WEBVTT - Questlove Supreme: The Foreign Exchange 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:12.160 Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeart Radio. 0:00:08.039 --> 0:00:22.320 Supremo, Rollbrivo Supremo, Roll Call, Suprema Supremo, Roll Call Suprivo 0:00:22.560 --> 0:00:23.360 roll Yo. 0:00:23.600 --> 0:00:24.320 Is the season? 0:00:24.720 --> 0:00:26.120 Yeah, like I sheared the light. 0:00:26.720 --> 0:00:29.840 Yeah, I have a good reason yeah to talk about 0:00:29.880 --> 0:00:30.400 that site. 0:00:33.760 --> 0:00:36.920 Supreval Suprema. 0:00:38.479 --> 0:00:39.040 Roll Call. 0:00:39.200 --> 0:00:40.240 My name is Sugar. 0:00:40.640 --> 0:00:40.880 Yeah. 0:00:41.240 --> 0:00:44.920 Is this thing on? Yeah, this took so long to start. Yeah, 0:00:45.320 --> 0:00:46.200 my buzz is gone. 0:00:49.720 --> 0:00:54.960 Supprivo Rollbriva Sprevo roll. 0:00:55.120 --> 0:00:56.080 I'm unpaid bill. 0:00:56.600 --> 0:01:01.520 Yeah, and lordy lord, let's talk about Yeah and okay 0:01:01.600 --> 0:01:08.840 player boys Suprema so Suprema, Spriva. 0:01:09.040 --> 0:01:17.319 Sopri It's like yeah, oh my god, Yeah, yeah, okay 0:01:17.920 --> 0:01:18.440 made us. 0:01:21.640 --> 0:01:24.119 Suppriva Suprema. 0:01:26.959 --> 0:01:30.800 My name is Nick Yeah, and I'm a cancer. Yeah, 0:01:31.040 --> 0:01:34.240 I'm good at music, not much of a dancer. 0:01:35.520 --> 0:01:42.920 Supppreval roll Suprema Supremo Role called. 0:01:43.000 --> 0:01:46.120 My name is Fante. Yeah, and I won't be boring. 0:01:46.600 --> 0:01:48.320 Yeah and him had exchange. 0:01:48.640 --> 0:01:48.840 Yeah. 0:01:48.920 --> 0:01:55.320 Now I'm whipping a form ship. 0:01:57.480 --> 0:02:03.040 Suppriva Role suprem Subprima, Oh call. 0:02:03.360 --> 0:02:13.000 Subprim Wow, we did it. Like no, it is a 0:02:13.080 --> 0:02:17.359 Japanese exactly. I mean it's technically a forum, but yeah, 0:02:18.440 --> 0:02:19.560 yeah it ain't Germany. 0:02:19.880 --> 0:02:20.160 I don't know. 0:02:20.240 --> 0:02:22.560 I don't wait what what what kind of car you 0:02:22.639 --> 0:02:23.480 got Alexis? 0:02:25.080 --> 0:02:30.720 Oh god, yeah yeah it isten't. 0:02:29.720 --> 0:02:33.079 Me great gas mileage? Toyotas are the best? Yeah, man, 0:02:33.160 --> 0:02:36.720 you right it think? Hey, I just got my sign. 0:02:36.800 --> 0:02:43.040 I'll fixed. I'm still hanging on what it is the 0:02:43.160 --> 0:02:45.959 twentieth anniversary of me getting my drivers like this? 0:02:46.360 --> 0:02:48.320 What's funnier the Quest Love and the Scion? 0:02:49.120 --> 0:02:49.919 Not much? I don't know. 0:02:50.400 --> 0:02:52.120 I don't know the answer, Like, am. 0:02:52.040 --> 0:02:54.440 I driving a classic car now that I've been driving 0:02:54.480 --> 0:02:55.600 the sign for twenty years? 0:02:56.240 --> 0:02:56.400 Yeah? 0:02:56.919 --> 0:02:57.840 Don't even make that car? 0:02:58.240 --> 0:02:58.560 You don't? 0:02:58.720 --> 0:02:59.639 Yeah, I don't think. 0:03:00.160 --> 0:03:02.919 So how do you get it serviced? So the guy 0:03:02.960 --> 0:03:04.920 that drives me around now he has a hook up 0:03:04.960 --> 0:03:12.359 in the heights where they got thing. Yeah, there's a 0:03:12.440 --> 0:03:14.720 lot of garages up there in the heights. Yeah, and 0:03:14.960 --> 0:03:20.840 uh yeah, shop shops understood. 0:03:20.960 --> 0:03:23.080 Let's just say that I'm good for at least maybe 0:03:23.400 --> 0:03:25.000 nine rounds of kneeding batteries. 0:03:25.080 --> 0:03:27.880 And this is a hell of a way to start 0:03:27.960 --> 0:03:31.120 this episode. We are live in New York. Well, we're 0:03:31.160 --> 0:03:34.359 not live. We're in New York City. We're in person. 0:03:34.800 --> 0:03:39.160 Yeah, good to shout out to take a little for 0:03:39.360 --> 0:03:41.600 getting up early this morning. And I hear that you 0:03:41.760 --> 0:03:43.640 say that you did not get sleep. 0:03:43.840 --> 0:03:44.760 Not really, we didn't. 0:03:44.840 --> 0:03:47.080 We didn't really we had uh yeah, I got in 0:03:47.160 --> 0:03:49.880 this morning. Yeah, we had a movie that he scored. 0:03:50.160 --> 0:03:53.840 We had that yesterday. That was it Full Frame Documentary, 0:03:54.040 --> 0:03:56.720 Full Frame Festival. So that was like all day yesterday, 0:03:56.840 --> 0:03:59.440 and then we rolled out six this morning, got here 0:03:59.600 --> 0:03:59.880 like eight. 0:04:00.520 --> 0:04:01.560 Okay, it's been up ever. 0:04:01.520 --> 0:04:04.960 Since, well since Fonte already assisted us on that, we 0:04:05.080 --> 0:04:08.880 might as well introduce our steam guest. And I guess 0:04:08.920 --> 0:04:12.240 you can say that this is a special episode because 0:04:12.280 --> 0:04:20.760 of course this being five years, yes, twenty twenty five five, right, 0:04:21.160 --> 0:04:24.279 so being as though this is like twenty five years 0:04:24.440 --> 0:04:27.320 of what okay Player is, I guess we're still trying 0:04:27.320 --> 0:04:28.920 to define what okay Player was. 0:04:29.120 --> 0:04:33.000 But if there was ever a moment, I wouldn't. 0:04:32.600 --> 0:04:36.640 Mind flexing the very played out what a time to 0:04:36.720 --> 0:04:41.160 be alive hashtag man, I would say that probably okay 0:04:41.200 --> 0:04:44.160 Player is one of those moments in which I think 0:04:44.240 --> 0:04:47.240 everything that I intended it for that site to be 0:04:47.600 --> 0:04:51.240 actually came to fruition, which is that people connected with 0:04:51.360 --> 0:04:54.400 each other way above than that just being a roots website, 0:04:54.400 --> 0:04:57.560 but people were able to do that and probably one 0:04:57.560 --> 0:05:02.640 of the most pioneering moments that will have defined how 0:05:02.680 --> 0:05:05.359 it is that we make music and how we stretch. 0:05:05.920 --> 0:05:08.200 You know, before Okay Player, like I lived at a 0:05:08.279 --> 0:05:11.719 time when you went to Europe that was Europe, when 0:05:11.760 --> 0:05:15.560 you did things in the States that was like now 0:05:15.680 --> 0:05:19.640 it's colonized and stretched out. And the fact that you 0:05:19.760 --> 0:05:25.600 know the storied journey of how Fontigolo and Nicola met 0:05:26.240 --> 0:05:29.360 and hooked up one Okay Player, you know even that 0:05:29.520 --> 0:05:31.720 this is a dream interview for us to finally get 0:05:31.760 --> 0:05:34.320 you guys, because you're such a YouTube to me, are 0:05:34.520 --> 0:05:39.240 are the actual physical result of what happens on the 0:05:39.360 --> 0:05:41.080 internet when it's a good thing. 0:05:41.480 --> 0:05:45.760 Yes, many different ways. I just want to point I'm 0:05:45.760 --> 0:05:46.440 not saying. 0:05:52.880 --> 0:05:55.440 Nothing else, So that's a welcome. 0:05:57.320 --> 0:05:57.960 Appreciate it. 0:05:58.600 --> 0:06:03.800 It's weird, I know, the legend of foreign exchange. 0:06:04.279 --> 0:06:08.160 Hopefully this will be what I initially intended the Jesus 0:06:08.240 --> 0:06:09.400 a Mural episode to be. 0:06:11.000 --> 0:06:14.600 Before today, before it went totally left. 0:06:15.360 --> 0:06:18.200 Maybe if you guys aren't familiar with that legendary episode. 0:06:18.279 --> 0:06:21.479 There's a lot of inside baseball talk about what Okay 0:06:21.560 --> 0:06:24.800 Player meant as a community. This hopefully will be a 0:06:24.880 --> 0:06:30.240 more nuanced, better version of that episode. So Jesus a 0:06:30.320 --> 0:06:33.120 m though that was definitely that to me is one 0:06:33.160 --> 0:06:35.480 of like are the funniest moments, at least for me, 0:06:35.560 --> 0:06:38.560 even though it was a lot of inside baseball Nikolay. 0:06:38.200 --> 0:06:39.640 What is your first musical memory? 0:06:40.080 --> 0:06:44.080 My first musical memory is hearing Secret Life of Plans 0:06:44.480 --> 0:06:47.440 by Stevie Wonder. I credit a lot of my musical 0:06:47.680 --> 0:06:52.160 interest and taste to my mother's music collection, and I 0:06:52.400 --> 0:06:55.680 have a distinct memory of being I must have been 0:06:55.720 --> 0:06:59.240 five or six years old and feeling the braille on 0:06:59.400 --> 0:07:03.080 the cover of Secret Life and Plants while taking in 0:07:03.240 --> 0:07:07.800 the sounds, and I think, looking back, the synthesizer pioneering 0:07:07.960 --> 0:07:11.760 more so than anything else, ecclesiastic and some of those 0:07:11.880 --> 0:07:15.880 create like that had a massive influence on me. And 0:07:16.040 --> 0:07:20.080 that must be one of the first, if not the first, 0:07:20.680 --> 0:07:26.200 true musical memories that happened sort of before I consciously 0:07:26.320 --> 0:07:29.080 got into music and was interested in music, and like, 0:07:29.160 --> 0:07:29.720 shout out. 0:07:29.640 --> 0:07:31.560 To my mom for that. How old were you in 0:07:31.680 --> 0:07:35.720 nineteen seventy nine, I was five years old. That's so crazy. 0:07:35.720 --> 0:07:37.600 I'm a seventy four shout out to all the seventy 0:07:37.640 --> 0:07:43.320 four babies. Yeah, I distinctly remembered that record. Like now, 0:07:43.960 --> 0:07:46.600 I would argue with people a lot about songs of 0:07:46.640 --> 0:07:49.000 the Kia Life versus Secret Life of Plants and how 0:07:49.040 --> 0:07:51.840 they were kind of back to back right and so 0:07:52.320 --> 0:07:54.720 different in so many ways. And for me, I never 0:07:54.880 --> 0:07:58.720 had that connection with songs that I did with Secret 0:07:58.760 --> 0:08:01.000 Life Plans for the very and that it hit me 0:08:01.200 --> 0:08:04.960 so profoundly as a kid, and I have a specific 0:08:05.120 --> 0:08:07.640 memory with each of the songs with Black or Kid 0:08:07.720 --> 0:08:11.800 We'd comeback as a flower with Tree Race Babblin, Like 0:08:11.920 --> 0:08:13.440 I think it really shaped. 0:08:13.160 --> 0:08:13.680 Me all right. 0:08:13.760 --> 0:08:16.320 So just to give our listeners just a little backstory, 0:08:16.920 --> 0:08:20.600 because I had the opposite experience that you had, even 0:08:20.640 --> 0:08:23.280 though you and I had the same shared experience, you know, 0:08:23.440 --> 0:08:25.400 like when the classic hip hop records came out and 0:08:25.520 --> 0:08:27.640 we discussed it on an OK player and then it 0:08:27.640 --> 0:08:31.720 would be like nine hundred threads of just like that 0:08:32.080 --> 0:08:36.880 happened before the Internet and especially in my household in 0:08:37.000 --> 0:08:40.920 which there were so many musical experts, a Stevie Wonder 0:08:41.040 --> 0:08:43.520 record actually had the power to make someone have like 0:08:43.640 --> 0:08:47.640 almost a four hour summit meeting like the day as 0:08:47.720 --> 0:08:50.280 songs in the Key of Life came out September of 0:08:50.559 --> 0:08:53.599 seventy six. Both songs in the Key of Life and 0:08:54.040 --> 0:08:56.400 Spirit by Earth, Wind and Fire came out the same day. 0:08:57.360 --> 0:08:59.120 And that was also the first day of school for me. 0:08:59.280 --> 0:09:02.880 So, like you know, that day was like a major event, 0:09:03.080 --> 0:09:05.480 Like we got home early, we sat as a family, 0:09:06.120 --> 0:09:07.599 sat in front of the record player to see, like 0:09:07.760 --> 0:09:11.160 what the else because it's two years since Fulfilledness first finalite. 0:09:11.280 --> 0:09:14.240 So it was such an event in my household that 0:09:14.480 --> 0:09:17.240 come three years later in seventy nine, when we had 0:09:17.280 --> 0:09:21.679 that same anticipation opening the record and listening and man 0:09:22.040 --> 0:09:26.080 to watch it with my set, to watch my father's 0:09:26.120 --> 0:09:37.160 face during the Earth's creation. Yo, I just I've never 0:09:37.280 --> 0:09:41.319 seen my dad cry until maybe like nineteen eighty four 0:09:41.400 --> 0:09:44.800 at a funeral. But the day I saw the day 0:09:44.880 --> 0:09:47.319 that music died for my dad, and it was such 0:09:47.360 --> 0:09:50.959 a heartbreaking, like he just looked at the floor like 0:09:51.600 --> 0:09:52.400 I've lost. 0:09:52.240 --> 0:09:53.199 Hopeing to humanity. 0:09:55.120 --> 0:09:58.360 But for me, any albums that were rejected by like 0:09:58.480 --> 0:10:02.960 my dad's band or then I would wind up inheriting. 0:10:03.280 --> 0:10:06.199 And so I inherited that record and so just like you, 0:10:06.400 --> 0:10:08.320 that was my dark side of the Moon, like, yeah, 0:10:08.480 --> 0:10:10.079 mainly because it's like, oh, it's on my own and 0:10:10.120 --> 0:10:12.720 I would listened to it in the headphones and yeah, imagine, 0:10:13.240 --> 0:10:14.400 And I loved everything about it. 0:10:14.520 --> 0:10:17.640 I loved the photo of Stevie in the booklet. I 0:10:17.720 --> 0:10:22.079 love the fact that there were Japanese lyrics. I didn't 0:10:22.160 --> 0:10:24.599 know what that meant at the time, And then I 0:10:24.679 --> 0:10:26.880 think I asked my mother, like what is this and 0:10:27.160 --> 0:10:29.800 the lime green cover or if I have to describe it, 0:10:29.920 --> 0:10:33.120 maybe almost pistel like it was. So it wasn't just 0:10:33.200 --> 0:10:36.760 the music, It was the totality of that record, and 0:10:36.840 --> 0:10:39.040 it wouldn't have happened on it was vinyl. 0:10:39.160 --> 0:10:41.839 It was just a big, beautiful The one time I 0:10:42.000 --> 0:10:45.920 realized that there was such a major pushback on that record, 0:10:46.160 --> 0:10:48.360 like besides, I would dismiss my dad's thing, like him 0:10:48.400 --> 0:10:52.319 shit talking about Stevie lost it. I'm so disappointed. Was 0:10:52.400 --> 0:10:55.199 like when I started going back to read reviews and 0:10:55.600 --> 0:10:58.160 it got a lead review and Rolling Stone and they 0:10:58.320 --> 0:11:03.839 just they just talent. It's almost in a way, like 0:11:04.960 --> 0:11:06.880 I don't know if I should be this honest about it. 0:11:07.480 --> 0:11:10.160 When Glover's Camp got a one point nine and. 0:11:10.160 --> 0:11:13.719 Pitchfork, oh okay, there was an energy shift between he 0:11:13.800 --> 0:11:16.679 and I and almost felt like that devastated him so 0:11:16.840 --> 0:11:19.400 much to know that I knew about because I instantly 0:11:19.440 --> 0:11:21.080 hit him like, yeah, man, don't like. 0:11:22.840 --> 0:11:26.199 It, right, but I certainly have a view. 0:11:27.000 --> 0:11:30.320 But just until like maybe three years ago, I truly 0:11:30.520 --> 0:11:33.640 let the opinions of a critic go okay, you know, 0:11:34.960 --> 0:11:36.719 I didn't go back to look at the movie like 0:11:36.800 --> 0:11:38.800 none of that stuff, like I'm just I now make 0:11:38.960 --> 0:11:40.679 art because like I want to make beautiful art and 0:11:40.760 --> 0:11:43.040 not like, oh this will keep our rating high or whatever. 0:11:43.200 --> 0:11:46.839 But I didn't realize how much of a beating he 0:11:47.000 --> 0:11:50.319 took for that record. Me neither, and in fact, like 0:11:50.559 --> 0:11:54.240 I weighed everything that I heard by Stevie after that. 0:11:55.280 --> 0:11:58.000 I compared it too secret life and it didn't always 0:11:58.120 --> 0:12:01.680 live up to me. But because of like and I think, 0:12:01.840 --> 0:12:03.760 like we could talk about this later, but like my 0:12:03.960 --> 0:12:09.280 love for synthesizer pioneering, what what Stevie was doing with 0:12:09.440 --> 0:12:12.480 the with the c S eighty on that record, Like 0:12:12.720 --> 0:12:16.600 I think it's looking back, it's clear why the larger 0:12:16.679 --> 0:12:19.440 public didn't really get it, but for the nerds, if 0:12:19.520 --> 0:12:23.199 you will, like it checked all the boxes because he 0:12:23.480 --> 0:12:26.640 was going further, and but I still think it had 0:12:27.120 --> 0:12:29.120 like come back as a flower is up there for me, 0:12:29.800 --> 0:12:31.840 Flowers for me, that black work. 0:12:32.160 --> 0:12:34.120 That's the only record I can think of that Stevie 0:12:34.240 --> 0:12:36.600 singing falsetto win. I can't think of no other song. 0:12:37.960 --> 0:12:38.520 That's good. 0:12:38.880 --> 0:12:42.040 He's not right, Yeah, he's not right. Yeah, I've never 0:12:42.080 --> 0:12:43.480 heard him sing falsetto on nothing Nose. 0:12:43.920 --> 0:12:46.000 So when I when I heard songs after that, I 0:12:46.080 --> 0:12:49.480 was like, yeah, it's cool you discovered songs proactively, Yeah. 0:12:49.520 --> 0:12:52.200 Anything like. I think the second thing I heard by 0:12:52.280 --> 0:12:58.240 Stevie was the musical of the Concoration that had original 0:12:58.920 --> 0:13:00.959 and it had like living for the City. I think 0:13:01.400 --> 0:13:03.600 it was like, all right, this is I'm hearing more 0:13:03.640 --> 0:13:07.360 of what I like. But like everything that I've heard after, 0:13:07.960 --> 0:13:11.240 and it's largely probably because of the warmth of the 0:13:11.440 --> 0:13:15.319 memories involved with it, everything thereafter didn't quite have the 0:13:15.400 --> 0:13:16.240 same magic for me. 0:13:16.400 --> 0:13:20.760 So now that I hear this, it makes even more sense. 