If you haven’t heard the name Thunderbird Gerard…you will do. Very soon. Thunderbird Gerard is an American artist, producer and multi-instrumentalist. With his immense talent he is bringing back old skool hip hop in it’s best format. Tribal, informative and coming straight from the source. Having lived in New York, London and now Berlin, his influences can be heard throughout his music and he is already causing waves and gaining fans from Tom Robinson – BBC Radio 6 and Zane Lowe, from BBC Radio 1. He is also performing a Huw Stephens Presents showcase on the 14th August at The Social in London. Called the ‘Kerouac of Hip Hop’ he is a raising star and one to most definitely watch. I have a feeling his debut album will be huge.
The track THUNDERBIRD will be released/avail on iTunes on the 13th August.
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You have been named the Kerouac of Hip Hop, why do you think that is?
I first read On The Road when I was 17. That book along with a few others really shaped the way I chose to live my life for a while. I was fascinated with the idea of life on the run. I spent alot of time giving away all my belongings and taking off to travel with only one bag. It was bullshit really, but it had lasting consequences for a number of years after it. Sometimes having nothing is actually just having nothing. When I left the US, I didn’t go back or see my family for years… everyday was part of the “road” adventure. So I think this is the idea of “Kerouac” of Hip Hop… all the experiences, bad and good, while “on the road” have fed into the material on my debut, Year 1. But Kerouac is a literary giant… those are pretty big shoes to fill,
Listening to your stuff, I can hear touches of everything from Q Tip, Tupac and Wu Tang in there, what would you say your influences are?
I listen to everything, and always have for the most part but The Chronic by Dr. Dre had a huge impact on me. Same with Doggystyle… this was when I first started to think “I’d like to do that”. Tribe Called Quest, Rakim, Nas….Outkast was a huge influence as well. ATLiens, Aquemeni, and especially Stankonia are some of my favorite records ever. I grew up in New York but my whole family is from Virginia or further south, so there was something that I always really connected with in what they were doing. It’s always worth noting that I’m a big Tom Waits fan, I own every record of his post Swordfishtrombones.
There seems to be an almost tribal element to your music, where do you think that comes from?
The emotion found in tribal vocal performances or traditional worship songs is quite pure and honest. When you combine that with the immediacy of hip hop, I think it really hits, because hip hop is also built on this same idea of getting directly to the source, be it a party record, or club record, battle record or even something like Tupac’s “Only God Can Judge Me”; within the first 8 bars you should know exactly what it’s about.
You’ve lived in New York, London, and at the moment Berlin, how do the music scenes differ?
It’s hard to say. In every place I’ve lived there’s been some sort of lasting connection that I’ve made. We still work with people we know from Liverpool, London, New York etc. I feel like its more a matter of finding the best collaborators in every city or scene. It opens up your network, allows you to remain objective and provides a constant stream of new influences.
How do you perceive today’s Hip Hop scene in general?
What’s happening now is great and in some ways long overdue. It’s a move away from the old guard, and that’s no disrespect to them or what they accomplished, but it’s time for that progression. The world has changed, and that needs to be reflected in the music. I loved that Frank Ocean came out on Tumblr. Everything about it is so right now. 10 or even 5 years ago it would’ve been a very different story. A scandal. Society is evolving and I feel like that excitement, uncertainty, and bravery is found at the core of the best new hip hop.
Do you think there is a move away from the whole ‘battling’ side of Hip Hop, or do you think this will always be part of the culture
Battling will always exist in hip hop. There’s no escaping it. But I think there’s definitely a move away from media sponsored beef. I think everybody involved took the L and learned a real hard lesson back in the 90’s with the whole East/West madness. Hip Hop is intrinsically linked with elements of street culture, I think sometimes in the past there has been (maybe still is) a cultural gap between the people making the music and those promoting it… maybe a lack of understanding that in street culture certain things don’t fly. There’s a great Rick Ross line… “F*ck a blog, dawg, cause one day we gon’ meet”…. And that “battle” for supremacy on the street/ in the underground has been a large part of what made heroes in hip hop culture. I think, maybe what we’re seeing now is that social media is stripping down those old borders and making the whole genre less territorial… But then, Azealia went pretty hard at Iggy Azalea who’s Australian. How disparate can they be? It’s a competitive art form that prides itself on the innovative and the new. Battling is inevitable.
Are there any new/ current artists out there that you think are particularly good, and making a difference in Hip Hop?
I love Death Grips! Lunice, Shabazz Palaces, Theophilus London is cool. Azealia Banks is great too, she has an insanely versatile voice and comes harder on tracks than most rappers around, male or female. There’s something so intrinsically New York about her and it’s dope twist that she’s referenceing the whole ‘Paris Is Burning’ era ball scene.
What trends do you see appearing
Minimalism and a return to somewhat warmer sounding productions. I think everyone sort of maxed out on the whole over compressed, harsh highs of the mid 2000’s dance and electronic music. When you consider how relatively young the digital age of music production is, you realize that there’s so much more to come and people are still only getting to grips with what is possible. The period before was very much a… “OK… the machine can do this… let’s push it all the way into the red!”, kind of approach. But after awhile its hard to listen to and the records themselves sound very one dimensional, there’s no real body to the sound. I’m excited about guys like Clams Casino or Gang Colours… very full warm, layered and tasteful.
As a multi instrumentalist, does this give you a different vision and structure to your music? Did you start playing different instruments at an early age?
I’ve always played something. When I was 8 or 9, I wanted to play drums, but wasn’t allowed so I chose the trumpet instead. I was in the school band until I was 13 or so. I finally started playing kit in high school and had a really great drum teacher / friend who put me on to all kinds of music I had never heard before. It was through him that I started hanging around in the studio where he worked on different sessions in upstate New York. I started to learn how records were made. I got into analogue synthesizers much later… but I played in a lot of bands and toured as a drummer. I sat it on a lot of band writing sessions, so I still tend to approach my own work from a “what’s best for the song” kind of view.
Live shows…have you got any coming up in the UK at all?
We’re doing a Huw Stephens Presents showcase on the 14th August at the Social which will be dope, and doing a show in Liverpool before that on the 11th. Really can’t wait. Then we’ll be back in the fall around the time of the next single ‘London Is A Bitch’.
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