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Artist Q&A: Midwestern

Midwestern. Photo by Aaron Rhodes.
Brought to you by 90.9 The Bridge

 

If you’ve attended enough DIY or all-locals punk or hip-hop events in Kansas City or Lawrence over the last six months, you’ve probably either seen Midwestern perform or bumped into one of its members in the crowd. Consisting of producer/DJ/vocalist Charmaine Ejelonu and producer/vocalist R.W. (joined by drummer Titus at some live shows), the duo makes an engaging, energetic, and occasionally noisy type of experimental hip-hop unlike that of any other local acts right now (though if you’re a fan of Ebony Tusks, Young Mvchetes, American Terrorist, or Indiglow, you might dig them). We had planned to meet up for this interview at the Ethiopian/Caribbean restaurant Awazé on Main Street, but it was unexpectedly closed, so the following conversation took place within the confines of my car in the back parking lot.

So where did both of you guys grow up?

Charmaine
I was born in Nigeria and I moved to Overland Park at the age of six.

R.W.
[I’d just say] we work out of Kansas City. [I don’t want to be any more specific than that.]

How did you guys decide on the name Midwestern?

R.W.
You're from around here. You know what it's like – that energy. You know the people, the feelings – the good and the bad.

Charmaine
The mundane feeling. Being from the Midwest.

R.W.
And also just like, you know, this kind of self v. self. We got a lot of space out here and I think we people value people in a different way.

Charmaine
Think about it, you're in the middle of everything, so what does that mean? As far as artistry, as far as a name?

R.W.
Yeah, it really isn’t that deep. We're working from out here, we're doing stuff, and also like I said, it's underrepresented shit, man. There's a lot of fucking people around Kansas, Missouri, Iowa. People don't talk about it, like all movies and shit take place on the fucking coasts.

Charmaine
Yeah, there’s the coastal thing, but like Midwestern and being from the Midwest is just such an enigma that hasn't been explored.

What musicians were important to you growing up or have been inspirational to your work in any way?

Charmaine
Pulling inspiration from certain individuals, you end up in a rabbit hole. You just want to pull from everybody and everybody's influenced by everything. I wouldn't necessarily say it's people and artists because, I mean, sure, that's a given.

R.W.
We listen to a lot of music. I feel like if we said too much about one thing, we might be just like, totally passing up some other shit, people we respect.

Charmaine
We say nature.

R.W.
Freedom.

Charmaine
God. That kind of encapsulates inspiration.

I was right, you are Vibes Guys. The feeling of freedom, the feeling of being in nature.

Charmaine
[Laughs] Not even in a free sense because nature can be… nature can cage you up just as much. You can fucking hate that shit. Because, like, you spend too much time, you get lost.

R.W.
Yeah, I don’t wanna fight a bear.

Charmaine
[Laughs] Yeah, like no, fuck that. Can you imagine getting stuck in a fucking avalanche? There’s nothing beautiful about that. But it's just like that power is just so all-encompassing. And there's just no limit.

R.W.
We’re trying to do energy. We want some of it.

How did you guys meet and start making music together?

R.W.
I don't know, like the project. The project itself is essentially like, I don't know, it

Charmaine
– happens.

R.W.
But is this happening concurrently with our relationship?

Charmaine
It grows as we grow.

R.W.
Yeah. That’s just some crazy shit because I love Charmaine, but making music is some crazy shit.

Charmaine
It turns you into something. It makes you explore parts of yourself that you didn't think were even there. And I guess like, honestly, it’s fate.

R.W.
It's something like that. It's something like that.

Charmaine
It’s just when two timelines intersect.

R.W.
I don’t think that answers the question.

No, that’s a valid answer [laughs]. Something I was curious about was the amount of improvisation and freestyling there is in your recorded music and your performances versus what’s rehearsed. It’s kind of difficult to parse as someone on the outside.

Charmaine
There's only so much you can do in rehearse.

R.W.
You’ve got to see more shows. Because here's the thing, we're doing something different. We've done something different at every show. Our last show was just us with the beats, with no drummer. And we're trying to do different stuff. So I say there’s a little bit of both because when you're performing a song in the modern idiom, you know, you’re just rapping to a beat and that's what it is. You're singing your own song. So you don't want to change the beat, because why do that to the fucking people, especially if it's a popular song, why fuck with them? But for us, you know, we don't have to worry about that.

Charmaine
When you get out there and you're performing, there's not much to worry about because it's just you and the people and then kind of just like whatever you have left on the palate, you’ve just got to expose, you just got to do whatever feels right.

R.W.
Yeah. It's both. It's structured and we improvise. We do a little bit of both. I think just having a drummer keeps it a little [tigheter].

Charmaine
I think sometimes with improv people assume that you don't take the time to care about what you're making. And I think that's a really big misconception. Because, you know, it's like our baby. [laughs]

Yeah, and unless it’s your first time ever improvising, you’re likely building off of past performances or accessing knowledge and skills that you’ve built up over time.