0:13:21.720 --> 0:13:25.520 At you guys that man, the day you guys covered 0:13:27.559 --> 0:13:32.280 he if she breaks your heart to me, like, I 0:13:32.480 --> 0:13:36.719 still have a dream that somehow if the masters of 0:13:36.840 --> 0:13:41.720 the Jungle Jingle soundtrack bro get free. I have such 0:13:41.720 --> 0:13:45.439 a dream of just hearing that same I've never heard 0:13:45.520 --> 0:13:49.360 an album which song structure. I like it a lot, 0:13:50.800 --> 0:13:54.040 but if he changed the instrumentation on it like that, 0:13:54.200 --> 0:13:56.280 he could have pulled the winehouse. But I don't know 0:13:56.440 --> 0:13:59.680 if like Okay, if he did a fulfillment first menalitey 0:13:59.720 --> 0:14:02.360 or whatever like sonically made it sound like that would 0:14:02.360 --> 0:14:05.400 have had the same impact. But hearing you guys like 0:14:05.640 --> 0:14:07.240 update his sound but still. 0:14:07.120 --> 0:14:10.439 Keep ah Man, this is a beautiful song. Man, I 0:14:10.559 --> 0:14:12.920 just thought it needed to be updated, like, but it's 0:14:12.960 --> 0:14:13.600 a great record. 0:14:13.640 --> 0:14:14.240 I love that song. 0:14:14.480 --> 0:14:18.719 So let me ask for you guys the point where 0:14:18.720 --> 0:14:21.480 I realized that Okay player was just bigger than a 0:14:21.560 --> 0:14:26.360 website for some acts to post announcements on. You also 0:14:26.720 --> 0:14:32.440 just have to sift through the many personalities, because you 0:14:32.520 --> 0:14:35.040 guys are on a constant blind date. Like there are 0:14:35.120 --> 0:14:38.560 many people to whom I've had interactions with that you 0:14:38.640 --> 0:14:40.280 know you can't see what they look like or you 0:14:40.320 --> 0:14:42.120 don't you know, I don't know what trolling is or 0:14:42.160 --> 0:14:45.600 none of that stuff. But you guys have to find 0:14:45.760 --> 0:14:49.240 each other because even in my mind, even though you 0:14:49.400 --> 0:14:52.440 are definitely a charter member, I do have at least 0:14:52.440 --> 0:14:55.520 in my social circle. I have a like an inner 0:14:55.640 --> 0:14:59.240 circle like around one, around two, and you always around 0:14:59.280 --> 0:15:02.080 three person like even though we talked a lot, not 0:15:02.240 --> 0:15:03.920 to the level of no for sure. 0:15:04.360 --> 0:15:07.000 So how did you two meet? Yeah, it was I 0:15:07.080 --> 0:15:08.920 think this was back in like it was two thousand 0:15:08.920 --> 0:15:09.360 and what two. 0:15:09.760 --> 0:15:13.240 Yeah, I think a one one sort of found each 0:15:13.240 --> 0:15:14.600 other in the same in. 0:15:14.640 --> 0:15:16.840 The same type of jazz. So with him, like, and 0:15:17.040 --> 0:15:19.920 I didn't know anything about this guy. I didn't know. 0:15:20.360 --> 0:15:23.040 We would even joke with the crew like it was 0:15:23.120 --> 0:15:25.800 Nikola is the girl the girl like we you know, 0:15:25.920 --> 0:15:27.480 it was just a name on the screen. We had 0:15:27.520 --> 0:15:30.200 no idea and so but I think I feel like 0:15:30.240 --> 0:15:33.040 I remember it was a radiohead topic and and he 0:15:33.200 --> 0:15:35.400 jumped in the thread. But I just kept seeing him 0:15:35.440 --> 0:15:37.920 in threads, and I would notice that he had a 0:15:38.080 --> 0:15:39.960 lot of the same taste that I did, Like we 0:15:40.240 --> 0:15:41.800 liked a lot of the same shit. And so I 0:15:41.920 --> 0:15:43.560 was like, okay, I kind of fucked with him. And 0:15:43.640 --> 0:15:45.880 so then one day he just came and was like, Yo, 0:15:46.040 --> 0:15:49.760 this is a new track by me, and I'm like okay, 0:15:49.880 --> 0:15:52.800 And so I listened and I was like, holy shit, 0:15:52.920 --> 0:15:56.160 this is amazing. And I reached out and I was like, hey, man, 0:15:57.040 --> 0:15:59.000 would you mind if I did something of this? You know, 0:15:59.080 --> 0:16:01.720 we got mczo here like what you know? He was like, nah, man, 0:16:01.800 --> 0:16:03.760 go for it and so famous d M. 0:16:04.040 --> 0:16:05.040 Yeah, yeah, hit. 0:16:07.360 --> 0:16:10.040 And so the first time we did the first record 0:16:10.320 --> 0:16:11.760 was I think was it lighted up? Was that the 0:16:11.800 --> 0:16:13.640 first Yeah, that was the very first one lighted up? 0:16:13.640 --> 0:16:16.760 And Nick's groove was a two for that we did. 0:16:16.840 --> 0:16:19.040 And if I may rewind, like I think for me, 0:16:19.920 --> 0:16:22.840 I think I might have a unique perspective on Okay 0:16:22.880 --> 0:16:26.480 Player as a European. Yes, I want to know Cony 0:16:26.760 --> 0:16:32.000 like it was sort of finding connection with this completely 0:16:32.120 --> 0:16:33.960 different universe like I. 0:16:35.680 --> 0:16:36.480 Saw you. Okay. 0:16:36.760 --> 0:16:39.440 I bought Voodoo in two thousand and two. It must 0:16:39.440 --> 0:16:41.040 have been in April, right, something like that. 0:16:41.640 --> 0:16:42.600 It came out in January. 0:16:42.720 --> 0:16:45.040 Okay, Well I may have been late, but either way, 0:16:45.320 --> 0:16:47.600 like I was familiar with the Roots, but I hadn't 0:16:47.640 --> 0:16:51.080 really ever heard full albums. I was familiar with Common, 0:16:51.640 --> 0:16:55.720 but Voodoo was Voodoo brought me to Okay Player because 0:16:55.920 --> 0:16:58.680 I looked at the booklet and it said okay Player 0:16:58.680 --> 0:17:00.680 and I had no idea. So you brought me to 0:17:01.520 --> 0:17:04.159 Okay Player. That summer I saw you guys twice on 0:17:04.240 --> 0:17:06.760 the Voodoo tour, once in the Hague for the North 0:17:06.800 --> 0:17:09.719 Sea Jezz Festival's and once in Belgium, which was an 0:17:09.760 --> 0:17:13.439 open air daytime show. Didn't Third Base open up for us, 0:17:13.640 --> 0:17:15.840 I don't remember that. I know Slum Village open for 0:17:15.960 --> 0:17:18.359 y'all in Belgium. It wasn't with JD, but it was. 0:17:19.200 --> 0:17:22.919 But it was a religious experience in many ways in Belgium, 0:17:23.000 --> 0:17:25.600 specifically because it was during the daytime, so it was 0:17:25.680 --> 0:17:28.760 a very It hit very directly, and I remember you 0:17:28.880 --> 0:17:31.080 guys hitting send it on and I was crying, like 0:17:31.160 --> 0:17:32.800 I'm not saying that just to blow smoke. 0:17:32.880 --> 0:17:33.280 It was that. 0:17:34.200 --> 0:17:37.160 And so like two thousand is when I learned about 0:17:37.200 --> 0:17:38.960 Okay player. But then it took me a while to 0:17:39.080 --> 0:17:41.440 get to the boards because that was sort of the 0:17:41.560 --> 0:17:44.400 second layer, you know what I mean. And it took 0:17:44.480 --> 0:17:46.080 me a while to get to the boards, and then 0:17:46.119 --> 0:17:49.120 it took me a while to go from lurking to posting. 0:17:49.440 --> 0:17:51.600 I signed up, I got to use your name at 0:17:51.640 --> 0:17:53.720 that point, I was going under Nicolay, which is my 0:17:53.960 --> 0:17:57.800 first name. I have three I was baptized, I have 0:17:57.920 --> 0:18:01.240 three first names. And it seemed like the most international 0:18:01.359 --> 0:18:06.119 sounding one, So I registered that knew that Nicola Music 0:18:06.840 --> 0:18:07.400 user name. 0:18:07.480 --> 0:18:09.400 What if they call you back home? Yeah? 0:18:11.080 --> 0:18:13.240 Well yeah no, Matthias is like what I kind of 0:18:13.320 --> 0:18:15.880 would the person behind the you know screen, I guess 0:18:15.920 --> 0:18:19.840 the man behind the curtain. But so it took me, 0:18:19.960 --> 0:18:23.119 I think a year maybe to go from discovering the 0:18:23.280 --> 0:18:26.879 site to realizing that there was the lesson, particularly like 0:18:26.960 --> 0:18:29.000 I've never been on any of the other like I 0:18:29.160 --> 0:18:33.160 was specifically like I didn't really do General. I didn't 0:18:33.160 --> 0:18:33.520 really do. 0:18:34.000 --> 0:18:34.600 So the lesson. 0:18:34.840 --> 0:18:37.479 So he's basically saying that to our listeners out there, 0:18:37.560 --> 0:18:39.560 we would have boards, and the boards was like a 0:18:39.600 --> 0:18:42.320 playground sub section or yeah, like a nightclub. 0:18:42.440 --> 0:18:45.679 And then the lesson for the snobs, the music snobs. 0:18:46.400 --> 0:18:49.000 I was on the lesson, Yeah, more than I was 0:18:49.000 --> 0:18:53.639 supposed to be on like the General General the okay artist, like. 0:18:53.760 --> 0:18:58.320 Nobody went okayist. Newbies would go there like you know, 0:18:58.480 --> 0:18:59.959 is this really you? And that sort of thing. 0:19:00.119 --> 0:19:02.600 But yeah, people either went to General when they were 0:19:02.720 --> 0:19:05.280 trying to get something yeah. 0:19:07.960 --> 0:19:10.280 Yeah, man right, And the lessons were for. 0:19:10.359 --> 0:19:13.600 Like the dweeps and so for me, like just in Europe, 0:19:13.680 --> 0:19:17.240 I didn't have connection with a lot of people that 0:19:17.560 --> 0:19:21.399 liked the music that I liked for a variety of reasons. 0:19:21.440 --> 0:19:23.440 And I'm not really sure why. You earlier asked like, 0:19:23.600 --> 0:19:25.760 what was my first interaction with hip hop? And it 0:19:25.840 --> 0:19:28.800 was actually Three Feet High and Rising eighty nine. I 0:19:28.880 --> 0:19:32.080 guess yeah, and that like I was, I was kind 0:19:32.119 --> 0:19:35.720 of a metal head before that time, like ironically, but 0:19:36.040 --> 0:19:38.879 something about sampling really appealed to me. And so I 0:19:38.960 --> 0:19:42.320 heard three Feet Rising and then I started getting into 0:19:42.560 --> 0:19:45.080 you know, the first Tribe album and stuff like that. 0:19:45.200 --> 0:19:48.040 So by the time, like fast forward ten years, I'm 0:19:48.080 --> 0:19:51.240 full on and so I didn't have a lot of 0:19:51.280 --> 0:19:52.080 people around me. 0:19:52.640 --> 0:19:54.560 Can I ask something, yeah, yeah, yeah, and you can 0:19:54.720 --> 0:19:58.000 educate our viewers. Okay, So of course now because everything 0:19:58.119 --> 0:20:02.080 is colonized, you know, if Drake is to release a song, 0:20:02.200 --> 0:20:04.920 we're all going to stay at the same time. Can 0:20:04.960 --> 0:20:07.960 you explain what the process is like before the internet 0:20:08.160 --> 0:20:10.280 and how it trickled down and got to you. 0:20:10.760 --> 0:20:16.480 So in ninety the early nineties to maybe mid nineties, 0:20:16.560 --> 0:20:20.119 we started getting Yo MTV reps on the European MTV 0:20:21.200 --> 0:20:24.320 and that is when so it was I want to 0:20:24.359 --> 0:20:26.879 say a nightly and then on Saturday they had the 0:20:26.960 --> 0:20:30.639 Fab five Freddy Hours or whatever, right, and so I 0:20:31.040 --> 0:20:35.240 just started watching that and so anything like it wasn't 0:20:35.320 --> 0:20:36.879 like we had a lot of that on the radio. 0:20:38.080 --> 0:20:40.840 There was a hip hop show that every week would 0:20:40.840 --> 0:20:43.440 play like, you know, I remember hearing Come Clean for 0:20:43.520 --> 0:20:46.440 the first time, Jay Ruin, you know, like ice Cube 0:20:46.480 --> 0:20:48.919 and stuff like that, but it was jo MTV reps 0:20:49.520 --> 0:20:53.160 and then seeing everything like the leaders of the news 0:20:53.160 --> 0:20:56.080 school episodes, the all like I was taking all of 0:20:56.119 --> 0:21:02.480 that in yeah right, yeah right, what you say. Yeah, 0:21:02.880 --> 0:21:06.040 So it was like to TV, I guess and and 0:21:06.480 --> 0:21:08.720 just I don't know, I ate all that up. But 0:21:08.840 --> 0:21:11.520 at the same time, I was kind of like I 0:21:11.600 --> 0:21:13.760 had a best friend in high school was also very 0:21:13.880 --> 0:21:16.200 like his favorite stuff was duck Down, Like he was 0:21:16.320 --> 0:21:19.520 super into like UGK and all that stuff. And so 0:21:19.920 --> 0:21:22.119 together he and I went to hip hop shows in 0:21:22.200 --> 0:21:26.480 Amsterdam at the Paradiso, saw like stuff like Onyx and what. 0:21:26.640 --> 0:21:28.160 We went to all of the shit that we could 0:21:28.200 --> 0:21:38.280 find stuff my bad really so yeah, so okay, Player 0:21:38.359 --> 0:21:43.320 for me was literally a direct connection to the culture 0:21:43.480 --> 0:21:45.760 that I really really was interested in. 0:21:46.480 --> 0:21:49.359 This is the thing I've had conversations with people the 0:21:49.720 --> 0:21:52.240 nineteen eighties generation that got hip hop, Like to hear 0:21:53.240 --> 0:21:58.159 Mooney Love describe that. She can hear her voice on 0:21:58.280 --> 0:22:01.440 those Public Enemy interludes on it Nation of millions, you know, 0:22:01.560 --> 0:22:04.360 like the the interstitials of which they're doing the top 0:22:04.400 --> 0:22:08.040 of the Fresh what are the who's the pump masterflex 0:22:08.080 --> 0:22:11.480 of the UK? West Wood West Yeah, Tim Westwood Show. 0:22:11.600 --> 0:22:14.200 Like if you listen to that funky drummer loop, somebody 0:22:14.520 --> 0:22:19.640 anybody scream here the girls screaming Himoney you love? That's 0:22:19.680 --> 0:22:24.240 her voice, like so to hear an eighties generation describe that. 0:22:25.440 --> 0:22:28.159 But we can all attest, especially Fonte and I, that 0:22:29.000 --> 0:22:32.200 there's a different type of hip hop fan like post 0:22:32.320 --> 0:22:35.720 ninety four but post ninety five that you fall under. 0:22:36.320 --> 0:22:39.000 And the thing is that I noticed and a lot 0:22:39.080 --> 0:22:44.040 of artists, especially now Jay, were the damage of had 0:22:44.080 --> 0:22:47.200 to move to Europe just to make a living. So yeah, 0:22:47.640 --> 0:22:51.399 lives there now? Oh really because that's like yeah, but 0:22:51.560 --> 0:22:53.119 it's it's a lot of acts that are doing that. 0:22:53.400 --> 0:22:57.240 At any point, did you realize, like really the essence 0:22:57.320 --> 0:23:00.680 of the hip hop that you that attracted you, the 0:23:00.840 --> 0:23:04.280 perceived on the ground thing. Did you have any clue 0:23:04.359 --> 0:23:08.520 whatsoever that that that's really a culture that is tailored 0:23:08.640 --> 0:23:10.600 for Europe, like there was no place in the United 0:23:10.600 --> 0:23:13.920 States in which like the Roots could sell out the 0:23:14.520 --> 0:23:17.919 Parisian version of Massive Square Garden La Zenith. 0:23:18.160 --> 0:23:18.800 Yeah you know what I'm saying. 0:23:18.840 --> 0:23:21.720 Yeah, yeah, where prints played like a bunch of times. Yeah, 0:23:21.760 --> 0:23:22.600 you know, not at home. 0:23:22.720 --> 0:23:24.000 We can't do that right. 0:23:25.080 --> 0:23:27.359 At any point, did you realize that that level of 0:23:27.400 --> 0:23:29.359 hip hop like that was the true home of it 0:23:29.640 --> 0:23:31.320 or did you still think of it as an American 0:23:31.400 --> 0:23:32.399 thing like I looked at it. 0:23:32.440 --> 0:23:33.959 What did you think we were doing in America at 0:23:34.000 --> 0:23:36.160 that time? I didn't pick up on that, Like I didn't. 0:23:36.600 --> 0:23:39.840 I wasn't raised on you know, the classic run DMC 0:23:40.000 --> 0:23:42.240 stuff or something like that. I had no clue like I, 0:23:42.440 --> 0:23:45.880 Like you said, I came on board in the early nineties, 0:23:46.000 --> 0:23:50.240 but my true fandom was like ninety five, ninety six 0:23:50.320 --> 0:23:53.000 all the way up to two thousand, when when I 0:23:53.119 --> 0:23:54.159 bought like stuff like. 0:23:54.320 --> 0:23:56.000 Like water for chocolate, which was a. 0:23:57.960 --> 0:24:00.280 And I don't think I realized that if In fact, 0:24:00.320 --> 0:24:05.720 I felt kind of isolated over there, specifically musically, because 0:24:05.840 --> 0:24:09.560 what I liked was in my group of people perceived 0:24:09.640 --> 0:24:11.000 as American. 