Rhino Backstage with Yevrah

Yevrah is a rising music artist from Minneapolis, known for his introspective tracks and underground music. His sound blends raw emotion with modern rap, reflecting personal struggles and the Twin Cities music scene. 

Pull up a chair as we go backstage with Yevrah to talk craft, inspiration, and what it really takes to build a life in music.

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

This is Rhino Backstage, the companion podcast to Rhino sessions, where we sit down with each artist and find out the who, the what, and the why behind their art.

SPEAKER_02 0:10

Today's guest is a Twin Cities-based MC and Neo Soul storyteller with roots in East St. Louis, whose introspective genre blending approach has helped him carve out a bold, emotionally rich voice in the hip hop and try that one more time. That's a long fucking sentence. Who wrote this shit? Jesus. That should be the intro. And we got Yevron. Here we go. Today's guest is a Twin Cities-based MC and neo-soul storyteller with roots in East St. Louis, whose introspective, genre blending approach has helped him carve out a bold, emotionally rich voice in hip-hop and soul. From his upbringing in the Midwest to his work pushing past convention and expectation, this conversation reveals how Evra turns lived experience into compelling art. Pull up a chair as we go backstage with Yevra to talk craft, resilience, and what it really takes to build a life in music. So many long, long sentences. Yeah, yeah. So this is the first time that we're actually, you know, talking to an artist post-session. You know the previous uh Rhino backstage that we've been doing has always been before they're out there working with us. So we'd love to start there and just talk about the session. What'd you love about it, what'd you hate about it, what'd you learn from it? Just kind of give us the bird's eye view. I should also mention, sorry, uh, we have your producer Tyler here with us as well. Yeah. So uh mixing up the ingredients here a little bit. Love to hear from the both of you. How does that work into the grand scheme of the content space and everything else? And I'll just let you guys talk. Now, I'm really good at this whole run-on-sentence thing this morning. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:47

No, it's just keeps going, no problem. Um, so for me, I would say it would it was definitely an amazing experience. Um, it was a a growth experience. It was something that I've never done before, as far as like how fledged out everything was for production, you know. Like I'm coming in looking at all the cameras, I'm like, oh my God, this shit is this is pretty cool. You know what I'm saying? So um it it reminded me of like when I would go out and and go watch people on tour, like the the last person that I seen on tour is uh Kendrick Lamar. And just like I remember asking Tyler, like, man, how the hell do these guys like go out there with all these fucking lights and all of this, you know what I'm saying? Stuff and like how do they keep their step? How do they keep their, you know? And I feel like having this experience was kind of like the first time for me, like diving into that with all the lights, all the action. And I'm just like in, you know what I'm saying, in mode. Yeah, still pulled it out though, you know what I'm saying? Like it was happening, it was it was something really beautiful, and it was something that's like, all right, what can we do from here? How can we how can we build out from here? What does production look like? Like, you know what I'm saying? And shit, it inspired me to be like, all right, every video that I'm putting out from now on, it has to be you know what I'm saying, it has to be top tier, it gotta be crisp. Sure. Um so yeah, it was a it was a very beautiful experience.

SPEAKER_05 3:08

I feel like it's so nice to have people, the amount of people that we got to work with on that project. It's just beautiful. Like you show up and everybody's there and everybody's doing their thing. And it's something that we don't like when I'm making music, I'm making it by myself. When Yev is like thinking on his thoughts, you're thinking on it by yourself. And so when you get to see these productions come together and be beautiful and big, it's also really neat. It felt like that it was a really nice step, like you were saying that that way as well.

SPEAKER_02 3:37

For you guys too, like from our first conversation, sat in that office. I I don't know, maybe a year ago, like it was a while ago, yeah. To having the the full band out there and the full experience, and honestly, to have it gel as well as it did to it's funny, man.

SPEAKER_05 3:52

Like, we were at a point in the beginning where we were like, we can't make this cut. Like, we're trying, we're trying to get people together because we wanted the the music to be like a feel and like have people bouncing off of each other, like in the band, with you feeling like like it was a little it was live, you know? Yeah, and a lot of the sessions you had done before were that way.

SPEAKER_00 4:13

So and there was a a lot of a growing during that process of like first figuring out like all right, we're we're gonna do this, and then like actually creating everything, like all the moving pieces that it took to put together. I am very thankful for everybody that came through because it without them it would not have gone.

SPEAKER_03 4:33

Yeah, yeah, it takes it takes a lot of people to make it happen. Yes, exactly. Yeah, we are very lucky with the very talented technicians who we all get to work with on these who come and give their time and really knock it out of the park every every time. Every time.

SPEAKER_05 4:47

Yeah, it's everybody gets together and like rises to the occasion.

SPEAKER_02 4:51

It's cool that way. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Well, and tell me a little bit about how you guys put that band together. Like, I mean, because my understanding is that it was like rock doctors.

