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3 men, experts in their distinctly different fields have come together under the banner of good music, radical politics and, you guessed it, booty. by David Also The idea of hip-hop being an uninspired, uncreative art form could be argued on many levels, but when it comes to Suckapunch and their new release, Pocket Change Philosophy, no debate is necessary. Keith Schreiner (Dahlia, Auditory Sculpture) and Mic Crenshaw (Hungry Mob, Cleveland Steamers) have used their disparate musical backgrounds to create a sound that is both dance friendly and incendiary. The beats are created from the bottomless well of Keith Schreiner’s creative mind. The lyrics and vocal arrangements are profound at times, silly at others, and expertly executed. Crenshaw is able to change his vocal style on every single track, even going so far as to sound like a different person altogether. I’ve followed Crenshaw for the last year, and have seen him grow as a writer and a performer. Cleveland Steamers (Mic’s group with DJ/MC Gen.Erik) played to a virtually empty Berbati’s last summer at MusicFestNW, and the poor attended may have been a blessing. Erik was missing cues and Mic seemed uncomfortable and overly serious. But when Suckapunch opened up for KRS one last winter, they out-performed even the headliner. When the room is packed, Crenshaw comes alive with an energy and happiness that’s extremely difficult to find on the independent circuit. He was flawless and spontaneous in his performance, and charming between songs. Schreiner is no slouch, either. He’s one of the most active musicians in town. He’s the backbone of Portland’s darling club sensation Dahlia, and works tirelessly with many musicians here and abroad. Besides working with prestigious advertising agents and other personal clients, he’s currently putting together music with Corrina Repp and James Beaton (Everclear/Storm & the Balls). There’s no question regarding his professionalism, let alone the intensity of his music. His persistence and talent have given him the ability to provide a foundation for his home, business and growing family. The new member of the band, Dale Morris, is a guitar virtuoso who regularly performs with legendary blues/soul/gospel singer Linda Hornbuckle. He’s street savvy and eloquent, with his life-long passion for music being, at times, the only thing he could return to. In performance he becomes part alchemist as he can turn a gritty guitar riff into spontaneous line of golden melody, perhaps inspired by his duty as a pagan clergyman. He’s also a piercing specialist, a suspension performer (just what it sounds like) and a college instructor. He teaches a class at PCC called “How not to suck or fuck up,” giving away all the secrets of musical success. Suckapunch has taken on the challenge of recapturing the energy of Tuesday nights at the Ohm. They hope to create some of the same excitement that was so present during the Dahlia heyday. Schreiner says that he goes for it a lot more in this band, that he’s taking a lot more chances with remixing and reprogramming while on stage, but the band still works on material together outside of the club. They’ve already put together over half a dozen more songs, and they’re currently putting the material into their weekly act. In the meantime, all 3 gentlemen continue working with other artists. Looking to dish, I asked them if they had ever experienced any jealousy or pressure from people involved in their other projects. MLP: According to your interview with Alex Steininger you're both fans of Hella? Do you listen to other math rock bands or is that just one kind of a novelty for you? Keith: I’m a big giant whore. I play with everybody. I don’t care. Plus I want everyone I work with to usually have five or six other projects and bands. I don’t want to be someone’s only thing. Everyone that I work with, on a professional level, has a shit load of other projects and that can only make it better. Every time something good happens…I mean if Hungry Mob all of the sudden finishes the record and it’s selling hot, that’s going to help Suckapunch. Maybe people who are insecure are going to think, “Oh shit he’s dumping us.” But he wouldn’t dump us. The more highlight that one band gets, the side projects and offshoots of that band will get a little boost too. So I can only see it as a good thing. Mike: We’re all professional artists and it’s hard to make a living, so limiting ourselves is counterproductive. It takes a lot of projects just to keep— Keith: —the money rolling in to pay your bills. I mean Dale had to miss a whole month of shows this past month with us because he had a paying gig that he had to jump on. Tuesday Nights were just developing so there’s no guarantee that we could provide reliable money, and there was no question, “Go make money, don’t even think about not being in that gig.” Dale: One of the reasons I like this project so much, in addition to musicianship and the content of the lyrics and all that, is that there’s no drama...everyone’s grown. In situations where that’s not the case it drives me up the wall. I have no patience anymore in my life for people that don’t want to act like they’re grown. I make my living as a musician. It’s important for me to play, because that’s how I get paid. That’s all I do, a rare breed in Portland, Oregon. But I will drop a paying gig in a heartbeat if the drama is so much that I just can’t hang anymore. I’m too old for that. Mike: I’m telling you there hasn’t been a more perfect relationship between myself and a producer. I’ve worked with some really good producers, but Keith really enjoys what he does and he enjoys what we do together and he takes it and he works the hell out of it. And that’s important. I’ve laid down vocals with some cats that are going to sit there and say, “Oh yeah that’s fine. Good job.” And I’m going to come back and listen to the shit and they didn’t even do anything and that’s not pushing anything. We want to get beyond where we’ve been every time that we do something. Keith: Mike is so fucking humble about this thing, because I know shit about rap. I’ll sit in the studio and
