pull from when we’re writing and, yeah Reagan and I have been in multiple bands where we try to write songs about things that happened a long time ago, but the songs have just started to not be really bad. So we wanted to try to take another stab at it. 

Megan: That’s exciting! All right. Then on that note, there’s also a palpable air of fun about you guys. Like when you’re on stage, there’s a lot of bouncing around, interplay between you guys. And then even on the album, there’s a lot of like, Song structures that aren’t really beholden to like typical structures, stuff like that, and even like the vine reference on Hugs and Kisses. So how do you guys keep your music joyful to produce and to play even as like working adults? 

Taylor: I mean, the main thing is we love being in the studio. And we’re always trying to amuse each other. And I think we’ve played with a lot of bands now and it’s really refreshing when we meet other bands that don’t take themselves all that seriously, but still are really amazing bands. Or like when we see shows that are big shows, when we take our field trips, it’s really fun. Like you see a band having fun and messing up and laughing it off. And I think with, with the production, we’re always like challenging– we don’t want to be a boring band.

Lars: Yeah. Definitely. I feel like it just comes across naturally in a lot of ways, you know, it’s not something I think we’re really conscious of. We’re all just like good friends, and that helps a lot. 

Megan: If anything, I feel like in a lot of bands, people try too hard to be too serious, kind of very pretentious. So I feel like the naturalism of it definitely comes through. 

Taylor: Thanks. 

Megan: of course. So on the note of production and with this second album, Perfect Heaven, that you just dropped. There’s a pretty amazing jump in concept, I guess, on these songs where they jump around a little bit more, they play structure a little bit more. You never know, from one track to another, if you’re gonna get a blues rock track, if you’re gonna get a ballad, if you’re just gonna get a true blue indie rock. So what made you want to explore these other avenues? And was it intimidating to tackle all of those? 

Reagan: I would say, I think all five of us have vastly different interests in music, like things that we find inspiring and want to emulate. And I think that a lot of our songs kind of start in a vein of like, let’s write a Porches song or let’s write a, this song or that song. And they always end up as Heffner songs, but, for all of us to pull our own interests into a track we never show up to the studio with something that’s really concrete. We’ll have like a song structure basically, and then kind of ride the wave from there. It’s nice to, to let everybody put their influence on the track. And you know, some of these songs are written two plus years ago. Some of them were written a week before we recorded them. So, you know what we were finding inspiring at the time that song was written vastly inspires how it turns out. 

Taylor: Yeah. And McKendrick and I talk a lot about just serving the song. So I think we’re getting better at that all the time. Like the things that we record are things that feel good and right and necessary. And we just kind of try to like, it’s corny, but like whatever the song needs is what we try to record. And if somebody has an idea, any of us will play or find out what it is or whatever. It’s very democratic in the studio. 

Megan: Yeah. That’s good. 

McKendrick: I feel like maybe a way to say this is like, one thing about this band is I don’t think we’re really like afraid to try something that we haven’t done before. I think it reflects on the record when there’s kind of, you know, like stylistic jumps and things like that. It’s just us trying to stretch the writing a little bit. At least these guys for sure. 

Taylor: And have fun.

McKendrick: Yeah. And like, there’s not really any fear in trying, which is a really nice thing to have. 

Taylor: And McKendrick has a huge background in producing music and he has a composition degree. So he helps us do things, think outside of the box and write things that we otherwise wouldn’t. 

Megan: I can hear the degree. I’ll say that. On the note of whatever the song needs and like songs from multiple years ago popping up. I bet a lot of it is like, wherever it finds a home on the album, right? Like as far as sequencing and stuff like that. 

Reagan: Yeah. I mean, sequencing happens later, to a degree.

Taylor: The first record we recorded like the whole record and then we sequenced it. And we even cut a bunch of songs. The second one was tracked with like a little bit more of a sequence in mind. And then the third one is like, I think at least Reagan and I have an idea of like where all this stuff is going to land on the record. There’s even, the track that starts side B is going to be a rain stick intro that breaks out into like Death Grips. Basically the song is called It’s Time to Get High, and the back half of the record will be songs that fit in that world. 

Reagan: Record three definitely has a little bit more of a concept as a whole, I think. Yeah. But I mean, at the same time, the common thread between the ideas on the record are gonna be just the five of us. Other than that, it’s just whatever 

Taylor: It’s still gonna be all over the place. 

Megan: Yeah, that’s awesome. You’re getting me excited for it already. and you were talking a lot earlier about like how you go into the studio and you’re like, I wanna make a porches song, stuff like that.

Taylor: Yeah. I can hear that. I hear the smattering of influences across it. One that I thought was really interesting–I don’t know if this is intentional–but like on Bad Attitude, it felt like kind of Painting With era Animal Collective. 

Reagan: Yes.

Megan: Yeah. So do you guys have any particular like albums, bands, songs, even like moments in songs that really informed any of these tracks?

Reagan: I don’t know if I could get as specific as like certain tracks or not, but I’ve always been really inspired by people like Panda Bear and Animal Collective. His Crosswords EP was really inspiring for me. 

Taylor: We were in love with the last Porches record. Yeah. 

Reagan: It’s incredible. Dave Longstreth, Dirty Projectors for me is a very big influence. 

Taylor: Yeah. Will is a total like UK– 

Will: Yeah I love pop and ska, like all the Brit stuff from the eighties, nineties, all the way up to present day stuff. It’s really, really great. So grime stuff, all that is really up my alley.

Taylor: We always start saying, let’s write an insert band X song, and then by the time we finish writing the song and recording it, we forget what band we said we were gonna copy.

Megan: It’s always fun to kind of dig to that part there. Because every band has, I feel like, a couple that they’re like, “I wanna be like a tribute band for this.” There is like a– UK, Black Country, New Road, you know them. 

Will: Yeah, yeah, yeah. 

Megan: On their first album there’s one lyric where they say, I wanna be the world’s second best Slint tribute act.

Taylor: That’s awesome. 

Megan: I think that’s fun. 

