[RH Interview] Borgore
To ask Borgore, nothing is too surprising anymore. Having spent a lifetime working in an aroudn music, the early prodigy (he earned a scholarship to Cal-Berkeley for music at 17) is having the time of his life making music that gets people moving. The Israel native joined Steve Aoki, Pharrell and Waka Flocka Flame for the Fall "Aokify America" tour, which started last Friday with a show at the University of Illinois-Chicago Pavilion. Playing a set that skipped from one EDM subgenre to the next, Borgore had the young Chicago crowd fully hooked only a song into a set so full of energy one had to wonder if the packed see of neon and sparkle-clad fans would have anything left for the next three acts. At this point in his career, the 25-year-old artist is enjoying a steady climb up the music landscape and being on the road for what he calls "a field trip with friends". I had a chance to catch him backstage right after his set, read our interview below.
Jake: Alright, so at one point during your set, you chanted "girl is a nympho" and every girl in front of me went crazy and chanted it back, what's it like to have the power to dictate other's actions so easily?
Borgore: Check my Twitter. Twitter is where things get out of hand. Today I gave away six tickets to people who would go into a public place, do a headtand twerk and sing Aerosmith's "I Don't Want to Close My Eyes" while twerking. We got like three or four submissions. This dude did it in McDonald's inside of a table. I have chicks doing it in Target or something but that dude took the cake.
Jake: In electronic dance music, more than any other genre, the focus is purely on one person to create a show, what is that like for you?
Borgore: It's fucking thousands of people watching you, they fucking paid a lot of money for me to give them the best time of their lives and you cannot fuck up. So half of me wants to say it is the greatest thing, the greatest pleasure and the other half of me wants to say it is the biggest stress ever. It's not easy.
Jake: I could imagine. So, first stop on the tour with one hell of a lineup, what's it been like so far.
Borgore: If this tour is going to look like this I'm so happy, dude. I came to Steve before he played his set tonight and I told him big ups on assembling such an eclectic and amazing tour. I think that if I was an 18 year old, I think it's only $30 in some markets, to come see this show, it's out of this world dude.
Jake: How excited are you to be spending time on the road with these guys?
Borgore: I worked with Steve and I worked with Waka so I know them well. You know what though man, it's a fucking field trip. I'm touring with my friends to begin with. It's a semi vacation, the whole year I'm busting my ass flying city to city by myself seeing people I don't know. I don't have a stable life at all, I haven't been in my house for longer than three days. For a month and a half, being on the bus, it's like a traveling house, dude I'm on fucking vacation right now.
Jake: So how did the collaboration with Waka come about?
Borgore: I remixed one of his songs about a year and a half ago and I did a deal with him. He offered me a bunch of money but I said keep your money and throw me like a verse or something that I can fuck with, you know? I have a lot of songs that are really big singles that I never put out because I;m too strict with myself about what I'm releasing. I didn't know whether I wanted to release this song or not and I met Waka in Spain and he came to me and said "man, this is amazing, I love it" and I was more scared than anything that Waka wouldn't like it, you know? So he loved it, so I went back to the project changed it because it was in moombahton which is not really relevant anymore, and made it house and that's where it is now.
Jake: That kind of leads me to my next question, how do you manage to stay aheado f the curve in such a fast-moving genre like dance music?
Borgore: I have been doing music all my life. All my life I was playing Jazz, Classical music, Punk, Metal, everything. I got a scholarship to Berkeley University when I was 17, I've been in music my whole life. Bring it on, bring on any genre. I'll take time but I'll learn it perfect, you know?
Jake: The last time I saw you was at Electric Daisy Carnival Chicago, how does a set like that compare to something like tonight?
Borgore: EDC Chicago was amazing for me, the crowd was great for me. The scene in Chicago is really nice to me. About a year ago my first big show here was at the Congress with Calvin Harris and the crowd wasn't really feeling me but it's never been the case since. Since then I've been here about three or four times and every time it's just amazing. There was a lot of reasons for the show with Calvin to not work. It was no one's fault but it just didn't work but I'm happy the sets since have gone good.
Jake: So what can we expect from you moving forward, what's on the horizon?
Borgore: Like I've said I've done music my whole life and I've always done it for me. I'm slowly rising, very slowly rising but it's happening the way it should. I have no secret cards about what is coming in the future, I'm just going to keep doing what I've been doing so far.
