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Staunch Moderates recently sat down with VENTS Magazine to discuss all things “Socrates Cafe (Live)”. Interview is down below!
Walk me through the core beat behind “Socrates Cafe (LIVE)”—did it begin as a repeated phrase, a piano or guitar figure, or something that only fully revealed itself once you were playing it in the studio?
Oh wow, I’m glad you asked. It made me go back and listen to the core beat, which was originally called “Ocean,” by its producer. Yes, it began with a repeated upbeat R&B phrase played by bass guitar and then had some keys and percussion laid on to it. It really spoke to me for the opening lyrics of the track, “Let me tell you about this cat I know, Professor Bo Persiko. We were hanging out at Socrates Café. What would the world look like in ten years if everything was the way you see fit: socially, politically economically, world order?” When I rapped the lyrics, Wolfgang Jack came to mind, granted I don’t at all sound like him, but I wanted to come across as this cool cat while I was rapping these lyrics, introducing Staunch Moderates in Socrates Café.
On the production and arrangement side, what choices (tempo feel, dynamics, instrumentation, room sound) helped capture the intimacy and spontaneity of the live setting without sanding off the rough edges?
Speaking to the arrangement, what comes in after my rapping or poetic storytelling introducing the Staunch Moderates® Movement through our originating track, “Socrates Café ,” Casanova Ace raps or Kyle Knight raps it with me live as a duet. Then Jeffry Skunk Baxter’s guitar lead is laid in throughout, which, by the way, is a great way to primarily listen for as one takes in the track throughout. Once again, speaking to the arrangement is our meaningful chorus, which we open Socrates Café Live with, “Fantasy or reality, it is what it is possibilities.” This is layered in appropriately so throughout. The final component of this track is the echo chamber FX we used towards the end of the song, laying Casanova Ace’s rapping, my rapping, the chorus & Skunk’s guitar lead all over each other as a crescendo/party-like sound, which, due to abundant mixing, we feel works quite well.
Once the concept locked in, what was the first moment or image you knew had to exist in the “Socrates Cafe (LIVE)”world—something that defined the mood of the room?
The moment and the image were where at the beginning of the track, behind me as I was MCing the concert, there was Bigfoot ,”DJ Staunch® DJing.“ How’s that for entertainment? Why is Bigfoot the mascot of our Staunch Moderates Intellectual Movement? Not only is Bigfoot the number one folklore character in our current day pop culture, but “Bigfoot“ represents the bigfoot of our country, all Moderates! What would you say, 80 or 90%? We hold in the Staunch Moderates Movement, “If you’re not a Moderate, you are an Extremist.” I ask the question, is there an in-between? This would make an interesting forum. The other reason Bigfoot fits as the mascot for our intellectual movement and the focal point of our band is that we are in the paradigm shifting business, like from the most terrifying folklore character to the coolest being on the planet, or to shifting the current state of our country: all the partisanship, vitriol and hate into a more moderate, peaceful, loving society!” That is what this movement and our band is really all about. That is why we are in business.
For GTS, Casanova Ace, and DJ Staunch, how did roles divide in practice for this performance: musical direction, lyrical emphasis, dancing, pacing the set, audience interaction, or final creative calls?
If one were to watch our film, Staunch Moderates Experience Live, our live concert, he or she would see that my role, GTS, was to MC the concert and to do a bit of rapping throughout the show. Casanova Ace’s role was that he pretty much wrote all the poetry to the lyrics in our songs. You can also hear his voice performing on many tracks. Kyle Knight’s role was that he performed/rapped pretty much all the tracks in our live concert on stage with us. Our Bigfoot, DJ Staunch, was, of course, our DJ playing all our beats that we were rapping to, besides his making some amusing moves on stage. Pearrie Hammie was our most awesome choreographer and dancer, along with her twin or triplet sister,s whom we refer to as our dance troupe, “the Staunchettes!” We believe and hope that the combination of our bands’ artists’ performances, along with the organization of all our multi-genre hip hop tracks, tells a meaningful story to you and comes across as a good and entertaining show.
Which lyric or musical moment in “Socrates Cafe (LIVE)” feels closest to what you were trying to communicate, and what’s the story behind how it landed in the performance?
I like the track most when we are at the 3:49 to 4:05 mark, when we are in the echo chamber, and the track is really jamming with Skunk’s lead guitar, our chorus signing, “fantasy or reality, it is what it is possibilities,” and finally Cas rapping, “trying to fix the world with the flag unfurled, with Staunch we chill & everybody gets real, with love & hope good help we cope, no virus & droughts, floods & riots are out, racism gone good laws are on, our legacy says good things we did, we loved and really took care of our kids.. “Fantasy or reality? It is what it is possibilities!”
The story as to how this lands in the performance is just behind the first three tracks opening our concert which is a century of pop culture music history opening with Frank & the Rat Pack, followed by Ramsey Lewis and finally the story of Rolling Stone Magazine (all three being a 100 year history) to introduce our Socrates Café and the Staunch Moderates Movement which is a 100 year celebration of Woodrow Wilson’s 1919 League of Nations, currently United Nations, all the above pushing dialogue to promulgate understanding & peace!
