Gettin' Crunk with Family Force Five
04-08-2006
by Brenten Gilbert

You would have to have been trying really hard to avoid hearing about the band Family Force 5. Releasing on Gotee Records and Maverick Records, the group's debut release, Business Up Front, Party in the Back introduces the genre of "crunk rock" with a high energy dose of rock, funk, a little hip hop and a whole lot more.

CMCentral.com managed to catch up to the group back in February as they were in the middle of touring with Gotee labelmates Fighting Instinct. We talked about crunk rock, partying, and "those crazy break dancing moves." Below is that conversation.

CMCentral.com (brenten gilbert): My first question is what question are you guys the most sick of being asked?

(laughs)

Phatty: How did you get started with music?

Soul Glow Activator: Yeah, that one is so vague. Make it more interesting, like what musical band struck you at a young age and made you say, "I don't want to be a baseball player, I want to be a rock star." You know what I'm saying? That kind of question. Those are the questions that we want.

Ok, I'll scratch that one off my list then.

(laughs)

You all have some interesting stage names I thought that it might be nice to start with explaining some of the names to the readers

Well we get all of stage names from living in Atlanta, GA. You gotta have a "gangsta name" when you live in Atlanta. I chose "Soul Glow Activator" as my name because there is a lot of soul that glows from me and I'm the one that activates it. Also, I got it kinda from the movie Coming to America.

Yeah

Crouton: This is Crouton and I got my name because, being the "gangsta" that I am, I was eating a "gangsta" salad and I looked down at a "gangsta" crouton and I thought, "Man, that is so gangsta."

(laughs)

Na Daddy: What up this is Na Daddy. Well, my name is Nate, so that's where the "Na" comes from. As far as the "Daddy", I'm kind of a "mac-daddy" so hence "Na-Daddy"

That sounds about right.

Chap Stique: Hey this is Chap Stique. "Chap" is because I'm British and the "Stique" is because I like to hit in baseball.

Not cricket?

(laughs)

Football. Actually it's really cause I like Chapstick a lot. I just wanted to have a cool thing.

He gets pelted at live shows. When we introduce him as Chap Stique people throw Chapstick at him. It's great. And then we write it off on our taxes.

And you never run out.

Yep here's Phatty.

Yo! Yo! This is Phatty. My name is actually the only real name out of the ATL Boys here. I was a butterball growing up so my brothers, Soul Glow Activator and Crouton, called me "fatty"and it stuck

In a loving way, I bet.

Yeah in a very loving way. I was scarred, I'm still scarred but I'm not fat anymore so it's okay.

(laughs)

Also, when we play live - every time we play live - we have a hype man on stage and his name is Xanadu. Xanadu got his name because he has an orange fro and it looks so crazy that Xanadu seemed to be the only name that would be bigger than his fro.

Sounds good. It seems like you guys have pulled from all kinds of pop culture images, retro 80s stuff, and random icons to create a wild and wacky image for the band. A lot of people are calling things like the misspellings of song titles and the bling-bling logo gimmicks. Under all these layers and "gimmicks," what is really at the heart of Family Force Five?

Well I think all the of the bling-bling logos and the misspellings of things are a part of the Family Force Five culture. To us, it's not a gimmick, it's actually how we live. This is how we talk every. It's a culture about being raised in the south and having a bling-bling logo. And a lot of it is pretty tongue and cheek stuff, too. We are trying to let people know that we are very serious about our music, but we also have a huge message in our music. Our music is created to have fun and our message is to have fun because there is a party going on. So whatever the imagery is - however we can misspell something to grab people's attention - that is what we are going to do because that is how we live our lives anyway. We are pretty loud guys and we love all those things that you said from the bottom of our hearts. If it is gimmick then it's working.

You are certainly getting a lot of attention, that is for sure.

Thanks

So what is your goal when you get on stage or step into the studio to work on some songs? I know you mentioned it's for fun but. . .

When we step on stage there is only one rule to have and that is not to hurt each other. On stage, we are likened to about 5 kids with A.D.D. who didn't take their Ritalin that day and our live show reflects that. All of us in the band usually come home with a cut or a bruise by the end of the night. And if we don't come home with a cut or a bruise, we feel like we didn't do our job because we are usually banging into each other, headstocks and basses flying into people's faces. We never hurt the crowd but we hurt each other a lot for some reason. The live show is so intense and high energy.

Now, when we are in the studio it's a different kind of energy. We try to capture what we do live on tape. We ask ourselves, "If the world were to end and somebody were to find a piece of tape that was only two seconds long, how would you play that note?" You'd have to play it on eleven. You'd have to play it over the top because that is what this culture and this band is all about. It's about being over-the-top, being extra loud, being extra crunk. That's a huge motto for us.

Sounds good man. I totally agree, you have to make every second count and I think that energy really does come through on some of the songs and I'm sure that your shows are . . . Actually, I saw that little video blog that you put up this morning I think on your myspace. You can see the energy right there.

Yeah man, we've got a few more episodes coming. It's great.

So the new album has kind of a staggered release date, releasing on iTunes first, then on Gotee, then finally on Maverick. Does that present any challenge as far as having to tour longer or promote it longer by not having one set date?

