Interview with The Stoops |
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Hi Stoops, thanks for taking time out for this interview.
Your last single was released in 2014, 6 years ago, you’ve had quite a hiatus. What have you been up to?
Honestly we’ve always been pretty lax with our releases, but 6 years really has been a long time - even for us! The quick answer has always been 'life!'. As well as growing a hell of a lot as individuals we went back to making music solely for the fun of it. We (Pronto & Roc) have made music together in various forms since High School and we really felt it was important to get back to that place in order for the next album to happen. That being said, some discipline still exists as we have managed to maintain weekly ‘Stoops’ sessions every Thursday night for the last 10 years or so!
What was the process making the track as a group?
Traditionally most of our beats start with a newly discovered sample. From this point Roc will sketch out the bigger picture with drums, chops, loops and ideas. Pronto colours in and refines the beat. Bringing it to life by adding in keys, bass, change-ups and polishing the EQ. We'll often experiment with live instrumentalists, bringing them in and recording some reactive jam sessions. Arms In Motion advises with audio engineering and also provides the essential cuts. The lyrics are either written together in the studio, or usually during months of freestyling and note-taking apps.
We then record in our (home) studio, where we listen, edit and rerecord over and over again. At this point we usually become distracted with a shiny new beat in the process. We’ll then revisit the original song on and off sporadically for many years until the unsettling sense of it all becoming a complete waste of time proves too overpowering and pushes us to finally finish it off! The finished song then goes through a final professional mixing process in the hands of our latest collaborator B4 Lasers out in Wisconsin.
Your current single If I Had A Kid has a thought-provoking subject matter, what was the inspiration behind the song?
We began writing the song roughly 5 years ago when we noticed some of our friends had started moving into a parental phase of their life. That stage can really make you reflect on your own abilities as a potential future parent. We also identified a general trend in our songwriting; often counterbalancing idealistic encouragement with a healthy dose of self depreciation. If the song was a meme it would be a pic of someone making music in their bedroom with the caption 'all my friends are having babies and I'm just over here trying to EQ this kick drum'. Fast-forward 5 years later and Pronto became a proud father of his own beautiful daughter Adeline. Whilst being clear evidence of our slow-finishing process, it was her birth that inspired us to actually release the song and make it our first single.
You’ve also got Sarah Pellicano on the hook and Kruger James on instrumentation. How did it all come together?
Sarah joined our tribe in 2012 during our single-city East Coast tour and quickly became an integral member of the group. She is a super talented performer and has been a huge influence to our live sound over the years. In the background, she has collaborated and recorded countless of songs with us during some of these weekly ‘Stoop’ sessions. Kruger James has also been a long time friend and collaborator. He’s always up for a jam, a freestyle, or a good old fashioned yarn about music and we have witnessed his emergence from a multi-instrumentalist to one of the best emcees and producers in the country. The double bass in this song was also played by another good friend, Sam Corbett. Five years later it’s like “hey guys, remember that time you came around and recorded in 2015?”
Your last single was released in 2014, 6 years ago, you’ve had quite a hiatus. What have you been up to?
Honestly we’ve always been pretty lax with our releases, but 6 years really has been a long time - even for us! The quick answer has always been 'life!'. As well as growing a hell of a lot as individuals we went back to making music solely for the fun of it. We (Pronto & Roc) have made music together in various forms since High School and we really felt it was important to get back to that place in order for the next album to happen. That being said, some discipline still exists as we have managed to maintain weekly ‘Stoops’ sessions every Thursday night for the last 10 years or so!
What was the process making the track as a group?
Traditionally most of our beats start with a newly discovered sample. From this point Roc will sketch out the bigger picture with drums, chops, loops and ideas. Pronto colours in and refines the beat. Bringing it to life by adding in keys, bass, change-ups and polishing the EQ. We'll often experiment with live instrumentalists, bringing them in and recording some reactive jam sessions. Arms In Motion advises with audio engineering and also provides the essential cuts. The lyrics are either written together in the studio, or usually during months of freestyling and note-taking apps.
We then record in our (home) studio, where we listen, edit and rerecord over and over again. At this point we usually become distracted with a shiny new beat in the process. We’ll then revisit the original song on and off sporadically for many years until the unsettling sense of it all becoming a complete waste of time proves too overpowering and pushes us to finally finish it off! The finished song then goes through a final professional mixing process in the hands of our latest collaborator B4 Lasers out in Wisconsin.
Your current single If I Had A Kid has a thought-provoking subject matter, what was the inspiration behind the song?
We began writing the song roughly 5 years ago when we noticed some of our friends had started moving into a parental phase of their life. That stage can really make you reflect on your own abilities as a potential future parent. We also identified a general trend in our songwriting; often counterbalancing idealistic encouragement with a healthy dose of self depreciation. If the song was a meme it would be a pic of someone making music in their bedroom with the caption 'all my friends are having babies and I'm just over here trying to EQ this kick drum'. Fast-forward 5 years later and Pronto became a proud father of his own beautiful daughter Adeline. Whilst being clear evidence of our slow-finishing process, it was her birth that inspired us to actually release the song and make it our first single.
You’ve also got Sarah Pellicano on the hook and Kruger James on instrumentation. How did it all come together?
Sarah joined our tribe in 2012 during our single-city East Coast tour and quickly became an integral member of the group. She is a super talented performer and has been a huge influence to our live sound over the years. In the background, she has collaborated and recorded countless of songs with us during some of these weekly ‘Stoop’ sessions. Kruger James has also been a long time friend and collaborator. He’s always up for a jam, a freestyle, or a good old fashioned yarn about music and we have witnessed his emergence from a multi-instrumentalist to one of the best emcees and producers in the country. The double bass in this song was also played by another good friend, Sam Corbett. Five years later it’s like “hey guys, remember that time you came around and recorded in 2015?”
