While the kingpins in the rap game ride the safe zone and toast the high life with fake beefs and overhyped, subpar albums boasting safe, star-studded appearances (Blueprint 3, anyone?), there's a relatively new batch of unconventional cats picking up the ball and running with it. One of them is Michael Larsen, better known as the vocal half of Eyedea & Abilities.
Eyedea & Abilities have been in action for nearly a decade, though they backburnered the project to pursue more personal endeavors and solo projects following the 2004 release of E&A. After a five year break to sow their musical oats, Larsen and partner Gregory Keltgen have returned as Eyedea & Abilities with By the Throat, their new album that dropped July 21st on Rhymesayers.
By the Throat advances beyond the duo's history as battle assassins (winners of Scribble Jam, Rocksteady, the Blaze Battle and the D.M.C.s) and shows a matured - but no less experimental - development in their sound. It defies the standard rap model, with the rhymes often coming in frantic, passionate bursts that sketch over traditional structure and rap formulaics. That's the point, and that's why it's one of the best, most honest releases we've heard this year.
We caught up with Mike (Eyedea) to get some insight on the new album and his other projects, as well as the sorry-ass state of mainstream hip-hop today.
CraveOnline: Caught your set at Rock the Bells a couple weeks ago - how's the festival atmosphere suit you? That definitely wasn't your crowd out there... people waiting to see Slaughterhouse.
Eyedea: It was cool - I mean I hate to sound like a whiner, but it was kind of a hell of a lot of traveling for... not necessarily for an audience that knows you, so it's kind of a hassle. But the festival itself was great. It was a lot of fun.
CraveOnline: Yeah, that seemed like a lot of work for a 20-25 minute set. It can't be easy to go out in front of a crowd that doesn't know you, that's expecting a straight hip-hop show, and bust out into a song like "Spin Cycle," where you're actually singing. To someone who hasn't heard it, that's gotta be hard to digest at first.
Eyedea: I think we're pretty punk rock about the whole thing. That comes from just being ratty kids, and we're still kind of ratty adults but when it comes to playing live, you just have to go up there and not give a fuck. You can't care. Make sure that you're playing for you, and that one person who wants to see someone doing something different, something for themselves. Because really, that's exactly what I'm shooting for - that one kid whose mind is gonna get blown. Also, I've been through so much stuff for the fact that I started a rock band a couple years ago, and I've got this free-jazz thing on the side, and people would actually physically throw shit at me. I'd get death threats, it was unreal. But I put that out there, instead of the macho hip-hop face that I thought I had to... that damn near everybody does.
CraveOnline: It's the safe thing. Machismo is more crucial than ever in the scene these days, it seems.
Eyedea: Yeah, and that shit is creatively stifling. It keeps cats from doing what the fuck they really want to do, you know? They just don't have it in 'em to go against the grain - especially those who have rent to pay.
CraveOnline: With battling, that's kind of the only way to approach it though, no?
Eyedea: Yeah, yeah, that's a whole other world, for sure. When you're writing music and starting that thing, you may be far off from what you end up being down the line. When we made our first record, both our identities were kinda wrapped up in that whole aspect of hip-hop. I think it's like this with everybody who's lasted, on some level. It's evolution. It's necessary.
CraveOnline: What can we look forward to on Waste-age Teenland (from Face Candy, Larsen's free-jazz side project).
Eyedea: Holy shit man, you know what you're talking about. I'm not completely sure yet on that, because we didn't pick all the material yet. We recorded it all, and we edited 40 hours down to an hour and a half or so of usable material. And then there's also a film we made with it as well, and there's like 80 hours of footage there I gotta dig through.
CraveOnline: So that's a ways off still...
Eyedea: Yeah, most likely. I actually can't wait to dig back into it. We're on the road right now, but I'm pretty pumped to get home and dig into it. I also want to record these songs I've got.... there's like 20 or so Carbon Carousel demos that are just me singing with a guitar. I want to put all those out as well.
CraveOnline: Is there a general vibe of those songs?
Eyedea: No, actually.. (laughs) Some of them are straight comedy tracks, while others are tragedy... it really runs the spectrum. It's my life in music, really (laughs). When I work on all that stuff, it's literally like I'm trying to write poppy, without being stupid. I just want to come up with the best melody possible, make sure the words are right. It's a formula I don't want to fuck with too much, just cause I want to get 'em down. The ideas want out.
CraveOnline: There's a lyric in Burn Fetish I wanted to ask you about: "Empathy is the poor man's cocaine" - what did you mean by that?
Eyedea: Well one thing I've learned in the past couple years is that I'd like to write things that are a little more open to interpretation. One take on that song, the take I use when I play it live and have to get into that zone... like if you're in the studio singing a song about your ex-girlfriend, bring a fucking picture of her in. Use that as reference to tap into that fire and connect to the lyrics. The song, on one level, is about being scared to fall in love, and how feelings are really just drugs in their own way - they're chemical processes in your brain.
That line... interesting story about that line specifically. There's a band in Minneapolis that's centered on this guy Dave Matters. He's been in a bunch of different bands that make a record or two and break up, but they all kinda sound the same because it's him and other people facilitating his ideas. His current band is called The Book Of Right On, and they kick ass but this one project I got really into was called Kentucky Gag Order. One of the things that I learned from him is a literary device that's been used a million times, but I've never really heard it done the way he does it. He takes these things that are general feelings and applies specific direction to them. For instance empathy is a huge idea, and to break it down to be the poor man's cocaine makes it small. Dave has a line where he says "When indiscretion seeks a suitor, I'm destined to oblige." That to me is the same thing as "Empathy is the poor man's cocaine".
CraveOnline: That used to be a Carbon Carousel song, right?
Eyedea: Yeah, it's.... damn man, you're on top of your shit! But yeah, yeah it was. I'm surprised I don't hate the song by now, really (laughs). But there's something that brings me back, and it resonates with people. That's the whole point.
Check out Eyedea & Abilities on MySpace
