I had heard Menya before when I was living in NYC, so I was really excited when I found out they were playing the Blue Nile in Harrisonburg.  I had met Good Goose before through a mutual friend and I got in touch with him to set up a "brief" interview with the band, which turned out to be upwards of forty minutes with all the random digressions.  After a bit of searching, my photographer Sherry Morris and I met with the band upstairs at the Blue Nile for pre-game drinks.  Sherry and I grilled them on every aspect of being in the band and here is the readable edit.  The cast of characters:  Good Goose (the dj), Coco Dame (the rapper), Angie Ripe (the singer), and Me (Magazine 33). 

 

33: So you guys are based in Manhattan, right?

GG: I live in Brooklyn. 

AR:  We live in Manhattan

CD: O yea, I guess we would technically be Brooklyn-based because that's where we record and practice.

 

33:  Ok, so, NYC, Brooklyn/Manhattan, either one.  And how did you all meet?

GG:  Well, we all go to NYU together.  Well, [Coco Dame] graduated, but we all met our freshman year. 

AR:  Yea, me and [Good Goose] are still in the Clive Davis Dept. of Recorded Music.

33:  O really?  Cool.

AR:  Its like the school of rock at NYU.  So that's where we all met. 

 

33:  How did this whole group start? 

GG:  Essentially, [Coco Dame] and I were in a country band . . .

33: O really?!?

GG:  Yea, and that kind of like, dissolved out, and we ended up going to a bunch of shows during CMJ.  *("College Music Journal" holds their annual music festival in NYC.)*   We saw Spank Rock, MIA, The Cool Kids, a whole bunch of other people, and I had made beats a few years ago.  I used to be all about it, but I hadn't done it in a while, and so I decided to retry it.  So [Coco Dame] and I got together.  She hadn't really rapped before, but I heard her do a few things at parties and stuff so we got together and just made out a few demos and those demos became the first EP.  Eventually we tried to make a huge live band and that fell apart. . .

AR:  . . . seven people . . .

GG:  Yea, it was seven people, and that fell apart.  And [Angie Ripe] is the only one left of that. 

AR:  Yea, I sang on one of the songs from the first EP. 

GG:  The first EP was [Coco Dame] and I sitting in my dorm room in Carlisle Court, I don't know if you are familiar with NYU . . .

33:  Yea, I know Carlisle very well. 

GG:  I forget which tower it was . . . C2 I believe . . . C2 - 10B.

 

33:  So you're saying that that entire EP was recorded in a dorm room? 

GG:  Um, most . . . actually I guess about half of it.  The other half of it was recorded in a classroom at our department.  So I guess half and half. 

33:  So, you guys record in [Good Goose's] apartment in Brooklyn now? 

GG:  Mhmm, yep.  We do. 

AR:  We record in bedrooms . . .

33:  That's awesome.  I mean, it sounds so good. 

(waitress comes in)

 

33:  So, how about the actual music, the writing?  Is it like a collaborative effort? 

CD & AR in unison:  Mhmm

 

33:  So you all sit down in one room and just knock it out? 

GG:  Usually I'll have a beat or something and then I'll give it to them and then they'll record something over it and then I'll kind of like twist it back up and remix that.  That'll usually be what people hear, is like the remix of what they originally recorded. 

 

33:  So, now, here's the question . . . What do you guys consider yourself?  Like genre-wise. 

AR:  um . . . I guess we'd be uh . . . [long pause] . . .  Hip-hop? . . . like Hip-hop-pop?

GG:  I think of it just like sort of a pop grab bag.  Like if it's in the top 40, we take a little bit of it. 

 

33:  So with your rather profane/provocative lyrics, does that take away from certain shows you might be able to get? 

AR:  I don't think it takes away . . . 

GG:  Well, first off . . . we have like a catalogue of like 24 released songs and only like 4 or 5 of them are really that obscene, its just people focus on them because its the more attention grabbing lyrics.  But, you know, we've played shows where there's no cursing at all before. 

33:  O really?!?

GG:  Yea we played a Macy's once.  We can do a completely clean set . . .

CD: . . . but its not as fun . . .

[laughter]

AR:  We like bad words . . .

GG:  We all like club music a lot and its just kind of a part of club music and its a big influence to us. 

 

33:  Have you ever like, tried to get some of those edited ones on the air-ways?  Like college stations?

GG:  Yea, we've got some plays on various stations.  We actually did a live performance at WFMU in Jersey City a while back. 

CD:  And then we do college radio . . .

GG:  Yea, we've gotten college radio spins . . .

AR:  Penn State . . .

GG:  Yea, we did an interview at Penn State a couple of weeks ago, right before the first frat party I ever went to. 

[mixture of laughs and groans]

CD:  A lot of internet radio gets us a lot more . . . well, since they have more freedom . . .

33:  Right, without the FCC and all . . .

 

33:  So you guys have, what, three EPs out now? 

GG:  Two EPs and a "mix-tape."  The mix-tape is really just an album. 

AR:  But it has like, dj breaks.

 

33: And then they can find them on iTunes? 

GG:  The EPs are on iTunes and the free one, you can go to myspace. 

CD:  Its menya.bandcamp.com.  So its like a bandcamp website, its like a service thing . . .

 

33:  How many tours have you gone on so far? 

GG:  Well, we've never done anything long term . . .

AR:  We just constantly go out of town on the weekend. 

 

33:  Well, I know you've been in Virginia at least once before, right?   

GG:  Yea, we play Richmond a lot. 

AR:  Yea, we have a good time in Richmond.  They like all the dirty songs. 

CD:  Maryland a little bit. 

GG:  Yea Maryland's really fun, Baltimore, stuff like that. 

AR:  But New York is always the biggest. 

GG:  Yea we're doing our first like real, REAL tour in March.  We're going down to Miami.  Spring Break . . .

 . . . Three of the seven dates are in Virginia.  You know where our heart lies. 

33:  That's great.  Thanks so much. 

-----------------------------------------

Stay tuned for Part 2 - The After Party, When We All Got Down.

By Author: Adam Price

Born into a musical family in middle-of-nowhere Pennsylvania, Adam began to actively pursue a career in music after he heard a high school pep band in fourth grade.   He began studying classical clarinet, but quickly discovered his passion for jazz, and adopted the saxophone as his love.  He has been blessed to pursue his art in the cultural hubs of New York City and Florence, Italy.  Currently residing in Harrisonburg, Virginia, Adam continues to play jazz and classical gigs as a freelance musician as well as break out the keyboard for the occasional rock or indie project.  When he is not playing music, Adam enjoys hanging with friends and family, traveling, and exploring good food, drink, and the culinary arts. 

 

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