0:24:11.000 --> 0:24:14.439 Okay, not even my sound. 0:24:14.600 --> 0:24:17.120 When I first started making music. A lot of people 0:24:17.200 --> 0:24:19.399 over there felt it was kind of slick and a 0:24:19.480 --> 0:24:23.280 little American, and I didn't realize at all later like, now, 0:24:23.359 --> 0:24:26.199 what you're saying makes perfect sense, But for me at 0:24:26.240 --> 0:24:30.000 the time, it was an American thing, and it I 0:24:30.080 --> 0:24:33.399 think subconsciously realized that if I wanted to make music 0:24:33.560 --> 0:24:37.280 like that, I needed to connect with Americans. 0:24:38.680 --> 0:24:39.120 That's weird. 0:24:39.200 --> 0:24:41.360 So the slur word over there is it sounds America, 0:24:41.440 --> 0:24:44.000 whereas that same type of music here, I think they 0:24:44.040 --> 0:24:48.600 would just say, like, oh, that's soft, you know, yes, smooth, emotional. 0:24:48.760 --> 0:24:49.200 Yeah yeah. 0:24:49.560 --> 0:24:52.080 Over there, like the type of hip hop that exists 0:24:52.119 --> 0:24:55.680 there natively is more abstract, you know, it's not necessarily 0:24:56.160 --> 0:25:00.200 purely musical per se, but it's very aggressive and lot 0:25:00.240 --> 0:25:02.359 of it is local language based. 0:25:02.400 --> 0:25:04.639 At this point, who was the biggest local artist that 0:25:04.840 --> 0:25:08.639 had the biggest poll over there, That's a great question. 0:25:08.880 --> 0:25:11.520 I didn't really listen to any of it because, like 0:25:12.119 --> 0:25:14.679 you know, a lot of them were Dutch language artists, 0:25:14.720 --> 0:25:17.000 and I never thought that sounded very good and that 0:25:17.240 --> 0:25:21.680 was probably a little snobbish of me, but I really liked. 0:25:21.800 --> 0:25:23.720 Was everyone trying to be like DJ Premiere or. 0:25:23.880 --> 0:25:27.840 Like even even more abstract, just not really any people, 0:25:29.400 --> 0:25:34.040 maybe like Company Flow or some stuff like real Deaf Jus. 0:25:34.400 --> 0:25:38.159 Not definitely not what I did. Definitely not with like 0:25:38.320 --> 0:25:41.560 chord progressions or like baselines that fit the. 0:25:41.600 --> 0:25:45.119 Key or let me let me, let me just let 0:25:45.200 --> 0:25:48.080 me clean it up. I'm a massive fan like cannibal Ox, 0:25:48.160 --> 0:25:49.040 like the first generation. 0:25:49.280 --> 0:25:52.119 I didn't mean that as I meant that more style. 0:25:52.520 --> 0:25:55.560 There's always one troll that's going to be like no, no, no. 0:25:56.000 --> 0:25:57.080 I definitely didn't mean that. 0:25:57.240 --> 0:25:59.480 I don't want to Detroit singer effect. 0:26:04.640 --> 0:26:05.160 To myself. 0:26:06.359 --> 0:26:08.439 Now, I guess I mean it more as a style 0:26:08.640 --> 0:26:12.080 that is more marked by a certain level of expression 0:26:12.240 --> 0:26:16.200 versus like again, like when I heard like Water for 0:26:16.359 --> 0:26:20.480 Chocolate like production Wise, or when I first heard Fantastic 0:26:20.600 --> 0:26:23.800 Volume two, or even when I later heard Things Fall Apart, 0:26:23.880 --> 0:26:26.880 which was a little bit later for me, or Voodoo. 0:26:27.760 --> 0:26:30.680 Those were the albums that made me realize like, Okay, 0:26:30.760 --> 0:26:33.240 so you can make hip hop and make it beautiful 0:26:34.080 --> 0:26:37.720 versus you have to make hip hop that is aggressive. 0:26:37.800 --> 0:26:39.359 Not that there wasn't you know what I'm saying, but 0:26:39.480 --> 0:26:41.840 like it was for me a realization because when I 0:26:41.960 --> 0:26:44.080 first came into contact with hip hop I had a 0:26:44.160 --> 0:26:47.320 very naive understanding of like, there's a guy with turntables 0:26:47.920 --> 0:26:51.160 who is making the beats, for instance, Tribe Cold Quest. 0:26:51.320 --> 0:26:52.680 That's how I sort of saw it. 0:26:52.800 --> 0:26:53.240 You know, you have. 0:26:56.040 --> 0:26:58.760 It's making the beats with the vinyl. And it wasn't 0:26:58.840 --> 0:27:02.639 until later that I not, like, Okay, there's actually people 0:27:03.480 --> 0:27:08.159 doing this that that are more musical inclined. And so 0:27:08.400 --> 0:27:10.560 that was for me sort of like really kind of 0:27:10.600 --> 0:27:13.960 the eye opener of like, Okay, I understand now that 0:27:14.160 --> 0:27:17.639 there's something that I could contribute to this music. 0:27:22.880 --> 0:27:25.720 This is real important for me to hear that, because 0:27:25.760 --> 0:27:31.199 there's part of me that has this negative slash glass 0:27:31.280 --> 0:27:37.560 half empty view of how the community sees the music. 0:27:38.240 --> 0:27:41.920 And for the most part, I always felt like whatever 0:27:42.080 --> 0:27:43.720 nariety that we got, we were. 0:27:43.640 --> 0:27:47.760 Only chosen because we weren't gangster rap. 0:27:48.160 --> 0:27:51.439 Like the amount of times that someone will performably come 0:27:51.560 --> 0:27:55.880 up to me backstage to differentiate themselves like yo, man, 0:27:56.200 --> 0:27:58.080 like I like y'all because you know, y'all don't be 0:27:58.200 --> 0:28:02.399 killing bitches, y'all don't be so with drugs like and 0:28:02.480 --> 0:28:04.920 y'all don't care about success, you don't care about getting paid. 0:28:07.240 --> 0:28:08.160 Definitely wrong. 0:28:08.760 --> 0:28:10.560 So again the idea. And that's the thing. 0:28:10.680 --> 0:28:13.640 I know in their mind they're thinking like, wow, they're 0:28:13.680 --> 0:28:16.040 trying to give me a quotable that I remember, like yeah, 0:28:16.119 --> 0:28:20.040 that one fan and Boise Idaho that just like me 0:28:20.160 --> 0:28:26.600 and looks right, And really I only walk away thinking like, man, 0:28:26.680 --> 0:28:29.960 they just they hate Snoop Doggie Dogs, so they only 0:28:30.119 --> 0:28:32.000 like us because we're the opposite of that, which is 0:28:32.040 --> 0:28:35.840 really not saying you like, So this is like one 0:28:35.840 --> 0:28:40.040 of the rare times in which like I felt chosen. Yeah, yes, 0:28:40.200 --> 0:28:42.600 I know that for everyone to be on OK player. 0:28:43.440 --> 0:28:48.600 But then because of just you know, an artist being 0:28:48.880 --> 0:28:50.040 over analytical and. 0:28:51.760 --> 0:28:55.880 Self deprecating for me, like the fact that I allow 0:28:55.960 --> 0:29:00.120 people just slander us and talk shit over there more 0:29:00.200 --> 0:29:02.640 or less about me just feeling to justify like my 0:29:02.760 --> 0:29:06.440 non deservedness. But I will say that this is a 0:29:06.520 --> 0:29:09.600 really good time for me to hear that, oh, someone 0:29:09.680 --> 0:29:12.479 actually just liked the music and gravitated. 0:29:11.960 --> 0:29:15.040 Towards Not only that, but it it made me feel 0:29:15.320 --> 0:29:17.760 like I had something to contribute, Like I wasn't a DJ. 0:29:17.920 --> 0:29:21.640 I've never really truly done vinyl. I'm an instrument guy. 0:29:21.720 --> 0:29:27.040 I started out playing guitar, bass, drums, some keyboards, and 0:29:27.240 --> 0:29:30.200 so I had always played in bands. I didn't have 0:29:30.320 --> 0:29:32.840 a beat making background in that sense. But what I 0:29:32.960 --> 0:29:38.320 heard in those records, y'all's records, the common was musical 0:29:38.480 --> 0:29:41.560 layers on top of drums. If I had to just 0:29:41.640 --> 0:29:45.360 put it very basic, that told me that there was 0:29:45.440 --> 0:29:52.080 a place for a musical approach to production. To me, 0:29:52.480 --> 0:29:57.120 like it wasn't just about two turntables, but like added keyboards, 0:29:57.160 --> 0:30:00.480 added guitars, added like basically whatever y'all I would like, 0:30:00.640 --> 0:30:04.560 you know, road like obviously the roads ear candy. That 0:30:04.800 --> 0:30:07.600 made me think like okay, wow, like I can actually 0:30:07.760 --> 0:30:09.800 probably contribute something to this. 0:30:10.120 --> 0:30:12.240 But did you realize that? 0:30:12.920 --> 0:30:15.320 Because the thing is is that at least back then 0:30:16.320 --> 0:30:18.640 if I'm going to Europe the same way that you 0:30:18.720 --> 0:30:21.200 got to fill up your gas tank like I know 0:30:22.080 --> 0:30:25.520 in Prime Roots time in ninety five, ninety six, in 0:30:26.160 --> 0:30:29.080 two thousand and one, two thousand and two, that I'm 0:30:29.120 --> 0:30:33.360 going to go bend shopping with Dayles Peterson or do 0:30:33.640 --> 0:30:35.240 a lot of I'm almost certain I. 0:30:35.320 --> 0:30:37.320 Still believe to this day I had. 0:30:37.600 --> 0:30:40.040 I did like two thousand dollars worth of record shopping 0:30:40.840 --> 0:30:43.840 in Amsterdam, and I think the records are still in 0:30:43.960 --> 0:30:45.440 their basement because I forgot. 0:30:45.200 --> 0:30:48.880 To nail at home. But like I would have to 0:30:48.960 --> 0:30:50.720 go to Europe and to. 0:30:51.040 --> 0:30:55.920 These these whatever, the cosmopolitan European, westernized European cities to 0:30:56.600 --> 0:30:59.240 get the music that's going to help me make the 0:30:59.400 --> 0:31:02.360 music that's crazy that you think is coming from America, 0:31:02.400 --> 0:31:05.480 but really like it's coming from you. It is those 0:31:05.560 --> 0:31:10.000 obscure bands from Holland or the frog rock groupers. So 0:31:10.080 --> 0:31:13.000 at any point is it registering to you that you're 0:31:13.160 --> 0:31:16.640 actually kind of at an advantage where you live in 0:31:16.760 --> 0:31:19.600 the place where a lot of taste makers, the Giles 0:31:19.640 --> 0:31:22.800 Peterson's of the world, are exposing you all to music 0:31:22.880 --> 0:31:24.680 that otherwise only. 0:31:24.640 --> 0:31:26.560 Very few people are doing it in the United States 0:31:26.640 --> 0:31:26.920 right now. 0:31:27.440 --> 0:31:31.440 I think it's a great question. Actually I don't think 0:31:31.480 --> 0:31:34.520 to that extent, But like there were a lot of 0:31:34.720 --> 0:31:38.200 Europeans trends of music at that time happening that I 0:31:38.400 --> 0:31:42.320 think I was influenced by that gave me a leg 0:31:42.520 --> 0:31:46.360 up over here, like for Hero in UK, like jazz 0:31:46.440 --> 0:31:49.920 and Nova in Germany, like some of the more down 0:31:50.000 --> 0:31:54.840 tempo stuff in France. So when when I put my 0:31:55.000 --> 0:31:58.240 music out to the world in the States, people said 0:31:58.240 --> 0:32:01.719 it had a European feel, and you know, again ironically, 0:32:01.800 --> 0:32:04.600 back home, people were saying that stuff sounds American. I 0:32:04.720 --> 0:32:07.480 had no idea. I think I perceived all of this 0:32:07.760 --> 0:32:11.680 music as as purely American, and I don't think I 0:32:11.840 --> 0:32:15.320 had this sophistication of knowledge at the time to realize 0:32:15.360 --> 0:32:17.360 that it was kind of a full circle. 0:32:17.520 --> 0:32:20.920 That's really places where. Yeah, no, not at all, not 0:32:21.080 --> 0:32:23.000 at all. So did you think like we were like 0:32:23.560 --> 0:32:27.720 on America, having like, you know, poetry slammed me like 0:32:28.120 --> 0:32:29.720 everything that you talk about. 0:32:31.080 --> 0:32:34.080 Journals on the capreia, Like did you think like we 0:32:34.200 --> 0:32:36.719 were just like, you know, cutting up coconuts? 0:32:36.760 --> 0:32:39.600 And I don't think it was erratic sand but I 0:32:39.760 --> 0:32:45.680 definitely heard I think I think maybe it was because 0:32:45.760 --> 0:32:49.240 of the perception of the Roots as a band. I 0:32:49.520 --> 0:32:53.680 heard something that was not a guy on a beat machine. 0:32:53.800 --> 0:32:58.880 I heard a more richer kind of sound that made 0:32:58.920 --> 0:33:02.200 me think like a lot of it was played by instruments. 0:33:02.200 --> 0:33:04.800 And again the instruments is what appealed to me because 0:33:04.840 --> 0:33:07.080 I didn't know how to make a beat, but I 0:33:07.160 --> 0:33:08.280 knew how to play a bass. 0:33:08.280 --> 0:33:10.200 Guitar, you know what I mean? Like, how far were 0:33:10.240 --> 0:33:13.600 you from Amsterdam? So I grew up in Utrecht, which. 0:33:13.440 --> 0:33:16.000 Is half an hour where the you would call it 0:33:16.080 --> 0:33:21.080 a suburb of which is Atrat used to be. It's 0:33:21.120 --> 0:33:23.400 a thousands years old city that used to be a 0:33:23.520 --> 0:33:25.640 Roman outpost. But it and that's where the North Sea 0:33:25.720 --> 0:33:28.160 Jazz festivals hill, right or No, that was in the 0:33:28.280 --> 0:33:31.360 Hague and now I think nowadays it's in Rotterdam. They 0:33:31.440 --> 0:33:33.720 moved it from the Hague to Rotterdam. But I went 0:33:33.800 --> 0:33:36.520 to school in Amsterdam because that was the thing that 0:33:36.640 --> 0:33:39.200 you did. Like when I finished high school, I went 0:33:39.240 --> 0:33:41.640 to school in Amsterdam, largely because I didn't know what 0:33:41.800 --> 0:33:44.800 to do. So I started musicology at the University of 0:33:44.880 --> 0:33:48.920 Amsterdam and I started going to the Paradiso, which is 0:33:49.000 --> 0:33:52.080 a venue you would be familiar with. Yeah, that was 0:33:52.280 --> 0:33:54.200 you know, we got a lot of great Like I 0:33:54.360 --> 0:33:56.760 remember seeing Wu Tang for the first time they were 0:33:56.840 --> 0:33:58.280 in Holland, and can. 0:33:58.280 --> 0:34:04.160 Ask a question, Yeah, okay, as a Holland resident, how 0:34:04.360 --> 0:34:06.480 frustrating was it for you? 0:34:06.760 --> 0:34:07.560 Because here's the thing. 0:34:08.640 --> 0:34:13.960 Now it's twenty twenty four, so kind of perception and 0:34:14.120 --> 0:34:18.440 the relationship with cannabis and weed. Oh man, now it's 0:34:18.560 --> 0:34:22.280 like it's it's it's getting nationalized and slowly, but surely. 0:34:22.360 --> 0:34:25.759 I think right now Germany's voting to see they'll legalize 0:34:25.760 --> 0:34:26.240 it totally. 0:34:26.760 --> 0:34:28.480 So you know, the world's open up the rains. 0:34:28.520 --> 0:34:31.399 But like of course in the late nineteen nineties early 0:34:31.440 --> 0:34:34.839 two thousand and people's minds like the whole pulp fiction 0:34:35.360 --> 0:34:37.719 thing that the glorious story of, like you gotta go 0:34:38.760 --> 0:34:43.200 to only in Amsterdam and Holland, Yeah, can you get 0:34:43.280 --> 0:34:45.480 fucked up and not get fucked rusted? 0:34:46.920 --> 0:34:47.640 Right? Great? 0:34:47.880 --> 0:34:51.560 And so as a result, like the amount of shows 0:34:51.719 --> 0:34:54.719 that I saw, just the amount of artists, because a 0:34:54.800 --> 0:34:56.920 lot of artists when they start there, you were being toured, 0:34:56.960 --> 0:34:58.759 they would make Amsterdam the hub. 0:34:58.880 --> 0:35:02.120 First, go there a few days earlier and go to 0:35:02.239 --> 0:35:03.480 all these coffee shops and the. 0:35:05.640 --> 0:35:11.239 Right and so you know, I do know in my 0:35:11.520 --> 0:35:16.640 mind a lot of the most adventurous roots shows were 0:35:16.960 --> 0:35:18.120 in Amsterdam. 0:35:18.640 --> 0:35:21.920 And what's an adventurous root shows ount. 0:35:21.800 --> 0:35:26.400 Like it's where they might hit four or five coffee 0:35:26.400 --> 0:35:30.640 shops before we get on stage. So even though the 0:35:30.719 --> 0:35:35.160 muscle memory is strong, like we've the most closest to 0:35:35.280 --> 0:35:38.279 freestyle shows where it's just like it's a fish show 0:35:40.640 --> 0:35:44.359 that I wasn't taking so at least like I could. 