Chester Hansen - bassist from jazz-hip hop hybrid group BADBADNOTGOOD - keeps us up to date on the group's latest album with Ghostface Killah and more.
BADBADNOTGOOD's debut release from 2011 - simply titled BBNG - contained such O.D.B. homage tunes as "The World Is Yours/Brooklyn Zoo", as well as covers of various productions from the likes of J Dilla, Flying Lotus, and Nas. At this point, the three-piece Canadian group certainly had a handle on their interpretive approach. They were reimagining hip hop classics in an entirely unexpected way; injecting jazz overtones into these articles of hip hop history, and waves were being made.
Fast forward to 2015, and BADBADNOTGOOD is leaving an even bigger footprint, working in the studio with the artists they initially gave nods to. Chester, Matt and Alex are creating in the truest sense now. Their fourth album was a collaborative effort on 12 tracks alongside Wu-Tang legend Ghostface Killah, setting BADBADNOTGOOD up for what we can expect are some big moves in the future. We connected with BADBADNOTGOOD's bassist Chester Hansen at FYF Festival in Los Angeles - who even has a BBNG track "CHSTR" to his name - to see what's good.
BADBADNOTGOOD was heralded as this new force in hip hop and something that hadn’t really been done to the same extent before. So is it challenging to stay original and to still take people by surprise?
Chester Hansen: That's always a constant struggle – trying to make music that’s the most original for us at the time, and it gets harder and harder to decide what our sound is. Especially now that we have expanded our musical tastes and are literally listening to everything. We have no musical boundaries, which is awesome in some ways, but it’s also hard to figure what to do sometimes.
Can you explain the name of your latest album Sour Soul?
C: Well back when we were first working on the track, a few years ago when we did the first sessions with Frank Dukes. One of the instrumentals we came up with, I think he just titled it that. So when Ghost did the verses for it he just referenced it in the rap. And then we kind saw it – it was good. Not only did the title fit the song, but the whole album because it was kinda encompassing the whole vibe – how it felt and what Ghost was talking about.
How has it been performing with Ghostface Killah?
C: Yeah it's been incredible. I think we’ve done like 20 shows now or something which is crazy. The first time we played with him last year we were super nervous whether we’d fuck up and how it was gonna go but right from the get-go there was a really good chemistry - all of us playing together. And I think its something different than what he does normally as well. He’s been playing for 20 years with DJs and stuff and I think its supper fun for him and obviously its good for us.
How was the writing experience with Ghostface? Was is separate or shared?
C: It was pretty separate, at least until we started playing together, just because the whole reason that the project got started was through Frank Dukes was because he had a previous relationship with Ghost and he made beats for him and toured as a DJ and stuff so he was the most comfortable way for us all to interact without just setting up a studio session for the first time. And Ghost works better in his own space, as do we, so it made more sense for us to finish everything we were going to do and just send it to him, and then both of us had the chance to go back and forth to polish it and make it the best it could be. So it was pretty separate in terms of making the music but we went back and forth a lot and, once we started playing together it kind of made our relationship really good.
How do you think the BADBADNOTGOOD dynamic has changed over time, how is your approach to song writing different?
C: Definitely, everything has changed a whole bunch in the past few years, like, starting Sour Soul was a huge turning point for us because we ended up going to the studio that Dukes was working at in New York. It's all analog and it was completely different from anything we had done before. And then after that it kind of inspired us to open our own studio, with Dukes as a matter of fact, and we started looking for equipment like old sythns and keyboards, and I think doing all that stuff changed our approach to music and now we pretty much record everything we do to tape, just for the sound of it and the sound of everything together – like the old instruments and the microphones and stuff, but also for the approach because you cant really do too much once you’ve recorded it. You can’t really edit a lot of notes, your performance has to be down, and we really value about making music that way. It sounds like a live show and you’re nervous about laying down the notes that are going to be on the record, but there’s no opportunity to go back and fix it so it’s pretty raw.
What about Leland Whitty? I know he’s been on tour with you guys but is he like the official fourth member now?
C: We’ve always wanted to take Leland on tour when we were just starting out it was pretty difficult, financially, to bring a fourth person. It’s a whole other cost to travelling and stuff. But nearly every show we could we did with him and now we’re able to bring him to every show, which is great. And at the Ghostface shows he plays guitar. We love playing with Leland and hopefully we can do every show in the future. We’ve also been writing a lot with him, in the city.
How was Russia? What are of the more memorable shows that you’ve played recently?
C: Russia was crazy. I mean we’ve been there three years in a row now, which is amazing. It’s probably the most different place we’ve been to. Every one there is so nice and the crowds are so great. Getting music there is pretty rare, just a lot of bands don’t get booked there or choose not to got there because of the political situation so everyone who does go there, everyone’s so appreciative and happy. It’s really awesome. So we did the shows there and we did a whole bunch of other ones in France and Austria, on that tour. Its hard to pick out specific shows, its just nice to play somewhere new.
How did you feel about Kendrick's To Pimp a Butterfly?
C: It's really jazzy – which I think is amazing. One of the most infectious hip-hop albums I’ve heard in years. I’ve listened to it 5-10 times and still feel like I’ve barely listened to it.
You guys mainly based in Toronto right now?
C: Yeah pretty much, That’s where we have our studio that we spend most of time in.
I wanted to get your thoughts on Toronto being heralded as this hotspot for music – especially hip-hop/R&B. There are guys like Jazz Cartier, PartyNextDoor, The Weeknd. Is that a vibe you get from living there?
You notice it a lot when you’re elsewhere. When you’re in the U.K or the States. As soon as they know you’re from Toronto they’re like “Oh, so what’s up with OVO? and PartyNextDoor? And Drake?” So yeah its pretty cool that they’ve put us on the map like that. We've been working with a lot of super talented guys from Toronto, recently we did a track with this guy, Daniel Caesar, also based from Toronto, so yeah its pretty sweet to say that all of these talents are from your home town.
Can you talk about anything you're working on at the moment?
C: We’re basically spending all our spare time between shows focusing on what our next album is gonna be. And we’ve tried to record in a bunch of directions, but it's really up-in-the-air as to what the direction is going to be and what it's going to sound like. We’ve also been doing tons of sessions, we just did some stuff with Mick Jenkins – he’s a rapper from Chicago and we started working together, we came up with these two amazing tracks in two days. We’re really excited about that. We'll be getting a bunch of music out real soon.
Follow along with Chester, Matt and Alex on Instagram.
