An Interview: Cool Calm Julio

Earlier this year, Cool Calm Julio put out a self-titled EP that was as smart as it was relaxed as it was fun. The references jump from Kansas City to professional wrestling to infamous big music biz stories that aren't well known outside of their immediate scene. And all that's just the first track.


Cool Calm Julio was nice enough to answer the following questions.


Who from KC are you listening to right now?

Naturally all of the current Vital Nerve releases are in heavy rotation as well as Greg Enemy, Stik Figa, DR+2,and Dom Chronicles. Very talented cats, yo.

What national/non-KC acts are you listening to?

I can’t lie, I listen to my fair share of Waka Flocka Flame, 2Chainz, and Spaceghostpurrp but every now and then my ears just need to chill to Moka Only or Teebs.

Why is Kansas City a hip-hop town?

Kansas City is dead center in the middle of the map, which means were pullin’ musical influences from all angles as well as our jazz grassroots. Those key factors form together like Voltron to make some slick ass joints from our emcees that just has that uniqueness you can’t find from the east or west coast.

What aspect of Kansas City shapes your music the most?

Definitely the diversity. I could be chillin' in Waldo, then take a 20 minute trip to Midtown and get an entirely different atmosphere. I was raised around different parts of Kansas City and some areas and my interactions within them played a part in my life, which is directly linked to my material.

Many of your songs on the Cool Calm EP tend toward the shorter side, which I like versus (for example) the bloat of the last Kanye album. I also think it's kind of punk as fuck to drop a chain of shorter songs, which might sound like a contradiction given your demeanor on tracks. Could you talk a bit about what influences the composition?

I like to keep my delivery unexpected and unique when it comes to projects. I like to think it makes for a more interesting experience for me and the listener as opposed to tapes with a bunch of hooks.

Who all is involved with Vital Nerve, and what are the end goals for what's produced? Is it limited to musical output?

Vital Nerve is an underground artist collective that consist of myself, Unlucky Menace, Missing Link, Dead Bent and Logikally Speaking. We set up, promote, and put on shows pretty regularly around the KC area with some of our affiliates to promote the scene and gain exposure to other fanbases. All of the crew each have their respective projects and dope music you can check out on vitalnerve.com [note from kcmj: do it!] but there's more to it than that. We own all the equipment we use for live performances, record, mix, and master our vocals and utilize social network sites. Its definitely an investment on all sides,

You've indicated that you're a mixed media artist on your tumblr site. Do you currently have or do you have a plan to incorporate any art into live shows?

I’ve been into the arts for the majority of my life and consider myself to be an artist first over an emcee. I do create the fliers, video, website design, branding, and some album artwork for Vital Nerve. In earlier shows I would incorporate live video projections of old kung fu/ninja films and 1950’s anti marijuana propaganda I edited into our earlier shows, haha, just because I had the resources, haha.  I just really like to let my creativity run within the crew and I haven’t had any complaints.

The line "... like Universal did to After the Smoke" is one of my favorite references from any song this year.  Do you make your own beats, and is what they did with that Yelawolf track something that you and/or the local KC music scene worries about happening?

Ha, thanks! I’m glad you noticed that. I do a little beat making every now and then, but those and staying in my secret stash for the moment. I left the beats on the Cool Calm EP to some of my very talented peeps, Osiris-1 (“Sonar”) and Wise Enough (“Dividends”). However, that After the Smoke and Universal fiasco (no pun) was a modern day “David vs. Goliath” story. It's always nice to see the indie groups triumph over the major labels in cases like those and gives me hope for the industry. I think with the social networking era playing a part in musicians fanbases, there's too many voices that can’t possibly be unheard.


Thanks to Cool Calm Julio for taking the time to answer my questions. Any interview that contains a Voltron AND a Waka Flocka Flame reference is an A+ in my book.

A Small Bit About Local Christian Albums

Before you ignore this, there's very little regarding content, and more about bandcamp distribution.

If not obvious already, I love bandcamp as not only a discovery tool but as a barometer of local trends. Having the opportunity to preview music for free levels a lot of preconceptions I'd otherwise have from other local music blogs. I'm not immune to the ingrained idea that "if it costs more, it must be better." I've done a good job shaking it off, but as long as it's a cultural trait, I'm sure I'll struggle with it.

So this brings me to the crux of this baby rant, which is: what's the deal with the Jesus-y albums being so expensive? I promised when this started not to post long form reviews, so bands here will go unnamed. That said, I've noticed that content doesn't reflect price as far as quality goes. And not just song-quality, but production quality. I refuse to believe that some of these people giving music away for free incurred less cost than some Christian albums going for 10 bucks a pop.

And does that money go to them or their church? While I don't care, it technically might. Churches generally have bad ass sound equipment. I wouldn't put it past some to run their own recording studios. Actually, I'd totally consider recording in one. If there are any entrepreneurial churches out there, make a note of that.

Also, there's a lot of it out there. As a barometer, I can't tell me if that indicates religious tendencies in the KC area or an actual musical preference. There may be a bazillion Christian acts, but do they play out? Do they just play at churches? I know one particular act that seems funded by a predominant Protestant branch, but I couldn't tell you if they end up at any venues. It's not my scene, but if you have a built-in audience through a congregation, maybe these album prices are justified to them because they actually move volume every Sunday. I tend to believe this is more smart than dubious, unless their music is filled with hate-filled rhetoric (and there's one particular 0-receiving band I'm thinking of).

I wouldn't mind hearing from some Christian bands to find out what they're basing their prices on, how they record, and if their church is running a sweet studio. Feel free to drop me an email or leave it in the comments.