Was your friendship with Adrian Quesada one of the reasons you relocated from New York to Austin a few years ago?
No. The band wasn’t the real decision to move down there. I had left New York in November of 2005. You know, I still kind of feel like I live here in New York ‘cause I’m up here so much for work and collaborations with Antibalas. But I moved down there just because I couldn’t afford to live in New York any more. Artistically all this stuff I’ve done is successful, but financially it’s not at all, you know? When you’re in a band with 14 people [like Anitbalas], it doesn’t matter how much money you make, you are never going to be rich. But living in Texas, the little bit of money I do make goes three to four times as far. There’s also a very good music scene in Austin and lots of great musicians and venues. So it is just more relaxing for me—I like being able to sort of recharge my batteries there and then come back to New York and not feel stressed or overwhelmed like I was feeling before.
There is a lot more peace of mind living there. My wife and I bought a house and our mortgage is less than the rent I was paying on a one bedroom apartment in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. I built organic gardens, I have chickens. I’m able to get so much more out of the land and the fruits of my labor than in New York. So after a while it was a no-brainer. I’ve paid my dues in New York—I’m established—and I can go up and stay with my pick of 20 friends. But, yeah, I don’t have to live here any more and I like that. I’ve always been the one to see a situation happening and be like, “OK its time to break out and go somewhere else. That’s always worked out for me.”
You are currently in New York for Antibalas’ residency at the Knitting Factory. I imagine the band’s decision to play a weekly residency at the club had to do with the fact that so many members Antibalas are part of the Broadway play Fela!?
One of the producers of the musical Fela! also is also the owner of the Knitting Factory, Knitting Factory records and the Fela catalogue. He’ll be reissuing a lot of stuff so there definitely is a lot of synchronicity between Antibalas, the Fela! band and their involvement in the show. The Knitting Factory seemed like a center and it was exciting because—despite all of our time in New York—we’ve never had such a sort of multi-layered relationship with a club/label, and it really exciting. We have a good relationship with SOBs and Southpaw—they’re both great venues—but they don’t have all the stuff going for them that the Knitting Factory does—like being able to offer us a residency and all these other resources. So the timing is sort of connected with the show because now, all of a sudden, all these people are coming to see the play and are seeing all the musicians—Sting was just hanging out with the band two nights ago, and said, “I want to talk to you guys!” Jay-Z, Beyonce, Robert De Niro have supported the show, so it’s a trip. So we, as Antibalas, wanted to let people know that this band has been doing this for 12 years—if you want to see us really do what we do, come to the Knitting Factory on a Thursday night after the show and check it out.
You mentioned earlier that you toured as a member of TV in the Radio. You are also a founding member of The Dap-Kings. If I am correct, TV on the Radio, the Dap-Kings and Antibalas all grew out of the same Brooklyn apartment, right?
Yea. TV on the Radio’s Tunde Adebimpe, myself and Gabe Roth—who’s the founder and mastermind behind Daptone records—were all roommates, housemates. We went to NYU together and the three of us lived together in various permutations from the mid- 90’s to the early 2000s. There was a lot of creativity. Sometimes we would collaborate specially on musical projects—I was in the Dap-Kings from day zero until 2000 or 2001, and we were doing stuff for TV on the Radio from their first recording forward. But at the same time those were all separate entities and each one of us was pushing for our own creative vision. I think there was definitely a lot of mutual inspiration and friendship and camaraderie and, in those days, it was all struggle—nobody was coming out to see TV on the Radio or Antibalas. We were just doing it because we loved the music, and it was what was important to us. So it is nice that after 10 or 12 years of doing this we’re getting a little bit of recognition. None of us are on easy street by any means—least of all me—but its been rewarding to find that people out there care and that our music moves people. Just the fact that it resonates with them or brings people together is exciting. We have no idea what’s going to happen from this point on. It could just be that we keep on doing what were doing, that’s cool, or it could be that Jay-Z wants to take us to play on the moon. That could come out of the woodwork. I’m not planning on it but all of these completely unexpected things have already been happening, who’s to say that more stuff can’t happen.
With the members of Antibalas playing on Broadway everyday, where do you see the band going in 2010?
The guys are contractually locked in to being in the show up to a certain point and after that point they can begin to find a sub or two. Antibalas is touring in Australia and New Zealand—we’re doing two weeks of big festivals and then major club gigs over there. And its exciting because people have been listening to our music over there for years, but we have never been. It is just been a matter of money or timing or not having the resources to go over there and play—its no small feat to bring 12 or 13 guys over there. We’ve been to Japan before but that was for one gig and so this is really like for two weeks all across the country and then to New Zealand. So it’s a pretty big tour and we’re looking forward to that, and we will also play a few more shows at the Knitting Factory in January.
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