Stormy.

I wonder.

Asian Outlook magazine’s interview with Far East Movement.  May 7, 2011.

AO: How have your West Coast roots influenced your music?
KEV NISH:  Growing up in LA, I mean, it really, really influenced us musically. LA is so diverse. I mean, in our neighborhood and downtown, it was like, you not only had your Asian-Americans, but you had like Latino-Americans, African-Americans, Caucasians—everyone, you know, growing up in this within a city block and with all that culture comes all these different music scenes, all these different ways to party. And that kind of influences, you know, your outlook on music. So when we go in the studio—we grew up going to rock concerts, raves and hip hop shows—and bringing all that culture in, we would always try to do the unexpected, like match up things that shouldn’t be matched up, different things like that. So LA has a lot to do with our music being the way it is now.

AO: How does being Asian-American affect your music career?
KEV NISH: One thing we concentrate on, we’re very proud of our heritage and what we are individually, because we all have a different background, but I mean, at the same time, when it comes to music it’s never been a race thing. You know everybody goes, “Oh, Far East Movement, you guys chose the name because of the race.” It was actually a name that [J-Splif]shouted out because it was off of a song. We made the song about what we felt was kind of a new lifestyle, a new culture, you know, kids kickin’ it with no color lines, no boundaries and whatnot.  And so people always think that maybe your race would play something into the music, but really it’s more about just growing up in LA, if anything. We always took pride in letting the music speak for itself and not letting a race or a specific thing define it, because all of our favorite artists, race never really was the main reason why they’re putting out the music… They just make music because it’s more of the scene, it’s the genre, and that’s what we pride ourselves as artists.

AO: So do you guys have any crazy stories from your recent college tour?
KEV NISH: [Prohgress] got it, he’s a party animal.
PROHGRESS: Man, well, we’ve actually been shooting this video, it’s a remix video for our “If I Was You (OMG).” So after every show, we can kind of figure out where people are partying at, like whether it’s at a frat house or something, and we’ll go over there and we’ll play beer pong and, just like, have a crazy time… what other…?
KEV NISH: We learned a new game. It’s the cap game when they take this cap from a keg. And if you have this full cup and you walk around and if someone pops it in your cup, you have to down the whole thing.  Yeah, kind of dangerous.
PROHGRESS: I got hit with five of them  in one night.  I tried to get [J-Splif], and he caught me twice.
KEV NISH: Not that we condone drinking or anything, but we are at a college—those kids out there are party animals.
PROHGRESS: Everyone’s got party shoes right now.
KEV NISH: Anyone that has clean feet was not rockin’ out with us.

AO: What’s your favorite cocktail or alcoholic drink?
PROHGRESS: Well, well, well, college drinks are, you know, you want to go on with it, you know what I’m saying? So, like, you have to drink the PBRs, your Keystone Lights (laughter). And they always have the bootleg versions, so instead of like Captain Morgan, it’s like Lieutenant…
AO: Admiral something…
PROHGRESS: Yeah, exactly, so instead of Smirnoffs it’s Popovs, like all that kind of stuff. It all tastes the same. You wake up a little bit hurtin’ a little more.  It’s all good.
KEV NISH: I like whiskey on the rocks, yeah, or usually in like a coke or something… Or pineapple juice.
J-SPLIF: Ciroc pineapple.
PROHGRESS: Jimmie Runner instead of Johnnie Walker?
J-SPLIF: Jimmie Runner? (lots of laughter)
KEV NISH: He changed Johnnie Walker to Jimmie Runner. That was funny.  As you can see, we’re pretty corny, too.

AO: We read in an interview that one of you guys think inside a carton when writing songs?
KEV NISH: That director is a really funny guy, and right when The Office came out, he’s like,  “Yo, we gotta do this, like, bit about you guys making music.” And he’s like a really accomplished music video director, so it was a good time. And it was J-Splif though that thinks inside the box.

AO: You guys are the first Asian-American group to crack the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100. When you hit number one with “Like A G6” and heard the news, how did that feel?
KEV NISH: Man, you know, we were very honored that people recognized that. You know, because for us, we grew up as LA kids so it doesn’t seem like, “Oh my gosh, we’re this, we’re that.” We’re just like, if anything we’re kind of like, “Hey, we’re the first kids on Figueroa and Hills streets to actually get signed.” You know what I mean? It was never like a race thing, but it’s kind of crazy when, you know, you have cultures that acknowledged that and for us that’s like, wow, you know, we’re proud of that and we appreciate that. At the end of the day, it’s… we try not to get excited. Our biggest thing is the music industry is one of the hardest games in the world. We are a very do-it-yourself type of crew, you know, we were interning at the label then we would go out on the streets, J-Splif would learn how to print CDs and t-shirts, we would sell them outside out of our trunk, popped the trunk, he would be setting up shelves on the phone, putting up speakers and lights ourselves. We would just do whatever it took, I’ll be online spamming people back when MySpace first started, like, every day, listen to our music. And so that’s always been our mentality, so we never try to get excited wherever people are like, “You did this, you did that.” It’s more just like, “Work harder, stay focused and keep on building yourself.” We really appreciate everyone that came out to support us today. You know, we’ve never been here before. We were shocked—to hear people singing along and jumping around, so that inspires us to just work harder.

