[Digiview #2] An interview with Misha Boseby

This new digiview features a  good friend of mine Misha Boesby!

Misha is an underground artist from Florida, he's an emcee, producer, and songwriter. I had the pleasure of chatting with him about various topics a few days ago

How would you describe your music to a first time listener?

Wow...I have to keep this simple

I am a hip hop hauntologist, and Emcee of time and nostalgia. We can search our past together with this music I create-- comb for our condition through the archives and the songs.

Plunderphonics for Pragmatic Social Change

What were your favorite albums growing up?

Before the 6th grade, I did not have a portable music player, just a Sony anti-skip portable CD player with me and the CDs I could pull out of my dad's car. The albums I remember having been Caress of Steel by Rush, Momentary Lapse of Reason by Pink Floyd, and Music For The Masses by Depeche Mode...but the one I listened to the most was a momentary lapse of reason

I did not realize how much that CD would inspire me till after 2014...

That's a very cool back story! The Depeche mode was one of my favorite artists back in the day, they inspired me.

I love the track "Saturn Daze"  you collabed with PKskyler and centaur sapien, could we see more projects from you three in the future?

Your appreciation of Saturn Daze is kind my friend, thank you--the team was super big on making that song stand out.

I want to create more songs like Saturn Daze--though these projects require some patience and cognitive backflips! We started in March 2020 with a conference call between WaveMage and CentaurSapien. The three of imagined a universe for an album in a discussion of where the microgenre game was going...

PK was working with Centaur on the side thereafter--but I returned to an instrumental I started shaping in 2018 that had a sound I felt was relevant only now. I gave it to PK and he delivered me this massive song...when I showed it to Centaur he wanted to continue the universe we cooked up in a verse added on to PKs...Because Centaur's steeze was so out of this world, I went back to the drawing board for the beat. I ended up sending my VCR to the grave trying to cook the sound more for these guys. After WaveMage helped to engineer Centaur's recording we put him on it...The process evolved for several months. 

Tracks like that happen only when creators how only marginally share origins end up bumping back into the same project through revisions and resource infusions... it's a tough thing for me to emulate but I am trying!

You have a very dope flow when you rap, how long have you've been an emcee?

I started cyphering back in 2012...and kept up with a few buddies in the freestyling game till about 2016 when we lost our friend to a shooting. GK was a competitive center and originator of these cyphering squads and so I did not hit the mic again until 2019 after I gave up trying to fit my music to other's styles. My flow emerged from the trial and error in the music itself.

I only started committing to songwriting and performance beyond basement party freestyles and 4-Door cipher sessions when it became tough to source brave lyricists for my instrumentals where stories needed to be told, not just bars being spit.

Sorry for your loss,  I can defiantly tell you put your heart and soul into your lyrics

I truly appreciate that! One of my last non-Bose by projects was dedicated to GK, the album titled RIP Rest In Premium '94

I did not perform or write for that album but spent a great deal of time corralling people and sound to create a composition that would represent our friend sonically after his passing.

If not for GK, I probably would have stayed on NIN and Depeche Mode after the 6th grade 🙃 therefore, would never have been cyphering if not for his playful, tenacious insistence to do so over the years.'

That's very inspiring man 

It's interesting where our friends will take us on this life journey. GK was never a creator but hip hop was so central to his life for reasons I will never know, that it coopted my journey.

More grounded though, the inspirations to my flow are Mystikal, Ol' Dirty Bastard, Tity Boi, Curren$y, and more recently Viper Tha Rapper...

What type of gear do you use to produce music?

A 2012 Alienware, my favorite timeless line of Presonus I/Os as they come and go; what VCR is available and functioning enough to get audio out of; my trusty Nakamichi CR1 tape deck; a vintage BSR rack equalizer unit from the Minneapolis Museum of Music; a MACHINE Mikro gifted to me by a good friend; and an Akai C3000 series condenser mic for both field recording and vocals. before the move to FL, I used a KORG Karma and Volca Beats. Over the summer I started borrowing friends' time and turntables for vinyl samples.

For live shows, I bring it all out minus the VCR and also will include the MPC Live II, but I don't have the desire to own that Akai unit. I just borrow one from a good friend who is hoping I succeed haha

Very cool arsenal of gear! I noticed the mpc live when I was watching a video of your live performance

It is a piece of equipment I am still learning to use frankly because it's on the friendly lease when I need it :)

So my MPC time is limited to a week once a season

Sounds like a very nice friend 😄

Suppose I will get an MPC Live when the time comes soon! I have yet to see any income from my artistry that will make more expensive gear purchases possible.

Speaking of live shows I know that you've performed live a few months back, how was that experience?

