Hawaii's Underground : Local Music | Art | Tattoos | Independent Businesses
A Printed and Online Publication
ISSUE 13
The Music/Business by Shawn Davenport
Interview with DJ Catwings
Interview with Slapp Symphony
Interview with Local Boyz Eternally
Interview with Mr. Furious
The Music/Business by Shawn Davenport
photos by Katie Whitman
Music. What's hot? What's not? Who decides? Why do we care? It all depends on who we are, and what we want. This article is for everyone, but directed towards you: the career-chasing musician/artist in 2007. This is for those of you who want to make a living from music, but hate to justify the term "music business." In fact, this article is for me too. Making a living off of doing what you love resulting in loving what you do and even going as far as "living the dream," that's what we want right? This is getting harder and harder to do, but at the same time, it is also getting easier for those who are aware of what is going on today in "the biz".
Are you an ambitious musician who is being forced to become a business man? How about a driven artist that finds themselves more and more concerned with advertising as the money doesn't roll in? You know you aren't alone. Some food for thought: CD's sure ain't sellin like they used to anymore, and you know that what is popular shifts gears faster than fashions change and with similar fallout. What's pumped into the masses over radio isn't on there because it's great, or even already popular! It is playing along with the other 17 songs on the hour because the individuals in control of mainstream radio want it to be popular, and if you miss it on the radio or TV or Internets you will certainly learn the tune thanks to the convenient cellular phone ring-tones that sop up the rest of us anti-top-40-types like paper towels. What else? A growing number of cultural phenomenons like Myspace, Youtube, and even Wikipedia! Have you heard of Hollywood Undead? If not, you will. Look them up, they recently landed a deal with INTERSCOPE RECORDS without any real legwork or shows or fans, just the fact that they jumped to number one on Myspace Music in a matter of weeks. Think about that. This isn't your parent's music business, hell, this isn't even your older brother's music business! Power is shifting, and the work you do now will decide where you end up amongst all of the awesome music out there.
All of the "facts" in the previous paragraph may not ring true to you, but if they do, don't let them get you down. With all of the power and success of a conventional record deal being sucked dry by unpredictable sales markets, more and more people are doing it themselves and realizing new options. If you are serious about making a living from your music, there is no excuse to not do your homework and be up to date with all the developing concepts out there! New music markets, new types of music consumers, new ways to distribute. Research the success stories and look for a common denominator. Read about it, or if you can't read, become best friends with someone that can. I will go ahead and "sell out" by saying that the blunt goal here is to find out where the money is for that career we want to have: to be respected AND paid for pouring our hearts and minds out into the art that IS music. On the other hand, if you hate money and are only doing it for "the chicks," "the guys," or even Myspace picture comments, don't worry, you will most likely get what you are working for.
LETS WORK TOGETHER!!! Have any ideas about ways to stand out in the local/todays music biz? send them to the zine to spread the good word to the good people! e-mail the808scenezine@gmail.com with your input.
Interview with DJ Catwings - KTUH DJ of 808 Wonderland
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Interview by Katie Whitman, two middle photos by Katie Whitman (others taken from www.myspace.com/catwings)
Monday Night Live - Every Monday night from 9pm-midnight with DJ Catwings
http://www.myspace.com/catwings
KTUH 91.3 FM North Shore
KTUH 89.9 FM Windward
On the web www.ktuh.org
(808) 956-7261
State your name!
DJ Catwings, Michelle Takiguchi, but everyone’s been calling me Shelly since 7th grade.
So you’re from here?
Yup. Born and raised. I’ve been living here all my life. It is my 25th birthday, so I’ll be living here for 25 years.
Have you always been in the music scene?
I wouldn’t say that. In high school, from I would say my junior year, I got into ska. I was actually into ska before that. I would always listen to radio free Hawaii. I LOVED radio free Hawaii… the radio station. I would always collect the little pamphlets that they’d print. They would print the top 100 and top 10 music stuff every week. An dI would keep them every week. That was in intermediate school. In high school, I got into more ska stuff and more punk. I used to go to Hawaii express shows. Actually, Jason used to have shows up here at Campus Center all the time. That’s back where they used to throw shows whenever they could. I remember going to the Me First and the Gimme Gimmes down somewhere in Kalihi in this warehouse that was like.. you walked upstairs and it was kind of a loft and it didn’t seem stable. And people were moshing. I lost my contact at that show and got hit in the head. That’s when I used to go into mosh pits.
