Queens On QueenS: An Intimate Conversation With THEESatisfaction

The hottest things in any room they enter, Sub Pop signees THEESatisfaction stopped by to bright up the Okayplayer office recently while in Brooklyn shooting a short film directed by dream hampton to accompany the awE-inspiring groove of the song called "QueenS," the first single from their awE NaturalE LP (out now). Rappers/singers/orators/girlfriends Stas & Cat chopped it up with OKP about topics ranging from the all-female shoot to their creative process and the influence of Parliament, The Slits and E.S.G. and their Seattle roots from Starbucks to Shabazz Palaces. Read on for the full experiencE.

Okayplayer: So you just came from the [“QueenS” video] shoot with dream hampton, correct? How was it?

Cat: It was amazing. dream’s real cool people and everybody was there. It was just really cool. We did a casting of like 20 girls. We asked some of our homegirls to be in it and people travelled from Toronto/L.A./Philly/Seattle to come out. And then there were some local girls too.

OKP: I’m assuming you guys hooked up with dream through Ishmael [of Shabazz Palaces] or how did that come about?

C: Yeah, we first met dream when we did a show with Shabazz at the Planetarium a couple of years ago. When was that?

Stas: 2010.

C: Yeah, the fall of 2010. So that’s when we first met. But then we kept in contact ever since.

OKP: So let me rewind a little bit… Since the Shabazz Palaces cameo people--at least the people in my world are kind of talking about you as new artists. But you guys have been doing your thing in Seattle for a while now, right?

C: Yeah, since 2008.

OKP: So tell us how you guys linked up, give me the backstory of THEESatisfaction.

S: We met in college in 2006 or 2005 and started dating and exchanging music. We both have kind of similar-accenting tastes in music. She was more into jazz and funk and house and I was more into old school hip-hop and soul and gospel, so we would exchange music. She was in several bands and groups. We were in a group together that was like a six-piece hip-hop act. [Laughs]

C: Right. 3 vocalists – it was ridiculous.

OKP: What was the name of that group?

S: It was called Question. We didn’t record anything. We were just a cover band.

C: [Laughs]

S: That was just for fun, during college. And then after that we just started doing our own thing and got involved with making beats on Reason and other computer programs, beat machines and stuff. We got a couple of open mic shows and then shows started coming in more and more when people started hearing about us and we got opportunities to do our thing.

C: Yeah, we would just hit up all the people we knew and send them emails. We had shows before we even came out with our first mixtape. We would just be like: “Do you like this song? Do you not like this? I don’t know?” And we just kept getting shows and kept working at it until it became all we did. We were thinking about it when we were at work. We were fucking off at work and making songs instead.

OKP: Where were you working?

S: We worked at Starbucks at first and then started working at Costco.

OKP: And you were both working at the same place?

S & C: Oh yeah. [Laugh]

OKP: So you were really fucking up, then.

C: Yeah, we were not doing NO work. [Laughs]

S: And then we just got involved with all the people that were doing hip-hop in Seattle. There were a bunch of starting-up groups in like 2008-2009. We just got in and did our thing, met some people, hung out and recorded some collaborations and shit. We linked up with Shabazz shortly after that.

OKP: Just through doing live shows and the general Seattle connection?

C: We had a lot of mutual friends. Like one of our good friends, Larry Mizell Jr.--who was the one who was really making sure that we started doing shows and stuff and was really helping us out. When we met Ish and Tendai we had always crossed each other’s paths but never really knew each other but we had a bunch of friends who knew the other people and then one day it all connected.

OKP: And with Larry Mizell Jr., I’m assuming he is related to [famed instrumentalists and producers] the Mizell Brothers…

C: Yeah, those are his dad and uncle. Jam Master Jay was his cousin.

OKP: So did your relationship with Sub Pop come about through that Shabazz Palaces relationship? Or did you get on the Shabazz Palaces record because you were already labelmates?

S: It was all at the same time really. Cause we have the same manager and he had a relationship with Sub Pop. And we also had a relationship with Sub Pop before we met our manager and Shabazz. We were involved in this MTV…

C: …docudrama. [Laughs]

S: Sub Pop was a label that was involved in it too. But yeah, I mean when it all came down, it just all worked out really well.

