KOTTONMOUTH KINGS INTERVIEW
Well it seems appropriate that if The Pier is going to feature an interview with hip hop veterans The Kottonmouth Kings then it might as well launch on 420. Band leader Daddy X let's us in on the latest with his party startin' crew.
The Pier: So I see you have some great events coming up for the 420 celebration. What can you tell us about them?
Daddy X: Yeah as you know 420 is the national bud smokers holiday. So we are throwing a whole event this weekend, including having some Kottonmouth Awards dropping on our web-page (check them out here). We are going to vote on all our favorite movies and music from the year and then we have all the shows, including our hometown show hosted by Tommy Chong at The Grove.
The Pier: Nice, So how did you hook up with Tommy Chong?
Daddy X: He was doing a documentary, it was called Operation Pipedream where he got busted by the Federal Government for having his face on a bong that was distributed nationally. They wound up putting him in jail and made his live miserable because his likeness was used on a bong. They did a documentary on it and we had a song called Can Anybody Hear Me? and they wanted to use that song and Tommy Chong loved it too and thought it related to his experience. So it was used as a theme song for the doco and that’s how we got introduced to him. So we invited him to do the 420 thing.
The Pier: So the Kottonmouth Kings has mostly developed its loyal following through promoting the weed culture. Do you ever think people may miss there is more to your band than just that?
Daddy X: It is a double-edged sword for us. We have a lot of people that love the Kottonmouth Kings cause of the way we embrace weed and all the personal freedoms revolving around that. I am sure at the same time because of that we get written off by people as a novelty weed band. Obviously if you ever listen to a Kottonmouth Kings record there is a lot going on. We dip into so many different styles that musically if you do your investigation you’ll find out there is way more that the band offers.
The Pier: Did you think the Kings would still be going after so many years and have the imapct it has by also developing its own sub-culture?
Daddy X: I think when I started Suburban Noize Records and we started releasing Kottonmouth Kings records it was so that we could be in ultimate control and have us putting out our music so we could create our own destiny. The game plan was to be in control of our future, but where that future would take us I couldn’t imagine we would be here. As long as the music and the shows connect with people that validates the music. At the end of the day we might not get much mainstream press and that’s fine as long as people keep coming to the shows and keep buying our records.
This band connects with most people on a more deeper level than most pop bands do. We have one of the most loyal fan bases of any band I have ever seen and I have seen more Kottonmouth Kings tattoos on people than I could even count (haha). It is pretty inspiring, the fact that we go out and tour the country and see the impact we have when we perform it absolutely inspires us to keep going.
The Pier: You just recently got back from your first tour of Australia, got to ask how did you enjoy yourself down there?
Daddy X: All the shows were really good, every single one of them was sold out and we were well received. Every day was a special memory down there. We had a great time in Melbourne and the Sunshine Coast, they were the only places where we had days off to enjoy them. The shows themselves were amazing.
The Pier: Is Australia what you expected it to be like?
Daddy X: You know I didn’t expect the place to be so big and the distance in between the places. For some weird reason I pictured in my head the whole place being a lot smaller. The only thing I was bummed about is we didn’t get to see any kangaroos. The people were great though, they love to have a good time.
The Pier: Are you sure were in Australia? Kangaroos are everyhwere (haha). Anyway the Kottonmouth Xperience Vol. II: Kosmic Therapy came out this week who was involved in the remixes etc?
Daddy X: Like all the Kottonmouth Kings records we do everything in-house. We don’t hire any outside producers or anything. We did all the remixes for this album with Patrick "P-Nice" Shevelin, Mike Kumagai and myself. We remixed existing Kottonmouth material and tried to create a musical journey. It also comes with a DVD which is this visual brain fry. We had such a great response to the first one we did we decided to do this second one.
The Pier: You also put out an ultimate greatest hit/highs album a few months ago. Looking back on it are you proud of all those songs and what you have created?
Daddy X: I think you look and it’s kinda funny cause I hadn’t gone back to a lot of that older material because I am always trying to move forward and create new songs. So to take a second and go back through all that stuff was quite a process. Some stuff you go back and listen to and your reaction is “what were we thinking?” Yet some of the stuff still resonates with you and it means something, as it reflects different moments in the band’s career.
