Arlo Maverick performs during Sled Island on Wednesday, 9pm at Commonwealth (Main Floor) & Thursday, 7:15pm at Sloth Records
TRANSCRIPT:
Emma (CJSW)
So this is Em with CJSW, I’m sitting here with Arlo Maverick, how are you doing today?
Arlo Maverick
I’m doing good. How are you?
Emma (CJSW)
I’m doing great. Super excited to be here with you. So it’s your Sled Island debut this year, right?
Arlo Maverick
Yes, that’s correct
Emma (CJSW)
How do you feel about playing this festival for the first time?
Arlo Maverick
I’m quite excited. I’ve had a lot of friends who have been able to play the festival and talked about the experience. I’ve seen footage of their performances, and the festival has built a reputation of selecting a lot of great music, and so to be selected means that hopefully I’m good music to people, you know. So, yeah, it’s kind of cool.
Emma (CJSW)
Is there anyone that you’re excited to see at all this year?
Arlo Maverick
Oddisee if I’m being honest, I’ve been following him for a number of years.An artist I work very closely with, Mouraine, put me on to him many years ago, and so to be opening him for up for him is really cool. Recently saw Kimmortal in Vancouver for the Junos, but I think this show will probably be a little bit more different and also a little bit more intimate. So yeah, I’m looking forward to it.
Emma (CJSW)
Yeah, what an honor. So great. And Commonwealth is a great space if you haven’t performed there before.
Arlo Maverick
Yes, yes, yes, I did actually years ago for 10 out of 10, when they used to have their monthly showcases. So yeah, amazing venue. It’ll be cool as well, too. Yaya Bey, I saw Sled Island had this whole thing where they were letting people listen to her music on the streets. I thought that was real cool, because now I’ve gotten a chance to kind of just pierce into her world, you know? So, yeah, that was super cool.
Emma (CJSW)
So I know that you do quite a lot of international work, typically around this time of the year you’re in the Netherlands for a festival. Can you tell me about one of your most impactful experiences being overseas?
Arlo Maverick
Wow, haha. Going to South Korea for the first time was amazing. Culture shock. Did not know what to expect, but the hip-hop scene over there was really welcoming. I ended up connecting with the hip-hop scene from out there. Last year we were in Singapore, and that was like no other. So, yeah, the cool thing about it is that when you’re able to take your art to a whole new place and have people react to it in a positive way, it means a lot. It also just allows you to push forward and want to do more of it, and hopefully get to the point where that’s what you do 24/7. Just like create connections with people, share stories, and also be inspired to create new stories as well too, because I’ve done a fair amount of writing while on the road as well, too, and that’s inspired me by being in different environments, meeting new people, hearing new stories, and just seeing life from a different perspective.
Emma (CJSW)
Yeah, traveling is so all inclusive, and it really brings in all of those new perspectives. I can totally see why it’s inspiring. On that note of being inspired by your surroundings, your work is really described as witty and meaningful, your lyrics are all very well thought out. Are you able to take me through the process of how you are to sit down and write a song?
Arlo Maverick
Okay, the process, it varies, though, that’s the thing. So a typical process would be a conversation. It usually starts with a conversation, and that conversation is usually me talking to somebody about just regular things, and then they’ll say something, and I’ll be like, ‘That could be a song.’ I’ll start writing the song in my head at the same time as I’m having a conversation with them. And then I’ll take those ideas, eventually put them to a notepad or put them into my phone. And then now I’ve got to start figuring out, okay, what are the melodies, what are the harmonies like, what would be the perfect beat for this? And then I’ll get together with my team, which includes people like Oozeela, people like Ary, Kanga (sp?)and will then start putting things together. My process used to be me writing by myself, but now it’s a matter of me writing but then presenting it to my team for them to give me direction in regards to like, ‘Okay, well, why not try this flow?’ You know, so conceptually, it’s typically me coming up with the idea of where I want the song to go, and then sitting down with my team to be like, ‘Okay, well, how should this be communicated to an audience?’ And sometimes I’ll pick a beat, and I’ll be like, ‘This is a great beat. I think we should go with this.’ And they’re like, ‘Nah, Arlo, that’s not the right beat for it.’ And I think that’s great because it’s allowed me to grow as an artist, to be able to hear other perspectives and also just lean upon the areas of people who I trust, which is a huge part of what I do, because the music I make isn’t just for me, it’s for the world and it’s for community. So having people whose experiences or education and skill level can help advance mine so that it can reach a larger audience, I think is really important.