Taylor: McKendrick’s a big Slint guy.

Megan: Yeah. Good one. I wanted to ask what’s the story with the album cover, I know it was kind of a debacle to get the last one shot, but what’s the inspiration for this one? 

Reagan: I think the common thread for the album covers so far has been like really high res. Like we did the first one with my sister Morgan Byrd and her husband, Ian. And we did large format photography for those. So that the negative is like four inches by five inches, could be blown up to the size of a billboard. So I thought that that was a really cool way to kind of communicate like beauty in an otherwise mundane setting. By treating it as like high art and so we wanted to kind of expand on that idea with this one. We got our buddy Steven Payne to shoot it with a drone because realistically our large format camera wouldn’t be able to be on a, you know, we’d have to like build a rig for it. But, we wanted to kind of be more intentional with like referencing tracks on the record. There’s like, if you look in the pile of stuff that’s on the front, there’s little nods to songs on the record. And we wanted to kind of employ loosely some Renaissance painting elements, like we’re laid in a spiral, alluding to the Fibonacci thing.

Taylor: Mostly, we thought it was funny to call the record Perfect Heaven and treat the shooting, the cover, like a renaissance painting and stage ourselves that way, but there’s a lot of trash in the photo. I ultimately just think that that’s funny because it makes sense for our music. It does both things, it’s happy and sad and fast and slow–

Reagan: — and refined and trashy sometimes. 

Taylor: Yeah, exactly. Chaotic and really poppy and put together sometimes, at the same time. 

Megan: Awesome. So I did notice that some of your earliest single releases are on a record label, but these past two LPs have been independent. So do you find that staying independent helps in terms of creative freedom or are there like downsides? Like with the advent of streaming and social media I feel like that makes independence more viable. Have you felt that way? 

Taylor: Yes, definitely. I think it makes a lot of sense to be more DIY about things as a band. but I think if the right thing were to come along for us, we definitely would entertain it. Any amount of help with booking tours and helping us while we’re out on those tours we would probably welcome with open arms. 

Lars: Yeah. I think we’re shopping a little bit. At least we’re like dipping our toe into it, you know? 

Taylor: Yeah. We’re trying to have our cake and eat it too. Like we want to make exactly what we want to make, but we also want somebody to believe in it enough to give us some monies.

Lars: Somebody please give us money. 

Megan: This is an open call for investors. So we talked about earlier, with the creative process– you said it’s pretty democratic. So walk me through it. What comes first? Lyrics music, melody, is there one person who tends to lead, what’s up? 

Reagan: I would say traditionally the songs have started with Taylor or me. I would say with the first record they were written a lot of the time together. The two of us sat down with acoustic guitars. Second record kind of worked like I would have 70% of a song, Taylor would have 70% of a song. And then we would take it to the band and this third record, as it’s shaping up and even beyond, we have a rehearsal space now that we get into at least once a week on a good schedule. And we’ve been spending some time like jamming little ideas that one of us will start, and those start to take shape as like full instrumentals. So I’m excited to kind of experiment with that approach to where we come together and we bang out the instrumental together in the room, and then we go back and write lyrics, you know? So it’s kind of, you know, it’s shifting all the time, how our songs are.

Taylor: A little bit of both though, for sure. McKendrick’s almost always involved in pre-production, Will always plays the drums. Lars always contributes amazing guitar stuff. And like they both are writing sort of lead integral parts on their own respective things.

Like, even if there’s not lyric and melody coming from them, an equally important part of the song is still coming from the two of them. And they’re both so good in the studio too, that we can get it done quick. 

Megan: Awesome. So you guys, I see on your Instagram, you post a lot about, uh, different beers.

What’s your guys’ favorite beer to drink while you’re recording? 

Taylor: Free beer, whatever’s free 

Lars: Taylor’s lying, it’s Coors Banquet, unequivocally. 

Taylor: Yeah, it’s Coors Banquet every time. 

Reagan: I’ll stand by thatmy favorite beer is Pinkus Muenster Alt, 

Taylor: the world’s first brewery!

Taylor & Reagan: The world’s first organic brewery.

Megan: Shout out! So this one comes from Sophie, my podcast cohost, who asks, do you guys feel like your music exists in the Athens tradition or is it mostly just your own thing? 

Taylor: Ooh, that’s a great question. 

Lars: I mean, define Athens tradition.

Taylor: Athens tradition, I think in our minds and in the minds of a lot of bands that are in the scene in Athens right now, the whole B-52’s, REM, Pylon, like the whole sort of like grandiose Athens thing sort of died with The Glands in the nineties and early 0’s. The Glands is definitely the best band to ever come out of Athens, although they didn’t ever really come out of Athens, which is a shame. But, yeah, I feel like it’s its own thing. I feel like the scene is transformed, but it will always be an amazing place to live and be in a band and the scene is as healthy and large as ever. But yeah, it’s definitely like, it’s changed with the times a little bit. I can’t think of many bands that are really like calling back to any of those legacy Athens acts. 

Megan: That makes sense, yeah. When I think about Athens, mostly, I’m thinking about a lot of indie, a lot of stuff like that. There’s some like chamber pop that I can think of, but none of that like kind of new wavy stuff. 

Taylor: There’s a really cool hip hop scene. With people like Lingua Franca and WesdaRuler. And it does, it operates a little bit separate–

Lars: Motorhead TwoTimes. 

Taylor: –Motorhead TwoTimes. It operates a little bit separate from our scene, but over the past couple years they’ve been coming together more and more, like we’ve been sharing bills with more hip hop acts, which is cool. It’s cool to see those two worlds come together. 

Megan: Okay. As we get to the end, I wanted to ask about something else with social media, I guess– you guys have a way with TikTok. The promo vids you guys did for Perfect Heaven were very fun specifically. I like the boxing one, that one was a modern classic. Do you guys just make those for funsies as a group or is the album promo a benefit from that? Or is it vice versa? 

