Saint: I thought we'd start out with some word association. Cool?
Luis: alright cool. Let’s get to it
Saint: interview
Luis: PGR!
Epic: radio
Luis: station
Jeremy: Mini boom boxes, they were the shit when I was like, seven, I'm not gonna lie.
Luis: Its word association Jeremy not paragraph association.
Jeremy: Fuck you, guy.
Luis: hey whoa ladies in the room sir. Shit
Saint: I've heard worse.
Epic: haha from me
Saint: she's got a mouth like a sailor
Jeremy: Sexy. I'm just saying, if you've got the mouth of a sailor, you must know how to handle seamen.
Epic: singing or songwriting?
Luis: well. Seeing as I don’t sing, and neither does Jamie, or Jeremy I have to say songwriting
Jeremy: I honestly don't do a damn thing, I'll let Luis and Jamie take that one.
Epic: okay then Jeremy, how about badass management?
Luis: I have to say I enjoy the songwriting cuz I leads up to the rapping without the writing id have nothing to rap about
Jeremy: Oh, believe me, once they get some stuff out, I'll book us out the ass. Literally. We're all whores.
Luis: that we are
Jamie: songwriting. You can express yourself better through writing
Saint: Ballads or up-tempo songs
Luis: depends on the mood really
Epic: can you give us a one line bio?
Luis: one line bio? Sumthin Luhjit. A 2 word bio right there. SUMTHIN MOTHER FUCKIN LUHJIT
Epic: That’s 4 words
Jeremy: Another two words - Sweater vests.
JAMIE: Most ballinest people ever.
Saint: Since I can't really ask the how you got your name question I usually ask bands as you already answer it on your very long and detailed bio, I wanted to ask something related. In your bio, you say that you wanted to show people that you were serious, but how can you be serious when your group's name is '$umthin Luhjit'?
Luis: that’s a tough question it really is. Well. People will take us serious by what we do not what we're called. There are plenty of bands out there with crazy names that make amazing songs so what's the difference with us?
Jeremy: Not necessarily true. I doubt we'd get quite as many plays under "David Karesh and the Branch Davidians"
Luis: we might. It’s a good name I think
Epic: I think it's very chill
Jeremy: I mean It is, but Not as official as SUMTHIN LUHJIT though
Epic: who are your major influences?
Luis: me. Personally. It’s Kanye West. I remember being in middle school and hearing his first album. I was some dorky little white kid back in the day, but I knew every word to every song on that CD I thought he was amazing. No homo.
Epic: what do you think of his newest album?
Saint: I’m personally not fond of it at the moment, but I'm sure I'll get used to it in about a week.
Luis: AMAZING
Epic: the stuff on there, I felt, wasn’t very "kanye"
Jeremy: I know it's cliché, but I think we all took a lot from Kanye West, Lupe Fiasco, Little Brother, Lil Wayne, Jay-Z, Outkast and the other major rappers of the last ten or so years.
Luis: on the contraire, I think it’s very Kanye. Just another side of him is all. People might not like it. But when you're a true artist you do what you like and wanna do.
Saint: You're totally right it’s just his emo side. Emo Kanye. Judging by your myspace bio it looks as if you guys were doing really well. What made you get rid of your old material and start over and how has your sound changed since then?
Luis: point blank. We got rid of our old stuff cuz it sucked hard, we’re smarter now. Better writers.
Jeremy: I mean, it had some nice hooks, but it wasn't nearly as clever as we are now. The quality was absolutely terrible; we were using Radio Shack mics and Microsoft Sound Recorder to make our music. Rapping over major beats. Our remix of Kanye's Harder was probably the best, but it was still pretty bad.
Epic: Your myspace page was previously deleted this year without explanation. How did it affect you as a group?
Luis: it surely pissed us off. But I don’t think it slowed us down at all. It’s not like we had any music on the page and in the following days we got like 1,000 views which was pretty boss. We're just teetering on 9000 right now and already have over 1000 plays on our demo. That’s why I love our fans
Jeremy: Yeah, it's been like, three or four months since we lost the old page. We've picked up more views and plays already than most of the local artists in the area who've had their pages for years.
Saint: So now that you're back to square one with the original founders of the group, what are the roles each member holds? How is responsibility divided among the three of you?
Jeremy: Like I said, I don't really do a thing right now. I have all the best places in the area scoped out, places we can play, meet others, record, and everything like that, but I can't really do anything until Luis and Jamie get the chance to sit down and make some music. It’s getting pretty hard for us, Luis and I both work upwards of forty hours a week and Jamie's Drum Captain in the best band outside the state capital.
Epic: wow that sounds heavy
Luis: now you see why it’s hard for us
Saint: What kind of difficulties do you guys face trying to balance school and music?
Jamie: I’m heavily involved in different band things, whether it be all county band, marching band, concert band and winter drumline, I rarely have time to think.
Luis: well. I have to say it’s pretty hard to balance em both. I know that I have 2 AP classes right now, Advanced Functions, and I work a shitload at the movies. Sometimes 40 hours a week. It’s pandemonium.
Jeremy: I pulled about 60 from Wednesday to Sunday. Missed Thanksgiving dinner with my family too
Luis: as you can see. We’re all pretty busy
Jeremy: But hey, at least we bank!
Jamie: cept for my broke ass
Saint: for sure
Epic: what sacrifices have you made for the group?
Jamie: I got circumcised
Luis: I used to be a small black woman.
Jeremy: I lost my thumb in a knife fight defending our honor. Sad thing is it was against a howler monkey! Muthafuckers don't play games the go straight for the jugular
Saint: Generally, how are your beats formed? Are they made prior to lyric writing or are they made to fit the lyrics?