0:35:44.719 --> 0:35:47.000 It was just harder to control the guys as a 0:35:47.040 --> 0:35:49.800 traffic cop. Oh I was a designated driver, right because 0:35:49.840 --> 0:35:52.160 you know, Tarik might forget the third verse to mel 0:35:52.320 --> 0:35:54.680 my Man and then we gotta you know. But I 0:35:54.920 --> 0:35:58.360 also feel as though those those shows excited me because 0:35:58.600 --> 0:36:02.160 I didn't know what to expect. So basically, I think 0:36:02.160 --> 0:36:04.120 I just revealed to the world that what you already 0:36:04.160 --> 0:36:07.800 knew is like I'm tightly wound, and I rehearse no 0:36:07.880 --> 0:36:10.120 no no, no no no, no no no, I'm tightly wound, 0:36:10.200 --> 0:36:15.080 just in terms of like my spontanees rehearsed as a band, 0:36:15.320 --> 0:36:18.359 as a band leader. And so I always wonder if 0:36:18.400 --> 0:36:21.200 people in the audience get frustrated looking at us, like 0:36:22.000 --> 0:36:24.359 dumb Americans they always get fucked up before they come 0:36:24.440 --> 0:36:27.719 on stage and now they're falling all over and forget 0:36:27.760 --> 0:36:31.320 their lyrics. Like I can confirm that, Like, have you 0:36:31.440 --> 0:36:36.600 seen a good hip hop show in Holland where nobody 0:36:36.719 --> 0:36:38.040 was so fucked up they couldn't perform? 0:36:38.160 --> 0:36:42.239 Yes, I've seen both. So I've seen like Lords of 0:36:42.280 --> 0:36:48.040 the Underground CIRCA Funky Child, amazing, amazing show. They were focused, 0:36:48.200 --> 0:36:51.400 they were focused, sounded incredible, like parodies, as you know, 0:36:51.719 --> 0:36:55.279 is an old church. Yeah, sound can be very finicky there, 0:36:55.320 --> 0:36:59.640 but it was amazing. But I'm not afraid to relate 0:36:59.719 --> 0:37:05.880 this anecdote. The first time came to them, Joe apparently like, 0:37:06.200 --> 0:37:09.800 you know how Paradiso has the dressing rooms in the basement. 0:37:09.640 --> 0:37:12.760 Yes, you go up the stairs to the stay the balcony. 0:37:12.840 --> 0:37:17.200 Yes, And and so Jizza apparently was so high that 0:37:17.400 --> 0:37:19.400 he wouldn't come out of the dressing room, and they 0:37:19.440 --> 0:37:25.160 brought the microphone down using the stairs. So there were 0:37:25.320 --> 0:37:27.840 a lot of shows where you could tell like it 0:37:28.080 --> 0:37:28.719 was impacted. 0:37:28.840 --> 0:37:29.760 So you just expected. 0:37:31.719 --> 0:37:33.960 And the thing for people in Amsterdam is like it 0:37:34.120 --> 0:37:37.040 is legal, so a lot of people don't really bother 0:37:37.200 --> 0:37:40.400 to partake because you know how that kind of becomes 0:37:40.440 --> 0:37:43.600 a thing of like, ah whatever. So we were not 0:37:43.880 --> 0:37:46.560 we you know, I've seen both. I've seen incredible hip 0:37:46.560 --> 0:37:49.600 hop shows where it seemed like and and maybe they 0:37:49.640 --> 0:37:54.640 were still but like but but largely we loved the 0:37:54.760 --> 0:37:55.279 record so. 0:37:55.400 --> 0:37:57.840 Much that you wanted to get some of that. You 0:37:57.960 --> 0:38:00.600 wanted to get what you loved about the record. 0:38:00.960 --> 0:38:04.360 And I remember really really great show like Onyx was incredible. 0:38:04.920 --> 0:38:08.239 Onyx opened up for run DMC because they were being 0:38:08.560 --> 0:38:11.360 manage at the time and it was down with the 0:38:12.960 --> 0:38:16.640 and that was an incredible show. Yeah, obviously cypress Hill 0:38:16.680 --> 0:38:18.959 worked out really well In answer them, because. 0:38:20.360 --> 0:38:23.759 You're saying that we, like I enjoyed many of our 0:38:23.840 --> 0:38:27.440 shows over there, but I will also acknowledge in the 0:38:27.520 --> 0:38:31.080 same with LA, like all of our LA shows are 0:38:31.160 --> 0:38:34.839 so high pressurized because you knows in the crowd while 0:38:34.840 --> 0:38:37.360 I'm black, it's watching you over there, so you're like 0:38:37.880 --> 0:38:41.320 going on out or showing off, and it's not like 0:38:41.400 --> 0:38:43.360 the shows that I wish you guys could see, like 0:38:44.880 --> 0:38:47.840 one of them nondescript shows that we did in Italy 0:38:48.040 --> 0:38:50.800 or in France that we didn't care about and we 0:38:51.000 --> 0:38:53.799 just retired and went on state, Like those shows are 0:38:53.800 --> 0:38:56.640 the best route shows that we'll never get seen. But 0:38:56.920 --> 0:39:00.319 I always wondered if you guys you're getting think about 0:39:00.360 --> 0:39:07.920 it going another question I have because the thing is, 0:39:08.000 --> 0:39:10.080 and this is for the both of you to me, 0:39:10.880 --> 0:39:15.840 I'm thinking, like I had such a flag planning moment 0:39:16.400 --> 0:39:20.000 with like, yeah, this this thing called the super Information 0:39:20.160 --> 0:39:24.040 Highway and the Internet, like I'm bringing a real life 0:39:24.080 --> 0:39:27.000 magazine or the way that Rozelle described it, He's like, yo, man, 0:39:27.080 --> 0:39:29.640 you just open up your own mall and you're selling 0:39:29.719 --> 0:39:32.239 stories to everybody to come and do their thing, and 0:39:32.360 --> 0:39:35.680 that's what okay player is. So I thought that's as 0:39:35.719 --> 0:39:37.719 far as I could take it. So the day that's 0:39:37.760 --> 0:39:40.759 someone and they explained to me like I was a 0:39:40.840 --> 0:39:43.040 sixty five year older. He's like, no, you don't understand, 0:39:43.680 --> 0:39:47.080 Like they made their music on computer. I was like, wait, 0:39:47.360 --> 0:39:49.480 you can make a studio like it sounds like I 0:39:49.520 --> 0:39:51.200 came from battery studios. 0:39:51.320 --> 0:39:52.360 Like a real song like that. 0:39:53.160 --> 0:39:54.800 So the way that people were explaining to me that 0:39:55.000 --> 0:39:57.800 you can now make an entire album on your computer 0:39:58.200 --> 0:39:59.880 and check this out of here. You can email it 0:40:00.160 --> 0:40:04.080 somebody and they could add vocals, And I was trying 0:40:04.120 --> 0:40:06.120 to like the way that somebody was explaining to me 0:40:06.800 --> 0:40:08.359 what it was like why it was such a big 0:40:08.440 --> 0:40:11.520 deal that this pairing was happening. It was one of 0:40:11.600 --> 0:40:14.000 them things where I didn't know what fruity loop even 0:40:14.040 --> 0:40:17.040 though like I heard you guys mentioned we lose fruity loops. 0:40:17.200 --> 0:40:20.360 I've never to this day seen fruity loops or like 0:40:21.040 --> 0:40:23.640 I'm also the guy's just a shame to admit I 0:40:23.760 --> 0:40:24.400 make records in. 0:40:24.400 --> 0:40:27.000 The old way, hey man, Steve is very cl Steven 0:40:27.000 --> 0:40:27.719 is smiling right now. 0:40:27.920 --> 0:40:30.839 I've never saw fruity loops either. I really haven't. 0:40:31.000 --> 0:40:31.520 Well, I know that. 0:40:31.600 --> 0:40:34.440 I'm just like you're very glad that I'm very with 0:40:34.680 --> 0:40:37.680 my pretty much like I don't know that. I think 0:40:37.760 --> 0:40:40.840 my whole record was the age yet. So at what 0:40:41.080 --> 0:40:45.520 point did you guys decide to like, Okay, this worked out? 0:40:45.640 --> 0:40:48.400 Like why don't we make something of this? Because I 0:40:48.400 --> 0:40:50.319 would have never even if you did that, Like can 0:40:50.400 --> 0:40:53.520 I rhyme over this? You never met each other, So 0:40:54.239 --> 0:40:55.680 how did you know this would work? 0:40:55.840 --> 0:40:56.000 Man? 0:40:56.040 --> 0:40:58.520 It could be music. It was just the music. It 0:40:58.640 --> 0:41:00.959 was just a belief in the music. I didn't Again, 0:41:01.040 --> 0:41:05.200 I didn't know him. I didn't know nothing about him. 0:41:05.960 --> 0:41:06.120 You know. 0:41:06.480 --> 0:41:09.160 And so finally, you know, we you know, we would 0:41:09.400 --> 0:41:12.760 just use instant messenger. And at the time we made Connected, 0:41:12.920 --> 0:41:14.439 I didn't even have a computer. 0:41:14.200 --> 0:41:14.680 Of my own. 0:41:15.000 --> 0:41:18.440 So all that whole making your vocals, So how I 0:41:18.560 --> 0:41:22.080 was doing my vocals back back then? We had a studio, 0:41:22.200 --> 0:41:24.120 I mean, we had our studio. We were recording chop shop, 0:41:24.160 --> 0:41:26.640 we were making all the LB records. But I didn't 0:41:26.680 --> 0:41:29.440 have a personal computer in my crib. So I would 0:41:29.480 --> 0:41:32.040 go to the chop shop do my vocals, and then 0:41:32.600 --> 0:41:35.520 I would either I would mix down the MP three 0:41:36.120 --> 0:41:39.439 and I would go to my homeboys crib my man MC. 0:41:39.960 --> 0:41:42.640 I would use his computer, my man Meetian. 0:41:42.960 --> 0:41:48.240 He had a pass to the computer lab at NC State, 0:41:49.200 --> 0:41:51.880 and so he would let us all kind of we 0:41:51.920 --> 0:41:54.719 would be on some bootleg shit like using his credentials 0:41:54.760 --> 0:41:57.080 to get into the computer lab at NC State, and 0:41:57.280 --> 0:41:59.120 I would like log on and be like, yo, bro, 0:41:59.719 --> 0:42:01.360 I just did this, and I would like, you know, 0:42:01.600 --> 0:42:02.240 get on im. 0:42:02.360 --> 0:42:04.719 AIM. I oul send it to him. How long would 0:42:04.719 --> 0:42:06.200 it take to email files back? 0:42:06.239 --> 0:42:08.520 It wasn't bad, So it wasn't email because this again, 0:42:08.600 --> 0:42:11.239 this is prior to like Gmail or any of that shit. 0:42:11.480 --> 0:42:13.759 Sens face, none of that. This is AIM. This is 0:42:13.920 --> 0:42:20.919 AIM instant messenger and you just mail file. Yeah. 0:42:21.680 --> 0:42:24.800 And I think we never shared wave files because that 0:42:24.960 --> 0:42:28.920 wasn't possible. You would. He would send me an MP 0:42:29.040 --> 0:42:31.520 three and then when we were like okay, this is 0:42:31.600 --> 0:42:34.560 really it, like he actually snail mailed me some cd 0:42:34.760 --> 0:42:36.120 some CDRs so that I. 0:42:36.640 --> 0:42:39.279 Waved on it. Yeah, and you're doing this straight to 0:42:39.719 --> 0:42:42.239 MP three. Yeah, I'm doing this. I mean not sending 0:42:42.280 --> 0:42:44.320 like the drum track and keyboard tracking. Oh no, no, 0:42:44.440 --> 0:42:46.160 this is just straight two track. So how do you 0:42:46.400 --> 0:42:49.040 line up? Like? Are you lining stuff Jimmy Jam style? 0:42:49.120 --> 0:42:52.680 Like Jimmy Jam revealed that for at least eighty to 0:42:52.840 --> 0:42:56.120 ninety percent, they never used sympty at all, right, and 0:42:56.200 --> 0:42:59.160 he would just blend the vocals like when they would 0:42:59.160 --> 0:42:59.960 do a remix or something. 0:43:00.440 --> 0:43:02.319 Are you essentially just so. 0:43:02.480 --> 0:43:04.920 Basically I had to beat. I had the track, and 0:43:05.040 --> 0:43:08.160 then Fante would send me a ref like he would 0:43:08.200 --> 0:43:10.759 do the vocals, and he would mail me a ref 0:43:11.320 --> 0:43:14.600 and then I would essentially line them up using the ref. 0:43:14.760 --> 0:43:17.000 So I'd be like, okay, this is my session. 0:43:17.719 --> 0:43:24.080 This is what I would literally and then normally it 0:43:24.080 --> 0:43:25.759 would be like no, I push it back for like 0:43:25.840 --> 0:43:27.680 a little you know, give it like it was sort 0:43:27.760 --> 0:43:30.960 of like a trial and error and when it sounded right, 0:43:31.040 --> 0:43:33.000 you kind of knew like, okay, it sits right, but 0:43:33.120 --> 0:43:34.960 it was there was no process. 0:43:35.040 --> 0:43:37.399 You would tell them sometimes like nudge the drums back 0:43:38.560 --> 0:43:39.080 with vocals. 0:43:39.080 --> 0:43:40.799 I would the track out, you know, I would let 0:43:40.880 --> 0:43:43.560 him do that, but my vocals. You dialitize your vocals 0:43:43.600 --> 0:43:48.080 to absolutely every time this day, like to this day, 0:43:50.160 --> 0:43:52.480 nudge to the right. Everything's for for him to the 0:43:52.600 --> 0:43:54.200 right in the whole world all the time. 0:43:55.120 --> 0:44:01.440 Everything. Yeah, man, that's you know is four frames the right. 0:44:01.560 --> 0:44:05.040 Everybody is four frames the rect Yeah, I gotta admit though, no. 0:44:05.239 --> 0:44:09.239 But but the thing is is that I thought you 0:44:09.400 --> 0:44:12.680 were on some Steph Curry shooting from half court like 0:44:13.000 --> 0:44:18.400 some of these vocals, you know, the with thieve behind this, 0:44:18.680 --> 0:44:20.360 And I was like, yo, yeah. 0:44:21.239 --> 0:44:25.719 So magular that in many ways he is, but like 0:44:26.000 --> 0:44:27.920 it was still we would exaggerate it. 0:44:27.960 --> 0:44:30.080 I mean, I, you know, naturally I would kind of 0:44:30.160 --> 0:44:32.840 be you know, on it, but but I would always like, 0:44:32.960 --> 0:44:34.239 kind of nudget it look to the right. 0:44:34.440 --> 0:44:36.760 But that was how we did the first album. 0:44:36.920 --> 0:44:40.640 So he was he was in the Netherlands and I 0:44:40.840 --> 0:44:43.560 was in Durham and so little Brother had a show 0:44:44.320 --> 0:44:44.840 at Parody. 0:44:44.960 --> 0:44:48.040 So this was what they didn't get high. 0:44:48.160 --> 0:44:51.920 Yeah, we didn't get high, save that we came at 0:44:52.080 --> 0:44:54.759 Queens Day. I was very high. But we did. 0:44:54.920 --> 0:44:55.040 Uh. 0:44:55.400 --> 0:44:59.560 It was like three that was four four April four. 0:45:00.040 --> 0:45:01.879 That was our first time ever meeting each other face 0:45:01.920 --> 0:45:04.880 to face. We came over and by that time we 0:45:04.960 --> 0:45:08.120 had connected damn near done you know good. 0:45:08.200 --> 0:45:09.800 Yeah, we had it pretty much So what was the 0:45:09.840 --> 0:45:14.040 first meeting like, because I also feel like the reflection 0:45:14.160 --> 0:45:17.040 of the music there has to be some sort of 0:45:17.120 --> 0:45:18.120 social camaraderie. 0:45:19.000 --> 0:45:19.600 Absolutely. 0:45:19.800 --> 0:45:22.560 Yeah, no, man, listen, bro, if you can you know, 0:45:22.760 --> 0:45:25.680 if you have the level of trust to send your 0:45:25.840 --> 0:45:29.600 raw vocals to somebody, I mean, that's you know, that's 0:45:29.680 --> 0:45:33.880 a bond that you know, you know, just regardless of 0:45:33.920 --> 0:45:37.279 them person not being in your physical space. That's just 0:45:37.800 --> 0:45:42.480 a level of intimacy and trust that it supersedes, you know, 0:45:42.680 --> 0:45:45.160 any kind of physical or any kind of whatever, you know, 0:45:45.239 --> 0:45:48.160 because you're just you're essentially like putting yourself out there 0:45:48.200 --> 0:45:50.080 and you send it to this guy that you don't know, 0:45:50.160 --> 0:45:52.400 and it's like, hey, man, I trust you with this. 0:45:52.680 --> 0:45:53.920 Make it happen, you know what I mean. 0:45:54.040 --> 0:45:56.600 And so when we met each other face to face 0:45:56.640 --> 0:45:58.279 that first time, it was just like, oh right, what 0:45:58.440 --> 0:45:58.879 up this Nick? 0:45:58.920 --> 0:45:59.439 Okay? Cool? 0:46:00.080 --> 0:46:02.080 It was like almost like yeah, I saw you yesterday, 0:46:02.160 --> 0:46:03.040 but I hadn't. 0:46:02.800 --> 0:46:05.680 Yeah, because because we had literally been working on this 0:46:05.760 --> 0:46:07.839 album like for months and months, and at that time, 0:46:08.360 --> 0:46:10.520 you know, that was when LB we were touring heavy, 0:46:10.880 --> 0:46:13.400 So it was really, oh we just lost the contact. 0:46:14.080 --> 0:46:20.279 Oh yeah, I was what I got I got it. 0:46:20.280 --> 0:46:26.960 I got it right, you know, like Kevin Nel, look 0:46:27.120 --> 0:46:27.440 look at. 0:46:30.000 --> 0:46:30.160 Man. 0:46:30.280 --> 0:46:32.560 So we so I was at the mercy of LB's 0:46:32.600 --> 0:46:33.280 touring schedule. 0:46:33.400 --> 0:46:35.919 So that first album Connected, it took a long time 0:46:36.000 --> 0:46:38.160 to get done, well longer in a long time back then, 0:46:38.200 --> 0:46:40.360 but because it was just kind of all right, I 0:46:40.480 --> 0:46:42.040 get a couple of songs done, then we go on. 0:46:42.120 --> 0:46:44.319 Tour for six weeks whatever, come back. How long did 0:46:44.360 --> 0:46:47.120 it take to make Connect? We started in two We 0:46:47.280 --> 0:46:50.879 started at the beginning too, and we were done at 0:46:50.920 --> 0:46:56.799 the end of yeah, yeah, because right then we had that. 0:46:56.880 --> 0:47:03.000 Whole connected leak okay, player off places of course, which wait, 0:47:03.640 --> 0:47:05.600 the lesson the less. 0:47:06.239 --> 0:47:09.919 But the thing is, how like I'm assuming the entire 0:47:09.960 --> 0:47:13.080 creations under your yeah, like possessions. 