A couple of months ago, we shared with you the pizza delivery centered visual from Down 2 Earth (D2E) for their first single "DNA". Now, the Bay area trio are ready to share their sophomore album titled Fair Share. If you were unfamiliar with Azure, Clyde, and Dayvid; you will thank us once you press play.
Fair Share is a 12-track melting pot of sounds that create sonic cohesion. With production from Mikos Da Gawd, Wax Roof, Kuya Beats, Cal-A, and D2E themselves; there is no doubting how hard this project slaps. This album is more than great production. The overarching theme of doing your fair share by uplifting and supporting your friends or fellow man is weaved throughout the project. In this day and age, it's a necessary reminder. The funny skits sprinkled throughout provide some comic relief.
We had the opportunity to ask Down 2 Earth a few questions about the conception of Fair Share. See what they had to say below.
EARMILK: How did you come up with the title Fair Share?
D2E: The title is a culmination of more than one meaning: first and foremost, we are a group that is literally sharing sound waves. Our process is collaborative through and through…Clyde is the sample excavator while azure is the beat technician. While the beat is being made many times Dayvid has penned a hook, and after conceptualization we begin writing our verses. Our voices share spaces on a bed of loops, drums, and instruments.
Secondly, this being our sophomore project we've had our 'fair share' of the music game and life as it intertwines with it. We're no longer rookies! We are wiser. This all wraps up in the most important part of the title…We live in a modern world where "free" is non-existent. This makes sharing that much more sacred. Why do we get pumped when someone notices our aux cord selection? Why does paying for your homie's lunch feel gratifying? We share ourselves mentally and spiritually with each other daily, and understanding the importance of this action is imperative, thus spawning the title Fair Share.
EARMILK: Did you plan to take 2 years in between your first album and "Fair Share"?
D2E: Honestly as artists, we don't put timelines on our creation, nor do we rush it. We are people who focus on the current moment. We're translating what's right in front of us through words and art, so it's hard to put that action on a timeline. Before we began Wildfire, we were all working on solo projects; after it dropped we all felt a need to see those individual projects through. We don't plan much…initially we all halted our solo tapes to work on Wildfire because the songs attracted us so much. After Wildfire dropped there was a similar attraction that drew us to finishing our respective solo works before crafting (and now dropping) Fair Share.
EARMILK: In comparison the your 2015 album "Wildfire", "Fair Share" focuses more on you three with there being a lot less features. Was that a conscious decision or did it just happen like that? If it was a conscious decision, what led to that decision?
D2E: Wildfire was our first project in the studio together as a group, and our coming out party of sorts; we knew that we were unknown as D2E and having notable features was a good way to initially get heard. Dayvid and Kehlani met as teenagers, Azure went to High School with Su and Kuya Beats, Clyde was in a group with Carbyne..many of the people we collaborate with naturally happened to be bubbling up at the time, so everything fell in line for us gaining our initial exposure.
With Fair Share, we began recording 6 months after our last official session. We wanted to channel out everything and everyone outside of our immediate circle of 3. The music and inspiration struck fast. Within a month we were halfway into the project and our manager Farid pointed out the absence of features. Over the course of the next month we were conscious of the absence, yet didn't feel a natural itch to bring anybody else in. It started feeling unique that we were creating something solely done by us and us only. So it was a semi-conscious decision, but more-over a natural one.
EARMILK: How would you describe the sound of this album?
D2E: What lacked in Wildfire was a sense of BOUNCE. We were so focused on writing our own story and selecting left-field samples that we didn't focus on the groove of the songs as much. Fair Share is an evolution of our sound-production with a consistent lyrical awareness. There are skits and secret trap doors all over the project, which we reveled in. In addition to the bounce, we wanted to create a bigger sound. This led to us co-producing with live instrumentalists and bringing in people like Wax (Roof) and Kuya to give us a more modern take sonically. It's less boom-bap sample loops, more funk. The lyrics are less personal and more observant of our surroundings. The concepts are more abstract and psychedelic.
EARMILK: Can we expect to see D2E on tour soon?
D2E: Godwillin!
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