SPEAKER_00 5:01

Yeah, it honestly was just conversation, it was us really hitting up people that we knew, people that are that we believe that are really dope in the city, and just kind of seeing, like, hey, what's your schedule like? Like, we have this really dope thing coming up, and um, we had showed some of the stuff that you guys had showed us um prior, like showed you guys his page and stuff, and people are like, yo, this looks pretty nice. Um, let's see. Like, there were some people that are like, yo, we can't do it, and there's other people that are like, yo, let's we're all in, let's go. So, you know, it was honestly, it just really kind of fell together like that. Um, Tyler was hitting up a lot of people. I had hit up um a few of like my the artists that were in the background, you know, with me.

SPEAKER_02 5:39

So it was yeah, kind of just organic serendipity. Yeah, I it didn't feel like serendipity.

SPEAKER_05 5:46

Wrong word, not serendipity. You know what I mean? Like, like because like I feel like we worked through it. Like there was band, you know, we had sessions where it would be me, Yev, and two musicians. Me, Yev, and another like two other musicians. Did you guys ever get to like everyone? Yeah, like where we were getting trying, we really had to get to a point where it would felt like a band, maybe once or twice.

SPEAKER_00 6:08

Yeah, once or twice we got to the point to where we were able to get everyone together. But with every session, it was literally maybe just like two or three of us at a time just trying to come together and practice our parts. And my whole entire mindset on it, um, especially after I was like, you know what? Um, because at first I was like, fuck it, we can't do it. And then I was like, you know what, let's get it. My mindset was no matter how the pieces fall together, I know that I'm kind of like the center of all of this. So I have to make sure that everything that I'm doing, all of my parts are right. And as long as I'm making sure all of my parts are right, everybody's gonna come along and play around me. You know what I'm saying? It's just gonna, it's just gonna fucking work. The driving force and that. Yeah, yeah. So I kind of, yeah, I kind of just threw everything out the out the window. And even in the performance, actually, like before even going in, I was just like, you know what? Nothing else matters right now. I'm like, I'm the artist, I'm a tool for this specific performance. I'm gonna push out the message that I'm here to convey. You know what I'm saying? And everything else is gonna fall in line the way that it needs to, you know. At a certain point, it's just like, all right, have faith in what you've been doing, have faith in what everyone else has been doing, you know. Well, you know that what you've been working towards.

SPEAKER_02 7:22

Like, I mean, this is this is not you didn't just pick this up yesterday. Exactly, exactly. So, talk to me about how you know the experience of creating live music, of of playing out live, you know, because we talked about a little bit in your interview, but I'd love to hear more about you know, how does the studio fit into you know your creation world? How does live music kind of fit into your creation world? How does this work together, the two of you coming together to to make you know tracks and and how are you working through those kinds of things? Kind of give us that that path. What does that look like? It's and it I'm not saying it follows the same path every time, but like how do you guys make music?

SPEAKER_00 7:59

Um, one thing I can say about it is it's definitely not a linear path at all. Okay, it's nowhere near a linear path. Um, right now, I do have a lot of studio time to be able to pretty much create whatever it is that I want to create. We're in the process of figuring out really how to really get more live shows and live performances. I've definitely had a lot in the past. A lot of them have been more so like open mic and stuff like that, and just like really tight-knit, you know, community type things. And right now we're figuring out how how can we put all these pieces together to create, you know what I'm saying, more of a grander thing because it does it starts in the studio with the ideas, with you know what I'm saying, being locked inside of the booth. Um, and how do you translate that into stepping on stage, giving this out to to people? And that's why I was saying I feel like this experience is something that helped along with that journey too. Even though there wasn't a crowd behind us, it's like I was performing, or in front of us, should I say, it's like I was performing like there was thousands of people in front of me, you know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_03 9:06

Like being the guy behind that camera and watching you put it out there. I I felt the the energy. I didn't think that you were, you know, it felt like you were performing to us. It felt bigger.

SPEAKER_02 9:17

Well, and that doesn't always happen. That's not like necessarily just an automatic thing for people, right? Like we've had to stop artists before and be like, hey, this is this is not a studio thing. I know we're in a studio, but this is the whole the whole notion behind this is that it is a live performance.

SPEAKER_04 9:32

Right.

SPEAKER_02 9:32

There's gonna be the ins and outs and the ups and downs that come with that. But yeah, there's there's a there's a studio audience of 500 people listening to you right now. That's the kind of energy that you need to bring. And I don't think I even had to say that to you. I think you were just like, you were already there, like but I'm just saying it's not a natural thing for every artist.

