Photograph by Chris Renteria
As a public performer in St. Louis hip-hop circles since 1997, Mathias James’ advice, in some ways, is simple: Arrive, partake, then share.
“My advice for getting known is to show up,” he says. “If you hand me a CD and I don’t know you, I wonder why I don’t see you at shows. So why should I care? I think the scene getting as big as it has says that there’s more of an open door. If you come with quality material and ideas and you’re out there, seen at all the places, you’ll get the respect of other artists who are out doing things. You have to support, make the effort, be a part of it all before you’ll get respect thrown back at you.”
In many ways, James came of age in public, playing in the groups Jive Turkey, Art Thugs (which resettled to California), Core Project (whose stickers were once ubiquitous) and Earthworms, all after working on several teen projects in Webster Groves “that no one ever heard of.” Several of his acts fused hip-hop vocals with live instrumentation, and a couple of them flirted with wider mainstream success, ceasing just prior to finding it.
With Mathias & The Pirates, James continues perform, record, and bounce ideas off of a variety of local musicians. At the core of the current group are James, vocalist Ms. Vizion, and DJ LB. Various players (like drummer Grover Stewart, bassist Donald Williams, and saxophonist Terry Grohman) round out its live lineups. A number of members of the FarFetched collective have also shared a stage with James and company.
October will see the release of an EP, Caveman Barnacles. “The new project is recorded by Matt Sawicki, the owner of Suburban Pro Studios,” James says. “They record a great deal of local hip-hop. I’ve been working there, among other places, for years now. He’s a hell of a producer and multi-instrumentalist. He creates everything from scratch…It’s got a really nice rock ’n’ roll edge to it.
“We’re going to be doing a series of EPs,” he adds. “A different producer will do each one, so there’ll be a cohesive element to each. The reason I’m doing these is that people’s attention spans seem to be getting shorter. Full albums aren’t being downloaded. I’m from the era of getting a CD, reading the liner notes, looking at the cover art, slowly taking it all in. But things have moved in a different direction. It’s more singles-oriented right now. As someone who like an album with a beginning, middle, and end, with some ebbs and flows, we want to meet people in the middle.”
The use of nonsampled music on the tracks isn’t just to create a preferred set of sonics. With a full-time job a popular restaurant The Shaved Duck and a domestic partnership, James isn’t going to be hitting the road as hard as he did a decade ago. Finding a way to get his music out to more people in a digital world has made live-based songs a lot more appealing to him.
“Yeah, I still look to sample,” he says. “I’m a product of the ’90s, and sample-based music is my thing. But I think that for the sake of so much effort going into my songs, you either need to clear samples—forget that—or create your own. I would like to get to where we have music in a film, things that might garner some royalties. The only person to play on our albums is our producer; that person gets a contractual share. Technology has made it easier to record, and our DJ can cut and scratch from those tracks.”
The EP comes at a time when, James believes, hip-hop is rounding into a local scene that’s “the healthiest I’ve seen it in the 20 years I’ve been doing this. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen it stronger. Last night, there were four things in town that I personally wanted to go to, all very strong events. All were packed, and the city supported all these competing events. Five years ago, it wasn’t this way. To see the rebirth as this strong is awesome. In a way, it’s different now, but I’m glad to still be relevant when the scene’s as strong as it is, that’s for sure.
“You have to be persistent,” he continues. “I was doing that in the days of hand-to-hand flyering, when it was all about guerrilla marketing. You had to get creative and be a part of the fabric of the scene, if the scene was going to recognize you in any way. It’s actually coming back around to that.”
For sound clips and news on Mathias & The Pirates’ upcoming gigs, visit facebook.com/piratesstl.
