Halfcut (right) & Cole The God (left) are performing during Sled Island on Friday, 10pm at #1 Legion (Upstairs) & Saturday, 4pm at Ship & Anchor.

Interview Audio:

Interview Transcript:

Kaamil (CJSW)
Okay, so first question I need to ask about the album, The Relentless Two. How did you guys connect first and decide to put this project together?

Halfcut
I think I don’t know what year it was, but I went. He used to be in a group called the Suicide Kings. One of my first tours that I ever went on was with the Suicide Kings, and that’s kind of when we kind of branched off. Cole was producing for the Suicide Kings at the time, and we decided to start making a few tracks here and there, and then we were just like, let’s do a full project. So that was like a while ago, so. But, yeah, years ago, man.

Cole The God
Years, like we, I don’t know, we met like 15 years ago, right? But the thought of the Relentless Two and the project came, you know, maybe in the last two years, ish, and we slowly, slowly, slowly started building songs and putting songs together for a full length, and you know, chopping songs off and adding songs in, and you know how it goes when you’re like building a project, and then eventually it came out, but it was, it was literally like 10 years in the making.

Kaamil (CJSW)
Yeah, how’d you guys come up with the name The Relentless Two?

Cole The God
Watching a lot of western movies.

Halfcut
Watching like tons of western movies. Just decided one night, yo, that’s the, that’s what we want to do. We want to make it like a western, you know, theme, and yeah, just kind of, you know, dialed in on that Relentless Two, like that’s perfect, man, that’s like some hard body shit, so.

Cole The God
And being from Calgary, kind of just made sense to do something cool, western themed, and you know, we both love western films, so it was just a cool little.. it was a way for us to just, you know, dive into that and have a theme for the album and a theme for the songs and the aesthetics of the record and stuff, so.

Halfcut
I always say, like, yeah, Calgary, like, love the Calgary Stampede, but sometimes it can get like a little bit corny, I guess, sometimes, like with all the cowboys stuff.

Kaamil (CJSW)
That’s a nice way to put, yeah.

Halfcut
So we tried to, like, we just wanted to make it like badass old western style stuff, right?

Cole The God
Think Tombstone, yeah.

Kaamil (CJSW)
So, did you watch a bunch of westerns together, and then like, how did that influence the verse writing and the beat making side of things?

Halfcut
I mean, while I was like, well, I was writing some stuff, I was like, I would put on like mad western movies, and then be like, okay, I’m going down to like write this verse or whatever, like, but I mean, it wasn’t like that, we weren’t like hanging out and watching them together. I think mostly I was like on a western, like, kick and I was like watching a ton of westerns and stuff, and like hearing things like little skits, or like little pieces we can use for interludes and whatnot, and just like every time I’d hear something cooler, like a sample we should use, I’d be like, “Cole, check out this timestamp, like, you know, 45 minutes into the film, you can fucking, you can take that and turn it into something, right?” So, yeah.

Cole The God
Which is kind of what got me into like watching western films, just trying to find samples for this record. It kind of just reinvigorated my love for like movies in general, because a lot of those westerns are so well made. But near the end of the record, the process of completing this, you know, Cutty would come to my, my studio, and we would sit there and just watch westerns, and be like, that sounds awesome, and it would inspire us, yeah, and then it, and then it comes out in like the merch and the album cover and stuff like that, so.

Kaamil (CJSW)
Yeah, and it’s been, it’s been pretty big since that released, and you guys have been kind of on a bit of a tear lately. You guys were on Shade 45, what was that experience like, being able to jump on maybe arguably the biggest hip hop radio show that exists?

Halfcut
Yeah, that was major for us, right?

Cole The God
Surreal.

Halfcut
Yeah, I mean, it was actually one of my friends, they like, I mean, they were playing our music prior to that, like we’d been on Shade 45 a few times, have been spinning the record and stuff.

Cole The God
Shout out DJ Eclipse.

