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I like to say thanks first and foremost for
taking the time to answer these questions, highly
appreciated, and will also point out that nothing will be
altered, edited or changed when this is published online.
Wu-International:
Hello guys, how are you?
BSBD: We're doing pretty good.
Wu-International: We are going to talk about The
Holocaust album again, address some of the rumours about it and
then BSBD’s upcoming projects. It seems you didn’t know about
Warcloud being locked up when we contacted you, when last were
you in touch with Cloud?
BSBD: The last time we had any contact with
Tony was in 2006.
Wu-International: How did you hear about Warcloud's
style /music: was it via Black knights or solo materials he put
out?
BSBD: We had heard him as Holocaust on
Silkworm and then followed all the weird shit he did as Warcloud
too.
Wu-International:
How did you meet Warcloud and what prompted you to want to do a
full album with him?
BSBD: We
found someone that knew him online and contacted him so he could
contact Warcloud to appear on one of our tracks for our first
album, A Heap Of Broken Images. Once we had started talking to
him on the phone and had heard the "I Catch Fire" song he did
for us, we thought it would be crazy to do a full album with
him. We decided we would fly him up to our house/studio to
record and see if we could knock out a project.
Wu-International: Let’s talk about the whole
Holocaust experience, we are told you wanted him to do a
collaboration album with Virtuoso initially, question is why and
what happened to that idea?
BSBD: At first, we had thought it might be
easier to manage an album with two emcees, as to lessen the
workload. We also weren't sure how fast Tony could work. Once we
realized that Tony had tons of material to work with, we
realized he was completely capable of carrying a whole project
on his own. As we began recording more songs, it became more
obvious that a collaboration with Virtuoso might sound awkward
and forced. There is no other rapper like The Holocaust, so it’s
not easy to pair him with anyone, especially the type of stuff
he was doing at the time.
Wu-International: So you flew him out to your studio
to record the Holocaust album, how long did it take to complete
this album?
BSBD: We actually flew him out on two
separate occasions, but combined it was about a three week span,
give or take.
Wu-International: What was the recording session
like, how was he to work with in? Did it go fluently or was it a
difficult process?
BSBD: He was the most difficult person we
have ever worked with. It was stressful, and very strange. We
didn't know at the time (though we suspected very quickly), that
he has mental health problems. I don't want to put him on blast
in any way, but we went through a hell of a lot to complete the
project, and it almost didn't come out after almost a year of
post production, mixing, and label shopping. It was extremely
difficult to find anyone interested in this project, as we were
a new act and Holocaust didn't have any recent sales history. We
were finally offered something from a contact who was very
generous and was willing to put out our record on his newly
formed label (that never came to be), but this relationship
ended once the expectations and monetary demands from Holocaust
became ridiculous and almost comical.
Wu-International: Do you have any memorable moments
about this session that you will like to share with the fans
please?
BSBD:
He told our other roommate
that we used to rob graves and that he had hidden a gun
somewhere in the house. And that was just the first night.
Wu-International: Did you just provide beats to Cloud
to choose from or did you all work on concepts, ideas together
for the project and if so can you share some of the approach
used in selecting songs, titles etc for the project please?
BSBD:
We made a lot of the beats
specifically for the project and let him go through them and
pick out ones he was feeling the most. Some were changed in post
production (we assure you, for the better.) Tony had millions of
ideas, phrases, and concepts, so that was kind of his lane. But
if we liked a phrase that he had used in a song or that we saw
in his notebooks we would tell him that we should use that for a
title of a song or for the album.
Wu-International: Was it immediately clear you
would go for a 100% Holo album and no feature as it’s said you
lured him by promising him features from the likes of Ill Bill,
Goretex etc?
BSBD: We "lured" him with no such
promise. In fact, we thought of adding features towards the
completion of the project to appeal to more people. We don't
remember exactly why no features ever came to be, but by the
end, we thought it was best to be 100% Holocaust. Most emcees
just don't sound right alongside him.
Wu-International:
Pro The Leader shared his opinion about the album as well as
what went wrong on our last interview which I hope you have
read, apparently the album was released without Warcloud’s
consent or awareness. Do you have anything to say in regards to
this?
BSBD: We're unaware of the interview you
mentioned, but we just looked on your site and still couldn't
find it. Even still, who gives a shit what "Pro the Leader"
said, as he's never met us and could not possibly know what
actually happened, despite him being Holocaust's primary weed
carrier and yes-man.
Wu-International: It’s been also said that the beats
he originally recorded on, were all switched and replaced with
new beats for the project. Is this true and what was the reason
for changing the beats for the release?
