Buck 65 Interview interview 0111 added 23.06.02 words Sumo KaPlUnK Barely minutes after finishing his first ever live performance in the UK, Buck 65 was ambushed by The Harold Bishop of Hip Hop (me) who demanded that Stinkin' Rich "step outside" and answer a few questions. With the invaluable assistance of Lady Cook and SFDB Records' Mr Spleen, SuMoKaPlUnK conducted his second, and far more in-depth interview with The Centaur - enjoy… Q: Ok, it's rolling, say something - any old garbage - just to see if the minidisc's working - [a garbage truck passes by] A: Hey-hey-hey! It's garbage day! Yes it's garbage day!! This is buck 65 outside a club in London just doing this interview for ukhh.com! Q: OK, Tom Browne who's organized this show and made this interview possible tells me that you did the gig having only stepped on British soil earlier today? Did this allow you any time to get ready - spending the night on a plane can't be ideal preparation for your maiden outing? A: Did you know that shaggy was on the same plane coming over? Just thought you might find that interesting…But in answer to your question, No, not really. I only arrived at six this morning and ever since, I've been too excited and eager to check everything out and take everything in that I haven't really had any time to relax or stop and think about anything. I can't sleep on flights so I'm operating on auto-pilot and fuelled by a mixture of excitement and anxiety. Q: OK, I loved the show but how do you think it went from your perspective? A: Pretty good - yeah, pretty good I think… It wasn't ideal, I was performing in what was to all intents and purposes a deejay booth. I did not have the necessary facilities to do that for which I am most well known for namely emceeing and beat-juggling at the same time. But overall, I think it went pretty well and it was very easy to strike up a rapport with the people. Q: Have you had any feedback so far this evening - and are you aware that you've got this cult following here in the UK? A: To be honest, I think that people in the UK are much more honest and sincere when it comes to their appreciation of music- but anyway, this may interest you, in august I am planning to come to London and spend some time here - see how it goes…That's why I didn't want to miss a single thing as soon as I got here - just trying to absorb everything…But to answer your question, yes, it seems to have gone well and people have been very encouraging and positive. Q: Coming to England!? Why!? Are you coming for the food, the weather or what? A: Yeah I've been warned about the food - and this evening, just before doing my set I blew my nose and all this black stuff came out so I guess that will take some getting used to - Lady Cook: But isn't it just as bad in new York or the big cities in Canada or anywhere else in the world?? A: hehehe yeah…but I am really looking forward to it - just got to iron out a few of the details first… Q: OK, so When you inevitably become megamegamega famous, which would you rather give your name to: A wrestling finishing move, a cocktail or a flower? A: It's interesting you should ask me this question and mention the wrestling thing because actually, back where I'm from, there's this little : novascotian wrestling league and it features this heel. I haven't seen him in action myself but I've been told that he not only uses the centaur's instrumental for his intro music but also he has a finishing move called " the centaur". I don't like to imagine what that move could be like…. …As for the cocktail? Well I do not drink so having a cocktail named after me would just be too ironic. Again, it's interesting that you mention the flower thing because I already have someone in my family whose name is a flower. It is such a blessing and it's so beautiful to be named after a flower and my mother was a flower. Her name was "iris" and that name was so deserving because she was a very special and beautiful person and I feel so lucky and fortunate to have known her and to have been her son. Q: Right…On Man overboard, you have a song dedicated to the sad passing of your mother and now tonight, you performed a track about your dad - A: It's not like I thought since I did a song about my mother, I had to do one about my father - it's just that he's such an interesting person and such an important part of my life with his own story which I wanted to tell. But yeah, that was the first time I've performed that piece and in fact, I don't know even if I'll release that track so you got a real sneak preview there. Q: So did you have a fixed playlist in mind for your set? A: No, not really. I just grabbed everything I thought I would need and then tried to give as best mix of old and new… Give people a good taste of my work to date and try to give people an idea of what I'm all about and where I'm headed - [a vehicle from the emergency services passes with sirens blazing which in turn sets off at least two car alarms… We walk down Curtain Road in search of a quieter spot, sit on some steps and are now joined by Mr Spleen from SFDB Records] Q: When Synesthesia came out, I got your email newsletter and in that you came across as a bit hesitant and may be even disappointed with the project - as if you yourself found it a bit too preachy? A: Maybe… Q: And