[Interview] The Glitch Mob
Photos by Virgil Solis
The Glitch Mob is coming back to Chicago this Friday to the Aragon Ballroom in support of their latest album, Love Death Immortality. (Note: Our contest for a pair of tickets to the show is still open!) Jesse Pizano and Erica Steinhouse of our collaborators at Three Card Photography had the chance to pick The Glitch Mob's mind ahead of this Friday's show.
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For those that have never heard of The Glitch Mob, tell us something about yourself and describe your music?
We like to think of it as Adventure Dance Music.
Do you think your name implies a certain sound?
Our sound definitely has some attitude. There’s a feeling of triumph that is present in everything we do, and it’s not intentional. It just happens that way.
How has your music changed since you started out?
It changes every time we do something new. We’re the type of artists to change course and reinvent ourselves every time, to keep pushing and challenging. We don’t even really know what to expect from ourselves next - the music has a mind of its own.
Let's talk about the new album, Love Death Immortality; what's the message behind the title?
The message is contained in the music, truly. Listening to the album is the only way to answer that question. It’s epic. It’s life.
The album sounds different from Drink The Sea. What attributed to the change?
The goal was to take the cinematic feeling of Drink The Sea and port it to the live stage, with full energy. LDI is meant to be a full body live experience, whereas Drink The Sea was more of an introverted album.
What is your favorite song on the new album and why?
Each song tells its’ own story, so depending on how I’m feeling I’ll listen to different songs.
Do you guys have any rituals before going on stage?
We have a little meditation ritual we do before every show to clear our minds. It’s crucial for us to leave everything behind and put on the best show possible.
Besides the touring what's next for you guys?
After this last tour wraps up we will spend some time recovering and inevitably head back into the studio to see where the story takes us next…
Last question is there anything you guys want to say to the "mob"?
So much gratitude. As an independent act, nothing we do would be possible without The Mob.
[NCMF Interview] Keys n Krates
This post was originally published by our affiliates at Chicago Music.
With North Coast Music Festival 2014 beginning tomorrow, we'll be providing all types of coverage from the Chicago festival's fifth anniversary. This interview with EDM group Keys n Krates comes from our partner Three Card Photography's very own Jesse Pizano. Read on to familiarize yourselves with Keys n Krates, the amazing year they've been having, what to expect from their live set this weekend, and what's on the group's plate following North Coast Music Festival 2014!
You guys are about to hit the stage at North Coast Music Festival. How are you guys feeling?
Matisse: Great! Chicago is one of our favourite places to play and North Coast is such a great festival.
How has the year been treating you guys so far?
Flo: Pretty incredible. We've really seen our fan base grow exponentially over the last six months and it's been pretty surreal to be honest.
For those that have never heard of Keys N Krates, can you describe your sound?
Tune: Weird rap beats that evoke emotion but still make ya wanna have a dance party. Lots of emotional chord progressions, pitched up vocal samples, synths, weird chopped up samples and bangin rap drums.
What track off of your new EP, Every Nite, took the longest to make?
Tune: "Understand Why" took a long time. We did three to four different actual versions of the tune with at least five mix downs per version. It was a nightmare, but we are stoked on the final version we came up with.
[RH Interview] Mike Golden
Photography by Mike Hari
Chicago is easily identifiable as a musical city. Without argument, the Second City has produced greats in every genre and discipline, and continues to do so without much sign of stopping. As of late, it seems as though every couple of months we are seeing a new act take off from the city and one act that has been making noise for awhile around the scene is finally looking primed to do just that. Mike Golden & Friends is a breath of fresh air in a musical landscape that is increasingly dominated by a sort of digital hoarding that has made the computer an instrument. While he brings in elements of electronic production to pair with the live instrumentality of the band, the core of Mike Golden & Friends is the pure, unadulterated organic sound that starts and ends with the jarringly poignant voice of Golden.
The 26-year-old Hammond, Ind., native was the first act to bring Kids These Days and Rockie Fresh down to the Eastern Illinois University for shows is the central figure to his namesake band and last week at the House of Blues for the band's album release show for Utopia, Golden commanded the stage, rattling off a plethora of songs, returning for an extended encore. Over the past couple of years Chicago has re-established a reputation as increasingly younger artists have taken off. Mike Golden shows that there is still room to set a foundation, evolve and make great music while consistently taking things to a higher plane. I had a chance to talk to Mike Golden last week about the new album, hearing his music in video games and what the whole ride has been like thus far, check it all out below.
[First Look] Kitty Cash
Photography By Julian Schratter
Over the past year and a half or so there has been a hip-hop resurgence in New York City that has had many, including Hot97's Peter Rosenberg, calling it a "Renaissance of Hip-hop". Then sentiment isn't just because of the music, which has spilled from the city's streets for generation, but rather the re-incarnation of hip-hop culture in society on a real level. Perhaps no one else in the scene embodies that realness as much as Brooklyn native, Kitty Cash, who firmly established herself with an eclectic, thought-out 19-track mixtape, Love The Free, which dropped just before the new year. The project featured a smattering of original tracks from an assortment of artists from across the country, including the like of Vic Mensa, Kilo Kish, Phony PPL, Jesse Boykins, The GTW, Jean Deaux, Justin Rose and more. It's a fun project that calls to mind different aspects of growing up through the 90s and early 2000s, as the newly-minted 25-year-old can attest to. The official DJ for Kilo Kish, who provides the introduction to Love The Free, Kitty Cash has been able to observe things from behind the scenes a bit, and used those experiences to put together the debut release. I had the chance to catch up with Kitty Cash just after the new year as she was preparing for her birthday and thinking about what's next, read it all here.