SPEAKER_00 9:49

Yeah, so it's something it's something that I do feel like has to be practiced, and that's something that I do sit down in the studio and practice. I feel like a lot of this, because when I am creating art, I try my best to dive as deep into the emotion that I can. And sometimes that looks like, hey, I'm coming in here, I don't feel like this, right? But I have to act. You know what I'm saying? So it's like, how do I get myself into that mode of acting to be right whatever it is that I gotta be for this experience? And and again, it's like locking in, throwing everything else out, and becoming that character. Um, and I think that again, that's something else that that translates onto the live stage because it's like if you go perform and you see an artist or not perform, you go um to a show and you see an artist completely locked into their character, you're gonna be locked in too. You know, like wait a minute, this guy's really yeah, they tend to come on the stage at that point, right? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 10:42

It's funny too. The cool thing about the performance was that we had a deadline. Oh, yeah, and so it like removed the opposite end of the diff, like that spectrum that's difficult. In that I think we were talking about this the other week, like we're both perfectionists, all through. I mean, Alex is working with us too, he's here, and like when we make something, we want it to be the creation is art, but then you have to be a technician after that, and you have to take time with it, and so like the time that's spent doing that, I think, can turn you into a perfectionist, right? And when you're on a deadline, you have time for perfection, but then you have a deadline, and so you know, we were given circumstances, and we like we turned those circumstances into something that like worked the day of, and I think we were all really proud of that. You know, it's just a hard, it's a hard thing to feel the pressure of it, yeah. Yeah, yeah, what are you saying?

SPEAKER_00 11:37

Definitely, I definitely felt the pressure of it, but I feel like it's something that ultimately like that's a thing where pressure creates diamonds, right? Where either you rise to the occasion or you like you fall back, and I feel like all of us we chose to like rise to that. Like, all right, we do have pressure on us, but what are we here for? You know what I'm saying? Like, what are what are we doing? We're doing this.

SPEAKER_02 11:57

You brought up an interesting notion, Tyler, that that notion of like art versus craft, you know, and I think that a lot of people kind of like interchange those things and see them as almost like the same thing, and and it's not, they're not they're they're very disparate things where and I went to college for studio art, and I remember being told on a number of occasions that you know my craft was shit, you know, yeah and and at the time I didn't get it. I'm like, I don't understand, like it's fucking art. Like, what do you mean?

SPEAKER_05 12:25

Yeah, yeah. It takes time that time, but I think art is craft that way too. Right. But like to be able to just pop out creation is something that takes practice, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:37

It takes a certain form of discipline for sure.

SPEAKER_05 12:39

And then and then on that back end, that technical aspect of it, that is something he has created and you can recognize in his vocals immediately because you I mean, when I sit down to a Yev track and I got a mix, like I got anywhere between 60 and 90 vocal tracks to mix. Oh wow, because like Yev is bringing a lot of material, and you have to stack that and find a space for all that. Right. And that's the beauty of him as an artist is when you hear him, it's all one voice, kind of. You hear things popping off, maybe like in different spaces, but like I think in working together now for a while, like I know where his mind is at with some things, I think. And that's the beauty of it. Like, and I try to mix that accordingly, you know, like put him in the space he wants to be in with whatever it is you're saying and who that would come from, I guess. If that makes sense.

SPEAKER_02 13:28

It does. Yeah, I mean, we should probably get the the origin story of uh you know this relationship here too.

SPEAKER_00 13:34

You know, where did you guys that's uh connect and that's a a really interesting origin story? So I had a guy hit me up on Instagram, and the way he hit me up was kind of funny because during the time I was kind of like in an artistic hiatus, if you will. Sure. The guy hits me up and he's like, Yo, I I got your contact from one of your buddies. I got this show going on. I'm not sure if you're gonna want to be involved, but if you'd like to, you know what I'm saying, hit me up. And I looked at it, I'm like, okay, whatever. Then I hit him, I hit him back and I'm like, sure, let's see what this is about. So he he let me know what was going on with the show. We had it set up. He got me on the bill. I went out and I performed, and then I had met another artist. His name is Daniel, and he pretty much like right after I got done performing, he pulled me to the side and he's like, dude, you're next up. I need you to meet this guy so that you can hit the studio. I got the studio for you. You can come in and you know what I'm saying, like record whenever, whenever you want to. I think this was what back in 2024. Okay. So I'm like, okay, whatever, give me bros contact. So the contact that he gave me was Tyler's contact. And when I had reached out to Tyler, I seen that he actually had reached out to me prior, like earlier that year, about a project that I had already dropped. So he he hit me up. He's like, yo, this stuff is amazing. If you just like had it mixed, dude, we could do so much dope stuff with it. So I'm looking, I'm like, dude, if I was just like more involved a little bit, maybe I would have, you know what I'm saying? Like, so I reached out to him. I'm like, hey, bro, I appreciate that you, you know, rock with my music. Let's let's collab, let's do something together. So he let me know where the studio location was. We'd set up, and honestly, like I sat through, listened to beats. I had already had like hundreds of beats from um my bro Alex, um, a couple of other producers. And yeah, we sat down and we started crafting. And this guy took his family out of the state or out of the country. I'm not sure exactly. And I sat in the studio for like what like a week. Yeah, like a week. And I was like, um, I was pushing out maybe like three or four tracks a day just in the studio, and I would send them to him, and he's just listening to, or you can even if you want to speak on how that I mean on my end, the same guy.

