Jul 14, 2014 8 Questions with: Michael Nhat
I met Michael Nhat in 2010 when I interviewed him for a piece in Giant Robot mag. The prolific indie rapper was out his mind making music and videos, performing at house parties, art galleries, and underground shows, enjoying zero commercial success, and not giving a crap about the latter. His creativity for creativity’s sake was a great reason for an article, and I thought his story would inspire anyone who labors for love in the face of oppression.
So it was excellent to hear from Michael a couple of weeks ago. After relocating to Philadelphia, he’s been back in L.A. and making more music than ever. Not enjoying an iota of success but still as dedicated to his craft as he ever was. I caught up with him by the very paddle boats in Echo Park where he filmed a recent video, and asked him Imprint’s 8 Questions while I was at it.
How would you describe your gig?
I’m not going to be alive forever, so I’ll lay all my cards out.
You could say vaguely electronic dance with soul. You could say computer punk rap with noise. You could say futuristic ’80s meets bass music meets noise meets angry Asian rapper. You could say digital ’60s versus a Viet Cong’s ghost with a rhyme dictionary. You could say computerized happy music versus “gook” with an attitude. You could say them all and they all describe my music.
I built this city with the goal of having a message like Bikini Kill, Public Enemy, Paris, and Crass, but in perspective of an abandoned Vietnamese refugee. Since 1995, I wrote a bunch of pro-Asian songs years before I heard of “Azn Pride” in the late ’90s. I wanted to be the Malcolm X of Asian Americans in my lyrics. I even wanted glasses like his. I tried to buy them in the ’90s in high school but they didn’t exist in Iowa. So when black framed glasses became mainstream again, I got the ones I wanted as well as the false accusation of being trendy and a typical hipster.
There was a long period in my years of recording where I stopped making sense and wrote stuff that looked like poetry on paper. My old random/abstract songs are inspired by U-God, Beck, and Sonic Youth, but I don’t write that way anymore. Nowadays, I make it a point to make sense.
The way I move or structure and rhyme my words around a beat are inspired by (again) U-God and Method Man of Wu-Tang Clan. As well as Juicy-J of Three Six Mafia.
My volume is inspired by my first time on stage in 1992 (people were booing and couldn’t hear me, so I started yelling and found my voice on stage) and by Beastie Boys 1995 “Root Down.” I loved hearing their high voices shrill into the mic. It was alive like punk. As opposed to the calm, high as a kite delivery’s like EPMD (later Mase), the Beasties Boys’ approach on vocals was more appealing to me. Don’t get me wrong: I don’t dislike the average rappers with a whispers volume, but I don’t like how I sound when I do it. So I don’t. If you’re not comfortable with yelling or think it’s unnecessary then don’t. There’s no “better” way to rap.
The music is inspired by house, noise and anything silly. It might not make sense to the masses but I really like the evil juxtaposition of childish dance-like melodies with intense, cynical, and dark barking. Off the top of my head, here are some some specific songs that inspire my beats:
A. Skeeter Davis, “I Can’t Stay Mad At You”
B. The Brady Bunch, “It’s a Sunshine Day”
C. Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons, “Sherry”
D. The Velvet Underground, “I’m Waiting For My Man”
E. Bay City Rollers, “Saturday Night”
What are some projects that you are currently working on?
I plan on working on music videos for Onslaught and Heads on Sticks. The double release was a lot of work, so I’m not rushing to complete any new music ventures until after the summer. But when I do it, this will be a project where all of the music is produced by other producers. Working title used to be Mars Canal (Yeah, I stole that from Rampo Noir) but I changed it to They Made The Beats, Volume 1. After that, I plan on returning to producing another solo starting with the leftover A-list beats from the Heads on Sticks session. The working title for that is Bats on Promenade.
Over the years, I have been working on a second film called Dishes 2. It’s not good. It’s all random footage, just like my first film Dishes, and it’s taking forever. I debate with myself whether I should scrap it and use the footage as music videos for Onslaught and Heads on Sticks. Or take my time and finish it. It’s not a priority at all, and hasn’t been since 2012.
Can you describe a typical workday?
I have a daily routine that I try to stick to. My fiancée goes to work. I wake up. I make breakfast for my stepson and me. I peel and eat one kiwi, five mini-carrots, and drink a glass of water or English black tea with one spoonful of sugar. It’s usually the afternoon when I record. If I have nothing else going on that day, I close all the windows and curtains and I am ready to begin.
I sit in front of my computer beside my bed. It’s on a black dresser. I wish I had a computer desk so my legs could fit comfortably, but we don’t have the room for it. I turn on the computer. I open up the software. I connect whatever hardware needs connected. I then usually do one of two things: I will either make a beat from complete randomness or I will already have a sound/melody/harmony in my head prior to turning on the computer and rush to get it on so I can record a draft of it before losing it. It usually takes me one to four hours to start and complete one instrumental. Sometimes, I will do this for hours and make maybe five (at the most) in a day or night. After a certain amount of time of working on beats for about a month or two. I go back to them on iTunes. I make a playlist and name it something generic like “July 2014 Beats.” Then I listen to all the entire playlist. I divide it into two more playlists named A-list and B-list. I choose which ones are my favorites and which ones are not. This process is based on which ones I think other people will like and those I personally like so much I will regret not recording to them if I die. And which ones I personally like but I don’t think other people will. Those I often keep to myself, and they make up B-list.
