Performing over ten years in the Queen City, The ThoughtCriminals have made a name for themselves for their energetic stage presence and unique sound both musically and lyrically. Coming back from touring at the Texas-based music festival, South by Southwest, the hip-hop sextet was kind enough to talk to me about some of the musicals influences and other pop culture interests of the band as well as the band’s plans for the future.
Shutter16: The band’s website doesn’t go into detail about the origin of the band. How exactly did The ThoughtCriminals come to be?
kHill: That’s sort of intentional. I make an effort to not really go into how many real members we have and who all comprises the group. I regard us as an artistic collective and that includes musicians, graphic artists and other folks. Another reason for our kind of short bio is that I ramble a lot when given the opportunity and I’m trying to curb that habit. haha. The more detailed (but hopefully still manageable!) answer is, I met my guitarist (Kevin Morgan) in the early 90s; we started our first band together and learned our instruments at the same time and we’ve been lucky enough to meet a lot of other great musicians over the years that wanted to be a part of what we’re doing. We’ve been known by other names and done a lot of things but The ThoughtCriminals is basically the culmination of whatever other projects we’ve messed with over the years. Our current live roster includes myself, Mikal kHill, on vocals and Nintendo, Sulfur (an MC and musician), Kevin Morgan (guitar), Alan Erickson (bass), and Cracker (Drums). We’ve been a part of the local hiphop community for over 10 years, although some of that time we were known by other names or I was working as a solo artist.
Sulfur: I remember when I first joined the group. kHill and I had talked about collaborating to some extent for a short while before he called me one night, asking if I wanted to practice the following night for a show the very next. I played my first show with The ThoughtCriminals in literally under 48 hours notice with only one practice to get my bearings. I have been a part of the group’s efforts, to some capacity ever since.
I understand that video games and 90’s cartoons are a major influence of the band as well. How does an entertainment medium like video games and animated television translate into a medium like music?
kHill: Honestly, more 80s cartoons, comic books… video games… gaming in general… that stuff definitely has an influence on the music because it’s the sort of stuff that has impacted our lives. I handle a lot of the production aspect of our music and I am really influenced by the music of classic NES and SNES games. So to a degree, I’d say that video games actually affect the actual music we make more than the lyrics we deliver although it is definitely there as well. I really love the sound and texture of outdated electronics, the limitations of the sound processor in those electronics appeals to me in a major way, especially the way they blend with acoustic instrumentation. Our songs don’t really exclusively revolve around those topics but it definitely is there and we make those sort of pop culture references the way any other rapper would make whatever pop culture references they make.
Sulfur: Show me an MC with lyrics devoid of pop culture reference entirely and I’ll show you an MC that fewer relate to with ease. I think the inherent goal of most musicians is to transport the listener to a place they’ve never been but in order to first grab that attention, you have to begin in a place one and all can relate. Pop culture just provides that platform by representing the things we all knew and loved growing up–all the way to now. It could easily be overdone but riding a fine line and performing a song or two with subjects like Ninja Turtles, for instance, makes for fun shows. It makes me smile to see how well received they are. I’m glad knowing the things that were awesome to me as a child, and still are as an adult, left the same impression on many more than myself. Plus, these songs provide great contrast for our songs on a more somber note so that nothing is really one-dimensional. Nothing serious or comical has time to be overbearing.
As a Nerdcore band, what are some other inspirations (media and other musicians) of the band?
kHill: Our influences vary pretty wildly from person to person in the group but as far as other Nerdcore artists we actually dig, MC Frontalot, Dual Core, Mega Ran, Beefy, Illbotz, etc. Most of the Nerdcore stuff I like is just good rap that I would play for anyone that likes hip hop. As far as just influences period go, again the band has pretty varied influences but a lot of our actual sound was really inspired by stuff like early Cypress Hill, Wu Tang Clan, Beck, Elliott Smith, Nine Inch Nails, early Black Sabbath, Frank Zappa, the whole musical spectrum. My guitarist is really into progressive rock and prog-metal. My bassist is actually a classically trained pianist that loves classic rock. Our drummer actually has a post-rock band that he plays bass in, The Farewell Monument and listens to a ton of post-rock.
