One of Canada’s most incredible MCs, Noah23, is out of retirement and firing on all cylinders on his new EP, Tropical Fruit. You can listen to it here for one week and read a revealing Q&A below.
ListenTropical Fruit by Noah23
Streaming until March 14
Tracklist
(Courtesy of Plague Language)
Not too long ago, you retired from making music. Why, man, why? And what exactly brought you back?
Well, I'd say from 2008 through 2011, I was really trying to break out and do music full time. I was organizing tours in America and also travelling to Europe. In early 2011, my album on U.S. indie rap label Fake Four was scheduled to come out and I was planning to work extra hard in unison with them to make some kind of splash and tour a lot more as well. I was not working a day job and only doing music for over a year at this time.
Basically, without going into detail, I was unhappy with the label and felt that they weren’t doing all they could to promote me. They had some internal problems as well, but I felt they were not pushing me properly. For example, I was not invited to perform at the label's festival in L.A. when my album was the very next release to come out. I thought to myself, ‘There is no point in being on a label if they don’t want to build your brand up.’ So there was a rift between us and it put me in a bad place as far as doing music.
I was touring in Europe in April to promote the album Fry Cook on Venus, and, although the tour was very successful, something clicked in me and I knew I had to take a break and possibly quit music altogether. My intentions were to drop as much music in the form of mixtapes and albums through the rest of the year to leave people something special before I retired competely. I ended up dropping something like 14 projects that year, but money was becoming a problem and I could not tour at that point if I had wanted to, I need to work. So I just recorded like a hermit in an attempt to finish off with a bang. Highlight being August 2011 mixtape Occult Trill, which gained me a whole new fan base and perspective of my place in contemporary cyber culture.
Although I knew it would be difficult to quit music forever, I was so burnt out at this point (start of 2012) that it was nice to retire. I thought it might have been permanent, too, but eventually I decided to come back for my own mental health. Music drove me crazy in the first place but helped me find my sanity after I took a break from it. I had to rediscover creating music from a pure place. I trained myself not to get frustrated anymore and just do it for fun. Wingfoot came out on the media-crazed apocalyptic, date of Dec. 21, 2012, and I've already dropped another EP.
Tropical Fruit is awesome. Very cool beats and you sound sharp and hungry (except on "Permanent Vacation," which makes it seem like you're leaving again). What kinda vibe were you going for here?
Yeah, well, as much I enjoy long albums, I thought an EP would be perfect for the short attention spans we have nowadays. Tropical Fruit was basically created around the song I did with Brooklyn/Denver artist Pictureplane. I met him when I was touring in Colorado and he explained how he listened to my early albums in high school and was now producing music and touring with Crystal Castles and stuff. I am a huge Pictureplane fan, so when he hit me up to do a jam in January, I was excited. I wanted to release it like a single so I thought an EP would be very complimentary. The song ended up being called “Tropical Fruit” and I decided I should go for a subtle island feel with a tropical motif. A beat I had from Fr<>ze (Permanent Vacation) was pretty fitting and I kind of collected up some beats that went with the mood. The first track is more of a crashed-on-the-shore-stranded kind of vibe. It was a fun concept to work with.
What is the deal with calling it Tropical Fruit and also, what are some of your favourite tropical fruits?
Well, really, when I said tropical fruit I was referring to marijuana – that’s some insider explanation for y’all, haha. I enjoy many fruits with pineapple up there. I love coconut. Mangos are great, too, but funny enough I had an allergic reaction last year to mango. It is actually related to poison oak. Look it up.
What's up next for Noah23? More records? Shows?
It feels nice to be back releasing music again! I played my first show on the winter solstice and it went great, I felt unstoppable and that my talent had not been lost to the void, haha. I'm currently booking shows in Ontario and Montreal and my bigger goals this year include playing in NYC and possibly the Guelph Hillside Festival if luck prevails. I hope to drop some new music every three months or so, next up being Blast Master Therion on May 23, which is heavy on features from guest rappers, then Occult Trill 3 in August. I'm also planning to do a Noah23 X Ween mixtape with no set date. Thanks and mega blessings.
See Noah23 live the Central in Toronto (603 Markham) on March 14.
Follow Vish Khanna on Twitter: @vishkhanna
Related:
Indie guide to the Junos: Alt Rock and Hip-Hop
Noah23 & Moka Only - "Yeah (Dirty Sample Mix)" TotD - May 25, 2010
Wrath of Khanna: The Breakfast Club with Gregory Pepper and Noah23