I really like Cloud 9, the last record we have put out. To me that is the ultimate Kottonmouth Kings records cause of all the styles, which has set the stage for the next record – The Green Album. It’s our tenth studio record that we are working on right now. So it was a good time for reflection so we can now chart the course for where we want to go in the future.
The Pier: So is The Green Album the tentative title for it?
Daddy X: Yeah, and the whole campaign behind it is to think "Green". I am not sure of the exact title but it is "The Green Album" for sure. We have been crafting songs already, a lot of it is in the early production stages. We have been working with guitars and beats and just mapping out some ideas. It is going to be released around October. We are just trying to create a deep musical landscape for it and one that pushed the boundaries of the stuff we have done before. This one we are definitely not trying not to have any limits on what we can do musically and are trying all kinds of sounds and sonics. It is a lot more involved then I remember any of other previous records go in terms of the songwriting process.
The Pier: You have done a lot of collaborations over the years primarily with SNR artists of course, but who would you like to work with?
Daddy X: I would love to do a song with Jack Johnson. I was going to say I would love to do a song with Pennywise, but we have had Byron (McMackin) from Pennywise play on a bunch of our records. I would also love to work with the Beastie Boys. That’s a few good ones.
The Pier: For you personally, being on the independent level, you have always had such a direct involvement with all aspects of the SNR business. How do you manage your time so well between the band and the business
Daddy X: You know what it is? Everything has its place in time to grow properly. We have built a great team around us and obviously I am not a one man army by an stretch. We have dedicated soldiers who are in the grind everyday trying to make this work. Everybody specializes in their own thing, of course there is also Kevin Zinger my partner who runs the day to day operations of Subnoize. This team loves and supports the vision of making it come true.
The Pier: The internet has certainly helped the independent artist thrive and reach a larger audience. The Kottonmouth Kings are a great example of using this resource to its fullest. Did you ever think it would make such an impact?
Daddy X: I think the great thing about the internet is that it is completely empowering the artist. The major labels are suffering, their whole design from the beginning was to jack and exploit the artist. But now that middle man is being taken out and bands can reach their fans and the consumer directly. It’s an amazing time, I know everyone is saying that the music industry is in this really crazy place and it is but that doesn’t mean kids don’t love music less than they ever did. They are just getting it in different ways. We embraced the internet early on with the Kottonmouth Kings and I never thought I would see it become this powerful so quickly and be able to cripple the record industry in less than 10 years but it is amazing.
The Pier: Do you have a favorite memory looking back over the years? What has been your favorite Kottonmouth Kings experience?
Daddy X: We had a great time when we got to Hawaii as band. We got time there to chill with each other. Really though what is the best is the travelling and getting to see the world. Wherever we go we just get really embraced and all the shows are high energy and almost spiritual. Any show where there is this high energy exchange between us and the fans that’s the pay off for us right there.
The Pier: What shows have the Kings got coming up?
Daddy X: We have a Spring Harvest Tour planned with The Expendables, Insolence and The Dirtball. I really like The Expendables too. Then we are putting together a Strange Noize Tour for August. As far as that tour goes there is definitely some band names being passed around, like Tech N9ne of course but that is not down in cement yet.
The Pier: What else does SNR have coming up on the horizen?
Daddy X: We just released the DGAF record. We also just had the King Spade live DVD hit and right now Unwritten Law, (hed) PE and Kottonmouth Kings are all working on albums. OPM is just finishing an amazing record that is dropping this summer. The Dirtball’s new record Crook County is hitting stores next month and so make sure to stay up to date through the web-site. Oh, Dogboy has also been in the studio. We are working on an acoustic record. We started it a while ago and it is just basically Dogboy unplugged doing a bunch of stripped down lo-fi songs. He is also working with us on the new Kottonmouth Kings record together.
Well as always there certainly seems to be plenty going on in the Suburban Noize camp. Big thanks to Daddy X for dropping by The Pier.
Make sure you check out the following links: