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Listen Local

Vokab Kompany

Listen Local
Vokab Kompany
Interview: Mike Fortson
Photos: Blair Robb

Burkey Baybe & Rob Hurt: Vocals
Alvaro Nunez:  Drums
Aaron Cheatham:  Bass
Geoff Nigl: Keyboard
Spencer Sharpe: Violin
Jeremy Holmes: Guitar

“It’s electric, it’s hip-hop, it’s dance, it’s funk, it’s soul; it’s a blend. There are seven of us, so we have seven different unique sounds and everybody has a good creative ability that we bring together to create a fusion of sound,” says Vokab’s MC, Rob Hurt. “It’s all over the map, but it’s live and the energy we bring is why people continue to come to our shows.”

We spoke to Rob about the Vokak Kompany’s recent success and what seperates them from everyone else out there. 

PERSONAL QUESTIONS:
Favorite Happy Hour: PB AleHouse, Shore Club, Moondoggies

Favorite place to perform in San Diego: Sound Wave (formerly Canes). The new owner’s have put some time and effort into the new venue.

Best venue to listen to live music: Sound Wave, Winston’s, Humphrey’s, Anthology

What is something about San Diego that only a local would know?
Rubicon Deli in PB. The best sandwiches in the World!

Top MC’s of all-time:
Mos Def, Black Thought from the Roots. New guys like K-Os and also K’Naan from Somalia. Then you have to give it up to Eminem for the unique style and a pioneer in what he does.

What’s in your iPod?
Pretty Lights from Colorado, I like the instrumental DJ’s. Then K’os, Pink Floyd and Red Hot Chili Peppers.

How’d you all come together to form the group?
I started it in 2005. It was myself (the only lyricist) and a producer (Bebe “Buck” Kidwell); he made majority of the beats. We mixed together and released an album called “Liquid Language”. I named the group Vokab Kompany because at the time I had a lot of friends, musicians and MC’s that I wanted to work with so I featured a few of them on the album. So with Vokab Kompany, I just wanted to include a lot of people.

Matt “Burkey” Burke and I got together a couple years ago. He was doing his own thing with Native Root and I was doing my own thing as an MC with a DJ. Then we brought the band on a little over a year ago.

What separates Vokab Kompany from everyone else out there?
It’s not just hip-hop, it is a blend of rock and electronic. What really sets us apart is that we have Burkey who can sing real well and myself, which is more of an MC style, and bringing those together brought two unique musical styles. Now the band put the icing on the cake.

Could you briefly describe the music-making process?
We both write our own lyrics and help each other out and toss our two sense in. Burkey and I write the lyrics and then our band writes music for Vokab Kompany, where in the beginning we were just getting beats from producers that I worked with in the past or Burkey worked with in the past, but now we’re writing a lot of our music ourselves just as Vokab Kompany.

What are the main themes or topics for most of your songs?
It varies. We try to have a theme or topic and not just write about something that sounds good or a rhyme/rap that I already had ready. Here’s what the instruments sound like. We have the band and then we write songs that go with the up-beat sound of our band. The idea started with little soul searching and fun.

What has been some of your career highlights?
Opening right before Matisyahu at the Kick Gas Festival at Qualcomm. He is one of our influences as well because he has his unique style, he has a good message and his sound is tight. We got lot of his crowd and received a lot of good feedback and response from it. Another one is when we played at the Stay Classy Tailgate Party and we played with Del the Funky Homosapien (who is another great influence of ours) and a new group Cage the Elephant from the South.

All-time low as a group?
When sound system sucks! There’s seven of us so we make a lot of noise and when you show up to a venue and the sound system isn’t going to put out the sound we need, you can see the crowd’s reaction in their face when the sound is off. Every time it happens it’s a bummer.

Also another time is when we did a tour in Oregon and on the way home we played a couple cities on the way home and at 2am the tire in our van blew out so we were stuck on the side of the road for 4-5 hrs for a tow truck and they couldn’t change it that night so we had to camp in a tiny shitty hotel room. So that’s seven of us in a tiny room. You look back and can laugh about it now.

What do you all enjoy doing for fun?
We all have our own things. Going to music festivals and discover a lot of musical tastes. We all got back at Coachella and checking out other musicians and listening to their sound. Going to any sort of musical festival is big because you get to discover a lot of new musical talent.

What’s your ultimate direction for your band? Are you seeking fame and fortune?
Of course, not so much fame because that comes along with it, but we want to be successful. That doesn’t mean whatever it takes but it means we’re willing to work however hard it will take to be successful. Whether or not, music is still a business and this just happens to be what we’re pretty good at. So, we want this business to succeed and that means making enough money to support ourselves and family. It’s cool when other musicians recognize us for our musical talents as well.

Upcoming ventures/shows/what’s next?
Our first album was all beats that were produced with the beat making computer tools but now we’re actually going in and recording with our live band at Capricorn studios downtown. Our current album The New Kong has a lot of our band on it but this will a complete live album.
Upcoming Shows:
Saturday, May 8: Sound Wave with Chali 2na of Jurassic 5
Thursday, May 20: Happy Hour Magazine 3 Year Anniversary Party at the FleetWood
Memorial Weekend (May 28-31): LIB Festival at Oak Canyon Ranch in Irvine
Saturday, June 5: House of Blues (All ages show.)