Mill City Scene talks with Eric Blair about the trio's upcoming album, their roots, and their aspirations.

by Roe Pressley
6/9/09

For those familiar with Minneapolis's, how should I say, "experimental" hip-hop scene (that is, that huge roster of artists who fit neither in the "emo-rap" or "street-rap" subgenres, if said genres can be so simplified, which they cannot), the guy in the photo above should look familiar. Eric Blair, or Joe Horton if you prefer, has made himself known as the rapper at the front of Hyder Ali for the past few years, culminating in the release of their first EP, Careless Talk, a couple months back.

He also plays the same role, though admittedly from a different perspective, in No Bird Sing. This band, comprised of both Joe and Robert "Bobby" Mulrennan from Hyder Ali, as well as Graham O'Brien of Abzorbr, are in the depths of creating their first full-length release. Considering they have been together less than a year, you might say they've already gathered more steam than their last project, which opened its official Myspace page in the beginning of 2005.

But make no mistake in comparing Hyder Ali to No Bird Sing; the difference between the two is significant, as the latter brings together the unique musical personalities of Joe and Bobby with the flare and energy of drummer/electronics geek Graham O'Brien, to create a bird song which has never been heard before.

I caught up with Joe at the C C Club last week and turned on my recorder. Though the background noise in the bar was distracting, I'm pretty sure our conversation went something like this:

Where are you recording at?

It used to be called Flyte Tyme Studios, but now it’s Masters Studios. It’s in Edina. It’s Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis’s old studio, but now Tom Tucker owns it, the guy who used to own IPR.

Did any of you go to IPR?

No, but our producer did, Adam Krinsky, and he works for Tom at Mastermix …

How long are you booked in the studio? Do you rent by the day, by the hour, or what?

Bobby and I have been recording with Adam Krinsky for years now, so he usually gives us a pretty good deal. He’s working with us on the record. And what we originally decided was that we’ll do four whole days in the studio and that we’ll try and get everything done, and then if we need to do any overdubs or anything we would do those on our own.

How many tracks are gonna be on it?

We’re recording 15 and we don’t know whether all of them will make it or not ... I think we’re shooting for 9 to 12 ... But at the end of the day if we just can’t part with anything, then it will be 15 songs.

How did you all meet?

I’ve known Bobby since 2001. We went to college together at Eau Claire. We weren’t really that close at first … Then I kind of started doing music with a guy that he was in a band with, and then Bobby and I started playing music together. We’ve always just had a really good chemistry together, we know how to communicate with each other which I think is really important, and we know each other’s tastes really well and we have similar tastes ... And then we both kind of discovered a lot of music together ... So Bobby and I have known each other, long story short, for a long time.

And Graham we met because Hyder Ali did a show with Dial System, which is Graham’s band with Casey O’Brien, which is his brother. So we played a show with those guys and we really liked Graham’s style a lot, so we were like, “Hey man, we should just get together and jam one day.” And it started out as just us hanging out and playing some music and it kind of evolved from there.

How long ago was that?

We started playing together in late August of ’08.

So you were deep into Hyder Ali already when you started No Bird Sing. Did you ever anticipate that there would be a conflict eventually and you might choose one or the other?

No, not at all, because they were doing really different things I thought. So I was excited about the opportunity to kind of double the amount of expression I had, and so was Bobby. It was a three-piece, so it was a little bit more organic.

So as for what’s public and what you can divulge, what happened to Hyder Ali?

I think the only thing that’s been released so far is Culturebully said that Hyder Ali is now defunct in one of their posts and I think that’s the only thing that’s been said about it, because we haven’t really talked about it ... We were having a lot of success, we were playing a lot of events we wanted to player, we were playing with people we wanted to play with, but at the end of the day, band stuff just got in the way ... But I had a lot of fun with those guys. I got no hard feelings toward them, I don’t think they have any hard feelings toward me … It just didn’t work out.

It’s funny how everybody’s in another band, and there’s so much cross over – Hyder Ali’s got Kahlil, who’s in Black Blondie, and No Bird Sing’s got Graham, who’s in Abzorbr and Dial System… Are you all friends, or did it happen musically?

Since probably the last six months really, I’ve been hanging out with Chris (Kristoff Krane) a lot lately, and I’ve been hanging out with Mike (Eyedea), and Chastity Brown, and Alicia Wiley, and Graham, and Casey, and JT… This has been the most that I’ve felt in the community here since I started playing music here. I feel like I’m making the best music and I’m writing the best that I’ve ever done in my life, and I think a big part of that is just being surrounded by people that are like-minded. But now, knowing those guys and really getting into not only what they’re doing but who they are as people ... it’s been really validating as an artist to know that other people go through the same shit you go through as an artist, and they still keep trucking and you still keep making really good music.

