Although local band Bionic Jive signed to Interscope Records nearly two years ago and has opened for the likes of Nas, D12, Kottonmouth Kings and Digital Underground in support of their latest release, Armageddon Through Your Speakers, the group hasn't turned Hollywood on us just yet.
In fact, MC Emerg McVay, who spoke with State Press Magazine this week, is refreshingly relaxed as he called from the road and looked back on the last few dates the group completed.
"The tour we just did with Nas — whew," McVay said. "You're talking about high stress levels. It was mostly an urban crowd, mostly black people. Me being a brother, I know that 90 percent of brothers, or black people in general, they see a guitar player on stage and they're like 'hell no, we don't want that,' but we rocked them all. We sold about 130 CDs in four dates."
Surprisingly, the group didn't even get to shake hands with headliner Nas, even though they opened for him on four dates. "They had him on high security," McVay said. We didn't even get to meet him once."
But the band did get pretty cozy with D12 last year. "We became quite acquainted with them," McVay said. "We actually ate Thanksgiving dinner at Bizzare's house. That was cool."
Bionic Jive, who will be back in the Valley Friday for a show with the Phunk Junkeez, has stayed busy over the last few months. The band's song, "Swarm" will be featured on the upcoming WWF soundtrack, their latest single, "Hands to the Roof" was recently added to radio play lists, and their single, "Who Shot Lucifer?" is receiving avid play on MTV2. Plus, there's talk of a possible big tour in the works, according to McVay.
"Our name is being tossed around for the Eminem/Papa Roach tour that's supposed to happen this summer," he said. "It's a long shot at this particular point but it's being tossed around."
Even if they don't score a slot on the tour, McVay remains optimistic about music.
"I'm happy," he said. "I wouldn't trade this for anything in the world. I've heard the horror stories about the industry and I'm starting to experience some of that right now but that comes with the territory. I think we'll prevail…I don't care if we go platinum or double platinum, I just want to be able to work for 10 years."
When asked what industry horror stories he's referring to, McVay said, "just getting the label to take a shot. They signed us and it's kind of a slow process. We just went to radio with the new single, but other than that it's always, 'yeah, we're gonna do this,' but it never gets done or 'yeah, you're gonna go on this tour' but then you don't go. Then it gets quiet for a little while.
"We're so ambitious. We want to do a lot of things and we know that if the label would give us a nice push that it could happen, but getting them to push it is the thing. They always say, 'well, you gotta get a little spark before we can get the fire.' But how do we get the spark if we can't get a push for the spark? That's what we've been dealing with lately."
McVay said that the band is concentrating mainly on touring, during which they may very well ignite that spark. "We plan to keep touring all year and never stop, because it's obvious that when people see it, they get it, so we plan to keep going at it and get some real grassroots fans," he said.
Speaking of fans, when asked if Valley residents have treated them differently, McVay divulged, "When we first signed, everybody was like, 'wow, you got a record deal,' but as time progressed, we turned back into the same old regular people. Everybody treats us the same with or without the record deal. We have a few people that look up to us now — other artists that are trying to get in the game, but I think it's more on a respect level since we were lucky to get a deal. But for the most part it's still the same. Everybody still tells us to fuck off like they did a year and a half ago."
McVay said he is hoping that the local music scene will receive some national attention with all the recent label deals being inked.
"I'm hoping that it'll do some good for the bands that are coming out and maybe we all can sell some records," he said. "Maybe people will stand up and take notice and realize that this is where the real music is at instead of looking into Hollywood and New York and all that stuff."
Reach Kelly Wilson at musicdiva@asu.edu.
