Ecid Interview w/Midwest Underground
April 16, 2008
I sat down with the Bargain Junkie Himself at his Economy Sized Recording Studio on the Northern edge of Minneapolis during the early afternoon. Armed with only my Olymous_4100 Digital Voice Recorder a can of Green Tea and an objective I was unable to recall. Since he did not send me a press release I decided to do an interview and just have him explain it.
Chief: Your name is ECID?
ECID:No
Chief: What is the name of your Group, Crew, and Label?
ECID: We are officially called "Fill In The Breaks" we are a Family, Crew, a label above everything else but someday I would like to see maybe a little more, who knows.
Chief: So whom does that consist of?
ECID: Myself, ECID, Jordan Miche´, Capaciti, David Mars, Sector 7G (Impulse and D.J. Pseudonym) and Arsenic, and then a few other sub Groups within that, which are Prom King Stigmata (Jordan Miche´ and David Mars), Saturday Morning Soundtrack (ECID, Kristoff Krane, Impulse, and Capaciti).
Chief: So that's a lot of projects. Who handles all of that work?
ECID: I do, I mean some of the guys do what they can here and there but I pretty much handle all of the business myself. When you have a vision then no one else can do things the way you would.
Chief: So you do Hip Hop full time then?
ECID: Yup, you have to sell the Merchandise and book the shows and keep things going.
Chief: How many show is Fill In The Breaks doing a month?
ECID: It depends. We always are doing Something.
Chief: Always?
ECID: Always.
Chief: So you have been doing a lot of short tours lately, how has that been working out for you?
ECID: Well it's cool cause if you don't make any money you don't have to be out there that long. Cause every time you go out there will be new people and if they dig you then they will tell their friends and they will come to the next show or whatever but either way if you do that constantly then it has to be effective. I am not about to sit around here talking about how only the bigger groups get the shine.
Chief: So you have got your shows here and all over the country just by booking your own shows or networking with people here or out of town?
ECID: I don't get offered a lot of shows around here I pretty much have to book the shows myself. So I have been doing that for a long time and I always put other people on so I have definitely built some relationships off of that.
Chief: So what is coming out now or what should I be looking out for right now from
Fill In The Breaks?
ECID: Well at our Two Year Anniversary we are Releasing the Prom King Stigmata Album
And after that we are going to release David Mars's solo project that I produced entirely, Me and Arsenic just made a EP when I was in AZ for Panoply's birthday.
It's called scorpion Killers, it's all themed out, were like Outlaw Bikers and we are going to make a Sampler to take with us to Scribble Jam. After that me and Jordan have a project together called Robots Can't Grow Wings, I am also going to put out an EP. There is also going to be a secret project coming up involving eight rappers but I cannot tell you whom it is.
Chief: So how long have you been Fill In The Breaks?
ECID: I have been ECID since about 2002, like that's when I was going to school and I wasn't making beats and I just was doing my own shit, I wasn't doing anything with anybody I hadn't even really got into the scene yet I was just going to a local studio,
Buying beats from some other producer and that's why I went to school cause I knew I had an ear for it. Cause I would by a beat from somebody or co-produce one with them and then I would get to the point where I would do it on my own, so I did that, and a friend of mine gave me equipment Like my speakers my first keyboard and really encouraged me to go into it. So I went to I.P.R (you know that place across from the Vu) while I was going there I really figured out how to rap better. Cause till that point I really didn't pay a lot of attention to like timing and delivery, I mean I was really into lyrics but I didn't like have a music background, like no one in my family made music It was more Blue Collar, work your way up at the Grocery store kind of mentality.
So I had to basically sweat blood night and day for years to figure it out.
Chief: So what made you think you should be an Emcee or a producer?
ECID: Fuck I don't know man, I wanted to write I was angry I had a lot of shit to say I remember when I was like eight years old or in Middle School? When I was learning about writing poems, like the Haiku's n shit I loved writing them it was just one of the things that stuck with me. And at the same time if someone gets it or what ever that's really cool and I was really into rap. So when I was at IPR I really started learning how to rap better. Like I was always good at song structure, but then I learned sound engineering and how to mix and how things should sound. But even that didn't do it for me, I started going to open mic sessions at the Fifth Element (Everyone our age knows about the open mic nights at the Fifth Element.) That's where I met impulse in like 2003 and David Mars who I have known since I was a little kid, we where always friends but we didn't talk for ever, I coincidentally ran into him at the Fifth Element. We both where into rapping I encouraged him, and it's funny cause we all met up there and then there was another friend from High School named Nomad I had that I met up with there and he was doing stuff with us for a while. Back then we went by Substance abuse, you know we where like eighteen and nineteen so it was cool to have a name like that and think it's cool. And we did that for a couple of years, played a lot of shows, I was doing all the booking then, but then we still where outsiders to the scene. You know just cause we where young and didn't know anyone. But we kind of made a record. While we where substance abuse I made like two three solo records And then Living Stereo which is a album I made with Impulse, I made an album with Nomad where I made all the beats and we both rapped, I mean there was like seven records before we where Fill In The Breaks. And that was like from 2003 to 2005 So like two or three years being real under the radar, the shit we made then was even weirder than the shit we make now. We just kept together, I mean a lot of people came and wanted to do stuff and just never came through or the project never panned out we tried things that made sense at the time but we shouldn't have done them. We tried being part of Artist Collectives and help the movement shit, and that kind of stuff is just bullshit cause you just take away from what your doing, we did that and wasted like a year. It just didn't make sense and what was like a turning point was when we met Eyedea, he saw us perform and wanted to record the album and he really thought us a lot personally and musically, he has always been a really good mentor. So by like 2005 we pretty much knew everyone but it just wasn't really clicking.
I did some solo stuff and it just wasn't there yet and then I had my awakening or whatever and it was that Substance Abuse just doesn't fit anymore it was immature and our music was not a fuckin novelty act, I wanted my music to be taken seriously I was beginning to be an adult and we all agreed to change the name so like the end of 2005 we had a meeting and threw a bunch of names out there and Fill In The Breaks worked so the first show we did after that was in like April so that's why I decided to have the show at the end of April.
Chief: What about Jordan Miche´?
ECID: Well he had gotten a hold of D.J. Pseudonym who was also part of the substance abuse crew, um Jordan wanted beats from him and stuff, and got through to me and we just clicked he was a crazy bastard back then I kind of took him under my wing cause he didn't know anything about anything when it came to the hip hop shit, and everyone was a little reluctant because other people had come through and wanted to do stuff and sort of fell off but the first time I heard him I knew he was perfect for what we do he is like a great compliment to what we are doing and just had to work with him, and so after everybody warmed up to him he just became part of the crew.
So for the last two years we have just been recording mad albums and promoting shows and when myspace was dope we actually used that little window to use myspace to further develop our fan base
Chief: So the last two years, what has it looked like to you?
ECID: A fuckin blur man, seven records that I have had to project manage, like see them almost all the way through, I mean the Saturday Morning Soundtrack recording sessions where crazy, like with four people in this little room it's pretty intense. So lately its been like ok you got this one written lets record it press it up promote it and go on tour, and every time trying to put together a better tour.
Chief: So does traveling around the country influence your sound?
ECID: Absolutely, I pick things up from everywhere I go, like when i'm in Arizona, I would never make an outlaw biker album but that's like sort of the culture out there.