Emma (CJSW)
Yeah, collaboration is a huge part of the creative process. Absolutely, I can totally see that give and take. Have you ever had an experience where you’ve written a song with a certain intention and then it’s all of a sudden been received in a different way?
Arlo Maverick
Yes? The thing about it is that when we write our songs, we know where it came from, and when we put it out there, people will receive it how they want to receive it. And it’s not up for us as artists to be like, ‘No, that’s not what I meant.’ That song is touching that person in that way and allows it to do what it needs to do, because we’re vessels in a lot of ways. I know that may sound hokey, but at the same time, though, I can’t tell you where the ideas come from. All I know is that when they come to me, I have to get them out, right. And whatever purpose I have, as it relates to the song, I’m completing that purpose. And then once it’s out there, it’s up for someone else to decide what they want to do with it and how that makes them feel.
Emma (CJSW)
That’s such a beautiful take on it, because it’s so true. It’s such a form of communication, but how it’s received, you can’t control that.
Arlo Maverick
No, you can’t. You can’t as much as you may want to, and even when it comes to selecting songs that are gonna resonate with an audience. Sometimes you write a song and it’s so meaningful to you, because you know that the idea came to you at like, three o’clock in the morning, and it was like, you got out of bed and you wrote, and maybe it’s about a family member, maybe it’s about a past experience, and so on and so forth. This is gonna be a song that everyone resonates with. And then when they hear it, they’re just like, it’s okay, you know? Yeah, it’s once it leaves your hands, you can’t control any of it, you know?
Emma (CJSW)
And that’s such a cool part about creating and performing this kind of stuff. It’s awesome. Another thing that I wanted to chat about is that you’re really involved with mentorship and youth mentorship programs. I was wondering if you had a specific experience while mentoring that’s impacted you?
Arlo Maverick
Wow. I think here’s the thing, I’ve done a lot of mentorship over the years, and I think that the mentorship relationships that I formed with a lot of artists, some of the most meaningful ones have been artists like Mouraine or K-Riz or Oozeela, because of the fact that those were ongoing ones where they became family. You know, in those situations like I’ve literally seen artists—more so with Mouraine and his younger brothers—I’ve seen them go from people who were just young kids who had ideas and needed guidance to all of a sudden, getting that mentorship, getting that direction, getting taught certain things. And it was my cousin Degree and I that were doing that mentorship, and then to see him foster a career where now he’s able to tour the world and do a lot of things that weren’t possible at the genesis of his creation, you know, and for him to be able to take those experiences, build on that, and then come back and then say, ‘Hey, Arlo, I’d like to open up a door for you, and here’s this connection to this.’ To me that’s meaningful, because a lot of times we look at mentorship as being something that you as a mentor is the person who knows everything. But eventually, if you are mentoring the way you’re supposed to, that person is going to surpass you at some point in time. And when they do, if they reach back and say, ‘Hey, because of what you’ve done for me, let me help you out.’ That’s a beautiful thing, we don’t always see that, because sometimes you have an artist who is able to soak up all this information, and they grow as an artist, whether it be professionally or artistically. Then unfortunately, once they get to a certain point, they’re just like, well, I don’t need this community of people who have helped raise me. I want to be part of the limelight. But when you have those people who go back and reinvest and plant seeds and water the soil within their territories or their cities or their regions that they come from. That, to me, is a beautiful thing, and so I’d say that those are meaningful, and not say that other situations aren’t because I’ve seen others. For me, the biggest part is when you see an artist who gets it and understands that they don’t have all the answers. And for me, because I’ve been on a journey that I’ve seen things I don’t know everything about, but I’ve seen enough for me to know that sometimes an artist has no idea what is up next. They have no idea what’s behind that door. And when I see that they get it, and they’re like, “Okay, I need help.” And they take that and they do so much with it. Sometimes they’re even doing more than you had even taught them with it because they’re just like, ‘Okay, well, if he’s teaching me this, what else do I not know?’ You know? And they build upon that. And to me, that’s a beautiful thing.
Emma (CJSW)
It’s like exponential growth.
Arlo Maverick
100%
Emma (CJSW)
Gives you warm fuzzies, really. I love the idea of reaching back. Has that ever happened to you in the reverse? Do you have anybody that you want to shout out that mentored you, that maybe you were able to revisit?
