Artist Interview: Nomar Slevik

Four and a half hours total, I finally finished up an interview with Nomar Slevik, an emcee/producer from Maine. If you read my interview with DJ Bizkid, you might remember the brief mention about the mixtape that they did together, “DJ Bizkid Meets Nomar Slevik: The Mixtape“. His latest release, “Stonehenge Diaries” (SIQ Records), was made with Ame One. Nomar is constantly dropping project after project (his discography is long!) One might even question the amount of sleep he gets, haha. He’s worked with other artists such as: Moshe, Id Obelus, Brzowski, Th’Mole, Myn Dwun, S.L.A.P., Marcelo, etc. Alright, let’s get into the interview…

Tiffology: Is Nomar Slevik your real name? And if not, how did you come up with it?

Nomar Slevik: It is not my real name… and to be honest, I don’t have a good answer of how I came up with it. I used to work at a television station in Portland, ME. Extreme Sports steez, and I was the DVD duplicator, web type stuff and I started writing a little humor newsletter. I would use the name Nomar Slevik as the author to some of my articles… just made it up one day.

Tiffology: Oh, that’s dope. The name rolls off the tongue, and for some reason, it reminds me of the movie Slevin. Probably due to the last name part.

Nomar: Ha, yeah. When I saw that movie title, I was like shit, one more letter! Good movie though.

Tiffology: Haha. Yeah, definitely. So how long have you been living in Maine? And what’s the hip hop scene like?

Nomar: Been living in Maine my whole life. Born in Presque Isle… lived in Fort Kent, then Mount Desert Island, then Portland, Freeport, and now Bangor. I have no idea of the hip hop scene in Bangor, if there is one, but I do know Portland’s scene… and it’s hot. My boys Brzowski, Moshe, Thelin, DJ Mayonnaise, jdwalker, Santiago… list goes on and on… all holding it down and I love and miss them all.

T: It’s kind of rare to come across people who have been living their full life in the same state as they were born. I’m also one of those people, so highfives around. Also, I’ve never heard of any of those artists until I was friended by you… so thanks for that. You know I have to ask some of the typical questions… what inspired you to start making music?

NS: Fucking typical! Hehe. Two things inspired me: my aunt and country music. When I was very young… boy, not even sure of the age, 6, 7, 8… my aunt would come over and play her guitar and sing to me. I loved it. I would be in a trance. I wanna say she sang mostly gospel, but there was some country in there. Which brings me to my next inspiration, country music by way of my parents. They used to play that music all day, erry day. Would make a person wanna kill themselves, ya know?

T: Hahahahah, yes! My mom says that same statement.

NS: But then something happened about 7-8 years ago. I realized that I liked country. Bullshit, you say. No, it’s true. Randy Travis, Johnny Cash, Conway Twitty, Willie! Shit, the new stuff… I’m not a fan of, but the old country… man, I love it. Check out almost anything by Johnny Cash, listen to “Diggin Up Bones” by Randy Travis and “Seven Spanish Angels “by Willie Nelson and Ray Charles… only then will you know the true me..

T: Will do.

NS: I actually covered that “Diggin Up Bones” song… mostly for live shows. I tried recording once, but I didn’t like the way it came out. Gotta try it again some time.

T: You should.

NS: Word.

T: Okay, major influences… name them!

NS: Ha. Ok, umm, damn. CCR, Ice-T, NWA, Biz Markie, Boogie Down, Randy Travis, Gatlin Brothers, shit… I would even throw Cypress in there. Oh, and Fab 5 Freddy. There was nothing I wanted more than for Fab 5 to introduce my video on Saturday’s Yo! MTV Raps.

T: Haha, word. That would’ve been cool.

NS: True.

T: Random: Do you have any pets? If so, what are their names?

NS: 2 cats. One older, fat one named Quinn and a younger, skinny one named Sophia.

T: Fat cats are so cute.

NS: True dat. I usually call her Big One or Big Girl. She loves her pops.

T: So would you say that they’re like your children? Do you celebrate their birthdays or baby talk them or anything else that most people (me, for example) do?

