After defining themselves as a living-breathing genre unto themselves and redefining performance and production in hip-hop, Hypnotic Brass Ensemble is working to reinvent themselves again as a band with a bigger, more brash sound. Never totally devoid of nuance or subtlety, the band looks toward a limitless future of independent musicianship after having traveled the world, armed with the blueprint handed to them by their father, Kelan Phil Cohran – an almost divine order for life, they move forward as men, musicians, and builders of a movement much greater than themselves; a true brotherhood in brass.
Interview: Saiph “Cid” Graves
What were you all doing prior to gathering to record your most recent release? What was the catalyst for the reunion in Chicago that led to the recording of the album? What about this release made you go back home to record instead of doing it somewhere else?
Last winter we decided to take a break because we had pushed our album release date twice. So last summer, we said when the winter comes we’re going to spend the first half dedicating it to the Plastic Beach 2010 World Tour with the Gorillaz. There weren’t any hip-hop shows scheduled on that tour, so we had a lot of off time even though we were still performing. After that we spent about four months writing music so we could release our album. In that time one of our goals was to record the album in Chicago so we can capture that Chicago feel. Only our second album out of six had been done in Chicago. All of the others were recorded in New York, London, Dublin – everywhere else. We had some rehearsals scheduled with our father, so we planned to do it around then. We had music with so many themes and titles, that there was more than an album’s worth. That’s when we decided to put out Bulletproof Brass, which is like a prelude to the music that will follow and come in along the same lines as the comic book we are working to release.
Since going out on the road in support of your newest release, Bulletproof Brass, how has the public reacted to your music? Both longtime fans and new listeners?
We were very interested to see the reactions of fans that were already familiar with our music, and they loved it. We had never really written a song, then held it before we performed it. We would usually write it all and formulate it in front of them. This time we wanted to sound like a new and improved Hypnotic, rather than just the same tunes and that’s exactly what we got from the fans. Just a real live feeling. It was a little more rhythm and bass heavy than they expected a brass ensemble to be, so people were pleasantly surprised by that.
Your music is always powerful enough to garner attention wherever you are. How have you evolved from your last release to this one, and how is that reflected in the music?
We have evolved in different stages. We have always been able to perform without much use of electricity. We just figured out how to mic our instruments to get the most out of our monitors and amplification, but we have always just been a basic ensemble. Lately, over the last few years, we have been performing at festivals like Glastonbury and The North Sea Jazz Festival – these huge stages where our anatomy – big horns and one drummer, kind of gets swallowed up by this huge stage. What we tried to do was beef up our sound and presence to makeup for that, so now the sound is much greater. Some of the music is more accelerated than tunes like “Jupiter” – one of our more famous tunes when we were performing around New York City.
Were you able to accomplish what you set out to do with Bulletproof Brass? Has the project surpassed your own expectations for success? Has there been any time when you felt like your music or goals as a group have not translated well?
So far it’s been able to exceed our expectations in Europe. In America, we’re still trying. Its just now been inserted into the American market. It was kind of geared toward our American market more than anyplace else. When we made the music it was more up-tempo and heavy, which is what the American ear tends to gravitate to more. We have been getting a good reaction so far in the states from friends. We have given it to DJs at home and overseas to a good reaction. Everyone has given us good feedback and great creative input. Across the world, everyone feels like it is a proper follow-up to our prior release. We want to feel like we are improving as artists, writers, and performers, and so far we have achieved that with Bulletproof Brass. Sometimes it gets difficult to stay focused with so many musicians and so many expectations from our audience, but we try to stay focused and escape those opinions so people don’t feel like they’re used to one thing from Hypnotic.
Thematically, your music runs the gamut from the black experience to super-heroism. Professionally your collaborative experiences have crossed genres and really shown an incredible amount of versatility and skill – from work with the Gorillaz to Mos Def, etc. How do you think those professional experiences have combined with life experiences to inform Bulletproof Brass?