Luis: We find ‘em on soundclick at the moment
Jamie: sometimes we'll here the beat and a song will jus come
Luis: we usually run across a beat that we hear and we like and we write to it since we don’t produce our own yet. Or have a producer
Jamie: we will soon though, damn soon
Jeremy: We've got a few local ones we're working with, we just need to buy the beats off them. We'll get around to it once we make a profit off the last set of shirts
Epic: What are the main themes or topics for most of your songs? Do you think these topics will change over time?
Jamie: were not like kill you stab you I bang dis set all day were jus chill and rap
Luis: that’s a good way to explain it we just do what we do
Jeremy: Men, mostly
Epic: of course Jeremy.....of course
Jeremy: No homo
Epic: What can fans expect from the upcoming EP?
Luis: GOOD MUSIC
Jamie: Good ass music
Jeremy: We're actually including a free ecstasy pill in every EP case. It's a good marketing plan. It worked for Hall and Oates
Epic: drugs = no love
Saint: I’d say so. Totally would get all the ravers I bet.
Jeremy: I mean, shit, we'll take whatever fans we can.
Epic: instead make them kandi
Jamie: can it be ecstasy flavored?
Saint: wrong kandi Jamie.
Jeremy: A lot of our fans are scene kids.
Jamie: I hate scene kids I wanna kill em
Epic: those scene kids........
Saint: *bang bang shoot em up*
Luis: I enjoy them
Saint: Can you tell us a little about the equipment you are currently using?
Luis: Well, Radio Shack Mic $20 & Laptop that’s our equipment
Jamie: We got some beat makin software
Saint: which kind?
Jamie: reason 4.0, pro tools, FL studio, Sony acid, audacity we don’t exactly know how to use it all but damnit we got it!
Epic: see, that’s what we mean. The good stuff. Pro tools can be very useful once you learn how to use it correctly, and also reason.
Saint: Audacity is what we use for our podcast- simplest software around.
Luis: I used ACID to record that demo and the song today
Jamie: as in the program or the drug?
Jeremy: Both actually. We were trippin' balls, needless to say. I personally like Reason myself, but I don't really have time to play around with it a lot.
Saint: If you could do a mash up, whom would you choose to work with?
Jeremy: No one here would complain about Lil Wayne.
Jamie: between kanye and pharrell maybe Wayne
Epic: lil Wayne is CRAZY haha
Jeremy: We'd get about a million plays in a day if we had Lil Wayne on a track. Shwayze'd be interesting too.
Luis: I honestly don’t know
Jamie: let’s get miley Cyrus on a track
Saint: that would sell for sure she could count to 11 and call it 7
Luis: I’d actually wanna try some old artists to be honest like good old shit. Soul music, 80s musicians…
Jeremy: I'm really diggin a lot of Kid Cudi's stuff lately as well Dude. Michael Jackson? Pre-caucasiplasty MJ?
Luis: No, Janet. Common. I wanna work with some bands too
Epic: Gym class heroes?
Jeremy: We actually had a Gym Class Heroes kind of thing going on
Luis: like Cobra Starship, Breathe Carolina, the Secret Handshake
Jeremy: we wanted a live band to back us but it kind of fell through, we couldn't find a drummer
JAMIE: The devil wears prada or maybe sumthin smooth with secondhand serenade, 30h3
Jeremy: JUSTICE. Kinda old but good Dance, anyone?
Epic: no dude, DVNO
Jeremy: Well fuck you too!
Saint: dance pt.2 please
Jeremy: THANK YOU!
Luis: HOVA!!
Epic: What have you learned so far about the music business that you can give insight to others on?
Jeremy: Making connections with other bands is definitely a good way to get yourself known. Luis and I are always hitting up the local open mic nights around town, when we don't work.
Luis: other musicians are very generous
Jeremy: Yeah, a lot them offer to make us beats or get on a song with us. In the underground and indie scene a lot of it's reciprocal. If you help us out with a beat, we'll credit you, link you on Myspace, and get your name out as best we can.
Epic: that's sweet
Saint: What can we expect from $L in the upcoming year?
Luis: you can expect a lot like a whole hell of a lot. New Songs, The EP, new shirts, more exposure, court cases, shows, drug charges, touring, stds
Jeremy: E-True Hollywood Stories, paternity suits….
Jamie: and hopefully lots of money
Epic: just like Britney Spears
Luis: and bitches, can’t forget that
Jamie: we’re gonna have a million dollar campfire and burn a million bucks
Epic: So tell me, what's the music scene like in NC?
Jeremy: I can't say a whole lot for Raleigh or the coast or anything, we're about halfway from both, but there's a lot of acoustic and deathcore shit over here. The rap scene isn't that great
Epic: not like over here in Cali.
Jeremy: So naturally, we've got a lot of guitarist friends, a lot of talent and great vocalists. But there's not a whole lot of rap. I mean, there are some good producers in the area, Young Carter, Justin Farley, Dubconscious….
Luis: Drastikk is pretty good to I wont front.
Saint: Well hey that's 20 questions! End comments anyone?
Jeremy: For any record producers reading this, we'd swallow for a deal. Straight homo. Buy our shirts, too, on a serious note. We love our fans, some of the best in the world.
Luis: FUCKIN ADD US!! LISTEN TO US!! Everyone that’s ever helped us in anyway ever........THANK YOU!! WE MEAN IT! Jamie anything to say? Anything at all? Well I guess not….
Jamie: wait, wait, wait I had to shit....
Luis: Man… damnit Jamie
Epic: gross, there are ladies in the room dawg
Jamie: ladies shit too
Jeremy: He has a point there
Jamie: thank u Jeremy but yea I know everyone wants to go out and cop the new lil Wayne cd but lil Wayne would be know where if it wasn’t for people helping him start and in my opinion this is the hardest thing to do- developing that first buzz about your music
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