Last
weekend, I sacrificed, sleep, food, social interaction, and my sanity in order
to get out my latest New Jersey White Boy article. I do that on a regular basis
anyway, as becoming insane is great when you need to drop a few extra pounds
for swimsuit season, but I did it special for Onboard Balloon (which you should
totally check out if you haven’t read it yet).
Anyway,
if you know anything about my articles (which, given the stats, you don’t), I
like to put a lot of background info on the artists I cover. This becomes a
problem when the guys you’re writing about are more obscure than a parent’s
face during a game of peek-a-boo with a baby who doesn’t have object
permanence yet. And is blind. So, I did an interview with them in order to get that
information. Also, they’re pretty cool, down to earth people, which is ironic, given the name of their group. If you suck and haven't read the article yet, Lee does the vocals while Keegan does the beats, and they each submitted their own answers to my interview.
How did Onboard Balloon get started?
Lee
- Me and my bro were pretty heavy into music, all kinds of music. One day we
just started recording our own.
Keegan
- Well it kind of just oozed out of us slowly. It got started because whenever
we would hang out (we lived in different towns) a lot of the conversation was
about music, and I had been pelunking around on a guitar for awhile. You know,
pickin and a grinnin. Then I went to audio school in phoenix and started
sending him some beats. Then we bought Cakewalk and recorded some songs with
some pre-recorded beats/live guitar, in a very small kitchen in a duplex in
Paonia, CO (that has since burned down and turned into a Dojo) using a fold-out
lawnchair/vacuum extension as a mic stand.
Why the name “Onboard Balloon”?
Lee
– We made a huge list of band names when we started and picked the one that was
weirdest and would make people ask us “why did you name your band that?” [We
were] flipping pages and pointing at
words in an Edgar Allen Poe book [and that’s] we got that name.
Keegan
- It was one on a big list of names we had picked to choose from. We did the 2nd
and 3rd album names the same way, with the list idea. That name came
from flipping through an Edgar Allen Poe book and pointing. I think it was in
the story “The Balloon Hoax” but I’m not 100% on that. Other names on the list
came from our minds and our friends minds. There’s not really an underlying
meaning like, we’re gonna touch the sky or anything.
OBB formed back in 2007, but were you
guys making music before then? And did you always dream of being hip-hop stars?
Lee
- We were making music before that. Some lo fi recordings of random crazy shit.
I have always dreamed of making experimental hip hop since I knew what hip hop
was. But as far as the star part goes, that’s never really been a goal.
Keegan
- We were making music before then, if you want to call it music. We actually
recorded this CD we call Stupidest Shit
Ever in the studio when it wasn’t the studio at all, just a dirty shack.
It’s called that because that’s exactly what it is. I have thought about [being
a hip-hop star] yes, but it’s not something we strive for. If it happens it
happens. We like to river swim, go boating, and drink beer, not dream about
being famous.
What’s it like working with your
brother?
Lee
- It’s awesome, everything just kind of falls into place in the studio.
Keegan
- Most of the time it’s hilarious and there’s a lot of beer. We built our own
studio (Remodeled/built inside of and old farm house) when I got back from
school, so we are never rushed or paying for time. Which is probably why it
takes no time at all to make a song, if that makes sense. Basically complete
artistic freedom/agreement on both our parts. Did I mention beer?
Have there been any times where you and
your brother gotten into a heated argument over the music?
Lee
- Nope… maybe here and there we bicker back and forth for a couple minutes
about certain little details but that’s about as far as it goes.
Keegan
- Not that I can recall, minimalistic bickering like an old married couple
maybe, but no heated arguments. Usually things move right along.
At the opposite end of the spectrum,
have you felt like you’ve grown closer?
Lee
- We have always been close. Onboard Balloon is a part of us forever…
Keegan
- Well yes of course. It’s been a long time since we started, and it’s what we
do together most.
Growing up, what artists and musicians
did you guys listen to?
Lee
- Me, mostly old skool hip-hop like Run DMC and the JVC Force. Anything that
had a rapper saying what he thought on the mic over some beats.
