Hey all. I know most of you guys have heard of The Stoops by now and I can tell by the amount of traffic they have brought to this blog. I have a few Q&A's with Coin so check it out below.
How did you guys come about as a group?
Pronto and Roc went to the same school and started a group called rhymes in effect with SydeFX.
While I (Coin) was in two groups, TWO TONE - with Hire & DJ COMPLEX, and FLYLEAF with Mei Swan. After I left both groups, I met Roc through a friend at Tafe, and we started working on music together. Before we knew it, 'the stoopid fresh crew' was born. we recorded a lot of demo songs, playing with music while focusing on our education and careers. a few years later, we dropped 'id' and 'crew' and released the self titled STOOP FRESH E.P. with the man Taku on most of the beats, and Mei Swan joining the group.
Meanwhile, Bonita was working with 'the typhoons', sucesfully gigging all around perth, and playing big festivals. In early 2010 after I (coin) returned from a long stint of living in Japan, Mei Swan departed from the group, and we were in search of someone to fill her shoes, a very difficult spot to fill. The Typhoons had broken up, and Bonita, one of our biggest fans, was free. So it was all perfect timing in the end. Then JSQUARED, who we have worked with previously on the STOOP NES LP, offered to do a collaborative album with us. We worked on the album for roughly under a year, became 'The Stoops' and released the collaborative album 'STOOPSQUARED' for free at www.thestoops.bandcamp.com.
What inspired your style?
It is hard to cover this as we have so many members in the group, but as a group, I would have to say our biggest influences would be ATCQ, De La Soul, Hocus Pocus and Slum Village.
How has the success of the track free been for you guys?
It just goes to show that music is just as much a business as it is an art, unfortunately. The sucess off the song is 80% attributed to it being used in a TV commercial, 20% to it being a good song. I think that is the case with most popular songs. But with that said, it has been great, and has opened us up to a wider audience, who may not really listen to hip hop, but enjoy good music. Its nice to turn on the tv/radio and hear your music being played on a regular basis.
What was it like working on your album stoopsquared?
It was a great experience, JSQUARED pretty much provided us with a bunch of beats, we picked our favourites, decided on concepts and themes as a group. We then split to write our parts. We would then get together once a week to show what we have come up, criticise and build on what we had. That is one of the benefits of working in a group, you can filter out all the trash to ensure there is a higher quality product in the end. It was great to involve all our favourite Perth artists in the album including Rae, The Empty Cup, Mathas, Ol Wright, Tim Crick and Delirious.
Do you have any upcoming shows around perth?
Yes sir!
We have:
27th of May - KURTIS BLOW at the Bakery.
Kurtis Blow was a huge inspiration growing up before I hit my teens, and it will be an amazing honour to play on the same stage as one of the forefathers of Hip Hop. The Stoops have joined forces with a local soul band, 'accumulated gestures' and we will be playing together for the first time at this gig. I am not one to talk up my own music, but it is sounding AMAZING!!
28th and 29th - We are supporting Illy.
4th of June - We will be playing the Malt Market in Dunsborough. We played this venue over the Easter Break, and the people there are amazing. Everyone is down to have a good time, and as long its good music, they welcome you open armed.
What projects are you working on in the short future?
Bonita - Is working on an album with local female mc 'Hyclass' It should be dropping in the next few months.
Coin - Working on another solo release with a producer from the east coast.
We have a lot of cool features and styles on this, and should be ready for release by the end of the year.
The Stoops - currently working on:
STOOP GESTURES - a collab album with the accumulated gestures. A very organic soulful synth album.
STOOPSQUARED2 (Name Tentative) - This will be a completely different to the first one. Cant really explain it in words, so I guess you will have to wait haha...
Are you doing a video for any of your tracks?
Yes, we are in the planning stages for a video for FREE which will be released on June the 22nd,
and possibly one for Paperplanes.
Any plans to take your music national or on the international scene?
In terms of tours, Outside of music, Pronto and I are focused on our professional careers, and therefore are unable to commit to tours outside of Perth. We did try and organise a tour to Melbourne , but with all the clashing plans, we laid that idea to rest.
In regards to the international scene, its funny, we have had more love in Japan and Europe than in Australia for StoopSquared. Most of our listens, downloads come from France, Germany, and Japan. We have had offers to to play shows there, but unfortunately it just conflicts with our day to day lives.
Lastly, Thank you to anyone that has listened to our music and supported us at our shows.
In a small place like Perth, the supportive community we have really mean a lot to us.
Make sure you check out The Stoops on
Facebook.
