Missing Witches - Witches Found： Backxwash - Most Of My Experience Is A Rejection Of Colonialism

00:00:00.700 Season 3 of the Missing Witches Podcast is sponsored by Foxglove Farm.

00:00:05.100 Go to foxglovefarm.com and use offer code MISSINGWITCHES.

00:00:30.000 on them to hand me the hanky that he has

00:00:31.840 been on with. If you should know, I use

00:00:33.720 voodoo doors as Yu-Gi-Oh's. I push and 1.00

00:00:35.640 fuck and cook and mistuse the ball. It's cooking 1.00

00:00:37.680 noise. This concussion I'm brewing sure

00:00:39.840 is useful long as long as I refrain

00:00:41.740 from staining it up in beauty products. 1.00

00:00:43.820 Now all my sisters come in. All my witches 0.89

00:00:45.880 jump in. No need to think about men.

00:00:48.080 Only demons and friends. Dance the 1.00

00:00:49.760 spirits in them. Check the lyrics of sin.

00:00:52.160 Grab the stick, then ascend. Catch

00:00:53.800 a glimpse of the wind. Join the circle with

00:00:55.820 me. Join the circle with me.

00:00:57.420 come join the circle with us i'm so excited to be chatting with ashanti better known as

00:01:06.880 hip-hop witch extraordinaire backwash i'm so excited to be joining this circle with you

00:01:14.760 how are you ashanti okay thank you so much for having me thank you so much for making the time

00:01:21.140 I know you are crazy busy gigging, like, the next great superstar of the hip-hop universe.

00:01:29.100 Try my best.

00:01:30.980 Yeah, I mean, this will air on October 30th, but you just finished Pop Montreal, and you've got, like, Halifax coming up.

00:01:40.940 Yes, yes, the Halifax Pop Explosion on the 24th.

00:01:44.800 And then what's happening after that, for people who are just listening to this on the 30th?

00:01:48.720 After that, on the 8th, I'll be opening for Pallada at the album launch with Drag Queen, which I'm really excited for.

00:01:59.080 And that's in Montreal?

00:02:00.660 Yeah, that's in Montreal.

00:02:02.340 Then I think the same month, I'll be also opening for Doom Squad in Ottawa.

00:02:09.000 So that would be cool.

00:02:11.540 Nice.

00:02:12.980 Very cool.

00:02:13.760 Lots of exciting stuff coming up.

00:02:15.720 so yeah most of what I know about you uh is through your lyrics so my first question is

00:02:23.960 like what how much separation is there between Ashanti and Backwash um I would say um

00:02:33.300 it's funny because uh it feels as if uh Backwash is like a medium for me to be

00:02:39.720 to be able to express myself and kind of like say things which are in my mind and I think

00:02:45.580 I guess backwards the character gives me

00:02:49.320 confidence in order to say

00:02:51.540 this I think

00:02:52.240 politically pretty much the same

00:02:55.580 what we believe in is pretty much the same

00:02:57.300 but I guess it's just

00:02:58.360 in the way that we do it

00:03:01.220 because in real life

00:03:03.460 I guess I'm more self spoken but the moment

00:03:05.520 that I start writing raps I get more

00:03:07.640 aggressive and intense

00:03:09.760 so yeah

00:03:11.140 I've seen this in your live show where

00:03:13.320 during the songs

00:03:14.900 it's backwash and then between the songs this like humble kind of blown away ashanti

00:03:21.900 comes through so we see that a lot in in your performance even when you're on stage i think

00:03:28.800 ashanti and backwash were both there right yeah yeah yeah yeah absolutely yeah i've noticed that

00:03:36.340 as well i don't know it just feels as if i don't know it just feels as if when i'm able to get into

00:03:42.160 character i'm just able to uh have a different way of saying things and i think that's probably

00:03:48.540 something that would be useful for people who even aren't performers like you i don't know if

00:03:53.940 you wrote this but um black sailor moon is labeled as a uh a quote a rage-filled approach to religion

00:04:01.860 gender sexuality and witchcraft um and the word that comes up for me when i'm listening to your

00:04:08.180 music it's like it's like the first time I heard like Chuck D or Bikini Kill where it's just this 0.56

00:04:14.680 like you want to take a baseball bat and smash injustice you don't want to be like destructive

00:04:21.100 and smash everything but it's kind of that feeling of just like oh and and the word that

00:04:26.440 keeps coming back for me is unapologetic yeah how do you access that for our listeners who want to

00:04:33.180 access that unapologetic part of themselves how do you do that um i just like i just like channel

00:04:42.060 um i just channel everything that i kind of like you know don't like that that is bothering me and

00:04:51.520 um just say it as just say it as honest as you can essentially so i guess uh honesty is a big

00:05:02.700 thing because uh i remember watching a random but i remember watching a stone close to boston

00:05:09.620 interview the wrestler yeah yeah yeah i know they're asking stone cold um what what when when

00:05:21.660 you act when you like have somebody on the ground and you're like kind of like saying something like

00:05:28.500 insulting them in their face like what do you say and he says well um anything that i say there

00:05:35.900 would be something that i would say when i'm not wrestling you like i am really honest in what i

00:05:41.480 say and i kind of like pick that mantra up of saying um whatever even though the delivery is

00:05:48.260 different whatever i want to say when i'm rapping versus out would probably be the same so it's like

00:05:54.940 being in the backwash character just gives like a good uh medium like a like a harder medium

00:06:02.440 and delivery of of what I'm honestly thinking essentially so I guess honesty is a big one

