features national scene 11: For sure. Anyways, back to the sonic atmosphere that Bone Music has, obviously Neill von Tally had a lot to do with the direction that went in, although I think a big part of it is how he left a lot of space in the beats for you to work with your vocal range. But how did you guys come to that sound? Did it take you a lot of refining, or was that the way it naturally unfolded? D: You know, that question is more one for Neill to answer, to be honest, because we both came to our own self-discoveries during the creation of the album. Lyrically and vocally, I totally tested myself, and I would say that sonically he did as well. Are you looking for our inspiration? Like how we came up with that sound? Because unless I fell asleep with Neill and woke up inside his brain, I wouldn’t even know. 11: Fair. I guess to be more specific, what’s your process like? When the two of you get together to write a song, how does that go down? D: So it can go down a few different ways. For a song like “Count On This,” Neill had the beat playing in the car on the ride home, and he’d played that beat for me before, and it didn’t really connect with me then. But for whatever reason it came on in the car and I’m like, “What is this?” and I immediately came up with that melody (sings the hook) right there in the car on the freeway, stuck in traffic. And as quickly as I was ready to dismiss that track, there I was writing the hook for it, you know? So it can be like that.
Or like “Oofda,” where we’re in the studio and Neill already has a beat ready, or at least a concept ready because that beat wasn’t finished, and I come up with a phrase like “oofda, fuck me like you use ta,” and it’s like, “Holy shit, Neill, how ‘bout you add some extra 808s to this, and make it sound this way?” It really just depends on the situation. 11: Part of how cohesive Bone Music feels is that it’s you and Neill all the way through. Do you see yourself continuing to work with primarily one producer for your projects? D: Neill is pretty essential to my creative process at this point, so if he’s not going to be my primary producer, making every single song on my project, he’s gonna have his hand in the final mixing of the song that another producer made for me. I just hold his opinion so dearly, so it’s kind of necessary for him to be around. 11: Sure, and I think that’s a pretty common relationship in well-made music, having a producer or engineer who is maybe behind the scenes and has their hand in everything. But I appreciate that you guys put his name on the project as well, because that doesn’t always happen. D: I mean, I have to. A lot of times rappers act like the producers aren’t the ones who gave them a beat to flex on in the first place. Like, how else would you have a place to showcase your skills if not for this person? So I’m very grateful to Neill. I’m very grateful to Justin Longerbeam too; he’s my engineer, and he’s pretty much the third voice on Bone Music, doing all of the sound design and making it sound as perfect as it did. 11: One of my favorite parts of Bone Music is the backto-back tracks “Housee” and “Foreclosed.” I was wondering if you could speak a bit about those two songs and how they relate to one another?
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D: So in “Housee” you have my character at this house party, possibly committing infidelity, and in “Foreclosed” you have what we are assuming is the voice of my spouse, pretty much saying that they miss me, and that we’re in this codependent relationship, and that they don’t know what to do without me there in that situation. When we got Natasha to sing the new version of “Foreclosed,” I thought it would be cool if she could maybe have been my subconscious possibly speaking, and maybe it wasn’t really my wife’s voice, but it was me thinking that my wife was thinking that. You know? How meta could we be? 11: Part of that pair of songs too, going back to love songs that speak on something larger, is that the titles are an allusion to this process of foreclosure and eviction and gentrification that’s happening all over. Portland is a city that’s expanding in crazy ways right now. You’ve said you’re dedicated to being here and being a voice in this community: How do you see that expansion of the city and your role in it?