NS: Ha, no… don’t celebrate their birthdays. But they pretty much run the show. I’ll do whatever they want, I’m a push-over for them.

T: Aw, that’s sweet. Alright, I’m not sure if this will make sense to y ou, but if you can… describe your music as if it were a landscape. You can get as creative and descriptive as you’d like.

NS: Wow, umm, never been asked that. Okay… I would say a long gravel road in the country, heading to a run down farm house with a big wrap around porch.

T: Okay.

NS: Not good? That’s all I got, haha.

T: It’s good, I just wasn’t expecting that.

NS: That’s what it is to me, cause I know me, I guess?

T: Right. You’re an emcee, and you make beats. Much like the chicken and the egg, which came first?

NS: BEATS! But to be totally honest, writing and beats. But yeah… BEATS! In 1991-1992, I begged and begged for turntables, a mixer and a sampler. I already had this big ole, crappy Casio keyboard… that I wish I still had.

T: Aw, yeahhh…

NS: So pops made a deal with me and said if I paid half, he would order it for me. So I did. That’s pretty much when my world changed. I had an old school Gemini sampler. God damn, that thing was awesome – again, I wish I still had it. I must have made 10,000 of the shittiest beats you ever could hear. But man, that was one time in my life where I remember being truly happy. Another happy time was my first year living in Portland, I believe it was 1998.

T: Ohhh, those beats would be a great trip down memory lane…. to listen to them again.

NS: Please. I had recently purchased a Tascam four track cassette recorder. I had this weirdo sampler at the time, dont even recall the brand, I had an Alesis SR-16 drum machine, Boss DR-5 drum machine and Orchestra. I was in college at the time and I would get up early, drink coffee and smoke cigarettes, and make beats ALL DAY. Fuck, I miss that. As a side note, I had no clue that the Anticon phenom was slowly growing and forming not one mile away from me.

T: Oh shit.

NS: It would be about another 4 years before I could meet jdwalker. Interesting times.

T: I dig Anticon, so I think that’s real cool.

NS: Cool, and so do I. The Skyrider Band stuff that Tim is doing is quite amazing. Not to mention Restiform, Nosdam, Why, Alias, Dosh, Dose… shit, the list goes on.

T: Man, I haven’t listened to any of my cds from the Anticon artists in awhile…

NS: Shit yo, pop ‘em in… and neither have I.

T: So, I know you have a handful of albums. About how many do you think you have done?

NS: I actually have a specific number ’cause I’m a geek like that – 15.

T: Yeah, you’re a busy bee. Tell me about SIQ Records. You’ve released a few albums through them, and I think I read something about you working with them at one point…

NS: Yeah. SIQ Records, a cool little independent label out of Hawaii. They have released some dope albums from Creed Chameleon, Meiso, Aamir, Ame One, etc and they released 2 of my albums. I am also their mastering engineer. Hooked up with them a few years ago now, early ‘07, maybe earlier. I sent them my demo along with about 10 other labels, 2 got back to me: SIQ and Ipecac, the latter was a dear john letter. And SIQ was ’bout it, ’bout it.

T: Haha. Random: What 3 sites do you waste most of your time on?

NS: Ahh damn, the usual, Myspace, Facebook, and The Motherboard! There’s a few others, but those are always my first stops.

T: I figured myspace or Facebook would be on there… I’m surprised you didn’t say Twitter. Everybody is there!

NS: I go there, but fuck Twitter. Fuck ‘em all really… Jesus. But gotta promote.

T: Yeah, I feel you. Other than writing, producing, and recording… what do you like to do for fun in your free time?

NS: Two things, and honestly 2 things only. Researching all things paranormal, and listening to Bubba The Love Sponge. It’s pretty much geek central over here.

T: That’s all good. This is a nice transition into my question about your Bionic Bigfoot Blog. Yes, I’ve read it.

NS: Word? Shit, you are one of the few, haha.

T: I’m curious… the stories that you’ve wrote on there, do any of them hold any truth, or real life experiences… or are they just stories?