Visually, did you lean more toward capturing an authentic live moment versus stylized production, and how did that choice affect the performers’ energy and connection in the room?
I’d say we visually leaned most into capturing an authentic live moment most significantly telling the story being told from our string of chronologically ordered music videos on the Jumbotron in back of our band illustrating the story of our intellectual movement as it was created and administered since 2019 through today, noting One Hundred years after Woodrow Wilson created League of Nations in 1919. When I say it is a hundred-year celebration, I am not lying.
Even though I say we most leaned into an authentic live moment above, I must admit that using our Bigfoot Staunch as our DJ, naming our band after him, “DJ Staunch® and the Bigfoots,” and then having our dance troupe, the Staunchettes ( I love their dancing with us), all this does stylize us quite a bit!
From a release-strategy standpoint, why lead with a live version, and what do you hope listeners take away from encountering the song this way first?
I don’t know that we lead with the live version of Socrates Café. After all, Socrates Café, the non-live version, was the first track we dropped and published as a single in July of 2021. It got us our first Grammys First Ballot Bid Nomination for the Grammys in 2022. It is the anchor track of the Staunch Moderates Movement and literally tells the story and initiatives of the first year of the Staunch Moderates Intellectual Movement operations for peace.
The Moderates’ catalog often balances ideas and immediacy—what guardrails helped keep this performance focused on conversation and meaning rather than polish?
Yes, we have a set of ideas, but one primary idea that immediacy is highly related to. That idea is addressing our socio-political divide that our country is plagued with, and by addressing it as such, to strive for peace. Immediacy is so relevant that many, if not most, consider it too late. I/we argue and put our money and work where our mouths are, saying we have to try! This is imperative to us and our legacy. Now, regarding the lack of polish, I will take all the responsibility for it, because I have been surrounded by great, talented artists and professionals. I MC, co-write and rap or sing on our tracks. I readily admit I am no Eminem or Justin Timberlake. If I were, we would have a whole other level of polish and success already for sure! Do you know what it takes to contract and produce with talent like that? I can tell you it takes well beyond the money and time that I/we had to produce and spread our movement’s message with any level of immediacy. Therefore, I just stepped in and did it. People tell me it makes sense because I am the leader of the movement. Thanks to having a great team, some experience in the entertainment biz myself, the use of Hollywood’s smoke and mirrors, we’ve fortunately gotten away with it to some degree, that is with our over 230 Million Views and Streams of our content (we’re getting the message out there), 21 First Ballot Bid Grammy Nominations over the past five years, many awards having been won for our films and music, and four feature film signed distribution deals. I don’t say all this to pat myself or us on the back. I say it all, striving to get us on top of the media cycle, yes, covered by both CNN & Fox News, an intellectual movement and entertainment studio specifically designed and operated to address the divide and strive for national and world peace. The conversation of addressing the divide, including our suggested concerts, plays, and academic courses, should be had and should be an item on the top of the news cycle, considering our current divisive climate, a current-day Hamilton, so to speak. I’m sure many would agree.
Is there a moment in the performance that casual listeners might miss—a vocal inflection, a harmonic turn, a crowd response—that you’re especially proud of?
In the first 55 seconds of our “Socrates Café Live” track, a listener can hear a brief siren, followed by a sweeping sound at approximately Timestamp 0050 to 0055, which speaks to the immediacy of cleaning things up. I will also again point out the crescendo of our echo chamber towards the end of the track where we really get jamming with all elements mixed. I love that part of the song.
Looking ahead, what’s the next experiment, and how does your desire to be considered for the Harry Belafonte Best Song for Social Change Award shape the narrative of the Staunch Moderates movement going forward? Looking forward, the next experiment, as I said above, is to see if we can’t somehow get the Staunch Moderates Movement or “Experience” as its known as a concert or a play to the top of the news cycle which should/could help us bring our set of initiatives: concert series, plays on Broadway and/or Las Vegas (the Sphere being the best!), credited academic courses at multiple levels of education all as an effort to affect society positively, to make the tenant of striving to get along with each other paramount to all others and a discipline for all to take on. If I could speak to the Recording Academy members, which I can’t, I would lobby for our Socrates Café Live to win the Harry Belafonte Song for Social Change Award, because it is our anchor track for an Intellectual Movement for social change that has a www.StaunchModerates.org robust website, four multi-genre hip hop albums dropped conveying our story and theme over the past five years, four feature films with signed distribution deals, the first, “Mission Peace,” currently available on Amazon and Apple, many awards having been won for our music and films, over a hundred articles and fifty radio interviews, all as an effort to affect social change by de-escalating the socio-political divide and for us to instill a discipline as a cultural tenant to strive to get along. Many argue it’s to late. We argue it’s imminent. Let’s all work together and make this positive cultural phenomenon happen.
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