Poni Hoax talk new album and more

The new Poni Hoax album (A State of War) is out today.

And so is the interview we did about a week ago.

Click to see what the charismatic Nicolas and Laurent had to say on such topics as their creative process, Chopin's mazurkas and hardcore fans :)

Un-Interview: Hipdiebattery/Heems/Le1f @ Modern

Thursday- March 7- Modern club.

Sooo we got there around 12 a.m., and a small crowd had gathered. Not bad, but more people should have turned up for such a line-up!

Le1f and Heems, old college buds, are riding high on the new hip-hop wave (when do we get to see Spaceghost Purrrp or Zebra Katz in Bucharest? wink wink!)

Hipdie was mixing the night away - l'm quoting Le1f : "wow, this is what l listen to in clubs back in New York!"

confetti break- happy birthday Hipdiebattery!

Le1f was trying to be incognito and sort of mingle in with the audience, but we immediately spotted him. In the beginning, he appeared to be more stand-offish, not really into talking. I will say this - l like seeing the performer up close before the concert, but why would you hang out in your stage outfit for two hours?

probably the tallest person in the room

Heems' eyes were a bit blurry, still he was nice, hanging out and looking through the footage on our camera - he said it looked good, you can judge for yourself by clicking the triangle below:



At some point during his performance, Heems gave a shout out to all the great people of New York in the audience: "Hello, Madison Square Garden! Hello New York!" The small but enthusiastic crowd cheered, obviously flattered. Artists usually confuse Bucharest for  Budapest, so this felt like a refreshing change.

And so we danced and rejoiced,  and Le1f took the stage after 2 a.m. I was saying earlier that he didn't surprise us with his stage outfit, buuut then at least he took his shirt off. And his hat.

l take my hat off to you!

Such fun, we kid you not, it smelled like pot and WUT IS WUT.  

We took off after 3 a.m. - little did we foresee that around 5 a.m. Le1f would be all relaxed and chatty (not catty) - therefore he posed for pictures with everybody that wanted to show off on facebook.

In the end, although we had come prepared with an uber professional fuzzy microphone, we didn't get to do any official interview. Please think about that for 10 seconds while playing a sad violin song in your head.

The Mykki Blanco Experience

Why a Mykki Blanco interview?

Although he's been quite famous for some time, I only found 3 video interviews of Mykki and just a few more written ones. Thus, I decided not to bring up the overused topics of 'gay-rapper' and 'influences'.  l must say, l love the way Mykki puts Beyonce and GG Allin in the same sentence, bedazzling both underground high brow punkers and those with mainstream preferences.

Now, to get you into the context: last concert of a two-month European tour, 10 mins before soundcheck,  and a DJ whom i diagnosed with food poisoning (more on that below).

Mykki peeling garlic 

Mykki backstage is kind, polite, funny, he blends orange juice and raw garlic for his DJ (Dave) who had eaten raw meat the previous night in Milan.

I must tell you a few words about DJ Open1One, who, like a true method actor, had treated himself to raw unseasoned meat while trying to portray  most realistically possible a character from The Lord of The Rings (l noticed his disappointed look when l told him l fell asleep during LOTR). Anyhow, others would have called in sick, but he pulled through at the DJ table.. with a plastic bucket underneath.

DJ Open1One 

I really wanted to reference the title of this poetry book, therefore the interview took place in the  club bathroom :P During our conversation, Mykki gave us some very politically correct answers ( very "American" of him, may l add :) and  also some fun insights like revealing his guilty pleasures and sharing an inside joke.

At some point he mentioned to have gotten into fights in Norway and Sweden- that was pretty unbelievable to me, considering his imposing figure, l don't get who would pick a fight?

l was curious whether he feels he fits into this decade or he feels ahead of his time, and l found out that he doesn't romanticize other eras and is happy to have an audience nowadays, when people are more open minded. l was expecting such an answer, since l also think timeframes are not that relevant, and there have always been cool spirits and blah spirits.

The interview came to an abrupt end because Mykki was needed for soundcheck. We said our goodbyes and he left. This was around 8:30 p.m.

At around 2 a.m. he got onstage in the super-crowded, smoke-filled and stroboscope-crazy  clubroom.

The Mykki Blanco experience is a 'happening', it has lyrical moments, butt-shaking stripper-like interludes, true hiphop spoken word bits, pogo, voodoo, thanking the fan in the audience who tucked in the bra label, flipping people off, calling fans onstage to dance together. What l just described may seem a hodge-podge, a mixture of separate moments, but being there, l felt a very 'whole' performance, an extension of Mykki's persona/lity which i would describe through the dichotomy “let me entertain you - fuck you”.

watch interview here