admin
22 December 2023
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, MEET THE SOUL-FU VILLAINS. THEY'RE ARMED WITH SOUL POWER AND CAN MAKE YOU SHAKE YOUR ASS, BUT THEY SHOULD NOT BE STOPPED. THE WORLD NEEDS TO BE THOROUGHLY FUNKED UP. TASTES LIKE CHICKEN'S VINNIE BAGGADONUTS SPOKE WITH LOS, NUMERIC, SCOTT AND CLINT DURING A BREAK BETWEEN SETS.
vinnie: You guys have so much fun on stage. Some bands, they're like--
Los: --Goin' through the motions.
v: Yeah! But you guys are always laughin' and shit, and the whole crowd digs it. Is it always like this?
Numeric: (laughing) Yeah.
L: With eight people on stage, someone's bound to be doing something silly.
v: How long have you guys been doing this?
L: There have been some line-up changes, but Soul-Fu Villains has been going on for two years.
v: And is everybody pretty receptive no matter where you play?
L: We haven't had too many bad responses anywhere. We've played some weird spaces where we didn't think people would even dig our shit. Like here (Barrister Hall). We didn't think this gig was gonna go over well. We figured we'd do two or three of these and they'd boot us.
N: We'd start rapping and they'd be like, "What?!?"
L: (laughing) I mean, it's pretty much a straight-up jazz hall and no one was expecting it to go over well. But we've been getting good responses from the joint, and we're still doing every Thursday through next month. So it's all good.
v: Have you ever walked into a place, saw the crowd and were like, (nervously) "Oh, fuck!"
L: (laughing) Yeah. Quite a few joints, actually. But I think our stuff's universal enough that it spans generations. I see older cats diggin' our shit; I see younger cats diggin' our shit--
Scott: We're secretly brainwashing everybody and taking over.
L: (laughing) It sounds cliché, but we take it to a harder level. It's on a side of hard where it's not too hard for the older cats. But when we smooth it out, it's on a side of smooth where the cats who dig the harder shit aren't like, "Fuck this noise. I'm goin' to get a drink."
v: So why isn't live funk big now?
N: It is. Outside of here this shit's large. Columbus is just a weird city. I don't know if it's because it's a Republican type of town or what.
L: They dig cover bands here. It's a cover band town.
N: But in places like Chicago, LA, New York, overseas-- funk is huge!
v: Yeah. I've been listening to Breakestra a lot lately--
L: Oh yeah! That shit's live.
[ALL NOD IN AGREEMENT]
v: So what made you start doing Soul-Fu?
L: I was playing in a bunch of avant garde rock bands, and it was getting to a point where I would look out in the crowd and see a bunch of guys staring at us, looking hard like, "Prove to me you can play." I got tired of that. I wanted to have some fun, and I wanted to see women dance.
N: Yeah!
L: I wanted to see more than just guys staring at me in black t-shirts.
S: Mullets rule!
L: Yeah. Mullets and black t-shirts. I got sick of seeing 'em, too.
v: I noticed you guys get a lot of female attention. I mean, every girl here that just walked by tickled all of you.
[ALL LAUGH]
L: Well if you're groovin', the girls dig it man, because they can dance to it. And if you get the girls dancing, the guys will sure as hell follow.
v: (laughing) Yeah, 'cause every guy is worried that the girl is gonna go home with you guys!
L: (laughing) Exactly. Hey, so be it!
v: So what's up with the album?
Los, Numeric, and Clint: The Nappy Man's Guide to Living!
L: It's hot. I mean it's easy to say that because it's our record, but it's smokin'! We've got everything from drum loops to DJs to female backup singers.
N: RJ, tore that shit up.
v: What's the DJ's name?
N: RJ-D2. He's on the record. You might not get that DJ element at the show, but on the record it's gonna' be nasty.
v: And what's up with the reggae, too. I heard some reggae tonight.
L: Well, the band is about groove, whether it be hip-hop, funk, reggae, whatever. We're not just a straight-up funk band. It comes across like that because that's what you think of when your booty starts movin'. And a few of us played in a ska band, Triggahappy. So a bit of that's still in us.
v: So what kind of stuff did you listen to that made you want to start playing music.
L: I was watching this Sade live video tape, and I saw how tight her band was. It was like listening to the fucking record, and I was like, "Man, I want to do that." Of course some of my rock influences and other crazy shit comes across in this. But I wanted to hear that smooth shit, and no one does that around here. Everyone's into the lo-fi rock bullshit or cover tunes. Or punk. And all that shit's ridden its waves out here.
N: Damn!
L: Ohio is one of the birthplaces of funk. Some of the guys from Fishbone came from here. Bootsy (Collins)-- all those guys were born in Ohio. This is where a lot of that shit started. We're just replanting the seeds.
v: So do you guys have big national hopes?
L: Yeah. We're definitely waiting for the CD to come out, because we have great prospects for it. We're planning on takin' this shit outside of the states.
C: Getting laid every night.