Reagan: I think there’s always kind of a goal in mind when we make a TikTok, I don’t think any of us are young and internet savvy enough to just be good at TikTok. It’s definitely a, a concerted effort on our part, for sure. There’s a learning curve. But we do have fun with it when we get together. It’s the same vein of like not taking ourselves too seriously. I think it’s fun to kind of poke fun at your own music and TikTok has just given us one more way to do that.

Taylor: Yeah. I love TikTok, first of all. And I have a lot of fun making them and we’re pretty much just trying to make each other laugh with them. We don’t really think about it as promo any more than like–

Reagan: an Instagram post. 

Taylor: Yeah. Any more than like, let’s just play the game a little bit. And like I’m on this app so much. I might as well make one every once in a while. 

Megan: Yeah, that makes sense. All right. Well, that’s all I got. So thank you guys so much for talking, it’s always a pleasure! 

All: Thank you! 

Taylor: Shout out Nate Nelson, who records us. Shout out Nate Nelson!

Reagan: Baby on the way.

Taylor: Baby on the way. 

Megan: Middle name gonna be Heffner.

Lars: Yes. 

Taylor: I’m hoping. I’m hoping. 

Megan: All right, that’ll do us. So thank you guys for listening, thank you for reading. This has been SCAD Radio, more than music. Goodbye!

The post Heffner sits down with SCAD Radio for an Encore appeared first on SCAD Radio.

Listen to the audio and read the transcript below

Megan: Hello, everybody! This is Megan, your Production Director, and today we are interviewing a band from Athens, Heffner! Or at least two of them. How are you guys doing? 

Reagan: Great. 

Taylor: Yeah, we’re great. How are you? 

Megan: I’m doing great, just happy to be here. Stoked to be interviewing. So for the people, who are you guys? Uh, I already said where you’re from, but how did you guys meet? 

Taylor: Yeah. I’m Taylor, that’s Reagan and we’re two fifths of the band Heffner. Um, Reagan and I went to high school with each other in Kennesaw, which is north of Atlanta. And the other three in the band are McKendrick Bearden and Lars and Will Hefner, our namesake twins.

Megan: I actually wanted to ask you about that namesake, because if I’m not mistaken, I believe the twins, their names only have one F. 

Taylor: Yeah. I mean, yes. So the two F’s in the band Heffner, uh, basically there’s an English band from like the nineties and early aughts called Hefner that we didn’t know about until…

Megan: …Later into the career. 

Taylor: So we’re just, you know, it’s mostly like avoiding future lawsuit type thing.

Reagan: I liked it with two F’s as an homage to Foo Fighters. 

Taylor: We really want to make a t-shirt with like the Foo Fighters double F and then just like Comic Sans H-E–N-E-R on the either side. 

Megan: [laughs] That’s good. I think you guys should definitely do that. That reminds me of Dinosaur Jr. Do you know the story behind why they had to add Jr? There’s a French band called Dinosaur that sued them. Um, and so instead of changing the name, they just added the junior so that they were like, a follow up to the French band. 

Taylor: Lame that anybody sues anybody.

Megan: I know, right?

Taylor: Should just be a battle for…

Megan: …whoever comes out on top.

Taylor: Exactly. Dinosaur Jr. is way cooler anyways. 

Megan: Well, okay. So with that out of the way, how long have all of you guys been performing together? 

Taylor: Almost three years, but there was a big fat, like, 18 months off for COVID. So really like a couple of years. 

Megan: Have you found that there’s been a lot of band chemistry that’s kind of developed over the years or has it all been pretty solid from the beginning?

Taylor: I mean, we were all friends. McKendrick worked at the same bar and restaurant that Reagan and I work at, and then Lars and Will moved here from Mississippi in like 2018. So we all like, knew of each other and then knew each other. And then Reagan and I were trying to put a band together and Will and Lars are a package deal and McKendrick is… a bit of a secret weapon.

Megan: There you go. So speaking of that kind of gap for COVID, uh, I was curious, has it been a relief coming back to performing post lockdown or has it been a little bit nerve wracking towards the beginning? 

Reagan: I’ve definitely enjoyed it. You know, I think we all kind of do the thing to be out playing for people. So like as fun as being in the studio is, we definitely love being in the studio, we were in there as much as we can, you know, nothing’s as fun as playing a sick show. 

Taylor: Yeah. It’s a relief to be back doing it. And it feels really good just to be like seeing friends and hanging out at shows even when we’re not playing.

Megan: Nice. So kind of on the topic of being in the studio, your guys’ debut self-titled album came out in 2021. So that’s kind of a fraught time to be releasing an album. I was curious, how long was it in development before it got dropped? And how many iterations did it go through? Like, were you sitting on it for awhile?

Taylor: It was done for like eight or nine months before. Uh, we put it out and honestly, we just didn’t have a plan. We just wanted to make another one. So it just took us eight or nine months to shoot the album art, basically. I mean, we’re not that we’re not that precious about it. We really want to like, just record as much music and put out as much music as we can, so we’ve picked up the pace for this next one. 

Megan: Do you guys have a tentative release kind of window for the next one? 

Taylor: Yeah, I think it’ll be out by August. Barring anything…

Reagan: …silly.

Taylor: Silly.

Megan: No silliness. We have had enough silliness in the last few years. So I was curious about who in the band would you say tends to take the lead when making a new song?

Reagan: Kind of comes down to Taylor or I.

Taylor: Yeah, it’s pretty half and half it’s either Reagan’s song or my song. And we usually help each other finish each other’s songs and then we bring them to the band. And then if, uh, how do I say this diplomatically? Reagan and I are the filter, I guess you could say. But yeah, they’re amazing players and musicians, so they always end up on the song in one way or another. 

Megan: So when you are developing a song, what do you find comes first in the process? Is it the melody? Is it the rhythm? Is it the lyrics? 

Taylor: It’s different for us. Like sometimes it’s an idea or like a phrase that we think is funny or clever and then do it that way. Sort of like country music style. A lot of times it’s just like a nerdy guitar riff type thing.

Reagan: Yeah. 