Keegan
- Growing up for me my favorite was probably Nirvana. Other bands I listened to
were mostly 90’s Alt. Rock bands that had the hits you know Third Eye Blind,
GooGoo Dolls, Marcy Playground, etc. And of course the music that was played in
our home by our dad, from the big speakers hanging from the ceiling: Queen,
Styx, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Genesis, Supertramp and so on. Also my dad
really liked Bag-pipe music. Any hip-hop that I heard was from my brother
showing it to me. I never really pursued hip-hop artists until recent years. We
also listened to our Grandma Cathy play a lot. She is a long-time folk
musician, since I can remember memories.
Who do you take inspiration from now?
Lee
- Well now it’s totally different. Instead of bobbing my head to whatever, I
really listen to what kind of message or thought or feeling the artist is
trying to put out. With that said you know I don’t listen to the radio at all
(unless it’s NPR). I listen to Buck 65, MF Doom, Atmosphere, Sage Francis,
Aesop Rock, Mac Lethal and a lot of Modest Mouse.
Keegan
- The bands that I’ve been sticking with since high school with a few new ones.
Primus (saw them play in Grand Junction a month ago, blew me away), Radiohead,
Modest Mouse, The Flaming Lips, The Shins, and Blind Melon. I listen to Robert
Johnson and Leadbelly, along with other blues guys like James Cotton. Pink
Floyd has been a huge influence for me, probably the biggest out of the old
fellers named above. I also love Tony Furtado, the Barenaked Ladies, Laura
Viers, John Mellencamp’s more recent stuff, April March..this list could just go
on. I want to mention I love Celtic music, my favorites are Lunasa and The Old
Blind Dogs. Some hard rock like Tool, System of a Down, and Korn. As for
hip-hop: Sage Francis, Atmosphere, Aesop Rock, Eyedea & Abilities and
Crudbump? And my Grandma who still plays to this day, as well as my whole
family, musician or not.
I know that Lee has a few solo albums.
Do you guys like working on your own or with other people, or do you guys
prefer working together?
Lee
- We love working with other musicians! Anytime we can get a new flavor into
our music we are all over it! We are as experimental as it gets.
Keegan
- We just do what we can between our fulltime jobs, etc. I might prefer working
with my brother because we move so fast in the studio, we’ve been doing it for
so long and projects don’t take long at all to finish. BUT that does not mean I
don’t like working with other people, new musical experiences are great and an
awesome way to learn new aspects of what we do. Where we live musicians are few
and far between.
Very few rappers have come out of
Colorado, and the ones that have are generally based out of Denver. How has
growing up and living in small towns influenced your sound and lyrics?
Lee
– Well, I think growing up out here was a blessing. If we were in the city we
would probably be dead by now. I think that growing up out here has giving our
music a certain kind of twang. Call me country…
Keegan
- This is a very hard question, because I can’t really compare my upbringing to
a big city upbringing, because I don’t know what that feels like on a direct,
personal level. So I will answer it this way: The radio in our area is just
awful. And when we were younger we didn’t have access to the great spectrum of
online stations, music sharing websites etc. There were absolutely no
independent radio stations around, every damn station played the same damn
songs over and over and over and over. There was never any variety, and to this
day around here the only stations that play different stuff is the college
station (which barely reaches us) and public stations. I think this had a big
influence on both of us to the point of anger and disgust. Which made us strive
to produce something different to the best of our ability. We never actually
lived in town, always about 10 miles out. So there weren’t a lot of distractions,
we had the time and place to hone our craft.
How do you guys feel your music has
changed over the last 5 years?
Lee
- The only thing I would say has changed is the quality. We have had basically
the same goal the entire time - make good music for people to listen too. It
keeps getting better and better…
ONBOARD
BALLOON!!
Keegan
- Our music has changed for the better, big time. I mean just listen to a
couple [of our] first album tracks compared to what we are doing now (both can
be found at soundcloud.com/onboard-balloon). We are constantly trying new
things, instruments (non-conventional & conventional), new concepts, song
structures. Our live show is quite different than our albums, because it’s just
us two, and we would need 4-5 people on stage to play some of our songs off the
albums. It has change drastically and it will keep changing/evolving.
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