Artist Interview #2- Joshua Xernandez
We sent over a list of questions to one of our favorite lyrical threaders. Josh has a unique sound and perspective on life, and we just had to dive deeper into the intellect.
Lyrical, miracle, spherical, empirical; who’s your favorite lyrical or conscious rapper? Well, let me rephrase that. Who’s your favorite alive, and who’s your favorite legend? Dead or a live Lupe is my lyrical spiritual daddy, buuuuuuut when I first heard Immortal Technique as a high schooler i had a mfucking revelation. If I am being real Immortal can't really rap with the same level of technique as Lupe or really a lot of rappers, but honestly that isn't always the point. I never had and still have never heard anyone take these super complex mechanisms that capitalism and racism and all the ism's created and break them down into a hip-hop song that not only captured the complexity of the subject matter but also was fucking fun and engaging to listen to. Even had the republican dudes saying "bin laden didn't blow up the projects" lol. s/o the homie Matt Swarbrick hope you aren't full blown MAGA at this point. but yeah, immortal technique and lupe honestly shaped the foundations of what I want to say and how I want to say it. If I had to choose? Lupe teaches rap at MIT so I gotta go with him.
If you could pick any producer to make your beats, who would it be and why? Alchemist wishes he could make beats as effortlessly as my homie Shahin (@shah.beatz btw follow him)
In a fight to the death; Mr. T or Mr. Satan? It's obviously Mr. Satan. Homeboy lives in a world where humans are strong enough to shoot energy beams that can hurt gods fool. Mr. T is only winning if he has the whole ass a-team AND they are carrying pipes. Mr. Satan is a world champion, he no-diffs Mr. T 1v1.
Ok, enough of the shenanigans, tell us about you. Where are you from? When was the first time you remember writing a rhyme? Are you normal, or do you have an extra toe on each foot? I was born in the Great Plains of Lubbock, Texas and my parents promptly got me the hell out and into Austin when I was but a wee lass. I was lucky lucky to have parents who cared about education and a mother who was a teacher who taught me the joy of learning. I was also lucky to have some fire ass teachers who encouraged me to think and explore and create. If you listen to my songs you might hear some bars where I name drop some of em. Funny enough my worst teacher is the one who's class it was I remember writing my first bars. In 5th grade we had a poetry project where we had to write all the different types of poems and topics and one of the requirements was we had to write a poem about a classmate. So for a "shape poem" I had this classmate who's last name was borrero so I wrote about how she wore a sombrero and I made the poem look like, well, a sombrero. Honestly pretty fire for a 5th grader imho. Teacher gave me an A on that project and, even though I loathed her existence (and she mine) I hope she's good now. I didn't really start WRITING WRITING though until high school. The homies and I were trying to get signed by HOV, we wanted that Roc-A-Fella chain bro. Making music wasn't nearly as accessible as it is now so I put a pin in that and just did the whole college athlete thing and just did freestyles at parties to impress girls. It usually only impressed the bros tho not gonna lie. I took a LOOOOOOONG ass hiatus from writing to focus on coaching soccer until I reconnected with the homie Shahin in 2018 and we goofed for a bit but 2020 lockdown really unleashed the creative mutant gene in everybody so I tapped into that energy and started trying to make stuff in earnest and now here we are baby. As far as being normal goes, what even is normal ya feel me? I got a dope as red birthmark that covers my left palm and shoulder. I played saxophone in middle school. Imma Leo (dm if you want my full astrological chart). I probably need therapy but writing down what I want to say and recording it is cheaper. I'm not playing a character, this is me and I mean every single word.
What do you have going on now? Any new projects we should know about? Right now I'm trying to balance keeping a toddler alive, helping care for a 90 year old grandma with dementia, a new boring ass administrative job in the arts, doomposting, and sanity. Occasionally I have moments to breath and in those moments I'm trying to churn out as much as I can. I just released a my "vicious" freestyle on a Shahin Moezzi beat earlier this month that you have so graciously been putting on your playlist which obviously everyone should check out. That was put out in anticipation of a lil 3 piece combo I got coming out on the 26th called "songs from a warm austin winter" and that's gonna be followed by another lil 3 piece called "songs from a cold austin winter." I've also got a series of experimental recordings I made early during the lockdown that Imma put out. Possibly in between those releases. I'm just trying to enjoy the ride on this creative wave that everyone is on as long as I can.
Do you like to perform, or are you more of a studio musician? I'm one of those freaks that loves public speaking. I sincerely enjoy putting on for a crowd. I dream of being able to spew my unfiltered thoughts onto a captive audience. That said, I haven't gotten to a point where I feel entirely comfortable performing the stuff I'm doing right now the way I want to perform it. So I'm still cooking that up in the studio. My mirror has seem some killer rehearsals though.
Last one, you can either gain the ability to freeze time, freeze people or objects, or freeze every non-ethical billionaire’s accounts? Which one are you choosing? Freezing time or people is WAAAAAAAAY too much power. I don't want that kind of control. Let the universe control itself. I been reading Albert Camus a lot recently and his work has really taught me to appreciate the how chaotic and uncontrollable living as a human is. I would most def go mad with power and end up in isolation on some midas touch shit with either of those powers. So for me, the answer is to freeze the accounts of all non-ethical billionaires, and since there is no such thing as a non-ethical billionaire.... Easy choice. Shit let me redistribute the wealth too and we have world peace.
Check out Josh’s music here:
https://open.spotify.com/artist/4n8AjR6kzSKGlr77vKbQhS?si=Ej7TC3_8T3uoKafJ6Gmmzg
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