Taylor: And sometimes it’s a little bit of both, but we rarely write a whole song, start to finish, and decide ‘this is how it goes.’ We’re usually putting our heads together to finish them.

Megan: All right. So I noticed that there were some interesting things on Heffner, like the song Golden Hour (An unsavory solicitation). There’s some kind of concept elements there, obviously, and a little bit of, like, sound collage with the idea of making the phone call a different kind of area of the track. So do you think you want to dip in a little bit more to like quirky production stuff like that? 

Taylor: Definitely, yeah. It’s not to be taken too seriously. We have lots of really fun ideas for the second [record]. And the third one’s pretty much written as well. We’re both big fans of a little bit of tongue in cheek humor in a song.

Reagan: Yeah. We’re usually trying to chase a production idea. That’s something that we maybe haven’t done before or go further down a rabbit hole that we’ve been down. You know, we’re always trying to kind of test the formula of what a Heffner song is. 

Megan: Never trying to box yourselves in. 

Taylor: Yeah, we’re just trying to amuse each other really more than anything else.

Megan: Yeah. I think that that definitely imbues itself into the music because there is a very palpable air of fun and entertainment throughout the album, so I had a lot of fun listening. 

Both: Thanks! 

Megan: And it definitely that weaves itself into your performances a lot too, because you can see when you guys are on stage, like I had the privilege of watching you guys at El Rocko recently, you can really see all the fun and all of the interactions between you guys.Even like, between the songs, the little monologues that you guys have,  they’re all very tongue in cheek and they feel, like you were saying, like you’re not precious about your image or making it too buttoned up or anything. That makes it really relatable and fun.

Taylor: For better or worse. [laughs]

Megan: What have your guys’ favorite performances that you’ve done been? 

Taylor: That El Rocko show we loved. I love Savannah so much and we always have too much fun there. I mean, we played El Rocko three times now and the first few times we played like absolute trash. So it’s nice to like, sort of get some revenge. Our album release show at the 40 Watt in Athens last fall in 2021… 

Reagan: It was a chaotic time.

Taylor: It was really amazing. We were DEVO. We dressed up as DEVO. 

Megan: Oh my God. 

Taylor: And um, yeah, Lars and his girlfriend, Val, made our DEVO hats. We did a DEVO cover at that one, and like, we had a costume contest and the three finalists came up on stage and smashed a piñata with a guitar.

Megan: Oh my God!

Taylor: It was– there were a lot of shenanigans that night.

Reagan: It was chaos.

Taylor: It felt really good. 

Megan: That sounds like a ton of fun. So speaking of DEVO and other bands, your guys’ music, when I was listening to it I got the vibe of alternative, indie and some post-punk kind of sensibilities. Where do you guys find that you have overarching influence from, and to follow up on that, do you find yourselves inspired by bands as a whole, or more like moments in tracks and vibes? 

Taylor: I mean, I think that we all listen to… 

Reagan: to vastly different things. 

Taylor: Yeah. Really different music, which is cool. And it helps us when we are writing. I think Reagan and I have really similar tastes and Lars and Will are twins. So they share some bands in common and McKendrick is totally out there. And he’s also a little bit older than the rest of us. And so he shows us things that we’ve never heard before, but it tends to work out for us. But yeah, Reagan and I will usually get into like a record at a time and sort of wear it out. 

Reagan: Almost like taking notes of what we’re going to be stealing from. 

Taylor: Yes. Always stealing, always stealing. Always be stealing. 

Reagan: Always be stealing.

Megan: Yeah. I mean, even like for visual arts, from my end, you think of yourself kind of as a sponge. You’re always taking in the best parts of what you’re looking at and you try and surround yourself with the best parts of art that you can so that you come out with the best stuff that you can yourself. So I think that there, you can definitely feel the kind of eclectic sensibilities on the album, which once again, kind of imbues itself with that fun aspect that you guys are so good at capturing. So to kind of cap off our interview, I was wondering; you guys are members of that strongly emerging Athens scene that’s happening right now, with your peers like Night Palace, who you played alongside at El Rocko, and bands like Hotel Fiction who recently played at Savannah Stopover. It’s kind of … it lends itself to comparison, I guess. So do you guys find yourselves influenced by your peers on that scene or do you kind of feel that it’s more just separate entities performing alongside each other? 

Taylor: I don’t know, the scene is small. Um, but it’s really solid and everybody’s really close. And everybody goes to each other’s shows and I don’t really feel like there’s much… I feel like because the scene is small and everyone is kind of doing their own thing, there’s not really any competition. 

Reagan: Pretty collaborative scene. Yeah. Like when you go to the studio, you’ll find the same crew of, you know, 20, 30 musicians. You’ll find some combination of those people in the studio, or you know, our friend, Tommy runs a studio out of his house and he’s, he’s had a Flagpole article written about him recently about how his hands are on like every single thing in Athens.

Taylor: Yeah. I mean, it’s just really collaborative and there’s a bunch of people that played on our first record that aren’t in the band and a bunch of people that we brought in to play on the second one that aren’t in our band. It’s kind of just like a spread the love situation. 

Megan: Yeah, very cool. So, I forgot I had one more thing I wanted to ask. So the two of you I see are mostly the writer credits on Apple Music and stuff like that. So I take it both of you are the lyrical kind of minds, right?

Reagan: Yeah, I guess you could say that.

Taylor: We’d like to think so.

Megan: So I noticed that on the album, there are a lot of references to sort of this ambiguous someone, or like you’re speaking directly to a person a lot of the time. So do those songs reflect like real experiences and relationships or do they more kind of come out of just a scenario that you’ve thought of? 

Reagan: There’s songs like James Kim, [which] is about my high school best friend, James Kim. So yeah, there’s definitely some moments on the record that come from personal experience. Taylor actually wrote that song about his friend and used James as the character.

Taylor: Yeah. Based in facts and elevated with fiction.

Reagan: Right. And there are other songs like Golden Hour that are purely hypothetical. 