SPEAKER_05 16:01

So I'm in this, I'm a duo. Like, I do the same thing with this dude named Daniel, different a little bit. Like, we just kind of write. So Daniel knows me, and Daniel knows Yev. Um, we have a duo called Role Players, and so Daniel's just a really nice guy, and he was like, You should listen to this local artist, his name's Yebra. And so I heard some stuff on Spotify, and I listened, and I was like, Man, his stuff would go over it. It's the same mood. I like heard it, and and I had all these like tracks, I had like a hundred hundreds of tracks in the vault that were some of them acceptable and some of them horrible. I sent you this really shitty beat, but like but uh I had all this stuff in the vault, and I felt like the moods matched, and like where I was at in my headspace felt like him, I guess, when I heard it. So I like reached out with that beat, and I didn't hear back for a really long time. Uh, because Yev was in a hiatus, and then I just kind of kept making music and doing my thing. And then it I don't know how did like you end up coming over the first time? Was it just you were you came over with Daniel, maybe, and we like made something?

SPEAKER_00 17:08

I think I just I came over with Daniel.

SPEAKER_05 17:10

Yeah, we made that really ambient track that like that one where you're like, I'm just gonna take the melody, like the hook, or was that second?

SPEAKER_00 17:18

I don't remember. I'm not even sure. I'm sure we've created so much at this point.

SPEAKER_05 17:22

Yeah, that's true.

SPEAKER_03 17:23

I'd like to listen to an ambient Yev track, I think that'd be cool.

SPEAKER_05 17:26

Yeah, so so that was it. Like, we just kind of tried to do our thing, and then Yev came over, and I like he said, I left. I went to visit a buddy in Cincinnati, and um he just started dropping tracks into the drive, and it was just stuff he had written over of mine, of Alex's, and I was like, This is insane, this is so good, and it felt like two minds meeting at a different time, I guess. Like, you know, I I guess we were separated in time in a way. Like, I felt like I had gone through certain things that linked me like emotionally to Yev's what he was making, and maybe vice versa. I don't know how you ever felt, I never really asked, I guess. But I don't know, I think that's where it was. It was like music made in two two periods of time that sort of just worked, actually.

SPEAKER_02 18:13

Just kind of jigsawed together.

SPEAKER_05 18:15

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:16

Well, I that's as the universe goes, like just kind of putting you guys in the right place, right time, and even kind of sounds like giving you that second opportunity because it sounds like there was some outreach that kind of misfired at certain points and and what have you. So talk to me about the the next you you just dropped another album. Um where does that fit into this relationship? Or does that fit into your music story? What did you not finish up on this album that you're gonna put into the next one?

SPEAKER_00 18:43

For the last album that I had just dropped, I feel like it was like a a finalization of my demo phases. The album before that was called Demo Tape 2. This one was Demo Tape 3, and it's just really a demonstration, not just a demo, of what it is that I'm capable of as far as my artistry. And the last one, Demo Tape 2, I just honestly started like working on video content and and just like visuals and ideas and stuff like that. And I feel like that has sparked my creativity so much more, even like with my melodies and writing too. So for demo tape three, I I dove even deeper into that. And I don't know, I feel like it's it's really interesting in a space of like business right now, where with this last project, I focused really, really heavily on the creative aspect, and now it's like we're trying to get it out into the world. And how do we, you know what I'm saying? How do we do that? So it's just it's always something, it's always more learning as far as like with this journey and and figuring things out. So for the next project, I honestly I want to dive, I want to dive even deeper into my melodies, and I also want to figure out how to better push it out into the world, how to better, I guess, market it into the world, or even if it's not marketing, how to allow people to experience it, you know, how to make it more available for people to experience.

SPEAKER_02 20:10

So, in calling it demo tape two, demo tape three, you know, indulge me here. Like, are you proving to yourself what you're capable of? Are you making a demo tape for a certain demographic of person? Like what uh it's interesting that you're you're calling them a demo tape series, and you're also saying that at this point you might be kind of done with that sort of experience. It feels like there's something more there to unpack. Like, I'd love to hear more about that journey.

SPEAKER_00 20:35

I feel like it's a mixture of both. In the beginning, I feel like I was trying to maybe prove myself to the world around me, maybe. And even with demo tape two, like I had a mask on, pretty much. Like I'm masking myself, or I'm creating this character so that you can appreciate me. A demonstration of my greatness, you know what I'm saying? To to fit in or whatever have you. And with demo tape three, I'm actually not gonna lie, I came on completely naked. I don't have a mask, I'm just me. And it's now like not necessarily like that, but fuck y'all. I need to prove myself to me. I need to be good enough for me, I need to be well enough for me. And I feel like I've kind of come full circle with that. And kind of looking at that, it's like, hey, that's that's a completion. I don't need to go and make a demo tape for, I don't need to demonstrate my greatness to myself or to anyone else at this point. I know I'm great. If you don't know, then it is what it is. You know what I'm saying? If you if you rock with it though, you rock with it. Right. You know, and it kind of it's freeing for me to be able to, and I've even talked with Tyler about this a lot. Like now I can be in a space where I can actually create more freely. I can dive into different emotions. I can dive in because I I feel like I've come from a space where I've was almost creating from a space of survival all the time. And now I'm in like I have a certain sense of freedom of where that's it. I said I can create freely.

