You guys have been categorized as electro-pop, electro-hip-hop, ghettotech, and Baltimore club-influenced, but how does Thunderheist classify their sound?
G: I’ll tell you right now that the album will not help that at all, it’ll just add more categories. We’re just music appreciators, and we’ll just do whatever we feel at the moment. We’re not like “Oh, we have to stay in this category;” we’re just doing what we do and people can give us these those titles, and you can’t do anything about that.
What can we expect from your debut album? Are there any collaborations we should be looking out for?
I: Fairy dust.
G: There are absolutely zero collaborations on this album, and this is sort of done intentionally because we wanted to just make it clear that we can do it on our own. It’s not that we’re against collaborating, we surely will on future stuff, but we wanted to do it strictly on the strength of what we do. There’s no outside production, no outside guest people, so you’re gonna get a lot of us. But we’re really into a bunch of different types of music, so there’s a little bit of everything.
What are your thoughts regarding the idea that the album format as we know it is dead and gone, replaced by a single-dominated culture?
I: I think albums are the final frontier in a certain sense—with technology and the internet, there are so many kids coming up right now that can have one singe, have all these remixes, and tour the world. The album is where you can find out what a band is actually like. And to add on to what Grahm was actually saying, we chose to [make the album] with just us together [and no outside guests or production] as our introduction to the world.
G: I was just going to say that the whole album format is more important than ever and that people are going to regain an appreciation for it. It’s sort of a transition period [right now] where everybody’s just about downloading singles, but I want to get the full picture. If I’m listening to an artist, I want to hear the B-sides and all the cuts that aren’t necessarily made for radio because that’s where you get the gist of an artist. We have tracks that aren’t necessarily going to be hit singles, but I think they’re still important and I want people to hear them.
How do you guys plan to fight this? With music so readily available online, how can artists market their albums in a way that will actually result in fans purchasing the record?
I: I’m an artist purist in the sense that [I believe that] those who like it like it, and those who don’t, don’t. The people who I saw today in the front row freaking out, and knew the words—that’s who I make my music for. I make music for myself first and foremost, as my own therapy, but as far as who I’m extending my hand out to—I’m not extending my hand out to people who are “too cool” to be cool, I don’t really care. At the end of the day, those who love music, and those who love art, will love it and people who just want to consume blindly will do that.
G: The true fans will support us, whether it’s coming to the shows or buying merchandise. People do [still purchase albums], especially when you’re an indie band, because they know that the money is actually going to the band more so than the label. And, really, in this day and age…you just have to embrace the technology and you can’t be mad at people for doing what’s coming naturally to them. All we can do [is know that] at least all these people will know our music when we show up and they’re gonna be stoked when we play. The music industry was all about making huge amounts of money for so long, and I think that was completely distorted and now it’s going back to making art for being art and not being rich.
Speaking of taking it back to the days of making art for art’s sake, what is your earliest memory of being particularly inspired by music?
I: I remember hearing Illmatic for the first time with my older brother and I remember thinking, “I want to do that.” I had three brothers, so hip hop was always around me. And then I got onto Wu Tang—a lot of people don’t understand that Wu Tang was that group in the 90s that made it so MCs could be flamboyant again…That’s the beauty about art, you can just do it. I mean, you’ve seen paintings—like Jackson Pollock? What the fuck is all that splatter? Who fucking knows, but it’s awesome. I remember Illmatic, ODB, MC Lyte—those three people changed my life. Obviously there are other singers, but those three people sparked it for me.
G: Metallica. The snake pit. I want to do solos—someday I will do a solo…maybe a cowbell solo.
I: That cowbell solo [during tonight’s show] was awesome!
G: I know! And it didn’t disrupt your flow!
I: I thought it was in the mix, like “Whoa, we threw a cowbell in there? I kinda like it.”
G: I think that song needs more cowbell.
I: I think life needs more cowbell.
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