Matt’s Hat Interviews – Gangstagrass Edition
Always The More So Never The Less
On Saturday, September 17th, I was lucky enough to get a few minutes sitting down with Gangstagrass, the crazy mishmash band that combines fantastic bluegrass music with hip-hop lyrics and beats. They achieved a great deal of exposure after the FX Network show Justified featured their song “Long Hard Times To Come” as their main theme song.
We talked in the green room of The Knitting Factory in Brooklyn, New York, before their set anchoring the Brooklyn Loves Mountains Benefit to promote awareness of the destruction that comes from mountaintop removal coal mining.
Sitting with me were Rench, the driving force, producer, guitar player and singer for Gangstagrass, along with Dave Gross (mandolin), Dan Whitener (banjo, vocals), R-SON (vocals), Dolio The Sleuth (vocals) and Melody Allegra Berger (fiddle, vocals). Also playing that night but not present with us for the interview were Landry McMeans (dobro, vocals) and Tina Lama (bass).
Much has been written about Gangstagrass, already so we avoided many of the common questions. Gangstagrass came out of the mind of Rench, who grew up listening to country music and found a great deal of influence in the Bakersfield Sound that grew out of ’50s country music and was made popular by artists such as Buck Owens, Merle Haggard and Wynn Stewart. He eventually found himself playing bluegrass but also working as a studio producer on hip-hop recordings. One day he decided to marry the two sounds together and birthed the sound of Gangstagrass. Since then they have released five studio albums and were nominated for an Emmy along the way.
As always, I asked questions but also put a large number of questions into the hat and tossed it into the middle of the room for anyone to grab a question.
MFN: Gangstagrass has evolved over the years into the unique blend of traditional bluegrass and hip-hop that it is today. Do you see an ultimate destination for this progression, or is Gangstagrass as it is now already that destination?
The general answer from everyone was that the group as it stands is the destination that they were going for and that there never really was a specific destination in mind. Everything grew very organically and flowed naturally into what it is today. Dolio did specifically add that for himself and R-SON their overall goal was to deliver quality, intelligent and intelligible lyrics: the dexterity and the ability to put forth words that everyone can understand as it flows, which is not something everyone can really do. Melody did add that she wants to see Gangstagrass go full-on disco!
HAT QUESTION: Are you playing what you want to play or playing to get paying gigs?
This elicited a slight chuckle from Rench. They thought for a moment and remarked that they are playing what they want to play, and it so happens that people want to pay to see it. Dave Gross had a very interesting insight here when he said that many people did find Gangstagrass via Justified. After the last episode aired, he found himself asking, “’Now that this is over, so what’s next? Now we have to coast on whatever else we have going on. What are we worth as a group beyond this one claim to fame?’ However, the week after that our next album released and debuted at #5 on the Bluegrass charts. This helped solidify that people do like what we are doing.”
MFN: You received a lot of exposure off Justified, and you’ve had charting albums. Do you still have to look for gigs, or are they coming to you now?
Rench: No, we are lucky enough to find ourselves not being able to say ‘Yes’ to everything now. Before then, though, it was a very mixed bag when we would approach someone. It usually was either ‘Oh really?’ or just ‘Noooope.’
Dolio: Probably with a few spittakes in there as well.
Dan: We do get a lot of great offers, but there will be a few things that we really have to make an effort. We just recently played at the International Bluegrass Association. It wasn’t initially a super warm reception, but we kept after them and worked to convince them that we would be a good fit for them. They took a chance on us, and it worked out.
Dave: And we kicked ass!
MFN: Are there any artists out there whom you want to work with, and what are you doing to further that?
Melody: Idris Elba! I want to work with him.
R-SON: Yes! He’s a sick DJ! Bun B out of Port Arthur Texas as well. He’s an OG Southern hip-hop artist. Though I’d probably be too star-struck.
Dolio: Black Thought. He’s the greatest MC of all time. He’s a monster.
Melody: Both worlds (bluegrass and hip-hop) have such a tradition of jamming and community around them.
MFN: How do you handle those times when you have a riff or lyrics or you are trying to build a song and it just won’t work. You have an idea you just love, but you just can’t find a way to make it work. What do you do?
Melody: You just put that away.
Rench: I would say there have been tracks where it didn’t come together the way I wanted it to. Any tracks though where we set out with an idea, for example, “John Henry.” We ran into Soul Khan. He has John Henry tattooed on his arm. So I said next album, we are gonna have him do John Henry. Something like that where there is a definite idea, I can always make that happen.
Melody: Sometimes it’s just not the right time for that particular melody or song. I’m gonna keep this until it’s the right time until one day in the middle of the night you’re like I want some ice cream, and suddenly you’ll be like THAT SONG! I know what I have to write for the verse now.
Dan: We missed a train in France one time, and Randy starts freestyling, and we start playing a bit, and I pull up on my phone some lyrics I had written about missing a train. I wrote them months earlier, and it was just the right time to pull them out.
Dolio: The creative process is like a painting that you start and just keeping adding details to until it comes out.
HAT QUESTION: What genre do you consider yourself?
Pretty much in unison they all immediately yelled, “Gangstagrass!!”
HAT QUESTION: What’s the most rockstar moment you’ve had?
R-SON: Having my lyrics tattooed on someone’s arm. In one of my songs I have a line “Always the more so never the less,” and she got that tattooed on her forearm. To write something that meant enough to somebody to have it emblazoned on their body forever… that’s a crazy, crazy thing.
MFN: Do you have any goosebump moments – those times when you are either listening to music live or recorded or playing your own music when there is that perfect connection and energy where you just get goosebumps?
Melody: Constantly.
Dan: We’ve had fans come up and share really deep personal stories with us ways in which our music has touched them, inspired them or been a large part of their lives. Hearing that, just sort of makes it all real. Yeah, we party and we have fun, and a lot of nights it doesn’t get any deeper than we came out, people danced, people sweat, and they were happy. But once or twice every tour someone comes up and tells us how it affected them. It’s not even something necessarily something you were thinking about or intended, and then your eyes start to sweat.
Melody: Gangstas don’t cry!
Rench: Now that we are doing stuff that’s totally original, it’s always a goosebump moment when I bring MCs into the studio, and I hear their verses for the first time.
Gangstagrass is working on a new studio album, though they are taking their time with this one, creating some completely original sounds and pieces that will translate to an even better live performance. In the meantime, several members also have solo/side projects that have releases that have either just come out or are coming out shortly. Melody has a new album coming out with The Berger Sisters, Dan and Dave just released an album under Blue Plate Special, and Rench has a new album coming out soon. All three are released under the Rench Audio label. Dolio also just released an album called Official Soundtrack To A Work In Progress.
Gangstagrass can be found at: www.gangstagrass.com and www.facebook.com/gangstagrass
Their hit song “Long Hard Times To Come” from the FX show Justified:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yT2i2UylxJ0
For more information on Brooklyn Loves Mountains please check out: www.facebook.com/BrooklynLovesMountains