OKP: So what’s your experience with Sub Pop been like? Not that they’re not doing other hip-hop stuff but they – and Seattle – have such a brand for grunge and all this other stuff. What’s their attitude towards what you guys do been like?

C: It’s been really good. They’re really positive with us. They loved the record, they just really fuck with us. It was cool because they gave us an opportunity to just keep on doing what we’re doing cause this is like our 7^th release. We put out 6 mixtapes before this, over the years, so this will be our 7^th release. They’re really cool about letting us write all the songs, produce everything and we were part of choosing the singles. We were really a part of putting the album together, like we’ve always been. Also getting ready for everything they’ve been really cool and calm with us in our learning process.

OKP: As far as the actual recording goes, has that Seattle network of people that you’ve been talking about been involved behind the scenes or has that been a really personal thing with just you guys making the music at home or in the studio?

S: We make everything ourselves. But for this project, we sought out some people to enhance things. Like we have someone playing bass on one of the songs. I mean the bass-line is still there…

C: … but it’s just funkier with a real bass playing.

S: And then we have Tendai playing percussion on a couple of tracks and Ish is rapping on two songs. But really it’s all in-house. The recording studio that we got was dope, cause we were just recording in our closet.

C: For a long time! [Laughs]

OKP: So where was most of it recorded?

C: It was recorded in Seattle.

OKP: But was it at a particular studio that was kind of your home base? Or did you record at home and then take it in to the studio?

C: We did the beats and stuff at home and demo’d shit and then we brought it in to a studio and layered it and got funky wit’ it.

S: It was Erik Blood’s studio.

C: Yeah, and he was the one playing bass on a bunch of tracks and he helped us arrange some stuff when we had samples that didn’t get cleared.

OKP: So you had to recreate stuff that you thought you were gonna sample?

C: Yeah, but it was cool. I feel like that was part of the experience and made it special.

OKP: I’ve heard you guys described as spoken word artists, as rappers, as singers in different places. How is that range represented on the LP?

C: It’s a combination. We still rap. I’m rapping less on this album, I sing more.

S: I feel like we’re orators. We’re not really rapping, it’s more like speeches, kind of.

C: I know, right? Just like lecturing people along the track. [Laughs] But not in like negative, college form.

S: Not in a preachy way, just in a creative way of telling things. I feel like it’s rapping too, cause rap is rhythm and poetry, which is what it is. But it seems different. And the singing is a bunch of crazy harmonies coming in. We’re both singing on all the songs.

C: It’s layered and funky and I do some of her backup when she’s rapping and speaking. Just in terms of the voices it’s kind of like what we’ve done before. Some tracks are more like a certain mixtape and some reflect off another mixtape, so it’s kind of like all our mixtapes combined into an album--without actually having those songs, you know?

S: A bunch of short stories.

C: Yeah, for sure.

OKP: Since you were doing shows before you really had songs out there in recorded form, would you say that style that is in between singing and orating or whatever comes from what you do live?

C: Mmm… yeah. I mean when we were first performing we were just still putting together songs, we’d forget our lyrics and stuff and just make up stuff. We’d just have to look at each other and figure it out. And I think most of the time we play songs and perform them before we even record them at all. Some of the songs actually aren’t ever recorded but they’ll be played and performed a lot.

OKP: What’s the writing process like in terms of all the different elements. You’re making beats and writing melodies and lyrics. Do you make a bunch of beats and write stuff to them or how does that work?

C: That happens sometimes.

S: Yeah, more often for me. I like to lay down the track and then write to it. But I think we’ve created melodies and stuff before and tried to wrap the beat around.

C: Or some words just come up and then we’ll shape the beat around just a couple of words and concepts or something like that.

S: There’ve been some freestyles turned into songs.

C: Oh yeah, that’s hilarious when that happens. Cause you’re just like: “Really? I just really kept going with that? Ok, whatever. I like that though.” But sometimes it’s really strategic like “what do I wanna talk about” and just writing over and over and talking lyrics to the side but sometimes it’s just whatever comes first, we’re just gonna do it.

OKP: It sounds like you’re both doing everything at different points or do you have a division of labor?

S: We try to be open, as open as possible.

C: I do hound Stas sometimes like “We need to bounce out that beat so I can listen to it all the time” or something like that, or she”ll be like “can you lay down that part because I need to rap over that.” But it’s all whatever. We’re really calm with each other. We try to make sure there’s the least amount of stress.