Sulfur: I personally have a love affair with sounds ranging anywhere from Del the Funky Homosapian to Jimi Hendrix to Mozart. I meet kHill in the middle around Nine Inch Nails. Having a penchant for distorted noise and sound is beneficial being a member of this group.
“I Remember Now” is the first music video of The ThoughtCriminals. As I understand, it’s directed by Mr Sean Church, a vocalist of the group. How did the ThoughtCriminals go about producing this video?
kHill: Sean works in a warehouse that handles archaic music-manufacturing equipment, machines that used to manufacture cds and physical music products that people don’t buy like they used to. It seemed like an ideal place to film a video for a song that’s basically telling the story of a post-apocalyptic wasteland. We had a nice camera (he could really tell you more than I could on this one) but he framed the shots and our friends Brad and Tony helped run the camera. We spent about 4 hours filming then he spent about 6 hours editing it and that was that. It was his first time really doing something like that but it was something he had wanted to do in the past and I’m sure it’s something we’ll repeat in the future.
Sulfur: Well if they were *that* archaic, I wouldn’t have a job but yes, I do find a lot of my days surrounded by monolithic machines now turned in to dust collectors. Machines used in the CD and DVD industry for anything from replication all the way in to printing and packaging. Our company had just moved warehouses at the time so there was a moment we were able to capitalize on the new warehouse being in a state of disarray. The filming itself was a fun experience other than the warehouse being cold like Hoth. Everything else was slightly less fun. I literally taught myself how to use the program I did in the process of making the video. It was both something I was totally confident in pulling off and yet something completely new to me. Before the final touches were put on, I had already managed to damage the onboard video card of my work PC. Lucky for the band, I was able to render a final version and get it off the PC before it died completely. Not to mention, lucky for me, the PC was still under warranty and my bosses didn’t fire me.
Is it safe to assume that this is only the first music video for Cold Winter?
kHill: Absolutely. We actually have plans for two other videos from the album, one of which we’re hoping to film at the Milestone.
Sulfur: I’d like to even take it beyond music videos in the future. Time is always the deciding factor though. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens.
What did The ThoughtCriminals do differently with Cold Winter than with previous albums?
kHill: From a really boring technical standpoint, I changed a lot of what I was using in my DAW setup. I switched to Reaper after using Adobe Audition for ages. We also included guests for the first time, enlisting help from a bunch of our friends from the Nerdcore scene. I handle a lot of our production and I write most of our beats then I bring in individual members to add stuff and play with the formula from there and that didn’t change a lot with this one. My method of production and writing our music is very inspired by the way Rza utilized the MCs in Wu when they were recording their first record. I try to find songs I think will highlight different members strengths and I think that’s been a really successful formula for producing hip hop records with a live band.
Sulfur: My input with The ThoughtCriminals thus far has usually been limited to vox (despite an arrangement credit on the latest) but even in observation it’s been encouraging to watch the progression in method and increase in skill. Cold Winter was a far more focused album than any ThoughtCriminals release I’ve been a part of in the past which is a fantastic follow up to the Still Standing EP, a release I was not a part of on a musical level but thoroughly enjoyed for the same.
Int80, Random, Adam WarRock, Stevie D, and Beefy are all featured in “Cold Winter.” How did you become acquainted with these guys and what have they done for the band?
kHill: Int80 from Dual Core has been awesome to us in more ways than I can name… A lot of us have done shows together or have talked over the internet for ages. We’ve done some other stuff with Random and I’ve done some stuff with Adam WarRock, Stevie D. and I have some mutual friends… Random has helped us by giving us a ton of exposure, his last album is a Final Fantasy 7 tribute, and we’re featured on the track “Don of the Slums” and that has pointed a lot of guys our way. We’ve been really lucky that some folks we were big fans of were also digging what we were trying to do.
Sulfur: I just want to reiterate Int80s awesomeness. Really. Him and his girl went to the extent of looking out for not just me, but my family, during tough times. You’d be hard pressed to find a more genuine, friendly and talented cat.