Arlo Maverick
Yeah, there is. So I was very fortunate when I was coming up because this was before mentorship was a thing. Mentorship was something that was more specific to the spor world, but now it’s become this big thing where we’re very adamant on it, and I’m glad that we are, but the guys who saw the potential in me when I was coming up, people like Kayla Pinnock (sp?) or Don Joyce or whomever, these are people who I’ve been able to they’re not necessarily in the music industry like they once were, but I’ve been able to highlight them through documentaries or telling their stories and allowing people to realize that I didn’t come out of nowhere, right? Everybody has an origin story, and my origin story starts with people like Debbie Carpenter, Donavan Murray, Kayla Pinnock (sp?), as I mentioned, Don Joyce, other people who actually said, ‘This guy has talent. He has no idea what he’s doing, but there’s a diamond in the rough. Let me help him.’ And all of a sudden, those relationships become something where, like you now look at them as being if I had forefathers, if I had the pillars of my artistry, my professional development, these are them.
Emma (CJSW)
Yeah, that’s so beautiful. It’s really cool to see that it has just become a thing because it was very prominent in sports, and it’s kind of just growing now. I’m happy that you mentioned documentaries, because your skills and achievements are so vast among so many different principles, something I was really curious about is, what does success look like to you?
Arlo Maverick
Wow, wow. It’s hard for me to say, and the reason why I say that is that there are some people who are financially successful, but they’re not happy, right? There are people who have all these accolades, have accomplished so much, but they’re still not happy, right? And I think that we have to find a way to define that, for ourselves and for me, being able to create at a level where I’m constantly evolving, but also able to give back at the same time. That’s success to me, because if I’m successful and have all this money, but then there’s no legacy behind me, then am I really successful? You know, like, I’m successful in the terms of like, this is what society says, if you’re able to have X amounts of dollars in the bank, you’re successful. But at the same time, though, you could be, for lack of a better term, failing at so many other things, in just being a good person, just uplifting the city that you came from, uplifting the province that you came from, right? If I’m able to have success, but then I turn around and there’s nothing that ever came after me, then how much success do I really have?
Emma (CJSW)
Money really means so little in the grand scheme of things. You’re making no impact with it or without it, because you really don’t need money to make that reach a lot of the time.
Arlo Maverick
No, you don’t. And it’s funny, because you hear a billionaire talk, and obviously he’s a billionaire, he has financial security, so on and so forth. But a lot of them will say that money can only do so much for you, right? And a lot of them have lives where they’re not happy whatsoever, right? And then you talk to someone who’s wealthy, but not rich. And they’ll look at it from the standpoint of, it’s easy to say that you don’t need money when you don’t have money, right? But then you look at some of the people who are like, have next to nothing, but they have their family, they have they have fulfillment, they have all these things going on. It’s like, sometimes those are the people who seem to be the happiest, and for them, like, if you’ve never told somebody that a Lamborghini is something that you need to have, then that’s not something they’re gonna fixate on, because they see it as well. I’ve got my family, I’ve got my friends. I enjoy life, I can have food, so on and so forth. Like, I’m living comfortably. Like, why do I need to have a Lamborghini? Why do I need to have a mansion? Right? These are things that we begin to fixate on because they become social statuses that make us feel a certain way. But if we need these things for us to feel good about ourselves or to feel accepted, then it’s the external validation that will keep us in a cycle of needing to have this next thing. I gotta have this next thing. And that chase to have those things is so superficial to the point that you’ll never, ever be fulfilled, because it’s not coming from within, it’s coming from outside.
Emma (CJSW)
Yeah. So well said, very well said. And it sounds like this is a mindset that you’ve kept with you. I’m curious, has that definition of success changed from the start of your career, as you go through it, or have you from day one always had this idea of this is who I want to be?
Arlo Maverick
I think it’s always been there. But here’s the thing, because of my family and because of where I come from, it’s always been there, but we do veer off that track from time to time, right? And something that we sometimes aren’t even conscious of because the younger me would have been like, ‘Okay, I’ve gotta be signed to a record label,’ or ‘I’ve gotta have my own label.’ That’s gonna do all these things here, but as you begin to go through the process and realize what’s important and what actually is meaningful, and what actually brings you joy, what brings you happiness, what gives you purpose, you realize that some of these things are not even necessary, right? And so for me, I’ve never been an artist who’s been concerned about brand names or anything like that. I’ve never been an artist who’s been concerned about living up to the stereotype that people may see with hip hop, because I’ve seen successful artists who haven’t had to go down that route, right? And those are the artists who I connect with.And it’s not to say if an artist is someone who’s flashy, I’m not going to connect with their music, but if their music itself doesn’t speak to the everyday person, then there’s no connection that’s there, right? And you start looking at them like, so we’ve got an economic crisis happening in the world. We have wars possibly about to start, and you want to tell me about how much money you have, like, come on, right?
