Friday, July 27, 2007

El Guante says: I'm eager to try those Twin Cities travel agents...

... or just hop into a van with Minnesota plates. Let's continue the onslaught, by asking El Guante about geographical matters and CD sales, because hip-hop fandom is all about state lines and stats.

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H: How much does Madison hip-hop have some sort of beachead in, or pipeline to, the Twin Cities?

El Guante: I think a lot of it just comes straight through The Crest, because they're the biggest act from Madison, BY FAR—and they have a lot of connections up there. I think The Crest bring a lot of Twin Cities artists down, who then network with some artists here, and then the Crest go up to the Twin Cities a lot. Not to talk bad about everyone else—but The Crest have the biggest fan base and are doing the most stuff.

H: Do you feel some sort of obligation to open things up for other artists, people you're working with right now, just by virtue of being there?

EG: Not especially. I mean I'm making this move for selfish reasons: I want to further my own career. But if other doors are opened and bridges are built because of that—that's just kinda the icing on the cake.

H: What are you most looking forward to that you wouldn't be able to get here?

EG: Even though I'll be living in the Twin Cities, we're planning on traveling a lot and touring.... If I were in Madison I could still probably do some of it—I think it's just going to be easier now. So I'm most excited about working with this independent label on setting up tours. I just want to travel and play shows right now: I don't have a day job, this is a good time of my life to do that.

H: Do you think there's gonna be a yearly exodus of artists who want to take their careers seriously/further?

EG: To an extent, simply because it's a college town, and with First Wave we're going to have more college students in the hip-hop scene than there has been traditionally. Then yeah, 'cause naturally college students leave after college, most of the time—but you're talking about the other acts.

I don't know—because The Crest [have] been based here for a long time and they're still successful. Most of the acts that are having any kind of success right now don't necessarily need to uproot or go anywhere else. There are certain perks, but I don't think it's an absolute necessity.

H: I've been to a bunch of empty hip-hop shows here—what factors do you think lead to that?

I mean, on one hand, there's a national downturn in attendance at live shows of every genre. That's anecdotal—just what I hear from people. Specifically, in terms of hip-hop in Madison: people need to be more creative. When I move I just want to play shows—aside from when I'm touring—I wanna play shows that are always like an event, with some kinda theme, like a Valentine's show, something special. The era of three bands at the King Club on a Friday night is kind of over. And that's not just hip-hop.

H: Have you kept track of how many CDs you've sold?

EG: not really, I have a vague idea. Around 200 of the first one that wasn't very good, before I really knew what I was doing. Then around 4-500 of Vanishing Point. We must've made about 500-700 of the mixtape, that we were just selling or giving away for free—the Grey Summer mixtape. So it's all been very localized, half of it to people that I know personally, and half of it to people at shows and stuff. That's definitely a goal of mine (it's gonna help by moving away) not to just sell CDs to my friends.

H: You now have a presence in two markets, aside from Minneapolis being a lot bigger--

I think it could be really nice, cause after leaving here I can come back, and like I was saying before, a show here would be more of an event. It wouldn't be just me playing another show, it would be me coming back after I've been gone for three months, and hopefully all my friends would come out, people who remember me from shows would come out. After touring, I'm hoping my show will get better and more engaging....

And then the two markets thing would be cool. [Maybe I'll] live in a different city for two years, and then move. Like I'll move to Des Moines for two years, and move to Chicago for two years.

H: Des Moines?

EG: [laughs] That's the first thing that popped into my head

H: do you have some special connection to Des Moines?

EG: not at all...

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El Guante's final show as a Madisonian is at the King Club. It's an event, though, 'cause it's uptown Saturday night, and there will be 20,000 artists on stage. And before I forget, Guante gave me permission to leak a hitherto unheard track.

THIS IS IT [mp3, zshared]

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