Email: neill@outloudculture.com
Savile Row are veterans in the Florida and US music scenes. With branches into the metal, hip hop, punk and pop music scenes, members G Mike Jr. (vocals/guitar) and Karizma (production/synth/guitar) had long been performing with previous acts throughout the USA before coming together in 2021 to form the group.
Their debut EP ‘Steak & Lobster’ dropped last summer and features a plethora of features including Kool Keith, Sadat X (Brand Nubian), Vast Aire (Cannibal Ox), Michael Christmas, Princess Superstar, A-F-R-O, and Mr Muthaf**kin’ eXquire. The results are a tapestry of hook-laden, thought provoking, fun and emotive tracks that stand at a junction of hip hop, pop, alternative and dance music.
After the success of their smash hit single Set Adrift On Memory Bliss with Brad Fischetti of LFO, they return with the new single ‘Night Fever’. “Night Fever” is a love letter of sorts. A Love of the days of youth, when time seemed to be less fleeting and life seemed a bit more simple. It is also a celebration of our love of hip hop music.
Chubb Rock is vocal in his celebration of the 50th year of Hip Hop being this year (2023), and as life long fans of a variety of hip hop styles, Savile Row acted to recruit Chubb, Open Mike Eagle and Milyssa Rose to take part in the celebration with them. Chubb Rock was one of the very first hip hop artists the members of Savile Row can remember hearing, Open Mike Eagle is an artist that G. Mike Jr. became heavily interested in in 2013 or so, and Milyssa Rose is a Georgia based singer songwriter that came onto their radar within the last year.
Savile Row plan to release their debut full length LP in 2023.
Hi guys welcome to OLC! So tell me, how did you both meet, and how did this collaboration of Savile Row happen?
G Mike Jr. (Vocals/Guitar): We had met at a show that our previous projects had played together, so we were kind of in the same “circle” already so to speak. I had a couple of songs that I wanted to take a more electronic approach with and I knew that Karizma was both a producer AND guitarist so I hit him up. We started working on songs together right away and hashed out what would be our first group of singles within a few months.
Where did the name Savile Row come from?
G Mike: We wanted something that felt a little “classy”, since we’re more on a “man-pop” type group. What better than the traditional home of men’s bespoke tailoring AS WELL as the site of the Beatles last live performance for a touch of class for a couple of crass cats like us?
Who inspired you both as artists and what do you love about their craft?
G Mike: I have drawn musical influence from so much. I have been a big Atmosphere fan for a couple of decades now, the story-telling and moods in the songs, I always felt like they put things on record that a lot of other hip hop artists may have been afraid to tackle in songs-tracks about love, depression, anxiety, struggle, sadness….a lot of those themes were fairly untouched 20-25 years ago in a lot of hip hop songs. Fugazi was a major influence in my teens and still is, Deftones inspire a lot of what a do lyrically, Jim Adkins/Jimmy Eat World’s ability to pretty much never miss is something I’m crazy envious of. Mike Patton is always on for me, George Michael, the sparse textures of old roots country music like Merle Haggard and Marty Robbins. I think I owe quite a bit to Depeche Mode and Infant Sorrow too. And the short songs we’ll do at times are probably byproducts of the old Screeching Weasel and Op Ivy records I wore out when I was a kid.
Karizma (producer/multi-instrumentalist): I am definitely impressed by any artist that can jump across boundaries. I’m very inspired by people who take risks. Michael Jackson and Tina Turner were probably the first artists I became a fan of. All the way to now with artists/producers like Pharrell and Timbaland. Who can do just about any type of music and really do it for everyone to enjoy.
I absolutely love the song ‘Set Adrift On Memory Bliss’, in fact I’ve been listening to it quite frequently on the drive to work everyday lol How did the idea for the song come about and to cover the PM Dawn classic?
G Mike: That was one of my favorite songs of the 90s for sure. I remember fairly recently searching for it and not being able to find the original version on the major streaming services. I thought, maybe we should due a fairly true to the original version of our own. We wanted to do it in a way that was cool and modern but respectful to the legacy that PM Dawn has created with their songs.
The song features Brad Fischetti of LFO, I am a huge fan of LFO and loved their 1999 self-titled album, so how did this collaboration happen and why was Brad the perfect fit for the single?
G Mike: We reached out to Brad when we had the idea to do the song-he was the first and only choice to do the song with us. LFO existed in that same bubble in a lot of ways. Pop, but with a hip hop twist to a lot of their material. At least I always kept those 2 in a fairly similar type box in my mind. Brad is also a big fan of the track and jumped in right away. He’s out on the road a lot still as LFO with the guys from O-Town as the band mates. Cool to see him still doing his thing.
The new single is called ‘Night Fever’. I love the instrumental vibe of this song, talk me through the creative process of the track and what inspired it?
Karizma: I’d say we wanted to keep it simple. Turntables, some hand drums, a little piano and a drum machine. This track hits the old school backpack/hip hop crazy loop vibe. Probably on my end inspiration came from 90’s NY
How did you get Chubb Rock, Open Mike Eagle and Milyssa Rose on the track?
G Mike: We talked to Chubb first and he was talking a lot about the 50th anniversary of hip hop. From there it kind of occurred to me to touch different eras/styles of hip hop. With Chubb, you get an old school spitter, with Open Mike Eagle, you get, what I think is a true innovator at his craft and Milyssa is a newer school singer/rapper who is on her way up. We always like to touch as many eras as we can.
You’ve worked with so many iconic artists, is there anyone you’d love to work with and why?
G Mike: My list tends to grow each time I’m able to pick off an existing name on it. There are so many artists that i would love to collaborate with. Some that come to mind are Slug from Atmosphere, Jim Adkins from Jimmy Eat World, Scott Vogel from Terror/Buried Alive, EL-P, Cedric Bixler-Zavala of At the Drive-In/Mars Volta, Black Atlass, Carly Rae Jepsen, JC Chasez, Daryl Taberski from Snapcase, Brendan Garrone from Incendiary, Pharrell Williams, Ron Isley, Tuxedo, Steve Vai, Adam Lazarra and Nick Hexum are a good portion of who I would love to work with on some tracks.
Karizma: To be honest. I’d love to work with any artist that wants to collaborate with us. My bucket list mainly consists of producers that I’d like to work with.
Can you give us any sneaky insights to any more tracks you have on the horizon? I know you have a full length LP on the way as well?
G Mike Jr.: We will be dropping our full length debut “Toast The Journey” later this year or early next year. We’re mixing it now. I’m really proud of the work we did with melodies and instrumentation on it. It’s a really easy to listen to, beautiful record. no features, just us……but before the record drops, we’ve got a track coming with Spice 1 and a Phil Collins cover in the pipeline.
Do you have any upcoming live shows where people can catch you?
G Mike: we are working on festival dates and such as we spoke. Hope to have some big updates on that front VERY soon.
You both have been in the industry for a while and have worked with some incredible and iconic artists, what’s been the most memorable part of your career so far?
G Mike Jr: the industry side of thing doesn’t really exist much to us these days. We just live in our bubble and make songs that we have always wanted to make. Sometimes we get to make them with people that we really admire as artists. Today is the best part so far.
Karizma: It has been a long forked road with potholes, speed bumps and no signs to get to your destination. I love and loathe the journey at the same time. So as long as we just keep moving forward. The best is yet to come.
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https://savilerowmusic.bandcamp.com/track/the-real-thing-feat-michael-christmas
