Interview with Earleybird

What is your artist name?

Earleybird

Where are you from?

Northern Virginia, USA

Are you a rapper/beatmaker or DJ?

I rap and I do my own production as well.  I have been doing both for over twenty years and I consider myself prolific in each art.

Do you have a crew?

I had a crew but they all gave up making music after one album didn’t propel them to whatever level they were expecting it to propel them too.  I have some day ones who still make music, and good friends who make music, but I am a primarily a solo artist, basically out of necessity, not desire.  I wish I had a crew, but I am always the odd man out.

How old are you?

Old enough to have come up during hip-hop’s “golden age”, not old enough to retire yet.

What kind of music do you make?

Meditative, introspective music about thoughtful topics.  Topics like love, mental illness, feminism, lust, war, masculinity, privilege, God, race relations, poverty, perseverance & family

What kind of artists are an inspiration to you?

My favorite artists are Sam Cooke and Billie Holiday. I own all the music Sam Cooke recorded as a secular artist and as a gospel artist.  I have over 24 hours of Billie Holiday music on my computer.  Other influences are Stevie Wonder, Prince, Marvin Gaye and Daniel Johnston.  As far as hip-hop, my major influences would be Special Ed, (for the way he enunciates and pauses between lines), Show And A.G., Hiero, WuTang, Project Blowed, Gangstarr and Dungeon Family.

How long have you been making music?

I started making music as soon as I heard hip-hop.  I got a Young MC tape for Christmas in ’89 when I was a little kid, and I went home and transcribed the lyrics.  I have been writing and performing since 6^th grade.  I made my first mixtape in 1997, on a dual cassette tape machine with one turntable.  Three years later I got a computer and started collaging sounds on a wav editing program called Soundedit.  Now I use Garageband primarily. Since 2005 I have released 16 official albums.

Is music your job or just a hobby?

This question kind of bothers me.  I’m not here to “sell” my music.  I hate capitalism.  Prince tried to control and limit how his music was handled and released, and that all went to hell once he died.  It is a gift to the world, from an artist to other artists.  The main goal is communicating, so why do I concern myself with making money off of it, when that would limit who could hear it?  My main concern is making the music, not the industry of selling it.   No, music isn’t my sole source of income, but we live in a capitalistic society that doesn’t value music or musicians and the ones they do value tend to be watered down and easily exploited by the smoke and mirrors of the industry.

I wouldn’t call it a “hobby” because that cheapens what I do.  It is more of a compulsion or an obsession.  I look at it the way graffiti writers look at graffiti.  I have an addiction to making songs, the way a graf artist is addicted to getting their name up.  I don’t know how to cure myself, it is therapy and it is helpful to my well-being.  I don’t care who listens or how many people listen, I’m compelled to do it. It would be cool to have a large following, but then again the trappings of fame seem lame.  I don’t care about a record deal or getting signed, I just do this because I am compelled to.  I used to run with a lot of graffiti artists when I lived in Brooklyn, so I appreciate their DIY aesthetic of just doing it.  The art of getting up.

Can we expect some albums of you this year/next year?

I just released the “Earworms” album last month, the “Earth Day” album drops next year on Earth Day and I have commissioned Gregg Deal, who is a really cool artist, to do the cover for the “Earth Day” album.  I’m also currently working on a project called “Content” and working on some experimental songs for an EP titled “Lambo Calrizzian”.  You can check out my music at www.getthatworm.com or you can download all 16 of my previous albums at www.audiomack.com/artist/earleybird

Can you name some artists you want to work with?

I already work with the artists I want to work with.  I have a lot of friends, like Substantial who I have known for twenty years, who I work with occasionally.   I’m more interested in working with cover artists than rappers right now.  I commissioned a great piece by DJ J Scrilla, I mentioned Gregg Deal and I have been waiting on a cover from Ibrahim Baaith for about four years now, lol.  I’ve been trying to get Ron Wimberly to do a cover, I’ve known him for twenty years, but he doesn’t seem interested when I ask him.

When I made my album “Things Are Not What They Seem” I enlisted The Witchdoctor and Myka Nyne to be on the album.  I am past the point of trying to get other artists who already have followings on my records.  That is the only time I enlisted artists who I never knew personally and paid them to be features.  I still look up to them and I enjoyed working with them, and I love the songs we cut, but as far as artists I want to work with, I would have to meet them and would want to work with them without paying them an appearance fee.  I would want it to be a natural situation where they are just as excited to be on my project as I am to get them on mine.  That being said, I am down to work with just about anyone who has the time to devote to making music.  I work primarily with artists I know personally and have become friends with, such as Silentmind, who I hadn’t met until we finished the “Spirit Ciphers” album, but now I consider him a good friend of mine and you can tell because we have continued to make music together.  But I don’t really want to work with any big name artists unless they want to work with me first. That being said, if anyone wants to collab, feel free to reach out to me on my website.

Thank you for this interview!