Taylor: Yeah. I mean, maybe we were talking about someone, but uh…

Reagan: They’ll remain nameless, though. 

Megan: Sometimes I bet it’s probably a little bit more subconscious too. Like if a song comes out and you’re like, ‘wait a minute, this could be about someone, huh?’

Taylor: Oh yeah. And we love a diss track. 

Megan: Oh, I won’t dig into that! I don’t wanna start any drama for you guys. 

All: [laugh]

Megan: Well, thank you guys so much for talking. It’s been a joy. 

Taylor: Yeah! Thanks so much for having us. Thanks for spinning our record. 

Megan: Oh, of course. I’m excited to hear it on regular rotation too. We’re going to be having it playing during our 24 hour stream on the website pretty soon. And whenever the next record is slated, hopefully barring silliness in August, you’ll be hearing me talk about it again. Maybe I’ll post a little cheeky review. 

Taylor: I love that. Well, we’ll send it to you when it’s done. 

Megan: Thank you very much!

Reagan: We’re calling it Perfect Heaven.

Megan: Perfect Heaven! 

Taylor: Yeah, it’s called perfect heaven. 

Megan: Awesome! 

Taylor: Yeah, we’re shooting the album art tomorrow. 

Megan: Oh my goodness. It won’t take eight to nine months this time? 

Reagan: No silliness.

Taylor: No, no, no, no, no. We’re gettin’ after it.

Megan: Oh my goodness, hitting the ground running. Well, hopefully you guys are back around to perform sometime soon. I’d love to hear some of the new material, you guys were a very explosive set [at El Rocko]. It was a ton of fun to watch. 

Taylor: We’ll be back!

Megan: Very exciting. All right, I’ll be there. 

Taylor: Okay, nice to see ya!

Megan: Nice to see you too! 

Taylor: Bye! 

Reagan: Bye!

The post Interview with Heffner at El Rocko appeared first on SCAD Radio.

Megan: So, for the people, who are you guys, what do you make…?

Blaze: I’m Blaze. I do drums for BAMBARA, make beats.

Reid: I’m Reid, I sing and play guitar for BAMBARA.

M: Alright, awesome. So one immediate question I had was who do you find takes the most
creative control when you’re starting a new project?

R: I feel like it’s almost on a song by song basis for that.

B: Yeah, I agree with that.

R: Certain people become more involved in and take a leadership role in certain songs, but
overall I think it’s pretty democratic.

B: I think whoever plants the seed that sort of starts the song is whoever we defer to in the
beginning, at least.

M: Do you have any songs that you consider your baby? Like you made the basis for it and let it
grow and now you’re like “that’s mine”?

R: That’s a good question! I don’t know, we all get so involved in each other’s songs that I don’t
know if I ever keep that feeling throughout just with how it all works. It’s hard to say, I don’t have
any specific “my baby” song but I do have ones I like more or I tend to find myself listening to
more if I were to listen to old stuff. Do you have any, Blaze?

B: I don’t know, there have definitely been ones that I’ve been excited about that have come out
of something I made, like Stay Cruel or something, but like you were saying we tend to jump in
on stuff together so it becomes a collective baby.

M: Kinda like an ‘it takes a village’ type thing.

R: Totally!

M: Alright, so I had also kinda read that Reid, you tend to get ideas from things you’ve found at
thrift stores, especially for Stray with things like the name for the dog Lobo. Has there been
anything like that on your recent project or is it mostly from your life or imagination?

R: Yeah! So what I did with Stray is I had a wall of just photographs I bought from a thrift store
right in front of my desk while i was working just so when I was zoning out i wasn’t purely zoning out, more zoning into someone’s story. So with this one I kinda had a thing where during lock-down I had this feeling of being disconnected from the city, I mean it felt like it wasn’t even there since it was all locked up. It was just this feeling of being locked away from all the chaotic, wild energy that made me search for it in other things. I’ve always been interested in photography even though I’m not very good at it because I tend to write and think in images, so I was looking at a lot of pictures from Nan Goldin’s collection The Ballad of Sexual Dependency. She has a lot of pictures of New York that are snapshots that sort of capture the energy of the city, so I used those a lot as inspiration. That along with things from my life and other people’s lives who I’ve encountered, but it was a big inspiration for me. It kinda took the place of that wall of photos for this record.

M: Do you guys feel like New York is sort of your chosen home as opposed to anywhere in your
home state of Georgia?

R: It’s hard to imagine living anywhere else at this moment. We’ve lived here almost 11 years
now. I don’t know if I’d ever choose to live in Atlanta.

B: We’ve been here what feels like forever but it still doesn’t feel quite like home necessarily.

M: Do you think you’re still finding new things about it that thrill you?

B: yeah, there’s just so much, it’s so big. It’s constantly changing. I prefer it, I love living here,
but I do get more of the feeling of home in Georgia. Maybe that’ll always be the case.

M: I grew up near LA and it was this monolith for me, I never quite knew what I was looking at or
experiencing. I felt like if I ever dipped my toe in I would have to learn to swim all over again just
to know where I am. Just a completely different language and way of life there.

B: Mmhm, exactly. New York does everything possible to spit you out, too. I think we’ve made a
lot of artistic choices I’m proud of as we’ve been forced to swim upstream.

M: So I wanted to talk a little more about Love on My Mind. Of the first two tracks we’ve heard,
one has sort of a bombastic rock sound on Mythic Love but Birds has that sort of Gothic, moody
sound we’re more used to from tracks like Miracle or Sweat. Does this variety foreshadow what
we’re gonna be hearing on the new EP and future projects, or are you just going with the flow?

R: Yeah, I think in a way it does foreshadow the EP. Since it’s only 6 songs I feel like each sort
of carries the weight for one type of song that we do. So each song feels pretty different, but in a
way it’s just a microcosm of the different environments you experience on Stray, just with more
clarity, more focus.

M: When you were making it, would you say you were reflecting on the experience of making
Stray?