Emma (CJSW)
And so much of hip-hop, inherently, is about that it’s interwoven with politics like, historically, and so it’s super cool to see that being carried on in all of the landscape.
Arlo Maverick
And the thing with hip-hop is that it’s a reflection of life, right? So as much as I think the problem is, we’ve only been able to see well in mainstream hip hop, we’ve already been able to see the side that speaks to capitalism, right? And you can speak to capitalism, you can speak to the positives and negatives of capitalism. Because when you have homelessness, when you have hyper capitalism, I should say you can have homelessness, right? So if you’re going to talk about throwing money in the air, also talk about like, a soup kitchen, talk about something that actually can resonate with a regular person. So then you’re being that journalist, you know, because that’s the thing with hip-hop. Is that Chuck D once said that hip hop is like CNN. We’re out here documenting stories on everyday life, and if we’re not using our talents and our skills. When you look at someone like Jay Electronica, right? Or take someone like Oddisee, right, these guys are putting together, highly poetic, highly well-written songs that have all these great literary devices, and if you’re only using those devices and that skill set to basically prop up a corporation or promote a lifestyle that is detrimental to people, then you’re misusing your powers, you know? So for me, it’s a situation of let’s create balance. It’s not to say you don’t want to talk about your success, because in life, we have successes, and we should celebrate those. But also talk about other things as well too. There’s so many things that people could be talking about a lot of times, unfortunately, with hip-hop, I think sometimes artists are afraid that people don’t want to hear rappers talk about certain things, right? But hip-hop never followed, hip-hop always led.
Emma (CJSW)
If you have the platform, practice music intentionally. I totally agree with that, and that’s what I try to follow with the things that I consume as well, because it can be very extremist on both sides sometimes, but it’s super cool to see people representing everything, every part of society, whenever they can, and travel has a huge part of that as well. That’s why.
Arlo Maverick
You get to see how other people live in the world. It’s just like, wow. We take a lot of things for granted and certain things that are important to us over here. Like, I remember the first time I went to Italy and I got there, it was like, maybe seven o’clock in the evening and everything was shut down. I’m just like, ‘What is going on here?’ If we were back in Edmonton, people would be partying all throughout the night, right? Just starting to come out. And for them, family is so important. Like people go home, they sit down, they have a meal, so on and so forth. And here, like most people, eating on the go, right? Fast food chains do well because of the fact that we’re constantly on the go. But when you’re in a country or in the city where family is so important, then you take the time to slow down and say, ‘Okay, we’re gonna actually sit down and eat with family and catch up and have conversations,’ you know? And that travel is important, my family’s from Jamaica, so going back to Jamaica and seeing—granted, Jamaica has become very Americanized as the world is to globalization right? But there’s still parts of Jamaica, especially where my family’s originally from, where things slow down and people begin to appreciate life. And you know your neighbors up here, most people live in communities where they buy a house in a really nice neighborhood, but then have no idea who their neighbors are. Their kids don’t play with other kids, or if their kids do play, you as adults don’t have conversations with your neighbors, where my family’s from Jamaica, everybody knows each other. You have to say hello to everyone that’s there.
Emma (CJSW)
It does feel isolating, kind of in that predicament. But I want to talk about your roots in Edmonton, because it’s something that’s so important to you and in your career, I even overheard that you have been, you were with the radio station in Edmonton for a long time. I’m really glad to have you here on our radio station. Can you tell me a bit about that?