BSBD:
Yes it's true we remixed some
of the beats. As a collection of songs, we liked them all, but
as an album it was unremarkable. The beats together didn't seem
consistent or as cohesive as we wanted them to be. We like our
albums to convey a distinct feeling and mood, and as they were,
it felt erratic and unfocused. A lot of the original mixes were
leaked on our Lost and unreleased mix, so you can be the judge
of what's a better mix.
Wu-International: We have to say the fans were
pleased with the album, it’s been getting good review and
feedback to date, would you rate this album as one of your
favourite or best produced from all the projects you have put
out?
BSBD: It's hard to say our favourite. The
one we are currently working on is usually our favourite, but
The Holocaust record is definitely special to us, mostly because
we know we will never do anything like it again. It's a unique
record. It can't and won't be replicated. We wouldn't ever try
to do anything like that again. I don't think it's our best
produced album, but it was the best we could do with who we were
working with, under the circumstances. That is to say, we think
only the Holocaust beats would work with Holocaust. On the other
hand, we realized it wouldn't be an album that would be
accessible to most people, but we believed in it anyway.
Wu-International:
From Pro’s interview as well as our 2006 interview with you,
there are indications that you also worked on a second album
“The Death Coast album” with Holocaust, how many songs were
completed for this project and will it ever be released?
BSBD:
We combined the two projects
to make one project compiled of the best material. There was a
lot of stuff that was just too sloppy to use. It wasn't
professional enough. Anything unreleased was unreleased for a
reason, although we did leak a few of the tracks for the
hardcore fans.
Wu-International: We ask this as there was an online
leak last year that contained apparently left over songs and
instrumentals from the Holocaust sessions entitled “BSBD Lost &
Unreleased”, are you aware of this leak, and are these songs
from the Holocaust session or also from the Death Coast album?
BSBD: Yeah, we leaked it ourselves. They
are original and unreleased mixes from both projects.
Wu-International: Looking back at the
experience you had with the Holocaust album, is there anything
you would have changed or done differently?
BSBD: We would have insisted that every
song be written specifically for a certain beat. There was a
couple of songs that he had written to, for instance “Crash and
Plunder” and you can tell the difference between those songs and
most of the others that were just adapted from his notebook raps
onto a random beat.
Wu-International: Knowing what you know now,
would you do it again if you had the opportunity to?
BSBD:
It's hard to say. On one
hand, it was, at times, a hellish experience. But then again, we
made a cool record and gained some momentum from it and garnered
some acclaim and maybe it led us to what we are doing now. So,
we wouldn't go back and erase the experience, we would just
never work with him again.
Wu-International:
Thanks very much for those answers, can you please tell us what
you have been up to since your last project?
BSBD:
We've been working on a lot
of stuff. Remixes for a few artists, instrumental work for our
forthcoming album, "NOIR," more stuff with Yes Alexander and
other random stuff.
Wu-International: Can you please tell us more about
this “Third Party” project as in features, date and so on?
BSBD:
It's a collaborative album
with us and singer, Alexander Chen (Boy In Static). It's our
most pop oriented album that we've done with bits of electro and
shoegaze elements. Very electronic. It's probably not going to
appeal to people who are only interested in hip hop, but it's
just one album. We move in different directions and come back to
some sounds and leave some. It's not like we are giving up
producing hip hop, though. “Third Party” is out now on Fake Four
Records.
Wu-International: Any albums completed or planned for
the near future you will like to share with us please?
BSBD: We are working on our next
instrumental album, "NOIR," as well as a few remixes for a
couple of different artists.
Wu-International: Do you have any ambition to do
a third "BSBD presents" album with a Wu fam member? Perhaps
Killah Priest, or Darkim Be Allah for instance as the
combination of you and them will be deadly?
BSBD: A long time ago we wanted to do a
Priest album as tons of people requested us to, but we told them
to tell him and not us ! As of now, we don't have any ambition
to do anymore of those kinds of albums.
Wu-International:
How about a General, if you were to do a full album for
any Wu-Tang Clan member, who would you produce for and why?
BSBD: I guess if we had to pick just one,
it would be Ghost.
our time and for addressing these questions, do you have
anything else to share with the fans that’s not already been
covered?
BSBD: Thanks for the support, please check
out our new video!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ip4HrLs93OE
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Wu-International: Do you have any last words, shout
outs or even a message to Warcloud before we end this?
BSBD: We wish Tony nothing but the best,
and we're sorry he's locked up. |
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The whole experience seems forever ago, and we don't
have any ill will towards him. Shout outs and a big get
well to our dude, Hell Razah. He's still making that
fire. Peace to Wu-International.
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Free
Holocaust!!! |