00:06:09.080 honesty is a big one honesty is a huge one and not just being honest with your message but being

00:06:15.000 honest with yourself about how you're how you're feeling in that moment and how you're reacting to

00:06:19.840 things right yes so do you think that that requires bravery i think so i don't know if i'll call it i

00:06:28.620 don't know i don't know if i'll call it bravery for myself or anything um i think i'll maybe the

00:06:35.520 word belief i think it requires belief in oneself and how do you conjure that belief in yourself

00:06:44.540 um for me i just you know i just keep on i just keep on doing it i love that

00:06:51.760 just doing it and the belief will come yeah yeah because it's like uh i've seen an improvement from

00:07:02.620 when i started to now i think the more that i'm believing in myself the more that

00:07:07.140 i can i can kind of like feel myself improving so normally i ask our witches

00:07:14.420 how they became witches

00:07:16.480 but I want to ask you how you became an

00:07:18.520 MC

00:07:18.940 that is largely the witchcraft

00:07:22.660 is being an MC

00:07:24.340 this poetry

00:07:25.500 yeah I started rapping

00:07:28.360 the first time I came

00:07:30.320 I came towards rapping

00:07:31.920 my sister showed me

00:07:34.780 more money more problems with

00:07:36.180 PDD, Mace and B.I.G

00:07:38.800 of course

00:07:39.640 yeah and I used to listen to music back then

00:07:42.340 And I was into, like, you know, singing songs and, like, R&B and, like, pop.

00:07:47.180 Then I saw this happen, and I thought that was so cool.

00:07:50.040 And I was asking, like, my sister, like, you know, what are they doing?

00:07:53.220 Are they just, like, talking?

00:07:54.440 Like, is this singing?

00:07:55.960 And she was like, no, it's, like, rapping.

00:07:58.640 And, you know, kind of gave me the basics that, you know, you got to rhyme.

00:08:01.660 You got to, you know, say stuff cool.

00:08:04.400 So I was like, all right.

00:08:06.180 So I became, like, a fan of it.

00:08:09.000 I used to, like, freestyle in a lot.

00:08:11.660 that was kind of like my thing when I was growing up.

00:08:14.260 And when I was like 12 or 13 years old,

00:08:18.400 I got my first copy of like a pirated copy of like FL Studio.

00:08:23.100 I think it was three, FL Studio three

00:08:25.340 and began like making beats and making songs.

00:08:28.620 And that just like continued, continued, continued.

00:08:32.920 And until I moved here, then I stopped for a bit.

00:08:36.420 Then I moved to Montreal.

00:08:37.560 When I moved to Montreal,

00:08:38.660 that's when I started getting back into it.

00:08:41.660 The idea was, if I can feel as confident as I would feel when I was 17 years old, then I think, yeah, because when you stop for a while, you have to get back to the point that you were at before you stop.

00:08:58.140 It's like, it's like riding a bike, I guess.

00:09:01.080 Everybody says, oh, yeah, you never forget how to ride a bike, but you have to remember how to be as good as you were when you stop.

00:09:07.120 Right.

00:09:07.560 yeah yeah so i i think during like blacks in the moon that's when i like kind of like reached that

00:09:14.320 point of thinking like oh you know i feel as if like you know i'm back to where i was uh at my

00:09:20.260 17 year old when i when i when i initially stopped this now i gotta um i gotta like ascend that so

00:09:28.760 um one of the things that were very important was uh finding a studio that you actually feel

00:09:36.860 comfortable in and that was i guess that was the one missing thing because uh when i started

00:09:44.440 recording deviancy i was like i gotta i gotta make sure i got the sound that i desire and i'm

00:09:51.660 gonna make sure i have you know the lyrics that i desire and i'm like well you know i think i've

00:09:56.520 kind of got the sound i kind of got the lyrics and i think what's next now was just recording them

00:10:02.420 and executing the way that I want to.

00:10:05.400 And I think the studio played a big part in that.

00:10:08.580 Do you want to shout out that studio

00:10:10.400 that you recorded, Deviancy in?

00:10:12.560 Absolutely.

00:10:13.360 Shout out to Will Owen Bennett,

00:10:15.920 incredible engineer.

00:10:17.880 And that studio is incredible

00:10:19.600 and makes everybody feel safe and comfortable.

00:10:22.080 So you mentioned Black Sailor Moon and Deviancy.

00:10:25.520 And just for our listeners

00:10:26.440 who might not be familiar with you,

00:10:28.080 Black Sailor Moon was your second EP.

00:10:30.860 Yes, yes.

00:10:31.580 And Deviancy is your record that just came out this summer, this spring?

00:10:37.220 Yes.

00:10:38.340 And they're both fantastic.

00:10:40.180 I mean, you know, I'm a fan first and a friend second.

00:10:46.280 But again, I am.

00:10:47.460 And so I wanted to ask, like, this titling your second EP, Black Sailor Moon,

00:10:53.660 is that part of this 17-year-old self, this conjuring this super teen in a way?

00:11:01.580 No. Maybe like, no, I don't think so. I think the name just came to me because I just really like Sailor Moon in terms of, from just like a whole ideological and aesthetic perspective.

