Moxie Black, the group made up of Portland producer Dekk and emcee Illa, were recently asked to create a theme song for VH1’s new show Big Ang.
The two have great chemistry in the lab together, and have created a nice buzz for themselves and their electronic/pop/hip hop sound after releasing their debut in 2010.
Dekk is also a member of the group Shadows on Stars, who was named as one of <em>Complex Magazine</em>’s 20 bands to watch in 2012.
Work Hard, Play Harder.
You can catch Big Ang Sundays at 9pm on VH1.
Thanks to Dekk for taking a moment to chat with us.
How are you doing today Brian?
A little hungover, Jake, how about yourself?
I’m good. I had a good bike ride today. I’ve been trying to do more Oregon stuff lately. Did you yell Yolo a lot last night?
Of course. YOLO!!!!!!!
Haha. Congrats on the song for VH1’s new show Big Ang. How did that opportunity come about?
Thank you sir. We have been doing sync licensing with VH1 for almost 2 years now, so they reached out to us for a custom job and we jumped on it.
Nice! Were you competing with other people? Or did they ask you guys specifically?
It was an exclusive job from the beginning, which was nice.
Did it pay pretty well?
That’s a tricky question to answer. Compared to what I’m used to, yes, but in the context of what’s available in the custom music licensing world it was on the lower end of the pay scale.
Is it even possible to negotiate in that type of situation? Or is it generally “take it or leave it”?
VH1 was great to work with, actually, and they were open to negotiations from the very beginning. All in all it was a great experience for us.
That’s good to hear. Do you think this song will lead to more music from Moxie Black?
It’s definitely a possibility. ILLA and I have definitely used this opportunity to work out our differences and have both come to realize that we have a lot of respect for each other.
Sounds like you guys have a good opportunity for success together. How have things been going with your other group, Shadows on Stars?
Things are great with SOS. We have started demoing new songs and are planning to begin recording for a new album sometime this fall.
Do you have a home waiting for it? Or do you think you will be shopping it around?
No, at the moment we are still independent and are planning on staying that way. That being said, we are in search of finance for the next record, which can either come from a label or independent sponsor. We’d prefer the latter because we have so many things in place for the band as is.
Seems like a lot of things you’ve been working on are starting to blossom?
It’s hard to say. I mean, we are definitely opening more and more doors with every release, however we still have a lot of major steps to make before we’re able to accomplish our big picture goals.
Have you been working on anything outside of Moxie Black and SOS?
No sir. In fact, outside of this theme song I haven’t really worked on Moxie Black since 2010.
My primary focus is SOS.
How do you feel the about the outcome of the first album?
We’re really proud of the success thus far. We’ve gotten great press and started developing a core fan base. Not to mention the fact that we’ve gained the interest from some really exciting people/companies that we plan on sharing over the next year.
Nice. We’ll be looking out for that. The album was really good. Back to Big Ang, did you watch the premiere?
Sad story, no. At the moment, well for the last 5 years really, I haven’t been able to afford cable, so I was unable to catch the show. I plan on going to a friend’s house sometime and catching it on demand or something.
That means you are going to miss the finale of True Blood tonight?
What? It’s not the finale!! And no, I won’t miss that…. We have convinced a friend of ours to let us use their HBO Go account so we say up to date on TB.
*stay
clearly I meant stay
fuck
I fucked up the interview
I’m pretty sure it is the season finale. (Last night’s episode was definitely not the season finale.) And nobody will ever know! But I do kind of want to leave it though.
Leave that shit. Let’s get real. YOLO! AMEN! CHUUUUCH!
CHOLO! Haha, any final thoughts?
Why are they called English Muffins? Doesn’t make sense, and they don’t really seem like muffins to me.
And why are they called English Accents?
RIGHT! They’re not accents! The fucking language came from England yo!
Finally someone who gets it! They are just speaking properly.
Also, hot dogs don’t look like dogs at all. Or dogs don’t really look like hot dogs. Chicken/egg type of thing I guess.
Truth. Lets get to the real shit. Are you going to watch RZA’s movie?
RZA has a movie? Hahaha! Guess thats a “maybe”. Is it a remake of Jerry Maguire?
No, It’s called Man With The Iron Fists and Russell Crowe is in it.
Ahh
Here’s the link >> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=II9q8Q5wE0Y
Sure I’ll watch it. Hopefully R. Crowe gets naked
I hope RZA says “In particular my beats travel like a vortex, through your spine to the top of your cerebral cortex” a lot. At least 20 times in the movie
Haha! I hope they force R. Crowe to rock Wu-Wear
My brain just exploded. I hope this movie is a comeback for Wu-Wear. I hope Russel Crowe wears Wu-Wear to the Oscars
HAHAHA!! And Luggz
Obvi. Any final final thoughts?
Thanks for taking the time to talk man, I really appreciate WOHM and your consistent support of our aspirations. You guys hold it down for the NW!