Yeah, so I used to go to all the Hawaiian Express shows. I remember when Go Jimmy Go played up here at Campus Center when they were first starting. I think they played with Unit 101 and the Pettyfours. Maybe Grapefruit.
And then, I’d go to when they used to have the Poi Fest when K-Poi was around. And then the other one… I don’t remember. There were so many different shows going on. We used to even get the Warped Tour. I was never able to go.
I was out of the scene for a couple of years. It’s kind of funny, when you don’t go to shows. You think that the scene is dead. But it’s not. It’s kind of a weird phenomena. But you think, just because you stopped going to shows, that there aren’t any shows. I think that this is the mentality for everybody. You stop going to shows and you’re not aware of what’s going on. You think that the scene is dead, but it’s not, you just aren’t aware of that.
The person who got me back into going to shows was Mike Camino. Dork back then. He used to be in a band with Jack, our friend Brian and Jake. They had this band called Dork. They called themselves collesium rock. It was a joke. But he and I were friends. I used to do some plays and stuff and I used to invite him to come along. He finally came to a play of mine so he said I had to come out to a show of his. So the first time I actually got back in the scene, I think I saw Dork play up at Coffee Talk. Then I saw them play at Paragon. They actually used to throw shows at Paragon. It was crazy because they have the glass cases up against the wall and people would be moshing in there.
Did the glass ever get broken?
I don’t think so. Up at Coffee Talk, a window got broken. So yeah, I started just going to shows and hanging out with everybody and got into the scene again and started meeting really cool people. Since then, most of my friends have been musicians or been in the scene. It was after being in the scene for a little while… I had always wanted to DJ at KTUH. Ever since I started coming to UH. I really only spent 2 ½ years at UH, the rest of the time was at KCC. But I came to UH and I had always wanted to, but I never got around into looking how to apply for a show, but then finally in my last year, I applied and the waiting list was about a year long. I got my show the last semester being in school.
Was the idea then to play local music?
No. I didn’t have an idea. I just wanted to play music. At first, I was just playing stuff that I liked. Actually, they tell you during training that that is the best time to figure out what you want to play because your spot is between 3 and 6 in the morning. I started playing stuff and things that I liked and I was like “I don’t know what I want to do. This is kind of dumb.” Sometimes people have freeform shows and play whatever they want, but I just wanted a theme. I wanted to figure that out.
I’ve been a DJ for almost two years and it wasn’t until I got my midnight-3 spot that I figured out that I wanted to do local music. I had been kind of accumulating some CDs. It’s kind of interesting, too, how I got my CD collection. I have a really large local music collection. I would have to say that it is the largest for present local music. I’m going to guess that maybe, other than Jason, because he produced a lot of those CDS, but I have a pretty large collection.
When I first started out DJing before I started The 808 Wonderland, I was using all the Monday Night Live stuff and I only had probably like 5 or 6 local CDs. I made my myspace… it was really the best way to get the news out there that there was a show and to get my music. Contacting bands on myspace and saying “Hey, I like your music. I have a show that plays all local music. Are you interested in giving a demo. I’ll pay for it.” Most of the time bands just ended up wanting to give me free CDs because they wanted stuff played. If went to a show, I would usually end up buying a CD and telling a band later that I had a show and I wanted to play their CD on the radio. Then they’d be like “Oh, did you get a CD?” They’d want to give it to me for free, but I wanted to support and pay for the CD.
So now, I have a huge binder. I bring my CD collection to the station. I don’t leave it here. I really actually wish that a lot of the bands would give their CDs to the station so that the station would have a copy. Sometimes I’ve had Djs who heard something I played and later on they’re in the studio and they’re like “hey where’s that CD?” but it’s part of my collection and they can’t play it. A lot of bands don’t think about it, but college radio is the perfect place to play your music considering most of the radio stations in Honolulu and other islands only play the stuff that’s made for radio and the only time you ever get to hear [local music] is the Chicken Fight. But that’s the ONLY time, and then it’s only from a certain time to a certain time. I mean, it’s really worthy, but it needs to grow.
