Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Shark Tank interview from May

   Yet another interview I did months ago and never did anything with. I did this interview with Shark Tank when they played a Pittsburgh release show for their new release Fun Youngs. They're super nice, I got the chance to meet all these fools in the past. Even if you're not into what they're doing, you should still go see them to see their nonstop hilarious onstage banter. In this interview the group talked about how the members met, the unfortunate "death" of former member Mickey Free, and some future plans.

TheThrowAwayDays:Who is, and what is Shark Tank?
Shark Tank-Lord Grunge: Shark tanks is a conglomeration of independent rap artists. Independent emcees that met a long time ago, and have been boys for a long time. And it is myself, Lord Grunge from Grand Buffet, my man Height from Height with Friends, and my man B. Rich has a band called Slaves of Spanky in Ontario.
Shark Tank-B. Rich: Stand up
LG: Stand up.

T-TAD: How did you guys meet, and what happened to your fourth member, Mickey Free, who is apparently dead?
LG: Mickey Free didn't actually die, although it wouldn't be inaccurate to say he's basically dead to me. I'll always have love for him, but in my mind he's passed away. No I don't know, I don't meant to bogart this interview, but I feel like Mickey is an extremely talented dude. He's an emcee, he's a producer, he's ridiculously talented. He just wasn't in the right mind set to do another DIY project. He's all about trying to stack his paper, and get this record deal or some shit like that. Which is cool, which is cool. But like, Shark Tank, is kind of not about not giving a fuck. We're just trying to do our shit regardless weather anyone cares. And I don't think he was in the right mind state to do that, so he respectfully bowed out. There's no beef. Even though dude is dead to me, he's cool. He's like the coolest dead dude ever.

T-TAD: Alright, well how did everyone else in the group meet? Just through solo projects, or through Grand Buffet touring or what?
Shark Tank-Height: We met, Me and Grunge met, in 2000. I had a group called Wombs, it was our first and last tour. And it was on the last day of it we played Roboto Project(in Pittsburgh). And we played with Grand Buffet, and had never heard of them or heard them before. But I think it turned out to be a really awesome show. And as I went solo Grand Buffet has always helped me do my thing. You know what I mean, So we been doing various shit together for a long time, and then we met(pointing at B. Rich)well you two met before...
LG:  Yeah, B. Rich was, no disrespect, on my dick a little bit.
BR:  Little bit.
LG: Yeah.
BR: I mean, shit was tight.
LG: Grand Buffet fan,(smirking at the camera) who turned out to be very nice on the mic.
BR: Yeah I booked a show for GB, in my hometown, in the great white North, in 04. and Big Height and Mick Free were the opening acts, and I guess it jumped off from there a little more I guess…
LG: Yeah it wasn't till 2009 when we actually started making songs together and stuff. But I kinda feel like that trip, the tour, we had Mick and Height opening for Grand Buffet we met. Well I had met you before then, but like we kicked with Brendan, and it was like this dudes tight yanno, some day something is gonna go down with all these dudes.
BR: No homo.
LG:
No homo.

T-TAD:(laughs) Hell yeah. Well what do you think it would take for Shark Tank to be your main focus, you all seem to have your solo projects you're pretty wrapped up in. Is there any chance of that happening?
LG: It's something we wanna do regardless, I mean if Shark Tank ever gets the jump off. I mean of Cock Fork, or whatever, yanno. if someone ever gets behind Shark Tank, I think we'd all rise to the occasion, But I kinda feel like the goal is to keep making records regardless of anyone giving a shit. We would love it go off big, I think we'd all be very amped. But the purpose is just to crank out these records no matter what.

T-TAD: What's different about Shark Tank than about any of your solo stuff? What are some different elements that people will recognize that's different about your solo shit?
Height: Well I know for me, my solo stuff is kind of getting away from just like rapping over beats, More like either I'm trying to start the song from scratch with instruments, then kinda make it into a beat. Or whatever, I have different concepts and shit. But I feel like for me Shark Tank is more where the beats rhymes and stuff goes.
T-TAD: More conventional rap?
Height: No, not even conventional. I think for all of us, that's always been a thing, just making beats and rapping over them. Keeping it straight to the point. For me at least that's where that kind of stuff goes now. That side of myself or whatever, I dedicate towards that, if that makes any sense.
LG: Yeah, I mean I think with Shark Tank, we're keeping it rappy. Where with other project we've explored different genres. Like the Grand Buffet shit was kind of like experimental rap. Yeah I think the rap shit is going down more so in Shark Tank.
BR: Yeah I think for me the difference is it's tight to be able to rap and hang out with dudes that don't say "ey" all the time. I guess from my end of it, it's way more like rap. I'm in like rap bands. I do this rap band shit at home, it's fire. But this is way more like straight up rap to me compared to other shit I've worked on.

T-TAD: Last question, what are the future plans for Shark Tank? It's kind of hard for you guys to get together, just the cost of getting all three of you in one place for a short weekend tour. Do you guys have anything longer tours in mind?
LG: The tentative plan, and this is definitely subject to change. When we're gonna drop another record next year, we drop that, the plan is to do a proper tour. Do like a month long north American tour. In the mean time we are hoping to do some gigs, probably late summer or fall, do another run supporting Fun Youngs. But again, card subject to change, that's the loose plan. The next album "Don't Fuck with Us" which we've already started grinding on, will come out in 2013, the plan is to do a bonefied tour for it. But we're gonna continue the sporadic gig bullshit for the rest of this year.




PS once I steal a faster internet connection I'll upload some videos to youtube to link I filmed at the show.

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