0:47:13.239 --> 0:47:15.279 Yeah, but I mean it was at that time. I 0:47:15.360 --> 0:47:16.640 mean it was just so loose. 0:47:16.680 --> 0:47:19.120 I mean, so like we would record, but then at 0:47:19.160 --> 0:47:21.480 the end of the session, whoever was engineering the session, 0:47:21.480 --> 0:47:24.080 if it was Name or if it was Crisis or whoever, like, 0:47:24.480 --> 0:47:27.200 all right, who want to copy? And we didn't think anything. 0:47:27.360 --> 0:47:29.360 It's like, yeah, it's just getting around. Yeah, it was 0:47:29.360 --> 0:47:31.919 just getting around. So I'm on to a high road, 0:47:32.160 --> 0:47:36.080 and I see, like, oh, oh ship is out. This 0:47:36.200 --> 0:47:38.879 even before Lime Wire, I don't even know. I don't 0:47:38.880 --> 0:47:43.040 even know how will people get it? It was so 0:47:43.200 --> 0:47:46.920 see so I'm like, damn, the album leaked, and you know, 0:47:47.000 --> 0:47:49.279 in my mind, I'm thinking like that Dead in the 0:47:49.400 --> 0:47:53.239 Water thought it was we always it was like damn. 0:47:53.480 --> 0:47:56.760 But we saw the response and it was like, well, damn, 0:47:56.840 --> 0:47:59.359 people really fuck with this. So it really was kind 0:47:59.400 --> 0:48:01.879 of a it was validation a lot of ways after, 0:48:02.040 --> 0:48:04.520 you know, it affirmed what we kind of believed that 0:48:04.719 --> 0:48:07.200 we had. And so when I came back from tour, 0:48:07.680 --> 0:48:09.640 we did a couple extra bonus tracks. It was like, 0:48:09.640 --> 0:48:11.560 all right, it leaked, but let's do a couple extra 0:48:11.640 --> 0:48:15.960 joints and bb came and we did the deal with 0:48:16.040 --> 0:48:17.919 them that was like yeah we four. 0:48:18.120 --> 0:48:20.840 I mean, yeah, well I think if I remember we 0:48:21.000 --> 0:48:24.880 had to deal when it leaked, I remember thinking like, 0:48:25.440 --> 0:48:27.440 is this going to be the end of our journey? Like, 0:48:27.760 --> 0:48:30.120 like do they will the label still mess with us? 0:48:30.280 --> 0:48:34.239 And it was one of those leaks where the response 0:48:34.440 --> 0:48:37.759 was greater than the loss of not being new, and 0:48:38.000 --> 0:48:41.000 so it worked out. But at the time we were 0:48:41.080 --> 0:48:43.719 kind of devastated by it because like, but leaks at 0:48:43.760 --> 0:48:47.000 the time were very normal, like jay Z would leak 0:48:47.200 --> 0:48:49.439 and like you know, like there it was that time 0:48:49.520 --> 0:48:52.320 of like when people started carrying CDs out of the 0:48:52.360 --> 0:48:53.959 plan under their belts and shit. 0:48:54.880 --> 0:48:58.200 So it also means that there is like excitement because 0:48:58.200 --> 0:49:01.879 there's some people that just it's a million and I'll 0:49:02.000 --> 0:49:03.440 never hear, I'll never download. 0:49:03.600 --> 0:49:05.040 I think at the end of the day we took 0:49:05.080 --> 0:49:06.600 it this track, I. 0:49:06.640 --> 0:49:08.520 Was gonna ask just with with the track making, like 0:49:09.200 --> 0:49:11.719 you were, you know, talking about roads and guitars and 0:49:11.760 --> 0:49:13.800 stuff like what comes first for you. I'm always interested 0:49:13.840 --> 0:49:15.719 in when people are making beats, is it is it 0:49:16.239 --> 0:49:18.120 rhythm heavy or is it I. 0:49:18.160 --> 0:49:21.440 Think I think the musical idea comes first, and that 0:49:21.600 --> 0:49:24.120 might be a chord progression, that might be a sample, 0:49:24.280 --> 0:49:28.000 that might be a bassline. But that's what I built 0:49:28.719 --> 0:49:33.799 around and drums under, if that makes sense. At the time, 0:49:34.000 --> 0:49:37.400 it was a combination. I really was interned as Samply, 0:49:37.480 --> 0:49:40.960 but I didn't have I didn't have an NPC, I 0:49:41.000 --> 0:49:43.440 didn't have I had a computer and had a keyboard 0:49:43.520 --> 0:49:46.480 and a bass guitar and I used a tracker, which 0:49:46.560 --> 0:49:49.359 is there was a tracking scene at the time yo 0:49:50.120 --> 0:49:51.200 my plug. 0:49:52.360 --> 0:49:55.120 Yeah, he showed me that ship, dude, it looked like 0:49:55.360 --> 0:49:57.080 he was about to launch a fucking missile. 0:49:57.080 --> 0:49:58.400 I'm like, dog, what is this? 0:49:58.760 --> 0:50:01.600 Like that was when I really saw like the way 0:50:01.760 --> 0:50:04.360 his brain works is just different because it's. 0:50:04.320 --> 0:50:06.920 Not my plug is a program and I'm not like 0:50:07.000 --> 0:50:08.000 the super techy guy. 0:50:08.080 --> 0:50:11.480 But like, we recorded that first album in cool Letted Pro, 0:50:11.640 --> 0:50:13.879 which is now Adobe Audition, but it was cool Letted. 0:50:14.040 --> 0:50:15.320 That was what we did all the vocals in. 0:50:15.440 --> 0:50:18.480 And it's just a basic just a basic daw So 0:50:18.600 --> 0:50:19.919 it's you know, it's side to side. 0:50:20.560 --> 0:50:23.760 My plug is vertical. So he matris. 0:50:26.520 --> 0:50:28.320 On the beat and he just starts see all this 0:50:28.360 --> 0:50:30.000 ship flying. I was like, bro, what the fuck is that? 0:50:30.719 --> 0:50:33.360 And but that's what he made beats on and I 0:50:33.520 --> 0:50:35.800 was like, yeah he did, So is this okay? 0:50:36.200 --> 0:50:39.560 True to the legend of other beat bankers that I know, 0:50:40.760 --> 0:50:43.320 what was the standard at the time and what Like 0:50:43.400 --> 0:50:45.799 when I found out that Joe Ron Bombay was making 0:50:45.840 --> 0:50:50.000 these beats on Sony Acid, like these really cheap, like 0:50:50.719 --> 0:50:54.520 my first Sony kind of yeah, what were you using? 0:50:54.800 --> 0:50:58.360 I didn't know what the standard was. And my brother, 0:50:59.640 --> 0:51:02.520 my younger brother, had introduced me to trackers, which is 0:51:02.680 --> 0:51:06.239 essentially a machine code kind of thing where you can 0:51:06.360 --> 0:51:10.320 load little wave files in and trigger them by using 0:51:11.320 --> 0:51:14.840 certain codes. And so it started with you have four tracks, 0:51:15.520 --> 0:51:17.520 and then they like all of a sudden, it was 0:51:17.600 --> 0:51:19.880 a tracks. I think by the time I started working 0:51:19.960 --> 0:51:21.719 with them, it was like a tracks and at some 0:51:21.800 --> 0:51:25.040 point you had sixteen tracks of having sounds together. 0:51:26.080 --> 0:51:29.120 See doing a song like Daykeeper with this sort of 0:51:29.600 --> 0:51:30.120 a keeper. 0:51:30.200 --> 0:51:32.759 At that point I had at least sixty. But yeah, 0:51:32.800 --> 0:51:35.840 I did Daykeeper like that. I did take off like 0:51:36.040 --> 0:51:38.360 all of the first album, all the new kind of 0:51:39.719 --> 0:51:41.560 the leave it all behind the album. I started getting 0:51:41.560 --> 0:51:43.840 into pro tools because somebody told me, like. 0:51:43.920 --> 0:51:46.040 Look, dog, like if you need just another way. 0:51:48.040 --> 0:51:51.000 You need to really professionalize or need to was a 0:51:51.080 --> 0:51:53.200 big word, but like they were like, yo, most of 0:51:53.280 --> 0:51:55.560 the pros use pro tools, and so I started. 0:51:55.600 --> 0:51:59.880 But like, I don't feel bad now because one of 0:51:59.920 --> 0:52:05.719 the things that I feel horrible about. You see the 0:52:05.800 --> 0:52:10.719 smug look on Steve's face, the way that I've been, 0:52:11.120 --> 0:52:12.759 like I've been. I'm in such a zone with his 0:52:12.920 --> 0:52:15.480 in game record right now with the roots. But when 0:52:15.520 --> 0:52:20.080 I tell you the embarrassingly kind of primitive way that 0:52:20.160 --> 0:52:24.879 I'm building this record, like yes, I read how half 0:52:24.920 --> 0:52:27.319 of Nason and Millions was built by them as an 0:52:27.360 --> 0:52:31.239 actual jam session, each guy at a twelve hundred manually 0:52:31.800 --> 0:52:34.400 pressing the samples by themselves, not programming. 0:52:34.200 --> 0:52:37.279 Even the mixes too. They would mix and the. 0:52:37.320 --> 0:52:41.239 Beastie Boys admitted that every sample on Paul's boutique was 0:52:41.280 --> 0:52:44.680 basically just lined up one by one and then they 0:52:44.680 --> 0:52:47.560 would just do that. But there's no like programming and stuff, 0:52:48.000 --> 0:52:52.400 and so like I'm also inspired by like again like 0:52:52.480 --> 0:52:54.319 the whole Sony Acid story and that sort of thing. 0:52:54.480 --> 0:52:56.360 So like I've been. 0:52:57.680 --> 0:53:02.160 Like you're thinking of the lost Bomb Squad member, I 0:53:02.360 --> 0:53:03.160 just you know, I do. 0:53:03.920 --> 0:53:07.200 But it's just the fact that like James teases me 0:53:07.320 --> 0:53:10.640 about it, and like sometimes I let it get to 0:53:10.760 --> 0:53:13.160 me that, see, you're not a real beat maker, like 0:53:13.280 --> 0:53:16.560 you're actually looping the stuff from your soerrado DJ thing like. 0:53:19.120 --> 0:53:21.279 Exactly. And I think I think I had a little 0:53:21.320 --> 0:53:24.680 bit of that. I guess what you called imposters where 0:53:24.680 --> 0:53:27.320 you're like, okay, I'm not using the Like I remember 0:53:27.440 --> 0:53:29.839 the first time I after we met for the first 0:53:29.880 --> 0:53:33.040 time and connected had been pressed up. We met in 0:53:33.200 --> 0:53:36.880 New York in July of four and we did something 0:53:36.960 --> 0:53:40.120 called Beat Society, which is where producers come out and 0:53:40.280 --> 0:53:43.840 essentially play their beats. And so I came out with 0:53:43.960 --> 0:53:44.760 my little leptop. 0:53:44.800 --> 0:53:45.960 You did Beat Society, I did. 0:53:46.160 --> 0:53:50.040 I did Beat Society and Knitting Factory, and that's when 0:53:50.080 --> 0:53:52.520 of the first time we literally performed together. But I 0:53:52.640 --> 0:53:55.320 came out with my laptop and I realized like, okay, 0:53:55.520 --> 0:54:00.480 like like everybody else is using MPCs and I'm just 0:54:00.600 --> 0:54:04.160 here like as though I'm checking my email, you know, look, 0:54:05.120 --> 0:54:07.719 you know, right, like craft for it. But it was 0:54:07.800 --> 0:54:10.120 one of the first times where I realized like, yeah, 0:54:10.160 --> 0:54:14.560 I had no idea, I had no real knowledge of 0:54:14.719 --> 0:54:17.040 how the music was made, and I saw I just 0:54:17.239 --> 0:54:19.880 used what I know. Again, my brother had introduced me 0:54:19.960 --> 0:54:22.759 to I knew Q base existed and stuff like that, 0:54:22.880 --> 0:54:26.360 but I didn't know I didn't have that. So it became. 0:54:27.680 --> 0:54:28.960 A weapon of choice. 0:54:29.000 --> 0:54:31.839 It became my secret weapon because I learned to use 0:54:31.880 --> 0:54:35.200 it in such a way that I could really make 0:54:35.239 --> 0:54:36.520 it do whatever I wanted. 0:54:36.760 --> 0:54:37.760 And that was our story. 0:54:37.840 --> 0:54:39.840 I think, like a big part it was really just 0:54:39.880 --> 0:54:42.719 about using the tools you have, just making do with 0:54:42.840 --> 0:54:43.239 what you have. 0:54:43.520 --> 0:54:43.719 You know. 0:54:43.920 --> 0:54:45.400 It was when people would. 0:54:45.200 --> 0:54:47.839 Ask like, oh man, so making the internet, like, oh 0:54:47.920 --> 0:54:49.840 man making an am that's so crazy, Like it was 0:54:49.920 --> 0:54:51.040 just this crazy idea. 0:54:50.960 --> 0:54:53.360 And I'm one of those people. Yeah, yeah, Like dude, 0:54:53.600 --> 0:54:55.480 he was in the Netherlands, I was in Durham. 0:54:56.000 --> 0:54:59.319 For us, it was kind of we never even thought 0:54:59.320 --> 0:55:01.560 about it, like we were just like, yo, like you, 0:55:01.760 --> 0:55:02.879 I like what you're doing. 0:55:03.480 --> 0:55:06.080 He likes what I'm doing, let's do it. 0:55:06.200 --> 0:55:09.880 When you're part of the analogic generation though, and I 0:55:10.000 --> 0:55:11.920 was very much stuck in my ways person I just 0:55:11.960 --> 0:55:15.520 couldn't fathomm like wait, I don't see how they're doing that, 0:55:15.719 --> 0:55:18.400 like emailing stuff at the same time, and like it 0:55:18.520 --> 0:55:21.960 was just such a storied, uncharted thing, and like when 0:55:22.000 --> 0:55:23.960 did garage band come out? 0:55:24.440 --> 0:55:30.200 Garage band was yeah, that was later garage band for 0:55:30.520 --> 0:55:35.719 me personally. I started in garage band two thousand and nine. Yeah, 0:55:35.760 --> 0:55:37.600 two thousand and nine. That was when I built my 0:55:37.680 --> 0:55:41.240 studio at home and so I had we had worked everything, 0:55:41.360 --> 0:55:45.000 all the old LB stuff, like the first two Foreigners 0:55:45.080 --> 0:55:48.520 Change albums. That was at the chop shop in Durham 0:55:48.760 --> 0:55:51.680 and we tracked all those vocals and cool let it 0:55:52.320 --> 0:55:54.600 and then oh nine, I built my studio up the 0:55:54.640 --> 0:55:57.759 crib and I used garage band. 0:55:57.840 --> 0:55:59.920 So like Authenticity. 0:56:01.400 --> 0:56:05.600 My first solo album, Charity Starts at Home, Yeah all that, 0:56:05.760 --> 0:56:09.200 all those records like those are all garage man, garage man. 0:56:09.280 --> 0:56:12.680 It was, Yeah, it was free. What is it the 0:56:12.800 --> 0:56:16.439 game changer that people claim that it was or it? Well, 0:56:16.560 --> 0:56:16.920 I don't know. 0:56:17.600 --> 0:56:18.840 Well, I don't know if I say for me, it 0:56:18.920 --> 0:56:20.920 wasn't so much a game changer. I think it was 0:56:21.120 --> 0:56:24.439 just by that time I had learned that, like listen, 0:56:24.560 --> 0:56:28.600 it doesn't matter what you're recording into. It's all about 0:56:28.640 --> 0:56:30.920 the signal that you're sending. You gotta in the in 0:56:31.000 --> 0:56:34.279 the recording process. Really, the recording engineer is god, you 0:56:34.360 --> 0:56:34.839 know what I mean. 0:56:35.080 --> 0:56:38.360 Because it's not gonna your your. 0:56:41.000 --> 0:56:44.840 The record the recording engineer, because your song is not 0:56:45.000 --> 0:56:50.040 gonna rise above whatever the signal is. So, you know, 0:56:50.320 --> 0:56:54.600 if you got a choice between buying you know, a 0:56:54.760 --> 0:56:58.200 crazy Mike, a three thousand dollar mic or whatever, but 0:56:58.360 --> 0:57:01.680 you haven't treated your room first, that Mike is just 0:57:01.760 --> 0:57:03.799 gonna pick up your room, you know what I mean. 0:57:04.080 --> 0:57:06.520 So you probably would be better off spending some money 0:57:06.960 --> 0:57:09.719 treating your room. And you get a little, you know, 0:57:09.760 --> 0:57:11.920 a little two hundred dollars something and you know, you 0:57:12.000 --> 0:57:14.320 can make that work, and so that was kind of 0:57:14.360 --> 0:57:17.080 my approach. And so I started doing those records in 0:57:17.160 --> 0:57:19.680 Garage Man. And what I liked about it it was 0:57:19.880 --> 0:57:23.720 very it was simple. And then also when I upgrade 0:57:23.760 --> 0:57:27.040 it to logic in like twenty twelve, logic is basic 0:57:27.160 --> 0:57:30.280 garage band on steroids. So how I learned logic was 0:57:30.360 --> 0:57:32.960 I would take my old Garage Man sessions and open 0:57:33.040 --> 0:57:35.440 them up in logic and just kind of work backwards 0:57:35.440 --> 0:57:37.560 and you're like, oh, okay, so this is what reverb is, 0:57:37.640 --> 0:57:39.720 this is where the delays is, and I would learn 0:57:39.760 --> 0:57:42.520 it like that. So garage band for me, I mean, 0:57:42.760 --> 0:57:45.240 you know, people clowned on it, but I made crazy 0:57:45.320 --> 0:57:46.280 records in Garage Man. 0:57:46.360 --> 0:57:48.240 But logic was around for a long time before it 0:57:48.280 --> 0:57:49.560 turned into the logic we know today. 0:57:49.600 --> 0:57:50.680 There was a yeah logic. 