Halfcut
Yeah, and then, like, just reached out to Eclipse, we’re like, ‘Yo, man, they’re spinning our record, like we need to, we need to reach out to these guys, man, and like, you know, thank them for one, but also just be like, we’d love to get up on the show,’ yeah, and like, we didn’t know, you know, what the answer would be, but they were right away, they were just like, ‘Yo, we’re available these two months, can you guys get out to New York?’ ‘Yeah, we’ll make it happen.’ So we just locked it in, and yeah, went out to New York, and yeah, tried to put on for the city properly. I think we did, man.

Cole The God
It was crazy, though. It was nerve-wracking, but what a great experience it was, you know, to go to Sirius XM, and just even just be in the facility is crazy, let alone being on Shade 45, so. Everyone was super nice. The experience was smooth, and yeah, shout out DJ Eclipse. DJ Riz, like, they really, really, really welcomed us warmly.

Kaamil (CJSW)
Nice, nice. So, Sled Island, let’s jump into that a little bit. And performing during a festival like Sled Island, what does that mean to both of you?

Halfcut
I mean, being in Calgary, like, yeah, I mean, this festival has been going on for a long time now, so, like, you know, props to all the organizers and shouts to all of them, because they’ve been, like, they’ve been through all of the hard years and the good years and everything, right?

Cole The God
Perserved through, like, you know, the pandemic and stuff, so.

Halfcut
Everything, yeah. But I mean, it’s like, yeah, I, I’ve gotten to perform at Sled like three times now. I think this will be the third time. This is the first time me and Cole have been, like, you know, performed here as a group, as a duo, but I know his band’s performed at Sled. I performed at Sled with my old group, the Humble Giants, and, like, yeah, just some of the most epic moments in my career, too. Just like opening for De La Soul at like Palace Theatre, that was like a real memorable moment for me, and that, like, you know, that’s thanks to Sled Island, like that made that happen. So, yeah, I mean, it’s good for the city, it’s always been good for the city, and I think people need to continue to support it, so.

Cole The God
Agreed, I grew up going to Sled Island, you know, so I’ve seen so many good artists due to Sled Island, so yeah, nothing but respect to the Sled team, and just what they do, and yeah, my band’s played Sled before we opened for Primitive Man. It was an awesome show at the Palomino, and I’m excited to play with Cutty this year, you know, we play two shows, and it’s just exciting. It gets the city buzzing, and you get to learn about a lot of new artists, which I love. So, yeah, I think it’s exciting, and people need to support Sled Island.

Kaamil (CJSW)
Yeah, speaking of those artists, is there any artists you’re, you guys are particularly looking forward to seeing live or experience or meeting even?

Cole The God
I am excited for the show. We’re playing Billy Woods. I’m excited to see Billy do his thing. I want to shout out Syphon, they’re like a hardcore punk band from Calgary. I’m excited to watch them, I believe they’re playing the Palomino Saturday. So those are my tops, personally. But I mean, you could pretty much flip through the guide, point your finger at something, and it’ll be worth checking out. So I’m excited to see a lot of stuff I’ve never seen before, you know?

Halfcut
I mean, I’m gonna check out K-Riz & the Family.

Cole The God
K-Riz, that’s tomorrow, right?

Halfcut
Yeah, that’s tomorrow night at Ship. I’m gonna check that out. I don’t really know what else I’m gonna be checking out, man, but I’m just, yeah, just picked up the passes. So I’m gonna be, yeah, I love it, man. It’s kind of like Austin, you know, it’s kind of like South by Southwest, where you can just roam and do like a bar, and there’s a band playing, and you’re like, they’re killing it, and you’re like, ‘what, who’s this,’ you know what I mean? So, yeah.

Cole The God
And then you walk to the next bar, and it’s like, same thing.

Kaamil (CJSW)
An entirely different genre, maybe.

Halfcut
Exactly, I love it.

Cole The God
It’s a beautiful thing.

Kaamil (CJSW)
Absolutely, yeah, so jumping back into your guys’ performing, what’s something that people can only experience by going to a Halfcut & Cole The God show?

Cole The God
A light lighting on fire at the last venue we played at.

