(Source: voodoozombielounge, via jennylsq)
Kanye West Signs Q-Tip to G.O.O.D. Music/Def Jam
Def Jam has announced the signing of Q-Tip to G.O.O.D. Music/Def Jam records. In a press release sent out this morning, Def Jam CEO Barry Weiss announced the new partnership and plans for the veteran MC’s fourth solo album The Last Zulu to be released in early 2013
“I’m excited to be a part of the great iconic Def Jam label,” said Q-Tip. “I’m humbled to be a part of such a storied history. To reconnect with Barry Weiss is a great thing. As far as G.O.O.D. Music, I’m excited to solidify my working relationship with Kanye, and I look forward to all the opportunities that lie ahead in our partnership. I will do my best to present the most cutting edge music I can.”
“I am thrilled to be working with Q-Tip once again,” said Mr. Weiss, who helmed the artist’s releases on Jive Records in the 1990s as a member of A Tribe Called Quest. “He is a respected voice in the music community as shown by his acclaimed solo albums and countless contributions to the work of other artists. His creativity continues to surpass all boundaries of hip-hop, R&B, pop, and jazz. We welcome Q-Tip to the G.O.O.D. Music / Island Def Jam family.”
Diplo feat Nicky Da B - Express Yourself, I was the Director of Photography for this joint
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Interview with Jake Snider - lead singer of Minus The Bear on their upcoming album #5
Seattle-based indie-rockers Minus the Bear have developed a solid following among rock fans across the globe. With their unique music and energetic live show, Minus the Bear is one of the most successful indie-rock groups out there today. The band’s line-up boasts current and former members of Botch, Kill Sadie, and Sharks Keep Moving. If you like adventurous rock music then you should definitely check out their latest LP Omni and keep your eyes peeled for the release of their upcoming fifth album. I had a chance to catch up with lead singer Jake SnIder while taking a break from the studio:
JORDYN: Minus The Bear definitely has a sound that is unlike any other band, what were some of your musical influences when first starting the band?
JAKE: When we first started, it was a lot of different stuff. Crystal Skulls and a bunch of local Seattle bands. Just a bunch of different stuff. I was listening to a lot of early 2000’s hip-hop like Nelly. Remember? Remember Nelly and the St. Lunatics?
JORDYN: Oh, yeah! How could I forget!
JAKE: Yeah E.I.E.I. and all that. We were listening to a lot of Master P too.
JORDYN: Do you guys still bump Nelly on the tour bus?
JAKE: Sometimes. Not much though lately. We’ve been listening to more contemporary stuff.
JORDYN: I know you guys come from Seattle, which has one of the best, if not THE best, indie-rock scenes in the country. Do you still follow the Seattle music scene?
JAKE: I am just an old man when I come home. I hang out with my wife and do house stuff. These days I haven’t been going to shows much at all unless it’s a friend of mine playing in town, or somebody local that I really dig. I don’t find myself out at shows too much, I’m not that connected anymore.
JORDYN: How did the band-mates come about finding each other to become Minus The Bear?
JAKE: We all knew each other from previous bands. For the most part, we had been friends and been hanging out for a few years. Dave and the original four guys, which was everybody but me, got together and started coming up with material. I heard it and thought it sounded good, so we got together and played. That’s really it.
JORDYN: People in the music industry are very quick to label the band as progressive or indie-rock. What genre does you classify yourselves with?
JAKE: Rock and roll. When people ask us, that’s what we say. Rock and roll.
JORDYN: The band has sold out shows across the globe and you have such an established fan base to say at the least. Does it freak you out that fans see you indie-rock “gods”?
JAKE: No because I don’t really feel that they do. It doesn’t seem like it from my perspective at least. I’m always shocked when kids are a little too happy too see me, or whatever. It’s an interesting place to be. It’s too much.
JORDYN: What do you think it is, about your sound, that draws in such a diverse group of fans?
JAKE: I think it’s kind of the diverse influences that we have as people in terms of music, background, whatever. The five of us have a lot in common and what not, but it’s mostly just the fact that we’ve played music together for so long. It is a conglomeration of influences that comes through the “musical meat grinder” and our end product comes out. It appeals to a lot of different people and a lot of different age groups. It’s an interesting mix of people at a Minus The Bear show.
JORDYN: What is your favorite song that the band has produced thus far?
