The Story of My EP
They don't make "VH1 Behind the Music" episodes about nobodies, but if they did, this would be the story they would tell about me (well, the first half, before I get disillusioned with the music industry, strung out on drugs and compete on one of those detox/weight loss competition shows). If you couldn't care less about back stories and just want the music, stop reading now and check back TOMORROW when I post the first song from my debut solo EP, "From Detroit to Darabougou."
After many years of writing rhymes, sometimes performing at open mics, and making lots of excuses to myself for not getting it together to record anything, I finally got serious about making music in the summer of 2008. I'd always wanted to perform with a live band, so along with my wife Monica Mae, I started a band called the Freematics. We played our first show in March of 2009, and by September we were opening for the legendary KRS-One (and I was thinking, "wow, this music stuff is easy"). However, around that time we also found out that we were losing our extremely talented guitarist to grad school at Dartmouth (my boy's wicked smaht!), so we quickly got into the studio to record what we had accomplished as songwriters up to that point. The result was a decent, if somewhat rushed and partially developed, album (my opinion, some people really liked it) that we released at the aforementioned KRS-One show. Surely, accolades and riches would follow!
Actually, what happened was that I was left with an album, but no band to promote it (our revolving door of bassists finally stopped revolving, only no one was in the doorway). Our drummer was in another band called the Square Boys, and for a while they all agreed to be my backing band, but schedules, distance, and the difficulty of finding good-paying gigs for a whole band that doesn't play covers and has about 10 songs and little time to write new ones proved too difficult to overcome.
At the same time, I had been sporadically working on a solo project with my friend, DJ Mike Dynasty. It was just something to do for fun, and a good excuse for the two of us to hang out and have a few beers from time to time. But after it became apparent that the band thing was not going to pan out, I began to get serious about finishing the tracks and adding more. I thought that I would combine Mike's tracks with some other tracks I was doing with my good friend Rich Heebner aka Alex Israel, but that project has turned into a full-length album that should be finished sometime in 2012 (pluggity plug plug).
Alas, Mike had entered a period of extreme busy-ness with a full-time job and starting his own production company, so he had little time to devote to finishing a project he had been working on for free. However, having been bitten by the bug of recording and performing, I decided I had to find a way to get some tracks together relatively quickly to get my solo "career" going while continuing to put in work on an album. So I started checking around Detroit to find someone to work with.
Enter Eddie Logix. I came across Eddie's work when I heard the Detroit Hustles Harder Vol. 1 compilation, and I was really impressed with the diversity of sounds and how he was able to produce songs for so many different kinds of artists. After reaching out to Eddie, a deal was worked out where Eddie would finish the tracks I'd started with Mike and I would use four of Eddie's beats to round out the project.
While all of this was happening musically, I was also collecting quite a few memorable experiences professionally. From 2006 to 2009, I worked for an organization called buildOn, which gets American high school students involved in local community service and also builds schools in developing countries. I led 5 trips of metro Detroit high school students to assist with building schools in Nicaragua and Mali, West Africa. This is where the EP's title, "From Detroit to Darabougou," comes from - Darabougou is the name of one of the villages in Mali where I helped build a school. Some of my experiences on these trips are alluded to on the EP. I also got married and had a baby girl within the past few years, but none of that is included on the record as it's not interesting (just kidding!)
So that's basically the story - but mostly, I just really enjoy making music and will continue to do so as long as I have the time, money and ability. Check back tomorrow for the first track streaming right here at mcwarrenpeace.com, and if you like what you hear, drop me a line - I can't wait to hear what others think of the songs that have been bouncing around in my head, some for as long as 5 years! Big thanks to Mike Dynasty and Eddie Logix for the production work, Monica Mae and Brandon Woodson for lending their voices to some of the tracks, Mark Sarmel for the artwork, and anyone else who has supported me on my musical journey up to this point.
Peace, Warren