00:11:22.320 and uh i was like well they never had like a you don't really see like a lot of like black

00:11:29.720 girls in sailor moon so i thought maybe i'd be like you know black sailor moon and you know

00:11:34.940 that would kind of like convey parts of like my personality and uh yeah so that that's how

00:11:41.220 i went about like um taking that name so this is the missing like witches podcast of course

00:11:49.320 so let's get into it if you don't mind let's let's talk about voodoo um you have a song even

00:11:58.180 called voodoo so i'm not reaching here what's your personal relationship like with what is

00:12:07.520 can you describe any part of your practice or your philosophy yeah so my um i guess

00:12:15.120 i you know i kind of look back and i i i was like you know i was thinking to myself and i think i

00:12:23.960 with naming the song voodoo i just kind of uh generalized it because um voodoo is something

00:12:31.680 that is kind of specific to like a certain um region and area of like black women practicing

00:12:39.900 magic essentially 1.00

00:12:41.320 yeah and

00:12:43.580 I kind of look at that with like

00:12:45.820 regret sometimes so I think I should have picked like another

00:12:48.080 name because I wouldn't

00:12:50.060 call myself a practitioner of voodoo

00:12:51.880 I think 1.00

00:12:52.780 calling like every like black women's magic 0.99

00:12:56.040 voodoo is just like some worse than 1.00

00:12:58.160 like white shit 1.00

00:12:59.740 right 1.00

00:13:00.680 it can be very reductive

00:13:04.220 for sure but I don't think

00:13:05.560 that's what you're doing I think

00:13:07.600 it's empowering

00:13:09.440 Yeah, yeah. And for my practice, my practice comes with connecting back to, first of all, I'm a citizen, well, I come from Zambia, and I'm from a half Chewa, half Tumbuka tribe.

00:13:30.060 my mom is chewa my dad is tombuka and um the relation that i have with the term witchcraft

00:13:38.460 was um when the missionaries first came in i saw you know zambians and africans practicing

00:13:46.460 their own spirituality and they were like they kind of like put a negative connotation on the 0.99

00:13:53.180 word and uh they were like oh you know you should you know choose the bible instead of you know

00:13:59.100 practicing all the spirituality that you're doing and a that the term that they used i guess was uh

00:14:05.820 was witchcraft and you know magic and it when they saw us kind of like give respect

00:14:13.500 to the spiritual ancestors you know they would call that oh no this is which guys is magic you

00:14:18.140 have to like you know learn the bible instead and uh my practice kind of stems from uh

00:14:24.620 African spirituality, in a sense.

00:14:27.580 A good thing I like to do is dance as well sometimes,

00:14:32.860 because for my tribe, the Timbukha tribe,

00:14:36.480 we have this traditional ceremony called Wimbusa,

00:14:40.160 and in Wimbusa, it's supposed to be this healing dance.

00:14:43.800 You know, you dance to heal yourself.

00:14:45.900 And I guess my practice is a mixture

00:14:50.240 of all of these like indigenous Zambian practices

00:14:55.080 that kind of looked down upon when the missionaries came.

00:14:59.780 Did you spend a lot of your life in Zambia

00:15:02.560 or was it like an early childhood?

00:15:05.040 Oh yeah, I spent, I came here when I was 17, 18.

00:15:10.940 Ah, that's confident 17 year old.

00:15:13.680 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:15:16.180 So it's like I've had exposure to like,

00:15:19.120 you know the practices and you know uh being around the environment where you know it's it's

00:15:26.620 it's you have it's you have this kind of like clashing sides of oh this is what we used to

00:15:34.220 do like before colonialism came through and it's like well but you also have these colonial

00:15:39.960 structures that are like clashing together in my place so it's um i i try to reject

00:15:46.580 post-colonial practices and only uh look at um pre-colonial practices so the spirituality

00:15:54.760 and giving up to our ancestors and rituals that we used to have uh to you know as a way of

00:16:04.020 spirituality and this comes up in your lyrics a lot to this sort of negation negotiation of

00:16:10.560 christianity like not christian lyrics obviously but you you talk about the bible you talk about

00:16:15.840 your pastor um and for example maybe i'll put in a clip right now of um heteronomy which is a play

00:16:23.660 on deuteronomy yeah yeah right okay let's hear that the turn of me 22 chapter 5 says a man

00:16:31.360 shall not wear woman's clothes i'm reading this with a dress on i'm kind of like jesus i'm teflon

00:16:37.860 i'm a blonde in a major the god transgender and if any man or the lord tries to use violence to 0.99

00:16:44.580 challenge me i swear to the gay gods that watch over me that i will eat your face i am not terrified 0.99

00:16:53.020 by your diatribes and exorcisms because any attempts will allow me to stare at your god in 0.99

00:16:58.580 his face and tell him that he's not welcome here so can you talk about writing that passage

00:17:06.200 Oh, yeah. Well, coming up, you would hear people justify all of this hate towards witchcraft, religion, sexuality, gender identity based on an interpretation of the Bible.

00:17:27.340 and uh i kind of saw that as a protest uh getting that you know bible verse which people used to

00:17:35.720 justify all this hatred and kind of like flipping it on his flipping it on its like head to kind of

00:17:43.040 like uh reject all that energy that is coming from from people that do that uh so um i wrote

00:17:51.180 I actually wrote that when I was writing the last track of Black Sailor Moon, and I couldn't come up with the chorus, then I just decided to write that, and when it was about to be done, we cut that out and said, hey, maybe this should just do the intro, and that became like the intro.

00:18:11.120 But it was essentially just like, you know, using that verse as, you know, kind of like blowing back at the people that use that verse to justify hatred of people that share our groups.

00:18:25.120 Yeah. And the song that that clip comes from, you also use a Patti Smith sample.