Arlo Maverick
So I was at CGSR, the mighty, mighty CGSR. FM 80.5. The farthest left you can get on FM dial, for a number of years. The show was called The Urban Hang Suite. And with the show, I would do interviews with artists, I would play a lot of Canadian content, especially stuff from Edmonton, and mix it in with artists who are coming out of the US, because I felt that we didn’t have anything that put us on the same platform as our American counterparts. And at the time that I had, my radio show hip-hop in Edmonton and Canada wasn’t as big as what it is now, right? And so you can go anywhere and hear hip-hop now, but still till today, we don’t have outlets where we begin to humanize Canadian hip-hop artists like I could tell you the history of New York hip-hop, LA hip-hop, so on and so forth, but the history of the people in my own backyard, how well do I know it? And have they been given the opportunity to share those stories and give context to their music. Right? A group from Calgary, Dragonfly Empire, like Tarik does radio now, but Hicks / Cosm works at CJSW, right. Being able to sit down and have conversations with people like that, where they start telling you the story of their albums, but also giving you the history of Calgary and Calgary’s hip-hop scene becomes important for us to eventually start to have a pride in who we are. Over the last year, there’s been a big debate in regards to what is Canadian hip-hop, you know, and part of that came from the conversation with Drake in the sense of who is he right? And he should have a country that he could lean back on and say, ‘This is who I am,’ right? But as Canadians, we don’t celebrate our stories. And so bringing it full circle with my radio show, it was about celebrating the stories of Edmontonians, about celebrating the stories of Calgarians, Torontonians, sharing their music, letting it be heard, but then also giving context in regards to like, ‘Oh, you just dropped an album. Let’s talk about the album.’ Because if we’re in New York and Jay-Z drops a new album, or Joey Bada$$ drops a new album, someone’s gonna have a conversation with them about the album. But we don’t do that in our own backyard. So a lot of times, we don’t know about the artist. We don’t have that connection to understand that I can relate to that story. And if we’re not getting those moments where we could actually get a better understanding of the artist, and we never actually begin to make them part of our daily lives, where it’s just like, ‘Yo, I need to hear that Sincere song, because that song spoke about this, and it touches me,’ or ‘I need to hear that song from K-Riz, because he made a song about this, and it touches me.’ Like, that’s how you start building a community, and you start creating value within the music. And so that’s part of what my radio show would do, in the sense of having those interviews, playing the music and contextualizing it in a way that allowed for people to realize that these are people from your backyard who are making songs about you. They’re making songs about your city. They’re making songs about what it’s like to live in the city that you’re from. So there should be a stronger connection to that than someone who’s not from your city. And it’s not from your city, and it’s not to say you can’t have that connection with someone else, but let’s not forget the amazing stories of people who are in our backyard.
Emma (CJSW)
It’s so important, and it’s super cool to see it full circle. Kind of flipped with me and you sitting down here today. Super cool. In my opinion, as a pretty young media professional, I see that a lot more. Have you seen it increasing or improving throughout the years?
Arlo Maverick
Here’s the thing, I do see it increasing, but I just think that it’s increasing in a sea of other voices, right? So podcasting has become a big thing, right? So now you have before we had TV, radio, print, now we have podcast, podcast, podcast, radio, TV, print, podcast, podcast, streamers, so on and so forth, right? And I say that because I feel that that’s not a bad thing, because the democratization of media is important for us to be able to get our stories out there, but as these outlets become more and more popular, more prevalent, we can’t then jump on the bandwagon of, okay, let’s talk about what everyone else is talking about. Let’s actually talk about our stories as well too. And it’s not to say we won’t talk about the other stuff. But if there’s 20 podcasts out there talking about Drake’s new album, let’s at least have two podcasts that talk about the new K the Chosen album, right? Because love him or hate him. He is a part of hip-hop, right? But does he need to have his stories on 20 podcasts? Can we at least get some space for the smaller guys who are creating stuff so that way we can actually celebrate and also share the stories of a Bkay Won or Kindé, or whomever the case may be.
Emma (CJSW)
It’s so highly saturated, and I think that that’s something to do with the music industry, is having the bigger guys kind of pull down and allowing that space to celebrate exactly as you were saying, we’re getting a bit close to our time. But I just wanted to ask, while you have this platform, is there anyone that you want to shout out while you’re here?
Arlo Maverick
I’ve been shouting out a lot of names. Let me see. Let me see. Shouts out, wow. Now drawing a blank here, but Well, shout out, Mouraine, K Riz. Shout out Mahk Milliano. Shout out Sled Island for bringing me down here. Shout out my team. I’m fortunate enough to work with a band out of Calgary, in addition to Edmonton. One thing that I said roughly about a year ago is that I wanted to start bridging the gap between both cities and hopefully make it so that the idea of going back and forth is not an odd thing, right? And so I’ve been fortunate to work with people like David Osah who’s been a huge connector. This guy is like the plug for Calgary when it comes to finding great musicians. Victor, who plays drums for me. Jude, who’s an amazing guitarist, Maya (sp?) who’s on keys. We have Tayo (sp?) who is covering for him. That music community has really welcomed me in and connected me with so many different people out here to Alcove who’ve been great in regards to just connecting me. So, yeah, I love Calgary. I want to see our province, like, really uplift itself. And so Edmonton, Red Deer, Calgary, Lethbridge, Lacombe, let’s put the province on the map. You know, let’s do it. And shout out to CJSW, shout out to you.
Emma (CJSW)
Thanks so much. That’s everything I have for you. Thank you so much for meeting with me today.