Oregon Music News

When Serious Business announced that their “long-awaited debut album” would be ready for release on December 8th, plenty of party-going Portlanders likely declared: “It’s about damn time!”

Since their inception three years ago, it seems like the team of Jason Mampel and Danny Diana-Peebles has consistently been somewhere in the process of creating an album.  After several demos, some scrapped attempts, and countless live shows, the rapping duo of electro-hop nerds have been working in earnest on fresh material, which can finally be heard on their debut Kool, for more than a year.

Known their silly, energetic, and erotic performances, Serious Business finally feels they have a recording that represents their talent while exploring their comical, geeky personalities through the magnifying glass of hip-hop.  Co-produced by Karl Kling (RAC) in his NE Portland home studio, Kool, which will be a released as a free digital download on Futro Records, is also chock-full of Futro collabs from artists like Winston Lane, Stacy Peltier (Starlight & Magic), and C Bag (Sistafist).

Listen to three of the new album’s tracks below plus the demo classic “Hot Damn”:

After ample time honing their live style, the rascally sarcastic rappers always look forward to throwing a good party so let Serious Business host a free show at Holocene on Thursday, December 8th with Atole, VTRN, A Gentleman’s Picnic, and DJ Winston Lane in honor of Kool.

This record has been quite a while in the works… how long exactly?

We started writing the album in October of 2010.

What took so long?

Prior to this album, we had written and self-recorded over 15 songs. There were several attempts at recording those songs and turning them into a record, but every attempt failed in some way. It became so frustrating that by the time we stumbled into working with Karl Kling, we wanted to do something fresh to represent our growth as a band. We wanted to focus on our songwriting and production, since we had only focused on live material previously. Our process involved a lot of back and forth between Karl and us. We’d record bits and pieces and then assess what we liked and didn’t like. We didn’t want to rush the writing process even though we knew we’d been around for quite a while without a record. We wanted to make something we were really proud of.

Kool album art

You’ve stated that Kool is “ultimately about achieving self-acceptance and confidence.” What’s the significance behind the title?

There is a lot of significance behind the title. Kool with a K is our metaphor for creating your own “cool.” We play into a lot of hip-hop stereotypes on this album, but we’re boasting about things like wearing bow ties and playing Sonic the Hedgehog instead of having money and fast cars. Everything we brag about is true. We’re proud of our nerd, eccentric personalities. Hip-hop is filled with arrogance and confidence. It’s about being big and boastful. With Kool, we’re saying, “Hey, we’re the most confident nerds you’ll ever meet.”

The sonic quality of the album is vastly improved. The beats and production also seem more complex than past SB tracks. Do we have Karl Kling to thank for that?

It was a team effort. Karl did a great job at recording and producing the album and we honed in on refining ourselves and these songs. We were working with a concept, so everything had to fit musically and metaphorically. Karl was great at problem solving. He’d help us get through all the parts we couldn’t figure out ourselves.

Anyone else help you out along the way that you’d like to acknowledge?

Our moms.

Tell me about the vocal collaborators you have on the album.

All the collaborators on our album are part of our Futro Records family and artists we’ve worked with before. In one way or another we found the perfect place for each of them on the record. We needed some smooth style to offset our nerdiness on “Goldy Fresh” so Winston Lane was our first choice. He has been rapping and producing beats for over a decade and Danny uses a lot of his beats for his solo rap. One of the ideas behind our song “NSFW” was to have a hook that we didn’t deliver ourselves. Stacy Peltier, who sings in local band Starlight & Magic, has the perfect sultry swag we wanted. C-Bag, who is one of the lady lyricists of Sistafist, helped us bring “Cheap Clothes” to life. She delivers those dirty sex raps we love, but on this one we got her sentimental side. They were all so much fun to work with.

Now, the album is only seven songs long. What about all the old songs that didn’t make the cut?!

We love those songs, but we wanted to write an album that was one idea. Our previous material is all over the place. Don’t be scared you’ll never hear our old material again! In fact, we’re currently talking about recording a studio version of “Hot Damn” and releasing an EP with more songs in that vein.

Will we still be able to hear some Serious Business classics as part of your live set?

Definitely. “Freezer Burn” and “Hot Damn,” those tracks are gold. But we will be playing some previously retired material for this show.

Tell me about your involvement with Futro Records and what’s happening there.

Basically Futro is a Portland-based collective of artists, musicians, photographers and videographers coming together to collaborate and support each other. Our first release was a compilation featuring the entire initial roster that was put out on a USB flash card. Other than that, we’ve released a Neo G Yo EP (Danny’s solo project, which is also recorded by Karl Kling), and a spit single featuring new tracks by Yum Yum and HAR-1. Kool will be the fourth proper release for the label with a Yum Yum debut and Winston Lane instrumental album to follow soon after in 2012. We also have many video and art projects in the works.

Why have you decided to release the album for free online?

We’re releasing it as a free digital album so we can share it with as many people as possible. We’ve had so many people supporting us for an incredibly long time, the least we can do is give them a free record.

But I hear there will be some copies on CD and other goodies available at your release show…

We will have limited edition CDs of the album for sale at the show as well as “Party Packs,” which include a T-shirt, necklace and other goodies.

What else special do you have planned for the release show?

Oh man, we have so much in store. We’ve been working with our live projectionist, Alex Boyce, for quite a while now and he’s become really skilled. It’s been great to watch him evolve. He’s constantly inventing new gear and has an infectious passion for doing so. For this show, we’ve collaborated with him a lot more in-depth. We’ve also got Yum Yum doing a saxophone solo and Winston Lane and C Bag performing with us. We’ve also got a few other surprises.

Anything else notable coming up?

We have a video or two in the works and some more fun collaborations. We’re really looking forward to doing our first tour now that we have a proper release. We’ve also both started production on solo albums.

Celebrate the release of Serious Business’ Kool and pick up your own physical copy at Holocene on Thursday, December 8th with Atole, VTRN, A Gentleman’s Picnic, and DJ Winston Lane.  Music starts at 8:30pm, free, 21+, RSVP here.