Groundup’s newest writer Will recently had the opportunity to have a chat with Aesop Rock and talk a little about his music and his new album “None Shall Pass”

Hey what’s up man how you going?
I got about a million things going on but I’m doing alright

When did you first get into emceeing and what lead you to get into the production side of things?
I probably started writing my first lyrics in like junior high school around 88 or 89 but didn’t do anything serious until high school which was 90 to 94. Even then it was still just for fun and during that time I had learnt a few instruments and my brother had a drum machine in the really early 90s. I was always just trying to make little songs here and there. I didn’t really take any of it all that seriously until about 95 when I got my first sampler and really started going out and trying to get on some open mics and freestyle some parties . Basically get scene anywhere I could. That’s probably when I started taking it a little more seriously and taking the production side of it a little more seriously as well.

What was your first sampler?
It was an Ensoniq ASR 10 which is the same one I still use today.

What other equipment are you using?
Turntables and pro tools. I also have a bunch of synths, a Roland, an Electribe, a Microkorg. I play bass and guitar and my wife has another 4 or 5 guitars. Just a whole bunch of weird instruments, like a Theremin. Just a bunch of shit that I’ve gathered up over the years. It’s all sort of centered around the ASR 10 which is still the centre piece.

What’s the writing process like for you?, how does your stuff come about?
It gets different every year. I try and write stuff down regardless of whether or not I’m on tour or at home. I always keep like a little notebook and write little phrases and words that I think of. I don’t really get to structure a song until I hear at least a skeleton for a beat or even some drums that I like .Once I hear that I start putting together the verses and really just focus on the theme of the song. Sometimes I write a few lines because I have all the recording stuff at my house. I’ll write down half a verse and record it and just kind of see if I like where it’s going. I could either keep going with it or I could scrap it or make a decision to add to the music. I work on the beats, the music and the lyrics all at the same time. It’s really just this weird process where I’m constantly chipping away at it until I figure it out until basically over the course of a long time it becomes a song. I’m always working on a few things at once, little pieces here and there. I don’t really sit down and write and entire song in one sitting and then record it ever.

So you don’t do anything weird during the writing process, you don’t get like drunk and naked?
AAhhh no drunk and naked. I tend to smoke a lot of weed and watch some movies. For the most part it’s just a little weed and some beats.

How hard is it getting industry acceptance for your music?
I guess it’s pretty hard but at the same time I’ve consistently aligned myself with Indy labels. At the same time I’ve had major labels contracting me constantly throughout the course of my career and they’re always showing interest but I just don’t think I would ever go that route because you hear so many horror stories about the industry and peoples albums getting shelved.
I find great comfort in any label that is really independent and allows me to do all the thinking and even gets me to partake in some of the marketing, what everything’s gonna look like. I’m having very hands on experience right now. I don’t think I would have a problem signing with a major label if they were going to let me do what I wanted. At this point when I started selling a decent amount of units independently, labels were just looking at sound scan numbers and were like “oh Aesop just sold 80,000 records, let’s call him up”. They don’t know anything about me or my music they just see that I can move 80,000 on an Indy and think that’s pretty good. I’ve never really gone into long discussions with any kind of major playas in the industry cause I tend to shy away from all that. My ideal label is one that will leave me alone to do whatever I want to do.

Is that where you’re at with Def Jux at the moment? Have they always been pretty flexible with letting you do what you want?
They probably give me too much leeway, I mean there’s some marketing decisions that they definitely know more about than I do but for the most part all the music and all the artwork, packaging, singles and videos I get to do pretty much whatever I want . I guess I’ve built up a bit of trust with them over the last seven years. I let them know that I do have a pretty good creative head on my shoulders.

So how did this Nike work come about?
Well basically it was out of the blue. I was working on my own record and they contacted my manager and said we have this project. They told us about the series they had started with crystal method and LCD sound system and were looking into doing some hiphop related stuff and wanted to know if I was interested because I guess they liked my stuff. It was just a very odd request and I never really get any opportunities like that and it kind of came at a time that was good for me to step away from my album for a month and work on this Nike shit. It gave me a breather and I got to do this weird project. It was really just random.

