lazerus pit: September 2007

Aahhh.. I've been waiting for this one for so long... Food For Animals is one of the very few last hip hop acts that would make me buy their new stuff before even have a listen. If you don't know them by know, I got a couple of s words for you. Scavengers. Savagery. Saturation. Sureinvestment.
..And prepare for Belly!

Note: Each member, meaning Ricky Rabbit, Vulture Voltaire and new member Hy answered the questions, then they melted the whole thing. Hope it makes sense.
Hi.. Let's start with a little presentation.. Where
you from and where does your name come from?

Food For Animals:
Ricky (Rabbit)
Vulture V
HY

We are all originally from the suburbs of Washington DC,
the capitol of the USA.
Maryland. Some of us are still there. Some of us have
moved on (Barcelona, NYC).

The name “Food For Animals” was originally from a line in
a rap, off of our first
album “Scavengers”. We liked it from the beginning and
decided it was a decent representation of what we were
about. There’s a lot of different interpretations,
different ways of reading it.  And somehow, we’ve never
really gotten sick of it, which is pretty remarkable.

There sure are alot of bands with “animal” names
these days though.


Now what about your musical background, early
influences/fetish albums, and how you guys met each
other? I think FFA had some new members in the roster
recently also?

Vulture V and I (Ricky Rabbit) met each other through
the DC hardcore/punk scene, maybe around 2001 or so.
We were still playing in heavy guitar-based bands, but
we were listening to less and less rock music.  I had
been making noisey DHR-type music.  I knew that
Vulture V could rap (even if he was just rapping in
joke bands then).

So we started recording with the help of our (then)
guitar/synth player, Dr Dan aka The Young Anglometric.
The line-up of Food For Animals has always been pretty
flexible.  We’ve toured/played shows in all sorts of
arrangements; rappers, guitars, synths, beats,
"hype-man", noise,
whatever.
Last summer, we toured through France with a
translator (basically a good friend, who spoke good
french and wanted to travel)
Recently, we have been recording and touring with a
new animal, Hy.

Yeah, I (Hy) am the new member. I met Andrew (Vulture
V) at a
movie theatre we both worked at. He was finishing the
first FFA album and I was just getting started
seriously rapping/recording. When Andrew and Nick
(Ricky)
were starting the second album, they invited me to do
a song with them. We recorded and it came out tight,
and I started doing shows with them. We recorded more
songs, did more shows... and here we are.


Scavengers was pretty much a shot in the dark in
terms of sound, like you don't really have an
equivalent as far as I know.. What were you situation
when you did it and was it hard to promote such an
album? How did you hook up with the fellows of
Muckamuck?
 
I feel like there is a surprisingly small amount of
music that sounds like FoodForAnimals.  On one hand
that’s cool and it’s neat to be onto something that
seems (relatively) new.  But on the other hand, it’s
difficult because there’s not too much of a scene that
we can rise up through.

Muckamuck Produce was a label founded by a good friend
of ours.  It was a huge help in getting us started and
getting our music out, but unfortunately the label is
not putting out any more records.  It’s a shame
because it was a really cool label.


Do you feel connected in terms of sound and
intention to the whole IDM scene? ..I think of labels
like Planet Mu, Tigerbeat, Rephlex, etc.....

Really, the IDM scene has shown us more love and
helped us out probably more than the hip-hop scene.
Our
new record will be released in Europe on Jason
Forrest’s label “Cock Rock Disco”, which is mostly a
breakcore label.
Recently, we've been trying to move away from
pretention that comes with alot of IDM stuff, though.
Our live live preformances are alot more hip-hop.  We
all party.  We try not to stare at laptops, too much.


Also.. Your sound sometimes reminds me of UK
grime/dubstep because of it's very slow bpm, dark
mood, dirty beats, and very aggressive rap.. Is it a
music scene that you are aware of? 

Oh yeah, we love some grime.
The MC's over there have some of the best flows in the
game.
I think that there is perhaps more grime influence on
the new record, “Belly”.  Mostly because the
rapping is a lot more skillful and faster than on our
past efforts.


What equipment do you use, how do you split the
work.. basically, how you guys make music... Is it a
full-time work? 

We have always done all of our recording ourselves,
usually at home, on computers.  In the past, I (Ricky)
only
used old versions of ACID for beats and ProTools for
vocals/synths.  But now I'm learning Ableton Live,
just like everybody else.
But we get it all (programs, samples) for free.  So
don't go waste your money on that shit.  Everything is
for the taking.

Unfortunately, we are pretty far from paying our bills
using only money from record sales and touring, so we
still have to work.
That’s probably a big reason that we take so long to
release new music.


Which is the non-musical, everyday sound you like
the most?

Hmmm, maybe I would say the “Outdoors”?  Nature
sounds?
Maybe I just need to get out of the city more often.


How comes that you are part of a, let's say 5%
minority of us rappers talking about current political
issues? I saw this documentary about the early
american hardcore scene, and there was this part about
the DC scene, where a guy said that lots of kids
living there had parents working for the
administration.. Is that your case? 