JAKE: That’s a tough question. I don’t know. I like Into The Mirror. I like Fooled By The Night. Lotus off the last record. I like the bigger vibe-wise songs. They are usually a little longer and the ones I dig the most
JORDYN: Lotus is such a powerful song. What is the writing process when the band goes into the studio?
JAKE: I generally write my lyrics last. We do a lot of demoing when we’re writing, so I’ll take the demos home and start getting ideas before the recording process starts. In the past, I’ve completed a lot of lyrics in the studio.
JORDYN: How long does it typically take you guys to write an album?
JAKE: About a year.
JORDYN: Matt Bayles, one of the original members of Minus, is producing the upcoming fifth album. What is it like to be back in the studio with someone you have so much history with?
JAKE: It’s been awesome working with Matt again. It kind of feels like nothing has changed, we’re just back at it. We’re about halfway through and it’s just been a really natural process so far.
JORDYN: A lot of fans were upset that the last album, OMNI, veered too far away from your original sound. Is the upcoming album continuing on that pop/electronic wave or have you guys back to the traditional Minus The Bear sound now that Bayles is back?
JAKE: I don’t even know what our traditional sound is because none of the records sound alike really. We didn’t think the last record was that much of a departure, ultimately. Maybe the first song was, but the new material is even more concise and harder hitting than the last album. There isn’t a song like “My Time” on it necessarily, but I mean, it’s just another record and it’s going to be different than all the other ones before it hopefully.
JORDYN: Where did you guys find inspiration for the upcoming album?
JAKE: On previous records we’ve been more on the same page, but these days, we’re not really referencing anything. We don’t have a consensus on what we’re going for. All our influences are really different.
JORDYN: Have you decided on an album title?
JAKE: Not yet. It’s too early to tell.
JORDYN: Can we be expecting any major ballads like “Drilling” or “Lotus” this time around?
JAKE: No extended ballads like “Lotus” or anything like that, but there’s kind of a two song bit that when put together forms a longer piece. It’s really interesting.
JORDYN: Your music is so technically advanced. Is it hard for you guys to write this complicated, layered music, but still have it end up somewhat mainstream accessible?
JAKE: That’s kind of always been our goal – to do something that we’re interested in playing but in kind of a pop formula. Kind of making pop music interesting. It’s always difficult to try to make something new, especially when our tendencies are to be less “pop”.
JORDYN: That’s pretty awesome. Is Dave experimenting with any new instruments on this album like he did with the omnichord on OMNI or is he sticking to his infamous guitar tapping and dl4 action?
JAKE: Just guitar, effects and all that good stuff. Everything is really standard on this record. No real wild or crazy new additives this time around.
JORDYN: Are you guys collaborating with any outside producers or bands?
JAKE: Nope, we’re sticking to Matt Bayles for the entire album.
JORDYN: I also read that Dave and you just had your first children. Do you think that has affected the writing process for this album at all?
JAKE: Yeah it definitely has. It’s quite a bit of change. I think both he and I might be a little more optimistic this time around. We began this process before the kids were around, so we will see.
JORDYN: Have you begun to write your lyrics?
JAKE: Most of the lyrics are finished.
JORDYN: Are you finding that you’re writing more about your new life with a family?
JAKE: This record is a lot less “story-teller” kind of stuff and more mental, more interior, I think. It’s kind of a little bit more focused on arguments and tension in relationships and things like that.
JORDYN: Can we be expecting any obscure song titles for album 5?
JAKE: Absolutely, but we haven’t decided on any titles yet!
JORDYN: Are you guys planning on playing any major festivals this summer or is there an upcoming tour in the works?
JAKE: There is nothing that we can talk about right now as far as festivals go, but we are going to tour right when the record comes out. There’s no release date yet, but the plan is..when we get a plan to tour, we will. No specifics yet.
JORDYN: It seems as though the band has been on tour nonstop the past few years and with 4 LP’s and 7 EP’s, you guys have quite a large archive of music. How do you go about choosing which songs go on your set list?
JAKE: We definitely have our favorites and we try to gauge what our fans want to hear. We try to play a mix of everything – old and new. If we’re doing support for a new record, we’ll do 40% new material and what not. We usually just go by what we want to put together, what we want to do. We try to consider everybody’s feelings into the process.
JORDYN: Do you enjoy playing the large outdoor festivals or the smaller, more intimate shows?
JAKE: I prefer playing in theaters for the most part. A nice theater with good sound, good sight lines, and good production.
JORDYN: Being that you’ve been touring for so long, do your songs ever get old to you?
