Interview by Nix Pernia, Marco Viray
Introduction by VV
On the cusp of dropping their debut, the cats behind the gritty “Crtl+Alt+Del” video making its rounds online and on Urban Myx catch rec as possibly the torchbearers for underground Philippine Hip-Hop moving forward.
Does everyone in the crew rhyme?
Switch: Everyone went through the process of rhyming, but everyone found their own thing they love in with respect to the group. But, like, ask anyone of these (guys) to go on the mic, they’ll rip it. (they start spitting rhymes)
You guys are basically underground champs. How do you plan to get your product out to as many heads as possible?
Switch: Everything about Miscellaneous is pretty much organic. It came naturally, so I guess even the product is going to go out there naturally. We’re not going to pull off any special stunts to get it out there, you know.
Delphi: If they wanna dig, they can find it.
Do any of you have day jobs? How does this change the dynamic of the group, if at all? If this rap thing really blows up, do you see yourselves doing this fulltime (that is, quitting your day job)?
Switch: All our practices, all our jams, it’s just us hanging out. It’s just downtime.
D’Tech: After work, we look forward to practice. We get to drink, hang out, fool around.
Switch works in advertising as a writer; D’Technician helps manage a family business. He also has a studio called Jackhammer Studio; Delphi is a psuedo-professional wake boarder. His work revolves around being around the water, selling wakeboards; DJ Umph is a cameraman and an editor. “I shoot people, and try to make them look pretty.” Tibbz is a freelance writer, opening up a restaurant in Boracay called Tito’s “it’s dope, it’s got aircon!”
D’Tech: The jobs don’t affect anything. When we get together, it’s music, (it’s) good times. As you can see from this interview, we just fool around, man.
Switch: This is how we are, even in practice. It’s more on the dirty side, but this is how we are everyday.
How did the gig in Singapore come about?
Delphi: (It was) definitely one of the dopest gigs we’ve ever done. It was our first international one. We
have to give a big shout out to Xarin Garuda. He caught us at one of the gigs here, The Malaysia vs. Philippines , Silat Fliptop gig. He saw us there, and right after, he came up to us and said, “I gotta get you guys to Singapore.” We exchanged emails, and we didn’t expect to hear from him, but two weeks later, he was like, “let’s set this up.”
Switch: It was the first time all of us got to travel together to do music, and to share it with the people there.
How does being a member of a hip-hop group in the Philippines differ from being one in the US?
DJ Umph: That’s a tough question. I don’t really know how it is out there. We just do our thing out here. I hope it’s the right thing. (laughs)
Switch: We run with our friends, our circles. Everything we do, we don’t take it too seriously, we’re just having fun. We’re not out there to make money.
DJ Umph: (It has) never been about fame, never been about anything, never been about an album. It has always been about friends.
Delphi: We were doing this before we were getting gigs.
6. What’s next for Misc?
Delphi: The album drops on June 15, it’s called Almost Done. The reason why it’s called Almost Done, is for all the 10 years people have been asking us for an album, and we just don’t have excuses anymore. So, when it is done, it’s a double meaning. Like, yeah sure, the albums almost done, but it’s a next step to what we’re going to do… which we have no idea what it’s going to be. Everything is a work in progress, basically. We go with the flow.
Next? We really can’t say. “Almost done,” to “not quite done,” “not quite just there yet,” and then “whatever comes,” to “this is it.” But we’ll be doing this till we die, for sure.
We just want to tell the people: I know it’s really important for any musical group to have a portfolio and album, and stuff like that, but we just want to encourage the people to come check out as many live gigs as you can. I get to travel to a lot of places, and there’s nothing like the Philippines. End of the day, I just wanna have a circus group go around, tour Southeast Asia, all over the world with these musical guys out here. Don’t be so obsessed with the album, guys and girls. The true test of any musical group is its live element. That’s how it will strike you the most. Nothing will hit you harder than watching somebody live, pouring his heart out in front of you.
Peep Miscellaneous at:
http://themightymiscellaneous.blogspot.com/
http://lockeddownentertainment.blogspot.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/LockedDownPH
Video Credits:
Capture and Editing - Janb Dayrit
Photo Credits:
1st Photo – Isi Laureno
2nd Photo – CJ Jimenez
3rd Photo – Team Manila x Daily Grind