{mosimage} Who is exactly is Louis Logic? He is more than just Sin-A-Matic, more than comedic tales of drunken debauchery and failed relationships, more than just a rapper—and as the die hard Lou fans grow older and mature with his music—that is all becoming clearer.
Who is Louis Logic? Throughout his illustrious career, Louis Logic has worn many faces as he journeyed through the ranks of the independent hip hop scene. He has been the tactless, inconsiderate, Bukowski-esque drunkard that delivered us the classic debut record entitled, “Sin-A-Matic,” he has ripped callous compositions with the likes of Apathy, Celph Titled, and Jedi Mind Tricks, and has also displayed the softer, self deprecating, and sensitive side to his loyal fan base.
Whether it be behind a keyboard serenading straight from his soul, or in front of J.J. Brown, captivating crowds with a cocky, yet charming, cadence—Louis Logic is a rare and unique master of ceremonies.
With a humble, vintage-t draped swagger, Louis embodies that “it factor” that only few are blessed with. On stage he owns the crowd with minimal banter. The signature ‘fro swaying like blades of grass blasted by a bout of breeze, as his head swivels on every lyric. On every recording—he delivers. Louis has been one of the most consistent hip hop artists of the last decade, and continues to transmit sonic beauty to all that lend their ear.
Who is exactly is Louis Logic? He is more than just Sin-A-Matic, more than comedic tales of drunken debauchery and failed relationships, more than just a rapper—and as the die hard Lou fans grow older and mature with his music—that is all becoming clearer.
In a special impromptu conversation with HipHopRemix, Louis Dorley takes off the Louis Logic mask and reveals his “c-side”—the one we don’t hear through our speakers or see on stage. Lou sits down with Wreck Loose and talks about his maturation in music, his latest projects, what “Kiss Her Stupid” is, his dissatisfaction with urban music, his “major” break, and his strong feelings about homophobia in hip hop, and music in general.
Wreck HHR: What’s good in the life of Louis Logic?
Louis Logic: I’ve just been rehearsing like a lunatic for an up-coming show I have at the Knitting Factory in New York. This will be the first show I ever have where I get to play a real piano. For half of the set I will be on a baby grand—so half the set on piano and the other half with JJ (Brown). As I move forward I’m hoping that I can develop a separate career from playing the piano, rapping, and singing and eventually take them apart from one another.
I don’t have enough piano material to play a whole set, but I am still learning and getting better. It’s been a year and a half and my improvement has been really dramatic because I dedicate a lot of time to it. So, I’m hoping over the course of the next year or so I will have learned enough and shown enough improvement to be able to carry an entire set on piano.
I have been working on the first songs for all piano and vocal release. ..
Wreck HHR: I read in a blog that you were thinking about going into another direction with your music, you are anticipating acquiring a new fan base, and might lose a chunk of your current fan base—is the piano/vocal direction what you were talking about in that blog?
Louis Logic: I guess we’ll see what happens with it. At this point, its not that I won’t make anymore rap records it’s just that I’m not really excited to do it right now. My current situation from a business standpoint doesn’t necessarily make me want to do more. I feel that JJ and I have made records that were greater than the size of their appreciation. I’m not bitter about it. I am really proud of what we were able to accomplish. I have lived off music for years, bought a house—I just always thought that we were a lot more polished, catchy, and commercial friendly than you garden variety ‘underground rapper.’
Wreck HHR: Especially with the ‘Misery Loves Comedy’ album…
Louis Logic: Well, thank you. I’ll chalk that one up in the compliment column. I thought it should have been a bigger record than it was. I thought it might have done something for us like Norah Jones’ album did—where she started out on Blue Note and got picked up and turned into a pop record when it was intended to be a jazz vocalist record. I thought that might happen to us with the ‘Misery Loves Comedy’ album. I thought we had made something that was hybrid and catchy enough that it could be re-packaged and sold to kids who like rock and indie rock and ultimately the same kind of audience that bought the Gnarls Barkley record.
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Wreck HHR: Did you receive backlash from fans? Was the album too different for your usual ‘Sinamatic’ Lou fans?
Louis Logic: There’s always going to be backlash when you make a second album because it’s always going to be slightly different from your first album. In our case, it was pretty mild. We did find some fans who were disappointed in the direction that we took and thought the record was less shocking and cartoonish, but we also found that we won a lot of new fans. Our female listenership dramatically increased with the new record, which is…GREAT!
I noticed the people who didn’t like the record as much didn’t seem to take note of the improvements that we made. They didn’t notice how much more confident this record sounded and how well executed it was. All they noticed is they missed the ‘crazy character’ and the hostility that was on the first album.