I know for a fact that both labels are very behind this band and very excited about it. They are doing everything in their power to push this as far as they can because we are busting tail out here out on the road. I don't think we are even going to breathe until Christmas as far as touring is concerned. They are filling up our days from here all the way until the summer and then we'll get on the fall tours and stuff. We love playing live, so it'll be great. This is a very, very live band and we'll try to capture that energy on tape. So, if you listen to it a few times, experience it on myspace, and experience it on our website you'll get the whole culture and you'll get the whole vibe of the family business.

It seems like you've managed to coin the phrase 'crunk rock' to describe the album can you elaborate a little bit on all the pieces that make up 'crunk rock'?

Crunk rock is pretty much about the party. It ties in a lot to all the stuff you mentioned earlier, the retro craziness, the bling-bling, the crazy live show, the interaction with fans, and being accessible. It's all about having a party, having a good time, letting fans being part of the family, going nuts and establishing a culture of crunk rock that allows everyone to have their own part in it and bust out those crazy brake dancing moves like we do.

You guys have a lot of material. How did you narrow it down to fit it all on one CD?

We just sort of had a jambalaya songs and we put them in a big hat and picked out the ones that seemed the best.

(laughs)

I'm just kidding dude. We tried out each song live to see if it worked. If it worked out live, then we said, "Let's put it on the record. If the kids don't like this song, let's not put it on the record." And that's how we chose the songs. It's a great test.

It took us about 5 years to write this album because we were going through testing. No, I'm just kidding.

(laughs)

So what would you say is the glue that holds all the songs together? Is there an overriding theme or. . . ?

Well it kinda goes back to the crunk rock thing. The theme of this album is basically in the title, it's Business Up Front, Party in the Back. What that entails is that we are very serious about this music, but at the end of the day, when you put on this record, it's time to jam. You know what I'm saying? It's a party record, the whole theme of the album is to have fun. It's music that makes you want to move and shake your junk in the trunk.

Just to go crazy

Yeah

So there's a video for "Kountry Gentleman" floating around the web. It looks like you guys had a lot of fun with that.

We did. That's what got us signed to Maverick. We shot that video on our own with a very low budget.

Nah, we are just big fans. We did it about 2 years ago, before the Dukes of Hazzard thing. It just happened that Dukes of Hazzard came out after it.

It's too bad that it didn't work out. That would have been a great . . .

That would have been great, but we have other plans for a brand new video for the song, a high budget video.

Do you want to talk about the new single, Replace Me?

Yeah. "Replace Me" is a song we as a band wrote together. It's a song, a cry out to God, asking him to replace us with His love and break us down. That is what it is about.

How did you choose that one to be the single?

We chose that one because it seemed to be the most compatible. It's the very last song that we recorded on the record and Gotee listened to it and loved it. They said that they wanted to use this because this it would be a strong song for us.

It seems to be doing pretty well in charts, as far as I can tell

Yeah. We are trying to get a video for that. We are a very video-driven band. We just shot a video for a song called "Love Addict" and it's a very, very crazy video. It involves a giant heart. There is a person dressed up as a giant heart. That's all you can see, just heart and legs that is it. It's pretty cool in my book.

You should have had that out for Valentine's Day.

Cool man, we should have called you up to be in the video. We'll call you up for the unicorn outfit, is that cool?

Sure. I look good in a unicorn outfit.

What about Gremlins?

(laughs)

we'll see about that. Now I've got some fun questions. What music, cds and artists do you listen to for inspiration, besides Creed obviously.

(laughs)

You're right! Scott Stapp's solo record…

(laughs)

Noooooo!

That line in "Kountry Gentleman" cracks me up by the way. . .

As a band, we are really into LCD Soundsystem right now and we've also got some friends that are really great who just signed with Tooth and Nail records called Jonesetta. I can't seem to get enough of them. I'm also listening to a lot of Depeche Mode right now.

Cool. So, I'll go back to your original question. What band did you listen to that made you realize that you didn't want to be a baseball player?

I did want to be a baseball player, but I liked Michael Jackson a whole bunch too. Kings X was probably the band that made me realize I wanted to be a guitar player, though.

Yeah when I heard Prince's "1999" it kind of took me over and I was like, "Yeah! I want to do whatever that is." It made me break the bat. I threw down the bat and broke it. 'Cause I was like, "Tonight I'm going to party like it's 1999 - even though I'm like 4 years old."

Did you break the bat over your knee like a real tough guy?

I did. It was a Mickey Mouse bat. I hit my brothers in the head with it a few times. That is a very true story too. I hit my brothers in the head with a Mickey Mouse baseball bat. It was great.

You are a gangsta!

It hurt!

(laughs)

No offense to Fighting Instinct, but if you could tour with anyone, who would chose?

Right off hand I would probably say No Doubt. Second in line would probably be the Beastie Boys and then third in line would probably be Neil Diamond.

Perfect.

John Tesh

(laughs)

So how concerned are you guys that you'll be confused with the pop vocal group FFH because of your abbreviated name?

FFH?

(laughs)

I don't know. I think it would be great if somebody who went into the store looking for FFH accidentally bought our record, popped it in and their speakers got blown. That would be incredible cause you know FFH does their thing, but I don't know if they can serve up the party like we can.

I can see you guys getting accidentally booked for a quiet church event. . .

Tonight, the Bill Gaither Trio and FF5!

(laughs)

Alright, so we can find more about you on MySpace.com/FamilyForce5 and your own website (FamilyForce5.com), anything else you want to say to the readers?

Business in the Front, Party in the Back March 28th in stores. Keep it crunk!

Cool.

Family Force Five Out