Halfcut
Yeah, the last venue we played like the whole stage lit on fire.

Kaamil (CJSW)
You brought the heat.

Halfcut
We brought the heat, man.

Cole The God
Cutty lit the roof on fire.

Halfcut
We will continue to do so.

Cole The God
Yeah, so that was something unique that happened at our show. But really, we just bring, like, you know, alive. We were Cutty with his crowd interaction, is, is, you know, it’s enticing. So I’m in the back, just spinning the beats, and it’s, it’s exciting, you know. If you, if you like, like hardcore or punk or anything, it kind of has the same energy in the live set. You know, if you’re, if you’re a fan of, like, Onyx or some Wiley hip hop, like the live show, I think is, is similar. So, yeah, that’s what you can expect.

Kaamil (CJSW)
How would you define your hip hop style? I feel like that’s something that a lot of people are figuring out right now, is like putting a bit of a definition or label on their hip hop style. Would you do that?

Halfcut
I feel like we’re like new age boom bap, like I mean, because just like, because like the beats are intricate, man, the wordplay is intricate and stuff, but like, yeah, I mean, I feel like that’s kind of where we fit in right now. I don’t even know if that’s like, is that one of the genres? New age boom bap?

Kaamil (CJSW)
It doesn’t matter how many genres are out there, you can make a new one, if you want.

Halfcut
Yeah, there we go. So I mean, that’s kind of where we fit in right now, man, but also, like, still, like, obviously grew up to, like, all the, like, greats, and, like, all the, you know, the pillars of hip hop, right? So it’s like, you know, our style, and shits embedded in that as well, too.

Kaamil (CJSW)
Yeah, I want to dive a little bit into the verse writing and beat selection and kind of production side of things. So we’ll start off, maybe with beat selection and production, because it might lead into the verse stuff a little bit more. But how do you create? What’s your process for creating beats? Is it having a library of samples and just kind of like pulling from that, or is it something where you get an inspiration and you immediately go in and produce?

Cole The God
Kind of a little bit of both, honestly. I’m always building my sample library. I’m always hearing stuff, and you know, noting that and putting a sticky note on my vinyl, or you know, if I’m, I don’t know, searching elsewhere that isn’t vinyl, I’m taking note. So I’m always building my samples, but it’s hard to say, I think, lately, because we’ve been writing so much, it’s been, I’m just in a flow state right now, of like, okay, go downstairs to the studio and just listen to samples, if I find one, I hone in on it, you know, and I kind of just go to work on it, and I like to have multiple things to show to any rapper I’m working with, so I’m not coming with one you might not like and then we got nothing, right? So when Cudi comes over to listen to beats, I try and have like five or six kind of in the bank, just like maybe you’ll like one of these at least, but yeah, my process is very chill, man. I like to just get into my studio. I have a VCR and a TV in there, so I throw on usually some like 90s wrestling or some like 90s cartoons or something. I start digging through samples and whatever that looks like. I, I use many different things. I use Logic, and I use an MPC, and not necessarily using the same thing on every track. I’m kind of just exploring and not limiting myself, and you know, you make a few stinkers on the way that will never see the light of day, of course. So it’s all about those times where you, you know, you know, you kind of have something that you know, in this case, Halfcuts gonna dig, and once he starts bobbing his head, and he’s like, this is the one, bro, then I’m like, cool, we build on this for the next couple days, you know, and record it, and put it on a record, and so that’s my process.

Kaamil (CJSW)
Fair enough, and then moving back over to the verse writing side. What are you listening for when it comes to going through cycling a bunch of beats? Is there something specific that stands out for you, or is it more just like, you know, what I have something in my brain initially, like I have a verse I think I could write with this. What’s your process for that?