What other musicians (local or otherwise) would you like to collaborate with in the future?
kHill: As far as local groups go, we started a record about two years ago that featured a ton of our friends from the local scene and then at some point we underwent a slight lineup change and I suffered a hard drive failure that resulted in losing some of the songs forever so I scrapped the album. I have intentions to resurrect that project, hopefully it will come together sooner than later, but we’ll see. One of the songs for that album was a song with Mr. Invisible that will prolly end up on MC Cataclysm’s album. I’m producing two albums for a national artist and two albums for local MCs but I don’t really wanna let the cat out of the bag about them until they are completed. There were some people that couldn’t make the deadlines I set on Cold Winter that are going to be featured on our next record. Ceschi, for example should be on the next one. I dunno what kind of record it will be yet though and that will definitely affect who we put on the album. I like pushing guests out of the comfort zone and hearing them take things a weird direction.
Sulfur: I would put my desire to collaborate with some of our native Charlotte artists right beside my desire to collab with more known, national acts. One of my favorite MCs is Del but I would be just as excited to be on a track with locals like Keyza Soulsay or MC Cataclysm. Maybe ShamGrammar. They’re dope. Mr. Invisible is doing it big. Stereogram, who aren’t from Charlotte but are natives to NC are doing it big. I’m proud to be an active part of an area where local artists could easily hold their own on a national level. If I wanted to shoot for the moon maybe I’d throw it out there and say doing a track with P.O.S. would be ill. I’ve always been a big fan of his music so that’d be crazy.
Cold Winter and Still Standing are both available through the band’s BandCamp. I understand there are tangible copies pressed as well. Where are they available?
kHill: You can actually find those through the bandcamp page as well or you can grab them at our shows. We currently offer all our music for free to download with the option to donate but people still want the physical product which is encouraging. Personally, I miss the days of buying a new CD and studying the packaging so it encourages me to see people buy the CDs.
Sulfur: Even being all about the music, it isn’t always all about the mp3s. The feeling I got opening a brand new CD always set a tone for listening to the album itself. You can really get a feel for how much time and artistic merit was invested in an album through its presentation even in the days where single page inserts are commonplace. Was it all blathered out in a shoddy Arial typeface or did it contain interesting, well thought words, crafted amongst compelling images that carry a feel for the music itself? Even in a digital age, these things still matter.
I understand you used a MIDI NES for Cold Winter. Can you explain what that is and how it’s used in the album?
kHill: It’s a NES cartridge with a midi cable running out of it.With it, I can play the Nintendo’s sound processor with a midi keyboard, just like a piano. I play it on a lot of the songs; I like the way it sounds and it mixes really well with some of the crazy shit Kevin does with his guitar. The carts themselves are difficult to get. The dude that manufactures them allegedly takes people’s money and then never fills the orders. A friend of mine paid for one three years ago and never received it. I bought mine off ebay, actually and it was not cheap.
Sulfur: All I’ll add is, it also means there is a functional NES at all of our shows, which is an insanely dope byproduct. It definitely helps pass the time between sound check and the first act.
kHill: This is definitely true! I have beaten Super Mario Brothers on stage at the World Famous Milestone Club. I think I am the only musician to be able to say that in this area.
The ThoughtCriminals’ BandCamp says that the band is currently “independent as fuck.” Is the group looking to stay DIY (do-it-yourself) or are you openly looking for a label?
kHill: We are a very DIY entity and that will never change at its core. I have taught myself to record, mix and produce our records and I streamline all our costs by handling our manufacturing in a very specific fashion. We manufacture our own shirts; Kevin has a background in t-shirt printing. Our recording equipment was financed out of the band’s money. I don’t view record labels as very useful to artists these days in a traditional sense and an artist doing it at our level should be self managed and self sufficient. I’m not saying I wouldn’t entertain an offer, a mil would be ill but that shit doesn’t happen. I’d love to work with a small indie imprint like Fake Four or Strange Famous Records but we don’t actively seek a record deal. I don’t see the point of labels these days unless you are working in some sort of artist collective with shared risk and responsibility that is mutually beneficial. We hope to build something like that for ourselves and that’s why we list our albums as being released by (thought)criminal records.
Sulfur: I think it was said once that “if you’re successful enough to draw the attention of a major label, you don’t need a major label.” I couldn’t agree more.
