by Kim Wiesner
Stylus (S): Your tour with Cadence Weapon kicks off here in Winnipeg at the new Sidestage venue. How are you feeling about it?
Brendan Grey (BG): I’m feeling great. I’m excited; I think we’re all very excited. It’s going to be great to get back to all these cities which we haven’t been to in quite some time. It’s going to be interesting to be supporting Cadence Weapon. So, yeah, we’re feeling good. The blades are sharp. We’ve had a good year up until now. I think we’re just really excited to play a show in Winnipeg and then play a show in these cities to which we’ve been, but haven’t been in a second, right? Hopefully reconnect with people that we know and/or know us and then connect with some folks who maybe haven’t had the chance to see us play yet.
S: Yeah, absolutely. That’s super exciting. What can we expect from the live show?
BG: I hope you can expect the greatest show you’ve ever seen. We continue to hone our craft and it’s a very highly curated, arranged set and hopefully it will be smooth and everything will flow in the way that we want and it’ll be a journey for our audiences, of up and down and in the middle and all sorts of things, just generally fun. Fun, dope beats, and fly raps.
S: Do you have any song in particular that you like to play or that’s most fun for you?
BG: I like to play “Exhibit Grey,” which is a track from our first record, Studies in Grey. I think there’s a really good arrangement that we have of that track. It wasn’t a single, it’s an album cut, but it hits really well live. I always feel that when we get to that one, that’s really when we’re locked in as a band, as performers, as interactors with the audience as well. And I just love the feel, I love the feel of the music, the piano, the drums, and then the flow of the lyrics, it just feels good for me. Having performed it over and over, I feel that it also hits with the audience.
S: I imagine it feels pretty good to look out and see the audience really resonating with the song you’re playing.
BG: That’s why we’re there, you know?
S: So, speaking of Studies in Grey, you were a live show-only act for years before releasing that piece of music. Why was that the right time to record and put something out?
BG: It was just a natural progression. When I started the group, the goal wasn’t to be a band that is trying to “make it” (“make it” being to export your music, tour, and be in the spotlight). It was just a performance act to play at parties and really to fill a gap in the music scene that I thought needed to be filled. So, after doing that for however long, the idea of trying to push it a bit further started to be something that I was considering more, and we weren’t able to do that without recording and releasing music. Even to try and get shows further abroad, if you have nothing to show anyone, they’re like “oh, you’re a band? We’re going to listen to your music” — well, you can’t. That’s not enticing anyone to want to book you, right? So that was just a natural progression that happened at that time and, five years later, here we are.
S: Studies in Grey ended up earning a spot on the Polaris Music Prize longlist, and you were Manitoba’s first hip-hop act to be nominated. What was that like?
BG: It was great. I’ve said this in the past and everyone says it. You don’t get into music to win awards, or at least I don’t. It’s not for the awards or the accolades, but it does feel nice to be recognized by your peers or industry. And beyond that, those things are, for better or for worse, markers that other people, other artists, other industry [professionals], other listeners, audiences, they understand and react to that, so that’s something that they can be excited about for you as well. So, when we were nominated for the long list, yes, as the first hip hop act from Manitoba, we did receive a lot of support and appreciation from our friends and family and fans and even further abroad. It felt very nice to be recognized and supported and hopefully we won’t be the last. We are a group that started in Winnipeg, is largely based in Winnipeg, and is associated with Winnipeg. Hopefully, that indicates to everyone outside of Winnipeg that there’s a reason to be looking here and listening to what’s going on; and hopefully, other acts — as a result of our momentary presence in a fraction of the spotlight — can get some looks themselves, and maybe next year they’ll be in that space.
S: You are featured on the new Cadence Weapon track, “Nice Try,” set for release a couple days after the Winnipeg show on November 6th. What do you feel like you brought to the song?
BG: I brought my perspective, my style, my touch. I don’t know. Beyond that, it’s a collaborative track. We worked together in the studio with Junia-T, the producer. We were there, we linked up in the studio. He made the beat. He had his lyrics there already, so he just went in and recorded. I was able to hear his verse before writing mine. Although sometimes I do have stuff ready, I prefer to hear the music first and hear other people’s lyrics. If I’m doing a collaborative track with another rapper or singer, I like to hear what they have because it allows me to get an idea of what we’re talking about. I can go from there to shape my writing around theirs — not to match necessarily, but just to be cohesive, to make sense. The creative process allowed me to have a good idea of what the subject matter was and then I was able to write my verse, playing off a little bit of the vibe that he set. Although, he did say even before he recorded his verses, “this is kind of the idea I have and I want it to be like this,” and it made more sense to me once I was able to hear his words and try to make something that partnered well.