00:18:31.440 Jesus died for somebody's sins, but not mine.

00:18:34.260 Yeah.

00:18:34.860 So there's a good, a good underscore of what you're talking about there.

00:18:39.980 Yeah, yeah. I think most of my experience is just a rejection of colonialism. I think that's from Blacks on the Moon going forward. I think that's just like my whole discography because it ties into so many things.

00:18:59.640 the rejection

00:19:04.380 of, before the

00:19:06.200 colonialists came through, you know,

00:19:08.240 we had tribes that, you know, would recognize

00:19:10.620 non-binary

00:19:12.620 gender identities as well as

00:19:16.340 you know, different sexualities, and you had

00:19:20.100 queer people in the tribes, you know, all this 0.68

00:19:22.320 happened all before colonialism,

00:19:24.160 and

00:19:24.640 some of these concepts

00:19:27.720 that came by just me using those concepts and turning them on their head and rejecting all of

00:19:33.080 that negative energy that is coming from what the missionaries came with, essentially. So it's like

00:19:40.420 on DVNC, I've got a song called Burying at the Stake. And the reason why I wrote that was

00:19:45.460 what they would do to witches now in terms of punishment is the same thing they would do to 0.94

00:19:55.420 queer people in terms of punishment which is you know put a tire around your neck and you know 0.92

00:20:01.140 try and burn your life and that's a that's a that's essentially a result of all the 0.96

00:20:08.320 colonialism that that came to because I it goes back to the point of um

00:20:14.380 anybody who practices uh traditional forms of spirituality is you know met with aggression

00:20:23.240 yes and i and i think there's definitely like a long probably eternal relationship between

00:20:31.120 witchness and queerness and i think it it comes down to the title of your album which is deviancy

00:20:37.040 yeah we are sort of by necessity uh rule breakers or uh going against the status quo or more

00:20:44.360 importantly questioning the status quo questioning these rules these bibles that are in front of us

00:20:51.140 right yeah yeah because deviant would be something that that would call me essentially

00:20:59.060 and um it's just embracing that that word essentially yeah i mean you do a lot of

00:21:07.980 embracing that i'm i'm very excited about you know like what what happens a lot on this podcast

00:21:13.800 is sort of trying to present the the kinder and gentler face of witchcraft but you come in like

00:21:20.380 don't come to the woods I love that you and you and I spoke a little bit before and I was like 0.86

00:21:26.280 you know I'm more like please come to the woods and you come in or like I met the devil in a mosh

00:21:31.980 pit it's it's it's aggressive but in this like beautiful I don't know how else can you talk

00:21:40.620 about this like reclamation of aggression um yeah can you talk about that reclamation of everything

00:21:49.140 that you're reclaiming in this amazing beautifully aggressive confrontational you go it was just

00:21:56.320 like um growing up and being told to reject all of these things and then um having it change as

00:22:05.500 soon as you like get a better understanding of it and saying oh all this stuff that people thought

00:22:11.440 was bad and people thought that i shouldn't do um you know um i'm embracing that because that

00:22:18.820 actually makes me my purest self so um it's kind of played into that that scary uh bit as well and

00:22:28.820 uh that aggressive bit of it i'll say you know you could either you could either you know tell

00:22:35.900 your oppressors when your oppressor slaps you on your left cheek you can actually you know maybe 0.99

00:22:41.840 give him the right cheek and say hey slap that one too or you can i punch them in the face and 0.98

00:22:47.260 a term to never come back right and i mean this is this sort of submissive christianity 0.99

00:22:54.600 line that we've been fed right this cheek thing but yeah yeah and and it's like

00:23:01.560 uh it's also like a survival thing essentially because this is me saying oh please don't

00:23:09.340 come near me uh because you know i want to survive i i'm i don't know who you are and i

00:23:16.740 don't know what you're capable of essentially like don't don't come to the woods because these

00:23:22.320 are my woods yeah yeah yeah and don't come to the woods was was kind of supposed to be satirical

00:23:28.900 yeah because it's like oh here i am growing up around like you know african spirituality

00:23:36.960 and i just write a song based on like you know western tropes of like witchcraft and

00:23:43.200 make it like as extreme as possible you know but that's the you're like on you're unpacking

00:23:51.140 it for us right you're doing the labor of unpacking these tropes for us and we really

00:23:55.080 appreciate it are you comfortable getting into your your african spirituality like any of the

00:24:03.120 any of your um praxis or practice that comes along with that you mentioned dance what what

00:24:09.260 else is involved um mostly just um you know uh dancing it's mostly just a combination of dancing

00:24:17.820 singing songs and uh there's some things that i can't do like um used to be able to go to the

00:24:25.600 fields and you know get some um food and leave it out for like leave it out by the river for like

00:24:34.660 you know yes or for the ancestors yeah absolutely and you know there's a there's

00:24:41.780 certain things that i can't do um but you know you still like

00:24:47.420 uh there's still certain things that you get you can still doing in your place like

00:24:53.840 um you know talk to them it's as simple as talking to them once in a while

00:24:59.780 you know and trying to interpret dreams um i remember this one time where i just got word

00:25:06.860 from my cousin that if you eat in your dream then it's a sign of a bad omen

00:25:12.400 yeah and that bothered me for like a week

00:25:17.240 because i ate in my dream and and that kind of bothered me for a week and you know i went

00:25:25.460 I went to talk to

00:25:27.760 elders and

00:25:29.780 they can be like 0.98

00:25:30.640 a huge

00:25:33.240 inconvenience or it could be like a

00:25:35.900 terrible, terrible inconvenience.