MLP: You are a group of socio-political artists, which kind of makes you a spokesperson of whatever…What does that mean for you? Dale: I’ve had a lot of experience living some serious bullshit. My interface with the universe wasn’t sincere. I was a mess. I was a heroin addict. I was all the things that I never wanted to be. The only thing that got me out of the whole clusterfuck lifestyle was to learn how keep it real for real, actually do the shit on a daily basis, be self-sufficient as possible. We are so distracted in our cultural system…just trying to keep ourselves from noticing just how fucked up things have gotten. We enhance or diminish everyone we come in contact with. What am I bringing to the table? Am I bringing some bullshit, or where am I at? Man, it’s a tough job in America, but to be able to stick by my guns and feel good about that and not worry so much about whether or not the scene in my hometown appreciates what I’m about—because most likely they are not going to. Straight white guy over 35 with biceps, I’m the least popular notch on that social totem pole of creative packs in Portland, OR. True story, but I still stick to my notch. Mike: There’s chicks that dig that shit. Keith: What you said about artists being spokespeople and being in a band that’s so political, I’m still getting used to it. I don’t know. I left a career, a good one, to become a musician. I didn’t do it because I looked at a poster, or a guy in a magazine. I love writing, I’ll write for anything. As far as being a spokesperson, I don’t know how I feel about that. I never tried to be political in my music. I write pictures, I do movie soundtracks, but this is like “Wow, I actually buy into all this stuff. This is what I think about and how I think.” That’s new, there’s a whole different level to being in a band. All the projects that I’m usually in, we don’t all sit down as a band and say, “Okay, here’s my part and here’s your part.” Mike comes in with a notebook of lyrics and I have two hard drives filled with songs, and then we just start comparing stuff. With other projects, I didn’t always like the lyrics, but it’s not my place, I’m not a lyricist. MLP: And you don’t want to step on their ego... Keith: And the ego thing gets in the way usually. This one is just a lot different. I’m not only musically proud of the band, but excited because we actually might have the potential to say something. When I get off-stage, whether there’s 15 people or 300, I feel that at least some of the people walk away with the sense of, “Wow the beats were crushing, but man I got shit to think about.” [At the KRS-One show] there’s was this song where Mike goes, “What’s it going to take?” I just muted the track and let him go acapella, and he’s awesome, because he stays in time. Rap music, for a lot of audience members, is sometimes hard to hear, because most MCs don’t have mic control, and that matters. That show reinforced that Mike was not just playing the big black rapper. Dale: This is really important to me, because I’ve played with black musicians most of my career, the blues scene, the funk scene, whatever. Things have shifted from the way they were 20 years ago. My politics and Mike’s politics are like two peas in a pod. Totally on the same page, and that’s so refreshing to me because we can actually talk about shit that’s relevant and what’s really going on as opposed to worrying about the whole PC thing, which is just crippling for a lot of folks in terms of encouraging real dialogue. I bite my tongue in some of the projects I’m in because people have bought into that whole manifestation of what they see on television as an expression of their interface with the universe. And if I say anything at all then I’m a hater. And I’m so not a hater. I did two years in the penitentiary and I was kicking it with people that were still doing time for the Black Panther shit that went on in LA in the late ‘70s. I mean we were kicking it with them and the eco-terrorists and we all hung out and talked about real shit. Mike’s the first person that I’ve hooked up with since I’ve been out that I can have the same conversations with. I can’t even tell you what that means to me. Mike: Dale touched on the point of being politically correct to the point that it cripples people. I’ve had this experience over and over again with people on the Left. “We’re supposed to be on the same team, but you’re about to kick me out of your house because I cooked some fuckin’ eggs in your skillet and you’re a vegan.” There’s people out here that can’t even get eggs and don’t even have a skillet, or a stove or a kitchen. I’m not an anarchist. I’m not a Marxist. I’m not a socialist. I’m just a mother fucking human being that’s trying to make sense of what’s