JAKE: Yes. Oh yes.
JORDYN: Do you ever listen to your own albums?
JAKE: Not really, no.
JORDYN: You guys have been a band for over 10 years now, what has been the hardest part of adapting to the ever-changing music industry while simultaneously trying to evolve as a band?
JAKE: I think the hardest part is knowing that the only income you make in the business is being on the road. You don’t have as much time to be creative when you’re always trying to make a buck by traveling. It’s harder for the creative side to come through when you’re not being paid for being creative anymore.
JORDYN: When you’re on the road, who listens to the worst music in the band?
JAKE: Probably Erin, well definitely Erin. Tons of and tons of the worst bubblegum R&B. Not like classical, old school stuff.. but like contemporary, embarrassing stuff.
JORDYN: You guys have such a strong stage presence together. How have you guys managed to create such synergy together on stage?
JAKE: I don’t know. By doing it for 10 years, you get good at it.
JORDYN: Who have been some of your favorite artists you’ve toured with?
JAKE: Oh, man. There’s so many. We get to pick the bands we tour with. Phantogram, Everest, there are so many great bands.
JORDYN: One of my favorite Minus songs of all time is “Electric Rainbow” which was on the B-side of the Planet of Ice LP. Why did you guys decide to separate that track?
JAKE: I guess we didn’t think it fit the vibe of the record at the time. It was one of the very first songs and as we went out, we found songs that we wanted to put on the record more.
JORDYN: Looking back, is there one particular performance that sticks out in your mind as your bands monumental, defining moment?
JAKE: That hasn’t happened yet. I don’t know if we’ve made it yet. I just felt like we’ve been working at it for a while. Probably one of the first times we sold out Irving Plaza in New York.
JORDYN: Where do you see the band’s direction going in the future?
JAKE: At this point it’s really hard to know. Two of us have kids and there’s another one on the way. Life is rapidly changing and the music industry is changing. The band has been around 10 years so it’s hard to say whether we’ll be around another 10 years. There’s definitely no plan to stop.
Interview with NIKO IS of Great People
JR: So your real name is Nikolai, where are you from?
NP: I was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. As a young man I moved to Argentina and then I eventually came to Orlando, Florida. I was raised here and learned the American culture and it really opened my eyes. It was a weird transition but I loved it.
JR: Who were your music idols growing up?
NP: Growing up, man. Lets see. It started with Biggie and then the older I got, I started opening up more and listening to other genres of music: Bob Marley, Pink Floyd, The Beatles.
JR: How long have you been creating music?
NP: Almost ten years, I started in ninth grade battle rapping and writing rap lyrics online. It became more hands on and I found myself – it really opened my mind. I started looking at different cultures and different styles of music.. I immersed myself in art and tried to learn as much as I can to create this one “thing “that hasn’t been created yet.
JR: What genre would you classify your music under?
NP: For now, I’ll just call it hip-hop…but there’s so many ways you can interpret that.
JR: What other bands do you find yourself currently drawn to?
NP: Radiohead, Mars Volta, like I love that shit. Weird shit, man. Two Chainz! Kendrick Lamar, you know, somebody that’s saying something – that’s bridging the gap. Thievery Corporation…I learned a lot from Thievery.
JR: When did you fall in love with hip hop?
NP: Oh man, when I was in Miami in Coconut Grove with my Mom. She took me to Sam Goody and she was like, “Choose a c.d.” and my only options were Biggie and Tupac – I chose Tupac. I was really young and I remember putting the cd in and being like, “Oh Shit! Tupac?! West Side!” and that’s when it all started.
JR: What inspires you?
NP: A cornucopia of different things. Cornucopia, I love that word. Different art forms. I love to mix different forms of art together and see what turns out.
JR: What is your writing process when you go into the studio?
NP: Weed, weed, weed. I don’t know man. I try to write all the time and I always keep beats in my mind. I try to write raps that actually say something. It’s all about energy. I am all about positive energy, so I go into the studio trying to convey that.
JR: How do you feel about being an upcoming hip hop act in such an electronic skewed industry?
NP: I think it’s really good because I believe hip-hop is slowly coming back. It went “right” instead of going “left” and it became so commercialized. It became a business about the money, not the art. It is what it is… but it feels good to have a different type of style that separates me from others. It kind of puts me in my own lane to build my own type of audience. I’m just trying to do my own thing.
JR: When was your first performance in front of an audience?