I was aware that the crystal method had done some work for Nike but only just learnt that you were involved in a similar project. Do you think this current trend in cooperate collaboration is positive for musicians?
It’s hard to judge over all, some people would see it as a positive thing because it gets the more underground and cutting edge people up in the mix a little more. But some people think that it’s not cool because they’re (corporations) trying to take whoever is cool at the moment and use them. Personally I thought the project was interesting and thought I would go for it. The people I was dealing with were really cool and I understand that they were looking for younger cutting edge musicians and trying to find out what the kids are listening to, that’s their main goal. At least they’re making an effort to do something creative; they don’t have to do that. In the same way a lot of people like to think that Nike would be using me or crystal method to get in with the kids but to me it’s like well I’m getting to use them to expand because really the most important thing in this is the music. This allows me to reach a whole group of people that would never have heard me before. It was a weird situation and a little shocking when my manager said “Nike want to do this thing with you”, I was definitely like wow… why the fuck would they want me. But once I thought about it and considered the boundaries of the project I thought it was cool. Anything that’s sort of weird and I don’t understand why I’m getting asked to do it I’ll usually just try it. It’s funny to try these outside projects.

What should people expect from the new album?
Well hopefully just a step in a new direction. I definitely made a conscious effort to do a few things differently this time and I didn’t want it to be so heavy on me and come across preachy. Rap music is often talking at the listener as opposed to sort of engaging the listener in a conversation. I really wanted it to be conversational, almost like story telling where the listener could escape into the record as opposed to be talked to or talked at. I just tried out some new sounds that I hadn’t done before and really put an emphasis on painting a setting more than I ever have before. I really tried to make it a visual experience just as much as it is rap music, putting time into the aspect of song writing as opposed to just rapping on a beat. You see so many albums these days that just sound like mixtapes, just a beat where some guy raps on it. Which is cool but it can get a little boring and overdone. There’s got to be some art to the song writing. I’m always trying to find something there and hopefully I did it again.

I never understood artists that get really aggressive and basically abuse the listener.
Yeah a lot of rap music is based on this competitive vibe and that’s how a lot of people come up and learn how to do it. I don’t have a problem with that and I’ve done it before. But there does come a point where you’ve got to figure out something new because you can’t do that forever. Like you said I don’t want to abuse the listener, I’d rather engage the listener. It’s so easy to do something slightly different because not much has been done differently in hiphop recently. It doesn’t take that much effort to even think outside of the little box that they paint you in. I agree with you, I’m just trying to do something much like a movie. When you put it on you don’t want a movie that’s just yelling at you, you want a movie you can get lost in and kind of be in this other world for 2 hours. Basically with the record I’d like you to be able to put it on and lose yourself for an hour in the music.

What was the recording process of the new album?
At my house I have a studio setup so I can do all my own recording. I have a vocal booth that I can operate pro-tools from inside of the booth. Basically I wake up and I get in the studio and that’s basically it. Bloc head comes out for a couple of weeks at a time and we lay some stuff down. Because I have it at my disposal so I can take the time to chip away at things and really just take it slowly. Like I said I work on a bunch of songs at once and take my time. I might think “this could use some guitar”, so I’ll call up someone I know that’s really good on the the guitar and we’ll get them involved and see if it sounds good. I take the time to really peel back the layers of each song and get some people involved. It’s just so much fun to have all this stuff at my disposal because I can work at my own pace and work on five songs at once. It’s not like I have to go to some studio and pay to get it all finished within a certain amount of time.

I really want to know about the song the “harbor is yours”, I’m diggin the track bro
Thanks man, I was trying to do songs that were maybe a little bit like stories. Each one pertains to a different time period in one’s life. Some of them are more high school era; some are like in your mid 20s. The harbor is yours is sort of like a children’s story, it’s got this very kiddy like concept with the pirate and mermaid that fall in love, it’s almost like a folk tale. I was looking for something like that. I had done a song called “fish tales” earlier in the year that came out on a 7” that was pretty similar. It was a story about a fisherman that had a similar vibe to the harbor is yours. It’s kind of like a sequel to “fish tales” and it’s just supposed to be this children’s bedtime story.

So what’s the future for you man? What’s coming up?
Well I’m basically in New York right now; we just started rehearsing for a huge U.S tour that’s coming up in 45 cities. Then I think we’re going to Europe in December and then hopefully Australia in January, but it’s not carved in stone yet. So basically just a bunch of touring right now. Me and rob sonic are going out with DJ Wiz. Blocheads coming out with us so it’s basically just looking like the rest of the year will be spent touring. Hopefully once I rap all that up I want to go home and work on more shit. Make a record, go on tour, make a record, go on tour… you know how it is.

Interview by Will
Aesop Rock’s ‘None Shall Pass’ is our August 25th on Def Jux via Inertia