JE Double F: I've always listened to hip hop, I've always been into the music itself. Just like anyone else you want to be like the people that you like. Listened to a lot of Aesop Rock and Wu Tang as a kid so i wanted to be like them, and rap. And that's why I tried it, and that's it.
T-TAD: What do you when you're not rapping? For work and for leisure?
JEFF: For work I have a degree in computer science and minor in mathematics, so I usually get a job in that field. Pays the bills and allows me to tour whenever I want for the most part.
Leisure, yanno I play a lot of chess, star craft 2, video games, yanno, read. That's it, I play in a couple bands, GraveYard State and Cut it out, that's it.
T-TAD: Is Grave Yard State the one for your solo stuff?
JEFF: Yeah, it's like a melodic rock band, probably more along the lines of Hot Rod Circuit or Archers of Loaf. Yeah bands like that.
T-TAD: And what does Cut It Out sound more like?
JEFF: Cut It Out is like a hardcore punk band, kind of like Black Flag meets Black Sabbath usually what people say. It's fast but with a lot of riffs.
T-TAD: What do you do in each of those bands?
JEFF: I play guitar and sing in Grave Yard State and I just play guitar in Cut It Out.
T-TAD: Back to your job, how do you balance a super serious sounding job with all your touring?
JEFF: I guess I kind of just use the degree to "fall back on" per-say in terms of I just quit jobs to go on tour, and when I'm gonna be home for a few months just get a new job and then just kind of grind it out to the point where I'm basically quitting jobs and getting new jobs pretty often. Like twice to three times a year. So it doesn't really balance out naturally, you just do whatever it takes to keep playing music. that's what I want to do, it's not paying the bills yet, so I gotta do something to do that.
T-TAD: What do you think it would take for you to make music full time and not sweat a job anymore?
JEFF: Umm, I'd probably have to touch into Europe a lot more. I'm doing my first European tour this year in a couple of months. but I'd probably have to go over there a lot more because i don't feel like the type of music i do is really ever going to be able to pick up n the United States. I don't feel like the mentality of people here is right to be able to make a living off playing. In Terms of getting enough people to come to every show in every city to make enough money for when I come home to be able to pay my rent for X amount of months or whatever. So I'd probably need to go to Europe more which I'm working on. and just more hard work I guess in general, so I'm working on it.
T-TAD: You got a full US tour coming up, what are you plans with that?
JEFF: Yeah, it's a full us tour with Greenlander and MC Homeless, the first 10 days of it, it's just gonna be me and Greenlander. we're doing the whole east coast, all the way from Jersey, we're doing Baltimore, Richmond, Greenville(North Carolina), etc, etc. just me and Greenlander. Then we're hitting New Orleans and meeting up with MC Homeless and going all the way to the west coast, pretty much playing every single day at this point, 35 days straight. Just full US, just a big loop around the whole country.
T-TAD: How do you feel about "real hip, hip hop"?
JEFF: Real hip hop? I hate it, I think it's disturbing.
T-TAD: Why, what about it?
JEFF: just people that think a genre of music has to be a certain way, and anything outside of that certain way isn't "real." It's s. stupid. the point of music is to take you somewhere right? You're here, we're suppose to go here, and we try to stay here with "real hip hop." First of all it's just boring for me, and second of all you're just holding back.
I feel like most people who say anything "real hip hop," just want every record to sound like Illmatic, or 36 Chambers, or something. and anything that sounds like that and doesn't break that mold.
T-TAD: Something that's already been done.
JEFF: Yeah basically, and I love those records and they're great and it's what got me into hip hop. When I make music I just make it. I don't try to sound like this, or try to sound like that. you just go make it and write the songs, and the way it comes out is the way it comes out. I feel like it's way more interesting that way, to see other people play, and yanno. It's way more interesting when it just happens organically, and not like "we gotta make this song like a real hip hop song" or something like that yanno.
T-TAD: What's your formula for making a song?
JEFF: Usually I'll just write a lot of lyrics. It's kind of two separate things since I make the beats, and write the lyrics. But usually making the beats and writing lyrics are totally separate. Then it just kind of like works out, cause i make a lot of beats, so eventually something I write is gonna work of to a beat, and I kind of just change it to make it into song that cohesive and makes sense to a point, usually I just write a lot of lines, in my notepad in my phone. Eventually it all comes together in a verse, and usually right around that time is when a beat will surface, and I'm like oh this works, and something like that.
Website
Tumblr
Sound Cloud(with acoustic songs, Grave Yard State, and some remixes)
Cut it Out
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