00:25:37.800 I never found out what the inconvenience is

00:25:39.880 but it's just like

00:25:41.400 just to give an example of what goes

00:25:43.940 around that practice

00:25:46.080 just like interpreting

00:25:48.040 all these messages, talking

00:25:49.900 to all the ancestors

00:25:51.360 giving tribute

00:25:53.860 when you can dancing singing you know singing can also be a form of tribute as well oh absolutely

00:26:00.300 one of my favorites yeah one of my favorites for sure i actually think even performing um and

00:26:10.140 me performing as well is also like a form of tribute as well because i'm kind of you know

00:26:19.240 i'm kind of immortalizing immortalizing them and making sure that their story is done

00:26:25.760 yeah and again especially because you're doing it in this in this reverent manner the content of

00:26:33.800 your lyrics and the the way you perform them and the humility you know the balance of this uh

00:26:39.720 amazing aggressive pride and your beautiful beautiful vulnerability that comes through

00:26:46.540 There was this, there was this one, there was this one girl who I knew at university, no, not university, at, in high school. And the rumor around her was that each time she would sing, she would sing so well, it's almost like she would go into a trance and it's almost like a spirit would take over.

00:27:08.360 you know and um sometimes um sometimes i i hope i do get to that point of where when i'm performing

00:27:19.580 as backwash it just feels like something just takes over and goes let's let's talk about the

00:27:26.080 alchemy of hip-hop yeah how do you choose your samples i know you have other producers but you

00:27:33.140 also produce some of your so how do you choose your samples how do they do they call to you to

00:27:39.580 your ancestors guide you to old record crates in the back of flea markets how do you how do you

00:27:46.580 choose your samples okay so uh a lot of my sampling comes from um okay there are two parts of it i

00:27:56.300 usually like to sample, wait three parts to you. The first thing that I like to sample is

00:28:02.600 old, not really, they don't even have to be old, but like spiritual chants. I sample a lot of

00:28:11.700 spiritual chants in the music. The Don't Come to the Woods, the choir, the choir that is in that

00:28:21.760 instrumental came from a sangoma chant actually there's a song that was idolizing sangomas and

00:28:28.640 that's where that's where it came from so let me sorry i'm just going to interrupt you really

00:28:32.980 quickly for our listeners who don't know a sangoma is sort of like like a healer yeah yeah yeah yeah

00:28:38.880 but uh i guess it's the sangoma that i sampled from was uh southern african south african so

00:28:45.140 So it's from Sangoma in South Africa.

00:28:49.180 And that's where I like to pick the sounds from

00:28:53.680 because it's what I'm immortalizing

00:28:55.980 and it's what I want to keep the story going with them.

00:29:00.180 And it's not only limited to that

00:29:04.220 in terms of what else I sample.

00:29:06.700 I saw sample.

00:29:09.080 Will just made it clear to me

00:29:12.920 that I sample a lot of old rock songs as well um I it turns out that I sample a little Patti

00:29:18.760 Smith as well I'm trying to make sense of it but yeah it turns out I do sample a lot of old rock

00:29:25.900 songs and I'm getting into sampling horror movies as well but horror movies are a bit much more

00:29:31.060 difficult because with horror movies you can tell from hearing the song that it's going to be a

00:29:37.700 creepy song and I don't really like that I like it when you can't really tell that something is

00:29:41.960 creepy than it turns out to be creepy but with like uh horror movies it's like oh yeah this is

00:29:46.880 the score to the ring so i know it's yeah unsettling but uh you do find some good stuff

00:29:53.880 in there so um i guess yeah those are my three main sources just um a lot of old um a little

00:30:02.480 old african well not old a little african chants um uh rock a little old rock songs and uh horror

00:30:11.200 movie scores as well and so when you hear a snippet do you already hear what it's going to

00:30:17.560 be or do you sort of sit and play and move things around until it becomes something um but the

00:30:24.960 complicated part comes with um producing and writing a song after you produce it um because

00:30:34.700 sometimes i'll like a beat like i was like oh i like this beat then it's like oh i've got a

00:30:41.540 process in which if i can't come up with a hook um if i can't come up with a hook in like the

00:30:47.260 next five minutes that i'm not going to use it essentially right yeah i think i i learned that

00:30:54.040 from i learned that from like 50 cent in which um 50 cent talked about the hook of being the most

00:31:01.980 important part of the song and you know i really like to make uh my songs very you know chorus

00:31:10.000 centric well certainly you see that i mean your live audience is always everyone knows your

00:31:16.880 choruses and everyone's always singing along with your choruses it's quite uh come join the circle

00:31:21.880 with me it's it goes back to i look at it like goes back to two places to go back to uh vogue

00:31:33.120 and you know when you're when you're watching vogue it's very repetitious in terms of um

00:31:40.580 what the performer is going to say on the microphone you know there are a lot of

00:31:44.840 chants they would call them and if you go back to African culture and traditional culture

00:31:52.700 the chants that usually here have got a very repetitious thing to them and I try to make my

00:31:59.980 hooks and courses the same way essentially and so I guess the two parts of here is all right

00:32:09.000 i like the sample and you know you can you can usually hear what you're going to make after like

00:32:15.940 the sample comes in so it's like all right i like the sample and you know you you you plot a few

00:32:21.160 drums and it's like all right you know i like i'm feeling the groove and let me see if i can come up

00:32:26.340 with the hook and um and uh and um that that's usually like how the song usually comes but