The life experiences definitely informed the album because we have toured the world about three times, so those experiences – missing flights, having broken mics at shows, we had one trip where the tour bus broke down and we had to push it up a hill – all of the things that go into a show – this is the culmination of all of those experiences that we can’t always detail for people or go into all of the time being put into music. That’s where the comic book and superhero angles come in, where the out of the ordinary occurs and we are able to deal with them in the same way people deal with the more mundane tasks in life like brushing their teeth or tying their shoes. All of that went into Bulletproof Brass and the album that will come after it.
You all are obviously influenced by hip-hop, amongst other things. Based upon your working relationships with people in the genre, how do you think you have been able to influence hip-hop?
We know we’ve single-handedly influenced hip-hop. We started out playing on the street in Chicago, New York, Miami, and even California. During that time we spread brass like evangelists starting around 1999 or 2000. Prior to that people had never really seen brass outside of the context of a marching band. People would see us and want us to be their horn section. We turned everyone down, but these people would go home and say well, “Hypnotic turned me down, but let me get a horn section of my own”, or you would listen to a hip-hop track and you would begin to hear producers adding in horn lines here and there. During the ’80s and ’90s, most of the music was coming from synthesizers, which don’t compare to the sound of real horns. We reinserted the live brass sound into the scene and forced people to get back into live horns.
Is the writing and recording process similar every time you go into the studio or is each experience totally different?
The recording process is different every time. It is always experimental. We even take consultations now; a producer or engineer will come in and give us tips – how should we mic our instruments, where we should stand in the studio, who should record in what room, etc. Our writing process had been the same until now. Before we worked as a group, but with Bulletproof Brass and Fly there was such an overload of music that we had to rely on individual songwriters. Like “Indigo,” a song on our upcoming album, was written by the brother June Baji. Before, if someone would write something, the band would take that idea and work together to change it into what the fans eventually know. All ideas had to be assimilated through the whole. Now, we’ve given free reign to songwriters to work independently of the group and just give it to us once its finished. We still do the collective tunes, but not even one-fourth of the music for these releases was done that way. This gives everyone a chance to shine as an individual writer, while band has tunes to adapt from each other.
Being related and musically inclined probably eases the transition to working as a group, but what stopped you all from going your separate ways and seeking solo careers or branching off into ventures with musicians outside of your immediate circle?
We are all interested – side projects and things that we can’t get to yet, but we have our father’s legacy to continue. We have something solid to put into place in our careers and our lives before we can move onto anything else, especially side projects. We have to finish building our label to the point where it is sustained. We have to finish building our genre – the whole musical mix that we’ve thought up, so that other bands coming behind us have a whole category on the radio or in the music store. We want to have a market already there for them. You will eventually see individual projects from us, but nothing comes before solidifying this legacy that we want to continue. Aside from that, we know what we do together is unstoppable. Right now we’re focusing on that unstoppable wave of energy and letting that make way for our other projects.
Can you speak a bit about what it was like growing up in such a musical family. Was it a situation where the group you are now had always been forming in some way or did you all avoid that until you were adults?
Our teenage years formed us. Everybody in Chicago knew us as the brothers. Chicago’s Southside is a gang culture, so you see a group of young dudes and automatically they’re considered a gang. People would always see us together, even as small kids, and it kind of solidified our identity as a group. Everything we did from music to community service throughout our formative years was always done together. We recognized the power and energy of our unity. As kids our parents kept us tight. As a kid you love your brothers, but you want to be on your own thing. So, we didn’t respect and acknowledge that power until we became teenagers and began to notice the respect and acknowledgement our unity was receiving from the outside world. People would tells us how much they wished they had a bunch of brothers and we began to realize how special it was, but that didn’t come until later.
Your father, Kelan Phil Cohran, is an obvious and probably the most immediate influence on you all as a unit. Can you speak a bit about how significant an impact he has had on the group? How have his politics affected your music?