B: Yeah, in a lot of ways any record that follows another will be bouncing off the ideas and
experiences from what you just did. Things you wanted to expound upon or revisit, and I think
this EP there’s some newer territory we’ve never really gone into that hasn’t been on these
singles. Just things revisiting – like Drew Citron, who sang a lot on Stray, she sings on the last
song on the EP. You can feel there are little bits of shrapnel from Stray in there. It’s a sonic
pileup with some new production on that side of things.

R: Like you said there are definitely some new areas we’ve never explored before which is
exciting, but it’s funny because things like that always seem very big and obvious to us, but I’m
interested to see how people feel about it once it comes out, if they feel like it’s Bambara but just
slightly different.

M: I know when I first heard Mythic Love I was like “this is a new angle!” but it definitely still felt
like you guys, fell completely in line, so I’m excited to hear the rest of it.

B: It’s funny because I guess for me being in the action, Mythic Love sounded more familiar for
Bambara than Birds, but i think people are hearing it the other way around. Being the one
creating things you just hear it completely differently.

R: Yeah, when you’re that close it’s hard to see it from a wider angle.

M: On that note of having a different insight than maybe what the fans have, are there any
songs you’ve made that you feel are under appreciated?

R: I mean yeah there’s a few over time. One of my favorites is Steel Dust Ocean off Shadow on
Everything.

B: Yeah, that’s a good one.

R: And then there’s one way back that I really like that I feel like we didn’t give people enough of
a chance to like since it’s so short, but it’s the last song off Dreamviolence called Disappear. I’ve
always liked that one a lot. There are always gonna be some that are looked over though, it’s
just the nature of the beast. Do you have any, Blaze?

B: Steel Dust Ocean is definitely one I feel is under-appreciated. On Stray I’d say maybe
Sweat?

M: I fully agree! I love that track so much.

R: That’s good to hear! That’s definitely one of my favorites off the record and I think it got
overlooked. And Ben and Lily!

M: Whenever I show people Stray there’s such a variety of favorite tracks that comes out of it. I
think the storytelling style on it is so interesting too, the narrative line as opposed to the direct
chronology of Shadow on Everything, it’s just so fun to find where everything fits together.

B: It’s good to hear people are taking the time to do that, it’s all so interwoven.

M: Speaking of the songwriting style, I recently read A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery
O’Connor and I was wondering about what led you to be so intrigued by her character studies
and the aspect of ‘meanness’ to incorporate it so heavily into Stray.

R: I think the first time I realized I was interested in literature or writing of any kind was when I
read that story in high school. We had a Southern Gothic literature section, I guess since we’re
from Georgia, and Flannery O’Connor was from there as well. Something about it just resonated
with me, something about the way she writes these characters just feels so real and so vivid, it’s
horrific but calm and beautiful all at the same time and I think that drew me to it. The use of the
word meanness is something that I’ve always been drawn to as well. It can be used for really
awful things but it sounds so weak and small, almost. It’s the way Southern people speak, trying
not to make a big deal out of anything. It always stuck with me, especially from that story.

M: I kinda noticed that across the album there were these glimpses of hope around it. Most of
the characters are doomed, I mean Death is a character for a reason, but in songs like Serafina
when Sera and Sadie are in love and are able to experience that, declaring that they’ll never die
even though they know it’s coming eventually. Do you think that that might be influenced by
O’Connor’s concept of Radical Grace, that idea that something good can come out of a situation
that isn’t necessarily good?

R: It’s so funny you bring that up since no one’s really tapped into that before, but i think about
that a lot, her concept of grace. It’s always in the back of my mind so I can’t say if it influenced it
directly, but that is something I think about a lot especially when im writing these usually very
hopeless scenarios or pessimistic stories with characters that are doomed, that idea kicks
around in the back of my head a lot. Sometimes it doesn’t make it out because it almost doesn’t
feel like grace is a possibility in that world. But yeah [in Serafina], I needed someone to not feel
smothered by the concept of death in that world, to be sort of a ray of hope or someone to
whom death wasn’t this sort of suffocating blanket over them. It’s just an inevitability they’ll have
to face eventually.

M: So for both of you, are there any tracks off this new EP that you’re especially excited for
people to hear or any you’re particularly passionate about?

B: The first track Glitter in the Rain I’m really proud of, it’s one of those in new territory and I
really like the mood and atmosphere it creates.

R: Yeah, I’m also excited about that one.

M: I was curious if there were any like the Night Chimes EP, something more dark and ambient
or if it’s more going for the directness we’ve been hearing so far.

B: There’s definitely some ambient leaning moments on this one. That’s funny you bring up
night chimes, we were doing an interview with someone in Poland and they brought it up too.

R: There aren’t any straight up ambient tracks like on Night Chimes, just because it’s only 6
tracks and we wanted to keep it pretty tight. One song I’m really excited for off the EP is Little
Wars, different territory for us as well. Tt’s got those female backing vocals and some of the
orchestrated vibe like some of the stuff off Stray but it’s a little more minimal and the
instrumentation and texture choices are very interesting. I’m also really happy with the lyrics on
that one.

M: I’m excited to hear them all! I’m very much looking forward to it. So what influenced you guys
to go for an EP this time rather than going for another LP?

B: All of 2020 was supposed to be touring for us, so once everything got canceled I don’t think
we were mentally ready to approach a full album again.

R: It felt like Stray didn’t really get its chance, since once it came out COVID hit and we couldn’t
give it a fair shot at being out in the world, like touring with it and all that. So it was hard to just
let that go and move on to a new album. We wrote an EP to try and respond to the fact that
everything had been cut short, so we wrote one to convince ourselves everything was fine. We
got pretty much done with it, mixed and everything, until we realized we really didn’t like it. So
we scrapped it and some of those things stayed, others didn’t, we wrote some more songs and
that’s how this EP came to be. We kinda had to get rid of a lot of weird leftover feelings from the
pandemic stuff, clear our heads.

M: I’m sure a lot of the fanbase will find that empathetic. I wonder if that scrapped EP will ever
make it onto any B-sides and rarities collection anytime.

