| Refusing to embody the sometimes shallow aspects of teenage musical impulses, five young hip-hop visionaries of Calgary – collectively known as Jonny Sootentai – have reshaped their record label into a launching machine for more mature and complex local contents.
The new name for the label is Olive Hour – a homophone to "all of our" and a tribute to clear sailing moments with martinis in hand. Between happy hours and sleep, the boys are working hard in the basement studio of their co-owned home, where sober talent and raw energy are squeezed from all sorts of instruments, and samples mash into unpredictable sounds. Jonny Sootentai is cultivating the products of their individual talents, and with at least six projects currently on the go, Olive Hour could be the most happening thing in Calgary's hip-hop scene.
"I think that business-wise, we are the most together and have the most going on," says Lingo of Jonny Sootentai and Olive Hour. "We have the experience and now we're just setting up the proper infrastructure for the city's scene."
As experimental rappers and producers themselves, the members of Jonny Sootentai are comfortable with new challenges that come with a new label. Dealing with Canadian talents ranging from the 15-year-old hip-hop prodigy Virtue to the ever eccentric rapper Alter One, Olive Hour looks for several traits in their artists – honesty, aptitude and character. Being able to regurgitate tedious sequences of rhyming words over a drum loop doesn't quite cut it, but the greatest crime, according to the label's executives, is being pretentious.
"We are the kind of real rappers who know where we're from," says Lexington. "We're from Calgary. We're not afraid to pronounce our Rs because we're down with who we are. We aren't going to put on a phony American rap accent. Olive Hour's music is meant to cross over that status quo."
"The scene seems very divided at the moment," says Lingo. "A lot of Calgary guys are still stuck in the golden era of hip hop. We're not trying to be Brooklyn rappers. It's 2005 and the only people who come to your show are white kids – sometimes with tight pants and a faux hawk."
Olive Hour's members are currently occupied with the productions of several albums. Aptitude, Phasma and Lingo (all members of Jonny Sootentai) will individually put out solo records and Lexington and Whatevski (formerly known as Gumshoe the Friendly Neighbour) are also collaborating under the name Overit. On top of diverging projects that embrace everything from Nine Inch Nails-influenced industrial music to organic creole instrumentation, Olive Hour will also produce the upcoming Virtue, Planit and Alter One albums.
"The amount of talent we get to work with is so great," Lexington says. "Olive Hour will embody everything that is best in Calgary. We all have our own affiliates; we're all involved in different crews."
The guys from Olive Hour also serve happily as relaxed and humble motivational speakers for underground artists. Letting out-of-town performers crash at their house for free is just one of the many brotherly acts that come with the friendly nature of the label. Uplifting the morales of struggling artists can help recharge local talents, and so Olive Hour sustains the cycle of musical inspiration and fatigue through confident trust and encouragement.
"Money is not the main issue when you're an underground artist," Whatevski says. "Promotion is most important and we respect underground artists who have come to terms with the fact."
"We know there are rappers in Calgary who are trying to get paid $500 for a show," Lexington says. "We know that this isn't reality for underground artists like us."
Profit aside, Olive Hour’s main goal is to genuinely contribute to music – period. The days of demeaning East-versus-West lyricism and poser bling bling, hip-hop should give way to something more meaningful as long as the unconventional samples, well-crafted words and quality production allow it.
Following in the footsteps of other successful Canadian underground labels like Peanuts and Corn and Low Pressure, Olive Hour aspires to be a studio of high calibre.
"We aren't trying to shoot out as many albums as possible," Lexington says. "Each and every production will be slaved over." |
Copyright ©2005 FFWD. All rights reserved.