From the moment you first hear Flatbush Zombies their music hits you in the solar plexus. It’s cinematic yet bathed in the grime and grit of the street. It's the sound of the intellectual outsider but also activates out your inner thug. Without doubt the Flatbush Zombies are the crowned kings of the "Beast Coast" scene and Erick Arc Elliot, besides being an incredibly skilled rapper, is the Zombies’ flawless producer, an innovative pioneer who was born with an absolute need to create. Gigwise enlisted the help of Deadcuts guitarist Jerome Alexandre, who has collaborated with the band, to track down Elliot to pick his brain for a while….
I first got to meet Erick Arc Elliott, Meechy Darko and Zombie Juice at Camden’s Koko in September 2016 when they were here in the UK touring their album ‘3001 A Laced Odyssey’, which was my summertime soundtrack of that year. From the second they hit the stage the energy was frenetic and didn't let up for the entire show. At one point Meech disappeared from the stage then reappeared on the upper balcony and took a leap into the crowd much to the security's disdain. Even for the more melancholy tracks like " Fly Away" and "This Is It" the energy continued unabated and it was undoubtedly one of the greatest I'd seen in years. After their performance I hung out with the guys backstage and we instantly struck up a friendship and on their next day off Erick dropped by our studio to record a track called "Some Nights" with my group Deadcuts. That led to recording another track with Flatbush Zombies entitled "Aries" for Marvel's ‘Black Panther’ animated series, and in a bizarre twist it turned out that Erick was a fan of the Gorrilaz whom our drummer Cass was a founding member of as well as Senseless Things, a group that Deadcuts singer Mark put together with Cass in their teens. Next up Erick asked our bassist Aaron Scarz and myself to contribute to tracks on tracks his solo album ‘Arcstrumentals’. Here, I'll be asking The Architect about "Arcstrumentals vol2" which was released in February 2018, the new Flatbush Zombies album "Vacation In Hell", the stresses and strains of the industry and what a day in the life of the greatest producer since RZA is like….
Jerome Alexander: When not touring, you’re doing interviews, fashion shoots etc. How did you find the time to create 21 tracks for ‘Arcstrumentals 2’?
Erick Arc Elliot: I worked on ‘Arcstrumentals 2’ and ‘Vacation In Hell’ at the same time. It was kind of easy, because they were two different vibes. ‘Arc2’ was a little more lo-fi and chill, I was more focused on the story with the skits and the writing. I wasn’t really focused on trying to make songs that have lyrics. I wanted the music to kind of paint the picture for me, and ‘Vacation In Hell’ was the opposite. They helped finish each other in that way.
JA: I can hear that Miles Davis, Prince, Tupac and Sly Stone are influences on this album but also I can hear industrial/ soundtrack flavours on here too. How important is it to you to make records that'd tear up the rule book and why?
EE: I don’t think I’m doing it intentionally, but I enjoy a lot of different music. In my mind I’m tapping into all these different genres, again not intentionally but because that’s what I’m influenced by. One day I’ll call on a certain artist in my mind, another day I feel differently. The more you listen to music the more inspired you become, and for somebody like me I just need to create. I don’t do anything on purpose to be different. I just like being unique and putting things together that don’t traditionally go together.
JA: Each album you make conjures a lot of imagery to the listener - you've referenced Kubrick - but are there any films in particular that you go back to time again for inspiration?
EE: The movie I go back to is ‘American History X’, I love that movie! Ed Norton did a great job. It doesn’t really make me think of music, but I watch it a lot with the sound off because the imagery is so shocking. The writing and cinematography was awesome. ‘The Matrix’ that’s where I got my Architect moniker from. The Architect was watching the whole time. The matrix was a world where you’re “jacked in”, and you can do all these things in your mind to manipulate your reality. If you haven’t seen ‘The Matrix’ I don’t know why you wouldn’t?! I watch ‘The Office’ all the time too, and of course the classics: I grew up on ‘Martin’, ‘Wayne's Brothers’ and ‘The Jamie Foxx show’.
JA: You toured last year with Snoop Dogg. Did you find it a challenge playing to his audience?
EE: Nah, It wasn’t a challenge. Every night we went out there and made sure what we did was remembered by the people that were watching it. We knew we were putting on for a legend. Every night we gave our best, it didn’t matter who knew us and who didn’t. We gained a lot of fans, every night and it was really surreal to be able to do something like that for a legend. It’s still pretty crazy when you think about it.
JA: You’re an incredibly calm individual considering your workload is neverending…. You’re not a person of excess, so how do you achieve a relative level of peace?
EE: Having control is being at peace with yourself. A lot of times when we overwhelm ourselves we think that energy is permanent. For me, during the times of doubt that any human being and every artist has, I try to channel something that says this isn’t forever. It’s something you’re going to work through every day. There’s other ways to do that - painting, writing, the things you do every day that stress you out, take a step away from that and try to go back to it later.
JA: You paint, take photographs and make music. What else do you really enjoy doing that hasn't anything to do with art or music?
EE: I like playing video games. I like old video games like Dreamcast and Super Nintendo. I play the new shit too, but I really like the old stuff.
JA: Your piano playing is second to none. Are there any other instruments you'd like to master? And were there any instruments you played on ‘Arcstrumentals vol2’?
EE: I played some guitar. That was the first time I played guitar for a song that’s on the album. I played some trumpet, I haven’t owned one since I was in high school but I want to go back to that. The next thing would be drums. I really, really want to do that shit. Something like that is like left brain and right brain working together!
JA: If Flatbush Zombies were to feature in a cartoon who would be the animator?
EE: To be honest I don’t know a lot of animators, but I like the way ‘Rick & Morty’ is animated, and maybe ‘The Simpsons’. The nostalgia of ‘The Simpsons’ and the humour of ‘Rick and Morty’, the way the characters were drawn are hilarious.
JA: Do you believe in life after death? If so do you have an experience you can share?
EE: I don’t want to get into a big thing about it, but I think after you die your soul is ever present. I don’t really believe the grave is just the end of your life and you rot away. You can take that for whatever it is you believe in. There’s more to life than being disposed.
JA: There’s a story in ‘Arcstrumentals vol2’ about a wedding. Is any of it partly based on a true story?
EE: None of it is based on a true story, but I wrote it because of my parents. So I guess subconsciously it was a story about how my parents wedded. A lot of people’s parents experience turmoil and divorce, it’s a testament to two people who stayed together. I think people are less in love and in denial and scared to be committed to somebody.
JA: ‘Vacation In Hell’ is out in a less than a month, can't wait to hear it. How did you come up with the title and what does it reflect?
EE: Meech thought of the title. I’d rather it be interpreted by him but generally, it’s about making the best of a bad situation. Something that appears to be perfect is really not; even on a vacation.
JA: You get to the chance to summon three dead artists to collaborate with - who are they?
EE: Jimi Hendrix, Prince, Miles Davis.
JA: Will you always be a New Yorker and if you left do you think the FBZ sound would change?
I will always be a New Yorker. I will always be from New York I can’t ever not be a Brooklynite. Do I think the sound would change? It would change something, but I can’t tell you what it would change. It won’t lose the aesthetic of hip-hop and the streets, the grime and how beautiful it is. Even if you leave New York you always take a piece of it with you, I don’t know if it’s because of the water or the pizza, but yeah.
* ‘Vacation In Hell’ is out today (6 April) – -order via TheGloriousDead.com
* Flatbush Zombies’ US tour also kicks off on 6 April at Rough Trade in Brooklyn. Watch the FBZ documentary ‘Building A Ladder’ by Ellington Hammond on the FlatbushZombiesTv YouTube channel.