Ever since I started taking over Monday Night Live, which was only last fall. When Barry left, me and Alex split his job in two. Alex does all the engineer stuff. He does the recording. I book all the bands. Give them all the information. Screen them to make sure that it’s appropriate for Monday Night Live. That they’re local. Make sure that they have an hour of original music. I think Barry used to be more lenient with the cover situation. Technically, they’re only supposed to allow covers of jazz, Hawaiian, blues, and classical – the standards and 10-20% covers of other kinds of music. But I made it even stricter than that. I tell them 1-3 covers tops. Preferablly only one cover if you have to. But I prefer original music. I think it’s so much better… I’ve never really been in music scenes elsewhere…I know Honolulu is really difficult. I’ve heard from a lot of bands that they start as an original band, but they have to learn covers in order to get paid. They have to slip their covers in once and a while. It’s really sad to think that way because there are actually so many bands out there that do all originals and they still get gigs and they still get paid. But I think it’s just the mentality with whatever they first experience with their audience.
So I try to encourage bands that do covers “oh, you know, do you have more original music?” I try to entice them with Monday Night Live – “If you don’t have an hour of all original music, I can’t let you play.” And I think it helps a little bit.
It pushes them.
I like to think it helps. I really think that Honolulu has a really good scene. It’s kind of funny, I felt really bad one time. We had a KTUH meeting. I was introducing my show and I was like “I play all local bands. Bands that don’t get mainstream radio play. Not Hawaiian. Not reggae.” Kawikina was in the room – the DJ that plays the all Hawaiian language program and I looked at here and said “Not that there’s anything wrong with Hawaiian, because there’s not!” But I’m just saying that it gets a whole lot more play than all the other music that’s here. There’s so much more music than just Hawaiian, reggae, and Jawaiian. I think those bands really need recognition.
There’s very few Hawaiian [bands] that I’ve had access to. I think it’s something that I actually need to explore. I was actually thinking of asking this band I saw play in the Fort Street Mall. You know, they’re like my grandfather’s age and they play all the Hawaiian standards. I was thinking of asking them to be on the air. It’s not in my comfort zone, but I’m trying to get out there.
Even reggae – there’s a lot of reggae bands that don’t get mainstream radio play. There’s very few actually that do. Oohklah is one of those ones. But there are other groups, like Dubconscious, Dubphylum, or Isouljahs… There are a lot bands that are reggae that aren’t know.
I want to try to bring in more reggae bands. Ever since Alex and I took over, we’ve done more rock bands. But the reason that I did that is because I had more connections with that, but also Barry was doing mostly reggae and jazz. I just thought that it would be good to have [rock]. And hip hop! Like tonight is Tempo Valley. Hip hop, jazz fusion-ish.
Actually, early on, I tried to integrate hip hop into the 808 Wonderland an dit was very hard to fuse it into that, unless it was fusion [like Tempo Valley]. Which I’m glad that Jake the Snake has taken up that. We try to promote each other’s shows.
808 Wonderland, I started it because I really thought that people don’t really know about local bands and it really makes me happy when somebody calls in that’s never heard my show before and has never heard that band before and they ask “Who is that?” And then I say, “Well, it’s a local band.” And they say “That was local?” And I say “Actually, everything I’ve been playing has been all local.” And they’re like “What?!” You know, it’s under people’s noses, but they’re just not aware of it.
Ever since Alex and I took over Monday Night Live, I think I was the only one that wanted it really. I think for other people it was hard for other people because the Best of Monday Night Live is an hour, then Monday Night Live is an hour, and that cuts into their three hour show. But for me, it was like my show with live music in the middle and I was really happy to take it over. We have been tyring to promote it better as Monday Night Live because it never really got promoted well in the past. You feel that everyone that is listening are the fans of the band that already know them and their friends and family. I started getting it listed in the Weekly and I think that it’s in the Bulletin and the Advertiser, too. Then it’s in The 808 Scene Zine and 808 Shows. I think that the bands are doing better jobs telling people that they have a show on Monday Night Live.
