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ACL preview: The Knux
If the overflow of words on The Knux’s “Remind Me In 3 Days…” wasn’t already a tip off, here it is laid plain; eloquent rapper Krispy can talk. A lot. About anything.
In the space of 15 minutes he holds forth on his cellphone’s downfall during the previous night’s romantic rendezvouz, the merits of Texas barbecue, the continuing allure of his native New Orleans, the missteps of hip-hop musicians exploring other genres, how recent tour mate and hero Q-Tip got him out of a legal jam, why his brother and bandmate Al Millio wasn’t up for interviews on this day (hint: a drug that rhymes with “brooms”) and his group’s ongoing playful beef with modern rockers Silversun Pickups on the 2009 festival circuit. A tiff that won’t keep up when the Knux plays Austin City Limits Festival since the Pickups are, sadly, absent from the ACL bill.
Most of the talk with Krispy can’t be published here (language concerns), but here’s what made it through. (The Knux are scheduled to play at 1:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 2, on the Xbox 360 stage during ACL Fest.)
American-Statesman: You guys came to Los Angeles because Hurricane Katrina destroyed your home in New Orleans, and it seems like you’ve taken to the city. Are you an L.A. guy now?
Krispy: Of course I’m an L.A. guy. Everyone becomes an L.A. guy when you move here, you just have to. We always make everywhere we go our home, even though I still have my New Orleans accent and New Orleans way of looking at things. We’re still our own people, though, and aren’t out here kissing people’s (butts) to get things. We’re not those type of dudes. We do our own thing and stand on our own, or at least with our own team of people. What we’ve got wasn’t based on some celebrity co-signing onto anything. I’m proud my brother and I did it our own way, playing the demo for everyone at the same time and letting them make their decisions based on the music.
The record has crossed over onto quite a few modern rock stations, even though it’s very different from what else is going on the rest of those stations. How did you manage to get so many different sounds and styles into what you were doing?
You have to be a real fan of the genre to make it work. Lots of hip-hop dudes will say they’re into rock but they don’t understand it and appreciate it as music. It’s just something they want to try. I was into punk as a kid and into skateboarding, and then my mom turned us on to funk and psychedelic music because that’s what she was into her whole life. War was a big band for us, kind of a coalition type band who were doing just crazy stuff musically. I’ve still never heard a harmonica played like it is on a War record. Most times you hear it in a blues song and it sounds pretty much the same, but they made it sound like a guitar.
I really like hybrid groups like that. Music was just music and people said to hell with genres, if you can do a new jack swing record and it sounds good then go on and do it. It’s also about knowing how to produce those songs. It’s a lot easier to write a song that sounds different than it is to record it and get it to sound good, which is why a lot of those really different records don’t work.
So do you think it’s a mistake for Lil Wayne to try a rock record? Seems like he’s just doing it for the sake of trying to.
You can’t make mistakes when you’re the biggest star in the world because anything you do, people are going to follow you and at least check it out. I respect Kanye West for doing (the mostly rap-free) “808s and Heartbreaks” just because he had the balls to do it. Really that was a one-star album, but I guess I’d bump it up to two stars just because it was something so different for him. If you have a certain level of success you can do whatever you want to. Neil Young has done that his whole career, like when he did a new wave album and not caring what his fans were going to think of it.
Once you have one hit record, there’s always going to be a group of fans who come out to a show, no matter what you do after.
You can’t let fans dictate how records sound. We’re the musicians and we know how what we’re doing is supposed to sound. It’s like people who don’t have kids telling parents how to raise their children. Get out of here with that, I don’t know anything about your kids and you don’t know anything about my music.
How are you handling taking up those afternoon slots on festivals this summer?
This year it seems we’re always on at the same time as the Silversun Pickups and it’s kind of become a battle between us and we usually end up in trailers that are near each other, too. I tell them I’m going to rip them and we have fun with it. We come out to “Genesis” by Justice and if Silversun Pickups are playing one stage over, I have the DJ turn it up extra loud so they know we’re there.
The thing is, I want to see them because they’re a good band I haven’t really gotten to see them all summer. There have been like a half dozen festivals we’ve played, where they’re opening the main stage while we’re headlining a side stage and it never quite works out.
Is it hard to stick out when you’re mixed with that many bands?
Our show is so intense, we stick out even though there’s so many bands. The economy’s so bad right now and people are paying good money in a recession to see us, so you better jump up and down, sweat like hell and maybe even shoot an apple off someone’s head with an arrow if that’s what it takes to win people over. I’d probably play Russian roulette up there with my own brother if they’d let me. Of course, in 10 years attention spans will be so short you’ll pretty much have to do that to get anyone to even look at you.
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