Interview: American Dead Cross

Hip-hop has always been by it's very nature a hot bed of creativity and inventiveness, but in recent years it seems to have accelerated massively. There is established artists like Tyler, The Creator and the unique retro sound he has developed, culminating in last years remarkable Igor; there is newer players in the Trap scene like Lil' Uzi Vert and his recent galactic themed conceptual double album, which by description sounds like a prog rock record from the late 70s; and there is also the punk/metal influence in the underground of Trap, with artists like Scarlxrd and Ghostmane making waves with a sound that is reinventing horror-core for a new era.

This is to name but a few of the many creative waves in hip-hop. Increasingly as Trap in the US and Grime in the UK enter the mainstream (in the case of Grime for the second time) they become invariably watered down, and so it is in the underground where things continue to flourish creatively. It is also an underground full or artists who are less and less motivated to try and 'break through' to the mainstream. As the ability to hear, create and collaborate becomes easier, the underground is finding it's own standards of measurement, with success judged on the quality of the music and the relationships built through it, rather than the profits.

It is in this underground where we find American Dead Cross, a staunchly independent DIY artist whose music has boundless amounts of imagination and energy, crossing genres at will whilst maintaining a focus on defining his own sound. In this interview we started off by discussing his beginnings and what drives him to be the artist he is.

For those not familiar with you, tell us where you're from and how you got started making music?

I grew up in south eastern Wisconsin, and I began making music because I had a goal of helping other independent artists get ahead through my own platforms. It bothered me that two of my friends ended up signing to a record label and they now hate their lives because they didn’t get important enough fast enough. It really pained me because they didn’t make the music that they wanted so they now are a slave to their label.

How has the musical journey as American Dead Cross gone so far?

In all honesty, it’s depressing, but any musician or artist will tell you that, that’s why most people make music. I am really grateful for my audience, I really care about them the same way they care about me. I'm friends with a lot of them and not a lot of artists get to say that. I get to perform shows and it just feels so comfortable with all of the people around me.

What have been the highlights for you as an artist?

The relationships that began because of music. I have worked with a lot of artists, but the ones that come to mind are Weepings, Ekeon, Coaastgxd, and Tahabeats. I consider them very close to me, and I don’t think I'd still be making music if it were not for them.

That focus on relationships is intriguing, and with the more socially isolated world that the ongoing pandemic is creating, the development of artistic bonds is even more vital. 'Feature Culture' may have become an overly saturated part of mainstream hip-hop used more for self-promotion than for actual creative collaboration, but in the underground it is increasingly a way for artists to develop themselves together. American Dead Cross's latest EP Melatonin Beaches is a collaboration with the aforementioned Weepings. It's a wonderfully addictive clash of sounds, incorporating Pop-punk, Emo, Crunk, Trap, Indie, Soul and Chillwave across it's four tracks. I asked him further about his musical ideas, how he creates his style, and the music that has influenced him.

Do you work with lots of different producers for your beats, or do you tend to stick close to a small number of artists?

I primarily get beats off of YouTube, whenever I'm going to drive anywhere I'll just sit on Dominic Fike, Mac DeMarco, or Brockhampton type beats, they produce interesting sounds that are unique to me. It's a big struggle for artists like me who don’t produce their beats to find something anywhere that they like and is also a good beat. Most of the time I'll mess with the beat so much that it doesn’t sound like the original at all, adding sounds, mixing differently, isolating noises, etc. I'd like to say that if you listen to my music that you know it’s me every time, but every artist says that and it’s obviously not true.

Your music is full of imagination and ideas that go beyond the borders of modern hip-hop, and there's a definite creative development from your first release to the new EP. Where do you find your ideas?

So personally, I don’t really listen to the kind of music that I make because I always wanted to be in a band. I've been in bands before but we always broke up before anything cool happened. I listen to Fidlar, Cage The Elephant, Fall Out Boy, and especially Bring Me The Horizon. At the end of the day I guess it never really was a phase for me, sorry mom.

I definitely get some pop-punk influences in your music, particularly on the new EP...

I grew up listening to metal, punk, emo, pop punk, you name it. If there was a guitar in the song, I probably held my guitar hero controller and acted like I was playing it. But the biggest inspirations outside of rap for me is for sure Remo Drive, Fidlar, Anarbor, and Cage The Elephant. I love people that come up with generally new concepts, although it’s really hard nowadays to create something that’s never been done, but at least they sound new to me. My personal favourite genre is pop punk - any chance I get to talk about things I hate that are really just a minor inconvenience to me? Hell yeah!

Is there any specific hip-hop artists who have deeply inspired your music?

Yeah of course! I'm on Tiktok a lot so I hear all of the trending music at any moment, and I'm also friends with a lot of the local people around me. The biggest people who inspire my music hip-hop wise are probably Tekashi69, Jasiah, Zillakami, and Denzel Curry, although I personally cannot rap like them. I have too much of a Phonk/Memphis mindset for my flows that I'll generally use.

I feel there is a trend in hip-hop, and music generally, for new artists to have far bigger musical palates than older musicians, which is obviously defined by the internet and the ability to listen to lots of different music and collaborate with other artists much easier. Do you feel this is a trend your music fits in to?

Kind of, I think that any great artist is someone who can expand their genres. And I'm not talking about rappers who go on a country beat, I personally find that shit insulting for the music scene. People like taking advantage of trends to blow up and then they act like they have been doing music far longer than anyone in every genre, when in reality they only accidentally defined their career off a trend and they’ll fall off the scene just like anyone else. That’s why you always hear “I like this guy cause he's true to the music” - to me when people say that, they mean that they don’t do any sellout shit and try to make money off of music and they’re really trying to make a difference and help people’s lives. I don’t think my music is based off of the internet, yeah sure my music at the end of the day “sounds” like it’s a bunch of different genres, but it’s really just underground punk rap. It’s a small genre and I'm not the king of it.

The future is certainly bright for the underground. Hip-hop has never stopped growing in popularity since it's inception, and as it culturally becomes a fixture wider in the world, it's more important then ever that a richly creative underground continues to develop. I asked American Dead Cross about what the future looks like for him, with the backdrop of coronavirus and the changes that brings to the world.

Has the pandemic affected you musically at all? The situation seems to be a lot worse in the states than here in the UK, and I've seen a lot of US musicians bring out music inspired by that recently.

Not really, I have the benefit of living in Wisconsin. A lot of people don’t understand why it’s a benefit but even if we have a lot of cases, it’s generally very concentrated. Milwaukee and Madison got hit pretty hard, and I live right outside Milwaukee, but what's cool is that travel is super difficult in Wisconsin. If you don’t have a car, you don’t really get anywhere. Everything is too far, and on top of that I'm an antisocial person that doesn’t need much. I just make music in my bedroom. I engineer everything myself, and if I need something music wise I'll order it from amazon. I used to work there and they let me keep my benefits for some reason, so I'll take advantage of it while I still can.

What's next for American Dead Cross? Are you looking to get back playing live again soon?

I used to play live a lot, basements, abandoned factories, theatres, all sorts, but recently I've been saying no to shows because I don’t want to risk covid for anyone. If any artist is playing shows publicly right now, they’re either doing it because they need the money, or their management is forcing them to do it. Maybe if this virus ends I'll have shows for late 2020 and early 2021, but I don’t see it happening.

Any final words from yourself?

I really appreciated these questions a lot, it made me feel super important answering all of them. I needed some serotonin like that.

You can listen to American Dead Cross's new EP Melatonin Beaches on Spotify here and you can check him out on Instagram here