(June
17th, 2008) PCM's Kristyn spent an afternoon chatting
with one of the hottest boys of summer, Shwayze!
Their song "Buzzin" is turning out to be one of
this summer's anthems. Also, be sure to check out Shwayze
along with Cisco Adler on MTV when their reality
show airs later this summer! Shwazye discusses some
of his musical influences, how he came together with Cisco,
and why you should keep your eyes peeled the next time you
watch an episode of South Park...
Kristyn: Hi Shwayze, How are you?
Shwayze: I am well...How are you?
K: I am not doing too badly!
S: That is good to hear!
K: Where are you located right now?
S: I am located in Malibu, California
K: Oh, lucky you! I am jealous!
S: (laughs) Where are you at?
K: Delaware, right outside of Philadelphia
S: Oh, I love there, my family is from Philly, and we were
in Delaware recently.
K: You were at the radio station 93.7 WSTW, correct?
S: Yup!
K: We were actually there that day, didn't get a chance
to stop and talk
S: Really! You were there?
K: We do a pop culture type radio bit for DJ Mike Rossi's
show in the mornings there
S: Oh, dope! That's sick!
K: (laughs) I see your self-titled debut CD is
due to hit stores, August 19th, is it?
S: August 19th!
K: How excited are you for the release?
S: Oh, man I am really excited. It is definitely surreal.
We are working so much, I am excited for it to come out,
people have heard "Buzzin" so far and they like
it so, the rest of the record goes much deeper, you know
that I mean?
K: Right. Well, "Buzzin" is being slated as
the song of the summer. I am hearing it everywhere these
days! Are you surprised that it has caught on the way it
has?
S: You know what? Yeah, it has been the song of the summer
for a minute and I am glad people are responding they way
they are, I am excited.
K: So, what exactly is "Buzzin'"?
S: I would say it is a summer crush, like when someone is
"buzzin'" all over you" you know what that
means, right?
K: Right
S: Think true love or what? Chill out! No, I am just kidding,
it is like a summer crush.
K: Okay! Do you have another single planned for release?
S: Yeah, we actually just shot the music video for "Corona
and Lime", which is our next single. It is on our MySpace
page; check it out if you haven't yet. It is a metaphor
for love.
K: (laughs) Well, Corona and Lime go together
so...
S: (laughs) That's funny.
K: How did you meet up with Cisco Adler and decide to record
together?
S: We are both from Malibu, which is a really small town,
so I had known about him for a really long time, I had heard
about him and stuff. Actually now that I think about it,
I remember watching, this is kind of unrelated, but I remember
the one time I was watching MTV Cribs and Kimberly Stewart
was on there and she goes in her closet, and she pulls out
this shirt with Cisco on the back of it, and she goes "This
is my boyfriend Cisco" "I love Cisco!" I
remember thinking, "Damn, this fool is crazy, I can't
believe she did that, she loves Cisco" and then later
she goes in the car and says "This is my boyfriend
Cisco's band playing" I thought that was so funny!
The first time I actually met Cisco was at the Malibu Inn,
I went up and starting rapping and free styling on the stage
and we talked afterwards for the first time.
He was really cool, he was like, "Yo, I like your shit"
whatever, but we did not decide to make music together for
awhile after that. I mean I didn't know that he made rap
music, I just knew him as a rock and roll dude, and one
of my friends told me he made rap music as well. I heard
that, so then I would just go to his house during parties
and stuff and say "Let's make music, let's make music!"
I did that at a couple of parties and then he was finally
like "Dude, stop coming at me when I am drunk, if you
are really serious than come over tomorrow and make music
all day, come over tomorrow anytime of the day, I'll be
here and we'll make a track." So, I came the next day
and chilled, and he was in the studio sure enough, after
a little bit we had our first track, which is called "Eighteen".
Then four songs later, or three songs, our fourth song was
"Buzzin", so after we did "Buzzin",
the first three tracks were based around me and I was just
rapping, then we did "Buzzin" with him on the
hook, we were like "Yo, that is really dope, we should
try to do more like that!" That became our formula
and we did a whole bunch of tracks like that...