SPEAKER_02 22:00

Long way to go from you know from two to three to you know whatever this this next album is going to be for you. It feels to me like that's quite the arc, quite the journey. Are you feeling like you're creating from a space now of just understanding who you are better or not caring as much about how it's received? I mean, it doesn't sound like that's the case. It sounds like you are, you know, very cognizant of how people are receiving it, but at the same time, you know, talk to me a little bit more about kind of where you're at and what and what how does this inform this next, you know, album at some point down the road.

SPEAKER_00 22:31

For sure. Um, right now I'm in a space where I'm realizing that I'm creating things that ultimately hold power in the minds of people. So I'm realizing that I have a certain sense of like responsibility with my creation. And I'm kind of thinking about okay, how am I going about that, especially if I'm going to be marketing these things, giving these things out to the world to consume? So I'm I'm more so taking myself out of it, like me, myself, and and diving into what is the human experience? How are we as people connecting? Because right now it's like me as an artist, I can give, give, give to myself, continue to give to myself, but that's not what I'm here for. I'm here to ultimately and honestly give to the world. I'm here to bridge knowledge gaps, to you know what I'm saying, like allow for people to understand certain languages, not necessarily just like audible language, but like all types of language, just have people be able to experience. Yeah, experience one another um and learn and grow from each other. Yeah, so I feel like I am I'm coming from a way more informed space in my life and how I'm showing up for people around me and ultimately for everyone who is consuming.

SPEAKER_02 23:42

I think it's a great place to be at as a creator, like the the ability to get that kind of bird's eye view of who you are, who the people are that are that are listening to this music, what's next on the horizon, where I've been, where I'm going. What what does the next album look like? What is just probably more care than my like it's you uh always, always more care.

SPEAKER_00 24:02

That's like yeah, I that's what I I honestly think. I think that it's it's always it's it'll be more care, more human every single time. I personally feel like for me, the first thing that I think about is more melody. How do you go about that melody? And that's something I don't know, it's it's really weird for me to I feel like to explain in words because my artistic process is like when I'm creating it, it's really a feeling, you know.

SPEAKER_02 24:27

You know, obviously there's a lot going on outside right now, especially here in our state and our city. Is that going to play into upcoming tracks, upcoming albums? It it feels to me like everything outside has gotten real heavy. And so, you know, speaking to an audience now that is a decidedly different group even from a few months ago, how do you see that kind of working into your music moving forward?

SPEAKER_00 24:48

I think that ultimately the experiences that I'm living have always um found their ways into my music as a way to get people to relate and seeing as shoot, I am here, I'm I'm dealing, I've been dealing with police brutality and I'm seeing all this, you know what I'm saying, ice stuff going on, and I'm like, I've been there, I can see, and not only have I been there, I'm here in this, you know what I'm saying? I see what the hell's going on, and I also realize like a lot of people are not okay with this, and we've gotten so far down the line that I feel like a lot of people are kind of burnt out with all of this. Um to it, clean. Yeah, they're kind of they're kind of numb to it. So, with that, I look at it and I try to figure out how how can I bring care into this situation? How can I bring love into this situation somehow? And and again, how can I bring being able to show, hey, we relate somehow. Like not only we relate, but like we shouldn't be, yeah, we shouldn't be, we shouldn't be polarized. The way that we stop things like this from happening is by bringing people closer together. Everybody, no matter like how you look, no matter, yeah, exactly. Like we're in a space right now where there are powers that really are trying to divide every single person and have every single person super hyper individualizing our own box. And we have to break out of that. And I feel like a lot of the things that I do, the way that I move is kind of a testament to that. Like, we gotta shake a hand, you know what I'm saying? We got we gotta hug a friend, we gotta shoot. I was just having a conversation with my bro Alex last night. Like, bro, I just wish that we all could just go outside and have a barbecue and like talk to each other again, really get to know each other again, like put our feet in the grass and like let's throw away this bullshit. Like, we need each other as a people, as a like everyone, as as a humanity, as a as a globe. We need each other.

SPEAKER_03 26:42

It's funny because it's it's there. Like the the the first big march down downtown. Yep. Like I was down there and I was like, for the longest time, I'm like, I can't I feel like I'm in my own little silo here. I can't understand how we've got so far down this road of divisiveness and polarization and fuck you, get out of here. It went from illegal immigrants to immigrants to pretty much anyone in a spate of months. Right. Yeah. And it was cool to be down there with I don't even remember how many people this is. 50,000. 50,000 people. And you know, you we marched down there and we do the whole thing, and I finished and I turned around and was sort of heading back to the car because I didn't want to go into the target center with everybody else, because that felt like a bad idea at the time. Um, and I look back and like this is like 15 minutes after like I've hit the edge end of the you know the the route and people are just pouring down the street, like continue to coming. There's just bodies everywhere. I was like, cool, I am not alone. I'm not the only one who thinks like this. I am like that's ultimately I think the protest is about a lot of things.

