Brooklyn. Named after the Dutch town Breukelen. Home to Coney Island. Backdrop to Spike Lee’s classic "Do The Right Thing”. Birthplace of Hip Hop legend Louis Logic (aka Louis Dorley).
Residents of these two cities have come together to revolutionize Hip Hop music as we know it. Louis Dorley and Beatman & Rockin’ are: Spork Kills, Hip Hop’s premier Surf Rock fusion band!!
This musical monstrosity has recently laid claim to a studio in Copenhagen and are in the process of assembling a mixtape for the awaiting masses.
Louis Dorley recently took time out of his tour schedule (promoting Spork Kills’ debut ep “Beaches Love Us”), to graciously respond to some questions posed by members of the Spork Kills Street Team.
THE BAND
Jed I. Rosenberg (New York, NY): “So Louis, in the beginning of your career your subject matter was fairly shocking - even a bit aggressive at times. But as you've grown as an artist it seems you have found that you would rather challenge your audience by deviating from the musical conventions of hip-hop (production, samples, choruses) - while favoring innuendo and suggestion over straight-forward raunchy and vulgar lyricism. In fact, your current live show excludes some
of the staples from your earlier career like "Between Her Legs" and "Coochie Coup." How do you deal with the fans who are still expecting a return to the 'old' louis logic?"Louis Dorley: “Death by Christian Rap Song covers. Just kidding. That would be a terrible death though. It would take so long. I don’t want to punish the kids who are fond of my older self. I started doing some of those old songs again. After they sit for a while they seem fresh to me again. Also, I find new ways to do them and enjoy them. With regard to the updates I’ve made, I was initially trying to challenge myself. Consequently I ended up challenging my audience to open their minds to sample free hip hop that’s hybrid and has lots of singing or even me playing piano. I’m not worried about whether it was a good thing or a bad thing for them. I finally feel like a musician, so it’s a great thing for me.”
Grant MacEachern (Halifax, NS): “You have a friendship with Travis from Gym Class Heroes. Did he have any good advice for you when it came to fusing hip hop and rock?”
LD: “No. Travis doesn’t seem to want to do that anymore from what I can tell. We’re running in opposite directions, but I understand what it is to pursue what fulfills you even if I don’t agree with his choices. He’s a brave artist. He has to do his growing and decision making in front an astronomically larger audience. I respect him for that. “
Ron O’Brien (Los Angeles, CA): “This album has a huge surfer theme/vibe to it. Were you ever before or are you now a surfer? Or just a big fan of Gidget!?!”
LD: “Haha! This feels like a job interview. Are you now or have you ever been before an addict of a narcotic substance? I surfed as a kid on Long Island, if you can call that surfing. The water was dark brown and thick with medical waste. Grrrrrross. These days, I do a lot of couch surfing, web surfing, crowd surfing and many other varieties of surfing that don’t involve actual
surfing.“
Grant MacEachern (Halifax, NS): “Do you feel like some of your fans won’t get your new project? What do you have to say to those who feel like you will never be as good as you were in your Sin-A-Matic days?”
LD: “Sure. There are plenty of those kids. I didn’t have to learn to sing, play piano or make Surf Rap for that to happen though. A lot of people thought Misery Loves Comedy was so different from Sin-A-Matic that they couldn’t handle the transition. I don’t concern myself with that. I’m not running the race to keep pace with listener’s expectations. I wouldn’t run as fast that way. I wouldn’t be moving in any direction at all. People think they want you to stay the same. If you dare to try it, then you become predictable. A one trick pony. I’m trying to keep pace with my own ever-changing desires, not the opinion of the 10,000 kids who liked my first album! What do I say to the kids who don’t wanna come with me on the ride? Nothing. They write me from time to time and say “I used to love you and now you suck.” Hahaha! I don’t have to do anything to them. They’re already fucking themselves in a terrible way to miss the brilliance my bandmates Laust & Rolf’s writing and playing shines on my silly songs. Those boys are brilliant musicians and that’s the only thing that’s so different. I still rhyme the same way and in even more ways now, and I have the same mood and humor. I’m not gonna beg them to enjoy brilliance. A lot of them will probably end up liking it after everyone else has already thought it was cool for years or when the right person tells them that’s it’s what’s cool now, but I bet they won’t write to me to tell me that. No one likes the taste of their feet.”