tonight with that song you did about you being molded into the all-action super hero action figure [Which appears on Tags of the times vol #3] you seem to be commenting on your contemporaries and the current Hip Hop climate a lot more than you ever did before - is that a conscious thing? A: No actually, when I was writing that song I was really thinking about some more immediate personal things that I was feeling at the time. I was feeling a little bit taken foregranted by people who were close to me I had the feeling that people were seeing me just as this y'know - well basically just seeing me by my job - just seeing me as a rapper and this person who works and who can be basically ordered around and just go-go-go! without ever stopping to realize "I'm actually a sensitive person with thoughts and feelings…" I like to take time to myself - and spending time huggin' and kissin' and taking walks is very important to me and I just don't want people to ever forget that. Sometimes it seems like people treat you like a pack animal or a beast of burden sometimes and that's fine by some people - and some people would argue that that's just really like the nature of the business but me personally, I hope to keep some separation there in my career and hopefully be able to keep a bit of a life for myself - and maintain a little bit of humanity in my life and not just working - I mean I love what I do - but another thing I wanted to mention real quick, my main complaint with synesthesia was the record was thrown together very-very quickly because I had the opportunity to do a rather extensive tour but I didn't have very much to take with me to sell on the tour and I was very anxious to have some new material out there and then I had this offer come up very suddenly from this small label Endemik (www.endemikmusic.com) who were offering to put the record out. So I basically ended up being allotted three days to start from scratch and deliver to them a record.  [passer-by #1] thank you! Thank you, take care.. A: So I had a few rough ideas to work with and that's why a lot of the songs are simple in their subject matter - it's like "OK, maybe I'll make a song about cigarette smoke…and then I'll make a song about..y'know, the F-word" - and so I felt the record was a bit rushed and I think, if you really listen, you can tell I don't feel as if I knew my lyrics as well as I like to when it was time to record them.. So what I've done - in fact I've only done this two weeks ago - and I had intentions to do this from the start basically because it was a very limited run the first time around - I took synesthesia back into the studio and basically remade it. And so I tightened it up, redid all the vocals, and I added a few things to it - I just think I've made it into the record it was supposed to be in the first place and I'm very-very happy with it - I'd be very anxious to hear the new and improved version of it! So yeh, I dunno…I don't know how necessary may think that was but that's the way I am - I'm a pretty tough critic on myself and I find it hard to leave things alone if they're not quite to my liking I suppose. Q: "You don't drink, don't smoke - what do you do?" Do you have any vices? A: Ummm... Well I definitely have a very-very strong sweet tooth. I like chocolate a lot and in particular, cookies - I eat a lot of cookies - Lady Cook: Is that your only compulsive, addictive habit in life!? A: I would say so. Lady Cook: Well then don't move to London because you'll be tainted within a week! A: I got solicited for pills tonight which I had to have a bit of a laugh over considering if this person had any idea who I was and what my lifestyle is like. I'm a completely straight-edge person just with an absence of all the markings and tattoos and so on and sometimes I almost feel like I'd be doing myself a favor by having like Xs tattooed on the backs of my hands just so some people would realize how I live. But it's not really a big deal - I don't really care that much. I'm a pretty self-disciplined person and even when it comes to the cookies and the chocolate I try to maintain a bit of discipline. I am a little bit concerned about my dental care.. "...Most of the work was done with probably three-thousand kilometers between us...." Q: Back onto Hip Hop,…- well you mentioned them on one of the tracks you performed tonight - The Molemen yeh? You did a track with The Molemen on their most recent album right? Well as far as I know, the Sebutones and even you as a solo artist are pretty much a self-contained unit when it comes to production so how did that collaboration come about and what was it like working with an external production team? A: How did it come about?..Hmmm..well basically, PNS from The Molemen approached me and at another time approached me and Rob (that's Sixtoo) and I together, about the idea... He sent us a CD filled with beats - like thirty or forty beats to choose from - and just asked us to pick out a thing or two which we liked and we just went from there. Most of the work was done with probably three-thousand kilometers between us. Now frankly, although I'm grateful for that experience and there was a 12" which later came out of that - which featured a song with Sage Francis and I together (that was from the Put your quarter up 12" by