AO: How do you guys cope with the difficulties of the music industry?
PROHGRESS: There’s always ups and downs to everything, but I think we ought to give a lot of credit to the people that are around us. We were working for a few years now and all the people with us are management or the label or publishing companies or even friends like in TV. They’re the ones who got us our songs on Entourage, and things like that so, you know, the community’s what keeps us going, like, every day we’ll be on Facebook or MySpace will send us a message, you know, saying they got this going on or can we help you out with that. That’s always cool. We actually try to give back because we work with a non-profit called Forcing the Power who will actually take a lot of our friends that are dancers, directors, photographers, and teach high schoolers about the artist for like two hours, three hours. It’s not a lot of time, but at least it’s something  to get you started and afterwards, they get to perform, you know, what they learned with us or with the other guys and have a little bit of fun with it. And sometimes we’ll actually get e-mails from principals talking about the fact it inspired the kids in the grade to get to better stuff like that. So, our whole thing is hopefully, you know, two years, five years from now, we’ll be in the front row geeking out at the show and one of those kids, and they’re rockin’ the crowd.

AO: After “Free Wired,” any upcoming projects you guys have in mind?
KEV NISH: Well, we do have, uh… I guess we can talk about… can we talk about the collaboration?
PROHGRESS: Do it.
KEV NISH: All right, well, we have a new song coming out with Pitbull and a rough version was leaked. But we’re officially going to be putting it out soon and our biggest thing really is this remix to “If I Was You (OMG)” where we already shot the music video with Snoop [Dogg] in downtown LA. But after visiting all these colleges and wilding out—yo, we got to do more. We can’t just go to these schools and leave, like, these people brought us here and showed us mad love. So, we’ve decided to shoot a remix of this video at all these schools. And actually, this school, we shot a ripped scene here with a lot of the students already. We down to the carnival and shot a lot of our verses. So definitely look out for it for a lot of the students here. And that’s for our song “If I Was You” featuring Snoop. We also decided—the next level thing for the universities is we wanted to throw a cool contest. Something that no other people can get—no high schools, no other countries. Just universities and colleges here. So it’s called the “If I Was You on Campus” contest where people can put up a video of them dancing or whatever to our song. And the winner—it’s going to be like the top five with the most views—we’ll pick one out of a hat, we’re going to invade their dorm room. In their room for them and 10 of their friends, and we’re going to bring pizza with the toppings that they want. That’s something that we can’t give anyone else. You know, it’s just for college students cause this tour has been off the hook. So it’s our kind of way of saying thanks.

Binghamton University Nature Preserve

With the temperatures suddenly soaring to the high-70s to low-80s, I realized I had to take the time to enjoy the weather.  When I left my apartment around 5:00 p.m., the sun was already on its way down.  The clouds loomed, heavy with the chance of rain.  Still, I put on my headphones, scrolled through my old iPod, started playing some soft instrumental rock, crammed my keys and phone into my pockets, and proceeded to walk to campus.

Usually, I drive, of course.  Instead of a three-minute car ride, I took a nice, lengthy 12-minute stroll to the edge of campus.  Without a doubt, plowing straight through the heart of Binghamton University’s no fun at all.  I had to walk around—taking the scenic route, basically.  I’m usually very social, constantly seeking to spend time with people.  However, for some reason, I found some comfort in seeing not a single friend along the way.  Not a single one.  There were a few people, here and there, who I recognize but rarely ever talk to.

It was peaceful.  Once the clock ticked to about 6:15 p.m., I took a break at the union and grabbed some water and a snack.  I leaned against the wall, close to the exit on the ground floor, and simply relaxed and watched students and faculty pass by.  Again, oddly enough, I did not see any familiar faces.  The tranquility and period of wordless wonder was absolutely intriguing.  Everyone moved according to their own plans.  I was in my own world.

Around 7:00 p.m., I decided to continue on my way.  This time, I took another route out of campus—but not quite.  Four years passed in Binghamton University and I have yet to enter the nature preserve.  Not once have I stepped on the soil there.  Not once have I ever brushed against the assorted shrubbery there.  And so I went, just as the sun was barely peeking through the heavy, graying clouds beyond the green hills.  I encountered some mud, predictably, but it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.  Even though it rained fairly heavily the night before, most of the trails were dry enough for me to waltz right through.  Perhaps there were volunteers who regularly clean up the area.  That would be my bet anyway.