R: Not if I have anything to do with it. Laughs

M: I feel that, sometimes I get to the end of an art piece and I just think “no one will ever see this
and I’m glad.”

B: It’s important to be able to scrap something. I think a lot of people think they put so much time
into something then they have to put it out.

M: It’s very freeing to be able to put that much into something and then just let it go.

B: There were days working on the older version of the EP where we’d go into the studio and
we just felt so cumbersome, we weren’t really stoked on anything. It just felt like this lead
blanket.

M: So I know you guys have been trying to get back into the touring space now that things are a
little more open, I believe you’ve been doing things with Midwife?

B: Oh yeah, so Midwife was on tour with us and Nothing in December and that was just sort of a
10-day run of the United States, and even then we had to schedule the last 2 days once
omicron hit and we just redid those dates. So now we have March, which is supposed to be all
of mainland Europe. Each country handles it differently, Germany and Italy are both kind of in
question.

M: When you’re able to fully get back out in the world do you think it’ll be a Love on My Mind
tour or more of a joint one between Stray and the EP?

B: Definitely joint.

R: Yeah it’ll be a combo for sure.

B: There are some songs from the EP we’re not going to play, so that alone makes us need
both. There are also so many Stray songs people have never heard us play live.

M: How do you guys plan out what’s gonna be on the setlists for your show? Is it mostly crowd
reception or personal desire to play something?

B: A little of both, but if you’re going out every night and playing a song and it’s just not getting
any reception at all it’s hard to get excited about it.

R: Sweat was kinda like that. We kept playing it and it kept getting this sort of lukewarm
response.

M: Aw!

R: I know, it’s sad!

B: We kinda had to take it back into the workshop.

R: Definitely, they’re never dead, you just gotta tweak ‘em, but it’s been retired for a bit.

B: That’s the thing, a song is never really set in stone until you record it. It stays this malleable
thing and that keeps it fun for us.

R: We finally got Machete working, which is one we’ve been trying to get working forever and
we got it just in time for this tour. It was gratifying to be able to play that one live since we all
wanted it so bad.

M: Was that one challenging to write lyrically since it’s sorta a standalone story?

R: It took a while for sure. Sometimes the shorter ones are even harder since you don’t have as
much space to work with the ideas.

M: I was curious which of the tours you guys have been on has been your favorite since you’ve
been a part of a lot of them, either your own or with other people.

B: The IDLES tour we did in the US was pretty amazing just ‘cause they were fairly unknown when we started that tour, so they all happened in these packed rooms, small venues they don’t play anymore, and it was just a really cool month. We’re supposed to play 10 more shows with them in March, so hopefully that happens.

R: Yeah, that one was really fun. Each tour has its own thing that makes it unique and
awesome.

B: Every band we’ve gone out with has been really cool, we’ve all remained friends long after.

M: Of all your peers in the punk and post-punk space, which ones do you find yourselves most
inspired by?

B: Honestly I don’t listen to too many bands like that. We see our peers live and honestly the
energy of the show is most inspiring.

R: My inspiration doesn’t really come from my peers, I don’t think. There are bands I like, but I
don’t find myself inspired by them. One that does come to mind is Sloppy Jane, she’s really
great. Her approach is very passionate and she has a very singular vision, she knows what she
wants and she finds a way to make it happen. That new record I like a lot. Dougie Poole might
be another one, there are label mates on Wharf Cat that I like a lot like him and Palberta, P.E. is
really great, there are a lot of really good ones but it’s hard to think of since I haven’t been going
to many shows lately.

M: That’s interesting, it seems like the inspiration is very internal within the band then. I mean
you’re just coming up with things off the dome and banging it out, and next thing you know you
have a song?

R: Laughs I mean yeah, we’ve been playing together since we were little kids so at this point
we’ve kind of found that we draw from what’s established between us.

M: Really solid band chemistry.

R: Yeah, so we just kinda pull from our pool of influences that have been cemented between us.

B: And it’s not to say we’re not inspired by music, it’s just more moments in songs than anything
else.

R: Yeah! Less like a band and their vibe and more just moments, that’s a good way to put it.

M: Alright, well I think that’s pretty much all I had on my mind. Thank you guys so much for
talking!

R: Yeah, thanks for having us!

M: Anytime.

BAMBARA’s EP “Love on my Mind” is out February 25th on Wharf Cat Records and the two
lead singles, “Mythic Love” and “Birds,” are out now on all platforms.
A huge thank you to Reid and Blaze for such a wonderful interview!

The post In Conversation with Reid and Blaze Bateh of BAMBARA appeared first on SCAD Radio.

In 2017, peers and jamming partners Geordie Greep, Matt Kwasniewski-Kelvin, Morgan Simpson, and Cameron Picton of the esteemed BRIT School would come together to form a band. After taking on the name black midi, this highly skilled collective would go on to release the universally-beloved Schlagenheim in 2019, a post-punk masterpiece filled with noise, punk energy, and progressive rock influences. Following this was 2021’s highly anticipated release of Cavalcade, a marked change in sound but a nonetheless remarkable record. This album showcases a wider breadth of style than their previous record, ranging in sound from pleasant and sweet to harrowingly soft to rigorous and harsh to head-bangingly groovy. It’s threaded with influence everywhere from the instrumental skill and meandering song structure of seminal prog acts like King Crimson and Rush, to the post-punk vocal style and narrative structures of Slint, and even to the jazz flair of their peers in Black Country, New Road. This burgeoning musical feast of a record has the potential to change your conception of what rock music can sound like.

The record opens with “John L,” a song that seems to act as a trial for the weak-hearted. By far the least casually listenable song on the album, this track is a music theory banquet imbued with some of the most positively punishing strings and jarring tempos I’ve heard in recent memory tied together by Morgan Simpson’s absolutely remarkable drumming. This track’s lyrics detail the story of a cult leader, the titular John L, seducing a town with his charismatic promises and mantras only to later be overthrown by the frenzied crowds he himself gathered. The fervent, disjointed nature of the sound on this song fits perfectly with the narrative, almost pulling the listener into the zealous mindset of the indoctrinated. 

