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Tuesday, 25 October 2005 |
Welcome to the fifth installment of Vegoose Deuce! Find out what your favorite artists have to say about Vegas, Elvis, and knowing when to fold em. This week: 8 Questions With Hunter Brown of STS9
Describe your favorite trip to Vegas.
Getting there and leaving [laughs]. I don’t know, we always have crazy experiences there. We first played Vegas way back in the day, maybe ‘98 or ‘99, maybe at Legends or something. We took a two or three-year break from playing there. The best thing we’ve done there is probably the last time we played [last year]. We drove outside the town about ten miles and you could still see the whole thing all lit up. We watched it go from dusk to night and watched the whole city light up in the dark.
Sound Tribe Sector 9 recently released a remix album culled from Artifact tracks. How much free reign did you give each remix artist?
It was all them! The only track that we actually went back and did something on was Mr. Lif’s track. That was because we just really wanted to work with him. He had free reign on the track and we let him do what he wanted with it. What do you want? Do you want 32 bars or 16? How do you want it broken up? We gave everyone full reign on all the tracks and that’s why you see certain songs on there multiple times, like “Tokyo” or “Better Day.”
If you were to cover an Elvis song, which one would it be?
If you’d asked James Brown I would probably cover “It’s a Man’s World.” That’s about the closest I can come to answering that [laughs]. If it had to be Elvis I would go with “Don’t Be Cruel.”
After Vegoose, will you continue to work on your next album?
We actually have three albums we’re working on. We’re trying to figure out which will come out first but we’re really excited about it. We composed most of Artifact in the studio. When we first brought those songs out on the road, we were just learning how to play them live. Now we’re doing stuff live with all these MCs we wish we could have done on the album. We actually have some new songs coming out of those [Artifact] songs. We’re going back to our instruments more and relying less on [computers]. I’m sure it will flip-flop again. That’s nature—there is a balance.
What’s the longest you’ve gone without sleeping?
Ha! A good couple of days. Probably this tour, actually. We went from Japan to Hawaii and then all the way to Los Angeles. When you’re traveling like that you just don’t sleep. We were in Washington, D.C. but I kept waking up at 4AM. We’d watch the sun rise, go to bed at 8 in the morning and be tired by 7PM.
In the weeks leading up to Vegoose, Sound Tribe has collaborated with a number of hip-hop MCs onstage. Has your electronic direction pushed you towards a more hip-hop oriented sound?Not necessarily; I wouldn’t attribute it to the electronics onstage. I think it comes from a taste, an era, a friendship or a certain person that has inspired you. Or people you see on the road in rest stops, on the bus, backstage, or anywhere. It’s just an honor to collaborate with these types of people and we have thrown it out there like, ‘Hey, you guys want to come out, do shows, collaborate?’ and it’s worked out really well. We’re kind of setup perfectly for it because we don’t really have any vocals.
What’s the weirdest thing you’ve seen from the stage? I don’t know if you can print that! I’ve seen it all. You might need an R-rated version of Relix. Name it and I’ve seen it.
When asked the same question, Dean Ween answered “lactating women.” Actually, one of the most R-rated experiences I’ve had was being in a van with Dean Ween. We were taking a van from the hotel to the stage and he was just going off on everything in full form. I think he actually tones himself down onstage. He might be a little shy [laughs]. STS9 play a sold-out show at the Las Vegas House of Blues on Saturday, October 29th |