Jed I. Rosenberg (New York, NY): “I read somewhere that your songwriting process is influenced by watching movies. Has this process changed any with this new project? Or in simpler terms, explain the song construction process with Spork Kills.”
Louis Dorley: “I’ve always done that, even before Spork Kills. I can’t write to beats. I find it distracting, which is ironic. It should be the other way around. If I put a beat on and try to write to it, I’ll just zone out and listen. If I put a movie on, especially something I’ve seen a million times, it sets my mind to the appropriate type of wandering.“
Grant MacEachern (Halifax, NS): “It seems that your music has changed quite a bit from Sin-A-Matic to Spork Kills. What would be the main reasons to which you would attribute this change?”
LD: “I was trying to get away from traditional construction. It's like in fight club when Tyler Durden makes soap out of the fat from liposuction clinics selling the rich women their own fat asses back to them! That's how most people make hip hop. I just got tired of that. I wanted to make something that people of the future would sample, rather than sampling the greats of the past.”
MUSIC APPRECIATION
Charles Nguyen (Hiram, GA): “Who’s your favorite musician?”
LD: “Rufus Wainwright”
Brandon Rheinart (Phoenix, AZ): “During a night out with friends, you decide to sing some karaoke. Which song do you choose and why?”
LD: “Simple Minds “Don’t Forget About Me” cause it rules and everyone always sings along. Either that or Styx “Come Sail Away” cause it’s hella long and fun to sing so I can irritate the shit outta all the Karaoke champs. There’s always a crowd of people who take that shit too seriously. I like to rub their noses in it, cause I’m mean.”
Brandon Rheinart (Phoenix, AZ): “Which one defunct band/group would you like to see reunite for a one time only tour? All members must still be living.”
LD: “If we’re talking rap, I’d say Pharcyde. Wait, did that already happen? If we’re talking rock, A proper Styx tour with the real lead singer Dennis DeYoung would be sick or a real Journey tour, not that the Filipino guy can’t sing cause he’s eerily good at imitating Steve Perry. I just don’t like imitation on any level. Imitation crab. Imitation big boobs. Imitation veggie meat products. Well wait, I do like those.”
THE EXTRAS
Charles Nguyen (Hiram, GA): “What's your favorite movie?”
LD: “The Exorcist”
Charles Nguyen (Hiram, GA): “Are you prepared for the zombie apocalypse?”
LD: “Sure. I’m just gonna dive in and be one. Zombies are pretty much fantastic.”
Hayley Heinrich (Adelaide, SA): "Are you a scruncher or a folder?"
LD: “I’m a folder. Big time. I have serious OCD related anxiety about neatness and organization. It makes me late to all appointments because I can’t stop straightening things. Consequently, it also makes me write really detailed records, so I guess you guys make out on my suffering in the end. At least someone’s reaping the benefit!”
TATTOOS, JOHN HUGHES & THE B-52’S
Brandon Rheinart (Phoenix, AZ): “Is there any movie you can quote line for line?”
LD: “I used to be able to slay The Breakfast Club. I still know a lot of it. It was on cable the other day and I did the whole Bender meltdown speech during the potsmoking scene.“
Brandon Rheinart (Phoenix, AZ): “In The B52's, who is, or was, hotter? The blonde or the red head? (Fred Schneider is not an acceptable answer)”
LD: “You jerk! I was gonna say Fred. Since you’re forcing me to keep this hetero, I’m going with the red head. Mmm… Don’t make me say it...Firebush.
Charles Nguyen (Hiram, GA): "What's the meaning behind your half sleeve you just received from Chris Sosa?"