0:57:52.480 --> 0:57:56.520 Logic that looked that looked what I think is like 0:57:56.640 --> 0:57:59.640 you're like matrix. It was it was really hard to understand, 0:57:59.680 --> 0:58:02.240 and that's think there was like a pro tool sequencer, 0:58:03.480 --> 0:58:05.880 and then finally logic became the visual thing that it 0:58:05.960 --> 0:58:08.360 is today. And I think that's that's what people liked 0:58:08.360 --> 0:58:10.360 about Garage Man was we looked at it and it 0:58:10.440 --> 0:58:12.680 was pleasing to look at and easy easy to you. 0:58:12.840 --> 0:58:14.360 Nah, because you I mean, because you got to think 0:58:14.360 --> 0:58:16.040 about it, like if you mixing something, I mean, you're 0:58:16.120 --> 0:58:18.880 looking at that screen for fucking hours. So it was 0:58:19.000 --> 0:58:22.280 really from my experience, it was really intuitive. It was 0:58:22.440 --> 0:58:24.680 just very easy to use, and I was not the 0:58:24.800 --> 0:58:28.080 super techy like engineer guy. I just kind of knew 0:58:28.640 --> 0:58:30.520 what I liked and just kind of how to get 0:58:30.560 --> 0:58:31.040 that and that. 0:58:31.160 --> 0:58:32.080 Was it, you know what I mean. 0:58:32.160 --> 0:58:33.760 So when do you think you'll ever have enough money 0:58:33.800 --> 0:58:34.560 to buy pro tools? 0:58:35.280 --> 0:58:38.000 Nah, I'm logic. I'm logic to the. 0:58:43.480 --> 0:58:47.000 What was the session? Like when you guys are in 0:58:47.120 --> 0:58:49.560 the same time zone together and in the studio together? 0:58:51.880 --> 0:58:55.720 Wait? What no chemistry to this day? Now? 0:58:55.840 --> 0:58:58.200 We this is kind like I like, this is the 0:58:58.320 --> 0:58:58.880 rule of the group. 0:58:59.560 --> 0:59:00.480 You must emails. 0:59:00.680 --> 0:59:03.600 Yeah, I liken it to prints, not wanting to meet, 0:59:06.520 --> 0:59:10.760 like we had such a chemistry going in this way, 0:59:10.920 --> 0:59:13.840 like I've always explained it to people, like we each 0:59:15.000 --> 0:59:18.200 take care of our part of the music in such 0:59:18.240 --> 0:59:23.560 an inhibited personal way that we can fully realize what 0:59:23.720 --> 0:59:25.920 we have in mind and then we send it to 0:59:26.040 --> 0:59:32.600 the other person versus like being in the same room here, right, right, 0:59:32.800 --> 0:59:34.560 or are you sure about that word or you know 0:59:34.600 --> 0:59:37.120 what I mean? Like, we always sort of kept it 0:59:37.840 --> 0:59:42.640 our fifty to fifty percent of the total separate and 0:59:43.320 --> 0:59:47.720 would send each other, I guess fully realized versions of 0:59:47.760 --> 0:59:50.080 stuff that we thought could work, and by the time 0:59:50.280 --> 0:59:54.360 that I came to the States and started my career here, 0:59:55.080 --> 0:59:57.920 it almost felt like it would really break the magic. 0:59:58.080 --> 0:59:59.920 So we never have like to this day. 1:00:00.600 --> 1:00:06.000 So can you just briefly tell our listeners viewers how 1:00:06.160 --> 1:00:10.120 you guys built the FI community of Like the Cat 1:00:10.160 --> 1:00:13.200 because it takes a village and obviously, yeah, we're invested 1:00:13.240 --> 1:00:16.360 in you guys, but also like Zara and Carlita and 1:00:17.160 --> 1:00:21.880 just how and Zoe, like how how did the community 1:00:21.960 --> 1:00:24.280 of musicians come together for these projects? 1:00:24.440 --> 1:00:24.640 Man? 1:00:24.800 --> 1:00:28.560 So, Zoe was someone I actually met. Zoe. 1:00:28.680 --> 1:00:32.640 This was in two thousand and five, maybe six h 1:00:32.720 --> 1:00:34.560 This is right after Mintell Show it came out, and 1:00:35.040 --> 1:00:38.439 Zoe had been remixing here, did remixes for a couple 1:00:38.640 --> 1:00:40.960 LB records. And the thing I always listened for for 1:00:41.080 --> 1:00:45.080 producers when they would remix our stuff. Our stuff had 1:00:45.320 --> 1:00:48.280 hooks and singing hooks in it, so every producer could 1:00:48.320 --> 1:00:49.560 always lock. 1:00:49.480 --> 1:00:52.040 In on the rhymes. It's like you're hear it. It's like, okay, 1:00:52.120 --> 1:00:54.840 y'all got it, y'all match the beat? Okay, cool? What 1:00:54.960 --> 1:00:56.880 this goddamn hook? Boy to signd like is this ship 1:00:56.960 --> 1:00:57.960 in the same key? Right? 1:00:58.120 --> 1:00:59.600 And the hook would come in and it would just 1:00:59.640 --> 1:01:02.080 be a fun and you know what I mean. And 1:01:02.240 --> 1:01:04.320 so Zoel was one of the guys like he had 1:01:04.360 --> 1:01:07.040 put up a remix that he had did the way 1:01:07.080 --> 1:01:08.680 you do it, and I was like, that's the way 1:01:08.720 --> 1:01:10.400 you do it, man, come on, I hope he fucked 1:01:10.440 --> 1:01:12.520 this up. I did not know who he was at all, 1:01:12.600 --> 1:01:14.000 and I just heard it. I was like, oh, he 1:01:14.400 --> 1:01:17.160 smoked this shit. So we did a show LB show 1:01:17.600 --> 1:01:19.760 and I think Ann Arbor or something, but he pulled 1:01:19.840 --> 1:01:21.720 up gave me a copy of his record. 1:01:21.720 --> 1:01:22.360 He was like, I'm Zoe. 1:01:22.400 --> 1:01:24.720 I was like, oh man, yo, yeah, yeah, check it. 1:01:25.040 --> 1:01:26.960 So he gives me a copy of his record. It 1:01:27.080 --> 1:01:28.800 was the I think it was the Passion and Definition 1:01:28.880 --> 1:01:31.360 album and so it's just an instrumental record he did. 1:01:31.480 --> 1:01:34.680 And again I'm still kind of cynical because we had 1:01:34.720 --> 1:01:37.520 just been getting trashed that whole fucking tour and so 1:01:37.720 --> 1:01:39.440 I finally got it home I'm like, all right, let 1:01:39.520 --> 1:01:40.840 me I'm gonna give him a shot. 1:01:40.920 --> 1:01:41.480 Let me put it on. 1:01:41.720 --> 1:01:44.240 Track one was dope. I'm like, all right, I bet 1:01:44.280 --> 1:01:46.680 track two won't be dope. Track two is dope. I'm like, okay, 1:01:46.840 --> 1:01:48.600 is he gonna go three in a row? He went 1:01:48.800 --> 1:01:51.120 like twelve in a row or whatever. 1:01:50.920 --> 1:01:53.040 How many songs on that. He was just smoking that shit. 1:01:53.480 --> 1:01:55.200 So I reached out to him. 1:01:55.200 --> 1:01:57.320 I was like, hey, man, like your shit is hard, bro, 1:01:57.520 --> 1:01:59.160 like you know, you want to do something whatever, And 1:01:59.200 --> 1:02:02.080 we just started collap Braiden And so that was how 1:02:02.160 --> 1:02:03.960 he came into the fold. And then when we did 1:02:04.840 --> 1:02:07.280 If She Breaks Your Heart, Nick and I had the 1:02:07.320 --> 1:02:10.320 idea of like, okay, zoel like he does like the 1:02:10.440 --> 1:02:13.880 first half, and then Nick did like the second second, 1:02:14.360 --> 1:02:18.520 you know, four hero Yeah, Boston. Yeah, we got shot 1:02:18.600 --> 1:02:20.080 to Mark Mack, who did the string range. 1:02:20.160 --> 1:02:20.800 Yeah, Mark Man. 1:02:21.920 --> 1:02:23.640 But yeah, So that was kind of how he came. 1:02:23.720 --> 1:02:26.720 And everybody else, man, they were just all they were 1:02:26.800 --> 1:02:29.360 just all people that, like, you know, Carlita was a 1:02:29.440 --> 1:02:32.720 student at Central at the time, and we needed a 1:02:32.760 --> 1:02:35.600 hook for a song, and yazirob. She and I went 1:02:35.600 --> 1:02:38.920 to school together. We went to Central together, Darien Brockington. 1:02:39.120 --> 1:02:42.160 He and I we went to Central together. Carlita, she 1:02:42.360 --> 1:02:43.640 was a Central student. 1:02:43.760 --> 1:02:45.240 Yaz A. I was supposed to sing on the song 1:02:45.320 --> 1:02:47.680 one night and I called her to do the hook. 1:02:47.760 --> 1:02:51.040 She was out of town. Called my man. He was like, yo, dog, 1:02:51.400 --> 1:02:52.880 I know this singing chick from Central. 1:02:52.920 --> 1:02:54.880 I'm like okay, And he shows up and it was 1:02:54.920 --> 1:02:57.000 Carlita and she did the hook for Life of the 1:02:57.080 --> 1:03:00.200 Party for the LB song and from that he just 1:03:00.240 --> 1:03:05.120 started working together. Man, I mean shit, Mosina was somebody. 1:03:05.600 --> 1:03:08.040 My man shots my man. Cousin B, who's uh he 1:03:08.200 --> 1:03:10.240 run you know, he's the NPR Tiny desk guy. Now 1:03:10.880 --> 1:03:16.200 Mosina had a MySpace page and we had just started. 1:03:16.320 --> 1:03:18.520 I think we had kind of started leaving all. We 1:03:18.600 --> 1:03:21.120 might have had maybe one two tracks, but he had. 1:03:21.200 --> 1:03:23.919 She had a MySpace page and she had a song 1:03:24.000 --> 1:03:27.960 on it called Millions and me and Darien brox and 1:03:28.000 --> 1:03:29.800 we want to it what They'll be and we were roommates. 1:03:30.000 --> 1:03:31.800 Cousin B sends me the link. He's like, yo, man, 1:03:31.880 --> 1:03:34.280 check this chick. She sounded like Georgia and I was like, 1:03:34.360 --> 1:03:37.080 oh shit, you talk about Georgia. M Modreaux and I 1:03:37.240 --> 1:03:41.200 listened to millions, and if that song had a thousand 1:03:41.240 --> 1:03:44.160 plays on her MySpace, nine hundred and ninety of them. 1:03:44.160 --> 1:03:46.280 Was me and we played that shit. 1:03:46.320 --> 1:03:48.640 I was like, holy shit. And I just reached out 1:03:48.680 --> 1:03:50.320 to her and I was like, yo, man, I'm working 1:03:50.360 --> 1:03:51.240 on a new FE album. 1:03:51.360 --> 1:03:52.880 I don't know if you know who I am whatever, 1:03:53.000 --> 1:03:55.280 but I think you dope. A couple months later, she 1:03:55.400 --> 1:03:57.520 came down to the crib, you know what I'm saying. 1:03:57.560 --> 1:04:00.440 We locked in and we did Daykeeper, her House of 1:04:00.520 --> 1:04:03.320 Cards and Something to behold for Leave it all behind 1:04:03.760 --> 1:04:04.439 everybody else. 1:04:04.520 --> 1:04:04.720 Yeah. 1:04:04.760 --> 1:04:08.000 I just I always looked at because you know, our 1:04:08.080 --> 1:04:11.480 division of labor, Nick is very much the music, and 1:04:11.720 --> 1:04:14.560 I'm more like personnel, you know what I'm saying production 1:04:14.680 --> 1:04:17.480 in that side. So I always looked at Fie albums. 1:04:17.560 --> 1:04:19.480 Whenever people would ask me like, yo, what do you 1:04:19.600 --> 1:04:21.840 listen to? I put the people that I was listening 1:04:21.880 --> 1:04:24.320 to on the albums. I'm like, Yo, Mussina, this is 1:04:24.360 --> 1:04:28.440 who I'm wucking with, you know. Gwen Bunn shouts to her. 1:04:29.040 --> 1:04:32.600 She was just another artist out of Atlanta and she 1:04:32.760 --> 1:04:35.640 did a record for my man Daryl Reeve. She did 1:04:35.680 --> 1:04:38.240 a cover of every Time I See You by Roy 1:04:38.320 --> 1:04:40.560 Ayers and smoked that ship. 1:04:40.600 --> 1:04:42.040 I was like, dude, who the fuck is this? 1:04:42.200 --> 1:04:44.240 He was like, it's my girl, Gwen. She came to 1:04:44.320 --> 1:04:45.920 the show that night, you know what I mean. We 1:04:46.040 --> 1:04:49.120 hooked up and did Kate turn around and we did 1:04:49.200 --> 1:04:52.720 like a couple of after the show, or this was 1:04:53.040 --> 1:04:56.600 maybe a couple of months afterward. Be my fiasco. Who's 1:04:56.680 --> 1:05:00.680 like the latest signing on our label. She was somebody 1:05:00.760 --> 1:05:05.320 who was based out of Dallas and she would just always. 1:05:06.480 --> 1:05:06.800 Twitter. 1:05:06.880 --> 1:05:09.760 There's another kind of like the Okay player next the 1:05:09.880 --> 1:05:14.080 kind of way. She was someone who big fie fan 1:05:14.280 --> 1:05:18.000 would come to our shows. And one day, much like Nikolay. 1:05:18.240 --> 1:05:19.800 She came on Twitter and was like, Yo, this is 1:05:19.840 --> 1:05:22.360 a new record by me. Check this out. 1:05:22.400 --> 1:05:24.880 It's very foreign exchange influence, and I thought it was dope. 1:05:25.280 --> 1:05:27.080 So she and I hit her one time and I 1:05:27.200 --> 1:05:28.560 was like, hey, man, do you have the ability to 1:05:28.640 --> 1:05:29.680 record at your home? 1:05:29.960 --> 1:05:31.480 You got your own setup? She was like yeah. 1:05:31.960 --> 1:05:36.720 So I put her on the record deal with Glass Violets, 1:05:36.760 --> 1:05:39.520 the Miles Davis. That's her singing on that. And I 1:05:39.520 --> 1:05:41.360 would just put her on records, you know what I mean, 1:05:41.400 --> 1:05:43.680 I'm like, yo, sing this? She she sings something and 1:05:43.840 --> 1:05:44.560 like you know, we. 1:05:44.720 --> 1:05:49.600 Was just rock like that. So guys are meeting or like, nah, 1:05:49.760 --> 1:05:54.320 this is all online. So smith called blind date. Yeah man, 1:05:55.080 --> 1:05:57.280 try I mean, listen, it's just you known to me, 1:05:57.320 --> 1:05:58.080 it's just jailuso. 1:05:59.280 --> 1:06:02.080 The final result jels are good that I imagine that 1:06:02.160 --> 1:06:03.360 you guys were in the room together. 1:06:04.360 --> 1:06:06.680 We were in all those records. All that stuff was 1:06:06.760 --> 1:06:10.280 done pretty much remotely, I think, uh. 1:06:12.640 --> 1:06:13.919 No, listen. 1:06:14.160 --> 1:06:16.600 So when COVID hit, that's crazy. So when COVID hit, 1:06:16.960 --> 1:06:19.600 because a lot of times for the vocals, like that 1:06:19.840 --> 1:06:23.400 was my side. So my house used to be the 1:06:23.440 --> 1:06:25.960 spot where everyone recorded because I had to set up 1:06:26.000 --> 1:06:28.440 and everything. So that's why we would track the vocals. 1:06:28.680 --> 1:06:31.560 But COVID hit and it was just like, well, we 1:06:31.640 --> 1:06:34.600 can't do that. So we just pretty much invested and 1:06:34.880 --> 1:06:36.680 set all our team up. It's like, all right, look 1:06:36.760 --> 1:06:38.640 y'all need this. We're gonna get y'all this the mic, 1:06:38.960 --> 1:06:40.800 you need this, compressor, you need this, you need that, 1:06:41.160 --> 1:06:42.800 And we just set our team up remotely. 1:06:43.200 --> 1:06:45.400 So all through COVID, we were still cooking. We ain't 1:06:45.440 --> 1:06:48.760 miss a beat, you know, I mean, so that always 1:06:49.040 --> 1:06:50.240 the right equipment for each other. 1:06:50.520 --> 1:06:53.480 Yeah, yeah, man, just like, Okay, you need this compressor. 1:06:53.520 --> 1:06:55.280 I'm a big fan of the I'm a big fan 1:06:55.320 --> 1:06:57.320 of La two A. I do't'ta go too nerdy with it, 1:06:57.400 --> 1:06:59.600 but I'm a big fan of La two A compressor. 1:06:59.640 --> 1:07:02.200 That's just my favorite. It's just two knobs. 1:07:02.360 --> 1:07:04.520 It's like, you know what I mean, It's it's it's simple, 1:07:04.720 --> 1:07:06.360 like you know, it's like it's like the big Green 1:07:06.400 --> 1:07:07.480 Egg of compressors. 1:07:08.240 --> 1:07:12.000 Know you have that Steve Green that's a barbecue and microphone. 1:07:14.320 --> 1:07:14.920 I'm trying to think. 1:07:15.280 --> 1:07:21.240 Yeah, Sismith her, we did her album she came and God, 1:07:21.280 --> 1:07:22.000 when did I come on? 1:07:22.800 --> 1:07:25.680 I met Cy and O four, I did a record 1:07:25.720 --> 1:07:26.080 with SiGe. 1:07:27.520 --> 1:07:29.920 Yeah, and then we had a show. 1:07:31.200 --> 1:07:34.040 In twenty ten where we needed a new female vocalist 1:07:34.120 --> 1:07:37.520 and I was like, well, I could call Sy, but 1:07:37.640 --> 1:07:39.800 she's gonna have to have a chemistry with Fante. 1:07:39.880 --> 1:07:41.520 We're gonna have to see and that worked out. 1:07:41.920 --> 1:07:44.440 Nah, they well, So so I went to Europe with us, 1:07:45.240 --> 1:07:47.840 you know, and I think with all of the people 1:07:47.960 --> 1:07:51.040 that we've ever had on our roster, it was partly 1:07:51.160 --> 1:07:54.640 musical talent, partly like the hangability factor. 