NS: Well, all the stories have a lot of truths in there. Did any of them happen to me? No. Did some of the stories happen verbatim? No. But lots of truths. The stories are supposed to be a fun read, meant for entertainment.

T: And they were.

NS: The articles is where I will separate fact and fiction. Oh thanks, much appreciated.

T: Slight subject change, but not really. Crop circles… I think they’re fascinating and incredible works of art. I’ve done some research before and I’ve watched numerous documentary sightings. I know some have been man-made as some sort of hoax, but I have a strong belief that a lof of them were too intricate, too precise… and were created by the supernatural. Haha, any thoughts… man-made or not?

NS: Fuck, I had a great quote for you, but I lent someone the book.

T: Aw…

NS: One sec. Shit. Looking on google, it’s tough to find. Anyway, it goes like this… “people say to me, the very intricate ones, the precise ones, how can they be man-made? I say, have you ever opened the back of a television set?” End semi-quote. It’s from a Crop Circle believer and his name escapes me.

T: That’s interesting, haha.

NS: Yeah. Point being, I do believe there is something to them, specifically from the ones observed being made in broad daylight, filmed. There is just no way to hoax that. All the other ones appearing over night, I think you gotta throw out… as beautiful as they are.

T: If I had a field of corn, or any crops, I’d definitely do that to it. Hahah…

NS: One major sticking point when researching the paranormal. If it can be recreated, you gotta throw that out. Unless, of course, you have video evidence of its original creation, and if you have that, you’ll have some dialogue with the skeptics.

[Found that quote] “A plea such as, “This pattern is so complex, it cannot be man-made!” is extremely dangerous. Professor Vincent Icke, a Dutch astronomer, once said to me: “Unscrew the back cover of your television set and take a look inside; then you will say the same thing: This cannot be man-made!” — From the book The Deepening Complexity of Crop Circles: Scientific Research and Urban Legend by Eltjo H. Haselhoff, Ph.D

T: Can you tell me a little bit about your “Welcome To Fuckland” album? The beats, as well as the vocals, had real dark tones to them when I took a listen to some tracks…

NS: Sure. Firstly, I based the album’s abrasiveness off of the film “Fuckland” (and also stole its name) which was filmed using the Dogma95 code. Anyway, I chose beats that I felt reflected an industrial sounding anger to show how I was feeling at that point in my life, but as most things go… the album then got a life of its own and veered from that original, vague concept to something a tad more concrete. And that happened when I started writing the lyrics. I wouldn’t say it’s very political, but it’s an anger album – angry about society and the way it acts.

T: Yeah, the obvious anger is right there in your face when listening. I wasn’t expecting it when I hit play, but it was interesting.

NS: Well, I hope interesting is good.

T: Yeah. As you know I had an interview with Bizkid. He told me about how you two came together for “The Mixtape”. About how long did it take you to finish that completely?

NS: Well, I must say, my work was fairly easy. I picked out about 30, maybe 40, songs and sent them on CD to Bizkid. I wanted him to have HQ wav files instead of mp3s. He then chose about 20 of those songs, mixed it all together and sent it to me to listen to. I loved it, bang it was done. Took him maybe 3 weeks to mix it all.

T: Oh wow, that’s quick.

NS: Yeah, Bizkid is quite the man. Not only talented on the Wheels of Steel, but also such a good dude to talk to. He’s in Germany, I’m in Maine, USA, so we dont see each other, but we e-mail constantly and chat on the phone once in a while. I just love that fool.

T: Yeah, definitely. We’ve only e-mailed and messaged through myspace, but he’s really approachable and easy to talk with. I like that about a person.

NS: Yeah. Also big-ups to my boy Moshe for putting it out digitally on Emben Digital!

T: No doubt. So think way back. Back to when you first performed in front of a crowd. What were your feelings then?

NS: That was roughly 1994 and I puked in my mouth a little in the parking lot and dry heaved a few times before getting on stage, but after a few seconds, I was good to go.

