RESPECT. Interview: Marc E. Bassy on the Moment (PT. 2)

In this part of the interview, Marc and I speak about life in the hills, writing songs about girls and his three biggest pieces of life philosophy.

If you have not yet checked out part 1 of my interview with Marc, you can read that here.

RESPECT.: You also seem to paint a pretty vivid picture with your East Hollywood EP, is that how you would describe your day to day life in the hills? Because it felt really natural.

Marc: In reality, my life is pretty crazy because I’m pretty sick of all this Hollywood sh*t but I’m not living in a mansion on top of the hill, but I’m in there. And what comes with that day to day is a struggle because I believe in my talent and I know a lot of my peers do. (I’m around) people who are really successful on a day to day basis, and I’m kind of becoming a part of it. I’ve been on tour for a month, and that month FLIES by. A lot of this sh*t is not normal. I’m on tour with G-Eazy, and it’s funny because G-Eazy has this song called “Sad Boy.” It’s funny because it’s so easy to be like “f**k all these rappers crying about how their life is filled with hotel rooms with sexy women and alcohol.” But I can tell you from being around it, and just from being in Hollywood in general, that there is some truth to it. When you’re actually doing sh*t that you dreamed about, on a daily basis and you realize that wow, some of this lifestyle bullsh*t is actually not fulfilling. It kind of changes your whole perspective, so you’re like, “Wow, so what am I going to do that makes every day worth it? Because it’s not going to be partying.” But for a lot people, they work all week to get to the party. That’s easier, you know? And then they have a family or whatever. And for me, it’s interesting to see, to change my perspective and find what really fulfills me. Playing music live is definitely one of those things so it’s a blessing to be on the road and to be doing all that.

RESPECT.: I think that people like to diminish other people’s struggles and they don’t know. Especially when this has been your dream for your whole life and you imagined it being a certain way but certain parts of it aren’t what you thought, like the women or the parties. You probably imagined that coming with the success in music, but you don’t know who you can trust really and you don’t find real sh*t around all the time.

Marc: I’m usually one of those people that is like, “F**k all that! There is nothing to complain about, like nothing could be better.” And obviously I’m not Kanye West. I don’t know what it really feels like to make an album in a hotel in Paris, but I will soon. But I do think that it’s been a learning curve and the further I get I’m starting to understand the struggle of what it really means to be a full-time artist. You’ve got to keep making hot sh*t too ya know? You can’t fake good music and you have to feel and be in touch with whatever’s real around you. And that’s hard too because people don’t really do that in real life. People try to avoid their problems as much as they can but as a song-writer, you’ve really got to just dig in there on a daily basis, which is kind of interesting too.

RESPECT.: Well you have that line that I really like, which seems to relate to what you’ve been saying, “come get one top, I need something to look up to.” * laughs * It seems like that kind of represents your life right now, where sometimes you just need inspiration, or you just need something real in the craziness of it all.

Marc: * laughs * Yeah, it’s funny because I always painted this picture of myself as being that guy and now it’s kind of coming true. There is definitely a lot of that. That’s probably the best song that sort of describes my day to day life that I’ve made so far.

RESPECT.: It’s one of my favorites. I think it really paints a picture. So, do you believe in the law of attraction a lot?

Marc: Yeah man, I believe in the law of attraction. It makes sense to me.

I then asked him about a line on his song “40 Water” where he says, “I’ve been this way since the delivery room.” I thought he meant he worked at a UPS store or something but then as soon as he told me, I put it together. The delivery room, as in where babies are born, as in since forever. He did say that he worked as a stock boy at Banana Republic though, so at least it sort of related to my thought… After that embarrassing moment I asked him if he always knew that he would be doing music and what he was doing right now.