1:07:54.840 --> 1:07:55.880 That's the big part. 1:07:56.120 --> 1:07:59.320 Like I just never thought that, like, because I've seen 1:07:59.400 --> 1:08:04.240 situations where new members will get inducted into shows and 1:08:04.280 --> 1:08:08.600 the chemistry might not be right and that affects the 1:08:08.680 --> 1:08:11.160 show that you see. You guys are like torn together 1:08:11.240 --> 1:08:15.520 doing shows and always wondered how and actually doing like 1:08:15.640 --> 1:08:18.120 nice little presentational things like I'm wondering, like how you 1:08:18.200 --> 1:08:21.120 guys even rehearsing, well, rehearsing, that's. 1:08:20.960 --> 1:08:22.439 What we got to do that in person, you can't. 1:08:22.560 --> 1:08:26.880 You can't rehearse online. But right we were rehearsing, not 1:08:27.000 --> 1:08:27.479 a whole lot. 1:08:27.600 --> 1:08:28.200 Not a whole lot. 1:08:28.280 --> 1:08:30.840 Yeah, because it's still the first show of the tour was. 1:08:33.600 --> 1:08:35.800 But yeah, I mean we would just like start with 1:08:35.920 --> 1:08:36.519 that and Zoe. 1:08:36.680 --> 1:08:39.760 Actually, when we did Leave It All Behind, that was 1:08:39.880 --> 1:08:43.040 really a thing where Nick and I we kind of 1:08:43.080 --> 1:08:45.400 saw ourselves more as like a steely Dan kind of 1:08:45.439 --> 1:08:49.400 studio band. We had no intentions of touring whatsoever, like none, 1:08:49.920 --> 1:08:52.439 and so Leave It All Behind came out and our 1:08:52.560 --> 1:08:56.760 management director of opsite the time, Amy she was, She 1:08:56.960 --> 1:08:58.680 called me one day and was like, Yo, this is 1:08:58.760 --> 1:09:01.040 right after the album came out, and she was like, Yo, 1:09:01.439 --> 1:09:03.519 no kid, theater they want to book y'all for a show. 1:09:03.560 --> 1:09:04.439 And we was like a show. 1:09:04.560 --> 1:09:06.559 What are you talking about? She was like, they want 1:09:06.600 --> 1:09:08.920 a Foreign and Shane show. Nick and I had no 1:09:09.080 --> 1:09:12.040 idea how we were going to present this material playing 1:09:12.120 --> 1:09:14.960 m P three listen. I mean, you could have did that, 1:09:15.439 --> 1:09:17.920 but it was when I called, I was like, yeah, 1:09:17.920 --> 1:09:19.840 we gotta build this up. So that was when I 1:09:19.920 --> 1:09:22.479 hit zol and I was like, yo, bro, like you 1:09:22.560 --> 1:09:24.160 know you want to help with this, and he became 1:09:24.200 --> 1:09:24.600 our m D. 1:09:25.040 --> 1:09:25.679 You know what I'm saying. 1:09:26.880 --> 1:09:30.559 Yeah, So that was kind of how it came. But yeah, man, 1:09:30.640 --> 1:09:33.160 we were just making records purely just to make the records. 1:09:33.200 --> 1:09:36.599 We had no idea, no clue of wanting to present 1:09:36.680 --> 1:09:37.519 it live like. 1:09:37.600 --> 1:09:40.800 That just was not on our RADI so what response 1:09:41.000 --> 1:09:43.879 was it when you guys got nominated for a Grammy? 1:09:44.800 --> 1:09:47.479 Like what at that point was it, Like, were you 1:09:47.520 --> 1:09:51.400 guys actively campaigning for it? I had, and they were 1:09:51.439 --> 1:09:52.400 like congratulations, No. 1:09:52.520 --> 1:09:56.880 That's leg legit. I was knocked out. And what had 1:09:57.000 --> 1:09:57.640 happened was. 1:09:59.200 --> 1:10:05.160 We we never really submitted it, you know how normal 1:10:05.320 --> 1:10:09.400 like nowadays, somebody has to submit. At the time, there 1:10:09.439 --> 1:10:12.080 were these committees. I think they at this point have 1:10:12.240 --> 1:10:15.559 done away with them because there were some concerns about 1:10:15.600 --> 1:10:16.760 democracy and they. 1:10:16.720 --> 1:10:18.760 Don't even have I think the category we nominate for 1:10:18.920 --> 1:10:19.040 is not. 1:10:19.280 --> 1:10:23.799 The category doesn't even exist. But essentially, yeah, what happened 1:10:24.080 --> 1:10:27.640 was somebody on the committee at the time and I 1:10:27.800 --> 1:10:31.439 know who it is, but that's not really super relevant, 1:10:32.960 --> 1:10:37.840 entered that record as a record with merit that hadn't 1:10:37.880 --> 1:10:43.920 been selected by the members, just as another suggestion, and 1:10:45.280 --> 1:10:48.599 it made it through the nominations list, which is kind 1:10:48.600 --> 1:10:53.639 of miraculous because we never campaigned. And so Yazra called 1:10:53.720 --> 1:10:56.280 me and she was like, are you sitting down? And 1:10:56.400 --> 1:10:58.320 I was like, I don't know, like should I be? 1:10:58.520 --> 1:11:02.920 And she was like, she's like, tomorrow the nominations are 1:11:02.960 --> 1:11:04.240 gonna come out and we're in it. 1:11:04.600 --> 1:11:07.240 And I just didn't really. 1:11:08.760 --> 1:11:11.120 It took a while to register because like, as much 1:11:11.160 --> 1:11:14.800 as I was very sure of our merit, like that 1:11:15.080 --> 1:11:18.479 was beyond my wildest dreams, as I'm sure you would 1:11:18.520 --> 1:11:21.760 have been the first time, Like as much as you 1:11:22.000 --> 1:11:26.160 strive for that sort of professional acknowledgement, we were so 1:11:26.439 --> 1:11:28.639 niche in a lot of ways. And at the same time, 1:11:28.760 --> 1:11:31.439 I guess we had touched enough people that it that 1:11:31.560 --> 1:11:33.679 it went all the way up there. So I called 1:11:33.760 --> 1:11:36.439 Fantee was asleep. I don't know if I left you 1:11:36.479 --> 1:11:37.120 a voiceman. 1:11:37.920 --> 1:11:40.240 We talked. I remember that I was not there. You were. 1:11:40.400 --> 1:11:42.840 You woke up. You were like, oh, bro, we want grant. 1:11:42.880 --> 1:11:45.240 Well we up for a Grammy. I was like, oh, Ship, 1:11:45.280 --> 1:11:50.200 word up, all right, and I went back to until 1:11:50.240 --> 1:11:50.840 I woke up. 1:11:50.960 --> 1:11:52.920 And then I saw because this is back on the 1:11:52.960 --> 1:11:56.840 BlackBerry days, you know, bro my yeah, man, my ship 1:11:56.960 --> 1:11:57.559 was going crazy. 1:11:57.760 --> 1:11:59.479 This is like birthday Twitter. Yeah. 1:11:59.560 --> 1:12:02.519 It was just I was like, oh shit, we got 1:12:02.640 --> 1:12:05.439 nominated for a Grammy, and so yeah, it was it 1:12:05.600 --> 1:12:08.040 was just yeah crazy. I think for us, it really 1:12:08.240 --> 1:12:10.800 was just a validation of our art. And it just 1:12:11.040 --> 1:12:14.680 was like, you know, we did that record ourselves, Like 1:12:14.760 --> 1:12:18.280 we had no machine behind us. It was no major label, like, 1:12:18.640 --> 1:12:20.400 it was none of that. It was just me, Nick 1:12:20.479 --> 1:12:23.240 and Amy just thugging that shit out and so, you know, 1:12:23.600 --> 1:12:27.040 it was it was a real It was a moment 1:12:27.080 --> 1:12:28.760 for me because that was I mean, we I talked 1:12:28.760 --> 1:12:29.519 about it in the Doctor. 1:12:30.360 --> 1:12:31.519 Just on the business side. 1:12:32.400 --> 1:12:35.920 Foreign Exchange was the first time that I in my 1:12:36.160 --> 1:12:38.240 time in the music business, that was the first time 1:12:38.280 --> 1:12:40.720 I was ever really paid for my work, like ever, 1:12:41.040 --> 1:12:43.200 you know, that was the first time I really. 1:12:43.400 --> 1:12:46.439 To enjoy some oh yeah, yeah, like we we did 1:12:47.120 --> 1:12:47.759 when we did. 1:12:48.000 --> 1:12:50.920 Leave It All Behind, and you know, we just put 1:12:50.960 --> 1:12:54.280 it out and we had talked about because at that 1:12:54.400 --> 1:12:55.040 time I think. 1:12:55.040 --> 1:12:57.679 BBE they was knocking. They wanted to real, they wanted 1:12:57.720 --> 1:12:59.880 to do they were interested. 1:13:00.439 --> 1:13:02.160 And we looked at the deal and the deal was 1:13:02.240 --> 1:13:05.040 cool and BBE shouts to b B shouts to pe 1:13:05.280 --> 1:13:07.760 p Eddie b eddib No, they did it right by 1:13:07.840 --> 1:13:08.879 it so on on connected. 1:13:09.040 --> 1:13:11.000 So we were open. Was like all, yeah, let's see. 1:13:11.400 --> 1:13:13.880 But by that time, you know, Nick and I was like, yo, man, like, bro, 1:13:14.240 --> 1:13:15.920 let's what if we try to do this ourselves. Man, 1:13:16.000 --> 1:13:17.880 I think we can be pretty much. I think we 1:13:17.960 --> 1:13:18.320 can do this. 1:13:18.880 --> 1:13:21.800 And so uh, you know Neo over here he ran 1:13:21.880 --> 1:13:25.880 the numbers through his matrix. He was like, yeah, man, 1:13:25.960 --> 1:13:28.479 so I think, yeah, I'm like, all right, fucking let's go. 1:13:28.880 --> 1:13:29.720 And so we did it. 1:13:29.880 --> 1:13:34.080 And so yeah, my first check, like our first statement 1:13:34.200 --> 1:13:36.479 off the first month of sales to Leave It All Behind, 1:13:36.640 --> 1:13:38.519 was like twenty five grand. That was more than I 1:13:38.560 --> 1:13:41.599 had seen off the last four or five Little Brother 1:13:41.640 --> 1:13:43.360 albums four three albums at that time. 1:13:43.680 --> 1:13:45.880 Wow, and so and It wasn't so much. It was 1:13:45.960 --> 1:13:46.479 again just. 1:13:46.600 --> 1:13:51.439 Having what I saw was just the transparency of like, listen, dude, 1:13:51.520 --> 1:13:54.320 if I owe you, if if I owe you a dollar, 1:13:54.920 --> 1:13:57.240 just show me a piece of paper showing that saying 1:13:57.320 --> 1:13:58.800 that how I owe you this dollar? 1:13:59.200 --> 1:14:01.320 You know what I mean. But I had never had 1:14:01.360 --> 1:14:03.920 that at no point in my career. I know that 1:14:04.080 --> 1:14:07.439 moment was right fam. It was like four since hanging 1:14:07.520 --> 1:14:08.200 up in the studio. 1:14:08.680 --> 1:14:11.320 So so finally when we put out that record, man, 1:14:11.400 --> 1:14:13.160 that was really the start of our label. And we 1:14:13.240 --> 1:14:15.719 started it in eight so this is like right around 1:14:15.760 --> 1:14:17.840 the time. This is like when the economy is like 1:14:17.960 --> 1:14:22.120 going crazy, right around the crash and everything. And I 1:14:22.240 --> 1:14:25.519 think my mentality was, I if we can launch a 1:14:25.600 --> 1:14:28.519 label during a fucking recession and survive, then we can 1:14:28.600 --> 1:14:29.160 make this ship. 1:14:29.280 --> 1:14:32.720 And it's been sixteen years, I got admit, Man, I 1:14:32.840 --> 1:14:34.400 say this with a little bit of shame. 1:14:34.920 --> 1:14:38.519 The two thousand and eight for that year, that was 1:14:38.560 --> 1:14:42.439 the first year that I actively voted in the Grammys, 1:14:42.960 --> 1:14:47.599 even the three that I won before, I didn't vote 1:14:47.600 --> 1:14:49.479 in that. Like, we just happened to win, but you know, 1:14:49.560 --> 1:14:52.360 it was on the road and I missed the ballot yeah. 1:14:53.040 --> 1:14:55.320 I tried to be a part like because after we 1:14:55.520 --> 1:14:57.840 got the nomination, they hit us it was like, hey, 1:14:58.120 --> 1:14:59.920 you know, do you want to be in whatever? 1:15:00.560 --> 1:15:02.599 And I'm like, all right, cool, But then I saw 1:15:02.680 --> 1:15:04.000 like you had to go to meetings and ship. 1:15:04.040 --> 1:15:06.320 I was like, I want to do this process itself 1:15:06.439 --> 1:15:08.639 is so like there's so much yeah stuff. 1:15:08.840 --> 1:15:12.240 Yeah, it's politics, it's it was just a lot of 1:15:12.360 --> 1:15:15.599 things that I saw. It didn't really I just wanted 1:15:15.640 --> 1:15:18.240 to make music this period and that was just side 1:15:18.240 --> 1:15:20.080 of the game. I understood it, and I understood the 1:15:20.120 --> 1:15:26.240 importance of it. But yeah, I remember my my Grammy lesson. 1:15:26.640 --> 1:15:29.720 We were at like the Grammy post Grammy brunch or 1:15:29.720 --> 1:15:33.519 whatever for Grammy dinner or whatever, and I was in 1:15:33.680 --> 1:15:35.640 line like greating to get some food and stuff. And 1:15:35.760 --> 1:15:37.760 it was this older lady that was in front of 1:15:37.800 --> 1:15:40.519 me and we just started talking and she was like, so, 1:15:40.720 --> 1:15:42.439 you know what what brings what you doing here? And 1:15:42.479 --> 1:15:44.120 I was like, yeah, my group for in Exchange. We 1:15:44.200 --> 1:15:46.600 were nominated for a Grammy and I said, you know 1:15:46.680 --> 1:15:48.719 we lost this year. I said we lost to Indie. 1:15:48.760 --> 1:15:52.000 I re because that year we lost to uh Indi Ira. 1:15:52.200 --> 1:15:56.280 She did a cover of Pearls by Shade, and so 1:15:56.520 --> 1:15:59.120 she was just like, I'll never get it. I said, yeah, 1:15:59.120 --> 1:16:00.840 you know, we lost lost to India, you know what 1:16:00.880 --> 1:16:03.519 I mean. And she said, yeah, it's hard to vote 1:16:03.520 --> 1:16:08.920 against her. And I was just like, vote for Tracy Flick. 1:16:08.960 --> 1:16:11.920 I understand, you know what I mean, you know what 1:16:11.960 --> 1:16:12.240 I mean. 1:16:13.400 --> 1:16:16.040 You know what I mean, you know what I mean. 1:16:16.160 --> 1:16:19.400 It's an election, you know what I mean. It's I'm like, 1:16:19.479 --> 1:16:22.240 I got it. It's this is a campaign. You know, 1:16:22.400 --> 1:16:26.000 It's not a meritocracy. And once I understood that, I 1:16:26.160 --> 1:16:29.200 was just like, Okay, cool. It wasn't no bitterness or nothing. 1:16:29.240 --> 1:16:31.400 I'm like, Okay, that's what the game is, you know 1:16:31.400 --> 1:16:31.760 what I mean. 1:16:32.200 --> 1:16:33.439 But but now, man, the. 1:16:33.479 --> 1:16:37.000 Grammy nod was no, it was. It was incredible. Just 1:16:37.080 --> 1:16:39.599 have that experience. And I think me and I we went, 1:16:39.760 --> 1:16:41.439 we had our suits and all that ship. 1:16:41.800 --> 1:16:47.960 I remember, oh yeah, yeah, yeah. 1:16:48.000 --> 1:16:51.760 There were two related memories, like you invited us to 1:16:51.880 --> 1:16:56.360 the Roots Jam Grammy Jam, which was a big We 1:16:56.439 --> 1:16:59.760 did day Keeper that night, but you also said it 1:16:59.840 --> 1:17:03.960 with us like I remember, like, so it was me 1:17:04.120 --> 1:17:06.560 and Tay and Yazra on stage and I was just 1:17:06.720 --> 1:17:10.080 doing the keyboards and I remember hearing some drums at 1:17:10.120 --> 1:17:14.320 some point. This was not pre planned and you just 1:17:14.400 --> 1:17:16.120 sat in with us and it was like one of 1:17:16.200 --> 1:17:18.880 those things that I'll never forget because it was really 1:17:19.040 --> 1:17:22.000 kind of a It was a moment for us that 1:17:22.200 --> 1:17:26.599 felt like we were accepted by a larger Like obviously 1:17:26.800 --> 1:17:29.559 you had been a champion of us in general through 1:17:30.240 --> 1:17:33.040 Okay Player, but like it was kind of that moment 1:17:33.080 --> 1:17:35.559 where you realize, like, Okay, we might have a future 1:17:35.560 --> 1:17:37.800 in this, Like this might be you know, there were 1:17:37.800 --> 1:17:38.720 a lot of people that we. 1:17:38.840 --> 1:17:42.040 Met, nah seeing the getting props from the Ogs. I'm like, 1:17:42.160 --> 1:17:45.680 we did like we did Kissing Grind. We performed at 1:17:46.120 --> 1:17:49.280 Victor's thing, and we performed with a pickup band for 1:17:49.320 --> 1:17:53.240 the first and last time ever. We never doing that 1:17:53.280 --> 1:17:56.320 shit no more. But like, but during sound check, you know, 1:17:56.520 --> 1:18:00.240 weird singing is me yahs. Yeah, it was me and 1:18:00.320 --> 1:18:02.479 Yards at that time. We I don't think Darien wasn't 1:18:02.680 --> 1:18:04.479 it was. It was just it was just me and 1:18:04.600 --> 1:18:07.760 y'alls are singing. And so afterwards, you know, I walk 1:18:07.840 --> 1:18:11.320 off stage and it's this lady there and I'm looking 1:18:11.360 --> 1:18:12.920 at trying to figure out who she is, and she's 1:18:13.000 --> 1:18:13.760 like that was some. 1:18:13.840 --> 1:18:15.840 Real singing right there, and I love that was some 1:18:16.000 --> 1:18:16.559 good singing. 1:18:16.720 --> 1:18:19.559 I like that it's fucking Anne Nesby from Sounds of Black, 1:18:20.120 --> 1:18:22.800 and I'm just like, holy shit, you know what I mean. 1:18:23.000 --> 1:18:26.720 So that's that was the year we met every like. 1:18:28.320 --> 1:18:32.960 Quincy Jones, Charlie Charlie will Wilson. Like it was really 1:18:33.080 --> 1:18:37.280 kind of we were rubbing shoulders with everybody that we admired, 1:18:37.400 --> 1:18:39.960 and we went to all of the events that you know, 1:18:40.640 --> 1:18:43.120 like the irony is like as a Grammy nominee, you 1:18:43.280 --> 1:18:44.599 don't get to go for free. 1:18:44.680 --> 1:18:47.040 It's still a pricey endeavor. 