T: I hope that’s not a ritual up to this day, haha…

NS: Haha. No, but I do get butterflies in the stomach. Then I step on stage, once the music starts it’s usually fine.

T: Good, good. Random: Do you have any other hidden talents or quirky habits?

NS: Plenty of quirky habits. I have a lip thing that I do that has to be completed without blinking or something bad will happen. And I know nothing bad will happen, but I have to complete these steps without blinking and then I’m good. I also have a bizarre collection of cough drop wrappers, I was thinking of mailing them to Th’Mole.

T: Hahaha….

NS: And that’s for real. I’m also a huge Howard Stern fan, but more importantly, a Bubba The Love Sponge fan.

T: I’m gonna have to look into that, because I’ve never heard of this Bubba guy.

NS: Hidden talents… Hmm, I can do the Shaggy voice, and I have several maps of Maine hanging in my room all with little color coated pins highlighting areas of recent UFO, Sasquatch, etc activity. [And] Bubba is the man, pretty big in AZ. He’s on Howard’s channels on Sirius, 101 btls.com.

T: Oh word. By the way, you are a really interesting individual.

NS: Well jeez, thanks for saying that. On this end, life feels quite mundane, but thank you.

T: So, I peeped the tracks on the DONE page you got on myspace. I think “Brainwash” might be my favorite. It hooked me immediately when I heard the first line involving american idols, dancing with the stars, and Joey Fatone being a phoney… it made me giggle. It’s a good song, and holds truth about the media. By the way, I’m sucked into the black hole of watching reality shows and shit. But yo, the German-flow through the whole project sounds so good, even though I don’t know what’s said. Being that two of the members are from different countries (Germany and Brazil)… how did you all decide to come together for that project?

NS: Well first off, thanks for listening and expressing some insight. We came together quite casually actually. Id Obelus asked me a long time ago if I wanted to get on this jam called “Brainwash”, that some dude Marcelo from Brazil had produced. He said a German rapper named SLAP was getting on it too. I heard the beat and couldn’t tell Id “yes” fast enough, so we recorded the song.

T: Awesome.

NS: It never found a home until one day this Marcelo fella and I started talking, introduced to me by Id, SLAP as well… turns out he has a plethora of dope beats, so does SLAP, who also produces. We all get to e-mailing and texting, and we decide to make an EP together. Marcelo and SLAP sent me the beats, Id and SLAP sent me their vocals, I recorded mine… mixed and mastered the whole thing, and was done in about 6-8 weeks.

T: Damn, you finish things mad quick.

NS: Id used the phrase “The Done Dig That Kids” in one of his raps on the album. I liked it so much, I asked the fellas if we could call the group that, everyone was down, then I just shortened it to DONE. Hah, yeah… but my solo albums take like 2 years.

T: That’s cool. I love how easy it is to collaborate with people across states and countries with today’s technology.

NS: Very true. One of my first long distance collabs was with Th’Mole and Demune, both in Hawaii at the time, and Myn Dwun, a Michigan emcee/producer… 2000-2001 maybe, I forget now.

T: Random: Do/did you ever fear the dentist?

NS: Not fear, but I hate going. Fuck those fools. Side note – we also started a 2nd DONE album. We’re calling it DONE 2 Eclectic Boogaloo. Fuck, we’re awesome.

T: Haha, nice. I like the title.

NS: Thanks. We thought it was funny.

T: Another album… “Paper Bullets”. I haven’t heard it, but I read that it’s a full album of duets?

NS: Yeah. Me and a different artist on every track. Features Bleubird, Brad Hamers, jdwalker, Brzowski, and more. I’ll send you the mp3s, came out in ‘04.

T: Sounds good, and thanks.

NS: Not a prob.

T: I’m not sure if albums are like kids and it might be hard to choose favorites, but which of them was the most fun to make or holds the most memories?

NS: The most fun to make was an album I did with Brzowski, called Raygunomics. We recorded that in the summer of ‘03 or ‘04 and we would mostly get together Saturday mornings. I’d wake Brzow’s ass up, we would go to Dunkin Donuts and get to huge iced coffees and record songs. It was awesome. The one with the most memories is Sasquatch. I went through a lot during the creation of that album, from losing a job, moving, depression, scrapping the album and restarting. Not fun, but memorable.