Wreck HHR: Do you feel as if underground hip hop fans have a tendency to hold their favorite artist down? Do you feel they starve for that one style and don’t appreciate when you grow?
Louis Logic: I’m sure there is that type of thing going on but it’s up to the artist to how they react to it. You can’t blame the fans for feeling how they feel—that’s the whole point of art. People will interpret it however they like and you can’t get mad at them for how they do that. I’m not angry at the kids who got upset at the change and format of my records. What I was upset about in the beginning was that I couldn’t understand how people missed the improvements. I didn’t understand how they didn’t catch it was a better executed album, better written album, better produced album, and better delivered album. It was just confusing. It was a vastly superior effort.
But, that’s the thing about art, it’s not always about how it was done, sometimes it’s the mood, the time, and place that a piece of art captures. I think for the people that felt that way about ‘Misery Loves Comedy,’ relative to the ‘Sin-A-Matic’ album, that was the case. They were really married to the feel and time that the ‘Sin-A-Matic’ album captured for them. I can’t blame them for that. I’ve felt that way about artist’s records before that I really love. I feel fortunate that a majority of my fans did stick with me and enjoyed the album a lot.
Wreck HHR: So, is this your last hoorah with JJ Brown then?
Louis Logic: Absolutely not! Me and JJ are actually working on another project, BUT, we decided to make some changes to how we present our artistic efforts. For 8-9 years now I have been the front man. JJ Brown and Dan Maier, 5G Productions, have provided me all my recording, engineering, and production needs. At a certain point we realized there was more we could put out to people as far as what our camp could create than just Louis Logic.
JJ has been doing a lot of production behind the scenes, started working on his own album, etc., which was right around the time when he dropped that Ludacris album with all Jackson 5 music. Now, JJ has stepped into the driver’s seat of 5G Productions and we are going to be putting him out there as the guy we want everybody to check for. His new record I have been co-writing with him and it’s shocking how good he has gotten at writing and delivering rhymes. His record is turning out so good—for hip hop fans that want to hear an album with serious shit talking and the occasional conceptional song, they might like his record a lot better than my last release. It’s a really fun record with incredible production and surprisingly well written rhymes. I’m really proud of JJ—I think he is going to surprise a lot of people.
Wreck HHR: I loved that Ludacris Remix album he did!
Louis Logic: Oh it was incredible! After he made that record he started to gain a lot of attention from a lot of major beat management people. JJ has been entertaining interests from major label parties at this point because of the Ludacris deal and was recently hired to remix the entire Gym Class Heroes album with nothing but Hall and Oates music. Hall and Oates management is involved, Gym Class is involved, Atlantic Records is involved—and it is a toss up right now with who is going to put it out. But, it’s going to be a huge record for JJ.
Consequently, the studio people who created the pro tool sessions for JJ to work with left out the ONLY guest rapper appearance on the album, which was a bonus cut and a remix of the song “New Friend Request” by the Gym Class Heroes that had Papoose on it originally. They left out Pap’s accapella accidentally and JJ decided that instead of pointing out the mistake that he would use it as our gain, so, this record will be a big release for me too! Because I ended up filling the verse for Papoose. I’m pretty excited about it and everyone else was extremely excited about what I did.
So, who knows what will happen in the future. I think big things are on the horizon for all of us, but it’s hard to say how this will all play out.
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Wreck HHR: Are you working on any other projects?
Louis Logic: I so have another album that is a Louis Logic vocal album that is definitely a rap record. I started it two years ago and it’s produced entirely by a Danish production duo. They make their beats by playing live instruments and sampling their own music. They play guitar, bass, keys, and drums and their little brother goes to a music conservatory and plays the trumpet, which means we get to use the trumpet and any other instruments that we choose from his classmates at the conservatory.
It’s an exciting record and we have unlimited resources in terms of what we can add to a beat sonically. It is turning out to be quite an adventurous project. Time signatures those aren’t common to hip hop songs, a lot of wild arrangement, and about as much singing as the ‘Misery Loves Comedy’ album. I think it’s funny that no one noticed that there was just as much singing on ‘Sin-A-Matic’ compared to ‘Misery Loves Comedy’—perhaps even more!
This record will be called: “Spork” by Louis Logic featuring Beatman and Rockin’. Hopefully it gets finished by this year but I don’t know who will put it out.
Wreck HHR: Are you getting tired of making hip hop music? Or is your new direction about you learning more about music, maturing, learning music theory, and wanting to explore more with your music?