SPEAKER_05 27:50

You and I'm coming together and being like, Oh, yeah, okay. We all of these people here think the same way on this issue or whatever it is. We found we found our content. And there's a lot of us, moods vibrate, you know. Like that's go bring it back to your music, the music, you know. I think that's the influence of it. It washes over you, and then your mood comes out the way it does. Yeah, and that's gonna relate to everybody else because their moods might be in the same space, you know.

SPEAKER_03 28:15

But I think that's the great thing about music though, and like new music, especially this time. Like, give people a reason to get together. Give them a show, bring them together. Let's hear your message. Physical space, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:27

Yeah, well, there's something to be said for like human energy, yeah. Yeah, you know, and especially there's a term for that. That's like collective effervescence is the term. Oh, dude, I like that. I don't know if I've heard that before. That's that's we bubble off each other, right? Yeah, like well, I'm just saying, like everybody focused the same direction, you know, and it doesn't have to be, hey, every bit of my life aligns with every bit of your life. You know, like it's not that, it's just this moment, this thing, this occurrence, everybody focused the same direction. Like there's energy just pouring off of people. And I think that's you know, on a smaller scale, different scale, whatever, what happens at at live shows, you know. I the most incredible musical event of my life was during the RNC in 2008 when Rage Against the Machine played at the Target Center. There was energy in that room, the likes of which I had never experienced before, you know, and it was the whole thing, you know, from you know, riot police outside, you know, just ready for whatever to pop off, and everything leading up to this concert, and they all came out in orange jumpsuits with shrouds from Guantanamo Bay, and it said, fuck the RNC across the top. Like, I get like I was of the right political mind to appreciate you know this this occurrence, but I had been at the RNC, you know, a couple days before. Um and feeling that energy in that room over at the uh Excel Energy Center, which was this toxic, you know, terrible in in my opinion, to then you know, other side of the coin or over here at Rage Against the Machine, like okay, like that's that's some really powerful stuff when everybody comes together and you know is of a like mind kind of thing. Do you see yourself as a as a leader in in a sense, you know, guiding, you know, you're you're a face, you're a public figure, you're a you know, growing social like uh, you know, focal point for people. Is there some weight that comes with that too?

SPEAKER_00 30:23

I do definitely think that there is some some weight on all of this, um, given that I have a face that everyone, I won't say everyone, that a lot of people looks to. And I could say that a lot of people are inspired by there's a lot of people who come to me and let me know that they're inspired by the work that I do, and they just love my personality. And a lot of times I I do take time and look at myself and be like, man, how am I how am I moving with all of this? And I personally, if I'm gonna be real, I don't feel like a leader, but I do feel like I try my best to inspire other people to be leaders in their own right. You know, I don't feel like we necessarily need leaders. Um okay. There are people who are able to lead certain things, and that's you know I'm saying for them. But shoot, I don't lead in your own space. Yeah, you lead, you lead in your own space. Um, and my only reason why I say that is because I'm I don't want to lead people astray. I see a lot of people in power right now who the power has gotten to them and they are literally leading people astray. Sure. And it's like, how do we combat that? How do we, you know, and I don't have the answer for how to combat it, you know, but I'm just that's something that I'm looking at and I'm like, okay, how do I make it to where if I am considered a leader, I'm not the type of leader that's like impeding on someone else's free will or you know what I'm saying? Something along the lines of that. So yeah, like empowering other people.

SPEAKER_05 31:52

You you find what it is to be your own God and then be your own God, you know, like and I don't mean that in some kind of like higher than way. I just mean it live it the way you want to live it and make every action be that. If you can afford it, go do it and live it in a way that means something to you, you know? Because if you do it, if it means something to you, the world will connect with that and they'll do something that means something to them, you know, because like there that can be felt if something's done well. Probably rings a little hollow, right? Yeah, yeah, or it's and that's you're not doing it for the right reason.

SPEAKER_04 32:25

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 32:26

That's the problem we face now. Is like I think we were talking about this before, like, money's not evil. It's the idea of like the exchange, it's the way that you go about it, you go about getting it or whatever that actually makes it evil or good, you know. Like it's it's the idea that that we all have something to give, and finding what that is is the most important thing, you know.

SPEAKER_02 32:51

Yeah, we're all pieces to this puzzle. Yeah. So tell me about where the notion of a lot of things we've talked about, caring about other people, you know, empowering people to be their own leaders. Where where do all these kind of concepts come from for you? Like from your history, is there a person? Is there an event? What do you attribute kind of who you are to?