T: Right.

NS: And are the albums like kids? Naw, I don’t see them like that. More like a photograph, it’s a moment in time captured, if you will.

T: Okay. Is there anyone that you’d like to work with in the future, that you haven’t worked with already?

NS: Jeez of course. Oh, and let me preface that by saying I got to do a song with Lord Grunge from Grand Buffet on my Sasquatch album. That was, by far, a career highlight.

T: Oh man, more music I haven’t heard in forever… Grand Buffet, geez…

NS: Yeah, good shit. I would love to do a song with RBX, Noah23, Ceschi, have a beat produced by Alias, do a song with Sage & Ice-T called “Gangsta’s My Height Don’t Fight”. Shit, umm, 2Mex, Mika, Mista Grimm and we would do a remake of the song “Indo Smoke”. Ha. This is going quite nice, thanks for being awesome.

T: Do you have a worst and/or best experience while performing that you’d like to share?

NS: Worst, yes. I was doing a show with Moshe as my DJ for the night. We did a great set, I was pumped up and asked Moshe on mic if we should do one more, our new song as The Tules. He was like, “Fuck yeah”, so I asked the crowd, got them pumped a bit. He starts the beat… and I blank out. Can’t remember the lyrics. Haha, quite embarrassing. The crowd was cool and had them laughing about it… but, you know, that shit ain’t cool. Best, umm… I was performing “Diggin Up Bones” at Genos and jdwalker and Astronautalis were in the crowd. Jd loved it when I performed that track, so he hopped on stage and started yelping some Yahoo cowboy stuff during the chorus. He is behind me, everyone is all smiles, heads bumpin, I turn to look at jd and he is standing in place doing this military march and it just struck me so funny that I couldn’t help but laugh and pointed it out to the crowd. Had to be there, but it was one of the better times.

T: HAHA. That’s hilarious… sounds like good peoples. And about the bad experience, bad… but atleast the crowd found the humor in it, and it proves you don’t lipsync.

NS: Ha..

T: Are there any music artists that you listen to that might be classified as guilty pleasures?

NS: Sure. Mika, Paul Barman, Fastball, Blue October, Fresh Prince… that’s all I’m coming up with right now. Oh, and Cake.

T: When you were a little boy… what did you want to be once you grew up?

NS: Baseball player or a ninja. I even had a ninja suit and a boken (for all my nerds out there).

T: That’s so great. If you weren’t involved in music in any way, what do you think you’d be doing professionally?

NS: No idea. Same shit. I have a lame ass, low paying, bullshit time away from my music, day job. Sorry, a little bitter. Haha.

T: Understandable. Anything in particular that motivates you to write songs, or produce?

NS: Absolutely. Sometimes I’ll be watching a movie and be like “man, I need that sample.” I’ll pop the DVD out, go upstairs, rip the sample, and start building a song around it. Or I’ll be watching a live performance on TV, or like when I saw Randy Travis live and I’ll be like “damn, I need to go writ something.” But what usually inspires me the most are when my friends send me their new songs or albums. I’m always like, “Fuck me… I need to step my game up, this album is toooo dope.”

T: Yeah, people inspiring people.

NS: Yeah.

T: Random: If you’ve ever dressed up on Halloween (don’t know if you’re against it or not), but if you have… what were some of the crazy costumes you wore?

NS: For real, and I was MAD young, but Teen Wolf. And more recently, Bruce Willis wearing that rain slick from “Unbreakable”.

T: Hahahah, oh shit. Other than Howard Stern and Bubba The Love Sponge, who have you been listening to lately?

NS: Id Obelus, Awol, and the new Sage free DL, Sick Of Wasting…

T: Ohh, I think I just got that sage DL a few days ago…

NS: Oh dope. It’s good. Oh, and Goose Bumps 3.0. It’s like 8000 tracks deep, no bad songs.

T: That’s always good.