Louis Logic: It’s a little bit of both actually—In learning more about how music is made on a traditional level, It has opened my eyes to the lack of adventure, rigid conformity, and predictable compositions that rap music has, which is disappointing because hip hop can be bigger and greater than what it is. I don’t know if I’m the guy that can fix that but I have decided that I do not want to contribute anymore to the trite and dull conditions of letting a song ride on the same beat measure loop. It is sad, and there is SO much more that can be done with this music! Vocally, its music that lends itself to the greatest complexity, but, musically, its one of the most simplistic constructed forms of music made today.
I don’t see how people don’t acknowledge that, take note if it, and DO something about it. I guess it is because most rap artists aren’t traditionally trained and music and they use what resources they have and know. Perhaps, some find picking up an adult beginner’s book to music theory is boring. But, by learning theory and spending the time learning about these things, it will put me ahead of the garden variety rap artist. Is it a career risk? Sure…maybe this will blow up in my face. But, I really don’t think you should make art if you don’t want to take risks, push your boundaries, and experience new things with each artistic effort you make.
Maybe I’m going to go a little too far off the beat path for kids that are into my earlier records, but there will be somebody out there who likes it. Maybe there will be more…I don’t know. I’m willing to take that risk because for me, the journey part is the most fun. I don’t even know where I’m going to end up next year and I love it!
Wreck HHR: With this Gym Class Heroes Project you will be working with a major label—does the thought of being on a major frighten you any? Do you like that independent freedom more? Are you ready to make that jump if it is offered to you?
Louis Logic: I don’t know if it’s necessary anymore. I think with the dramatic changes in the industry with how records are received and the trends in sales—I don’t think being on a major label is any better for me, per say. The living that artists like Justin Timberlake or Kanye West achieve, to me, is not that different than the living guys like Slug (Atmosphere) or say, The Shins, achieve. You don’t need a major label to accomplish these things anymore. You need to be successful enough to sell a couple hundred thousand records on your own and be able to pack in 1,500 fans in every city you play. It is no longer about what big label you are on…everyone is finding their own way to get in, fit in, and make it work. So, I don’t really worry about it anymore.
Making myself proud of my own efforts, keeping myself interested, and retaining a listenership is my concern these days. This is also one of the reasons why I decided if I am going to do this there has to be a point where I am going to separate the two things. I didn’t think it was a good idea to try to change my “Louis Logic” accomplishments into something else. It would be better to start something else all together. Maybe I will continue to make Louis Logic records…but I don’t know. JJ and I both agree making, what we feel, is a world class effort for a fan base of 15,000 people is not what we had in mind. How many more of those do I have left in me? I don’t know. Maybe none.
Wreck Loose: Can you tell us more about this new solo record you are still working on and this new Louis sound?
Louis Logic: Well, I decided to actually not call it a ‘Louis Logic’ record because I wanted to separate my name from this project all together. So, I went the Nine Inch Nails, Cat Power route of hooking up a name for a band that really isn’t a band…its just me.
Right now I am working on an EP for it and the EP will come out under the name—Kiss Her Stupid.
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Wreck Loose: You mentioned earlier that you don’t listen to hip hop records anymore—how come?
Louis Logic: It doesn’t really feel like magic anymore to me. They aren’t really fun anymore to me. I can’t listen to them without thinking about my take on the mix, delivery, writing, and the mastering. There is no magic because I know how people make everything that they make because I do the same thing. It just became a mechanical thing for me and it became depressing, so, I stopped.
That and combination with the fact that my first album was so heavily compared to Eminem that it frustrated me to no end. I felt like listening to other people’s rap records might of crept into my sub-conscious and maybe there were things in that record that was inspired by Eminem—despite the fact that we came out right around the same time. I didn’t want to hear anything like that ever again. While making demos from the “Sin-A-Matic” album a friend of mine advised me to stop listening to my rap records and dive into my classic rock collection. So, that’s when I got heavily into classic rock, indie rock, and folk rock and it pretty much took over my iPod.
Wreck Loose: So, that’s where you get your inspiration from? Who is the artist that inspires you the most?
Louis Logic: Definitely, Rufus Wainwright. He doesn’t get a lot of love from the rap community because he is very, very, very gay and unfortunately rap music is still heavily plagued by an accepted homophobia, which I really think is fucking lame and tired. He is a BRILLIANT pianist/singer/songwriter. I love Elliot Smith…
Wreck Loose: That is THE dude!! One of my favorite artists as well…
Louis Logic: He’s the fucking shit! Did that dude ever write a melody that wasn’t completely fucking charming?