[RH First Look] Jay Dot Rain
Jay Dot Rain is on his hustle. He has to be. Coming from Alabama, Jay Dot isn't privy to the kind of immediate exposure or fanfare that artists from larger metropolitan areas enjoy on the regular. Despite this, the Alabama A&M senior has garnered attention from the likes of DJBooth and Complex in recent months in the lead up to his well put together mixtape, Memoirs of a Young Dreamer, released October 2. Southerm hip-hop, and more specifically rap music from Alabama seems to blend together quite a bit for me, aside from the Yelawolfs Gucci Manes of the world. To separate himself from his peers, Jay Dot teamed up with production team Blockbeattaz to craft a sound that is wholly his own, bringing in aspects of southern trunk music, jazz and heavy bass that complement his creative style of rhyming well. I caught up with the Alabama artist as he was preparing for a Friday set in Hunstville to talk about coming from Alabama, staying on the grind and what's next for Jay Dot Rain. Read below for more in our First Look at Jay Dot.
Jake: What's it like to be coming out of a place like Alabama?
Jay Dot Rain: Coming from Alabama, man, it's just different. We don't really get as much exposure as we should when it comes to music and shit like that. It's kind of hard for us to get in like the blogs and websites and stuff like that, to get noticed by different people. We just don't get the respect that we deserve when it comes to music. Everybody thinks of Atlanta and Miami and Florida and stuff like that when it comes to the the south and Alabama, they think we're like rich boys or something like that but it's not like that. No disrespect to rich boys but it's a war.
Jake: You mentioned it's hard to get to the blogs but you've had stuff on Complex and DJBooth, etc. What would you credit to your ability to get out of Alabama with your music?
Jay Dot Rain: It's coming out of nowhere though, man, that's the crazy part. I've been trying to get posts for years and, I guess your music starts getting better and people start noticing but I'm on the blogs daily just trying to get in contact with people and make those connections. I appreciate you and RubyHornet for messing with me, man.
Jake: Yeah man, like you said, the music kind of speaks for itself. You mentioned the music getting better though, what's the progression been like?
Jay Dot Rain: Well, I really started in high school playing around with it with some of my friends. You know, we were in high school and we had a little computer program and we would make songs and just play around and show them to our friends. It wasn't until my sophomore year in college that I really started to take it seriously, though. Just making these different projects and putting them together is a really tedious process. I don't make tracks where I just rap on them, but actually write songs.
[RH Interview] Isaiah Toothtaker
Photography By: William Olguin
?OTHING, the EP from Tucson rapper Isaiah Toothtaker and Wavves' former drummer Jacob Safari, was certainly something. With Nine Inch Nails serving as the musical backbone to Toothtaker's lyrical tongue, ?OTHING has become one of the Machina Muerte co-founder's best projects out of a list that spans more than seven EPs and mixtapes from the past two years alone. Through email correspondence, Toothtaker waxed poetic on the backstory to ?OTHING, his dream collaborations, the tattoo shop, Staring Without Caring, he owns in Tucson, and more. You can read the Q&A exchange over the next few pages.
[RH Interview] Josh Caterer: Smoking Popes
Brynn: What are you listening to these days? Are there any new artists that you have been really into?
Josh: I tend to listen to a lot of older music. I like to search through the archives and find old things I've never heard before. Lately, it's been a lot of old country music...Porter Wagoner, Skeeter Davis, Kitty Wells, Ray Price. The stuff they were recording in the 50's and 60's was pretty amazing. As far as recent music goes, I like the new Robbie Fulks album called "Gone Away Backward". And I like Jake Bugg.
Brynn: You have collaborated with artists like Alkaline Trio, Bayside, and many others. Are the Popes working on any new collaborations?
Josh: No, the Popes aren't working on anything right now. I'd like to make another solo EP this year, so I've been focusing on writing songs for that. I recently had the privilege of collaborating with my friend Ben Calhoun from Citizen Way. He sang with me on one of my gospel songs called "Shed For Me". We made a video for that song which is up on YouTube. I'm really happy with how it turned out. Ben's a great guy and we're talking about collaborating on this next EP as well
Brynn: Who are some artists you would love to work with and why?
Josh: I'd love to write some songs with my friend John Davis from Superdrag. He became a Christian around the same time I did and his story of faith is kind of similar to mine, so it would be really cool to put our heads together and try to do a gospel project. We've talked about it, but it just hasn't happened yet.
Brynn: Who are three of your all-time favorite singers?
Josh: Judy Garland, Ray Charles, Feargal Sharkey.
Brynn: What fueled the reunion in 2005?
Josh: It just seemed like it was time. I'm glad I took all that time off to concentrate on my faith without the distractions and temptations surrounding the Popes, but I finally felt like I could return to the rock scene without compromising my faith or my identity in Christ. It had been seven years since our last show. I've noticed that our career seems to go in seven year cycles. We were originally together from 1991 to 1998...seven years. Then we were broken up from 1998 until 2005...another seven years. Then we started touring and making albums and being very active again for another seven years, until late 2012 when we decided to slow things down and take a break from touring. So we're into another seven year period now. I'm not sure exactly what these seven years will look like for the Popes, but we'll probably be laying low, gathering our strength for a big push in 2019. Unless the world ends before then.