1:18:47.120 --> 1:18:50.720 And we didn't really have the money to campaign, so 1:18:50.880 --> 1:18:53.600 we just like, look, we're gonna go. We're gonna go 1:18:53.760 --> 1:18:56.880 to all of these events, like there's a producer thing 1:18:57.000 --> 1:18:59.559 at the Village Studio, like you know what I mean, 1:18:59.680 --> 1:19:02.000 like the things that you were very familiar with. We 1:19:02.160 --> 1:19:05.479 did hire a publicist to help us through the red 1:19:05.600 --> 1:19:09.240 carpet thing, like because that was like I recommended that 1:19:09.360 --> 1:19:10.960 we would to make the most of it. 1:19:11.520 --> 1:19:13.240 But it was kind of like one of. 1:19:13.240 --> 1:19:16.559 Those things where we realized, like as much fun as 1:19:16.600 --> 1:19:19.280 it is, like I don't know if we truly belong 1:19:19.400 --> 1:19:23.320 here and at the same time, the acceptance of it 1:19:23.479 --> 1:19:27.240 felt really good. I remember personally feeling very proud because 1:19:27.280 --> 1:19:29.920 this was something I could tell my parents and my family, 1:19:30.160 --> 1:19:34.160 and it made what I did very real versus like, 1:19:34.280 --> 1:19:35.800 oh I just make me you know what I mean. 1:19:35.840 --> 1:19:38.760 It was kind of thing in the United States. Yeah, right, 1:19:38.880 --> 1:19:41.120 It was a moment of like, Okay, this is like 1:19:41.280 --> 1:19:43.320 kind of a real thing, and so you know, but 1:19:43.479 --> 1:19:46.720 I haven't really ever pursued another number and that like 1:19:47.120 --> 1:19:49.960 like in the same way, because like, ultimately, I think 1:19:50.040 --> 1:19:53.360 we both realized that for us, it was much more 1:19:53.400 --> 1:19:58.480 important to make the music versus being the campaigners. 1:19:58.920 --> 1:20:00.720 Like literally, as soon as it was over with, as 1:20:00.760 --> 1:20:03.840 soon as like, you know, Jam announced, you know, the 1:20:04.000 --> 1:20:06.280 India Wan for the joint, I think me and Nick 1:20:06.320 --> 1:20:08.320 just kind of look at Jones like, all right, bro, 1:20:08.439 --> 1:20:09.760 you're ready to get back in the studio. 1:20:10.800 --> 1:20:11.880 Looking like a lount of time. 1:20:12.160 --> 1:20:12.360 Yeah. 1:20:12.720 --> 1:20:14.400 Well yeah, we were like all right with you the time. 1:20:14.400 --> 1:20:16.280 I'm like, yeah, we can you go back to the studio. 1:20:16.360 --> 1:20:18.040 He was just cool year with us. 1:20:18.560 --> 1:20:18.880 That was. 1:20:20.520 --> 1:20:23.639 The actual twenty ten Yeah, yeah. 1:20:23.760 --> 1:20:27.240 I'm dropping wah nine So yeah, twenty nine is one 1:20:27.280 --> 1:20:31.280 of the nominations twenty ten how hard was it for 1:20:31.400 --> 1:20:35.880 you to sort of uproot yourself from living over there 1:20:36.240 --> 1:20:39.120 in the Netherlands and coming to the. 1:20:39.240 --> 1:20:44.160 United States to be yeah, to be dead ass in 1:20:44.240 --> 1:20:44.760 the middle of it. 1:20:45.360 --> 1:20:46.240 Weird? Did you move? 1:20:46.520 --> 1:20:52.160 I moved in six Basically what happened was connected did 1:20:52.240 --> 1:20:52.760 really good. 1:20:53.479 --> 1:20:58.080 And bb our Man Eddie b was our. 1:20:58.040 --> 1:21:00.080 A n R guy at like he was he and 1:21:00.200 --> 1:21:04.000 the American part of BBE, which we were. We never 1:21:04.120 --> 1:21:06.840 dealt with the UK guys so much. And Eddie had 1:21:06.880 --> 1:21:11.840 a vision of like a roster of releases that were 1:21:11.880 --> 1:21:15.360 all foreign exchange related, like a Nicola album, maybe a 1:21:16.280 --> 1:21:20.559 Darian album, maybe a Yazra album. And so he first 1:21:20.640 --> 1:21:22.960 brought up to me, he was like, look like, if 1:21:23.000 --> 1:21:25.200 you want, we could sponsor you. 1:21:25.360 --> 1:21:29.240 For a visa because that's what would be required. And 1:21:29.439 --> 1:21:31.439 so they ended up they ended up doing it. 1:21:31.560 --> 1:21:33.760 I realized that at the time, kind of going back 1:21:33.800 --> 1:21:36.280 to our conversation of how my sound was perceived, that 1:21:37.240 --> 1:21:41.600 I knew that back in Europe I didn't have a 1:21:41.880 --> 1:21:44.880 chance to really pursue a music career, certainly not in 1:21:45.000 --> 1:21:48.960 a touring capacity or otherwise. And my dream was again 1:21:49.160 --> 1:21:52.160 like as this music that I saw as inherently American. 1:21:52.680 --> 1:21:54.880 It felt like it made sense to come to the 1:21:54.960 --> 1:21:58.120 States and pursue a music career, and so I was 1:21:59.040 --> 1:22:02.920 awarded with a one visa, which was a big deal. 1:22:04.120 --> 1:22:06.960 But yeah, it involved leaving, like and that's what leave 1:22:07.000 --> 1:22:11.040 it All Behind partly alludes to. It did involve leaving 1:22:11.120 --> 1:22:13.880 my family, like my parents are still there, my brother 1:22:14.000 --> 1:22:19.439 and sister. So it's been it's been bittersweet in the 1:22:19.600 --> 1:22:23.560 sense that it was the right decision to make, but 1:22:23.680 --> 1:22:26.080 it wasn't an easy decision to make, and it will 1:22:26.160 --> 1:22:29.280 always be something where I realized that I did have 1:22:29.439 --> 1:22:33.920 to leave something behind that that is not necessarily easy 1:22:33.960 --> 1:22:34.559 to replace. 1:22:34.920 --> 1:22:36.080 Which city did you? 1:22:36.640 --> 1:22:36.680 So? 1:22:36.920 --> 1:22:39.160 I moved to Wilmington, North Carolina. 1:22:39.360 --> 1:22:42.360 Because so this is kind of a yeah, yeah, it's 1:22:42.360 --> 1:22:44.080 a it's a beach beach sign right on. 1:22:44.520 --> 1:22:47.040 This just got like a cool, sort of quick anecdote 1:22:47.400 --> 1:22:50.439 that made me realize that North Carolina was kind of 1:22:50.560 --> 1:22:53.839 always in my crosshairs. As a kid, I had a puzzle, 1:22:54.520 --> 1:22:58.600 a jigsaw puzzle, and it was a mansion, just like 1:22:58.720 --> 1:23:02.280 a Southern man who would all to Magnolia's. And I 1:23:02.600 --> 1:23:04.960 really like jigsaw puzzles as a kid, and I would 1:23:05.400 --> 1:23:06.599 make this jigsaw puzzle. 1:23:06.720 --> 1:23:09.080 And basically what I. 1:23:09.160 --> 1:23:13.080 Found out once I moved to the Wilmington area was 1:23:13.200 --> 1:23:17.759 that that mansion on that puzzle is actually a mansion 1:23:17.880 --> 1:23:20.160 that is there in that local area, which I would 1:23:20.200 --> 1:23:23.600 have never known. So that made it almost like a 1:23:23.840 --> 1:23:29.040 serendipity kind of thing. I remember, like North Carolina had 1:23:29.080 --> 1:23:31.759 this sort of magic to it by way of Fante 1:23:32.040 --> 1:23:35.040 and everybody that was there, like it seemed like foreign 1:23:35.080 --> 1:23:40.200 exchange already before I moved, was a North Carolinian group, 1:23:40.320 --> 1:23:42.439 and so he would talk about Raleigh, he would talk 1:23:42.479 --> 1:23:45.720 about Durham, and it always like I always thought, like 1:23:45.840 --> 1:23:49.000 what if one day I actually get to be there 1:23:49.200 --> 1:23:51.840 and sort of like know what that is like. And 1:23:52.000 --> 1:23:56.760 even yesterday we took a little trip to sort of 1:23:56.840 --> 1:23:59.720 see a lot of those early locations where Fonte is 1:23:59.800 --> 1:24:02.280 like first apartment after college. 1:24:01.960 --> 1:24:04.400 And I wrote all those songs. 1:24:04.520 --> 1:24:05.720 Yeah, yeah, this near. 1:24:06.520 --> 1:24:09.040 So when I think of North Carolina and beach life, 1:24:09.320 --> 1:24:10.360 I think of Cape Fear. 1:24:10.840 --> 1:24:13.160 Yeah yeah, literally Cape here River. 1:24:13.240 --> 1:24:16.840 I'm on the k yeah for Taraka and I. 1:24:17.280 --> 1:24:21.280 The soundtrack to Organics is we get home from recording 1:24:21.439 --> 1:24:24.280 at like two three in the morning, we watched do 1:24:24.360 --> 1:24:25.960 the Right thing and Cape fear. 1:24:26.200 --> 1:24:30.280 Yeah, like just night after night. It's weird selection. Yeah, yeah, 1:24:30.920 --> 1:24:34.280 that's the most opposite. Okay, sorry yo, No, it's just 1:24:34.520 --> 1:24:35.839 like but it was a tradition. 1:24:36.040 --> 1:24:39.080 We would get famous same as cookies, a half gallon 1:24:39.120 --> 1:24:41.640 of Barns juice and then you just get in the 1:24:41.720 --> 1:24:43.519 crib and put because the news will be on it. 1:24:43.560 --> 1:24:46.479 It's like ninety two, like you know, I mean, cable 1:24:46.520 --> 1:24:48.519 culture was sort of the thing, but you know, we 1:24:48.560 --> 1:24:51.160 didn't have like the Internet, so it's just like, all right, 1:24:51.720 --> 1:24:53.720 get your VHS tape that has to do the right 1:24:53.840 --> 1:24:54.720 thing and. 1:24:55.160 --> 1:24:59.559 Kp here like six in the morning, watch it every night. 1:24:59.720 --> 1:25:03.440 So was that the remake or the original with gregor. 1:25:05.960 --> 1:25:10.800 Not like both versions, but Scorsese versions my favorite. Yeah yeah, 1:25:10.840 --> 1:25:11.559 yeah yeah. 1:25:11.439 --> 1:25:14.920 So back to your question, Like, it's been, like I think, 1:25:14.960 --> 1:25:17.720 in a lot of ways, like I've I've learned a 1:25:17.840 --> 1:25:21.960 lot about America in those years, a lot through the 1:25:22.080 --> 1:25:26.320 people that I've surrounded myself with. I came here sort 1:25:26.360 --> 1:25:35.160 of when it was Obama era, felt very yeah, I've 1:25:35.240 --> 1:25:39.000 been now through that going now right, So it's been 1:25:39.120 --> 1:25:43.320 really interesting. Obviously it's politically a completely different world from 1:25:43.400 --> 1:25:45.759 what I'm used to, but that's a whole other story. 1:25:45.880 --> 1:25:49.160 But it's been. It's been interesting. It's been. 1:25:49.240 --> 1:25:49.479 Really. 1:25:49.960 --> 1:25:53.080 I often tell people that in order to appreciate where 1:25:53.080 --> 1:25:57.080 you're from, it is sometimes helpful to not be there 1:25:57.160 --> 1:25:59.920 for a while. And so, like, the interesting thing is, 1:26:00.160 --> 1:26:04.320 once I moved, I gained a much greater appreciation for 1:26:05.320 --> 1:26:08.160 where I'm from, going back, going back home, and it 1:26:08.400 --> 1:26:10.400 just all of a sudden started looking a little bit 1:26:10.880 --> 1:26:15.520 like different. And that's been. That's been very interesting. 1:26:15.720 --> 1:26:16.040 All right. 1:26:16.200 --> 1:26:19.240 So to wrap it up, this is a for me 1:26:19.360 --> 1:26:23.600 in an important moment in development history, and hopefully you know, 1:26:23.760 --> 1:26:26.679 history is kind to you guys in terms of really 1:26:26.760 --> 1:26:30.360 acknowledging how early guys were in the game of how 1:26:30.520 --> 1:26:34.479 we now make music, Like you know, you guys were 1:26:34.560 --> 1:26:40.719 so early, and this this level of the first digital generation, 1:26:41.840 --> 1:26:43.559 pre SoundCloud. 1:26:43.120 --> 1:26:49.040 Pre you know, like pre Gmail, yes, right, social media Google? 1:26:49.200 --> 1:26:51.840 Like what was Google back then? So no, man, it 1:26:51.960 --> 1:26:54.200 was really not it was okay, player really was. 1:26:54.439 --> 1:26:56.479 I mean, it was just you know, I don't think 1:26:56.760 --> 1:27:00.160 y'all understood what y'all built, but you know it really was, uh, 1:27:00.880 --> 1:27:02.920 you know, just you were able to really find your 1:27:03.000 --> 1:27:05.840 tribe there, and you know, I don't think Nick and 1:27:05.880 --> 1:27:08.000 I would have found each other on any other site. 1:27:08.080 --> 1:27:10.479 We wasn't wouldn't found each other on you know, anywhere else. 1:27:10.560 --> 1:27:15.200 It was just that fucking online asylum that is, okay, player, 1:27:15.760 --> 1:27:18.639 we found each other and uh you know our movement 1:27:18.720 --> 1:27:21.400 with Fie, it really was a lot of it was 1:27:21.479 --> 1:27:24.280 inspired you know by so Quariums of course, by you know, 1:27:24.400 --> 1:27:29.599 Dungeon family, just understanding the power of having a crew 1:27:30.120 --> 1:27:33.280 and that y'all each work to make each other better 1:27:33.400 --> 1:27:36.160 and like collaborate with each other, and you know, you're 1:27:36.240 --> 1:27:40.439 able to keep records out without burning yourself out. 1:27:40.640 --> 1:27:41.280 You know what I'm saying. 1:27:41.400 --> 1:27:43.519 If like, if you got to do a fantee solo 1:27:43.600 --> 1:27:47.559 album every year for five years, you done, like it's over, 1:27:47.760 --> 1:27:49.680 you know what I mean. But if it's okay, I 1:27:49.720 --> 1:27:53.320 got feel Yeah, we can produce for other people, we 1:27:53.360 --> 1:27:55.280 can write, we can do things, you know, we can 1:27:55.400 --> 1:27:57.519 do sesame street songs like you know what I mean. 1:27:57.560 --> 1:28:00.200 All kind of so so now I'm man. 1:28:00.320 --> 1:28:03.960 It was that that level of community was certainly influenced 1:28:04.000 --> 1:28:10.000 by uh so aquarians again, you know, organized noise, just 1:28:10.200 --> 1:28:13.240 all of just those big collectors just you know, just 1:28:13.320 --> 1:28:17.920 seeing seeing y'all in that that vibe, the infamous vibe picture. 1:28:18.400 --> 1:28:22.360 Yes, I mean it got us real though, but yeah, 1:28:22.439 --> 1:28:24.720 but seeing that and being like, okay, like we can 1:28:24.840 --> 1:28:25.880 do that, and y'all's a right. 1:28:25.880 --> 1:28:28.759 At the time, she was singing for Erica Team background 1:28:28.760 --> 1:28:30.559 for Erica, So she was one of the first people 1:28:30.600 --> 1:28:33.960 that I saw as a professional musician and like saw 1:28:34.040 --> 1:28:35.760 what that grind was, like you know what I mean, 1:28:36.320 --> 1:28:39.000 and so yeah, man, yeah, I'm just thankful. 1:28:39.080 --> 1:28:40.599 But you know, it was all came full circle. 1:28:40.720 --> 1:28:43.559 Well, we're gonna have to also do like a part 1:28:43.600 --> 1:28:45.280 two stories because we didn't even get to my favorite 1:28:45.320 --> 1:28:48.560 like getting you talked about flying colors or or like 1:28:49.080 --> 1:28:53.240 authenticity or like any of my my favorite moments off 1:28:53.280 --> 1:28:53.719 the records. 1:28:53.800 --> 1:28:56.240 But could you a part you on online or whatever? 1:28:56.520 --> 1:28:59.400 Yes? Absolutely, yeah, yeah, they do it online. Do it 1:28:59.479 --> 1:28:59.960 for the shame? 1:29:00.240 --> 1:29:02.559 That would makes sense actually right right right. 1:29:02.479 --> 1:29:06.280 At one time we said, definitely did it that way? 1:29:06.280 --> 1:29:07.800 All right, go back home, both, y'all. 1:29:08.880 --> 1:29:15.599 No, I want be having a okay player, Yes, thank you, Yes, 1:29:15.760 --> 1:29:17.160 I want to be having a k play and then 1:29:17.160 --> 1:29:21.559 won't be haalf of q ls uh Bill, Steve, Wait. 1:29:21.439 --> 1:29:22.240 Where did like to go? 1:29:23.120 --> 1:29:27.040 She was just here, Uh myself and of course like 1:29:27.160 --> 1:29:30.000 the Famo of the q l S. Thanks Foreign Exchange 1:29:30.040 --> 1:29:33.840 for joining us for this episode. That person episode of 1:29:33.920 --> 1:29:36.120 Quest Love Supreme. We'll see on the next go around. 1:29:36.200 --> 1:29:40.360 Y'all peace, Thank you for listening to Quest Love Supreme. 1:29:40.840 --> 1:29:44.200 This podcast is hosted by a Mere Quest Love Thompson, 1:29:44.600 --> 1:29:47.720 Big Boss Man, Light Here, Saint Clair, So Black and 1:29:47.800 --> 1:29:51.880 the Black, Myself, Fan, tigelow Fante Goldman Sugar. 1:29:51.640 --> 1:29:54.719 Steve Mandell, and Unpaid Bill Sherman. 1:29:55.040 --> 1:29:58.400 The executive producers are a Mere Quest Love Thompson, Sean 1:29:58.520 --> 1:30:02.680 g and Be Unbothered Brian Calhoun. Produced by Britta and 1:30:02.760 --> 1:30:07.080 Benjamin my dog cousin, Jake Payne, my motherfucking man, and 1:30:07.400 --> 1:30:09.559 like is Saint Clair my work wife. 1:30:10.120 --> 1:30:13.920 Edited by Alex Conroy. Produced for iHeart by Noel Brown. 1:30:21.960 --> 1:30:29.160 What's Love Supreme is a production of iHeart Radio. For 1:30:29.280 --> 1:30:32.360 more podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, 1:30:32.600 --> 1:30:35.639 Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.