I think that it’s really good. I really hope that it grows more. I just hope that people know about it more. It’s really sad when you meet somebody on campus and they don’t even know we have a radio station. I think that it’s really good… I go to shows all the time and it’s easier for me to book new bands. I meet new people. It’s good too because the people on Monday Night Live give the station or me a copy of their CD and I can play it on 808 Wonderland. Actually, when I have enough time and a computer, I was going to start making compilations of CDs that I have, but make it genre specific and then I was going to try to give it to the other DJs in those genres.
That’s the other thing. I really appreciate the other DJs that have been mentioning Monday Night Live. I’ve been hearing it more on the radio. If it’s a reggae band, then all the reggae DJs will announce it. I think it’s really good.
For as long as I can, I will take one credit a semester in order to stay a DJ because that’s the only way you can stay a DJ. So I take one credit a semester. I basically pay $300 a semester to DJ. I take chorus now. I took yoga before.
Hawaii Hip Hop EXchange
Slapp Symphony
Interview and photos by Katie Whitman
I checked out your myspace and read up on you a little bit. You’ve been doing this for a really long time – making beats.
Yeah. Six years around.
Together?
Westbrook: I started around 6 or 7 years ago. He was from California. Then he moved here in… what?
Let T: 2000
Westbrook: He come to the same high school and I found out that he made beats. After that, we met each other, but we didn’t get really serious until about ’06. We got really serious last year. We came up with the name.
What made you guys want to get serious? Did you decide that you actually wanted to make a living or something?
Westbrook: Pretty much, yeah.
Let T: There was a growing number of people that said they loved our stuff. We’re like alright and we kept going back to that same person, they’re pushing out our name, we’re even pushing out our name, pushing out our beat. That person that be in our beat will tell others and they’ll start spreading around. We’ll be walking down the street and they’ll be like “Slapp! Slapp!”
You’ve ended up collaborating with a lot of people now, yeah?
Westbrook: We’ve been meeting a lot of people. Off this island, we met the Gritty Fifty, Wun. We met these guys, then through them it kept building. We just kept on making beats and submitting them trying to get on more projects.
Jacob Gabriel is working with us, too. He actually makes Jay-Z and Dr. Dre’s tracks. He’s here in a studio in Kalihi. He works out of the other studio in Hawaii Kai. He’s our man right here. He’s helping us a lot.
Let T: He’s actually pushing our stuff in Japan.
How’s that going?
Westbrook & Let T: We’ve just started. Like last month.
Westbrook: I mean, he’s been in the business, so he’s pretty much who we go to for help and instructions if we need anything.
He’s trying to get artists to use your beats in their songs?
Westbrook: Yes.
Let T: He’s actually leaving for Japan next week, so we’re making a couple of beats for him to take with him.
You look excited.
Westbrook & Let T: Yeah Yeah Yeah!
Westbrook: We actually have a song out there. We got on “Speak of the Devil” DJ Green Latern. He put out a Mix Tape. There was a MySpace Invasion and we submitted our song to Green Lantern and it just so happened that we got a response.
Let T: You can imagine how many people submitted tracks. And we got picked. Track 24 out of 33.
You guys are going places already.
Westbrook: Trying to. Yeah, a year ago we started getting real serious.
That means you have to do a lot of business work and networking. What are you doing for that?
Westbrook: We just got our publishing. We are actually going through some people to help us out on that end.
Let T: Before it was us giving out our beats, but now we charge. We want to make money too, so, sorry.
That’s what you have to do.
Westbrook: It’s a lot of time and effort.
What inspires you behind your beats? The actual samples and sounds.
Let T: Anything and everything. Basically okay. [Westbrook] will pick me up and we’ll go to his house. He’ll have a beat going and I’ll say, you know what I heard something on tv today, and I’ll lay it down. We’ll pull another instrument. How about adding this adding that adding that? All of a sudden we’ve got a beat.
Do you tend to make more like dance…?
Westbrook: More variety! We try and touch every genre. We’ve got R&B… actually we’ve just got one R&B track. We’ve got the hip hop, reggae. We just try to be rounded for the more people we can touch. Different towns, different genres.
Westbrook: We’ve got a laptop with one program running with a lot of plugins. We’ve got a midi keyboard. A small one.