It doesn’t always happen, but I try to have a name and cover art first. If I do, the A-list gets renamed it. I try to limit myself to 40 minutes for an album because I am naïve enough to think some label will pick it up someday and maybe put it on vinyl, which maxes out at 40 minutes. If I make more than 40 minutes of A-list beats, the excess go on a new A-list playlist that will make up the start of the next project/album I work on.
Next, I go through a milk crate of lyrics I’ve written between 2000 and 2014. I play mix and match with the renamed A-list. I base which ones go with what on instinct and tempo. If I don’t have something that fits a beat, which is half the time, I write something new, on-the-spot for it. After I have songs on paper ready, I start to record these lyrics. I average four to six songs in a day before my voice goes out from screaming and yelling. (Which reminds me to inform everyone who says “You don’t sound like you when you rap” it’s because I’m yelling and screaming).
At the earliest a week, at the latest a month, I will have recorded vocals for all the A-list beats. I make WAVs of them all. I listen to them daily and go back and fix or change whatever I feel needs it. Then I listen to the playlist more to figure out the song order. Then I upload them online somewhere, just in case the hard drive or computer goes out. And then I listen again to see which songs need a music video.
Where do you find motivation and inspiration to keep going after all these years?
I know I am not the right body type or race or demeanor for success in the hip-hop world. I know it’s an uphill battle. However, I won’t stop because I don’t care.
I love the music I make. I am my biggest fan. I have not quit because I want to hear the music I make. It doesn’t sway my ambition if no one likes it or every media outlet/blog shuns me. No. I will still make music solely because I want to hear it. Yes, it does bother me more that people don’t but that is not a good enough reason for me to quit making something I love to make. If I did it for fame and money, I would have quit years ago. I am inspired by the aural masturbation.
People quit when they don’t get their expected results. They thought something was going to happen and it didn’t. They are inspired by a goal beyond creativity. I am not.
You have a massive back catalog. Do you ever revisit your old songs? What’s that like?
Nope. I do not go back and listen to my old albums for pleasure. I do it during a session looking for samples. And sometimes while doing this, I will get inspired to write a sequel to an old song for an upcoming project or whatever I’m working on at the moment. On an extremely rare occasion, someone will email me they liked some old song or album and that email will influence me to go back and listen to it. I always do that. I guess I try to understand what that person is thinking when he or she is hearing it for the first time. When I do that, I sometimes I see it differently than the week it was finished. Sometimes, I’ll take notes of mistakes and also of things I like and want to remember to do again.
Listening to anything new and interesting at the moment?
I was listening to Erase Errata, Pens, and Ice Cube’s Death Certificate when I recorded Onslaught. The newest CD I have is my labelmate Habits’ CD. The most interesting vinyl is The Korean Children’s Choir’s To The World with Love.
As a kid, what did you want to be when you grow up?
When I was a kid I wanted to be an artist. I wanted to draw cartoons for a living. Then, maybe in the 4th or 5th grade, I decided I wanted to make horror films. First I wanted to be in them. Then I quickly decided I wanted to make them, cast them, design the creatures, etc. It wasn’t until high school that my mom and my guidance counselor told me artists don’t make a lot of money and my chances in the movie business were slim to none. In 8th or 9th grade I started freestlyling with my friends everywhere we went. In 1992 I signed up for the Junior Variety show to rap on stage for the first time. After that, I wanted to be an underground rapper like Esham and Triple-Six Mafia. (Before they changed their name to Three Six Mafia, they were unsigned and making DIY tapes but had a fan base.)
What’s your favorite place to attend shows and favorite place to perform music? Any gigs coming up that we need to know about?
Gee, so many favorite places have disappeared. Vermont House used to be my favorite spot to attend and perform, but it is gone now.
And I don’t have any gigs planned. I’ve gotten asked, but decline. In fact, I was just asked via gmail messaging at this exact second if I wanted to play somewhere. That was highly coincidental.
Part of the reason I don’t perform is I’m scared no one will come, that I will embarrass myself, and it will disappoint the the booking people. I used to book shows at Second Street Live Jazz before Matsumoto passed away. So I appreciate the work and how things are done from that point of view. I’m scared audiences won’t come because I’m too broke to promote them successfully. And I’m scared they won’t come because I’ve turned into an über-introverted hermit. Which is my way of saying I don’t have support from friends. And I don’t know what happened to my fan base. I think I pissed everyone off who loved my 12″ debut by releasing four shitty follow-ups of disappointment. That was until December 2013’s Hyenas Because Hyenas…
Check out Michael on Soundcloud, Spotify, iTunes, and YouTube. He has a mix coming up on Bandcamp really soon, and michaelnhat.la is a great place to find out more about his music, movies, and maybe even some shows.
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