Brynn: Has there been a show since the Metro reunion that really sticks out in your mind as great? Why?
Josh: The Chicago shows are always pretty special. We played at Double Door last fall, and it was a really memorable show. Also, our shows with Alkaline Trio at the Troubadour in L.A. were really special. I love that club, and that whole tour was pretty incredible. I never did any crowd-surfing until we toured with Alkaline Trio. Matt Skiba sort of got me started on that. It's a lot of fun.
Brynn: There have been a few members that have rotated in and out of the Popes over the years; How has that effected friendships and relationships? How do you think it has effected the sound?
Josh: We've had the privilege of playing with some great drummers over the years. Mike Felumlee was the one who really defined our groove in the early days. Then Rob Kellenberger played with us at the reunion show. He's a powerhouse drummer and also very creative, so he's very inspiring to play with. Ryan Chavez brought a different vibe to the band because his style was less punk and more classic rock, so it brought out a different side of the band, which was cool. And now Neil kind of combines some of those elements together in a way that bridges the gap between different eras of the band. Neil can do it all. He's a very solid and very energetic drummer and he gives our music a great energy. It's been a pleasure to play with all of them.
[RH Interview] White Mystery
One of the many awesome moments of Riot Fest this year was when I got the chance to chat with heavy rocker siblings Miss Alex White, and Francis Scott Key White of White Mystery. This rad, in-your-face two-piece out of Chicago headlined the rebel stage on Sunday night. Check out the interview below and read about their love for Chicago, their latest album, Telepathic and the perks to being in a band with your red-headed sibling.
[RH Interview] Dave Davison (Maps & Atlases)
Chicago based experimental math-rock band Maps & Atlases have been together for almost a decade. Since the group came together in 2004, they have released numerous EPs and two studio albums, most recently with Beware and Be Grateful in 2012. I have a special place in my heart for math-rock and an even bigger soft spot for Dave Davison's extremely unique, lovely voice and compelling lyrics. Because I'm a lucky lady, I got the opportunity to pick his brain a bit at Riot Fest after Maps & Atlases killed their set -- the first to hit the Roots Stage that Sunday afternoon.
[RH Interview] Islands
Nick:The line up is the same as A Sleep & A Forgetting but the songs are all new! The direction is pretty different, too. A little harder, a little deeper, a little faster and a little darker.
Jake: How did Islands in it's current form come to be?
[RH Interview] Sandra Vu of SISU
Transitions aren't easy. For some, change comes easy and they slide into the new routine, for others it's a bit more difficult to adjust. Sandy Vu of the Los Angeles-based band Dum Dum Girls falls somewhere between the former and latter. Vu, who entered the scene as the drummer for Dee Dee Penny's all-female project steps out from behind the drum set on a new venture of her own, SISU. Where she was a moving part in the Dum Dum Girls, Vu is free to creatively express herself with the new band, moving about from on instrument to another and crafting a sound that is wholly hers. The transition hasn't been an easy one though. As anyone with a lot on their plate can attest to, starting a new band while in another is no easy task. I caught up with Sandy, who plays The Empty Bottle in Chicago tomorrow night, as she was just getting out on tour with Dirty Beaches in support of her upcoming album, Blood Tears, out on Mono Prism September 17th.
Jake: Tell me a bit about the tour and opening for Dirty Beaches.
Sandy: We have been super excited to play with Dirty Beaches, I met him about two years ago now when Dum Dum Girls did a tour with him and it's just going to be special because we're all family at this point. Their tout manager is our good friend and stuff so it's kind of like a big reunion party.
Jake: What was the transition like coming from the Dum Dum Girls?
Sandy: The Dum Dum Girls have been in town rehearsing and learning the new songs for the new record and we're doing rehearsals for the tour for SISU, so if I didn't have anything else to do and I just had to go to these rehearsals it wouldn't be that bad but my days are just stacked with things I needed to do to get ready for the tour. Switching gears is not hard, it's maybe a little bit stressful learning a lot of new material in a short amount of time. Going from Dum Dum Girls to SISU, in itself, isn't that big of a deal to me.
Jake: Do you ever find yourself at a Dum Dum Girls rehearsal accidentally playing a SISU song?
Sandy: No (laughs), I think it occupies two totally different areas of my brain to just play drums compared to leading the band so it feels so different. In Dum Dum Girls it's like I kind of turn off my brain a little bit. That band is set up so I just learn all of the songs and just play them (laughs).