OKP: Right. That brings me to my next question and I’m sure you heard this before. Being in a group and being in a relationship…

S & C: [Laugh]

C: Yeah. It can be done. [Laughs]

OKP: I guess what I wanna ask is do you have to draw a line between the two? Like “OK now we’re clocked out, we’re not working and we’re just relaxing.” Or are you creating all the time, even when you’re relaxing, bouncing ideas around?

C: I feel like we just love to create in general so we’ll make up songs whenever and we make music to relax as well.

S: We do draw the line though. Like “Yo, turn the computer off!”

C: Yeah. Pop in a movie, something, go outside, anything! Cause it’ll take over your whole life if you don’t figure it out right. You gotta make sure you go to sleep and are not just working on a beat all night.

OKP: So speaking of that…where are you guys at right now? The album’s done, obviously you’re travelling and doing shows but what’s the daily grind like right now?

S: There’s really a lot of interviews.

C: [Laughs] Exactly. Like today.

S: I love it though. I like sharing my thoughts. It’s just interesting, this transitional phase, from doing everything on your own to having people do things for you and people to answer to. It’s another whole level of it.

OKP: I’m speculating here, but does it feel weird to transition from doing shows and being part of a scene where you get more direct feedback to what you do?

C: Yeah, it is totally different. In Seattle people were like, I like that. Cool, thanks--come to another show hopefully. But now we just get random emails from people from different countries saying they like our music. Or this is crazy: We got a message from somebody on Tumblr being like “I am deaf but I think I might like your music, cause I can feel the vibrations.”

S: And she wanted us to send her some lyrics cause she wanted to know what we were talking about, cause she could like, feel the bass and shit.

OKP: Either in general or when you’re thinking about songs, are there artists or styles that you look at as a sort of model for what you’re doing?

C: [Not in terms of sound, but] In terms of being funky and not giving a fuck: Parliament, definitely Prince in there, Michael. There are so many artists that are like “I don’t exist in a genre. My music might sound like a punk rock song today and it might sound like a smooth jazz song tomorrow, you know?” So those are definitely--Sun Ra, Chaka Khan--just powerhouses, you know?

S: Yeah, and I would say right now we’re listening to a lot of Guru and I just like what he had to say. I think the people respect him cause he was just so real and just the amount of respect he got was dope to me. Who else?... ESG.

C: Oh. Yeah. ESG.

S: Love what they did.

C: And The Slits. Just a lot of people who were just saying what’s on their mind and were about what they’re about, and weren’t worrying about following into a genre or anything like that. And then even in that realm you could say Erykah Badu for sure, and Ella and Sarah Vaughn…

S:Nina Simone.

C: Yeah and she was never playing rap. [Laughs] I mean we could just go forever.

OKP: What would you like people who are just learning about THEESatisfaction  for the first time to come away with?

C: Well, we intentionally choose to try and promote positive energy and vibrations for sure.

S: And also I think that it’s important to know that we’re not trying to be a poster child for female hip-hop artists. There’s tons of females rapping out right now and before us. We get a lot of interviews where people will be like “how does it feel to be the first females to rap”?

C: [Laugh]… or something like that.

OKP: So speaking of women pioneers. Tell me as much about the video shoot as it’s comfortable to talk about. Is it wrapped now? You guys shot everything in one day?

S & C: Yeah, all in one day.

C: dream’s a genius. She knows what she’s trying to get across and everything like that. But it’s just really good energy. A lot of beautiful black women are in it. We cast 20 beautiful black women--and a variety. It’s just not something that is seen often.

S: Yeah, we kind of wanted to take the media into our own hands. Cause we don’t see a lot of black women being highlighted in a certain way on television – music videos in particular. It’s usually just one shade or one type all the time. So we wanted to fuck around with it.

C: Yeah, there were definitely Queens in the building for that! It was a magical experience.

S: The whole video started off with a painting. There’s a painting by this artist called Mickalene Thomas and it was inspired by that painting. She’s a contemporary artist from New York.

OKP: Is she an artist that dream wrote about for Life & Times?

C: Yeah! She’s so dope. We were already fans of her work and then dream came with the idea and had great concepts and we were like “dream, get out of my mind, girl!” [Laughs]