Blurred vision, stumbled steps, and devoted drinking might sound like the equation for a typical night out on the town, but for East L.A. resident AWOL One (Anthony Martin) it turned out to be the formula for what he deems to be his best work in his 15 year career. Executively produced by the X man, Xzibit, AWOL One’s latest offering, Owl Hours, has the Shape Shifter teaming up once again with Producer/DJ Factor for a theme-focused project that offers a realistic and relatable party experience. URB caught up with AWOL to find out what happens when drunken rhymes meet drunken rhymes, Xzibit serving as Xecutive producer, and the next Shape Shifters project.
URB: It’s been two years since your last project, Only Death Can Kill You. What has transpired over that period between that project and your new project, Owl Hours, that has had the most influence on it?
AWOL One: Maybe the main thing is we weren’t really planning to make an album. Factor was working on his album, and I did a track on there, and that was kind of the first time I had worked with him in a couple of years, and he started sliding me some other beats and everyone he was sending me was a banger and before we knew it we had half of an album done. It kind of turned into an album from there. It kind of just happened.
URB: Is that something that has been pretty common in your career?
AWOL One: I would say about half of the music we make is because we want to not because we have to. It is just kind of how we spend our time.
URB: How did Owl Hours, meaning what goes down late at night, become the theme of this album?
AWOL One: Probably because most if was recorded at night or at a club. It was all kind of recorded and written in the late-night style. It was originally going to be called The Owl, but actually X was the one who said to call it Owl Hours because it would make way more sense. If we called it The Owl, people might think we are on some Devil Worshiping shit.
URB: If you had stayed with that title, would the direction of the project have been the same?
AWOL One: It might have been a little more serious, maybe trying to drop some wisdom and some shit. With Owl Hours it was just on that whatever happens type shit.
URB: One of the things that really stood out to me about this album was how quickly the album moves along. Was the issue of pacing important when you were working on this project?
AWOL One: For this one definitely. Just from learning how to make a smooth show, just the pace, and people’s attention spans, and I kind of structured my songs a bit different than I normally do. We were going through different sequences and we found out that made it feel seamless.
URB: What is it about the sound that Factor creates that makes your relationship so special?
AWOL One: I originally met Factor in Canada when I was touring with Busdriver and Circus. I meet a lot of people that I really don’t keep in touch with, but for some reason, we just kept in contact. His beats are always changing. I just like the fact that he has so many styles. He will give someone else a beat and it will sound totally different than something he would give me, so I respect his diversity. He is just a really chill guy to work with who just rolls with what is going down.
URB: Comparing Owl Hours to other projects you guys have worked on together, it is stark of how different the songs sound. How would you describe the sonic quality of Owl Hours?
AWOL One: For this one we definitely spent allot of time in the mix. We dropped the vocals in L.A. I really feel this time he really stepped up his production quality. He spent a lot of time mixing and adding real musicians. This is my first album where we have actually had people play a lot of live shit after the beats are done having cats play live stuff over it. I think that really helped it out because a lot of hip-hop is mad repetitive. I think it definitely changed the way that I will make music in the future.
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