NP: It was battling rapping back in ninth grade. I would try to write battle raps and compete with kids in my school. You get in front of people and the crowds would start to form – we would all just start rapping. It was cliché, but that is just how it was. People would crowd around just to watch somebody get clowned. It was weird the first time I got destroyed. It was very embarrassing. At the time I couldn’t really rap but it was all about poking fun and I did the best I could. Image wise, I was so different looking from the other kids in my school so they would come at me hard cause I was an easy target. There was one kid that I battled who I’ll never forget –Chris Peterson. He was so arrogant and he could barely rap. He absolutely demolished me in summer school. The next year, I saw him and we battled at a club. We both went to the finals – straight Eight Mile – and I beat him on stage. It was dope, very dope. Free VIP to a teen club for the whole summer.
JR: Was that your most memorable experience on stage?
NP: Opening for Big Sean was surreal. I’m not so big on opening for people but it was so crazy. Out of nowhere, there were 400-500 people who road tripped to come to the show. We came up to Gainesville and had a blast with our crew.
JR: Do you have any plans to tour this year?
NP: Well, I have plans to make incredible art, meet great new people and find my place. I want to tour ASAP but I am working on racking up enough material to be able to adapt to any crowd. I want to play 300 shows this year.
JR: Tell me a little bit about your hip hop group Great People.
NP: Great people is everything. Great people is a team that’s a priority in itself. It’s myself rapping, Riley Barnes playing piano and singing, and Henry Daher producing and playing the drums and Norman Lamberty. Great people is beautiful, its great vibes and great times. It’s unexplainable to me. It’s not just NIKO IS, it’s about team work. Four people come together to create one collective style. I love it.
JR: So the new LP, Chill NYE is coming out in the next month. How long have you been working on this project?
NP: A few months too long. I’ve hit some obstacles in the process of creating this album so it’s been delayed but it’s come together in the end. I’m telling my stories.
JR: Who produced the album?
NP: There are a few different producers; Kerry Beats is my friend and homie. I have specific producers for specific songs. There’s duality between Gemini’s so I always like to mix it up. For my energetic, trunk rattling hip-hop bangers I go to Kerry. Henry does the more rhythmic, styled production. I’m working with some other people coming up too. I steal a lot of beats too – or borrow them. I jack their beats because I don’t believe they deserve them. Beats that are not even hip-hop, like Tao and Zen was originally created by a jazz band. I heard the instrumental and I was like, “I want to put my spin on it”. It’s a mix tape so I’m doing a lot of different things. Some people don’t do justice to beautiful music so I’m trying to put my spin on it.
JR: I’ve had a chance to listen to the whole upcoming album. How do you go about writing your lyrics?
NP: I wish I could write on paper but I think too fast for paper. I love writing on a computer – it’s so much easier. It’s more organized to me to have a notepad up. I wish I had an old school typewriter straight Hunter S. Thompson style. Chugging Wild Turkey and plugging away on my typewriter – that would be a dream. Me and my typewriter under a sunset.
JR: Which song do you find yourself most emotionally connected to?
NP: Astral projection and Tao and Zen. I call them meditation songs – meditation hip hop. I want to make a new genre- Zen music. I make Zen music. It’s very peaceful and transient. It’s a great feeling, I love those songs. I’d like to do a whole album strictly like that.
JR: What do you want your fans to really take away from this album?
NP: That I’m a crazy dude that can rap. I think of crazy things and I try to put an artistic spin on it. I’m no bullshit; every single rhyme is there for a reason. Everything I say is true, or it’s me fantasizing. There’s nothing that’s not me in that music.
JR: What do you do when you’re not recording?
NP: I chill with my family and friends. I look for inspiration everywhere. I try to live life spontaneously and free. Life is beautiful.
JR: Are there any specific artists you would really like to collaborate with in the future?
NP: Hell yeah. First and foremost, Devendra Banhart. Next would be Kanye West because we’re both Gemini’s and we’d probably change each other’s lives and then Flying Lotus - Flying Lotus is ridiculous.
JR: When this is all said and done, what do you want your fans to look back and say about your music?
NP: That it’s real, relatable and beautiful. I’m trying to bring art back. Everything is changing and music is becoming cool again. It’ s not about bullshit anymore; people are trying to tell their stories. I want to spearhead a new movement of art. That might sound a little bit pretentious but I’m just trying to do it for the art. I’m trying to change music.
Bandcamp: http://nikois.bandcamp.com/
Twitter: @NikoHigh