It was interesting to perform in July 2020 for the first time since 2016 and even that performance was just the last big party my buddy had before passing away in the Fall; also Pandemic and post-lockdown made it interesting from an ethical, moral-social standpoint.

I'm going, to be honest man, I am thankful you were fond of that.

It left me with the realization there are a lot of people in our milieu who have missed out on the wonderful underground universe of sound and styles we all created in the last few years following the explosion of VW and Nu Electronic.

I know the pandemic made it hard for live shows and other things.

No problem man was cool to watch!

Do you feel like vaporwave is evolving in a sense?

The microgenre hyper-acceleration we have all participated in online is meaningful and exciting for newcomers and first-time listeners post-pandemic. Many of these amazing experimental scenes and niche realms of sonic art have flooded Spotify and with the mass normalization of independent publishing and multimodal distro... it's crazy there are people still waiting to learn about what we have to offer in the live setting...

And indeed VW, Nu Electronic, Plunderphonics, performative hauntology as media and art is evolving. We see festivals that are hybrid digital-IRL, and the IRL event world that's dislocated from the deep social network of these online music communities is finally beginning to the interface. I am aware VW and its offshoot-inspired acts have been gigging throughout FL for example, well before 2021...but something feels different now.

What I noticed is that the electronic music DJ has flourished under the umbrella of VW and its cousin FutureFunk

The skilled/amateur habitus of the electronic music DJ is inseparable from this influence now. The permeation of Retro and Nostalgia in the DJ realm is globally huge now after a 10 year creep up....so much live electronic music I hear now whether streamed from a venue or someone's studio, sounds like it worked its way from the Floral Shoppe and HKE era

I can't say VW or FF are evolving

but the creator communities sure are

and the influence of these microgenre realms are becoming permanent pallets in the arsenal of live sounds for DJs, Hip Hop performers, and generally, the lofi or ambient music producer is taking tons of pages playing live from these sounds compendiums now...

But no one is doing Live Cringe yet 😉

I agree with you, plus we're seeing new sub-genres created every month. Love seeing artists finally getting recognition

Haha live cringe sounds funny 

If I may digress... VW's weird bastard cousin is Cringe from a mass consumption phenomena standpoint

I feel like cringe would not evolve without the online infrastructure and practices laid down by VW and ff

because for many, VW and its cousin styles WERE cringe.... and the two confused by people not familiar with the microgenre world context

I feel like you have your sound, I've listened to a lot of underground music and nothing quite sounds like your music. How did your style develop?

The only way I can explain how my style developed is 1. by interfacing deeply with retro media and 2. through the friendships I have with creators of very different pedigrees

I don't know why I started rejecting contemporary music so actively in 2015...a switch flipped in my brain and I started living in the past no longer looking forward to new music. Suddenly I felt like I missed so much when I got better at digging Discogs...

But in 2019 I emerged with the understanding the future was in the past and past was the future of music and there the negotiation starts between me and the creations, Then I realized it's not about the sounds of NOW, but the creators of today and what they become tomorrow...

So I suppose I have been making music in the frame of, what will I sound like tomorrow? Or next year?

I feel like friendships can defiantly be a great influence

They are the center of our sounds I suppose, though there is the concept of the outsider, which is like a vacuum of influence. I suppose my friend either are not creators at all, so they wanna see me fall. And then some friends are creators, but very different from me no moderate middle ground. I'm stuck I guess looking for another Bose by but thankfully I am surrounded by the antithesis and compliment instead and so I am just a chiral byproduct of my deeper relationships with other creators. An example is if not for you I would never have gone down the depth of dark ambient music, I am where I am in 2021 Autumn because of friends like you Vlad.

Thank you so much! You've been a great friend as well, very happy we can connect.

One final question I like to ask everyone I interview, 

If you were stranded on an Island which 3 music-related items would you take with you?

A panflute, a Skin Drum, and solar-powered vintage sony walkman with only a wu-tang mixtape

That's an easy question :D

the easiest question so far!!

Great choices!

I guess this is where I get a freebie right?

I will share one timeless inspiration with you which I come back to for years and it directly hits on the skin drum survival item since you asked

https://youtu.be/Ri6fARE_YI0

It's a dope share in general. I heard this song live at Lollapalooza 2008 and Saul William's album produced by Trent Reznor, in general, has a timeless influence on me. I hope you enjoy this track.

Thanks for your time and this opportunity Vlad!

You're welcome thank you for your time for this interview as well,  I had a blast chatting with you!

Connect with Misha Boseby here

https://twitter.com/MishaBoseby

Listen To Misha Boesby music here

https://osclone.bandcamp.com/

-VDMR