People Under The Stairs (also known in some circles as ‘PUTS’) have been releasing quality independent hip hop since 1998. Based in Los Angeles, the duo of Thes One and Double K have proved themselves a formidable team when it comes to creating laidback, good-time hip hop tunes. They were most recently in Australia during the New Year period, on a tour that saw them widening their downunder fanbase substantially, and they’ve also just released a brand new LP.
According to the ITM review, the new PUTS release Fun DMC poses an important question. “Where’s the fun gone from hip hop? This album, seemingly, is an effort to redress this inequality. Sharing the production credits, Double K and Thes One both rap with the former pitching in with the scratching, along with the mysterious role of ‘Soul Organiser’, which would be funny except he seems to have done a good job.” To makr the release of the album, ITM catches up with People Under the Stairsto find out more about their mission of bringing back the fun.
How would you describe the sound on the new album, is it similar to the chilled out style we’ve heard before?
Definitely a similar style, but we’ve tried some new ideas with the actual recording process. We wanted to capture a live sound, and backyard atmosphere. We started out in the studio laying down the beats, then built up a soundsystem and played live at a series of backyard BBQs.
So you actually hear people partying in the background?
Yeah, that’s part of it, getting that live atmosphere.
Are you addressing any particular issues in the new album?
We’ve never really been a political group, and we really wanted to just keep it fun. There’s so much shit going on over here, we’re really in dire times, so really we want to provide a break from all that. I think there’s an intentional lack of political and economic influence.
I really appreciate the production quality on your records, are you still responsible for most of that these days?
Yeah, I contribute about 70 per cent on the beats, I usually start them off, then Double K comes in to help edit them and tune them up. We go through many transformations before we reach the final cuts.
What kind of setup are you using?
I’m still just using the MPC 3000 and a turntable. It’s amazing how much you can do with just that one machine, I’ve been using it primarily for fourteen years. I’ve gotten so I really know my way around it.
Are you sourcing sounds from a particular area, or all over the place?
Sounds from everywhere, whatever lends to the vibe. We’ve done a song called The Wiz, all about how much we love Australia. So for that we used only samples from Australian music. We did a dope video for it as well, it’s up on YouTube if you want to check it out [check it out at the bottom of this feature]. We shot it when we toured Australia the last time. We just find everyone so good over there, even people on the street and whatnot. We’ve just had really great experiences over there, and we wanted to show you guys we appreciate it.
You guys have stuck to independent labels throughout your career- have you found that gives you the most freedom to explore your ideas?
Definitely. Those guys at major labels put money before everything, and only want to try to stay millionaires or whatever. We want to put music first, and really focus on that as our goal. We still want to sell albums of course, but we gotta make the music first.
How’s the live show going. Are you still doing it all the two of you?
Yeah it’s the two of us doing everything, which keeps it tight. We’re on the last week of a US tour, we’ve done like fifty dates, it’s been a bit crazy. We’ve been trying out some of the new songs, and it’s been great.
How do you find the scene when you come over here?
It’s dope – it’s inspiring cause people put the music first and really get into it. At shows people might just wander in off the street to check it out, and genuinely get into what we’re doing and show appreciation. They don’t care if you’re on MTV, or whatever, they just recognise something and go for it.
So will we see you here soon?
Hopefully! We really want to get back there, you know we really want to do Big Day Out. We’ll give you guys the best show we can, that’s one festival we’d love to do. One way or another we’ll be back as soon as we can!
The People Under the Stairs’ new album Fun MC is out now in Australia through Inerta. Check out their ode to downunder below…