The Molemen and-so-on) - and actually, during that recording session, I must have recorded like three or four more songs- yeh well finally I visited Chicago and recorded a handful of things with the Molemen but I don't know what became of the rest of those tracks… But anyway, generally speaking, even though I like those guys a lot as people - - they're friends and I respect what they do, I find collaborating quite difficult. Making music in each aspect whether it be the production side of things, the deejaying or the emceeing, it's all very personal to me. And so I find it quite difficult to just feel comfortable. I think that I have made some sort of an attempt to define a sound or feeling for myself with my music that I find difficult to find elsewhere. I find the collaborative process just a bit uncomfortable sometimes - I'm just very-very used to it being like this thing that almost happens under blankets or something like that. So to step outside of that, sometimes it makes me feel very naked. Nevertheless, it produces some interesting work sometimes. Sometimes you'll get results that otherwise, you might not have ever come up with on your own -  [passer-by #2] Wicked! great show! Have a good night! A: And you too! I enjoyed it very much! - but anyway, that was what initially excited both Sixtoo and I about the whole collabo -  [passer-by #3] Bravo! Bravo…and eh! Like I was saying earlier, when you come back in August, I'll cut your hair for you mate - A: OK, I'll find you!  [passer-by #3] You'll never need to wear a hat again - A: Thank you… Anyway, so yeh, we tried collaborating that one time without any intention of doing it a second time but the results were very-very interesting and we drew unusual energy from one another. So we decided to kick the can around for a few more times there… And so I figure that was one of a very few circumstances where something would work out - that sort of chemistry and that whole creative process of me coming up with an idea then handing it over to Sixtoo and then leaving it to him and then seeing what he comes back with - sometimes I'd take an idea in one direction and then he'd do something completely different but still interesting with it. The tracks wouldn't be what they are if he hadn't done what he does to them… I don't know if we're going to have the opportunity to collaborate further as The Sebutones because he's moved away. He lives in Montreal now, I'm living in Halifax and may be moving away soon…So hopefully we'll have the chance to do more work but as it stands, it may prove difficult. Q: Speaking of collaborations, I've been waiting for ages now for the release of North American Adonis - will it ever see the light of day? A: I don't know if you heard this story or not. The very scrappy version which some people have heard - because I know it made it's way onto Napster - well we recorded that chunk with the intention to do much more. We thought that the portion people had heard on Napster, well we considered that half of the album. We still had lots more work and planning to go and that's why we were rather upset when it made it's way onto Napster because we considered it an incomplete piece of work - which is my main complaint; I don't like having unfinished work put out there because it appears shoddy. So anyhow, we found out that it had leaked onto Napster before we had a chance to finish so when we got together for the second time to complete the album, we redid the first part entirely and then did the other 50% of the album and it was really exceptional stuff - we really had a good time doing it! It was really exciting and a lot of laughs and so we were really looking forward to the record coming out and then one day I got a phone call from Jel who produced most of the beats for Dose One and I telling me that the hard-disc recorder that the project was recorded on had crashed. So basically that entire album vanished into space. None of us had the sense to make a copy for ourselves - not even a rough copy because it hadn't even been mixed at this point. That album? May be it wasn't meant to be… it's gone and unfortunately I don't think it can be rescued. The best I can do is like ummm? - well during Synesthesia there's that "Attack of the nerds" song. I made a little allusion to it for those who know with the line "North American man - Q: "I like titties and car parts!?" - A: Yehyehyeh. By the way, during the duration of that album, we return to that chorus-like slogan over and over again on the album with several variations - like "North American man, we like Ziggy and hardware…" we'd just name off some stuff absurdly like that -  [passer-by #4] like your style man!!! A: Well you know, just having fun with stereotypes of North American man. It's quite upsetting for me to think about how that album got erased… I hang onto the hope that y'know maybe one day someone somewhere did make a copy of it for themselves. But actually, since then, since that album vanished, here and there, on various appearances I've made here and there, I've picked apart some of the lyrics that I contributed to that project so still, some of the stuff I devoted to it is still out there to some extent. But yeah, it's a real shame. Continue on to Part 2

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