Halfcut
I mean, for me, I’m like writing, I’m writing whenever I can write, because I’m like, I’m a father now, so it’s like I’m writing whenever I have a chance to write. I also own, like, a company, so it’s like I’m a busy guy. This music thing is like my passion, and you know, you know, I wish I could make it a full-time thing. I’m still trying to do that, but for me, I’m writing in the work truck, I’m writing every chance I get, and you know, Cole will send me clips of things, and I’m like, “Yo, I wrote like eight bars the other day that fit perfect with this like clip you sent.” I’ll build off that, he’ll send like a full version, you know, and then I just kind of, you know, we just work it out like that, get the first verse, maybe we get the hook first, you know, sometimes, but yeah, essentially that’s all it is, man. If you’re like a poet and a writer, you’re gonna be trying to write and explain whatever is going on in your life at that time.

Kaamil (CJSW)
Yeah, and then making it fit?

Halfcut
And then making it fit, kind of like, yeah, I mean, kind of making it like a puzzle and fit, but like also just, yeah, usually, usually it’s something like that, like he’ll, he’ll send me this beat, it’ll spark something new. I’ll be like, ‘Yo, I already wrote like this. I’ll try to, like, make that fit in,’ and then I’ll add on to that, and you know what I mean? Kind of goes from there.

Kaamil (CJSW)
Yeah, are you old school pen to paper? Are you a notes app kind of guy?

Halfcut
Aw, man. I like, I do jot things down on paper, because I have, like, a, like, I have, like, a little book in my truck, but, like, mostly I’m just, like, either typing stuff on my phone or I’m actually driving and, like, just hitting record on my phone, like, like, the voice recorder. Sometimes I’ll go through, like, all my voice recordings, and it’s like insanity. It’s like, sounds like you’re listening to a crazy person, but like I’ll just piece those together, and then it turns out dope.

Kaamil (CJSW)
Sweet, man. I’m gonna ask you guys a question that I’ve been wanting to ask a lot of hip hop artists, and it’s gonna get pretty cerebral and pretty like large scale on this, but I feel like hip hop’s getting to this space where it’s becoming more brief in terms of how long songs are. I was curious about why you, why hip hop artists do in general, you don’t have to answer all for hip hop artists, but I did notice with your guys’ project as well, some shorter tracks in there, and just kind of, you know, maybe one or two verses in there. Why do you approach it that way, as opposed to maybe the old school style of like three, four verses in a track?

Halfcut
I don’t know, man, like I mean, obviously, with like people’s attention.

Cole The God
The saturation, the market saturation.

Halfcut
Market saturation, attention span, everything’s kind of like, you know, more so like it needs to be easily digestible, you know, these days. It’s not like that, we think of that, you know, that’s just kind of the format that hip hop kind of went into was like, yeah, like you said, I remember when I was writing three, like three verses, and to be honest, that third verse would always be like the best one, yeah, because it’s like, you know what I mean, you get past the first, the second, and then the third would be like crazy, man, so maybe we gotta bring it back to that, man, the next album, you know what we’re doing, five verses now, I think we’re gonna do like five verses.

Cole The God
Look what you’ve done, man. Look what you’ve done.

Kaamil (CJSW)
Works better for me, I get more music this way.

Halfcut
But even like you sent me that RJ Payne album the other day, and that was one verse, one hook. It was EP, but it was just like.

Cole The God
But it kind of hits you over the face, and then you have to listen to it again. Yeah, it’s kind of cool too. I come from, like, hardcore, and not a lot of long songs in hardcore, so for me it’s almost just natural, just do two verses, maybe a hook, and get out of there, you know. But some songs call for it, like our song Green Stacks, is a little bit longer. You know, that’s got to be pushing four minutes. So, it just depends on what things call for, and, but I feel you, it’s like, you know, I listen to a lot of classic albums, and those songs, you know, average probably three and a half, four minutes, right, and I have no problem with that, you know, listening to like a long Wu-Tang song or something, I’m like, count me in on that.

Kaamil (CJSW)
Well, Wu-Tang, they got to fit like 12 people. The posse cuts feel a little even. Posse cuts nowadays still have longer songs.

Halfcut
It keeps it interesting, though, when you got like that many MCs like jumping in and you’re hearing every verse.

