Chat with Coco Solid
It's always a good time to catch up with the creative anomaly that is Coco Solid. Bands, mixtapes, remixes, and good good words, it's all go - in the calmest explosion imaginable.
RBMA: What musical projects have you been up to these last few months? Sounds like it's been Badd Energy recently - what's that sounding like?
Coco: Yep Badd Energy is my more experimental/punk project that I do with my friends Sam, Trixie and Jerry. We have our record Underwater Pyramids coming out in Feb on Flying Nun Records which is really exciting! It's a bit more more psychedelic and confrontational then the hip hop/electro stuff, a lot less controlled on a live level too. What else... I just finished recording a mixtape in Lisbon with participants Violet from A.M.O.R., and Markur of Photonz, which has just gone up on bandcamp. Pacific Rims the mixtape was a big highlight for me so I'm looking into new solo stuff. Permanent Vacation has just put out the PDE remix record (Ed - featuring Maxmillion Dunbar, Maxxi Soundsystem, Spectacle and Salax Peep Show aka Axel Boman and Petter) this January too!
RBMA: You always seem busy with different things, whether it's all your musical projects or your comics, or implementing general social improvements. how do you keep all the juggling in balance?
Coco: I know it LOOKS like a lot of intensity and output haha! but for me it's a swift and natural way to spend my life and time. To the untrained eye I'm always in my PJ's half asleep! Its just the way I am I think, cos I'm not organised. Art is just my way of having a civilized conversation with a society I don't always get along with. When you internalise everything you have to find ways to express and fight back - for me it's a mental health issue man!
RBMA: What's happening in NZ and Auckland at the moment musically? Is there much to inspire you, or do you not pay too much attention to the local scenes?
Coco: I'm not so much inspired by Auckland as motivated and propelled by it haha! Everyone has a love/hate thing with their hometown and I'm no different. My family lives there and I still do my best work in Auckland I think. I am inspired by the arts scene in Manukau City (South Auckland) a lot more. I grew up there as a kid and it's the Pacific capital of the world - so the cultural mentality suits me alot more than our mainstream city psyche.
RBMA: Tell us some more about your Masters writing program. Any fave authors you're looking forward to getting stuck into?
Coco: I'd secretly been wanting to work on my writing seriously for a long time, so I applied to the IIML (International Institute of Modern Letters) in Wellington, which is a masters program for creative writing. When I got in I cried and hugged my confused dog haha! Just knowing I have a new way to remix my love of words excites and scares me. I live for music, but she can be a high-maintenance thunder thief. As for authors I am reading all the time anyway, its just another great excuse to pump up the cerebral volume!
RBMA: Soundtrack for the end of the world in 2012?
Coco: David Fanshawe, African Sanctus without a doubt!! My brother-in-law played it on New Years Eve, we'd put it on an alien's ipod for sure.