Far East Movement (February 2010) | Interview By: Jose Ho-Guanipa

..........................................................................................

Interview was conducted in February 2010
 

..........................................................................................
Far East Movement // Video Interview // Dubcnn

Download The Video Drop Windows Media
Download The Video Interview Windows Media

Press Play to stream footage (Fast Connections Recommended)

..........................................................................................

Dubcnn: What’s up Dubcnn this is Jose. I’m here with Far East Movement. What’s up guys? What’s going on?

Far East Movement: What up Jose? What up Dubcnn?

Dubcnn: So were chillin’ with Far East Movement, and you guys are from L.A., What part of L.A. are you from?

Prohgress: Downtown L.A., we been there for the last 5 years, and just seein’ the way that downtown has really changed it really went to the whole downtown renovation with the Staples Center and all that. Just seein’ the way that everything’s kinda formulated, and you got the art district and everything its really cool. It’s a real exciting place to be.

J-Splif: They got a movie theater now.

Prohgress: Yeah I went there.

J-Splif:Grocery store.

Prohgress: No gas stations though.

J-Splif:No gas stations, nowhere to park, but you know, it’s cool.

Dubcnn: So tell us about the West Coast influence, you know growing up on the West Coast. How did that influence you growing up as your appreciation for hip hop and the sound? Obviously you guys have your own unique sound, but I’m sure you’re influenced by a lot of West Coast stuff.

Kev Nish: We grew up listening to a whole lot of West Coast Virman, he’s…

Prohgress: The king.

Kev Nish: He used to do the old school show with Power 106 and so you can just imagine the West Coast. We’re influenced as MC’s usually by Pharcyde. As the way that they flow over the beats, the way they were eclectic, talking about different things.

Prohgress: Just living in the West Coast, it hits you. All the different cultures and stuff like that. You drive you got East L.A., you got Hollywood, you got all these different places and all these different flavors that you get and you mix that in a big melting pot, and that’s the influences that we get. One of the big influences actually was Virman right here. We used to listen to him on Power 106 back in the day, not even thinking that we’d be able to work with the guy, and he’s been a great blessing to us.

DJ Virman: You can pay me later.

Prohgress: Ah, no doubt.

Dubcnn: So tell us about some of the artists you’ve been working with. I know you did some songs with Ya Boy, you did some stuff with some other guys from L.A., and California just in general. Who have you guys collaborated with?

Kev Nish: Recently, man we’ve worked with Murs, Ya Boy, Stereotypes (producers), they’re doing our album right now, Wiz Khalifa, Marty James, and One Block Radius, shout out to One Block. Baby Bash, Lil' Raw, Fat Man Scoop.

J-Splif: He’s not really West Coast.

Prohgress: We love to collaborate with all of our people in the West, so whoever we end up meeting with. These guys( points to Kev Nish and J-Splif) play basketball with everybody. Problem, and you had an assist to Snoop Dogg too right?

Kev Nish: But we ain’t worked with him yet.

Prohgress: Yeah we ain’t worked with him yet.

Kev Nish: Misquote.

DJ Virman: We’re in the video.

Prohgress: We did have a short cameo on the “I Wanna Rock” video with Snoop Dogg.

Kev Nish: I think we were wearing the same thing.

Dubcnn: So for people that don’t know, What’s the Far East Movement sound? What’s the Far East Movement lifestyle? What are you guys all about?

Kev Nish: Man lifestyle. We came up from L.A. so to us we always say it’s our own Far East Movement parties. Being able to club hop 3 different clubs, 3 different styles of music , still have fun. At night go home and get into the street wear, get into the racing. You know it’s this generation that we grew up in that is really reflective on the music. The huge party lifestyle influence that you hear we like to call it Hip-Tronic, at least for this album. It’s a mix of Hip-Hop Electronic music. Anything else to add? A lot of drinking.

Proghress: (Laughs) Yeah, and a lot of West Coast cause that’s where we grew up.

Kev Nish: But it don’t sound West Coast, It’s new. That’s what I like about all the new artists that are coming out of here; the way that people define West Coast is changing its shape. LMFAO came out of the West Coast and you wouldn’t consider them a West Coast group but they blew out from here.

Prohgress: Shwayze, the whole jerkin’ movement with the New Boyz and all those guys.

Kev Nish: It’s just changing. It’s so crazy.

Dubcnn: So you guys have had a lot of success recently with “Girls On The Dance Floor”. What are your plans. What do you guys wanna do? Obviously you’re not gonna stop from where you are right now, but what do you wanna do as a group? What are your goals?

