Downset play the Whiskey A Go Go Aug. 16
Downset is a rap metal group of five members formed in the late 1980s that was formerly known as Social Justice from LA, CA. They brought the best of hip-hop, hardcore and punk rock, and blended it all together. Now they’re back better than ever before with a performance at Whiskey A Go Go on Aug. 16.
Downset has performed with a plethora of talents from Snoop Dogg to Slipknot to Linkin Park. They recently finished up an east coast tour where they even played at The Hardcore Festival in Philadelphia.
The OC Concert Guide had the opportunity to talk to Downset about their comeback, origin, upcoming shows and their latest album One Blood!
OCCG: How did you come up with your name DOWNSET? How did all of you meet?
Downset: Rey came up with the name after we were called Social Justice. It meant coming from the bottom of a social, political, and economic strata. We met through the LA hardcore/punk/skateboarding/graffiti art scenes. Personally I was a huge fan of Social Justice before I joined in 1991. We were just local hardcore kids that shared a love of the freedom that underground art and culture provided us. It was a great time to be D.I.Y. We got to know the Xerox machines very well.
OCCG: It’s over 8 years since your last record. What have you been doing during that time?
Downset: I ran an Independent record store in Burbank called Backside, went back to school and got my degree in Broadcasting. I continued to play bass in several projects including a hip hop project called Very Special People that included some of LA’s premier underground MC’s. I became an Engineer for a major TV news network here in the San Fernando Valley. I started a punk band, NonCon that I love. It’s a nod to 80’s backyard hardcore.
OCCG: What happened that made you realized you wanted to make a comeback?
Downset: I got a call from Ares who said that he and Rey had been in contact with Chris Hamilton who played on our 3rd album. Turns out that they had a bunch of demos sitting around from years ago and that they’d like to have me onboard to complete the songs, put out a record and do a few shows. I saw it as an opportunity to plug back into the big machine that is DOWNSET. I thought it would be fun to reconstruct the friendships and play with the guys that were there for so much of my formative moments. It’s not everyday that you get a chance to revisit a living piece of art that you helped create. Heavy music has become such a large part of popular culture, and to experience your place in it with the benefit of hindsight was very appealing. I figured as long as we were still fit enough to do it legitimately and not just rehash glory days, and then it was a worthwhile endeavor.
OCCG: What is the meaning behind your latest album One Blood?
Downset: For me it is heralding the facets of our roots. Hardcore and Hip Hop. It means that culture strives to create, and now more than ever, art that has something to say can effect positive change. Whether it be rap or punk is not the important thing, but those are our melding elements. I think that One Blood is a rallying cry for inclusion rather than exclusion or seclusion in ALL forms of expression. Find your allies, create vehicles to be seen and heard. Unite and build bridges.
OCCG: What do you want your fans to gain out of the video for “One Blood?”
Downset: I want them to see a band that is having a good time being elder statesmen of Los Angeles Underground Culture. I would like a visceral experience to occur. I think the video shows us relative to what we stand on the shoulders of, and that is some of the giants of the Hardcore and Hip Hop culture. The band is very much having a good time in the video. I think it was finally time to see us in that respect as well. It’s ok to have a blast doing this. I also think that the video does a good job representing the intensity of this band live as well as underscoring the message of One Blood, which is: Unity
OCCG: What do you want to do now that you couldn’t have back when you guys were more active with music?
Downset: Have a more updated approach on social media. To cater to the vast arena of information and presence that that can be conveyed and provided if you have something to say or show. I think now is the time for quality to come to the forefront of what you have to offer. You can do a really great job making your point in an extremely concise manner. YOU can brand yourself now, and not worry about a label doing it for you. It can be re-enforced daily, hourly etc. It is a great time to be creative. I would also like to see us bring our past forward into the light. To create a historical document as far as DOWNSET’S relativity to the scene we were a part of. It is most certainly a documentary culture we live in now.
OCCG: What are you most looking forward to your show at Whiskey A Go Go in LA on August 16?
Downset: I am looking forward to seeing 20 plus years of our effect on the fans. IT is going to be SO much fun taking a victory lap at our home field. I love our hometown crowd, and to feel that kind of love again is going to be singular and euphoric. I missed that energy in the interim and I am going to be a very proud man on that stage. I am looking forward to opening the show with my hardcore band NonCon.
OCCG: Now that you guys are back on the radar, what’s next on your agenda?
Downset: To take it one step at a time. We are all older and have careers and families. I think the agenda has shifted to put the focus on enjoying the thing we created, rather than stress over it trying to support us. I love just being on a communicative basis with the guys again and like I said, it’s great to have hindsight be 20/20 yet still be able to do the same song in a new and still vital construct. It’s going to be fun to still matter to music, to bring the new album, One Blood to a new generation of listener’s ears. It’s kind of like the caveman being thawed out and unleashed on the scene! Turns out throwback are a GOOD thing.