conducted by Hugo Lunny
For those that aren’t yet up on Louis Logic, now may well be the time. We’ve been following him since our former site “Tha-Real,” which means for nearly ten years we’ve been tracking the “Drunken Dragon.”
His debut album “Sin-A-Matic” was recently re-released, remixed. Each song was meshed with a carefully selected song from the 80’s, and many of the songs featured guest appearances which weren’t present on the original. You can preview the songs over at http://www.myspace.com/louislogic and purchase the album for download here.
MVRemix: You’ve been recording for about a decade now, how has the situation changed from your 12″ days before “Sin-A-Matic” to now?
Louis Logic: Well, for one thing, I didn’t have a lot of experience. I was really only interested in being taken seriously as a rapper. I’ve been working with my long time partner/producer J.J. Brown and he used to fight me tooth and nail about the lack of adventure in my tastes and expression. After the “Sin-A-Matic” album, I began to drift so far from the shoreline that J.J. realized he’d created a bit of a monster by encouraging my exploration. I don’t feel at home unless I’m completely lost in uncharted territory. I suppose that’s pretty different.
MVRemix: How has being signed to Fat Beats helped your career?
Louis Logic: It helped me to realize what I don’t want. I don’t fit into that world anymore. I’m not even sure I fit into the rap world at large very well anymore, but specifically, the boom bap indie rap days are over for me.
MVRemix: You were working with a Swedish producer last time we spoke on a joined album, any updates on that?
Louis Logic: Danish, actually, and it’s more than one fella. I’ve actually started a band there. Three years ago I met Laust Jeppesen and Rolf Hede, then called Nick Nack, and a part of the Copenhagen supergroup of producers, Nobody Beats The Beats. We collaborated for their solo album when they changed their name to Beatman & Rockin’. It was during these sessions, conducted in Copenhagen, that we naively stumbled into our current incarnation.
We are a surf rap band for lack of a simpler explanation and our group is called Spork Kills. Laust plays keys, guitar and a little bass, while Rolf plays Bass and Percussion. Laust’s little brother, Emil Jensen, plays trumpet. I recently shot my first video for the record and a song called “Night of the Hip N’ Dead.” We’ve put up our first leaked song at www.myspace.com/sporkkills but have not yet begun to promote it. You are of course welcome to go and have a gander. I haven’t begun to shop this record yet, so I cannot speak on when or where it will come out, suffice it to say that I have no intention of putting out on an indie rap label.
MVRemix: What about your J-Zone collaborated effort?
Louis Logic: Long since abandoned. A bit sad, but what can you do? We didn’t see eye to eye on the pairing of our styles. He wanted the old Louis with the new J. I wanted the old J with the new Louis. We made 2 songs together and that was that. Recently Zone started an album of Malt Liquor jingles. He asked me to play piano and sing backing vocals for it. We collaborated on a song called “Leave That Horse Alone” about fabled Malt Liquor, “Crazy Horse.”
MVRemix: How did the concept for “Sin-A-Matic” (The 80’s Edition) come about?
Louis Logic: J.J. and I are both 80’s kids. We grew up on the music that J.J. so masterfully reconstructed to fit our wacky debut record. The idea was an obvious extension of the Ludacris & Jackson 5 and Gym Class Heroes & Hall & Oates remix records. Very often J.J. would fill the time at the end of our shows and the car rides from city to city on tour with our favorite hits of the 80’s. When we decided to remix the “Sin-A-Matic” record it was a relatively short discussion that happened after J.J. pointed out how cool the original cover art would look with an 80’s theme. 2 months later he and co-producer/mix engineer Dan “The Deacon” Maier were putting the finishing touches on “The 80’s Edition.” I’m just a lucky boy who woke up with this gem under my Christmas tree.
MVRemix: How did you decide upon the guests?
Louis Logic: Most of the people on the remix record are close friends. Some are recent, some old timers we’ve known for eons. Mainly we tried to make it a family affair.
MVRemix: Was the remixing a long process?
Louis Logic: J.J. is one of those dudes who gets so in a groove that you just don’t interrupt him. You let him plow through and then go back in and do clean up. He produced most of the 80’s Edition in about a month and a half, maybe even a little less.
MVRemix: Which is your favourite remixed song?
Louis Logic: “Dust to Dust.” No question. I love that one. I think I even like it more than the original.
MVRemix: Now that you make music and tour full time, do you find your lifestyle harder or easier to maintain?
Louis Logic: I would say harder because I have to really hustle and be careful to plan out my earnings each month to make sure I can pay the mortgage and all my bills. It’s not always such an easy task with a career that is so unpredictable. I don’t know where my money is coming from one month to the next. Some months are largely supported by touring, some by guest work, some by both. The only reason I feel hesitant in any way to say that it’s harder is that I am much happier. When I was working as a social worker and chasing my music career, I was so frustrated and depressed that I was becoming unbearable to be around. I made my friends around me miserable and my poor ex girlfriend had to put up with my fits and drinking. I was a bad dude. I’m so glad to be out of that part of my life. I don’t miss it at all.
MVRemix: The show at the Zipper Theater with Lady Rizo has been spoken about quite a bit, and at your show here in Vancouver, when performing “The Ugly Truth” you criticized a fan who cheered when you were talking about prejudice towards gays. What are your feelings on the perception of homosexuals and alternate lifestyles in Hip Hop?
Louis Logic: My feeling is that homophobia is the last safe and accepted variety of bigotry. People feel less guilty about it than any other kind for a number of ridiculous reasons. It’s gross. It goes against god’s will. It’s going to fuck up the healthcare field when they can get married and blah blah blah. It’s a disappointing reflection of our times. I do think that I’ve observed major cultural differences from country to country and also within subdivisions of each place. In the states you will find very different prevailing attitudes about it in the rock community than in the hip hop scene.