There is nothing quite like being alone in nature.  Sure, Binghamton’s nature preserve isn’t exactly top-notch.  It was modest, at best.  I still saw a nice share of wildlife, ranging from the common deer, to Canadian geese, some—what I believe to be—red winged blackbirds:

Also, there were leopard frogs of all sizes, various minnows in the still water, sparrows, squirrels and chipmunks all over.  Had I arrived a little earlier (or a little later), I probably would’ve been able to spot a horde of other critters in the area.

There was no way for me to stay too long this time around, though.  After a measly 40 minutes in the pond area of the nature preserve, I caught sight of scattered lightning streaking across the continuously blackening sky.  It grew darker by the minute.  Finally, I decided to make my way back out and back to my apartment.  My sneakers and socks were relatively soaked from missteps by the ponds.  That one little frog caught my attention and I just had to get a closer look.  Served me right.

I believe when I settled back into my apartment sometime after 8 p.m., the most ridiculous torrential downpour began.  Looks like I’m not going to be visiting the nature preserve tomorrow.  At least, not until the water levels die down a bit.

Oh, dear.

Childhood Interests
- photo credits by yours truly.

Creepy crawlies: I believe many young boys go through the “bug” phase.  For me, this probably occurred some time around first or second grade in elementary school.  Back then, suddenly developing a high interest in insects was probably the most beneficial change in my youth.  It taught me to be more in-tune with nature, to appreciate everything the world had to offer—on the natural level.

For some reason, I’ve always favored the praying mantis over other insects.  Not only is it ridiculously hard to find (curse its rarity and camouflage abilities), but it is also so unique in appearance.  Whenever I caught myself a specimen, I could spend a couple of hours at a time just feeding it random insects I happen to come across followed by endless observation.

Too bad I grew out of the bug phase.  However, I still carry everything I’ve learned through those years.  I still love being in nature to this day.  If I had to choose between wandering in the city and hiking through a forest, I’d do the forest.

Reptiles: Do these count as creepy crawlies, as well?  Along with the bug phase, I also went through this… reptile phase.  Snakes, lizards, turtles, alligators, and so forth always caught my attention.  I believe it all started with the Discovery Channel’s wildlife programs.  If not lions, alligators and crocodiles were featured on screen.  Again, I’d have to thank the bug phase for helping me appreciate nature more.  From there, I started running around looking for lizards, though the tasks were much more difficult to accomplish.

I’ve never owned any reptiles besides turtles.  I’ve always wanted a chameleon, but they are notoriously difficult to manage.  Temperature conditions, environment maintenance, diet, lighting, etc. were too much for a little kid to handle.  Perhaps I can still look forward to investing in one someday…

H2O Life: There is a running trend here.  I just like animals of all sorts.  After the reptile phase exhausted itself after a couple of years, I began to gain interest in aquatic creatures.  Throughout my childhood, I’ve owned fishes.  Big ones, small ones, docile ones, vicious ones.  I ought to mention that the big ones tend to suicide by jumping out of the fish tank and the vicious ones tend to cannibalize each other.  But other than the minor setbacks, I still owned various fish throughout the years.

Other than fish, though, I’ve owned hermit crabs, frogs and salamanders and—at one point—I’ve even tried to raise… clams.  That did not work.  Frogs and salamanders posed to be a simple task.  The only things they really needed were food, space and water.  With those at hand, you could leave them for days at a time.  After that, change the water, drop a couple of live insects into the tank and they’ll be perfectly fine for another short while.  On the other hand, hermit crabs were a serious hassle.  Feeding them was no problem.  Giving them space to wander was no problem.  But when they grow and need to migrate into bigger shells… that was a problem.  Shells had to be just big enough and definitely not too small.  I think a couple of my hermit crabs kicked the bucket because of this shell problem.

Weird Plants: Or rather, specifically carnivorous plants.  And more specifically, Venus flytraps.  I, for some reason, adore Venus flytraps.  They’re different, they’re appealing in appearance, they’re odd yet simple by design, and they’re definitely badass.  Plants get devoured by caterpillars, grasshoppers, cicadas and a horde of other types of insects.  But the Venus flytrap devours them.  That alone demanded attention.

My brother recently brought a potted variety home and that was enough to revive my interest.  Looking around outdoors for ants and moths to feed the plant instilled this nostalgic feeling within me.  I felt like the same curious kid who used to run around the backyard hunting for weird and peculiar critters.

Arts and Crafts: I’ve always considered myself to be somewhat above average on the creativity scale.  Ever since I started doodling at the age of 3, there was an innate interest there.  I wanted to express myself via art.  It could be sketches, paintings, sculpting or origami.

Nowadays, Adobe programs like Photoshop and Premiere Pro help me stay sharp with my imagination.  Still, sometimes I miss the old-fashioned hands-on stuff.  I’d have to say, this may be why I enjoy classic Disney-style animated films.  To me, hands-on projects seem more worthwhile than digital art.

Yes, that clay model is Mewtwo, from Pokémon (it was the only example I could find on my hard drive…).

Brr, zap.