LD: “It’s a memorial tattoo. The floral pattern comes from the print that was on the skirt my mother was buried in. She died of complications arising out of Chemotherapy side effects. She was fighting lung cancer for several years. I wanted the first tattoo I got to be something substantial in size and meaning. When Chris Sosa and I became such close friends, I knew the right situation was in place to begin. He reinterpreted the dress pattern to fit it to my forearm and make the colors more alive and tattoo friendly. I had him work a rose into the end of the design that extends just beyond the sleeve line at my wrist onto the back of my hand so that it can’t be hidden by clothes. My mother’s middle name was Rose. I also had him leave negative space with intentional complimentary purpose in mind. On the inside of my forearm I have a series of scars that I got in an accident in which my sister slammed a door on me and my fist went through the glass. My mother had a scar in the same place and she used to say that it made us twins. It always annoyed me since the scars didn’t look anything like each other and she would make a big deal out of it in front of anyone who would listen. Somehow these are the things you remember about someone who is gone. The half sleeve has since grown into a full sleeve in progress. Sosa added the flowers called Birds of Paradise to the top of the floral arrangement at the elbow and they begin to morph as you move up my bicep and trip toward the shoulder into a flock of actual birds in a wild array of colors. It’s very trippy and beautiful. I plan to extend it up the remainder of my arm, onto my shoulder, ending on my neck with a detailed close up of one of the birds.”
ON THE ROAD
Ryan Johnson (Baton Rouge, LA / Boston, MA): “What is your most embarrassing on stage moment?”
Louis Dorley: “The most embarrassing and most awesome moments ever were the same. I got harangued by a crowd of chubby kids in clown make-up while opening for Insane Clown Posse’s Dark Lotus tour. They were somewhat tolerant of my first few songs. By the time I got to Coochie Coup, which is funny cause I thought they’d like a song about fucking, they started booing. The boos became a “Fuck You” chant, which degenerated into a “Faggot” chant. I finished a whole song under that fire. When I left the stage, my old tour DJ, Equal, was trapped at the far right in a tucked away booth where the crowd couldn’t see him. The stage exit was a huge slow walk across the front of this snake pit. He waited 5 whole minutes to cross by these angsty little fuckers, hoping they wouldn’t notice him. When he finally tried to eek by, without losing a second, they started chanting in unison “Small Dick” as if they planned it and were waiting for him to pass! It was awesome!”
Grant MacEachern (Halifax, NS): “Your live shows have always been well received. Do you feel like being a triple threat (MC, keys, and singing) makes you a much better live performer?”
LD: “Absolutely, but it also spooks out artists I share the bill with and sometimes even the audience. They’re not accustomed to seeing a “rapper” do this sort of thing and it can be a little confusing for them. They often don’t know how to take it. The upside of that dynamic is that I’ve played to my small cult audience which generally ranges from 50-150 people a night and had people say that it was the best live show they’ve seen. I don’t think they’d feel that way about a traditional 50 person show. Sometimes when there aren’t a lot of people in the audience I feel very lucky that I have enough of a skill set to fill the venue with musicianship. It makes a cold, sparsely populated space warm instantly. There are a lot of successful artists out there whose show would suffer greatly if it weren’t stuffed with adoring fans. I may be not be as big as those guys, but I’m also not one of those artists who can only shine at sold out show of people who will eat up anything I do.”
Charles Nguyen (Hiram, GA): “When is the Spork Kills tour gonna kick off, or just a new Louis Logic tour with some Spork Kills material thrown in?”
LD: “Spork Kills is actually planning its first ever live presentation of the songs with the proper band this fall. Louis, that’s me, will be playing periodically between now and then, here and there.”
Thank you, Mr. Dorley, for taking the time to bless the readers of Freshness Prevails with your insights on your latest project and the upcoming Zombie Apocalypse.
Catch Spork Kills' debut video for "Night of the Hip N Dead"
Be sure to keep up with Spork Kills latest at:
Myspace
Twitter (Louis Dorley)
Blog
Last.fm
imeem
Purevolume
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