Let T: When we was going to New Zealand, we were actually making a beat in the airplane. We had our headphones. We can take it everywhere.
Westbrook: Yeah. We try to bring our studio anywhere. We want it to be portable. If we feel like making something, we have our own equipment, we can just set up the studio and do what we do.
Do you ever use real instruments?
Westbrook: oh Yeah! I think it’s Ion Cameron from Germany. We collab with him. He’s a professional violinist. We send him a track and see what you can do with a violin. He’ll send it back with several loops. Then we’ll chop it up and put it into the mix.
How did you meet him?
Westbrook: Online. I was just searching and I plugged in violin. Contacted him. He contacted back. Sent the track. He sent it back.
So now you have a source in Germany. Were you going to New Zealand for something?
Let T: We were actually going for music. We went there to really push our beats out.
Westbrook: When we went there… my cousin happens to know the top people in New Zealand in film and music. He was sending beats to New Zealand over the last year and people were really liking it. He was talking to all the artists and they were saying that we should come out there. We should meet these guys and show them our beats. And we did.
Did you get any collaborations from that?
Westbrook: We don’t know. See, they got the track but we don’t know if it got on the album or not. It’s recorded, but until we get the final word, we won’t know. But the connection is there. We know who they are, they know who we are.
Let T: It’s nice out there.
So you guys gonna travel anywhere else for your music yet?
So Let T, you started by learning piano.
Let T: I wasn’t allowed to touch the piano because it was the church piano. I would sneak in the church and start playing. I think it was my dad that said “Why don’t you start playing?” Oh, alright. I played by ear. I can play by [sheet music]. I tried. I played piano all the time and I started making beats.
Making beats with what?
Let T: It had a drum machine in it.
Oh , it was electronic.
Let T: So I was doing that in 7th grade. Then we moved.
Westbrook: He came down and we linked up. I wanted to be a rapper freshman year of high school, so I started making beats and I picked up this software SL Studio. I started messing with that and started really studying it. I never got taught how to use it, I just learned by trial and error. Now I pretty much know what I’m doing. So he came by and we started building up equipment. And now it’s now.
So where do you want to go? Beat makers don’t tend to be famous but they probably get paid better. So what do you envision? What do you hope for?
Westbrook: To be really successful and to get to a comfortable point where “Oh snap, we gotta call Slapp for our music!”
Do you plan on moving? Do you want to stay in Hawaii or move to cali?
Westbrook: Yeah, Hawaii… we make beats elsewhere, but in Hawaii we get a good vibe. When we make it out here, it sounds totally different from a beat we make somewhere else. Yeah, I feel like we can be in Hawaii and branch out to other places.
Where can people find your music?
Westbrook: They can go online. They can also go to Fitted Hawaii (in the ala moana mall). They carry our CDs right now. So check it out.
Are you gonna make more merch?
Westbrook: Like shirts?
Let T: We got shirts.
Westbrook: Through Official Clothing.
Let T: Our boy Remy.
Wetbrook: He’s the guy who does our shirts. At the Bob Fest, people wanted to know where they could get our shirts. But we only have the two! Soon though, soon.
You guys chose a really good name. You logo is really awesome.
Westbrook: Jean Paul. We gotta give him music. That’s how the deal works out.
You guys are so well connected!
Wetbrook: We can see it happening before our eyes. It wasn’t the same last week as it is this week. Everyone is helping out and doing their part. Helping Hawaii hip hop in general. We hope we do our part.
Are you going to be performing anytime soon? Do you perform?
Westbrook: We don’t really perform. We were at Trip the Lights.
Versus.
Westbrook: The first battle we had, we battled Ion Mike! Ion Mike! Our first beat battle! They said the first battle was a tie. They brought us back and we won the second battle.
Is there anything you want people to know about Slapp Symphony?
Let T: Slapp Symphony, we’re Samoan. [laughter} A lot of people think that we’re black or white until they see us. Then they’re like “You’re Slapp Symphony?!” Are you body guards or what?
A lot of people have heard of you by now? How was Bob Fest?
Westbrook: It was good. We were just there to chill.
Let T: Most of the people that went up had a beat of ours.
Like who?
