Too Many Fish: The Webbafied Interview

Thats right. This is the big feature. My man Webbafied hit me up with an interview today. We discussed his music, hes plans, and most specifically, his new musical project Too Many Fish. The band consists of Webbafied and Molecule, a producer from Paris. They recently finished up a few songs, but the band is really really new. Check out the songs on the myspace, they are DOPE.

Heres the interview transcript (with a couple clarifications).

AS: How you doin today?

Webbafied: Good good, thanks a lot for taking the time to interview me.

So, before we discuss your newest project, I wanna get a little more info on your musical stylings and then maybe a little on past projects. You appear all over the internet, rapping over different genres of music and being interviewed by people worldwide. How do you feel your non-central approach to rising to fame sets you apart from the cats that push for local then regional then national recognition?

I think today with change in music industry, you need to use the internet to rep independent music. I could spend tons of time in New York just getting the word out, handing out flyers, but the internet lets me go global. Me personally, I use the internet as artillery, so it helps me to get shows in Paris, UK, Germany, all over the world.

Do you have a preference for what genre you rap over?

My selection of tracks goes in many directions and I feel that I have a great versatility with the music I rap over. My music is like a chameleon it changes all the time. I can take lots of different stuff and use it. Like for instance the Justice project, my friends were like What? Because it was so different from what I normally did. But I say “if its hot its hot”. The stuff I’ve been doing lately is mostly electro, but I worked with a live band pretty recently. Sky’s the limit

Cool Cool. So lets talk about your past projects. The first thing that jumps into my mind is the Webbafied Does it Justice album. I know you showed it to the guys at Ed Banger, what’s the status now?

Well, we just partied, I handed shit out, chilled with the Ed banger crew. Busy P was buying me drinks all night. The party was quaint, 200 people on a boat in goin around the Seine in Paris. It was a great experience. I told them about the project, handed out some albums. The project was very organic, my brother DJ Vinyl Richie showed me the album, I just started freestyling over it, and then we just decided to do the project. So getting the chance to hang with those guys months later was surreal. Since the party, I haven’t had much feedback from Ed Banger. I just wanted to get it out there and be like you did your project, and I did mine, check it out. I wanted to get it out there and I did that.


The making of Webbafied Does it Justice

Also, you’ve been recording with Phonk Addiction (a European live Jazz band) pretty recently. How did that work out?

Damn, you did your research! I like that. Well I went on a tour, 9 shows 13 days, all over Europe. UK, Germany, France. One of my DJs spread the music around and Phonk Addiction called me up as soon as I got back to New York and asked me to be the lead singer for their band. It was like a dream to do a live band project, like The Roots. It was cool to jam in the studio and direct them, like tell my bassist ‘pick up this lick’, my drummer, ‘change that beat a little’. The project is almost done, their just doing some final mixing, and its gonna be called ‘Birth To Burial.’ It’s a concept album going from the birth of a child to the death of a man or woman.

Webbafied with Phonk Addiction

Alright, onto Too Many Fish. You and Molecule have teamed up on some tracks before, yea?

Yea, I did some work on Molecule’s first album. I did the intro and two tracks. He’s a friend of friend, so we worked together, going favor for favor. I got some exposure, he got my lyrical abilities on his tracks.

How did you guys come up with the name Too Many Fish?

We had so many ideas, and none of us could agree on one. I’d come up with one and Molecule or Vinyl Ritchie wouldn’t like it or the manager wouldn’t like it. So eventually we just came up with a few that we liked the most and voted on them. Too Many Fish is us, me and Molecule are two of the fish. Molecule is so eclectic, he does disco, dubstep, all kinds of stuff. So were trying to change hip hop, like back in the day it was all about dancing. Now its like ‘lean back’, these guys don’t try to dance anymore they just go to put their mark on the wall. It’s like taboo with these East Coast Rappers. Like me, I wanna dance. I like to dance, when I go to the club I want to get it poppin. So this album is about trying to get people dancing. I’m really excited about this project, tryin to spread the word and pull in some new fans.

Are you and Molecule planning to team up on tour, or just in the studio?

Molecule is really busy. He has a huge reputation all over Europe. He even gets shows in Poland and shit. So he has lots of shows, features in magazines, this guy is doing his thing. So we should be doing some touring real soon, but now it’s about getting the music out there and generating buzz. This is actually the first interview I’m doing where I talk about Too Many Fish. The project is very new.

Who do you feel has more creative direction in the band or do you guys split pretty even?

Its pretty even, Molecule brings a really keen ear to the table, his talent for mixing and arranging. He’s very talented, plays tons of instruments. There are no samples in this album, its all original. He’s the producer. And of course I bring the lyrics to the table. Hip Hop has like a formula now, a 16 bar verse and an 8 bar then verse, then you loop it and its your song. Molecule creates like a symphony or a movie with the songs. There are peaks and valleys in his compositions. Like he’ll make the beat and I’ll rap over it then he’ll sit down and throw more instruments over it. The concepts of the album are a lot based around love and relationships, simple concepts, so even though he’s French, he can pick up on the theme of the song pretty well. He speaks English, but not perfectly. So we split the direction pretty 50/50.

Should we expect a release pretty soon?

I don’t know. At this point I don’t have an estimate. I want to get some more songs out on the myspace and blogs like yours first. Generate some hype. I’m also trying to put together a video shoot for Subway Girl. I’m putting lots of effort into getting the music out ASAP.

From the four tracks I’ve seen so far, I’m really excited. Is there any other info about the band you wanna get out onto the web?

Hit the myspace, myspace.com/toomanyfish. Drop some comments, go to the Webbafied does it Justice Project, myspace.com/webbafied, and download the tape for free. Be on the lookout for more stuff to come. Check out the songs and tell your friends.

Ok, well before we wrap things up, where can we expect you to be over the next few months? Studio? Touring?

I’ll be in NYC, Brooklyn specifically. I’ve got a lot for family stuff to deal with, working on promoting this project, getting the word out. Trying to save up some money so I can get back over to Europe in the fall, to finalize the Phonk Addiction stuff and work with Molecule.

Are there any acts you’ve been following recently? Anyone you want to Shout Out?

Svengali Bros., my man Iron Solomon, my man Vanguard, DJ Vinyl Richie. Those guys are like my original squad, and were trying to finish up their album ‘Crime and Punishment.’ Also wanna shout out End of the Weak (endoftheweak.com), We’re worldwide, UK, France, Brazil, Argentina. The International championship is in London in October, so I’m looking forward to that. Its gonna be real.

And just out of curiosity, if you could have one superpower, what would it be and why?

I think I would wanna be invincible, so I could live forever, and see what happens. Lots of people wanna see how things would fall out, and yea that’s something that would interest me. See how things turn out when everything is said and done. And of course… you know like catch bullets with my teeth. I would have said flying, but if you crash then it’s all over, so yea I’d go with invincibility.

Thanks a ton for your time, Im looking forward to hearing more of the new project!

So there you have it guys, the first interview for Aural Satisfaction, and an awesome interview it was. Shout out to WEBBAFIED, and everyone better check out the Too Many Fish project. To wet your apetite, ive got a) a link to the Webbafied Does it Justice album, and b) an exclusive Too Many Fish track, hot out of the inbox.

Webbafied - Webbafied Does it Justice

Too Many Fish - Subway Girl (YSI)
Too Many Fish - Subway Girl (zShare)

Hope you guys enjoy, i sure did.
Rock on