Q&A: Far East Movement

(Credit: The Social Trust)

When “Like a G6” took over the airwaves last year, it seemed like the band behind the song, Far East Movement, had come out of nowhere. But in fact, the Asian-American foursome have been grinding for nearly a decade, refining their unique sound—a club-friendly mix of pop, hip-hop, rock and electro—at underground parties and after-hours clubs all over their hometown of Los Angeles.

Now, with a spot on Lil Wayne’s I Am Still Music Tour, Kev Nish, Prohgress, J-Splif and DJ Virman are ready bring “Free Wired”—the name of their breakthrough album, and also of the philosophy that governs their entire lifestyle—to an even wider audience.

Metromix spoke with Kev Nish shortly after Far East Movement performed their latest single, “If I Was You (OMG),” at both the MuchMusic Awards in Canada and the Billboard Music Awards—with one of their idols, Snoop Dogg, joining them as a special guest. Among other things, we learned the true meaning of "Free Wired"—and also that we're apparently less up on our Dirty South hip-hop than we realized. 

Congratulations on winning “International Video of the Year” at the MuchMusic Video Awards—and, by all accounts, on stealing the show, too.
Thank you so much. Being out there, it was a trip, man. We remember driving up [to Canada], trying to break up there, playing shows for literally like 20 people. So to do that, and [then] actually have that moment there, it was kind of surreal for us. We were all backstage kind of tripping out.

And I guess getting a chance to do with Snoop Dogg must’ve made it extra-special, too.
Aw yeah, it’s crazy. Snoop has been such a mentor. And he’s been so generous with his time—coming out for the Billboard Awards, and coming out for [MuchMusic]. Even in the music video. A lot of times, when guest artists do cameos, it’s like, “I got an hour window.” He stayed for the whole day, did multiple scenes, multiple shots. He’s been extremely generous and we’re just grateful, ‘cause it’s someone we grew up looking up to and respecting.

Well, you guys being from L.A., you must’ve listened to a lot of that classic West Coast hip-hop, right? Snoop, Dr. Dre…
Definitely. Tupac, Dre, of course Snoop, the Dogg Pound. They were a huge influence on us. But at the same time we’re huge fans of the rock scene out here, the electronic rave scene. We’re kind of all over the place.

Your music is huge in the clubs now, but back when you were first starting out, were you mainly playing loft parties and warehouse parties and more underground stuff?
Yeah, we were. We would try to go to the clubs and they would never let us in. That’s why our fashion evolved…not because we’re the most fashionable people, but because we were those dudes where it’s like: “You guys got shaved heads, you guys look like gangsters. We’re not gonna let you in.” So finally when they let us in the clubs, we didn’t really go to party—we kinda went to party, but we were like, “Hey, here’s an opportunity for us.” And so we would always be people watching. People would think we were just staring at them, like mad-dogging them, but we were just looking to see how they’d react to the music. What people are vibing with, what the girls are loving. That’s where the shades came in later on—‘cause we were always staring at people constantly, and we didn’t want to be in people’s faces all night.

Aside from the sunglasses, how would you describe your visual style? Has it evolved too over time?
We started out just rocking streetwear brands that our friends were making. We had friends at urban brands like the Hundreds, we had friends from Orisue. And as they started to grow, it was like, whatever free clothes we could get, you know what I mean? So they started giving us flier jackets, button-downs—and we were like, hey, let’s rock it. It’s fresh. Let’s really represent the taste of our crew, our neighborhood. We gotta give a lot of respect and props to one of our neighbors, who always gets us set up at Haus of La Freak. They’re L.A. representatives, and they’re just awesome: creative, outside-the-box, clean-look stuff that we’re really into. So they fit us up with everything that we need. And if they don’t have something that we want, we can describe it to them and they’ll make it for us.

What are the key principles of the “Free Wired” lifestyle?
“Free Wired” is beyond a lifestyle; it’s the way that we think, especially approaching this project. First of all, it’s living your life outside the box. We’re inspired by OutKast, Linkin Park, Beastie Boys—groups that are always kind of mashing up things, doing something different. We use the term “mash-up” so freely because that’s how we approach [everything], from the way we dress to how we eat to our crew to music videos to how we approach songs in the studio. The third thing, beyond outside-the-box and mash-up, is just keeping an open mind. Sometimes when you hear something or you see something that you totally don’t expect—that’s “Free Wired,” that’s awesome.

Have you had to confront any prejudices or false assumptions as an Asian-American group?
I guess we’ve been lucky, or maybe it’s just the times, but it feels like the world’s changing. I remember when we first started, some people might have thought, “Oh, there’s not a chance.” But surprisingly, we got a lot of opportunities because we were different. A random radio show would give us an interview because it was just like, “We’ve never seen anything like that. That’s cool, that’s something to talk about.” America’s built on different stories, and that’s the cool thing about it. So it’s actually been a pretty positive thing. It’s been a pretty “Free Wired” world.

Did you guys coin the term “slizzard,” or did you just popularize it with “Like a G6”?
We can’t even take any type of credit for coining it, or even making it popular. That was actually a term used by OutKast and Three 6 Mafia. We love the Southern music, the Southern bounce. That was more just a quote: “Sippin’ sizzurp in my ride, gettin’ slizzard.” That was kind of the beauty of having Dev [who sings the hook on “Like a G6”] go in and sing it. That was one of those “Free Wired” moments, where we’re all like, yo, that would be ill—to take some of the illest ideas from some of the classic South records that we love, and put like a pop bounce to it, you know what I mean? That was a mash-up, straight up.

Do you guys have a preferred method for getting slizzard?
It’s usually bottles. Bottles to the brain. Me, I’m more of a champagne guy, but you’ll see Prohgress—he’s our resident party animal—you’ll usually see him with a bottle of Ciroc to himself. Everybody goes in at their own rate, but at the end of the night, we stumble out the club. Slizzard to us means the point where you’re getting carried out the club—‘cause you just felt so fly, you didn’t let anything stop you.

You’re about to go out on tour with Lil Wayne—you must be pretty stoked about that.
Oh man, we’re honored. To be invited by Lil Wayne—he’s one of the illest emcees on the planet. He really is another one of those we like to classify as “Free Wired.” Whether he gets on a guitar and sings, or does a straight-up rock/rap mash-up, or whether he gets on a pop/dance song, he’s always able to bring his own flavor and do something outside the box. So it’s an honor to be on that tour. It’s gonna be a new crowd for us, a lot of new cities that we haven’t been able to venture to. And we’re also gonna be recording some new music out there, as well.

Maybe get a Lil Wayne guest verse on a future track?
Well, I don’t want to jinx anything, but there’s definitely some talks. There’s some stuff in the works with Wayne. We’ve been talking, so we’ll keep you updated on that one for sure.