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 Bus
Driver
Interview
interview 0215 added
03.07.04 words: Nikesh technical:
QED
Bus Driver is one of those LA oddballs you tend to run into every now and then
throughout your life.
He has long thick dreadlocks, a Richie Cunningham shirt on and a precise and
intellectual flow to his speaking voice, which is entirely representative of the
broken scat-influenced hip-hop rhythms he drops all over the beats of various
records he has blessed with Project Blowed, the Weathermen and as himself, the
Bus Driver, appreciation society of the cosmic cleavage. I caught up with the
Big Dada artist on his recent trip to London with TTC and Radioinactive to chat
about hipster chicks and hip-hop aesthetics.
 Hello,
Mr Bus Driver, how are you today?
I’m alright.
Looking forward to the show tonight?
So far yes. My first time I’ve ever played in London or anywhere in England, so
I’m definitely looking forward to it. Definitely seems like a hip establishment
(93 Feet East in Brick Lane). Seems to be at the epicentre of hipster-ness so
I’m glad to be here.
What are your thoughts on London so far?
Oh, I don’t know. I’ve been instantly immersed in some kind of version of street
life here. I don’t know where we’re staying here but it’s definitely active with
lots of people walking around. So I’ve been witnessing that and it’s been nice.
People seem to be nice, the buildings and the architecture is amazing. Things
are expensive and nice. I don’t think I’ve eaten here yet.
Tell me about “Cosmic Cleavage”.
It’s a digression from what I normally do, in terms of the subject matter I
usually do. It’s about my dealings with women in my life, be it my daughter’s
mum or girls who have come and gone in my life. It tends to deal with that but I
still keep my normal cerebral (or at least, I think it’s cerebral) writing
approach. As far as the beats go, they’re kinda jazz-oriented and the songs are
really short and they bleed into each other. The whole album is like a piece in
itself.
It sounds like a lot of the music was recorded live. Was that so?
Not really. We had a bass player who played on a great deal of the tracks, but
apart from that, they’re all sample-based. Daddy Kev making all the beats.
"...I
should be doing the interview but I’m staring at some hipster white chick
walking by..."
Did you plan how the album would sound in your head first or did it just
happen that way?
The music was done first and we edited some of it and I ended up writing to it,
mostly.
Who was producing on the album?
Daddy Kev. He’s the founder of a what was a record label in LA called Celestial
Recordings. He’s put out a lot of underground hip-hop records underneath the
surface as well as some stuff with Freestyle Fellowship.
How would you say your vocal style on “Cosmic Cleavage” differs from the
stuff you did before?
The music lends itself to that scat approach so I went with it. I really wanted
to compliment the beats and create a song that makes sense with the music. As
the music was more jazzy and free, so I tended to be more spoken word and jazzy.
It’s not really an experiment. It’s definitely a hip-hop record as there are
certain things that happen in the record that are essentially hip-hop. More than
hip-hop, it’s underground hip-hop and I think there are different guidelines for
underground hip-hop and other sub genres of hip-hop. I don’t think it’s jazz-rap
or anything like that. It’s definitely hip-hop.
 Do
you do too much unnecessary thinking?
Haha. Yeah. No I don’t, I really don’t. so there’s no problem there.
Who were you listening to when you were making the album and did they have
any influence on how the record sounded?
I was listening to a lot of Belle and Sebastian, le Tigre and Blonde Redhead and
Black Box Recorder, stuff like that. I don’t know if it had any effect on
anything. I don’t know.
Well, there are similarities between you and Stuart Murdoch from Belle and
Sebastian, in terms of earnestness and mundanity leading to pivotal events.
I hope listening to them had something to do with it, I hope. But I think it had
something to do with the growing trend in LA to do more confessional, heartfelt,
emo-stuff…
Like Atmosphere and Sage Francis…
Yeah. I naturally came to the conclusion of doing the record but when I did it,
the whole wave of stuff started happening. I thought it made sense for then and
it was quite appropriate. So, it kinda in a funny way fit that whole swing,
which I don’t understand but I think it’s fun. I dunno.
Who did the “Cosmic Cleavage” cover art?
Me. Me and Daddy Kev. I hate it. I showed my girlfriend and she was very mad.
She said, “What does this mean?” She was very disappointed with me and I
cringed, hung my head in shame.
"...That’s
a prime example of how bizarre and absurd the states is. People are so swayed by
television culture that immediately a huge film star occupies a political post..."
So, then, what is cosmic cleavage?
It’s a grand distraction that seems to be obviously impeding on your right to
focus on what is right before you. Oh my god, that girl is really cute…
(Cute fashionista Hoxton girl walks past turning both our heads…)
So, like that…?
Yes! Cosmic cleavage. That’s exactly what that is! I should be doing the
interview but I’m staring at some hipster white chick walking by. It’s usually
the other way around. Usually, I’m talking to a girl but I’m doing an interview
and I’m distracted and that’s the cosmic cleavage. It’s my catharsis and I’m
always focussing on women and I’m always having trouble with them and it’s
always turbulent and that’s because I’m doing something else…
Like unnecessary thinking…?
Yeah. That song is about wanting to find an ideal woman to be yours and how that
approach is wrong. Instead you should just get a girl who meets your immediate
needs. It kind of approaches finding a simple… I don’t know, finding a basic
relationship that’s mainly physical. It approaches that from a different angle,
rather than from an angle of not being able to accept anything more but being
tired of that and wanting to simplify matters. I don’t know.
 I
read somewhere that you dislike writing conscious or political songs as you
don’t like preaching to the converted, but in these turbulent times, is there
anything you’d like to say?
Yeah, I think the biggest threat to global peace is the US and the UK right now.
Mainly the US. It’s pretty obvious so watch out… I think there’s a strong pocket
of people vividly against what’s going on but they’re not justly represented.
There’s several scenes… people kinda prescribe to a leftist view fashionably and
do random little acts and there are people actually doing it, who are a small
majority. It’s so hard because the states is so big and the people are so spread
out that you can’t get a sense of what is actually going on. For the most part,
people are more aware than they have been in previous years and that’s really
important. I think that the culture of young people and subversive cultures is
unequipped to do anything seriously impactful. It’s sad but true. There’s a lot
of artists who are trying but it only goes so far. I don’t know, I’m hoping
something happens.
Will you be voting this year?
Yeah, definitely. I don’t know who for. We have Arnold Schwarznegger as our head
guy in California. How did that happen? That’s a prime example of how bizarre
and absurd the states is. People are so swayed by television culture that
immediately a huge film star occupies a political post. It’s beyond bizarre,
it’s fiction, it’s fairytale…
"...It’s
a digression from what I normally do, in terms of the subject matter I usually
do. It’s about my dealings with women in my life..."
It’s like a film…
Exactly, that’s being acted out in real life… But it makes sense. It goes in
accord with the neo-fascism of the Bush administration.
Ok, what’s next for you?
I have a full record coming out in about 7 months called “Fear of a Black
Tangent.” There’s gonna be a single called “Unemployed Black Astronaut.” It’ll
sound more like my last full length, “Temporary Forever.” Except, a little more
direct and easy to grab in terms of content.
 Any
final message or shout out before you go and get some food?
Thanks to Ninja Tune for helping me out and the new TTC record is gonna be
amazing. They’re at the forefront of underground rap. Look out for the Project
Blowed 2 album coming out, I dunno when. I don’t know, protest US’ involvement
in anything…
And then he’s dragged off to sample one of Brick Lane’s many curries and I’m
left with Radioinactive to chat more about general LA oddballness, the US
hip-hop underground and experimental music, pushing boundaries.
-
Nikesh Shukla
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