You’ve got a series of new songs coming out soon, what are some of the themes and inspirations behind these new tracks?
Our songs are always heavily concept-driven. We find pure joy in pushing an interesting topic or idea, exploring the different sides of it and translating that into rhymes. It's one of the truly unique aspects of hip hop songwriting and we like to take full advantage of that. There is also a good balance of personal reflection and good old fashioned story telling throughout the album. Generally we try the ‘Indie Movie’ approach to our concepts: making small, everyday things feel epic or interesting. We love those albums that offer a wide range of different feelings and have tried to do the same with ours. For example, we have a pretty silly song on the album about how un-gangster we are, and on the other side we have a really sad dramatic and deep song inspired by family members addiction issues. We'll have one song reflecting on the failings of our hero's, whilst the next song is a metaphorical tale about being the sole survivor of a house party.
This will all culminate in an album which I believe has been sometime in the making, tell me about the process of making the album, it’s music and why it’s taken so long.
Let me introduce you to a concept we refer to as "the perpetual wheel of creativity" (Stoops Trademark). Creativity for us is an outlet, it never really stops, and making new music is what we love more than anything. The issue with this is that when we have built up a bank of new tracks, we find it very difficult to stop. Any artist could relate to their most favourite work often being their most recent. So when we add "just one more new track" to this bank, we inevitably push out one of the older tracks. And on it goes. The perpetual wheel of creativity. This is actually also one of the inspirations for the album title - Boom Cycle.
It wasn't until we finally sent a track to B4 Lasers for mixing that we managed to break the circle. Suddenly the tracks had a destination opposed to being pushed into the abyss by another latest and greatest new track. So it was never that we stopped or slowed down our production of making music. In fact, when we look back into the abyss, we can regrettably find a whole album or two in there! We just simply didn't know how to break the circle. But at the end of the day, the tracks that have made the cut have gone through a pretty rigorous process and really stood the test of time so we are super excited to be sharing them with everyone soon!
What are your thoughts on the current state of Hip Hop?
Our music is without a doubt 'golden era Hip Hop' inspired, and this would likely suggest we're skeptical of the current era and state of Hip Hop. But it's not necessarily the case. Don't get us wrong, shits got issues, but there are so many good things about the current state of Hip Hop too. While the production aspects have advanced and technology has become available to almost anyone, it's levelled the playing field a lot. In addition, the likes of Soundcloud, Spotify, Bandcamp, have all played a hand in making the platform of Hip Hop more accessible to listeners.
In our eyes this accessibility has done two things; 1. It's increased the chances of truly talented and original artists getting their music heard, and 2. It's pushing artists to be different and take risks in order to break through the masses. When both of these things click, we get rewarded with the likes of To Pimp a Butterfly and 4 Your Eyez Only.
Follow The Stoops to stay up to date with their latest music: Facebook, Instagram, Soundcloud, Twitter, Website.
Our songs are always heavily concept-driven. We find pure joy in pushing an interesting topic or idea, exploring the different sides of it and translating that into rhymes. It's one of the truly unique aspects of hip hop songwriting and we like to take full advantage of that. There is also a good balance of personal reflection and good old fashioned story telling throughout the album. Generally we try the ‘Indie Movie’ approach to our concepts: making small, everyday things feel epic or interesting. We love those albums that offer a wide range of different feelings and have tried to do the same with ours. For example, we have a pretty silly song on the album about how un-gangster we are, and on the other side we have a really sad dramatic and deep song inspired by family members addiction issues. We'll have one song reflecting on the failings of our hero's, whilst the next song is a metaphorical tale about being the sole survivor of a house party.
This will all culminate in an album which I believe has been sometime in the making, tell me about the process of making the album, it’s music and why it’s taken so long.
Let me introduce you to a concept we refer to as "the perpetual wheel of creativity" (Stoops Trademark). Creativity for us is an outlet, it never really stops, and making new music is what we love more than anything. The issue with this is that when we have built up a bank of new tracks, we find it very difficult to stop. Any artist could relate to their most favourite work often being their most recent. So when we add "just one more new track" to this bank, we inevitably push out one of the older tracks. And on it goes. The perpetual wheel of creativity. This is actually also one of the inspirations for the album title - Boom Cycle.
It wasn't until we finally sent a track to B4 Lasers for mixing that we managed to break the circle. Suddenly the tracks had a destination opposed to being pushed into the abyss by another latest and greatest new track. So it was never that we stopped or slowed down our production of making music. In fact, when we look back into the abyss, we can regrettably find a whole album or two in there! We just simply didn't know how to break the circle. But at the end of the day, the tracks that have made the cut have gone through a pretty rigorous process and really stood the test of time so we are super excited to be sharing them with everyone soon!
What are your thoughts on the current state of Hip Hop?
Our music is without a doubt 'golden era Hip Hop' inspired, and this would likely suggest we're skeptical of the current era and state of Hip Hop. But it's not necessarily the case. Don't get us wrong, shits got issues, but there are so many good things about the current state of Hip Hop too. While the production aspects have advanced and technology has become available to almost anyone, it's levelled the playing field a lot. In addition, the likes of Soundcloud, Spotify, Bandcamp, have all played a hand in making the platform of Hip Hop more accessible to listeners.
In our eyes this accessibility has done two things; 1. It's increased the chances of truly talented and original artists getting their music heard, and 2. It's pushing artists to be different and take risks in order to break through the masses. When both of these things click, we get rewarded with the likes of To Pimp a Butterfly and 4 Your Eyez Only.
Follow The Stoops to stay up to date with their latest music: Facebook, Instagram, Soundcloud, Twitter, Website.