SPEAKER_00 33:13

I I think I could attribute it to my upbringing in general. I was the oldest born, the oldest grandson. Um, and I I could say I've always had people, if you will, looking up to me, and I've always had a sense of like responsibility for that. In that responsibility, I've realized that you high key have the ability to like again manipulate almost and like lead people this way or lead people that way if you're sitting on a certain pedestal, you know? And I've realized that and had practice with that since a young age to be able to realize like, okay, if people are like putting their their hearts into me, into my image, you know what I'm saying? How how good can this be for themselves as a person, you know? And how can again, how can I inspire them to be more of themselves and not put so much onto onto me? And I feel like that kind of goes into like the social media space too. Like we have a bunch of people going in and they're seeing just everybody else seeing their lives, and they're like, okay, they're probably down on themselves because they they don't have it like this or have it like that. And it's like, no, you gotta see who you are, see what's going on within yourself to be able to become you, to be able to become more you, even to be able to go out and experience with the world, to be able to give to the world. And again, I think that is came from ultimately always having responsibility and always realizing if the responsibility's on me, a lot of times people will throw away responsibility and just continue to give it to me. And it's like, nah, you gotta be responsible too, you gotta be accountable too for yourself, for the things that you go through for you know for all of it.

SPEAKER_05 34:51

You only get so many. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:53

So who are your uh big influences now? Who inspires you? What inspires you? I'm not even talking about you know, musicians necessarily. What where do you derive a lot of your creative, you know, your inspiration?

SPEAKER_00 35:05

If I'm gonna be real, I think I I get my inspiration from everything.

SPEAKER_02 35:09

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 35:10

The world. Like, I I couldn't, I don't think I could pinpoint one particular thing. I'll tell both Tyler and Alex, like, I'll just sit around and like if I'm scrolling through my phone, I'm literally studying the the video content that's in front of me, or I'm studying like thinking about the code that makes this thing. So I'm just I'm sitting in a space where I'm inspired by every little thing. Okay. Um, how do you filter that?

SPEAKER_03 35:35

How do you how do you keep the the good stuff in and the bad stuff out? Because there's a lot of stuff out there.

SPEAKER_00 35:40

Yeah, there is. There's definitely a lot of stuff out there, and you do have to ground yourself. And I think I I ground myself with my team, I ground myself with with the people around me because diving into creativity, yeah, like you guys said, there's there's a shit ton out there, you know, and not not everything is good, not everything is morally adept. And yeah, it's just about that grounding. And I think ultimately it's like that for all people, you know. Like if you go off the rails a little bit in your life, you probably have a bro, or you know what I'm saying? Maybe a dad or a mom that's like call you, be like, yo, let's get back on track. You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_01 36:13

Straighten back out.

SPEAKER_00 36:14

Yeah, yeah. Well, and is there some value in some of the bad too? Yes, there is value in some of the bad. Because I feel like if you don't, if you don't know the bad, if you don't know darkness, then you don't know what light is. If everything was good, then we wouldn't be able to appreciate any good. So sometimes we have to have like a pendulum swing or or a spectrum of experiences in essence, you know. And I feel like with that, me being open pretty much to everything, I have that nice balance and mixture. I don't know what they call that yin-yang of being able to see it all and kind of experience it all without judgment, and then to be able to take something, pull something from it, and yeah, create something relatable. Yeah, it's like literally creating out of the void or something, and the void is full of everything there is.

SPEAKER_02 37:05

Uh, you and I were talking before we hit record about some of the other folks that were filming music videos here, and just seeing how other people are doing it and and the things that I'm like, oh, that's kind of interesting, or oh, that's not how I would do it, you know. But it's just kind of seeing the value in like other people's creating and and how, you know, good things, bad things, whatever, you know, and how that now influences our next session or the next, you know, artists that we're working with, or whatever. I think is it's all interesting, it's all part of the puzzle, it's all part of the pie. Trying to keep the bad to a somewhat manageable minimum.

SPEAKER_05 37:38

That's like life, right? Because like ultimately, at the end of the day, you're all the external stuff happens around you and you get your internal space. Right. And like really what matters is like how you receive that and like what you do with it, you know, which all exists within side of you. And so ultimately it's just a matter of being curious, finding patience, finding those things that like create a mindset. So, like, if the negative stuff enters your space, you can still pull something from it, you can learn from it, you can grow from it. You know, I think at the end of the day, then it just becomes like, How are you? You know, like where's your health? Where's your ability to take that stuff in and process it? And you get better at it, I think, as life goes on because you learn from experience.

SPEAKER_02 38:20

Well, I don't know if you guys have seen that movie Inside Out, but okay. It's a kid's movie, yeah. Pixar, really well done. I'm sure it's really well done. I think I've seen like clips of it. Okay, just throwing out there, like the big takeaway, the big lesson, you know, because the whole time it's it's happiness and sadness kind of vying for for their role in this person's brain or whatever, and then at the end, the big takeaway is that you gotta have both to have like meaningful experiences, and having that illustration, you know, because we grew up on like Disney, yeah, you know, the princess needs to be saved. This is the guy who's gonna save the princess, and the princess gets saved at the end.

SPEAKER_01 38:54

Like that was that's the story arc of like that's pretty it's pretty simple, right?

SPEAKER_02 38:58

And so now now to have kids' movies be hey, sadness is important too, anger is important too. That it has a role in your emotional universe kind of experience.

SPEAKER_05 39:09

You have to be able to coexist with those feelings.

