Get Familiar: The Physics
Names: Thig Natural (MC), Justo (Producer), [Monk Wordsmith (MC), not featured]
Hometown: Seattle
Discography:Future Talk (2007), High Society EP (2009), Three Piece EP (2010), Love Is a Business (2011)
How would you describe your sound?
Justo: We have what can be seen as a mature sound. Kind of sophisticated, but common everyday experience type stuff that has a uniquely “Seattle” approach to it. We make songs about our lives; it’s nothing but our actual reality. It’s very relate-able. And its fun, we don’t take ourselves too seriously. Its smooth, soulful, real and very Seattle.
Thig: Word.
First hip hop album?
Justo: The first one I remember having was DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince He’s The DJ, I’m The Rapper. My step-mom bought that for me. But growing up, oddly enough, my mom listened to a lot of rap, like Run DMC, and my cousins were into Beastie Boys and everything else. But the DJ Jazzy Jeff was the first tape I had. And the first tape I remember having that had cursing on it was a Biz Markie album, there were two curse words on it. I remember playing it for my cousins, I knew where the curse words were, so I would fast forward and be like “listen, listen, listen, he said bitch!” It was a big deal to me as a young lad.
Thig: Pretty sure my first hip hop album was an MC Hammer album…When I first got into hip hop, I was all about singles. Instead of buying an album I’d spend my allowance on a few different singles because they were cheap and you could get the song you wanted plus a B-Side. I remember buying Black Sheep’s “The Choice is Yours” single and playing it over and over and over again while I rode my bike in the southend. RIP the single!
How did you guys get started making music?
Justo: I started DJ’ing in 1993 around school and the South end. Me and Thig were always friends through music, because we had similar taste, and one day I wrote a rap randomly, and sent it to him in class. The next day he comes to class, and is like “listen to this man, I wrote a rap”, and his was filthier than mine. So we started rapping and competing with each other. We needed something to rap over, so I started looping beats on an old Gemini sampler that I got from Thomas Gray (Champage Champagne). Then I met Vitamin D through a mutual friend, and used to pay him for studio time to teach me how to make beats on the ASR-10 (sampling keyboard). Then me and Thig really started making songs, and have been since 1997, just no one has ever heard those songs.
Thig: Word.
How did the name “The Physics” come about?
Justo: Back when hip hop was more like “miracle, lyrical, spherical” the backpack type, it comes from Metaphysics. I learned that word in English class and thought it was cool, and eventually we shortened it down to The Physics, which makes sense with how we make music, because we treat it as a science. We’ll add things, then take them away, treat it like an experiment. I think it fits in a lot of ways.
Thig: Word.
One of your first hits was “I Heart Beer”. What is your favorite beer?
Justo: I like Mac & Jacks. I like Canadian beers too, their local beers are sweeter, like the Ambers. When we wrote the song, we were just out of college, and drinking a lot of beer when we made music. We were drinkin’ the cheap stuff back then, like Mickeys Ice and Steele Reserve.
Thig: Depends on the occasion, my favorite studio brew is probably Red Hook IPA, favorite chill at home and relax brew is Amstel Light. Favorite BBQ/Park brew is a cold Corona.
What has been your biggest music memory?
Justo: With music in general, back when Michael Jackson was doin’ his thing around Thriller, my mom bought my brother a Thriller t-shirt, and I didn’t get one, so I cried. Then she bought me a glove. That was big. In my music career, just knowing Vitamin D and the things he taught me. Real selfless dude, he taught me how to make beats, and how to mix. He taught me how to make the music, and not to be selfish and self consumed with your art. He was a good guy to look at as a mentor.
Thig: Probably the first year we played Bumbershoot. That was the first opportunity for us to play in front of thousands of people, from our city, who didn’t know who we were.
Is there any material that has never and will never leave the hard drive?
Justo: We have hundreds and hundreds of songs on there. We’ve been making music since high school, so there is a lot that no one has heard. Also a lot that we just forget about. We don’t put out a lot of music, because we’re very particular about what we put out.
Thig: Yeah but I’m bout to leak some ’98 Justo raps for ya’ll. This one old song he rhymed “grammatical” with like 30 other “__ical” words in one verse haha.
What do you do outside of music?
Justo: I do Research for a local Biotech company, basically I conduct and coordinate experiments in the lab all day while thinking about music. I also have a huge family that I’m very close with. By huge I mean, my mom has 12 siblings and I have something like 30 1st cousins that I am close with, I feel blessed to have that!
Thig: I work in Science too but on the administrative side at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Aside from that if I’m not making music, I’m taking pictures of someone or something.
Tell us about the sound of Love Is A Business?
Justo: I think it’s a more cohesive project, and shows a progression in what we are doing musically. It bridges the gap from our past.
Thig: People have told me its more soulful but to me all our projects have been extremely soulful. Its definitely more vocal in terms of the layering and variation of vocals and melodies on hooks and bridges. We approach all of our songs intuitively as opposed to technically. If a song feels right with a 32 bar verse and no hook then that’s what we’ll do. If we feel like a bridge would make the song better then we’ll do that. I don’t think we ever counted bars or measures, its just always a question of what feels right.
Where did the title come from?
Justo: It’s about balancing the loves in your life with the duties and responsibilities in your life and how the two interact. For us, its been having love for music, but getting to the point where it becomes a business.
Thig: Yup.
What’s next?
Justo: We are going to work on a local college tour, and work on getting more publicity out of the state. We really want to expand our fan base, just hustle from here on. You’ll here a lot more music from us, we want to build our presence.
Thig: We also have another project, Digital Wildlife, which will be coming out towards the end of this year so look out for that!
Check out a stream of six tracks from The Physics’s upcoming album, Love Is Business from BandCamp. Look for the full release on August 6.
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