Westbrook: Emirc, Bless’d Chil’, I.A., Blaze White, Kemoo James. Hosana. Hosans – she did a track with Young Jeezy. She’s a nice singer. Hosana. Hoo! We did a track with her.
Let T: We did a track with her.
Westbrook: She came into the studio, Jacob’s studio.
Let T: Wrote the song right there. All the words.
How did you hook up with her?
Westbrook: JG. JG, he’s like the hub. He’s basically the hub of Hawaii.
How did you get in with him?
Westbrook: We heard about his stuff. Eventually we got to meet one day. We showed him a couple of beats and he said “Keep them coming.”
Let T: A lot of people have styles, but what we bring, we bring pretty much everything. A lot of people are missing something, but we bring everything.
Westbrook: We bring soul.
Let T: We put a lot into our beats. It takes a lot of time.
Westbrook: We make 4 or 5 beats a day.
Four or five beats a day?!
Westbrook: In a process of like two hours, we can get something down. I know Let T already. I know where his mind is at, so when I put drums together or pick out a sample, I know he already got something for it. Same thing for him. If he has an idea for a riff or a piano chord, he be like, try out. Check out what you can do with this.
Let T: It was crazy that day. He came over and I’ve got a real piano. I was like check this out, you have something for this? He said “Let’s go to my house, let’s go to my house, let’s go to my house!”
So you [Let T] do the melodic stuff more?
Let T: Yeah.
Westbrook: He’s basically on the keys, I do the drums, percussion, and mixing. As far as chords, strings, anything on keyboard, that’s him. I do the samples, drumming.
Let T: Slapp Symphony – Slapp is like a bay area kind of word. You got that ‘slapp’? You got that beat? Then we use all kinds of instruments. So that’s symphony.
Five beats a day, you must have a huge library!
Let T: There are beats that are so old, we don’t even know about them!
Westbrook: We have a catalogue. We mix down and put them all on disc. All the ones we think… Sometimes, you know, it’s funny. Some of the beats that may not like, other people like them. It’s like what? You like them? I guess for us, we know them from front to back, but other people don’t know what’s coming next. They don’t know what’s after the next snare.
Are you afraid of making music becoming like a job and you won’t like doing it anymore?
Westbrook: Naw! Music, it’s like the thing I think about THE most.
Let T: I could never get tired of music.
Westbrook: There’s always a new sound. There’s always new things that inspire you. I think that we could keep doing what we do.
Let T: In the Midwest and South, you’ve got the slow beat. In the Bay area, you’ve got the hyphy movement. You’ve got West Coast. In New York, you’ve got that sound. In Hawaii, what is Hawaii’s style? That’s what. We want to define Hawaii’s style.
You want to define Hawaii’s style?!
Westbrook: At least music-wise. It’s like what Neptune’s did for Virginia. They have a sound. Hawaii’s such a big melting pot. There’s such a big blend of sounds. No artist in Hawaii sounds the same. Not even no producers really sound the same! Hopefully we could use all that. Make what we do all styles.
Interview With Local Boyz Eternally
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Interview and photos of Kevin Bocage (above) by Katie Whitman
How long has LBE been around?
Me and Mr. Micah have been together since intermediate [school]. I mean, we got serious more in high school because during recess and lunch we’d have battles around the school. Then after we started getting real good and started making beats, we recorded our first song in 10th grade, I was about 16 or 17, six years ago we recorded our first song. That song – I listened to it all the time. Every day. When I woke up, that was the song I listened to. Before I go to sleep.. and then we started getting more tracks. People told us that it was tight and we were recording it really shitty back then. I thought if we did professional recording, it would be off the hook. Then we did it and I was like “Yeah, this IS off the hook!”
So you’re a fan of your own music. I guess you have to be.
You have to be a fan of your own. I’m a fan of a lot of peoples. Even local artists like Charlie Y Charlie because they’re the only reggaeton people around. We’ll probably try to do something like that. Use a reggaeton beat, but not talk Spanish. Big Mox, Krystilez. I go support them. I dig their music.
Hopefully it’s different down here than it is on the mainland because on the mainland they don’t even show you love even if you are good. I went up to Atlanta and did a battle up there. I tore the dude up, but I wasn’t from there so they didn’t say anything. I was like “OH! That’s how it is?” But they knew what’s up. That’s the main thing. The guy that battled me knew who won.