But yea…there are a lot of artists that inspire me out there and I think it’s a great addition to me as an artist to be an avid listener of music and to have so many networks of music that inspire me.
After a music nerd tirade between me and Louis,where we switched favorite indie rock groups back and forth like kids did baseball cards back in the good old days, we got to talking about the trends of urban music, the decline in record sales, and a new movement that Louis thinks hip hop artists will begin to follow very soon….
Louis Logic: …There’s a fuckin’ fall out going on in urban music, man. It’s crazy! A Jay-Z record not going gold, a Pharrel album remixed by Questlove not even being released! That’s crazy!
Wreck Loose: Do you think a new “renaissance” (Source: iCON the Mic King) in hip hop music is about to come in?
Louis Logic: I know what you mean…and sure…I think we are headed for something like that. What seems to me that is happening is there is a nuclear fall out happening in urban music and everyone is dying. There are only going to be a few survivors and its going to be those people who are able to adapt and evolve into something different that can survive this fall out. If you ask me, and this isn’t why I started doing what I’m doing, its going to be the people who are hybrids or some bizarre combination of things that still holds people’s interest. I think people are bored of regular rap records as a whole…and I don’t blame them! It’s been too many years with too little change…
I think you are going to see those artists who DID bother to educate themselves musically because they saw what was happening and they wanted more. I just heard of this guy who plays guitar and rhymes—and its going to be people like that who usher in this new rap sound that survives.
I almost look forward to seeing the end of the time where it’s ok for a rapper to ONLY be able to rap. With the increase in learning music theory, learning an instrument, etc., I think you will see a need to be able to do those things and it will be apart of being a ‘rapper.’ I don’t know if you know this but I was told that one of the reasons Del (the Funky Homosapien) has been quiet for so long is because he’s been studying hard on learning music theory. He has been in hiding just reading and absorbing as much as he can. I think you are going to see more of that and what is going to happen is there is going to be so many of us that it will become the norm and the thing to do. I can’t wait for that.
What started it for me is the fucking smug look on other bands faces when they ask at a show what kind of music I was playing that night and when I would say, “I’m a rapper”…the look, the smug look on their face. Musicians don’t respect rap music and I’m fucking sick of it.
Wreck Loose: You know what I never understood is when these majors sign great hip hop talent but instead of pushing them to the public—they sit on the shelf. Why do you think they do that? Why are they afraid to start new trends, and why do you think they hoard these artists?
Louis Logic: There’s got to be many explanations why that might happen. With what I know and have experienced a good example would be Columbia/Ruffhouse in the 90’s signed a girl that could rap and sing and was just as good as Lauryn Hill and signed her JUST to shelf her so she wouldn’t compete with Lauryn. They specifically signed her to shelve her. Sometimes, they’ll sign an artist thinking that they can convert them, and this seems to be what is happening with Apathy, and try to make them into a version of something that is already out there—what they find is a) the artist can’t convert b) the artist is resistant in the process or c) they try it, find some success, and put some feeler music out but no one reacts, so, they just cut their losses. But they aren’t going to let you out of your contract…I mean, can you imagine them dropping Apathy and another label picks him up and makes millions? I think that’s why you see artists like that getting shelved.
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Wreck Loose: Disgusting politics of the business…
Louis Logic: Yeah it is disgusting but that’s what it is—a business. Also, with these declining record sales, surviving is such an important part of it that taking risks is not a widely accepted option. It’s more about doing what they are sure will work…because if they don’t…they won’t have a record label anymore.
It’s going to be exactly what happened to the Dinosaurs, man. It has to die; it has to kill itself the way it is going. What is going to arise out of that? That’s what everyone is wondering. I feel like I have a leg up. We’ll see what happens…maybe I am wrong. All that I know is that I’m going to be proud of the music that I am going to make. I’m finally going to make music that actually sounds like the music that I listen to. It’s been too many years that I have been making music that sounds like what I don’t even listen to. I feel a little bad about it at this point…like, it’s almost starting to fuck with me.
Wreck Loose: Like you robbed yourself all these years?
Louis Logic: I mean…yea…maybe…or that its not fair to kids that really do want to make boom-bappy underground records to sell to the 15,000 kids that want to buy that, and I’m just taking up one of their spaces. I’m selling my ‘hybridized’ efforts to that audience and half of them buy it because I HALF like his records. I would much rather wander off the path and go so far out there when I finally look around when I reached where I am going…there won’t be anyone standing next to me because it’s something that no one else is doing. You won’t know what to call it.
