Ah yes. Hope I can put this all down eloquently.
Silver Medallion started out as Carnegie and myself trying to make electro bangers. We were bumping kid sister, spank rock, sinden, atrak, surkin, toxic avenger, and a ton of remixes from Palmsout, Missingtoof etc. and we loved the style. We just wanted to make bangers and we thought that was the sound for us. Now, with the exception of Lies, we haven't made ANY electro tracks, and are in the process of finishing up a pretty awesome album (yeah i said it(, but it' s a pop album in every way shape and form, and has no semblance of electro whatsoever.
When we started doing shows we wanted to hit the electro circuit. When I was in New York going to Happy Ending, Studio B and random Brooklyn parties electro was the proverbial SHIT and the parties were off the chain. I saw Spank Rock at the frickin Apple Store at midnight in Times Square packing the spot full climbing on speakers yelling tracks, and that was what I was trying to be on. So for lack of electro beats we started doing our own remixes (Drugs in My Body, Sex Packets) of tracks we liked and then flipping our songs over Bloody Beetroots and Felix Cartal and putting a show together.
We found all the electro spots we could out here in AZ and started partying. There was Panico at Homme, Faux Show and Word Up at Glam, Shake at Rogue, and French Kiss at ever-changing locations. Decent scene, we could dance etc. without problem, they played what I liked to bump and dance to, and I felt like I could wild out on the floor in a way we couldn't in Scotts/Tempe. Also, this is pre- Silver Medallion having the all access club pass, so we wanted a place we could all go out dressed in 80's gear and have it be kosher.
We met some cool cats, Bigie, Ali, Epidemic, William Reed, Kevin MOB, Zach etc. who were either promoters, djs or just cool people, and we thought maybe we could get with this scene, make friends and be able to just kick it in a way we weren't comfortable doing in Scotts/Tempe. We did a show at Glam that was amazing, despite the terrible sound system and our bad wireless mics DJ Epidemic killed it completely (still think your awesome homie), the crowd was amazing and we had damn near the time of our lives performing.
In all this time though with the exception of some of the people mentioned above, no one ever wanted to kick it, hit us up to party, cut remixes etc and it was kinda strange, we figured we had a lot to offer business and promotion-wise and we're nice people, but somehow we remained on the outside. I guess a lot has to do with our Scottsdale reputation and maybe our crew but fuck it, I don't really know. At the end of the day that's just how things go, we never really got accepted in that scene, and we weren't about to change ourselves to do it.
So we kept making tracks and now as I said above we're almost done with the album, which is pretty much a pop opus. Not our original goal, but so it goes, we have a lot of doors open now, labels, distributors, managers, tour dates, press, we're even making decent money, thats more than I can say for most, and definetly more than we expected.
Are we selling out? No, we didn't start off trying to make pop, we just have good ears and write well and listen to a lot of kinds of music, and our beatmakers have serious skills. It came out that way and we're happy with the product, there was no sit down meeting where we were like "if we sell our souls for radio play and make catchy songs and upplay the white singer/black rapper thing maybe we'll make a lot of money". I'm making music thats true to me, about topics that are important to me (girls, parties, the desperation of modern living and politics) as a fresh out of college male, and Carnegie is doing the same from his angle.
Now the hip hop scene won't mess with us at all, which is cool, the last thing I wanna do is shows at The Sets with 14 other rappers or a "showcase" or have people on Arizona Beats telling us our bars are good just to support the "scene". Tonight we did a show at Rogue, I was really excited about it. William Reed throws the night, and we really respect him, he made a huge chunk of the party scene in AZ and is probably the most successful electro dj/promoter we've come across. We'd love to be able to put together a future for us like he has for his career. Also Scion and Imeem do a country-wide Beat Club tour every year, and our show was the Phoenix date of the tour, with us featured. Now we rolled to the show, it was a mediocre crowd for Shake, but we had 25 of our people there, who held us down (love yall, Nyna (sp?), Jahmal, Jon, Derric,k Becky, the girls, Rehab, Jimmy etc etc.). It was cool setting up, sound guy was nice, photographer was friendly, Scion people cool, the venue owners met us, but the show went pretty damn mediocre, which is not our mode of operation. From the start the sound just wasn't good, and the stage monitors were feedbacking, so I didn't know what it sounded like to the crowd. And even though they danced to electro the rest of the night, the first half of our set (Toxic Avenger, Beetroots, Cartal, Drugs in My Body) no one moved and even our energy couldn't carry it as we liked. The second half is all our bangers and all our friends know them and so it was cool, but beats were skipping, mics weren't right, a voice kept coming over the loudspeaker, there were hecklers and I was just like FUCK, I love doing these shows so much more than two tracks at a Scottsdale club and I don't know why it's not cracking. We did a similar set at Glam that was YACKIN, but people at Rogue we're listening more than dancing, and this isn't the set for that.
End of the day, mediocre show, not good not bad, I am pretty unhappy that when they put the dj music back on it sounded loud and perfect, maybe our show cd just wasn't good... but still. I'm just sad that the shows I look forward to are starting to not go as well as the "lets get this money in Scottsdale" shows. Just not our scene I guess? Even our groupies are Scottsdale girls who are coming to indie bars just to see us rather than people from that scene, guess that's just how it goes. End of the day, we're forgoing the electro format and just going with our own tracks and making the best from here on out. Wish DJ Epidemic was there, love working with him, he practices and really knows what's good with making the set flow and sound hot. This just sucks because if I could do me I'd be listening to William and Kevin and Joel dj every night I go out bumping blog-house electro fun but for some reason I feel isolated from the scene all the isolated people gravitate towards.
Funny enough, I got swagger now, but I was never the super cool guy, I had my dorky friends and we played sports and partied and whatever but I was never the cool kids, and now I feel pressured to hang out with the "cool kids" because everyone else looks at me funny, but the cool kids generally suck.
We got a ton of decisions moving forward, our first shows in front of thousands of people are coming up in September, we're probably doing SXSW, and our show has to be perfect. Guess we're really going to the pop vein full speed ahead, should of seen this coming a while back.
Now onto Scottsdale full speed. Socialyte launches on Tuesday, more on that tomorrow. Been a long night, girl dramas from the night before (not for me but for my man), never got to Old Town after Rogue, and tomorrow I have client project after client project to complete.
