Today we're spending Seven Questions In Heaven with Akroyd Smart!
Describe your music for our readers who may not be familiar with you.
That's always a really hard question to answer whenever even friends or family ask. I guess in it's most simplest form, people could just call it hip-hop, maybe even alternative hip-hop if they are so inclined. I think people know me so far for rapping and producing hip hop inspired instrumentals but I'm always learning new things and trying to include them in to my music. It's almost easier just to listen to what I do and decide for yourself what that is. I think there's a little bit of a lot of things in there with a lot of different influences.
Who are your musical influences and idols?
I'll try to keep this one brief even though I could list a whole lot of people. I would say the biggest influences for me first and foremost are Freddie Mercury, Jeff Buckley, Stevie Wonder, Jill Scott, Erykah Badu, Ian Kenny and Drew Goddard from Karnivool, and Max Bemis from Say Anything to name a few. But then there's the hip hop ones which are Andre 3000, Kanye West, El-P (Company Flow, Run The Jewels), Frank Ocean, Mos Def, Childish Gambino, Chance The Rapper, the guys from BADBADNOTGOOD. There's too many as it is but there's way more.
What was the first album, cassette, or CD you bought with your own money?
I remember that pretty vividly. It was 2003, and I had bought the self titled Blink-182 album. That was the album that got me into playing music and learning how to play guitar. Which got me learning other instruments. But that album definitely formed the consequences into creating music and everything I've done thus far. That was the beginning.
What was the strangest gig you've ever played?
There's been a few more than a couple. Mostly it's just been strange organization miscommunications. For example, there was this one show that my friends and I travelled to the other side of the city for. It was just a low key run event where a whole bunch of hip hop artists would go head to head, like a battle of the bands, and people could vote at the door. And we were told that there would be all this equipment provided for us to use on stage.
We rock up to the venue, find this small little room out the back, passed the main stage, and the stage we see is completely cleared and empty besides two mics and stands. Luckily we had brought our own stuff anyway but then when I had told the sound guy and organized all our gear to be set up, we were told that we were on last and the acts before us were asking to use the stuff we'd brought with us.
Apparently they were expecting us to bring the music on a CD for the sound guy to play from the desk. We don't do that. So we let people use the laptop to play their beats and as the night was going on, we realized that this was organized by friends and so all the acts were in the company of friends and my friends and I were the odd ones out.
Oh the weirdest part was one of the guys who was hosting had a can of soda and had put it down on our table and starting telling jokes while we setting up our stuff before the set. And then he accidentally knocked over and spilled that can of drink on the stage. So there was this big wet puddle in the middle of the stage. And he doesn't clean it up!
So we had to perform, avoiding this puddle of soda in case we slip over while we're jumping around. Definitely weird, but we won some money out of it so that was good.
What is your current favorite guilty pleasure?
Honestly? This is probably really boring but I love going on YouTube and watching obnoxiously bad band covers of popular rock and punk songs of the '90s and '00s.
There's something incredibly painful yet satisfying objecting myself to such content on the internet.
If they named an ice cream flavor after you, what would be the name and why?
I feel like my flavor would be more of an experience that involves a process. So you would get a teaspoon of peanut butter (smooth of course) and put it on the roof of your mouth, this will represent charismatic nutcase (pun intended) that I am. Next you eat a spoon of plain vanilla ice cream, so that so far it is fairly pleasant to tastet and then you would have to lick salt off the back of your hand like as if you doing shots of tequila. That's the unexpected and momentary abrasiveness that is synonymous with how my music is made. We would call it Kick of Curl.
Final question: You're the opening act of a music festival. You can get any five artists, living or dead, to perform on the bill with you. Which five do you choose and what song do you all perform as the final jam?
Okay, well to get it out of the way I'd have to include the late and great, Freddie Mercury playing by himself without Queen, as well as Jeff Buckley. The three of us would be singing together and trading verses. I would get Ben Folds to come out and rip out a crazy piano solo. And just to make it more implausible I'd have Prince come out with Paul McCartney and Wings to feature as a backing band. And we'd do an incredibly self indulgent cover of "Maybe" by N*E*R*D.
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