Marc: You know what? I kind of did. I definitely always knew that I wanted to have a voice. I didn’t know that it was going to be singing, I never really cared about singing, but I was doing poetry slams when I was like an early teenager; like twelve, thirteen, fourteen, and I never felt comfortable being like a “rapper” because I don’t know, I’m very sensitive about appropriation and I don’t feel comfortable being a full-fledged white boy rapping. Especially because I’m a little older and that sh*t wasn’t cool when I was in high school unless you were like Eminem. But there was no frat boy rappers when I was in high school. That sh*t didn’t exist. I’m kind of from before that so I didn’t really know that it was going to be music, but I always loved music and I always loved just getting a chance of getting my voice heard. I have a really big family with a lot of complications in it and they, for better or for worse, always gave me a voice. Because there is so many people in it, every dinner, every Christmas or Thanksgiving, I had a chance to tell my people in my little community village how I felt and how I felt about how we were all operating together. And that was sort of my first platform, so it always felt natural to me to have an opinion and to get to share it. So I think it was always in there.

RESPECT.: Well it’s working out! What has been the most freeing song for you to write? I know you like to express yourself and feel like you have that voice, so was there a song where you really needed to get something off your chest and you felt just free about making it?

Marc: Yeah, honestly like every song. * laughs * There’s a new one I just did called “Wool” that I put out. That one was pretty good. I’ve been dealing with this certain situation and relationship and I was kind of stressed about it and I just did it. I wrote that in like 15 minutes or something. So that was probably the latest where I felt like, “Oh I had to get that off my chest. Now we don’t ever have to talk about that again” * laughs *

RESPECT.: * laughs * Well I felt some of that sh*t, with the commitment and not being sure. Do the girls every hit you up and be like, “Yo was that about me?”

Marc: Every time. I’m constantly snitching on myself. But everyone who takes the pledge with me kind of knows. And I’ve gotten better at expressing that to people, but when it comes to my music… music is the one constant in my life. And my family. That comes first to me. Not in like a d*ck head way, but if I have a song that’s in me I’m not going to bite my tongue for anybody. And I think people know that I won’t lie. I won’t just make some sh*t up to like seem cool. When she heard the song in that case, she could like refer to it. “It’s like in the song in the second verse, you said blah blah blah,” you know? But I try not to lie. I try to be honest.

RESPECT.: They probably respect it honestly. Speaking of how music is the most constant thing in your life, if you had to say three things that are most important to your life in terms of your life philosophy and your beliefs, what would they be?

Marc: I love believing in the people around me, and surrounding myself with people I see potential in. And sort of like growing as a community together. So that’s number one. You don’t really see me out here without my people. We live together, we work together, we eat together, we party together. My circle is really strong and it’s always been that way.

Number two, I’m definitely very much living in the moment as I’ve alluded to before. Whenever I’m feeling, I try to follow it.

I think that there are a lot of things to be learned, in places where you least expect it. And being from San Fransisco, it’s kind of one of those cities where you assume, “Oh I’m from San Fransisco, I know everything.” But in traveling, you kind of find out, that you could be in Detroit, and there is some old dude, and you’re thinking, “He couldn’t possibly know sh*t.” But he could be the one to give you that gem that you were looking for. So I’m pretty open to listening. And I have been really hard headed my whole life but my new thing is just to listen more. And there are stories everywhere, and wisdom everywhere. So I’m trying to find that.

RESPECT.: I’m definitely trying to take in some gems also from you so I feel that. Well the last thing I had written down here was that you are really inspired by books when you write a lot. Are you reading anything right now that is getting to you?

Marc: I just read that “Between the World and Me.” It’s a really good book about race, and I had read a few other things that I had referenced, but it was cool. At one of the shows his nephew was a fan, and gave me a signed copy. So that was dope. Obviously race is a big topic right now, and it’s sort of boiling over. We’re sort of at a weird point where it’s like, it can’t really be ignored anymore even though they try. So I’ve been brushing up on that.

RESPECT.: Word. Were the interludes on East Hollywood from a movie? Or Where did those come from?

Marc: They’re from a Charles Bukowski exerts. They’re from a little documentary from him. And then some are like poems, and there is one where it’s just a hippie girl from a Woodstock clip that I liked.

RESPECT.: Well it fit in really well. Alright man, well I’ll let you get out of here. I just wanted to say thank you. Thank you for the time, and I really appreciate it.

Marc: No man, anytime. I appreciate the support.

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