Anami Vice is a local Vancouver hip hop, solo artist with a bright future. The Ne Wfut Ure EP is his official debut that came out a few months back. It’s a collection of eight songs that he’s been brewing up for a few years now. He’s also working on his second album, due at the end the summer. I had the chance to chat with him about his days of rapping in his buddy’s basement to recording albums showcasing his beats and lyrics. Be sure to check out some of his tracks on his myspace (http://www.myspace.com/anamivice) page.

Killahbeez: So how did you get started? What’s your background?

Anami Vice: I’ve always liked hip hop. When I was 15 my buddy told me we were going to a friend’s house to rap. I was pretty resistant to the idea because I thought it was silly. I had never tried it before. So we went over to my buddy’s house and I guess he had just bought new turn tables and it had a sampler on it so we could loop tracks. There were five us and we all wrote 16 bars each. It turns out I was alright at it. Then we formed a group and we sporadically recorded and performed for ten years after that but we never did anything serious with it.

KB: Now you’re solo?

AV: Yeah. Over the years we formed different groups with the crew. Two of us would go off and do some songs together. Five of us would do the same. There’s a lot of recorded material but none of it saw the light of day, probably because we never thought it was good enough. There are a couple of guys who started out with us who are pretty serious into it now. A guy name Jeff Spec, he was at that first session and then split off from the group and worked on it seriously and now he has quite a few releases. But I never got there.

KB: Is anyone else in your family musically inclined?

AV: After getting into music I discovered that a couple of my uncles on my mother’s side do a weekly thing in a pub somewhere in Holland where they play cover songs, old Dutch folk tunes. As far as anyone else doing it seriously, that’s the only thing I’ve heard.

KB: What’s your background?

AV: My mother is Dutch and my father is Indian.

KB: Does your background influence any of your music?

AV: I don’t think so. I think I was heavily influenced by hip hop. I don’t think any of those sounds really found their way into my music. Not to say that they won’t in the future. For awhile Indian classical music and Indian pop was being sampled heavily in hip hop and I attempted that a few times over the years but nothing on my album has anything like that. I haven’t consciously made an effort to do that. Maybe in the future.

KB: How would you describe your music?

AV: I think I try to be as honest as I can with the lyrics. I’m not predisposed to using any particular type of beats. I like stuff that makes you want to nod your head. I’ve noticed that gangster rap sounds really good, but I don’t have anything gangster to say.

KB: Who are your musical inspirations? Who got you into hip hop?

AV: I remember the first two rap tapes I had were Young MC and Tone Loc. I think my major influences now, the people I listen to when I’m feeling uninspired, are Pharoahe Monch, Jay-Z, LP, and I really like Juelz Santana. The latest thing I bought is the new K’NAAN album. I didn’t like the first one but I really like the new one. It’s really cool. I thought it was going to be all one style but it’s really versatile.

KB: Do other music genres inspire you?

AV: Yeah for sure. I think lyrically a lot more than hip hop in terms of content. I grew up listening to my dad’s records like Paul Simon and the Beatles. My lyrics are really cryptic but if you listen carefully you’ll hear homage to Paul Simon here or there or an illusion to a Beatles lyric or something like that. I love listening to Lennon and his silly play on words.

KB: What’s your writing process like?

AV: It’s pretty standard. I sit down at the computer and I have a whole bank of samples like a keyboard line that I’ve been playing and I’ll make a beat and the beat will inspire me in some way to write something and then I go ahead and write to the beat. It’s usually the beat first and then I write the lyrics and then I try to record as quickly as possible, I find a get better result if I do that. I like to get in and put the song down while the beat is still moving me.

I’m trying to think of new stuff all the time, maybe too much. I think that like most artists, I never like the last stuff I did; I’m always looking forward to the new stuff. I put out that last album last December and I’ve already stopped dealing with it and am now actively writing a new album. I’ve already recorded half of the new album.

KB: What’s your cover art about?

AV: My dad’s a painter. I don’t actually know what it looks like on the cover but it’s a really small detail of a charcoal that he did. He did a whole series of charcoals after he came back from a trip to Mexico. It’s a small detail of half of the head of a figure that was on one of those charcoals.

My buddies and I laugh about that album cover because it looks like a world music album cover.

KB: What else do you do on the side?

AV: I enjoy writing. I don’t know if I’m any good at it but I really enjoy doing it. I’ve written some slam poetry that I’ve never actually slammed but the process is enjoyable.

KB: Would you ever consider publishing your writing?

AV: I’ve thought about it many times but I don’t know if I’m any good.

KB: Yeah but that’s a fear that a lot of artists have. You have to be confident but at the same time art is so subjective that no matter how great you think your work is, there will always be someone ready to knock you down.

AV: I think I’m most worried of myself judging me. I think with hip hop I’m pretty sure I’m not bad, but with other stuff, I’m not so sure, I might suck. I worry about that. I don’t worry about other people judging me; I think maybe I can handle that. I worry about giving myself a hard time and discovering that I actually suck.

KB: Well we’re always our worst critics. We might think something sucks but other people love it and what we love other people will think sucks.

AV: That’s funny because my least favourite track on the album I’ve been told, by the majority of people, is the crowd favourite.

KB: Which is your favourite and which is the crowd favourite?

AV: My favourite is track two “Shut Em Down” and track three is everybody else’s favourite, “Red Slippers”.

I think people really enjoy the beat of “Red Slippers”, it’s really up-tempo. The chorus gets in your head, I’m saying something that’s a cliché line so you can sing along with it and you feel like you’ve already heard it before. Actually so is track two, the chorus is an old Public Enemy chorus. I just like track two because it’s a little more evil, less up-tempo and happy.

KB: Why is it evil? What is it about?

AV: At the time I wrote “Shut Em Down”, I was serving, so there’s a lot of allusions about serving people and having them boss me around and having to smile and take it.

It’s also a reference to me closing the restaurant every night. I try not to worry too much about staying on topic but have sort of a general theme that I stick with. I think that’s what I like about the song, I like the lyrics a lot and that the beat is dark and that it’s a simple baseline.

KB: Any collaboration you’d like to make happen?

AV: For hip hop I really like Cadence Weapon, I think he’s doing some really cool stuff. He’s almost not even hip hop anymore; he’s gone electro-pop with mc-ing on it.

For awhile I stopped rapping and picked up a guitar and thought I was a singer/songwriter. I realize that I’m good at the writing thing but I don’t think I was really good at the playing and singing thing. I really enjoy Joel Plaskett and I think that his writing and tunes are right up my alley. I would love to write a song for Joel Plaskett although his strength is writing so I don’t know why he would need me.

I’ve always done my own beats and I would really like to rhyme over a Just Blaze beat or rhyme over an original Neptune beat: that would be really cool. Or have Pharrell sing on a hook!

KB: So what’s the new album like?

AV: I set out to do something a lot more accessible. People would say, I really like track three, so I tried to hone in on what it was they liked about it and what I didn’t like about it. I think it’s that there’s a really accessible chorus and the beat is up-tempo and I thought, well why not make an album that has those elements but that I also really enjoy.

The lyrics are much less aggressive and cryptic. They’re much more accessible and the hooks are the focus of the songs. It’s really about having that sing-a-long feel. I’m happy with them.

KB: Do you have any shows coming up?

AV: I’ve had a few offers lately but I’ve put it all on hiatus because I’m changing focus with my music. I’ve put the shows on hold until I finish my new album.

KB: When can people expect the new album?

AV: I think by the end of the summer!

KB: Well it was good chatting with you! Thanks for the interview and good luck with the new album!

AV: Thanks so much, I appreciate it!