right.... MLP: It’s seems that the Right seems more comfortable being lumped together than a lot of people on the left. The Libertarians, the conservatives, the Christians and whatnot don’t seem to mind getting together and voting for the same guy and agreeing on the main points of the issues. Whereas a lot of times on the Left— Keith: it’s fractioned... MLP: There’s that really fine line between being determined and being intolerant, being enthusiastic and being exclusionary. Keith: I don’t ever want to tell anybody what to do. I want them to make their own decisions. George Carlin came out years ago and said, “This is a really bad American idea, this crazy thing is called thinking.” And Chris Rock, in his newest thing, says something similar: “I’m the type of guy that hears something and I like to think about it for awhile and come up with my opinion.” That’s what I try to do. I don’t make my mind up easily...I have a lot of issues that would I be placed on the Left politically? MLP: Well that’s how you ended up on the Left in the first place, you started thinking for yourself. But then we all end up disagreeing in the same room... Mike: A lot of times those are the people that have the sticker that says, “I’m into diversity,” but they never had to deal with the adversity that comes along with diversity. There’s a lot of people that have ideas, but they’re not going to back that up physically if they need to. Keith: And they wouldn’t even know how to because of that comfort level. MLP: That’s where the Right has a stronghold, because they don’t mind. They’re like, “We’re going to be comfortable and be okay with it.” Mike: “We’re not going to have guilt associated with our comfort.” Dale: I think pacifist is just a college word for coward. Any animal will fight to protect its young. And for some reason that left in America. It’s an extreme act of self-centeredness, MLP: They’d rather just call the people on the right stupid. Dale: Well they are, that’s an easy one. MLP: And leave it at that? Mike: That’s where the art comes in, because these are the most fundamental problems that affect every facet of existence. That’s the type of shit that I think about when I sing. Seriously, I mean I think about burritos and french fries and booty... Dale: I thought about booty once.... Mike: But when the booty’s over and the fries are cold...that’s what the art is for. That’s the shit that none of us necessarily have the answers for. I can’t lease the whole planet, I don’t want to have that responsibility, but when I’m trying to figure out what I can do in my life to overcome that shit, that’s where I pick up the pen and start writing some shit. Keith: The best that I can hope for anyone listening to the album, and what they can take away from it is hopefully they just dig it as a piece of music, plain and simple, but also hopefully they can get behind it. I mean all times are serious, I object that we live in a serious time. There’s never been an unserious time. It’s always fucking serious, there’s always something going on. Dale: No matter how serious it gets there’s still booty. Keith: There’s always booty, unless you get married, then it stops. Mike: Booty turns to gluteus maximus.. Mike: Yeah this is socio-political, however, we’re going to write songs about booties. There was this guy last night that was like, “Man, your shit is too political.” And I’m like, “Phew, thanks.” But I’m going to write stuff about ass too, and it’s going to be better than any of that bullshit that you listen to. You know, it’s still going to be political, whatever. That’s what Suckapunch is to me, this record is really good, but it is just the tip of the iceberg. Dale: Some of the heaviest shit ever written has been about ass, but it was written by Thomas Moore, Camille Paglia, and all those cats. -mlp |
I’ll tell him, “Another take, another take, another take.” After Mike really throws it down, I get really pumped and scream when he’s done. And Mike’s like, “That’s the sound I like to hear when I’m done with a take.” And I’ve done it time and time again. I felt nervous for the first couple of months of recording Mike, because obviously I got a shit load of respect for what he does, but from a production stand point, I know what sound and delivery and performance is going to work with what beat. I just got used to the fact that Mike is open to that. I mean if he feels it, I’m not there as Mr. Director, or anything. If he says, “That’s the one,” I go okay because he knows.
“My karma is more important than the entire planet’s ability to sustain complex life. My karma is more important than the fall-out of not acting to correct something that’s killing everybody.” The man that will destroy will do so, it’s an addiction. It’s like being a crackhead. They’re not going to quit because you point out to them that it’s a bad idea. You’re dealing with a full-blown addiction. Our entire social, political and economic system is based off of an addictive public. As a recovering heroin addict, I understand what addiction is and I know how it’s the most powerful psychological force human beings can experience because it will supercede caring for your young and even fending for one’s self. Basic self-preservation is superceded to an addiction. That’s heavy shit. The Left doesn’t want to confront that, because that’s really uncomfortable because then you realize what you’re really up against. Rather than in-fight and semantics and who’s eating eggs—