Preach “Maple St. Sessions” Interview

We’re fans of doing things on our own and being guerilla about it. So, when he moved back to Japan he suggested I come out and do some shows because the scene was so vibrant out there. He basically booked the gigs and I flew out there and had the best time of my life!

How did you & Denz hook up to do the project?

I was working on some stuff with Marc Mac of 4Hero and they’re all family. Denz caught wind of my older project “Garveyism” and we just started talking and working casually. That’s what I love about the project, is the fact that it came out of a pure place. There was no pressure to do it. We made it and decided it needs to get out there.

How did you come up with title “Maple St. Sessions” for the Ep?

I live on Maple Street (hope not to get any stalkers), but that’s where all of my creativity lies. I even shot my video for “Falling” in my place. It’s my zone, my sanctuary. So, I’m a big Blue Note Records fan and loved all of those jazz albums where they would record an entire performance at a certain place and it would be the address with the word “sessions” at the end. I believe the project has that organic jazz feel to it.

How would describe the overall direction for this project?

I think the main direction is just a fucking fun record. I remember listening to this Q-Tip mixtape and he said something like, people enjoy Tribe’s records so much is because it was made out of honesty and having a good time. People respond to that, and I remember growing up wanting to hang out with them dudes because they enjoyed what they were doing. That’s why I love being personal, especially in the “Falling” video getting shots of my family and baby pictures of me, because it’s me. I believe the music reflects that.

Click the Album Artwork to buy “Maple St. Sessions”

01. Oh Yes
02. Forest Whitaker
03. interlude
04. Falling
05. Thank You featuring Butterfly Brown
06. Cool Out Remix
07. interlude
08. Breathe Easy (Recycle Remix)

How was the chemistry between you and Denz while recording the project?

We were pretty much on the same page. Like, with “Falling” I recorded a rough draft over it, and the overall emotion out of it reminded me of “Look of Love” joint that Dilla produced (the J-88 song but technically a Slum Village record). And without me saying anything to him about where my head was, he added the “You know what love is..” at the end of the record from that actual song. I damn near jumped out of my seat when I heard it because he got where I was going. It’s refreshing as hell to be able to do that.

The video for Fallin” is dope!! Can you give us some backdrop on the track & the video?

I love the video to death, and am humbled at how the director Ryan Cockrell captured the essence of me and what my music is about. The actual song is basically talking about love in general, where you go through all this stuff in the battle of love, and even when you have every reason to give up, we keep doing it anyway. And the more we love and get hurt, we learn to be smarter the next go around. There’s no instruction manual, so you learn to “fly while you’re falling” kind of came out of that. And the entire video is basically me wanting it to reflect me and to pay homage to Spike Lee. For real Spike fans they can see the tributes throughout the video. Even the process of figuring it out was great, because Ryan (the director) and I just say around in his studio showing each other videos on Youtube that reflect what we were looking for. I can’t wait for the next video as I will be getting tons of footage from London when I get out there in December, and Ryan will definitely be at the helm for that one.

You did a show in Japan earlier this year and you going to London in December.  How did theses show come about? Is there a big difference in performing outside the US?

I had a few shows in Japan and a radio interview thanks to my great friend and business partner out there named Keesh. We basically executive produced my debut album “Garveyism”, and we had similar visions on how to go about with the music. We’re fans of doing things on our own and being guerilla about it. So, when he moved back to Japan he suggested I come out and do some shows because the scene was so vibrant out there. He basically booked the gigs and I flew out there and had the best time of my life. It’s humbling to see people overseas, and some of which don’t speak your native tongue, respond to your music. It really made me realize that I can, and need to be doing music full-time.

How would you describe your growth as a artist over the last couple of years?

It’s kind of hard to describe. I believe I’ve grown as a man with just things being handled in a more humbling way day by day and it translates through the music. I believe that the best way to know that you’ve grown as an artist, is to kind of despise what you’ve done before. Like, De La would have concerts and loathe doing music from ‘3 Feet High..’ They’re almost forty years old now, and the album came out 20-years ago. So, I would imagine they don’t like performing those songs because of the growth they’ve shown as artists. I feel the same way. I love “Garveyism” to death from a personal standpoint but feel that the response to “Maple St. Sessions” is that the music has improved. And traveling around the world, meeting people and just going through shit really helps put things in perspective.

What can we expect from Preach in 2010?

I have tons or projects in the works. I’m working on projects with Marc Marc, DJ Vadim a production team called Helium Music and even another solo full-length that I’m preparing for. It’s more about calming down and figuring out the best time lines for each project. What I really want to do next year is to be busy as hell doing shows and recording. Thanks to the EP getting picked up by R2 records along with getting shows overseas and meeting the wonderful producers and artists that I’m working with, it’ll be easier in 2010 to get shows and touch more lives. And to be honest, I can’t wait. -PJ

www.preachjacobs.com