Tribe Society have been hard at work already this year, shaking things up with their sonic blend of rock, industrial and hip-hop with two mixtapes already out and an EP planned for later this year. We Sell Drugs and their more recently release, 27 showcases different sides of the band. While We Sell Drugs draws influence from hip-hop, 27 honors the artists that died too soon with covers of seven musically diverse late musicians.
Read what Tribe Society had to say about their recent releases and plans for the future below, and pick up both 27 and We Sell Drugs now!
Interview by Shannon Shumaker
Can you tell us a little bit about Tribe Society for any readers who might not be familiar?
We’re 4 guys who met in college and we all live together and record out of our NYC studio/apartment where we live. We’re really into writing songs and have our own style of production. We also have our unicorn, Seth, who plays flute and has a gang of children following him wherever he goes.
It has already been a pretty busy year for you, with the release of your new mixtape, We Sell Drugs, followed shortly by your cover mixtape, 27! What have been some of your favorite parts about working on these releases?’
Both these releases have been from the past 2 years of writing and recording after leaving a major record label. We’ve done a lot of experimenting with recording techniques and songwriting approaches, which has been a blast now that we’re an independent band again.
Did you have any goals in mind when you were working on We Sell Drugs?
We were working on a new sound that draws influence from a lot of hip-hop but also sounds like a band. Lyrically it’s pretty dark which pretty much reflects the struggle we go through in life.
What would you like listeners to be able to take away from the album?
There are a lot of deep emotions and sounds in WSD and if you want to delve deeply into these songs and their meaning, it has the depth to offer.
27 features your covers of songs by artists who died too young. What inspired you to create this release?
We just thought it was cool that society creates a mystique around the concept so we thought it’d be interesting to take some of the songs and make them in our style.
How have these artists inspired you to this day?
A lot of the artists in the 27 club inspired us to create music in the first place. It is an eerie coincidence that they all left us so soon… Or is it?
Were there any songs you were excited to cover?
“Heart-Shaped Box” was probably the most fun to record. Hearing Kurt’s hooky guitar riffs played by a flute is just a flip that we hadn’t heard before.
What is the rest of 2017 looking like?
We have been recording an EP these past few weeks that we plan on putting out in mid summer. Really excited about how it’s been sounding. It’s a bit more stripped down than a lot of our previous material with more emphasis on performances behind instruments than production.
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