It fills me with shame that the world I’m a part of is like that. I’m embarrassed of us. I’ve gotta own up though. I’m just as guilty as the next guy. You can look through my recording history and find examples of me playing a part in the stupidest tradition in rap music that is of course, next to all the glamorized violence that arises out of the rap world. I’ve tried to cut that stuff out of my music and speak out publicly on this subject, even taking such risks as to dress in drag on stage. I think it’s a worthwhile cause. Has it created a lot of heat? Sure. Tons. People are calling J.J. and I faggots, which I personally think is just as ill as the famed “N word”, on a daily basis and saying that we’re secretly a couple. I don’t give a fuck. I don’t even correct them. Let them think what they want. I think the rap audience deserves to have someone they’ve always regarded as a hero of some sort to turn out to be gay.
I wish someone like Jay Z who is so respected would come out as a gay man. It would be a fiasco for sure, but it would also be really good for the gay community. I think they deserve it for the way we’ve treated them. I mean, look at our battle culture. The art almost subsists on homophobic insult. It’s pathetic.
MVRemix: What’s your relationship with the Demigodz like today?
Louis Logic: I don’t have one. Most of the members don’t talk to me. It’s not really a beef thing. They just don’t communicate with me. I’ve reached out to Esoteric with a business opportunity or two and heard nothing back. I never really fit into that crowd even when I was in the Demigodz, but I also didn’t think my departure and subsequent experimentations would alienate everyone to point that they’d excommunicate me. Celph [Titled] drops me a line from time to time. He’s a stand up guy. I don’t think he approves of what I do, but he’s at least courteous enough not to mention that. Apathy on the other hand hates me. I don’t even know why. I told him I didn’t want to talk to him anymore in 2004 when he bailed on an important event he promised to be a part of. He somehow blames me for what happened.
We recently had a few words over myspace and he said as much. I told him that I’m not mad at him. I just don’t think we should be friends. I also told him that I don’t tell people bad things about him or call him names or deny his ability as a rapper. I’ve even gone as far as to help people who wanted to hire him track him down. I doubt he’d do the same for me. He didn’t have anything nice to say to me or to J.J. about me. My guess is that he thinks I’m a “faggot” too. It’s really pretty sad. I’m a good friend, a good musical and artistic influence and I’m very loyal. He’ll never get to enjoy that again.
MVRemix: Now that you’ve traveled the world, is Brooklyn East India Pale Ale still your favourite beer?
Louis Logic: No. I don’t think it is, but that’s not really because of my world travels. I’m not as into the beer culture as I used to be. I still appreciate a good micro brew, but I’m content to drink Guinness all night. They have it almost everywhere and it’s actually one of the least calorie/carb beers there is. I can drink it by the gallon and not get a beer gut, which is just fine by me!
MVRemix: Are you currently working on a new album? Can you give us some details on it?
Louis Logic: Yes and yes. I’ve spent the last two years and change commuting back and forth between New York and Copenhagen Denmark to make my first ever album with a band. No, not like the Demigodz was a band of rappers. I mean a real band. There are no samples and the playing is live, although one wouldn’t be able to tell that excepting the fact that there is a far greater musical complexity to the arrangements and seamless flow of style and sound since it’s the same writers and players on each track. The reason I think it could go unnoticed that it’s live is that we used antiquated techniques to record this album so that it would sound like music from the 50s or 60s. The style of music is also new to rap records. It’s largely comprised of white music from this era, in particular surf and really dorky lounge lizard stuff. The reaction I’ve been getting out of people has literally been rave. So far the word around the campfire is that it so far exceeds my previous efforts that it’s silly. I can’t wait to share this stuff. I don’t when or where suffice it to say that I have no intention of putting it out on an indie rap label. It wouldn’t even fit. It’s literally a surf rock record that just happens to have rapping on it. There’s a lot more singing on this record than on my previous efforts, but still no song that is entirely singing with no rapping.
The band is called Spork Kills and that for the first time in my 10 year career I am getting to be me, Louis Dorley, not louis logic. We will of course not make any attempt to hide my career as louis logic but we are not billing me as such in the context of the band and in fact, I’m hoping this project takes off well enough that I can move to the Louis Dorley part of my career and let louis logic live on the records I made while using that moniker. The first song we will share is called “Black Widow” and we have also shot a video with young L.A. director on the rise Donlee Brussel for a song called “Night of the Hip ‘N Dead.” We are hoping to start sharing the first leaked song soon and that the video will be ready for October.
MVRemix: What’s next? Is it all music or are you working on something else too?
Louis Logic: I have actually done some acting in an indie short film. I haven’t even seen it myself so I don’t know if I’m happy with it and would like to keep trying it. I was asked by way of repayment of a favor to try it. It was fun. I got to do a serious make out scene and a fight sequence. The film is called “4 Little Piggies” and it was directed by the young man who directed my first music video for “The Great Divide”, Jed I. Rosenberg. I plan to share it with my audience as a fun little treat. I don’t expect that I’m going to become a Mark Wahlberg or Will Smith but I thought it might be fun to try and maybe the kids who like my records will find some humor in seeing me experiment with it. Other than that, I’m still playing and studying piano feverishly and getting so much better. I’ve written several songs for piano and voice that hybridize singer/songwriter styled pop rock with hip hop, which is to say that they are rock songs that have some rapping on them. What can I say? I love to rap, even if I can’t always say that I love rap music.
I like his shit. he’s talented. Great news on a new album