Interview: CJ The Genesis

“I honestly believe that this project will be the one that will take me somewhere.  Quote that.”

CJ The Genesis is a rapper and beatmaker from the DMV (DC/Maryland/Virginia) area of the United States.  He’s been active since 2008 or so and has released quite a few projects which can be found on his bandcamp page.  I found his music to be really great and worthy of at least a blog post promoting his stuff, so I asked him for an interview.  He kindly obliged.  His answers are fairly long and mostly uncut from their e-mail interview format to retain CJ’s complete point of view and intent (so expect some lol’s – I think it’s more interesting and conversational that way anyways).  I’m really excited about this interview because my last few were interviews of rock bands/artists, and I think it’s interesting to get some hip-hop related stuff on the blog.  It’s a genre I love so much and I’d like to do some more interviews/reviews of it in the future.

CJ is coming out with a new album in 2011.  It’s titled Impulse and it’s first single, “Who Knows” is intelligent, musically interesting, and most of all extremely catchy.  You can listen to it and download it here.  Anyways, that’s a terrible introduction.  I’ll let CJ tell you about himself, his music (past and present), and his future.  And it wouldn’t be on Nick Reviews if it wasn’t interesting!

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Karl Koch Interview

Unless you are a big Weezer fan, you probably don’t know the name Karl Koch.  Karl has been running the weezer.com website for an extremely long time, and also has a close relationship with the band.  He has released two albums, Press Any Key to Begin (2002) and I Must Find This Karlophone… (2007) under the moniker Karlophone, and plans on releasing a third in the near future.  He has also on occasion done some small things with Weezer live.

Karl has always had a lot of contact with Weezer fans, so when I asked him for an interview in October of 2009, he agreed to answer a few questions.  And even though it took him a while to get back to me (most likely because of Weezer’s activity over the past year), the questions are still relevant, and in my opinion, it’s an interesting read.  Thanks again for the interview, Karl!

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Interview With The Lunatic

The Lunatic is a Utah band (the first band i’ve interviewed outside of California) who is influenced by the great 90s bands like Pavement, Weezer, Ozma, The Smashing Pumpkins, and Hum.  Their two main members, Jack Mergist and Martin Michalek met eachother on a Weezer board and – well, the story is in the interview.

Their first release, “The White Demo” can be downloaded here and they plan on releasing an album, Maria and the Ivory Face this winter and another sometime next year.  It consists of two original songs, “Attention! My dear friends…” sung by Michalek and “Elmo Castrado” sung by Mergist.  Don’t be fooled by the “demo” tag however – these songs are in great studio quality and wonderfully produced.  They also have a song titled “Comprehension” up on iTunes so be sure to give that a listen.

I contacted them for an interview and they (very) gladly obliged.  Their answers were extensive and descriptive, but I assure you it’s a great read.

Links: Myspace/Official Site/Youtube page

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Interview With Derek Humphrey

Derek Humphrey is a musican who is currently located in the state of Washington (although he most frequently hails from California, my home state).  He makes music solo and with his band, Charles!  No Charles.  He has officially released a few compilation albums (one solo compilation, Land Shark, and one band compilation, Lieblingsmusik, both filled with rarities from throughout his career), and one complete album with Charles!, entitled Get Out of My Head.

He is currently working on his first official solo album, Mental Breakdown, that he aims to have out by the end of the year. (You can hear four songs from it at his website).

I interviewed Derek via facebook message (a sign of the times we are living in for sure).  His responses were lengthly and detailed, so be sure to read it. (Click on “Read More” below to do so).

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