Interview: Far East Movement

Far East Movement return to Prague on Tuesday, July 17 to perform at Roxy. We recently had a chance to speak to rapper Kev Nish – here’s what he had to say:

Our style is a smashup style, smashing up old school & new school.. Our twist on pop music. For the sound Dirty Bass we took inspiration from the sounds & party chants from classic hip hop party records and bass records from the late 80s & early 90s and blended it with dance, house and pop music of now. Even our first album Free Wired was a smashup of all the genres & sounds off our playlist and the diverse music scene in downtown LA we grew up in.

The Dirty Bass gear from the custom jackets to the fat gold chains to the new age boombox we call the Dirty Bass blaster is like our homage to all that classic party hip hop from the beastie boys, Run DMC, Rodney O and Joe Coolie, 2 Live Crew, LL Cool J & more. Whenever we write & produce & finish a song we always feel the song isn’t finished till we finish it visually, so we sit with our crew Transparent Agency in downtown LA and develop all the madness that comes out of our head. As long as it’s fun and can put the listener in a different world. As far as brands we’re down with anything from Dior, Vivienne Westwood, McQueen, Philip Lim, Starter, Pro Club from the Swap Meet, Jordan’s, haha anything fly.

Transparent agency is our team. For FM, the term agency is the new school crew of homies that are creative & inspired. TA is made of music vid directors, photographers, graphic designers, fashion designers, writers, producers… Like a fantasy factory crew of talent so we can do anything from our own album covers, photo shoots & web episodes to custom clothes, chains and music videos. We’re starting to get into marketing for brands n all kinds of craziness.

Networking has played a huge role in everything we’ve ever done. We’re grateful for all the amazing people that have created opportunities to help us do what we love. From the club to meeting people around LA, relationships are limitless in so many ways. The first relationships started by walking around LA with CDs and just meeting people and passing them around. We’ve been blessed to be able to build with the same people even now.

Definitely keep positivity around you and your team, cuz this grind is nonstop and a definite rollercoaster ride… And that positivity and faith and hope that God gives us gets us thru the craziness & puts us all in 1 direction and keeps the movement moving.

Yes, we were in Prague a few months ago opening for our brothers LMFAO. Y’all know how to party & we had a blast. Just posted a pic on our Facebook of us backstage in Prague with Redfoo making a track.

We’ve noticed there’s a festival culture and mentality in Europe along with a diverse love for music that’s infectious. You feel that energy on stage and its inspiring to push harder.

Love touring. Sometimes love our bunks more than our beds at home, hahaha. Too hard to choose a favorite spot… It’s like trying to pick a favorite song when there’s so much hot music to love, haha. Every city leaves something with us.. South America leaves us with a tan, Japan leaves us with some new fashion, Europe leaves us with some hot producers… Turn up the love round the globe.

For sure. We recorded this whole dirty bass album on the road in motel bathrooms, back of tour busses and green rooms… We just hooked up our computer with a mic and got to work. It’s dope to be able to get off stage and bring the energy from the crowd or the club into our music.

The shows, the clubs, the people, our scene in LA all affect our music greatly. Environment inspires every bit of it.

Dirty bass! New album out now! Thank you!

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