aspects of their music and brand without the help of a label. In fact, their burgeoning empire is primarily a four-person operation: Macklemore, Lewis, the group’s manager Zach Quillen, and Macklemore’s fiancée Tricia Davis. Apart from a few people who handle merchandise, that’s the entirety of their team. While Macklemore is the star of the crew thanks to his distinctive lyrical voice, signature pompadour and swagger — and the simple fact that he’s the man with the mic — there’s a reason why it’s “Macklemore and Ryan Lewis.” The project really is about collaboration, but for now Lewis is comfortable being the proverbial “other guy.” He’s got enough behind-thescenes duties to worry about, sometimes working as many as 90 hours a week. “Ryan is much more than a typical Macklemore and Ryan producer,” says Macklemore. “We are Lewis are the musical creative partners and do everything toguests on this week’s gether. We operate more as a label than Saturday Night Live. the typical MC/producer relationship. It’s important to me that Ryan gets seen for whom he is, and that’s 50 percent of everything.” “Ryan’s a master of many trades,” says Quillen. “I don’t know if people realize the many things that he does to make this project what it is.” In addition to making the beats, creating the music arrangements, and producing, Lewis handles some of the duo’s photography and photo editing, graphic design, web design, merchandising, co-directing, and cutting and coloring the music video. He also records, engineers, and mixes all the songs. The workload can be borderline masochistic, but it has two major advantages: No label takes a fat chunk out of the profits, and the duo maintains complete artistic control. “I’m not a control freak,” says Lewis. “I think the fact that we embraced and strived for creative control of all these
SNL
things is probably the biggest reason why we’ve done well. Because we care about the font that says “The Heist” — how thick the stroke is, how bold it’s going to be — we care about what kind of gator texture is gonna be on the box. All the tiny little things f---ing matter.”
* * * Right now, Lewis doesn’t have time to really think what’s next. There’s so much to do: Macklemore and Lewis landed the musical guest slot on this week’s Saturday Night Live, they’re finishing up putting together the video for “Can’t Hold Us,” and there’s the matter of celebrating his 25th birthday in March. Of course, if he ever gets a breather, he’s got plenty of ideas for new projects beyond a follow-up to The Heist. He’d love to produce the next record for Ray Dalton (who sings the chorus on “Can’t Hold Us”), perhaps work with some other MCs, maybe even direct or score a feature film someday. Before any of that, though, he is still working on adjusting to his new life. “I don’t know if I’ve ever had that ‘Oh shit, we’ve made it’ moment. Even now, ‘Thrift Shop’ is setting records. It’s three times platinum. The whole thing is f---ing weird.” n
The Johnsons are Family Savers.
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february 28, 2013 INLANDER 29