Our father is the most significant influence on the group. Honestly, this was not our idea. We stopped playing with our dad and formed Hypnotic in like ’99. This was his idea. By the time we were old enough to hold our instrument, he began to teach each of us music. He planned one day to be in a family band. He had been in other bands and formed groups that would go on to success and eventually break up. He wanted to be in a band that would never break up, and one that had been trained together. It kind of didn’t work out quite how he had expected, since we broke off and formed our own band instead of working as the band that he had initially planned for. But now that we are a group, we totally recognize that we came from a concept that he made way for. We respect him musically, beyond being our father and music teacher, just as an artist. What he’s achieved. He’s amassed a huge amount of knowledge on music, science, and history and how they relate to each other. We totally respect what he’s taught us and try to exemplify that in our performances. Artistically, his cultural and political point of view has shaped our approach to business. As a band, we’ve turned down three major record deals and two indie deals. The major deals were direct from Sony, direct from Atlantic. Any other band would probably have taken that and been ready to make a record. For us, there needs to be a balance. Making our music is important but it needs to remain pure from the bottom of the business to the top. That’s something that has been very important to how successful we are. Keep the music free from as many outside influences and entities as possible is something that he did. The reason why he’s not as famous as Miles Davis today is because he chose to give his music to the people as opposed to working purely for profit. We find that is a very hard thing to balance but that political approach has shaped our business acumen.
What made you move to New York City and what impact did you expect that move to have on your career? Looking back, were there times you didn’t think that was such a wise decision? What changed your minds?
In late 2003 we felt we had sold all we could in Chicago after selling almost 300,000 independently. We felt like everybody here had it. We had made enough money to put out another album. Let’s take it on the road. We went to different cities with our horns and a couple of changes of clothes, just to test out the music in different places. We went to New York and it was awesome. We did a show that was so crazy, the fire department had to shut it down. We played on the street and sold about 300 albums in less than an hour. Everything was good. New York was never a bad idea. Even when we decided to come back and get a house there, it never felt like a bad idea. What made the decision was our feeling that our music belonged all over the world. New York is a port city and we had already tried Los Angeles. California is not as extroverted. New York is a city where everyone from around the world exists. As artists, the business environment of New York City allowed us to book all of our own shows without an agent and to exist pretty easily independently.
What was the first major performance or studio work you were invited to do, and did that act as a launching pad for the group’s exposure outside of subways and more casual venues? Was there one event that really made people in the industry become captivated by your sound?
Our first thing was a Ghostface track with NO I.D. in about 2004. That was what led to the offer from Universal. NO I.D. was one of the old heads from our old neighborhood, so we were honored to do the music with the both of them. We felt like that placement was a big boost to our career, so we felt like the hard work was over, dues had been paid, and it really just wasn’t that. As a band that was maybe our first big lesson that nothing but hard work is going to do it. Initially we had this idea that the right person would see us and see how good we were and it would be as simple as that – our troubles are done. After that track, we began to see that no matter how good we are we would have to build everything we wanted for ourselves. That’s how the industry works.
Who are some of your outside influences? Any horn sections, groups, or individual musicians that have really inspired your style or informed your work?
Our dad. Fela Kuti and James Brown, both as performers and songwriters definitely influence us. We listen to a lot of Earth, Wind, and Fire, as far as horn sections that have come before us we absolutely give them their props. We would like to have the kind of career longevity that they have. There’s a lot of people. Even Michael Jackson, just in terms of the kinds of dance hits we get into when we want to do something really hot for our audiences, we tap into that energy. Just in terms of horn sections there’s Tower of Power, J.J. Johnson – not a lot of the famous dudes, because growing up our father didn’t let us listen to other artists.
Who are some of the artists you have played with during your career? What would you say was the greatest of those experiences? Why?
We were already fans of Prince, so that was the greatest. We’ve been around a lot of stars. Everybody knows us and we know them, so we can tell you good and bad stories about celebrities. All of them are not as straight up real. Prince is a real dude who is all about the music. He was going through sound check when he saw us and told us to get our horns and try something right quick. We just tried something and it started rocking, then Prince was like “Yeah, we’re doing this later on in the show.” He’s just a real cool dude. He wants to be known just for good pure music. Another artist that was cool was Maxwell. Out of all the artists we’ve worked with, he was the one dude who remembered every one of our names and there’s like eight of us. We argue a lot when we write and Maxwell would always get in the middle of the room and be the peacemaker. He got comfortable with us pretty quickly and we got some great music done because of it.
