Buck 65
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Cold Steel Drum
3:36
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Paper Airplane
3:35
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Gee Whiz
2:51
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Why So Sad
3:09
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The Ready
4:35
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General Info
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Genre: Other
Location nowheresville, Nova Scotia, Ca
Profile Views: 1212370
Last Login: 9/12/2011
Member Since 4/8/2005
Website www.buck65.com
Record Label Warner Music Canada
Type of Label Major
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Bio
............ .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. I recorded a song back in 1990 called “The Rhyme Has To Be Good”. I made the beat, rapped and did the scratches all myself. I began teaching myself how to do those things several years before, secretly, in the privacy of my bedroom. I grew up in a small rural town called Mt. Uniacke in Nova Scotia and none of my friends were interested in hip hop music. Ironically – given the title – that first song isn’t very good at all. But we all have to start somewhere. .. .. “The Rhyme Has To Be Good” got played on the college radio station in the city (Halifax) a few times and soon I started meeting other rappers and DJs. In the early days, it was mostly about performing – in living rooms, at dances, on the radio, in the woods, on roofs or wherever. I was never the most talented guy around, but it was a huge passion and I took it all very seriously – even when I was acting like a goofball. A few years later, the focus turned to recording. Through the 90’s I recorded countless songs with friends and on my own. For most of those years my efforts went unheard outside my hometown and sadly, a lot of those recordings have been lost. .. .. Toward the end of the decade (around 1997 or so) I began to find an international audience and a place in a wider underground community with the help of the internet. Small independent labels with names like Four Ways To Rock, Hand Solo and Anticon began to offer help. By 2000, I had a career on my hands. Music became my sole means of income. Somehow I managed to find my way around the world and pay off my student loans. My wildest dreams had come true. .. .. Then, in 2002, after 12 years of independent hustle, I signed a big time record deal with Warner and moved to France. Since then I’ve worked with musicians from all over the world – some with big names, some with no name at all. And I’ve continued to work with my old friends from my hometown too. .. .. For a while now, people have been saying that the music I make doesn’t exactly sound like hip hop. I think that’s partly because I often hear hip hop where other people might not. Sometimes I hear it in pre-war blues songs. I hear it in albums like New Values by Iggy Pop or Is This Desire? by PJ Harvey. I hear it in experimental recordings by William S. Burroughs or minstrel songs by Emmett Miller. It’s a curse. .. .. My newest collection of songs is called 20 Odd Years. This time around I went back to the formula that worked so well on Talkin’ Honky Blues – I returned to Halifax to build some songs – from the ground up – with my friends Charles Austin and Graeme Campbell. We also called in a bunch of friends to contribute vocals. Plus, I recorded a song with my old pal Jo Run, who I’ve worked with since the early days. It’s a strange thing for me to consider, but there aren’t many people who were on the hip hop scene in 1990 who are still here today. I’ve seen a lot of talented people come and go in my time. I have no idea why I’ve lasted when so many others have not. I guess that’s up to you to decide. But despite my best efforts, I’ve never been trendy and maybe that’s had something to do with it. .. .. Twenty years seems like a long time but the thought of slowing down or ‘hanging it up’ has not even crossed my mind. Will I still be at it when I’m 50 years old? I guarantee you that I will. There may not always be an audience, but that didn’t stop me in the beginning… .. .. Buck .. .. .............. .. .... ...... ............ -
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..Bio:
..
They call me Buck 65.
I grew up on a dirt road in a small town called Mt. Uniacke in rural Nova Scotia. That's on the east coast of Canada. When I was a kid, there was a ferryboat that ran between Nova Scotia and Boston, if that helps.
I mostly kept to myself as a kid. I did well in school but all I really cared about was baseball. I tried my hand at scratching on the family stereo system when I was 13 years old. Around the same time, I started writing little raps to impress the girls in my homeroom class. For some inexplicable reason, I demonstrated an innate ability in both disciplines right out of the gates. I was a natural. I was also a nerd.
In 1990 I lost my virginity and baseball broke my heart. I overreacted by recording an album and inflicting it on the public. The effort was largely ignored. But those who took notice were split evenly among those who hated it and those who loved it. Since then, I have had numerous sexual encounters and my music still divides people evenly. I don't play baseball much anymore because I wrecked my shoulder. But I still follow the professional game closely and I collect baseball cards like an idiot.
Having been a confused hip hop fiend-slash-fascist as a teen, my attention began to wander sometime around the middle of the 1990s. At that point, I began to aggressively seek inspiration in cinema, weird art and other kinds of music - mostly that made by losers and pariahs with an eye for beauty. These perverted pursuits began to corrupt my own creative emissions. I deluded myself into believing that it would be a good idea to apply sundry art theories to hip hop boneheadedness. I took a post-punk philosopher's approach to b-boy-ism. I decided to try to break the world by making the most beautiful rap song ever heard. After a few years of perfuse bleeding to the beat, I came to realize that only mutants go for that kind of thing. But there were just enough of these deviants to keep me going and I haven't looked back.
Recently I came to realize that I've been getting weird on tape for 20 years. I decided to celebrate and invited a bunch of my fellow sub-normals to the party. We ate paste and pretended we knew what each other was talking about. It was uncomfortable a lot of the time, but lots of exciting music was frankensteined.
The first person I called was Jenn Grant. She's from Prince Edward Island and was Anne of Green Gables when she was a kid. She's a capital 'O' weirdo, but has the most beautiful voice you'll ever hear in your life. We made a handful of songs together. Some you'll hear now, some you'll hear later.
Gord Downie is one of the most successful oddballs in the history of Canadian whimsy. When I thought to invite him, I never imagined he'd actually show up. But he came early with a bag of cheese puffs and a box of blank Valentine's Day cards. We made a waltz for people to dance to alone. It's called "Whispers Of The Waves". I'm still amazed by how fast it happened.
John Southworth arrived by hot air balloon, wearing a paper hat. Safe upon the ground he removed the hat and on it we wrote a song about estranged fathers and sons, computers, democracy and Christopher Cross. It's called "BCC" and is the only song on the album that features both flute and marimba. It's accidentally exotic.
Once upon a time, Nick Thorburn had a band called The Unicorns and made an album called "Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone?" He came to the party with craft supplies and we made a song called "Gee Whiz" out of popsicle sticks, macaroni, sparkles and pipe cleaners. These days, Nick has a whole bunch of bands, it seems.
Olivia Ruiz came all the way from France and brought scary movies. We made a fort out of cushions and blankets and we made a song about vampires called "Tears Of Your Heart" in our sleep. We woke up in the morning and there it was! Neither of us has any memory of making it.
When all was said and done, an album called 20 Odd Years was constructed. Flip through its pages and see photos of beautiful faces like that of Hannah Georgas, Gentleman Reg and Marie-Pierre Arthur. We cut out a picture of Leonard Cohen’s face from a magazine and pasted it on my face. We played dress-up and spun the bottle. When the party was over, we agreed to never do that again.
Undoubtedly, I'll make another album in a year or two. And one of these days I'll throw a party to celebrate 50 years! But in the meantime, please enjoy 20 Odd Years.
Buck 65