I’ve been having trouble naming it myself when I try to tell someone what I am trying to accomplish with my music now. The best thing I have come up with is: hokey, dark humored like Tom Waitts material, with rapping, folk rock like singing, etc. I have been doing cutesy, charming, silly stuff for so long…now I am trying to fuck with dark humor.
Wreck Loose: I saw a 30 second clip with you and JJ Brown and it was one where you got extremely fired up after they asked you a question about homophobia—do you feel that some hip hop lyrics should be censored?
Louis Logic: No, no, not at all. It just makes me sad that it is a prevailing attitude. Some people are going to make music that is over the top and cross the line. A lot of artists have grotesque material but they are in the minority…but not in hip hop. The prevailing attitude about homosexuality in rap music is ALMOST as grotesque as it is in Reggae—which is probably the most homophobic genre of them all.
I guess when I got into Rufus (Wainwright) is when I got more vocal in my defense about gay people and speaking out against homophobia. It just annoys me when I would try to get people to listen to Rufus and when they would find out that he was like—they wouldn’t like the songs. That’s bullshit, man. There is a lot of gay people that have completely changed my life—Freddie Mercury is a great example. I’ll go to bat for that guy any day…I’ll get into a fucking bar brawl over it!
JJ Brown had actually expressed concern over this issue when I was speaking out on it during the ‘Misery Loves Comedy’ press interviews. He asked me if I was going to continue to speak on it considering the fact that fans might start thinking that I myself was gay and my response was, “Good! Let them think that. I fucking hope that they do!” I want people to understand that even If I was—there shouldn’t be anything wrong with that! That’s how strongly I feel about it. You go ahead and think I’m gay…does it fucking matter?
Wreck Loose: I’m actually shocked to hear that coming from you, who has a reputation for having “insensitive” lyrics—
Louis Logic: Historically, I have been a pretty crass guy in my music and have made a lot of really, really sexist music that was disgusting…but I thought I was just being funny. Basically, you got to own up to what you have done as an artist. My BMI representative told me one time, “you say some stuff that’s very offensive, but, I like it. You just have to be ready to own up to these lyrics. People are going to challenge you on it. If you back down, bite your tongue, or take it back just because people challenge you—you are going to look like a hypocrite! Be prepared to stand by your words…”
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Wreck Loose: I’m starting to wonder just how many people have challenged you to drinking contests…
Louis Logic: Oh, Jesus…I cannot even being to tell you. For me, the drinking was never about I can out drink you! There was a point in my life where it was a problem and I don’t have anything to prove to you, buddy. I almost got evicted from my apartment because I was drinking so heavily—you think you are cooler than me because you can do more shots without puking? I almost ruined my life! I got nothing to prove to you. At a certain point this stuff came to me with age and I just stopped worrying about what others think about me. It applies to the drinking thing, the sexism, and the physical violence thing that I used to rap about. Now, you’ll see me in interviews talking about how much I HATE physical violence. Its not “man” shit—being a man isn’t being stronger or being able to punch another guy out. I don’t want to impress you with my boxing skills; I want to impress you with my music.
Wreck Loose: I’m down with that philosophy—I’ve never been in a fight my entire life…
Louis Logic: That’s awesome man! You should be super proud of that. I’m one of those idiots who believed in it. I thought it was real. I thought if I wanted to be a rapper and be apart of it I HAD to punch people. I was a terrible fighter…I lost so many fights!!
Wreck Loose: Since I’m a literary guy I want to know what you have been reading lately, and what literary character embodies Louis Logic and why?
Louis Logic: The last read that had an impact on me was Ayn Rand “The Fountainhead” and the last book I recently vanished was Kurt Vonnegut’s “Hocus Pocus.” I’m a big Vonnegut fan.
A literary character that embodies me would probably be a character in a John Irving novel, because they are always filled with these sensitive, floundering men who have a lot of love and passion to give, but they are just so fucking clumsy with how they do it. They always run into an endless stream of trouble within a romantic relationship. They are guys that are filled with promise but have that reverse Forrest Gump type luck that continues to complicate their life.
I mean, that’s why I wrote the ‘Misery Loves Comedy’ album. There has got to be a camera somewhere…watching this and cracking up! Someone has got to be setting up these disasters for me to fall into. But, I love it. I am my own favorite punch line.
Who is Louis Logic? Perhaps one of the greatest underground rappers to ever live? Lenny Kravitz’s stunt double?
Whoever he is, and whatever name he chooses to be called—I hope he continues to make good music. I hope he continues to kiss her stupid.