What brought you from Eau Claire?

I’m originally from Milwaukee. I went to Eau Claire on a scholarship. I didn’t know what the hell I was getting myself into. It was culture shock for the first six months I think, coming from the city to Eau Claire ... I think the first six months were really rough, but after that it was great. Once we were in the full swing of things, four years into it [when] I was graduating, I was thinking about where to go. We were playing a bunch of shows with Heiruspecs at the time ... And I was really sparking up a lot of conversations with Felix and Sean, and those guys were like, “Man, Minneapolis music scene is amazing, you’d love it. There’s lots of venues to play, there’s lots of fans, there’s lots of great music…” and I was like, “Oh, sounds amazing.” So they really just sold me on it .

It’s weird, cuz I didn’t like Minneapolis when I first moved here. I hated it for the first year I was here, because I wasn’t really connected with anybody. But after that first year I started to find my niche, and now I love it. It’s like a second home.

How did you start playing with Heiruspecs?

Well, we played with Heiruspecs by default, because whenever they would come to Eau Claire and they needed another hip-hop band to play with, it was us. We were like the only hip-hop band … We knew a lot of the club owners where Heiruspecs were playing at, so we played with them at pretty much every venue in Eau Claire. That’s kind of how we got hooked up with them … I’d like to think it was something different than that, but really it was that we were one of the only bands around.

How long have you been working on material for this album?

Well the funny thing about it is the first time that the three of us got together we wrote two songs. I’ve never had that happen before. And we were like, “Maybe we’ve got something here!” I think we were pretty excited about the prospect. One of the songs was Ars Poetica, which is on the Midwest Broadcast Mixtape, Flyover Land Vol. 1, and was the first song to be recorded and mastered and that will be on the record. And the other one will likely be on the record as well, it’s a track called Legal Blood Money. And so we pretty much right away at the end of August started writing material, and we have yet to drop a song. Every song we’ve fully written and we’ve gotten to the end of the process with, we’ve kept. Which is weird, cuz a lot of times you get to the end of the process, you’re like “Ah, I don’t really like it.” Who knows if they’ll all make the record, I don’t know if that will be the case. But we’ve been working on this for the duration that we’ve been together.

Stylistically, what is different from Hyder Ali if you could put your finger on it?

We do a lot of stuff that’s kind of Black Keys-ish. The thing about No Bird Sing is all of our musical tastes are pretty in line with each other’s, but they’re also kind of different. One of the things about NBS is we have a couple of songs that are just painfully slow, and I love, LOVE, those kinds of songs. And it’s not something that you normally hear in hip-hop … I think Graham as a drummer kind of brings an element … He’s a really dynamic drummer, he has a lot of levels and a lot places that he takes his stuff.

It’s really hard to pin down how it’s different. People will ultimately have to listen to it and decide for themselves ... A fundamental difference …  is that we occasionally use samples, or we sample ourselves. I play the rhodes in this band, or use other keys, but I can’t, nor do I really want to, play and sing at the same time for everything. So a lot of times, the keys will be sampled and we play those back. And that’s something we never did with Hyder Ali.

Seems like that’s kind of Graham’s forte in addition to drumming.

Yeah, he runs all the samples. The thing I really like about these samples is the vast majority is us, or they’re things that Graham has kind of rebuilt … You know what NBS really is, is if Abzorbr and Hyder Ali had a baby it would be NBS ... The things that are great about Hyder Ali and the things that are great about Abzorbr, I think NBS encompasses both of those things.

Do you think there will be any conflicts down the line, now that Junkyard Empire’s got the album coming out on a California label? Will you ever have to do without Graham, or put it on the side…?

You know there might be, and I guess the same could go for them too. Yeah, there might be just time conflicts when they go on tour or when we go on tour. The thing about it is, we could never replace a member of this band. We could never haver another drummer fill in for Graham, or we could never have another guitar player fill in for Bobby because the songs are so personality driven. There’s so much personality in Graham’s drumming, and so much personality in Bobby’s playing, it would never be a situation where we could do anything other than take a break if Graham was gone for a month. But the thing about it is, I also don’t think we’re gonna be playing like twice a month or three times a month. I think once we get into the swing of things, we’re gonna be looking to play every six weeks here and go out of town ourselves.

Any tentative plans for touring when the album is released?

We all feel really strongly about this record, first of all. It’s shaping up beautifully. So I think the first thing we’re gonna do is shop labels and see what we can get done that way. Which is something I’ve never felt confident enough about a project to be able to do, but when I get his record in my hands, I’m gonna be like -- [astonished look]. This is amazing ... We’ll likely do an all-ages and a 21+ release [show]. We definitely wanna go on the road. There’s been talks of possibly going on the road with Chris or doing things like that. I think we’re looking to get out of town, definitely, and we’re looking to get out of town sooner than later. It’ll just be a matter of when we all decide the time is right to put something like that together, or we get someone else to do it for us.

