For this track we go for a bit of west coast hip-hop, delving into a bit of the local talent here In Seattle. I recently had the chance to catch up to the key players:
What was the inspiration behind the track?
SPEKULATION: The Northwest has had a great year, with gay marriage, socialists being elected to the Seattle city council, marijuana legalization, the Seahawks winning the Superbowl, Macklemore collecting hella Grammies... So Nate Omdal (the composer and instrumental arranger) and I started working on the instrumental with that in mind, trying to build something that captured the confidence we felt in the city at that moment, but also something that paid tribute to a lot of the traditions of Northwest music. We knew we wanted someone with a voice powerful enough to rival those horns, so we asked Paolo to get on the hook, and I'd heard Perry do great work with Big Band-sounding material before so I wanted to push him a little more in that direction and he was kind enough to oblige.
PAOLO: Spek had the title "The Mighty" on the track he sent me, so when we sat down to meet about the hook we decided to highlight how great of a town we live in, and how dope the people coming out of Seattle are by writing about it, "welcome to the home of the mighty!"
PERRY: The northwest is killing shit right, but I wanted to let people know there's more going on in the state than just Seattle. Swayside 'til I die.
How did you all meet? Had you worked together before?
SPEKULATION: About a week before Paolo and I met, I was talking with Nate Omdal about the hook, saying we needed to find a local soul singer with that classically smokey voice, and how few people sang like that anymore. I work at a cafe on the weekends, and one day Paolo's in there drinking coffee, and he pulls out his guitar and starts playing while I'm closing up shop. It was the first time I'd heard him sing. We met up and recorded Home Of The Mighty a couple weeks later.
There's a band in town called Theoretics, they do live-band-hiphop stuff, and Perry and I both performed on a show with them last year, which was the first time we met. I was impressed that night by Perry's stage presence and ability to hold his own with a live band. He uses a lot of complicated rhythms and patterns in his verses, but none of that was lost in the transition to the live band. He released Kings Only shortly after that, at which point I was convinced he was in line for the top spot out here.
PAOLO: I met Spekulation at The Station cafe in Beacon Hill. I have a tendency to bring my guitar with me everywhere I go, and as Spek was doing his barista thing I started singing and after struck up a conversation on doing a track together. My expectation was that it was all talk, as per my experience with a ton of producers before, that we'd chat about tracking but never actually do it. But about a week later we met up, recorded the demo, and a week or so after finished recording my vocals at the studio he works at. Winner!
I had never actually met Perry until well after the song was done, but looking back I'm pretty sure he had stopped by the sandwich shop I work at before (Beacon Ave Sandwiches) so he looked familiar. Small city this is!
PERRY : I meet Speks thru The Theoretics. We were dubbed the soft voice guys so we already had something in common. He didnt look like the avg rapper and he had the craziest laugh, bruh... then I heard him rap and was like, "Yo this guy is good. Bobby Hill can rap"
15