Where are you from originally?
Riverside, CA. I was born over there. Then we moved to Valeo when I was 4 years old. My dad was in the military and we got shipped over here. So I grew up over here since I was 5 years old. Kindergarten. My parents moved back to the mainland when I was 17 and I just stayed. I didn’t want to go back because this is where it’s at.
Where did you stay?
I got my own place. I was working 2 jobs for the longest time. Just working my life away just to pay the bills and trying to do music at the same time. It was okay. After a while I met a girl, had a kid. I’m pretty much stable because I have the other half to support.
Does your son pic up music?
When I practice, I put him in his chair and rap to him. He’s smiling. When I beat box to him, I see him moving to it.
How old is he?
He’s one. He’s getting there, crawling and all of that. Hopefully he does the same thing as me, but if not, it’s all good.
You’re good at battling and freestyling?
I used to do that a lot, but I got more into writing. When you freestyle, you can’t go back and do the same thing unless you’re really good like that and you can remember the whole thing, but I’m not talented like that. So I’m more of a writer and I mostly write the songs for our tracks.
What do you write about?
We got all types. Love songs, gangsta songs. We got kinda lounge type of things. Stuff that you would actually sit down and listen to the words. We try to make all kinds of music. We’ve got four people now. We only had two before. Now we got four so we have all types of styles.
Who makes the beats?
All of us make beats. Like I”ll call him up and I’ll say I got a hot beat and we meet up and put all our beats together. If all of us make two beats each, then we have 8 songs right there.
Do you have any albums?
We made a full album, our first one with just me and Micah. This next one we’re working on is with all four of us. The first one, I don’t really see that as an album. I see it like as a mixtape. Something that we put together so people could hear us. Nobody really even knew us at that time. Only people from high school or around our area. We made those songs to give them something. It is good. I think it’s good. We went over to Exclusive Music Studios and did it over there. But now we’ve got our own studio.
I ihnk my main focus getting this next album out. Local Boyz Eternally, the title is “Rise to the Top.” I think that this album is going to make us or break us. People are gonna like it or not.
Do you have connections or aspirations to try to get the album out in the scene?
Hopefully we can get it out in stores, but right now I don’t have the connections. People aren’t really supporting us financially in that way. I was just going to sell them.
[When we sold our first album] we bring a little radio so they know what they’re gonna buy. Most people buy it!
We sold like ten or fifteen thousand of our first album. All of that went into the studio pretty much.
How did you sell that many? Where?
Walking around talking to people.
For how long?
A long time. Like a year or two.
That’s a lot!
We sold it to people that have a booth at the swap meet. For a couple of months, Micah and other homeboy had a little booth. I used to work at Pearlridge, so I’d sell them over there, too. At one point I wasn’t doing nothing but just straight grinding on the music.
I think that selling the CDs is a good way to finance, but it’s not a good promoting tool. I think the shows do more promoting than the CDs because most people that hit me up on the site say “I like the show.” But I’ve sold a lot of CDs and I’ve never seen those people again. I want to try to get it so that we’re in a store or that we’re online. It looks a lot more professional. Before we were just desperate trying to get our name out, but now I’m trying to be more professional.
I don’t know about the other peeps in my crew. They just like to make songs. They’re not really into going out. They don’t like to go out and walk around.
And do networking…
I like to go out and chill with peeps. It’s not only us. We can’t do it all by ourself. We need people to help us out. Even if we’re the biggest name in Hawaii, we’re still gonna need help. People that do help us out, if we get big, we’ll hook them up.
Most of your music that I’ve heard is jiggy. Is more mainstream, clubby sound. Do you have more stuff and I just haven’t heard it?
We promote those songs because that’s what people like, but we got a lot of other kind of stuff. I used to be like a super pot head, so I used to make a lot of songs about smoking weed. Those songs, I made them for that crowd, more kind of mellow.
You’re pretty aware of your audience and who you’re targeting your music towards.