Are you getting any play on the radio? How else are you promoting yourselves?

The good thing about that is, radio stations like The Current already play Hyder Ali and already play Abzorbr, so it doesn’t seem like that big of a stretch for them to play NBS. Between the two bands that this band is a conglomerate of, a lot of people were into what we were doing, and I think those same people will be into what NBS has been doing. We’ve been in contact with a lot of people that have worked with those bands, and people have been really receptive to it so far. So hopefully when people see the album they’ll be even more receptive and really help us with the push. But we’ll be doing the whole Myspace/Facebook thing.

It’s kind of funny because it’s such a new medium, but nobody really seems to know the exact blueprint of what you need to do – should you be Twittering every five minutes?

Graham is like a master Twitter-er – at least it seems like it to me, I don’t know shit about Twitter. We started a blog, something I’m really excited about, a studio blog. You should check it out, I’m stoked about it. I’ve never been a blogger … And it’s been cool, we’ve been documenting the process which is something that’s interesting to look back on and check out. So we’re gonna continue to blog throughout the whole summer as we get our photos together, we’ve already got a lot of album artwork together so we’re gonna be posting a lot of that stuff as it comes out.

What’s your favorite venues to play? I know you’ll say the Turf Club.

Yeah, I love the Turf Club. You know, this city’s got a lot of great venues. My favorite one I think, overall, has got to be the Varsity Theater. Beautiful, beautiful venue. But the Turf Club is amazing. Every time I’ve played there, whether it’s 300 people or three people, it’s been a blast. The staff there is great … The Entry’s a great venue, it’s got a lot of history behind it. I’ve never played the Kitty Kat Club, but we’re gonna play it in August and I’m stoked about that. The 331 is great … I think a LOT of the venues in this town are great.

A lot of people are broken up about Dinkytowner. It is what it is. A lot of other venues are greater, and almost every other place had a better sound system, but it’s the only place that most nights of the week you could find rappers and DJs doing their thing. Did you have a soft spot for it?

It was an interesting experience playing there, because we’re not their kind of band necessarily. I don’t know that most people that go there wanna see some skinny dude get up on stage, grab a mic and talk about his feelings. I always had a good time playing there, because every time we played there, without fail, every show we played, somebody would come up to us afterwards and say, “Man, I fucking hated you guys during your first song, but I loved you during your last one.” And that’s a lot of times more gratifying than having 300 people that are into you from start to finish. So that experience left a soft spot in me ... I don’t know that it would make my list of favorite venues.

There’s so many venues now that will have a chance to take its spot culturally. Is there any particular one you think stands a chance?

I really hope people start going to the Kitty Kat Club, cuz the amount of U of M students who have never been to that venue is astounding. It’s beautiful! But I don’t think that will be the one because the Kitty Kat Club and the Dinkytowner are about as far away from each other as you can get. I really hope the people that loved the Dinkytowner, if they’re willing to travel, I think they could really get down with the new 501. Or if they’re looking to stay in Dinkytown, the Downtime … That’s a cool venue, I think people will start gravitating there a lot ... The Nomad’s another venue in terms of favorite venues. I think it’s a really underrated venue. They’ve got some good stuff going on there and the owners are great.

Are there any other projects you’re in right now?

Bobby, myself and Chastity Brown are gonna be doing like an EP or something some time in the next year. So there’s things in the pipeline, collaborations … But nobody wants to distract anyone from their main projects.

Any goals for the next year?

The first thought process is get the record out and make it the best record that we can make. Cuz like I said, we’re all really confident about it. At the risk of coming off like a cocky bastard, this thing is fucking brilliant. It’s great, I love it. And I’m not even talking about for my own self, I’m talking about the things that Bobby and Graham are doing musically blows my mind, and I’m happy just to rap on it and play some keys on it … We wanna push the record hard.

After that, we definitely want to get on the road, we definitely want to shop labels and hopefully get somebody to back either the next record or when we put out this one. Play bigger shows with bigger people and go on for there. It’s kind of hard to come up with goals before the record comes out, so I think we’ll re-evaluate it once that happens and we’ll see how its received.

This record has never been released before. It’s not like we’re making something that’s safe. So, as excited as we all are about it, I think we also realize there’s a big potential for people hearing it and being like, “What the fuck is this? I don’t like it.” So we’ll see where it goes. At the end of the day, I’m just excited to be making music that I care about. 

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