There is a long and interesting tradition of really marginal left-field music that becomes commercially successful. And I will, for a brief minute, fit into that tradition.
Look, when I started out, mainstream culture was Sinatra, Perry Como, Andy Williams, Sound of Music. There was no fitting into it then and of course, there's no fitting into it now.
I never wrote music for the mainstream.
I think have my own style; no one has ever tried playback singing before. I might release a punk rock song that perhaps other won't appreciate, but I like doing my own thing. I make music for my own satisfaction, not for money or fame.
As interesting as that music can occasionally be, I don't think it really replaces the other.
I'm a student of Ice Cube and Scarface, which means the stuff I rap about is not radio-friendly, and it's very opinionated. and it's very much from the perspective of a black man in America, and our opinion ain't always popular when we have a political opinion.
This music isn't Top 40, we really stand out from anyone.
Historically, musicians know what it is like to be outside the norm - walking the high wire without a safety net. Our experience is not so different from those who march to the beat of different drummers.
One of the things I did learn from 'The Epic' was that we don't have to feel so much pressure to conform to set formats. A song doesn't have to be three minutes and 30 seconds.
Once you free your mind about a concept of music and harmony being correct, you can do whatever you want.
I've always loved making independent music.
We're more into expressing ourselves than making radio hits.
We made music that wouldn't be in synch.
There's just more emotion and raw feeling in Baltimore music. It can't be copied.
I'm not necessarily a happy singer. That's not who I am as an artist.
I love truly forward-thinking music, and I'm not even sure I'd describe my work as that, even.
When I was growing up, I was always looking for the most willfully uncommercial music: Whether it was Captain Beefheart or Frank Zappa or King Crimson, that's what attracted me.
We decided to start our own group because we were bored with everything we heard... Everything was 10th-generation Led Zeppelin... Overproduced, or just junk. We missed music like it used to be.
The majority of the people think that noise is not music. I want to accept noise and even errors and glitches. I enjoy them.
All the big artists I talk to say that they are trapped in a formula and they are looking for the music of tomorrow.
To me, 'Underground Luxury' is kinda like a contrasting title, and the reason for that is because on this album I plan on introducing to people and reintroducing to people the side of me that they didn't see on the first album.
Sonically, musicians always go above and beyond in our efforts to disrupt radio. It's always about being different. Our radio is never conventional anyway.
I just always make honest music. I just always kinda do what I wanna do.
I am producing sounds that people are not used to hearing from the harp.
I did Noise Music because I genuinely liked noise... But a lot of people didn't. At my concerts, people smashed beer glasses in my face.