I understand you guys did a few shows at this year’s SXSW which has given members of hundreds of bands the opportunity to network with other musicians. Are there any specific bands or experiences at 2011’s SXSW that were particularly memorable or influential?
kHill: To a degree for us, it was like a family reunion of sorts, I guess. It was mostly awesome for me to get to see people we had worked with in the past again and we pulled off some of the features on our album off live for the first time with the artists we recorded them with (Dual Core & Mega Ran) and we also got to have a big cypher at the Indie Rap show with B. Dolan, Dual Core, Shane Hall and Josh HW all on the same stage so that was a really weird “world’s colliding” moment for us.
Sulfur: Not only was it a family reunion in the sense of connecting and reconnecting with a lot of the artists that inhabit our particular slice of hip-hop but it was a fantastic opportunity to connect with the family of fans that support us from around the country and ultimately make this all possible. I met someone that made a ThoughtCriminals poster to put on his wall alongside his other favorite nerdcore artists because we hadn’t made one for him to hang ourselves yet. Things like that are huge. They mean the world to us.
The ThoughtCriminals was featured on the Official Nerdcore & Backburner Showcase at SXSW. Were there any musical groups that The ThoughtCriminals bonded with?
kHill: Well, I would already consider a lot of those guys friends. The Nerdcore scene is really supportive in general. We played with Frontalot here in Charlotte and met Z. from hipsterplease.com immediately. A lot of that stuff led to us ultimately being invited to play SXSW. Backburner crew played the Nerdcore showcase and they were the main folks in our showcase that I did not really know personally aside from Jesse Dangerously who I’ve talked to for years on the internetz. Those guys killed and were really receptive to what we were doing and how we were doing it. Everyone on our showcase was super positive and seemed to really enjoy each other. There were a LOT of folks on our showcase too. I was honestly worried about how it would go over but it was just overwhelmingly positive. I hope if we come back next year that we’ll have a similar lineup on our showcase because that was prolly one of my favorite shows I have ever seen, much less been a part of.
Sulfur: It was a mix of artists I’ve loved playing with in the past and artists I’ve always wanted to see perform. Truly a surreal night, front to back and it was often refreshing to look across the crowd and see the shared expression of “my mind is currently being blown.” I’m glad it wasn’t just me.
Do you guys intend on going back to Austin again?
kHill: Absolutely. Hoping we get invited back again next year and that possibly more of our Charlotte folks will be there!
Sulfur: I was ready to leave yesterday.
The ThoughtCriminals will perform at the Treasure Fest wrap up part alongside Sympl, Human Pippi Armstrong and DJ Jazzy Jon. What can you tell me about these bands?
kHill: Sympl is a member of Projekt Lotus and he’s fucking dope. Human Pippi Armstrong is a weird motherfucker we used to do shows with when he was in a weird ass DJ group back in the days. He is really difficult to describe but he’s great live. I wish I still had his beat tapes. DJ Jazzy Jon is the greatest party DJ ever. He is also the bartender at the Milestone. Some new folks are being added to the bill and we’re really excited about it but I don’t know what level of confirmed everyone is yet so I don’t know if I can say anything yet.
What are some of the long-terms goals of The ThoughtCriminals?
kHill: Record more albums. Do more shows. Kick dicks in. Two EPs before the end of the summer. New album before next January. A bunch of other secret stuff. We will have 6 new releases from ourselves and our other projects by the end of the year, but I don’t wanna say too much… People can stay updated on that stuff and download free music at http://www.thethoughtcriminals.net ! Thank you!
Sulfur: Record even MORE albums. Do even MORE shows. Kick even MORE. It never ends. There is no destination. The ThoughtCriminals have come light years from where we all stood when I first joined and I look forward to the journey and progression through the years to come. This year particularly is going to be a big year for us and yet in turn it’s only going to set the stage for successive years to come. Listen to kHill and check us out at http://www.thethoughtcriminals.net/ - you won’t regret it! Thank you!
Cold Winter is currently available at thethoughtcriminals.bandcamp.com for free to download with the option to donate. People can pick up a tangible copy of the album at a ThoughtCriminals show. You can stay updated with The ThoughtCriminals by “liking” the band’s page on Facebook.
The ThoughtCriminals will perform at the Treasure Fest wrap up part alongside Sympl, Human Pippi Armstrong and DJ Jazzy Jon at the Milestone Saturday May 21st. Doors open at 8; show starts at 9.