K:
Right, I read in another interview that you have almost
forty songs, so you do have follow-up material written for
another album, correct?
S: Oh, yeah. We have tons of stuff, but I wouldn't really
go back on things in that way. For the next record we are
going to probably make another thirty or forty, you know
what I mean?
K: Yeah, I hear ya
S: All the other stuff can go online and go out to the fans
so they can hear all that, but whatever we pick for the
record we keep for the record and all the extra stuff can
just go out some other way.
K: As long as you are having a formula that is working
for you, things seem to be going well!
S: Oh, man! It is really cool, Cisco is a beast in the studio,
so anytime he comes at me, excited about something I know
it is going fun. He is one of those guys like "Oh,
I got something for you to rap on!" It is not a question
of whether I am going to like it or not I am just excited
already and I starting writing right then. I am like "Hell
yeah! Let's do this!" That is how I made the record,
he had the beat already done, or we'd be chilling downstairs
and he would do some sh**t acoustic where we would work
on it down there and then take it upstairs to the studio.
It is just a really good combination; it was really easy
to make a record. Also, without the pressure of a label
or anything.
When we did get signed, we had the option to go in the studio
with other big producers of time right now, like big hip-hop
producers, but we just liked the record and wanted to keep
it organic and between us two. The only feature we have
on the whole record is Dave Navarro, who plays an amazing
solo on this track, "Flashlight", which is one
of my favorites on the record. We just wanted to keep it
cool, we have the one feature and that is it, other than
that it is just Cisco and I with everything we did in the
little Malibu studio up here.
K: Well, that is awesome! I see you are headed out on
Warped Tour this summer. Are you looking forward to the
tour? How did that come about?
S: Oh, man the conversation I just had on the phone with
my assistant Lauren, she was like, "Alright are you
ready? You have to go out and get all your toothpaste and
stuff like that; do you have a suitcase that is big enough?"
I don't even think about it like that, I mean I have been
thinking about how much fun it is going to be, but I have
not been thinking about the logistics of everything right
now. I am about to be on a bus for two and half months,
I don't know if I am prepared. I am really excited for it
though! This is my first tour ever!
K: Really?
S: Yeah
K: Wow!
S: So, I am hyped and we are really fortunate to be on a
bus too, like most people on their first tour don't have
a bus so I am definitely really excited about that I am
really happy and fortunate to be on the bus for the first
tour. So, we'll see how it is.
K: Well, you picked a good tour to start out with, Warped
Tour is incredibly popular. How do you feel that Shwayzes'
sound is going to fit with pop/punk bands that show up on
Warped Tour?
S: I think a lot of our fans are going to come out and support
us and I think we're going to love it dude! They have been
putting hip-hop and rap into the Warped Tour for a little
bit now. I think Atmosphere did it a few years ago and this
year we have Gym Class Heroes as one of the headliners,
so I think it is going to be really good, I think we are
really going to like it. We are not hard-core hip-hop so
we have a rock side; we are going to bring all these different
elements to our performance. I think people are really going
to like it, and hopefully we will be one of the favorites.
K: That is good! Good luck with it!
S: Thank you very much! Are you going to come out and check
us out on Warped or what?
K: Yeah, I am very much hoping to be there.
S: This time don't be afraid to say hello (laughs)
K: Okay (laughs) So, how would you describe your sound
to a first time listener?
S: I would describe our sound as summertime music, feel
good music...summertime in a bottle! Something new...
K: Summer in a package...? (laughs)
S: in a package...oooh! (laughs) That is how I describe
myself.
K: (laughs) That's hot
S: (laughs)
K: You are shooting a pilot for an MTV reality show called
"Buzzin", correct?
S: The pilot has already been shot, so now we are actually
into the season and we are almost done shooting.
K: Okay. So what should we be expecting from the show?
S: First off, it comes on July 23rd, it is about me and
my crew and we are traveling around. It is really about
trying to break an artist as well, first time artist as
myself with Cisco, my big brother in a sense because he
has been through the ringer and has experience in all of
this. You have me and Cisco and my manager Jordan Sherr,
my boy Warren who is our tour manager, it is all of us trying
to break it in the music industry. It follows the radio
tours, us recording, and everything in between.
K: I can imagine there must be some crazy antics going on,
right?
S: Oh, it's funny man, really funny! I think the trailer
starts running on Sunday, so watch MTV and you will see
the little trailer snippets that will be on
K: Great! We will be looking forward to it.
S: Good, good!
K: Who are some of your main musical influences?
S: It definitely ranges. My grandma brought me up on oldies
and Motown stuff like James Brown, The Supremes, The Temptations,
Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye, and stuff like that. Then
I got into stuff like Sublime and The Red Hot Chili Peppers
in the middle of high school. Later in high school I got
into hip-hop with groups like A Tribe Called Quest, De La
Soul, and Wu-Tang. All these dope people, my music is always
changing, I am really ADD and I get into phases and you
tell with my sound, too. I am really open to all kinds of
music because when I first started rapping I really didn't
rap to just a straight hip-hop beat; I got a band, so I
could write to a guitar. Me and my guitar player would just
write songs, that is how I learned to write, me and the
guitar. When I got with Cisco, and went into the studio,
that is what he was doing. He had the guitar and he was
like, "Oh, this is exactly what I need" When him
and I got together it was perfect. He mixed all different
kinds of music so well, with a beat, you know what I mean?
K: Yeah, right
S: So, that is how I got my sound, my rap style.
K: I think it is good to have influences across the board.
I personally listen to just about everything. You can hear
it come out in your overall sound.
S: Music is so accessible now, I think everyone listens
to everything now, I mean you have to, you can't just be
listening to one genre of music, and I don't think people
do that now. Everyone is listening to everything, you get
it and you appreciate it, music lovers, love music.
K: It has definitely become a mosaic so...
S: (laughs) Totally!
K:
Where do you see the future of music heading and where do
you see yourself in that picture?
S: I just want to get better as a musician, an actual musician.
I mean, I love rap and I love rapping, but I just want to
jump as an artist and do everything. I want to produce and
write for other people, I just want to stay in music. Obviously
the music industry is not making that much money, but there
are ways to do it and there are ways to get by and I feel
like if we are just true to the music and just roll with
it everything will unfold, just like it did in my career.
Last year I was working at Starbucks hoping and dreaming
to be doing what I am doing and now it is happening, so
I feel like if you stay positive and keep working hard everything
will work out.
K: That's good. We certainly hope that it works out the
best for you!
S: You are the bomb! Thank you!
K: I have one final question for you. Could you share
with our site readers one interesting fact about yourself
that we may not already know?
S: Yeah, sure. The originators of South Park actually based
Token, the black dude, on me!
K: What?!?
S: Yeah
K: Really?
S: Yeah, I met them at a party and I told them my story.
I was like "Dude, I am the only black dude in Malibu!
Everyone white person, I am their only black friend in Malibu."
I was just joking around with them, they thought it was
hilarious, and then I got an email like awhile ago from
one of their assistants saying "You've got to watch
this weeks South Park, they are dedicating this character
Token to you"
K: (laughs)
S: I thought it was really funny...
K: Well, I guess you can't joke around with Trey and
Matt or you might end up in a show, right?
S: Dude, it is amazing, that is the best thing that people
usually don't know!
K: Definitely! I read you are a Gemini too! When is your
birthday?
S: May 29th, are you a Gemini?
K: Yeah, June 18th...
S: Ah...Happy Birthday (laughs)
K: Thank you!
S: June 18th, is that today or tomorrow?
K: Tomorrow!
S: Woo-hoo! Happy Birthday girl!
K: (laughs) Thanks
S: That's awesome! Are you like crazy two-sided too?
K: Oh, yeah! All the time!
S: Me too!
K: Night and day
S: (laughs) night and day totally! Good stuff!
K: Well, thank you for taking the time out to speak with
us today, and hopefully we will be able to catch you on
Warped Tour this summer!
S: Kristyn, definitely! Please come and say hello to me
again!
K: Okay, no problem
S: Talk to you soon.
K: Yep...bye!