R.W.
We've gone to open mics with beats we just made that we haven't even tried out lyrics for and just gone up and just just fuckin’ done the first thing off the top of our heads and shit like that. Ah, we’re giving away too much. [laughs]

I guess I'm basing some of my questions off of seeing you guys at the Armand Hammer show at The Bottleneck. How would you say that show compared to other performances that you've done?

R.W.
We're just getting started. It's just the first of many.

Charmaine
I think everything is just a learning moment and every show that we do is a learning moment. You just soak it up and I think that's just like what life is every day, you just learn something new and that's just like what performing is.

I also think it’s cool that I’ve seen you guys at a lot of different shows you’re not playing and a lot of them featuring different styles of music. I don’t think I’d ever seen you guys around before the pandemic though. So what was your exposure to live music like before the pandemic?

Charmaine
We just kept it lowkey.

R.W.
Yeah, any time I needed to get some anger out, I’d go to a show, throw some ‘bows.

Charmaine
I just wanted to see everything. I mean, even before we met and started seeing shit.

R.W.
Yeah, when we started dating, that was one of the first things we talked about. We were just trading stories about who we’d seen, what we listened to.

Charmaine
But like, I think that's really important to also see things for yourself, too, and then create something out of whatever inspires you.

Charmaine, you also do DJ sets. Since I haven't seen one myself yet, what kind of music do you like to play during those? And what about DJing appeals to you in contrast to performing in Midwestern.


Charmaine
I play anything. I think a really important thing about being a DJ is understanding the heartbeat of your crowd and trying to get that shit racing. I play everything. Like, as long as BPMs kind of work, they don’t even have to, I just play anything that can make somebody dance or anyone smile or anything. That's what motivates me as a DJ – just being able to see people dance and actually just do it.

And I think one of the things that's a little bit different about doing that and also being in Midwestern is that being a DJ, you get to expose music that you can't make, so that's a cool opportunity. But I love it. I do.

So you guys have released a handful of Bandcamp singles so far. Are you working towards doing an EP or a full-length project?

R.W.
It's all on the way. We just keep it chill, we move a little slower. We're careful about what we put into the world.

And all of the tracks you’ve released so far have sounded a little bit different from each other. Do you think you’re working towards honing in on a specific sound or do you think it’s going to stay relatively eclectic?

Charmaine
The songs, they capture a moment and that's what we're doing. We're just capturing moments. It's like taking a picture, you know, it's just like a figment, like some passing time.

R.W.
We're just taking our time with it.

Charmaine
Slow cooking. Slow cook that shit. Marinate it.

On your song “Total Peace” I caught a bit of what sounded like trip-hop influence. Is that a sound you guys are into?

R.W.
Trip-hop? What the fuck is a trip-hop? [laughs]

You know! Like Porishead, Massive Attack, that kind of stuff.

R.W.
If [it does sound like trip-hop], it’s purely coincidental, I couldn't tell you what we were trying to do on the song. Thank you for bringing that up, though, because we're trying to figure out what people are gonna, like, we were trying to figure out, we're trying to figure out what genre [people are going to try to label us].

I apologize in advance for contributing to that – boxing you in.

Charmaine
Boxes make things a lot more organized. They're good.

Yeah, and whenever people try to denigrate something by calling it “mumble rap” or some other name, it’s usually an artform that I see as being as valid as any other. I just see genres and labels as useful for marketing and getting people interested in an artist if they don’t have the patience or haven’t had the time to listen yet.

R.W.
So, just curious, what genre or scene would you consider us as a whole?

When I hand someone a flyer for one of your shows or just want to give someone the gist, I would probably just say cool, experimental hip-hop.


Charmaine
That’s one box I will stand by: being cool. [laughs] We’re cool.

I guess we’ll wrap up in a second here, but what should people expect from your upcoming releases and live shows?

Charmaine
Movement, to dance, and to be present.

R.W.
They can expect a presence. Expect some crazy shit. Movement, presence? It sounds like they’re gonna go to a yoga class!

Charmaine
[Laughs] Is that not what this is?

R.W.
And fighting. Just understand this: at our shows, anything can happen. What’s that law? What’s-his-fuck’s law? If it can happen, anything can happen.

I've heard of this law. I do not know to whom it belongs either.

R.W.
But that’s all it is. We're trying to have a fun time. We want our shows to be fun. Play some good music, play it loud, and anything can happen.

Charmaine
And have fun!

And it’ll be cool.

R.W. and Charmaine, in unison
It’ll be cool.

You can listen to Midwestern at Midwestern816.Bandcamp.com. You can find them on Instagram at @Midwestern.816 and on Twitter at @Midwestern816.


[This article first appeared in Issue 5 of Shuttlecock's free monthly print edition. Click here to order a copy online, or pick one up for free at locations around KC/Lawrence/JoCo.]      

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