Us living in the DC area, we're more exposed to
government. When I'm visiting friends/family in DC, I
can see the Capital Building from corners of poorer
neighborhoods. I think that's just part of being an MC
from this area, it's more on your mind. The same way a
MC from L.A. might rhyme about gang culture.


In which way does your environment have an influence
on the kind of music you make?... What would FFA sound
like after 5 years of living in, say, Hawaii? Also,
what does the DC scene looks like... Its known for
rock labels like Dischord and such, but is there a
niche for your kind of stuff?
 
We met and got our start in DC, but I’m not sure that
DC, as a city, has really influenced our sound all
that much.

Not that Washington DC does not have a long
fascinating history of underground music.  It's been
great sometimes.  And great for us sometimes.

Food For Animals was born during a transition period,
where alot of the older "Discord" bands were maybe
slowing down.  DC's "sound" was changing.  We were
involved with the younger, more
electronic/experimental side of that scene: Q and not
U, Black Eyes, Manhunter.  Muckamuck and Hoss Records
were involved too.   Kids were putting down guitars
and picking up drum machines.  People were dancing.

Nowadays a lot of those same kids have left DC for
other places.  None of us live in DC anymore
(Baltimore and Barcelona), and very few of our friends
are still there.  It’s kinda sad, but DC is kinda
hurting these days

As far as hip-hop, in DC most rap comes in the form of
go-go (heavy, live-percussion, funky). There's more
go-go shows than hip-hop shows on a monthly basis,
which I'm cool with.  I (Hy) grew
up on go-go and rap.  There is definitely a small, but
passionate, rap scene in DC though.


You did this 7" with Bomb Mitte.. how did it happen?
And a silly record nerd question : any plan of having
Scavengers on vinyl some day?

Bomb Mitte is a great German record label run by our
friend Christoff.  He booked all of our European tours
(four times now!).  He’s been a huge help for
FoodForAnimals.
But “Scavengers” will probably never be released on
vinyl.  I mean unless there’s a huge surge of interest
or something.  But we’d all love to see more of our
albums on vinyl.


You're about to drop your second album soon, tell us
more about it.. Should we expect something in the same
vein than Scavengers? Any release date? Label? Vinyl
release?

“BELLY” is the new record and it’s a monster.
In Europe, it will be on Jason Forrest’s “Cock Rock
Disco” label. (www.cockrockdisco.com)
In the US, it will be on Hoss Records.
(hossrecords.com)
Both are great labels.

If you’ve heard any of our older stuff, the idea is
the same: booming raps over noise and cut-up
samples.  There’s certainly room for subtleties and
nuances though.  Its not ALL noisey loud beats.
There's room for fun.  There's introspective songs.
There's variety to our lives, so there's variety on
the album too.

For me, it’s about finding different directions to
take hiphop.
Our goal is to blow minds.

I think that the main difference between this record
and some of our older stuff, is in the quality of the
rapping.  I think that the writing and the flow is
much stronger on this album.
Pretty much unstoppable now.


What are you into, artwise, these days (music,
movies, whatever...)?

I (HY) like that new UGK album. I've been listening
to a
lot of Marvin Gaye lately as well. Right now, I'm way
into French gangster/noir films (Elevator to the
Gallows, Le Cercle Rouge, Classes Tous Risques). Lino
Ventura is dope.

Let’s see, what is hot these days?
(Ricky) I’ve been listening to a lot of soul, some
Kruatrock and free-jazz, but all that stuff is boring
and old.  Of course, we always keep an ear open for
new hip-hop, even if there is a lot of not-so-good
stuff out there too.
Sometimes, for hip-hop,  the radio is just as crazy as
the underground.

Have you Europeans heard of Baltimore Club music?  You
should look out for that, if you’ve never heard it.
DJ Technics, Rod Lee, etc.  Real hard and spare, but
danceable.


You did tour in Europe already.. Do you have good
memories of it?  Who's the toughest audience,
Americans
or Europeans?
Any plan to come back soon?

We’ve done a lot more touring in Europe than we have
in the US.  None of us have cars, so it is difficult
for us to get around in the US.  Whereas in Europe,
you guys have that whole train thing.  Public
transportation is not the best in the US.

So yeah, we love touring in Europe.

It’s funny that audiences are generally more into FFA
in countries that do not speak English…

I (Hy) have very good memories of Europe. I loved it.
We did a show on my birthday (July 10) in Konstanz,
Germany, and it was probably the craziest performance
I've ever been a part of.


So, what's the FFA's winter schedule looks like, any
secret plan you could reveal here?

Well, I think that we’re going to be back in Europe in
December.  Really, we're trying to travel everywhere
now, before the world goes back to being a small place
again (artificially low gasoline prices can't last
forever).  We have to get to Japan, soon.

Other than that, we're just going to keep doing our
thing.
Rasclaat

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