SPEAKER_02 39:11

Well, right, right. But you know, and at the end of the day, like it's just interesting how that's a reflection, hopefully, of like our cultural understanding of emotional well-being, yeah, not just being happy all the time, not just creating the same pop track every single time.

SPEAKER_05 39:25

I mean, some people can get away with that, but I mean, music, most of the shit that like really hits has has some element of like of a darker element, you know, like there's a little bit of something there that's like the the emotions that people connect with frequently are not positive, right?

SPEAKER_00 39:40

Yeah, you know, because what's real is like shoot, people gotta go to work every day, people gotta pay bills, people got kids to take care of. Life is hard. So life is hard. A lot of times, if you're you know, when I'm creating art, I think about that a lot. Like, how how do I generate an experience that is life, if you will? It's a roller coaster ride, you know. So dive into those emotions. There's ups, there's downs, there's reflections ultimately on how to how to navigate all of this emotional, if you will, or just life, the roller coaster ride of it, you know.

SPEAKER_03 40:12

Reminds me of uh the Jack Garrett song, uh better. Have you heard that? So those boxes.

SPEAKER_02 40:18

Go ahead and sing it for us now.

SPEAKER_03 40:20

Okay, so it's some vocal. So it's really interesting because it's a super poppy tune for him. But if you listen to his lyrics, it's all about how he's taking antidepressants to feel better. And it's like the most poppy dance track you'll ever hear. And you you're like you're bopping around to it, you're like, Oh, yeah, it's pretty good. And then you're like, hold on a second. What? What did he just say?

SPEAKER_00 40:40

That's like Andre 3000. Y'all don't want to hear me, y'all just want to dance. Yeah, you know, so make a poppy track, but put some some real stuff in it.

SPEAKER_02 40:49

Yeah, yeah. Uh, so uh what what's next for you? You know, like obviously there's a lot going on outside, just dropped an album. What's on the horizon for you?

SPEAKER_00 40:58

What's next for me is I do have another album in the works. I will not be disclosing the name of it or anything yet, but I'm currently in the process. The way that I usually work it is I sit down with life. I experience a bit, I acquire hella beats and sounds and just like a bunch of like I pretty much have like a huge vision board of life as it is right now. And I start to work, I start to write, I start to think about a bunch of melodies, and then eventually I'll be sitting down in the studio pushing out more. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 41:29

Um and you said there's gonna be more live performances too, hopefully on the uh on the horizon here.

SPEAKER_00 41:34

Yes, yes. Okay, great. Looking forward to a bunch of live performances, even if that means I'm on the street with a a PA out there kicking it, you know.

SPEAKER_04 41:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:45

You know, J. Cole's outside right now, still pushing CDs out the back of his trunk. So some of this stuff may seem outdated, but some of this stuff is also like the roots of of hip hop, the roots of honestly, if you will, just art. Going back out into the streets, touching people, you know what I'm saying? Getting getting to people.

SPEAKER_02 42:02

Hell yeah. Any final thoughts at all, either one of you about life, music? I'm excited, man, because it won't be like 10 degrees when we're doing that.

SPEAKER_00 42:11

Well, there's that too. Yeah. Ready for spring. I feel like winter time has me stagnant, but it is what it is. We in Minnesota, you know.

SPEAKER_02 42:20

We got a buddy that uh says you gotta hibernate to create. I mean, you you kind of have to. So you may as well do something while you're riding out the cold here in Minnesota. But uh that always kind of resonates with me when you're like, you know, because uh in the summer, obviously we all spend a ton of time outside and you know, as Minnesotans, but gotta use every single second of it. Just saying.

SPEAKER_05 42:39

Man, I think people that's something when I first I've been here for 13 years now. When I first moved here, that's something I didn't understand. People's personalities change with the seasons here. And uh, and um, and I think the cool part about this state is that when like you said, you hibernate to create, like people go into themselves, they become more introspective, and everybody accepts that too about one another because they realize it's a reality and like it's one we're all facing. So I think it's cool. Like I've absorbed it now. Like in the winter, I'm down by in my basement, yes, you know, and I'm like making something, and it's nice to sit around and do that, you know, to to just have your time by yourself, gather your thoughts, see where they're at, check them, right? Because, like, are they positive? Are they negative? Uh, you know, like they're everything, right? That's nice to get a little check before the spring comes back around and wakes us up and get to move again.

SPEAKER_01 43:32

Those mosquitoes aren't gonna feed themselves. Check in with yourself, spring cleaning.

SPEAKER_00 43:37

Yeah. They say check yourself before you wreck yourself.

SPEAKER_02 43:42

Come on now. Come on now. Well, cool, guys. We appreciate you coming back and and uh chatting with us and doing the thing. And um if you haven't checked it out already, uh rhinosessions.com, uh Yevra's session is out there live, it's on YouTube, um, and you can stream it, stream all the music from the session on all your local. streaming platforms. Uh same with the the new album as well. Yeah? Yeah? Yes, yes. Okay. Okay. Well cool. That's what we got. Thanks, fellas. And cut. And cut. Yay!