[RH First Glance] Taylor Bennett
Alright, let's get it out of the way. Yes, Taylor Bennett's brother is Chance. Yes, that Chance; the rapper. With that out of the way we can get on to more important aspects of Taylor Bennett's life, such as his sold out debut headlining show last Friday at Reggie's Rock House on Chicago's south loop that had fans lined outside in the freezing rain.The 17-year-old high school senior took the stage to his frenetic "Speed Racer" after a solid lineup showcasing the next wave of Chicago hip-hop to flow from the city. As a packed crowd at Reggie's rapped and sang along to songs like "Heartbreaker" and "Dear Daddy" before turning up to "Rolling With The Gods", it became readily evident that Taylor Bennett is not happy being known only as Chance's brother. Friday night, he looked like he was ready to make his own moves going into the new year.
This year, artists in Chicago had reason to be pressed and hopeful at the same time as they collectively watched Chance rise from the guy down the block to one of the biggest stars in the country. Perhaps no one had a closer front row seat to the experience than the younger Bennett. While there's always competition with an older sibling, Taylor has set out to carve out his own lane in hip-hop with a unique blend of pure rhyming talent, personable nature and thoughtful prose. To be sure, things are very different for Taylor than his brother. Through his success, more eyes are on the younger Bennett, who received a write up in XXL recently and has become a regular on blogs across the country. While Chano was able to come up under the radar, Taylor has been squarely on the map of a lot of rap fans for a minute now. With all the attention, nerves and pressure would be easily understandable, especially for a 17-year-old, but Taylor's not sweating. I had a chance to catch him on the phone after his show, as he was working on his next project, Mainstream Music, to chop it up real quick about living in and out of other people's shadows, growing up in Chicago, his mixtape-The Taylor Bennett Show and more. Check out our Q+A below.
[RH Interview] Giftz
Photography by ACJ Photos
Chicago is a rough city. Since the advent of "drill", GBE and Chief Keef, the stories of the city's streets have been told primarily by artists that painted pictures of death and destruction and little else. Enter: Giftz, the gritty hip-hop artist from Chicago's south side that has woven poetic lyricism and a cognitive thought process into a burgeoning career that has his hometown and all its good and bad wrapped up in it. Since releasing his 2013 mixtape Position of Power Giftz has gone about, well, establishing a position of power for himself amongst an increasingly populated sea of artists elevating from the Second City. Despite his self-described affection for gangsta rap aesthetics, Giftz is able to seamlessly move around the city, spending time at Leaders with Save Money or Treated Crew at Jugrnaut. Giftz made a leap in 2013 which has allowed him to make the leap of establishing a following outside the 312 area code. With his eye on a headlining show before the end of the year to hit 2014 running, he says all he's trying to do now is stay out of trouble. I had the chance to catch up with Giftz a couple week ago to talk about his recent rise in the hip-hop game and what he has coming next. Check out his latest song, "Statement," on the next page, and our conversation over the following pages.
[RH Interview] Closed Session's Alex Fruchter
Photo by Andrew Zeiter
Alex Fruchter has long been a mainstay in the Chicago hip-hop market. First as a DJ under the moniker DJ RTC, then as the head of this very website which he and our current editor, Virgil Solis, built alongside Fruchter's budding Closed Sessions project that spawned Chicago's leading independent hip-hop label of the same name which, this past week, released the latest from ShowYouSuck, Dude Bro, available on iTunes. The release is the culmination of a lot for both the artist and the label, and I had a chance to ask Alex a few questions leading up to the latest release from Closed Sessions.
[RH Interview] ShowYouSuck is ready for all of the (neon-colored) lights
Photography by Virgil Solis
Following an endorsement from Red Bull Sound Select, a spot on the Sound Select's SXSW show, his mixtape trilogy coming to an end, and Dude Bro's release this week, the best way to summarize 2013 for the artist formerly known as the One Man Pizza Party is that he simply leveled up. With all of the pizza eaten and the boxes thrown out, ShowYouSuck is ready to put the slice back in the box and step into the neon-colored light.
Dude Bro isn't just another EP, it isn't just "the first official release following One Man Pizza Party," Dude Bro isn't even just a new beginning for ShowYouSuck. In fact, it's all of this, and more - a full frontal assault that doesn't just embody ShowYouSuck's music, but his entire existence. There was never really a boundary that separated "Clinton Sandifer" from "ShowYouSuck." Dude Bro, however, is the first step towards the delineation between the two. How and in what ways this will transpire is just as interesting as the new musical direction ShowYouSuck is following.
Read on as ShowYouSuck and I talk about the making of Dude Bro, what the EP represents for the rapper's future, and how specific clothing will define him. Make sure you also purchase Dude Bro on iTunes!