NS: Ha, yeah.

T: Who are some people on it [Goose Bumps]?

NS: Shit, ton of folks. Materpfahl, Roma, XNDL, Funken, Escape Artists, Brzowski, Robust, DJ Extend, MC Homeless, Id Obelus, Zoen, Th’Mole, Wormhole and like a ton more.

T: Dope. Say something tragic was happening in your house (*knocks on wood*), and you only had time to grab about five things. What would you rescue?

NS: My two cats, cell phone to call for help, my friend & roommate, and myself.

T: Great choices.

NS: No doubt, easy to answer. But if the question was, besides your two cats, roommate and cell, what would you grab? I would be hard pressed, ha.

T: Hahah, I won’t put that kind of pressure on you now.

NS: You’re so good to me.

T: Haha. Okay, I have to ask this. I feel that Michael Jackson’s death will be something that people will ask, “Where were you and what were your thoughts when you first heard that he died?” So, what’s your answer?

NS: I was home, online (what’s new), didn’t really have any first initial thoughts. I was really just surprised, shocked if you will. After a while, I started to think about the allegations against him, and I tend to compare to O.J. which is shitty for those being my thoughts…. but that’s how it is I guess. I did spend the morning watching old school MJ videos on VH1 though.

T: Yeah, they’ve been playing all kinds of tributes and stuff all weekend.

NS: Yeah. I had to see “Beat It”, “Smooth Criminal” and “Thriller”. But I did see this one that I think took place in Jamaica, with all these drummers. It was pretty dope. I forget the song name or album, but good shit, had never heard it before.

T: Yeah, some of the things I saw brought up a few songs/videos that I totally forgot about or have never heard before. That was good.

NS: Yeah.

T: I know you’ve said that another DONE album was in the works, but other than that… is there anything else you’re working on? Future releases, projects, or shows that you’d like to talk about?

NS: Yeah man, tons of projects. I have a new solo album finished called “The Startling Truth” which will hopefully be released at the end of this year… plus “Welcome to Fuck” 7inch, which should be out this summer on Dis.eased Records. I also finished another project with a buddy named John Cue Publik called “John & Nomar vs. The World” came out real nice and should be out real soon on iTunes…. other than that, tons of writing, hopefully a new book in the works, Moshe and I wanna start work on a new Tules album as well, 2010 maybe, haha. No shows booked, though I would love to tour sometime in the near or far future. Whatever’s clever.

T: Damn, you do it all. Write songs, make beats, are a master engineer for a site, you write books, etc. But word, that’s all cool…

NS: I guess when it’s all listed together it seems like a lot, but when you’re in the thick of it, intertwined with trying to pay bills, go to work, pay for gas, life’s trip ups, it’s all quite relative.

T: I didn’t know you wrote books. I mean, articles and stuff you wrote on the other site… but I definitely don’t find it surprising. You write real well.

NS: Thank you very much, I never really know if anyone is reading my stuff and it’s nice to hear feedback once in awhile, so thanks. Oh, yo. I have an album that came out in ‘01-’02 called, “Purple Lights & April Foolishness”. It’s actually quite weird and more of an art piece, but there is a dope track on it that I produced with jdwalker on vocals. I re-mastered the track like a year ago, I gotta send you that track. It’s just real dope, ha.

T: Aw shit. Sweet, thanks.

NS: No, thank you. It’s a hot track that has been hidden for years…

NS: Thanks for one of the easiest and most fun interviews that I’ve had. I am also going to blow up your e-mail with mad albums.

WWW: Nomar Slevik myspace | Nomar Slevik website | Nomar’s Paranormal Blog
PURCHASE:
- DONE – “How To Own A Shadow”
- DJ Bizkid Meets Nomar Slevik – “The Mixtape”
- Nomar Slevik – “Sasquatch The Great Dying” For: USA (UGHH, on sale!) | Canada (Phonographique) | Worldwide (Amazon)
- The Tules – “A Haunter’s Workshop” For: USA (UGHH) | Canada (Phonographique) | Worldwide (Amazon)