00:32:35.480 deviancy was different because i don't know where the like choruses dropped from because i had the

00:32:42.500 choruses right before i even did the songs yeah you wrote your choruses first and then built the

00:32:51.680 rest of the song around them yeah yeah like don't come to the woods the only thing that i had in my

00:32:58.280 mind was don't come to the woods which sounds simple but really it's yeah i think that i had

00:33:07.400 then i found this uh sanduma sample and i was like oh this is good and the drums came in and

00:33:14.060 i was like oh let me try then don't come to the woods fit in uh same thing as um same thing as

00:33:22.580 Birmingham at the stake

00:33:24.780 you know the chorus was already there

00:33:27.300 and You Like My Body The Way It Is

00:33:29.000 the chorus was already there so for a few of the songs

00:33:31.320 I already had like the chorus in there

00:33:33.380 but I think what made it easier was

00:33:35.500 trying to convey the repetitious

00:33:37.280 nature with the chants and

00:33:39.180 just trying

00:33:41.440 to fit those in and

00:33:42.640 I like the way it came out

00:33:44.560 Oh it's a fantastic record

00:33:47.440 everyone go buy DVNC

00:33:48.940 immediately

00:33:49.740 so another song from uh deviancy with some of my favorite lyrics of all time and i'm gonna do a 0.99

00:33:59.560 dramatic reading right now these are lyrics from bad juju and fuck everybody 1.00

00:34:05.540 excuse me fuck everybody fuck patriarchy fuck evil standards of beauty we're supposed to live in 1.00

00:34:16.740 fuck society now that's the most relatable lyric probably that i ever heard in my life 1.00

00:34:23.140 can you please please unpack every single word of it for me well it's um okay so with bad juju um 0.98

00:34:33.640 okay because because bad juju is like more akin to my relationship with witchcraft you know

00:34:43.200 don't consider was a bit satirical uh bad juju is like more keen to you know it's because it's

00:34:49.500 very african in the lyrics as well so um the second verse is you know kind of like feeling like

00:34:57.780 you go into a place and you you go into a place and you're actually like oh you actually let us 0.73

00:35:07.200 in here and we're gonna fuck shit up now would you would you be willing to honor us by reciting 0.82

00:35:15.860 that second verse for our listeners right now yeah yeah okay then should i should i explain it 0.98

00:35:23.380 by four bars four bars as well babe it's your show okay okay so um uh it's like uh boy i will 0.98

00:35:33.840 put the shit right on you they make me want to flick it on you i'm saying i'm the most vicious 0.96

00:35:39.760 in speech i talk different i cope with the beats they're not different so uh with the beginning of 1.00

00:35:46.300 that verse i'm just like you know i'm i'm i'm i'm really that that that witch bitch you know i'm 0.99

00:35:53.460 i'm really that and like don't don't tempt me because you know i know what i'm capable of 0.99

00:35:59.760 and also kind of like talking about my prowess as like an emcee just like how to add the two 1.00

00:36:07.440 bars there then um this is like uh the next part is yo done let the trans in this bitch 1.00

00:36:15.920 with the fags and the hags and demand and the shit with the drags with the panic attacks in 1.00

00:36:21.440 the zip and we randy as fuck understand it's the click so those that part is kind of like 1.00

00:36:27.140 you know you as a performer you go to places then it's like oh you're like you already you 0.97

00:36:34.720 already let the trans in here like you've been so trans exclusionary and so queer exclusionary 0.99

00:36:39.320 but you've actually let me in now and now i have no choice but i gotta fuck shit up like i'm not 0.99

00:36:45.180 i'm not gonna be like one of those people who like you just let in i'm just gonna be like all 0.97

00:36:49.440 right i'm just gonna conform to everything that you say because i you know i i i'm happy that 0.99

00:36:54.700 I'm finally in it's like no I'm in and now you've given me an opportunity to like fuck shit up like 0.97

00:37:01.280 thank you so much so it was like you know kind of like me bringing all the like you know all 0.99

00:37:08.640 my friends in so it's like fags and the hags and the man and drags just like all all coming in and 0.99

00:37:15.160 we're just like gonna like fuck shit up and just gonna like tear shit off the walls we're just 0.99

00:37:19.960 gonna like twerk on like your cushions just like gonna do everything and um that's what i wanted 0.99

00:37:26.680 to compare with those four bars then it's like in the wake of the spirit of witches and liches

00:37:32.760 homophobes keep on wishing it couldn't be any different sentences to the seminar pushing me 0.98

00:37:37.880 for religion middle finger hospitable thinning for other bitches so it's just me like rejecting 0.99

00:37:43.720 all of these like rejecting all of these like you know these these these values that they try to 1.00

00:37:50.920 push on me after i've come in and fucked it up and it's you know it's just kind of like talking 0.75

00:37:56.280 at them and saying like you know this was like this should have been obvious like this is what 0.95

00:38:01.720 i think like like like in the way through the spirit witches and liches like this is me

00:38:07.240 i hope folks keep on wishing it couldn't be it it couldn't be any different it's just like

00:38:12.120 like, said it says to the seminary pushing me for religion,

00:38:15.000 which is, like, not gonna happen,

00:38:16.340 and it's just, like, you know,

00:38:17.580 me kind of, like, staring them in the face 0.98

00:38:19.460 and just being, like, oh, I'm sorry I fucked shit up, 0.99

00:38:21.480 but now I gotta, like, stare at you in the face 0.99

00:38:23.860 and say all of these words.