Are there any artists on your wish list of collaborators that you would like to talk about? If so, please share a few names or grand ideas you have been batting around.
Laura Hale, we would love to do something with her. We really want to work with great female vocalists. Now we have something coming hopefully in 2012 with Nas. We’ve been trying to work that out forever, so that’s coming. There’s been so many people. Bobby Womack is another one. Stevie Wonder. We just want him to produce a track for us. He doesn’t even have to perform it. Any of those people who dealt with music in a classic sense during the ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s before true musicianship began to decline – we would like to work with them. We feel like the rebirth of that movement, so we would love to get there.
Have you all ever battled any other working horn sections or brass groups? Would you? Like a sound clash between Antibalas and Hypnotic Brass or something similar? Would you like to see any horn sections or bands go head to head? If so, who?
Yeah, we have battled a little in our career. We definitely have the baddest brass on planet earth. We have the livest performance, so we are down to put it down anytime if another group is interested. There’s no two bands I can think of going head to head. I like Trombone Shorty, but his band is not as dope as he is. I would like to see his horn players go head to head with him to even out the difference between the lead man and the side guys. That’s about it. Janelle Monae’s horn section is pretty bad. Probably anybody going against New Orleans brass. We have our little rivalry with them, so we would love to see that competition.
What have you all been listening to in the past year? Any favorites?
On the subject of Janelle Monae, we just got up on that and have been listening to her in the car. As for people who are fairly new, we’ve been listening to Wale, Kanye – we listen to Jazmine Sullivan, Melanie Fiona, a little bit of Drake, and other than that we usually listen to nothing but our own production. Anything we are working on, we spend a lot of time listening to. We are not as current as we should be, but we listen to a lot.
What is the next stop on your tour? Where can fans catch up with Hypnotic Brass Ensemble in the coming months?
We are going to be performing in Boston, Canada, and then we will be on break until we begin an Eastern European tour in Austria. Then, we will be on the Honest John’s Revue Tour with Damon Albarn, Tony Allen, Flea from The Red Hot Chili Peppers, and our dad. Then we go to Australia for that tour, followed by the west coast of the U.S. We will be pretty much everywhere except Asia and Africa.
Are you working on any new music during your travels? What kind of things can fans look forward to in the future?
We are revamping the website and trying to make our products and services as cool as we are. People will be able to contact us easier – we’re usually a very hard band to get in touch with. We are working to improve that. We are also releasing our new album in late spring 2012, so any performances between now and then will include Bulletproof Brass as well as this new music that we will be performing live. We are not really telling people we are doing new material, we just slide it in and look for people’s reactions.
Is there anything you want to address that we haven’t discussed? Any closing comments?
As interesting as our family and our beginnings are, the story of our ability to survive and succeed in a market and an industry that has been on a severe decline is the most important thing. The message we would like to convey is one of total empowerment as artists. We have been very discerning about what we take from others in the industry, turning down deals, being careful who we work with, etc. So we started our own publishing company, we made our own label and sold almost 800,000 albums worldwide, we run our own tours, so everything is an imprint of these young guys from Chicago who decided to take control of the situation and make it work. We really are a grassroots band and we are made by the people. We really would not have had half of the advancement and achievement without that, and without being able to get these things done.
Visit Hypnotic Brass Ensemble Online
Interview by Karas Lamb
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hbe is tight. i love the over all brass band sound.
the legendary Soul Rebels Brass Band have it really going on now. check em’ out, theyre all over the place.
@LoveFreddieHubbard i just saw the SOUL REBELS BRASS BAND last week at the brooklyn bowl. it was probably THE BEST show ive ever seen in my life. there were like 1000 people there, all dancing their hearts out for 2 1/2 hours soul rebels are my favorite of the brass bands fo sho . not easy to graciously blend soul, funk with old school instrumental hip hop. band is killing!