Correction: Eagerly anticipating Far East Movement’s gig at Luxy, we ran this interview with the group’s four members a day earlier than originally scheduled — but neglected to update the performance date. The show is tomorrow (Wednesday) evening and not tonight (Tuesday). The Taipei Times regrets the error.
Photo courtesy of Luxy
Over the past year, Far East Movement (FM) has skyrocketed from relative obscurity to the top of the charts with Like a G6. The electro-hop quartet appears tomorrow at Luxy.
The Taipei Times asked Kev Nish (Kevin Nishimura), Prohgress (James Roh), DJ Virman (Virman Coquia) and J-Splif (Jae Choung) about their humble beginnings in the music business, their do-it-yourself mentality, and geeking out on stage.
Taipei Times: How did you get into hip-hop music? Who were some of your influences when you were starting out?
Photo courtesy of Luxy
Kev Nish: Growing up in LA, hip-hop music was all around us, so it was a natural form of music to become fans of, but the music scene around downtown LA was pretty diverse, so we were also heavily influenced by the alternative rock, pop and the dance/electro scenes as well. We grew up on the Beastie Boys, Linkin Park, Snoop Dogg, Michael Jackson, Daft Punk, Nirvana, Tupac, Jay-Z, Outkast, Rage Against the Machine, and more. Nowadays, what we’re feelin’ ranges from Muse, Kanye West, Skrillex, Duck Sauce, David Guetta, Robyn and a grip more.
TT: Far East Movement formed in 2003. How does it feel to be hitting this level of success after years of being on the grind?
Prohgress: We’re grateful. We’ve been through ups and downs and had to make changes in management, surround ourselves with professional people we could trust, and make sure we always stay focused and work our asses off every year. The fam online and our close family have always had our backs and are with us now, and it’s because of all those factors that we were able to stay positive and finally have a chance to come out to Taipei. We’re nowhere near what we consider successful and have to push ourselves to work harder and stay hungrier than ever.
TT: What advice do you have for struggling artists?
J-Splif: We’re not sure. We’re still learning on every show, studio session and from anything else we do. One thing that helps us is praying before every show and having good communication and an amazing team around us with all the same vision. Thank God.
TT: When did you first feel you had what it takes to make it big?
P: We never did. We’re just a delusional bunch of dudes from LA, so even when the closest people to us told us it would never happen, we just stayed loyal to each other as a crew and kept on pushing.
TT: How did having your song Round Round included on the sound track to The Fast and the Furious 2: Tokyo Drift affect your career?
KN: After Round Round we concentrated on the music. That was our first attempt at blending different genres of music along with the Free Wired sound we have now. We would attempt to make rock songs, disco songs, hip-hop songs, but every song was so all over the place we finally realized for the music to define us, we have to find a way to blend all the sounds together. Right when our single Girls on the Dance Floor started bubbling on the radio in Los Angeles, our manager brought us to Interscope Records. Signing to a major [label] was the biggest change in our lives. We were able to take our do-it-yourself mentality and work with a major to get our music out to a larger audience.
TT: What artists would you would like to work with in the future?
KN: Artists we’ve love to work with include the Beastie Boys, Linkin Park, Robyn, Kanye West, Tiesto and a bunch more.
TT: Like a G6 has been everywhere for the past year. Did you always have faith in the song, and what was the inspiration behind it?
P: Originally we just made the song for the house party heads and clubs, so we threw the song on a promotional mixtape while on tour and uploaded it to YouTube. After a few months we saw the song got over a million hits with no push at all and our manager hit us up immediately asking why we weren’t pushing the song officially. We took what little cash we had on hand and shot a quick music video around where we live and next thing you know it grew and grew.
The inspiration for the song was a song we did called Girls on the Dance Floor — that was our first electro/hip-hop mash-up sound. We copied the bassline and used the same song structure and DJ Virman threw a girl vocal on the hook and made it for the heads that make their own party and live every night like it’s their last.
TT: You’ve got to the top of the charts. Where do you go from here?
DJ Virman: We’ll be touring all year promoting our Free Wired album. It’s a body of work that took our lives to find and create and we’re blessed that Cherrytree/Interscope believes in the project as a whole.
P: We hope to inspire at the same time. We’re just some everyday kids that can remember growing up in LA and seeing Kanye West and Dilated Peoples at the House of Blues on Sunset [Boulevard] and thinking that we wanted to be on that stage one day. That show definitely inspired us to the point where we we’re lucky enough to perform there. When we’re not recording or touring we’re working on inspiring the next generation through setting up concerts in our community ... featuring us and rising international artists around the world and online. We also teach creative workshops to students through an organization called 4C The Power — we hold workshops for song writing, dance and anything creative, and bring our artist friends to teach. This gives us a chance to inspire on another level.
TT: What can the audience expect at tonight’s show?
KN: During our live show, we’ll be blending elements of all the genres that inspired our Free Wired album, from blending hip-hop with emceeing and turntablism, electro dance, alternative rock and pop and making sure its a party all the way through. We love to sweat it out and geek out on stage.
This interview has been condensed and edited.
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