00:38:26.220 So after that, the hook comes in,

00:38:29.160 and then, um, you know, 1.00

00:38:31.960 it's just me saying fuck everybody, you know, 1.00

00:38:34.480 and just, like, after you've come in 1.00

00:38:37.940 and you fuck shit up, you gotta, like... 1.00

00:38:42.120 You know, they got to, like, give a speech on why you're doing it, you know? 1.00

00:38:45.900 You got to, like, give a speech on why you're doing it.

00:38:48.160 So if you're giving, like, that few minutes on the microphone

00:38:52.620 to say something to, like, people around the world,

00:38:55.500 and those are just, like, lines I came up with. 1.00

00:38:58.180 It's like, fuck everybody, just like, fuck racist, fuck those, like, 1.00

00:39:03.200 you know, even standards of beauty that we're forced to live in, 1.00

00:39:06.080 because I think, like, you know, that's, like, direct and to the point.

00:39:11.000 Mm-hmm.

00:39:12.120 i was like shaking because i didn't i wanted to clap and i was like don't interrupt don't

00:39:22.360 interrupt so my whole body was shaking the whole time it's just so perfect which is i mean if

00:39:29.400 you're looking for an anthem to our listeners out there i'm going to uh play some more of

00:39:36.180 backwash his music but really just go out and get black sailor moon and get deviancy and listen to

00:39:44.180 them on repeat like i do um but before we leave deviancy behind all this um aggressive and you

00:39:54.580 know hot and um but then you also have a song like you like my body the way it is

00:40:04.420 so you're so true to my soul have no use for my flaws, I'm so truly a Kong, I wake up and

00:40:10.420 every day I feel like bliss and I try to pen my feelings, there's a message in my kiss cause

00:40:15.300 you like my body the way it is, you like my body the way it is, you like my body the way it is,

00:40:33.660 you like my body yeah can we talk about that song for a minute it's so tender and it's like

00:40:40.160 the antithesis but it's also it's the same because it's about being knowing your power

00:40:47.960 knowing what you're capable of knowing your beauty right anyway tell me about tell me about

00:40:53.000 you like my body the way it is um so when i was coming up with you like my body the way is i

00:40:58.140 already had I already had the idea for the hook to my mind and I was like all

00:41:04.320 right what who am I gonna sample for this one like where am I gonna get the

00:41:08.400 sample that should I just plot like should I just play the piano by myself

00:41:11.700 or should I just like you know sample it then Patti Smith again just like again

00:41:19.920 like all right so I said I found this like nice piano lining from Birdland

00:41:25.500 and, you know, chop that up

00:41:27.200 and put some drums and some chords all over it.

00:41:30.020 I know I had to just write the words,

00:41:31.560 and the words didn't take long to come out

00:41:34.160 because it's like, you know,

00:41:36.200 when you get into a moment

00:41:37.600 where you have all the right things to say

00:41:40.320 and the words are dropping one by one,

00:41:44.280 and, you know, I was just like,

00:41:47.240 you know, after all this anger,

00:41:49.400 what's more deviant to, like, these people

00:41:52.300 than somebody who is just in a position

00:41:56.440 where they're able to feel a certain way as a trans person.

00:42:00.580 Because that's terrifying to these people. 0.99

00:42:02.820 They don't like it when trash people feel like this. 0.91

00:42:05.960 So that's probably the most deviant thing to these people, 1.00

00:42:09.200 just a trans person being comfortable 0.98

00:42:11.120 and having support from somebody with love.

00:42:14.720 So the words just came out,

00:42:18.100 and the world just came out and, you know, I had it written

00:42:23.560 and I was thinking, like, should I put it, like, on the project

00:42:29.140 because the project has been, like, harsh and, like, noisy and heavy.

00:42:34.360 So I just, like, I was like, yes, I think it's a good idea

00:42:40.360 because once you go through all of that, you know, intenseness,

00:42:46.420 you're not gonna go intense the whole way.

00:42:49.060 You're probably gonna like slow it down

00:42:50.520 just for like a few minutes and just like recollect yourself.

00:42:53.600 So I was like, I need some way to cut it.

00:42:57.800 You know, it's kind of like cut the project like a knife

00:43:00.800 so that one side can be the intense one

00:43:03.600 and the other side can be like the softer one.

00:43:06.980 So I got my friend to play me a guitar line

00:43:11.040 and I reversed it and the interlude is called

00:43:14.440 I will meet you by the river because the river is like one of the places where you talk to your ancestors back home.

00:43:27.000 So it's like, oh, yeah, I'll meet you by the river.

00:43:29.140 So, you know, kind of like after all of this chaos, you talk to your ancestors, you know, to gain your clarity.

00:43:37.900 and that's when my body, the way it is, comes in

00:43:42.840 because now you're calm and, you know,

00:43:45.400 going through all that intense part

00:43:46.900 and now it's just like the salt part

00:43:48.400 and, you know, kind of feeling vulnerable

00:43:50.860 and sorry for yourself.

00:43:55.800 And yeah, that's how, yeah, that's how you feel.

00:43:59.860 But that's the thing for me is that it's like

00:44:02.660 the whole record is about being powerful

00:44:06.040 And this is just illustrating like the, the power of vulnerability.

00:44:11.040 So to me, it's like completely in line with the whole thing.

00:44:19.960 Thank you. Thank you so much.

00:44:23.620 Do you have anything that you want our listeners to know about you or about the universe?

00:44:30.980 Any message for our covens?