Cole The God
So, we’re gonna drop a record with Daniel Son, so Cutty and Daniel Son, I’m producing. It’s almost done. Naturally, the songs will be a little longer on there. We got to fit a couple verses in there, maybe some features, hooks. So I think just naturally, with another person getting added to the whole album being involved, then for sure it’ll be a nice, you know, it’ll be a good listen, for sure, a little more long, for sure.

Kaamil (CJSW)
Yeah. And you guys, you guys been touring a little bit with Daniel Son, too. What kind of experiences have kind of gleaned, or knowledge have you gleaned from, like, his experiences within hip hop?

Halfcut
I mean, it’s been a learning, yeah, it’s just like a learning experience, like I haven’t toured for a long time, like Cole’s been touring like all the time with his band and stuff. So, for me, I’m just like learning the ins and outs of the industry again, when to book shows, when not to book shows, like how to promote shows properly. I mean, we’ve only been doing a few shows here and there, so it’s like it’s kind of like a spread out tour. Anyways, it’s not like we’re on the road, we’re doing like one show, two shows back home, one shows, two shows, you know.

Kaamil (CJSW)
Yeah, you guys have other lives, yeah.

Cole The God
We’re keeping it easy on our like old man bodies and minds. But touring with Daniel Son has been awesome, man. He’s, you know, we’ve, we’ve gotten close with Daniel Son, and we respect him a whole lot, and he’s super talented at what he does, and I learn a lot from him, and it’s a pleasure to be able to play shows with him and just hang with the guy, so yeah, yeah, that’s fun, that’s been good, but as far as, like, touring this year, yeah, it’s pretty much just spot dates, and keep it semi-consistent. We’re playing two Sled shows, so that’s awesome. Like, where we can knock Calgary out at Sled even better, like then we play Slave Lake in a month, yeah, which is gonna be wild, and you know, just spot dates on the horizon, which is cool.

Kaamil (CJSW)
Cool. And you mentioned the Daniel Son collaboration, you mentioned a few of these tour dates. Where can people go to check out what’s coming up for both of you guys? But I guess just for the next summer and the rest of the year.

Halfcut
I mean, most of the stuff is just gonna be on IG Facebook, so yeah.

Kaamil (CJSW)
What’s your at?

Halfcut
@halfcut_official

Cole The God
@colethegod

Kaamil (CJSW)
Beautiful, beautiful. And you know, we’ve been chatting for a little bit here. I’ll let you guys go. To close things out, though, is there anything else you guys wanted to add or talk about, or let people know who may be listening and reading this?

Cole The God
We appreciate CJSW. We appreciate, you know, I always have a great time at CJSW, and we love what it does for the community, and you know, we’re friends with a lot of people there. So, thank you for everything, and we appreciate Sled Island, and we’re honored to be able to play it, and new music dropping soon, new tour dates, and, yeah, that’s that’s it.

Halfcut
What he said, man, he’s the one that’s media trained, so.

Cole The God
Hardly, hardly.

Kaamil (CJSW)
All right, and I do have one last question. But yeah, thank you guys so much for chatting. Really appreciate you guys taking the time to come in and do this interview. And, best of luck with the shows this week, and best luck with the future. I’m looking forward to that, Daniel Son Collab, man. I gotta bring you guys in this station at some point, when that drops.

Cole The God
We will make that happen.

Halfcut
The Relentless Three, man.

Kaamil (CJSW)
It’s gonna be called The Relentless Three.

Halfcut
Yeah, yeah, it’s the Relentless Three. And he was on the, he was on like the Soul Ice joint, right off of The Relentless Two. So we just were like, ‘yo, let’s build off of that and do another one.’ And then it just made sense. We’re like, let’s do The Relentless Three, and like, do a full project, so. It’s gonna be fucking crazy, man.

Cole The God
We, you know, we’ll be sending it to CJSW. We’ll come on there.

Kaamil (CJSW)
You know, I’ll be airing it.

Cole The God
Yeah, well, we’ll have a good time with it, so.

Kaamil (CJSW)
Absolutely, man. Looking forward to it. Thank you, guys, again. Appreciate it.

Cole The God
Yeah, thank you.