DJ Virman: Keep girls on the dance floor.

Kev Nish: We want longevity in this game for sure. We realize that we been doing this for a long time and one of the things that we appreciate is being able to do this as a career. Being able to do something that we love, and have fun.

Prohgress: Absolutely, we definitely hit a groove, and we feel like “Girls On The Dance Floor” really hit something that we like doing. So we’re working on a new album right now, its kinda got that feel, you know a lot of fun and just keeping people away from thinking about everyday life all the time. Just being able to have fun, being able to escape with the music, and just keep them entertained. Also at the same time, do as many shows as possible. Cause that’s just a lot of fun, we love shows. We just came back from tour with LMFAO, and Shwayze, Parody, So Girls and Space Cowboy. That was one of the best experiences ‘cause being on our first real bus tour and going around the whole United States, meeting all these new people and partying with them and just getting that whole vibe. You learn a whole new appreciation, and you get new inspirations for your music.

Dubcnn: You helped a lot of people writing. Have you still been doing that with people, and who have you been working with?

Prohgress: Absolutely, we definitely hit a groove, and we feel like “Girls On The Dance Floor” really hit something that we like doing. So we’re working on a new album right now, its kinda got that feel, you know a lot of fun and just keeping people away from thinking about everyday life all the time. Just being able to have fun, being able to escape with the music, and just keep them entertained. Also at the same time, do as many shows as possible. Cause that’s just a lot of fun, we love shows. We just came back from tour with LMFAO, and Shwayze, Parody, So Girls and Space Cowboy. That was one of the best experiences ‘cause being on our first real bus tour and going around the whole United States, meeting all these new people and partying with them and just getting that whole vibe. You learn a whole new appreciation, and you get new inspirations for your music.

Dubcnn: So you guys have been doing your thing for a while. It hasn’t been an overnight success or anything, you guys have been grinding out there. What do you think helped you guys get to where you are now? What do you think put you over the top to continue getting success?

Kev Nish: I think was getting our song on the radio. Getting our first song on the radio. We had songs on TV like CSI and different movies like Fast and Furious. That was cool, and the internet got people to say “O.K. these guys are doing music”. But it was when the songs first came out on the radio that we started getting calls. A different type of traction on the internet, the way people were visiting our website, and that’s when people were like, wow these guys are serious.

Prohgress:Well also to a certain extent we haven’t really hit a point where we really call it success. We’re just always trying to move forward and build every year. Every year we wanna do something . We have new goals whether it’s getting a song on a movie, getting a song on the radio, getting a song on Entourage, that’s the kind of things that keep us moving. In the end this is our lives, just like a job, a Lawyer, Doctor, Policeman, whatever this is our job. This is what we gottta do so we gotta make sure we’re constantly moving forward every minute of the day.

Dubcnn: So tell us about the album, what you guys are doing, what you’re working on and what your plans are for the album.

Prohgress: Well as of right now, we got…

Kev Nish: 8 songs in almost, on our new album its produced by the Stereotypes. We’re taking our sound much heavier. We’re really happy with the songs we have so far. This new album, how do you explain it? It’s good for the clubs, It’s gonna be something for the clubs, something for the dancers. We always see people break dancing to certain songs of ours on YouTube people doing routines which is really cool, so for all you dancers out there this some stuff for ya’ll.

Proghress: We’re still in the process of making the album. It takes a step back once you get done with it then you gotta listen to it, formulate exactly what the title’s gonna be and the art and all that kind of stuff. So we’re excited about that but it’s definitely a building process as of right now.

Dubcnn: Yeah you’re talking about dancing, I think you guys definitely have a lot of dancing music and a lot of people dance to your stuff. Do you guys have any experience dancing like breaking? Were you ever into that?

The Far East Movement:(everyone points to Virman) Virman.

Prohgress: He’s the dancer. He was the DJ for America’s best dance group The Tour.

DJ Virman: I grew up watching back in the day, like the early 90’s. I was a big fan of the Daisy Age the housing days and stuff. I used to be housing crew, used to do all that breakin’ stuff, but that’s in the past, I think I retired from dancing. I can’t even move my right arm as much anymore.

Dubcnn: Thanks for the interview. Thanks for your time guys, tell us where we can check you out.

J-Splif: Check us out online fareastmovement.com, follow us on Twitter hit us up on Facebook, Myspace, definitely right here on Dubcnn.