00:44:37.060 I would say stay vigilant.

00:44:43.620 And I hope everybody has a good, you know, rest of the year.

00:44:49.020 And I'm working on an EP called Sigils.

00:44:54.040 And it's probably going to be, I'm working on an EP and an album.

00:45:00.980 it's coming out next year as well uh so the ep is probably going to be darker but uh

00:45:07.820 music is yeah music is a good medium for that so absolutely i know that i am looking so

00:45:15.320 very forward to seeing where this journey takes you and how you experiment further with these

00:45:23.600 themes and just get deeper into them i'm i'm really excited and i'm super excited to be on the

00:45:29.940 sort of mid ground floor of uh your uh success thank you i don't know how else to put it

00:45:40.300 it's i'm really proud of you you know your work is your work is fantastic and it it makes me want

00:45:48.180 to break things and hug things and be better and do justice and be a witch it's great all you

00:45:58.640 witches out there who are listening if you are looking for some witch anthems please and now 0.72

00:46:03.740 hit us with your socials whatever links links links uh backwash everywhere essentially uh 0.93

00:46:10.680 backwash on uh backwash on instagram backwash on uh spotify on twitter and that's b-a-c-k-x-w-a-s-h

00:46:22.660 yeah so back x wash that's how we spell back wash thank you so much ashanti this has been an

00:46:30.660 absolute dream and a pleasure i'm so grateful thank you so much for having me now what song

00:46:36.460 would you like to leave our listeners with um probably burn me at the stake burn me at the

00:46:44.100 steak. Thank you again. 0.98

00:47:14.100 Gotta take this unleaded mix 1.00

00:47:16.360 With a shag that's bloodshedded 0.99

00:47:18.300 And on my life I'll be so 1.00

00:47:20.100 Black with a fist up trans 1.00

00:47:21.900 And I'm thinking of hitting my man in the mirror 1.00

00:47:24.520 Fuck it, and here I am 1.00

00:47:26.600 Burning at your cross 1.00

00:47:28.400 I'm still standing here, bitches 1.00

00:47:30.140 Once the energy is gone 1.00

00:47:31.820 Check the letters in my palm

00:47:33.620 The message in my arm

00:47:35.380 I'd rather perish before I leave you 1.00

00:47:37.280 With a motherfucking chance to tell these nicks 1.00

00:47:39.880 To burn me at the stake 1.00

00:47:42.080 To burn me at the stake 0.99

00:47:43.820 Don't care how long it takes 1.00

00:47:45.580 I tell this bitches, man 1.00

00:47:47.320 To burn me out the stake 1.00

00:47:49.080 To burn me out the stake

00:47:50.860 It's for the real, no fake 1.00

00:47:52.620 I tell this niggas, man 1.00

00:47:54.300 To burn me out the stake 1.00

00:47:56.120 To burn me out the stake 0.90

00:47:57.880 Don't care how long it takes 1.00

00:47:59.700 I tell this bitches, man 1.00

00:48:01.640 To burn me out the stake 1.00

00:48:03.200 To burn me out the stake

00:48:04.980 It's for the real, no fake

00:48:06.940 I was born in the street

00:48:08.940 All the portholes and old roads

00:48:11.040 Granny all the things, I'm a lonesome 0.99

00:48:13.540 She don't know, most my life shit has been so-so 0.98

00:48:17.000 But picture me, don't load 0.99

00:48:18.780 I trap my own soul in a snow cloak 1.00

00:48:21.460 The poor, poor Roman

00:48:23.080 And they're asking like, who is he?

00:48:25.240 The violence that the settlers has provided through you and me

00:48:28.720 Pull the bleed, tie around the neck

00:48:30.940 Lit, feels complete, unusual screams

00:48:33.140 Beam from a place of non-human scene

00:48:35.840 And in my story, I don't make it to home

00:48:38.640 Just a remnant of the lessons in the state of adolescence

00:48:42.440 Middle finger to the elders

00:48:44.220 I don't pay anymore 0.98

00:48:45.660 You can burn me to a crisp

00:48:47.700 I won't rest till I'm gone 1.00

00:48:49.300 I tell these niggas, man 1.00

00:48:51.060 To burn me at this stake 1.00

00:48:52.680 To burn me at this stake 0.98

00:48:54.420 Don't care how long it takes 1.00

00:48:56.180 I tell these bitches, man 1.00

00:48:58.020 To burn me at this stake 1.00

00:48:59.720 To burn me at this stake

00:49:01.460 It's for the real, no fake 1.00

00:49:03.200 I tell these niggas, man 1.00

00:49:04.960 To burn me at this stake 1.00

00:49:06.740 To burn me at this stake 0.98

00:49:08.500 Don't care how long it takes 1.00

00:49:10.280 I tell these bitches, man 1.00

00:49:12.180 So bring me out the state 1.00

00:49:13.780 So bring me out the state

00:49:15.580 This is for the real nothing

00:49:17.420 Backwatch

00:49:20.220 Dickinson, man 1.00

00:49:22.260 Bring me out the motherfucking state 0.99

00:49:24.960 2019 0.99

00:49:27.160 We out 1.00

00:49:28.940 I tell these niggas 1.00

00:49:32.860 Bring me out the state 1.00

00:49:35.000 Bring me out the state

00:49:36.680 Bring me out the state

00:49:38.460 I tell this

00:49:42.180 Thank you.

Missing Witches - October 30, 2019

Witches Found： Backxwash - Most Of My Experience Is A Rejection Of Colonialism

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