I’m trying to reach everybody. There are a lot of people that swear a lot in their music, but I tell my homeboys we gotta either minimize the swearing or make it a different word. It doesn’t have to be a swear word, it can be a different word that makes the same thing. Trying to reach everybody from little kids to old people, gangstas to geeks. We want to make something for everybody. I’ve got an electric guitar at home. I use the ukulele, too. Make different music to reach everybody.
I see little kids bumping to 50 Cent. Even old people, like my parents, they be bumping it, too, and I’m like, we could do that! 50 Cent, they swear and everything in their music and they’re real big. I don’t know what they’re doing that we’re not doing, you know. Maybe Hawaii has got to step it up a little bit.
Do you think that’s happening now though?
Not really.
Has it gotten bigger though?
Yeah. Yeah a lot more people are trying to get into hip hop now. There are a lot of groups out there that aren’t even known. That’s what I want to do. I want to give them a shot to be heard. Just like people gave us a shot. Come out to the show and play one song. I went down there and did my thing, then we got another show with three songs. I know how it is to be real hungry and just try to get people to listen.
Like before, I used to walk around with my little CD player and my headphones. I’m on the bus and I’d be like “Hey, man, listen to this.” I wouldn’t even know the person! I’d say “Hey, let me know what you think. What would you change.” Somebody that I thought would have a good taste of hip hop. I wouldn’t even tell them that it was me until after. Then I told them it was me and my boys. I was crazy with it. Honestly, like everybody. Like this guy walking right here [indicates a middle aged white guy in aloha attire walking down the hallway at Ward Center] I would probably say something to him, too. But I kinda pissed off some people, too. They’re trying to do their own thing, sitting on the bus, and there’s this dude over here bothering this space that they have. But I figure it’s like if you like a female, if you never say anything, you automatically cancel yourself out.
But nowadays, I try to be more professional. I don’t really do that anymore. If anything, I’ll pass out flyers. [He smiles to himself] Be all crazy with it… I’m trying to make flyers, business cards, posters.
Me and my boys were talking and we we’re trying to find somebody who will be a supporter who will always support us. Pretty much, we need help getting our name out there. Somebody who advertisers us and we advertise them, too. My homeboy is into UFC. My friend Marco. He’s the champ right now in the amateur side of UFC. When I do shows, sometime I wear his clothing line and say on the mic to go see my homeboy. He does the same at his. I was gonna try and make a shirt so that when he comes out for a fight, he’s wearing our shirt.
I’m only one person. It’s hard for me to think about a lot of things. Sometimes I drive myself crazy. Sometimes I’m up at night, I can barely even sleep trying to figure out things to do.
Interview with Mr. Furious
How long have you been making beats?
5-6 years.
What inspired you to start?
I’ve been a huge fan of hip-hop since I was in 5th grade. I have to give credit to Prince Paul for inspiring my start. From the beginning of De La to projects like Psychoanalysis, I’ve been hooked by his music. His originality and generally positive vibe are something I’ve aspired to from the start.
Have your beats been used by other artists or played in public?
I’ve performed live beats for the Actual Naturals before.
Where do you make your beats?
Generally in my home studio.
What kind of equipment do you use?
MPC 1000, MPC4000, Technics 1200, Bellari VP-129, Onyx 400F, Mac G5 tower, Ableton, Pro-Tools, Plug-ins a plenty…Mostly my MPC1000 and vinyl these days though…
Are there any particular kinds of sounds (like strings) or samples or styles that inspire you? Why?
I like kindergarten samples. Upbeat, simple, happy. I like it when my beats come across as funny and immature. The type of music I make is driven by the type of music I want to hear. I guess stupid immature sound is what I like…
Where can people hear your music?
I work at Easy Music Center. I bust my beats for anyone who will listen…
Where would you like to go with your music? Is it just a hobby or more?
I don’t take my beat making very seriously. It is something I have fun with. In the great words of the Grouch “I like my songs, and my friends like my songs”. That is enough for me. I do it for shits and giggles.
In the long run, I’d like to start doing more work with musicians (so I don’t have to rely so heavily on vinyl samples with royalty issues) and MCs.
What Artists have inspired you?
Prince Paul, MF Doom, and The Grouch.
What else would you like people to know about you and your music?
Easy Music Center is the best place for beat making equipment. I buy all my gear there. You should shop there…