(All laugh)
L: Yeah, takin' it wherever it takes us. I want to take this CD as far as it will possibly take us. It's hot enough to take us places.
GET THE FUNK ON OVER TO SOUL-FU.COM
vinnie: You guys have so much fun on stage. Some bands, they're like--
Los: --Goin' through the motions.
v: Yeah! But you guys are always laughin' and shit, and the whole crowd digs it. Is it always like this?
Numeric: (laughing) Yeah.
L: With eight people on stage, someone's bound to be doing something silly.
v: How long have you guys been doing this?
L: There have been some line-up changes, but Soul-Fu Villains has been going on for two years.
v: And is everybody pretty receptive no matter where you play?
L: We haven't had too many bad responses anywhere. We've played some weird spaces where we didn't think people would even dig our shit. Like here (Barrister Hall). We didn't think this gig was gonna go over well. We figured we'd do two or three of these and they'd boot us.
N: We'd start rapping and they'd be like, "What?!?"
L: (laughing) I mean, it's pretty much a straight-up jazz hall and no one was expecting it to go over well. But we've been getting good responses from the joint, and we're still doing every Thursday through next month. So it's all good.
v: Have you ever walked into a place, saw the crowd and were like, (nervously) "Oh, fuck!"
L: (laughing) Yeah. Quite a few joints, actually. But I think our stuff's universal enough that it spans generations. I see older cats diggin' our shit; I see younger cats diggin' our shit--
Scott: We're secretly brainwashing everybody and taking over.
L: (laughing) It sounds cliché, but we take it to a harder level. It's on a side of hard where it's not too hard for the older cats. But when we smooth it out, it's on a side of smooth where the cats who dig the harder shit aren't like, "Fuck this noise. I'm goin' to get a drink."
v: So why isn't live funk big now?
N: It is. Outside of here this shit's large. Columbus is just a weird city. I don't know if it's because it's a Republican type of town or what.
L: They dig cover bands here. It's a cover band town.
N: But in places like Chicago, LA, New York, overseas-- funk is huge!
v: Yeah. I've been listening to Breakestra a lot lately--
L: Oh yeah! That shit's live.
[ALL NOD IN AGREEMENT]
v: So what made you start doing Soul-Fu?
L: I was playing in a bunch of avant garde rock bands, and it was getting to a point where I would look out in the crowd and see a bunch of guys staring at us, looking hard like, "Prove to me you can play." I got tired of that. I wanted to have some fun, and I wanted to see women dance.
N: Yeah!
L: I wanted to see more than just guys staring at me in black t-shirts.
S: Mullets rule!
L: Yeah. Mullets and black t-shirts. I got sick of seeing 'em, too.
v: I noticed you guys get a lot of female attention. I mean, every girl here that just walked by tickled all of you.
[ALL LAUGH]
L: Well if you're groovin', the girls dig it man, because they can dance to it. And if you get the girls dancing, the guys will sure as hell follow.
v: (laughing) Yeah, 'cause every guy is worried that the girl is gonna go home with you guys!
L: (laughing) Exactly. Hey, so be it!
v: So what's up with the album?
Los, Numeric, and Clint: The Nappy Man's Guide to Living!
L: It's hot. I mean it's easy to say that because it's our record, but it's smokin'! We've got everything from drum loops to DJs to female backup singers.
N: RJ, tore that shit up.
v: What's the DJ's name?
N: RJ-D2. He's on the record. You might not get that DJ element at the show, but on the record it's gonna' be nasty.
v: And what's up with the reggae, too. I heard some reggae tonight.
L: Well, the band is about groove, whether it be hip-hop, funk, reggae, whatever. We're not just a straight-up funk band. It comes across like that because that's what you think of when your booty starts movin'. And a few of us played in a ska band, Triggahappy. So a bit of that's still in us.
v: So what kind of stuff did you listen to that made you want to start playing music.
L: I was watching this Sade live video tape, and I saw how tight her band was. It was like listening to the fucking record, and I was like, "Man, I want to do that." Of course some of my rock influences and other crazy shit comes across in this. But I wanted to hear that smooth shit, and no one does that around here. Everyone's into the lo-fi rock bullshit or cover tunes. Or punk. And all that shit's ridden its waves out here.
N: Damn!
L: Ohio is one of the birthplaces of funk. Some of the guys from Fishbone came from here. Bootsy (Collins)-- all those guys were born in Ohio. This is where a lot of that shit started. We're just replanting the seeds.
v: So do you guys have big national hopes?
L: Yeah. We're definitely waiting for the CD to come out, because we have great prospects for it. We're planning on takin' this shit outside of the states.
C: Getting laid every night.
(All laugh)
L: Yeah, takin' it wherever it takes us. I want to take this CD as far as it will possibly take us. It's hot enough to take us places.
GET THE FUNK ON OVER TO SOUL-FU.COM
artid
328
Old Image
3_8_untapped.swf
issue
vol 3 - issue 08 (apr 2001)
section
untapped