With a predictably harsh end to track one, the listener experiences sonic whiplash as they begin to be gently serenaded by soft guitar and poetic murmurs in the second song, “Marlene Dietrich.” This song is another narrative surrounding a titular subject, but this track’s “soft spoken queen” stands in stark contrast to John L. Describing the life and work of actress Marie Magdalene “Marlene” Dietrich (1901-1992) in reverent fashion, this brief, sweet song employs more traditional instrumentation and intimate mixing to create a beautifully sentimental atmosphere. The relationship between these first two tracks creates a lovely foil effect in which the best aspects of both are magnified by their juxtaposition with the other.

After the brief respite offered by “Marlene Dietrich” comes once again the harsh sound of an electric guitar riff and the sharp, distinct sound of drums. At three on the track list, “Chondromalacia Patella” tells the story of aging through esoteric imagery describing a knee condition by the name of, you guessed it, chondromalacia patella. This condition is the most common cause of chronic knee pain and is utilized to describe the despair of growing old and losing your mobility, energy, and general painless existence you once had in youth. This song utilizes heavy moments of almost throbbing guitar and drum, seemingly emulating the waves of pain one with chronic pain would feel, before breaking down into an all-consuming din dominated by a repeating guitar riff and drum pattern.

In the most cohesive track transition of the album, our next song “Slow” begins with a heavy rhythm reminiscent of the progressions from “Chondromalacia.” The flow between songs is best seen in the lyrics, however, as this song describes the thoughts of someone frustrated by the slow decay of life, wishing for an abrupt and controlled end instead. Through a utilization of quiet and loud dynamics, the song creates a movement from frustrated to contemplative to resolved. The instrumental crescendos with the almost pleading cry of saxophone and leads up to a sudden lull; then, the narrator utters the lyrics “stood up, shot / between the eyes / s’just consolation.” Our narrator is presumed dead by his own hand, and the sudden sonic explosion back to chaos reflects the gravity and misfortune of that decision.

Immediately after this comes a return to the quiet tones of “Marlene Dietrich”. This time, the notes hold more tension; the playing feels terse and short, and the tone feels unsettling. Song 5, “Diamond Stuff,” gives us a full, uninterrupted two minutes and ten seconds to simply sit with this uneasy feeling as the sparse instrumental steadily grows. This atmosphere continues to thicken until hushed vocals emerge, stating simply “I’m a husk / made up of diamond stuff.” A violin is plucked, the instrumental swells, and the mood changes. What was before a hollow instrumental becomes a contemplative jazz track, reflective and even optimistic in tone. Vocals are murmured in the background, speaking in the abstract about minerals and the body. Developing and emerging from bits and pieces of scattered instrumental, this song crystalizes almost like the very mineral it’s named for, becoming a clear and resilient example of artistic acuity. This track wraps up a loose thematic three-piece discussing age, death, and decay and eventual merging with the earth.

A solitary saxophone ushers in the ending stretches of the record with the opening of “Dethroned.” Followed by the gradual inclusion of guitar and a strong vocal presence, it gives the impression of the beginning of a speech or a journey of some kind. Lyrically, this song veers from the poetic abstraction of “Diamond Stuff” and pursues the direct storytelling style of our first two tracks. It tells the story of a man in denial of his fall from grace; instrumentally, the single saxophone developing into a grandiose instrumental serves this, seemingly attempting to convince the listener of the validity of the narrator’s denial.

The next track, “Hogwash and Balderdash,” is the most blistering we’ve heard since song #1; beginning with blaring cowbell and never truly slowing, it tells the story of two runaway criminals (named Hogwash and Balderdash) with their heels continually nipped at by the jaws of the law. As the title would suggest, the track is largely nonsense– the lyrics speak of the two’s escapades in a style reminiscent of a Dr. Seuss book, describing improbable plights with impish language. The vocals are feverish and crazed and the instrumental leaps and screams as if speaking itself, its pace making this two and a half minute song feel like an even shorter and more thrilling sprint than it already is. 

The brazen fun of track seven is infectious but short lived as we move into our final song, the balladic “Ascending Forth.” With an even, calm, almost folkish acoustic melody greeting us, frontman Greep’s medieval and hymnal tone spins a tale of creative struggle. In a narrative every creative is familiar with, he knits a story of a man who makes music to critical acclaim, but is torn between making music he knows the masses will love or making music he finds creatively fulfilling. He agonizes over it, repeating dogmatically “everyone loves ascending fourths,” a form of a note with a sentimental or happy tone. As the public urges him on, he begins his next work, deciding to follow his instinct and create what he wants. Disgusted when presented with his composition, devoid of those beloved fourths, the people condemn him and his masterpiece. The instrumental crescendos, and our narrator breaks. In the following progression of pure emotion, Greep laments once again that “everyone loves ascending fourths,” implying that our narrator has eschewed his inspiration in favor of public adoration, churning out easily loved music after being burned by producing what he himself loved most. Clocking in at almost exactly 10 minutes, this last track is a testament to its own message. It ends perfectly exactly the kind of album the narrator would be shunned for; something difficult, challenging, and dissonant, but absolutely overflowing with artistic integrity and love for one’s craft. 

On Cavalcade, black midi has succeeded in creating a collective of some of the most musically exciting compositions I’ve heard in post-punk and even music as a whole in a while. As with most albums, I have my nitpicks; I adore Geordie Greep and Cameron Picton’s vocals, and on most tracks on the album I find that they are a little too deep in the mix for my liking. For how beautiful the lyricism and vocal presentations are, I just wish I could experience them as clearly as possible. With that being said, I truly can’t adequately express how intensely inspired this album feels to me, and my heart aches with the hope that others will feel my love for it and give it a try. There quite simply isn’t anyone doing it like black midi is now, and I can’t wait to see where they take us next.

The post New black midi Album Takes Intriguing Narrative Direction appeared first on SCAD Radio.