New Beat Fund are a lot of things. Band members, Silky Johnson, Snapz Laliberte, Burnie Baker and Burton are mixing punk, funk, hip hop and several other genres together to bring a refreshing and comedic vibe to the Los Angeles music scene and beyond. Below, Snapz Laliberte (the band’s bassist) gives a rundown of all things New Beat Fund. Read on.
Cliché: What’s the music scene like in Los Angeles?
Snapz: Angelic of course. Lots of creative minds in LA, and a lot of creative name droppers too.
How would you describe your music?
We call it “G-PuNk bEACh FuNk” a west coast, hip hop, psych, punk, rock, and a swirl of sounds xeroxed through our skull cucumber salad. Belch!
What was the recent tour with 30H3! like?
It was dope. We made new friends and rewired lots of ear drums to the NbF (New Beat Fund) frequency. We celebrated Burnie’s birthday, found Silky passed out on Bourbon Street, got a haircut and a shot for $10 at two in the morning, and stopped through the parlor for some pirates ink. It was nothing short of a success.
Who came up with the logo for the band?
Burnie does all of our artwork.
Who are some of your influences?
Dr. Dre, Incubus, 2pac, The Pharcyde, AFI, Blink, RHCP, Beck, At The Drive In, Eminem, Kobe Bryant, Basquiat, Tommy Pickles, and Ed, Edd, ‘N’ Eddy.
The music video for “Scare Me” is pretty funny, what was the concept behind it?
We met a ghost ‘Ghosty’ on Venice Beach and became homies. It’s a detailed account of our growing friendship and a few moments of gnarliness along the way.
How did the band go about recording the EP, ($) CoiNz?
We did everything in our bedrooms and garage. If you really listen closely, you can hear the crickets from out of my window and maybe even a cat meow.
You’ve got another tour coming up starting at the end of January, your touring with AER how did you wind up getting on the bill together? We’re fans of each other’s music. Plain and simple, playa pimp. We also became good friends with RDGLDGRN on Warped Tour who are on the tour as well. Winter time extravaganza.
When writing, is it a collective effort or does one person do most of the writing? Also, what comes first, the music or lyrics? t’s always a collective effort. We’re a band and our music is the sum of four different perspectives. We also record and produce all of our music on our own, so we all see it through to the end. In terms of lyrics, they are usually half written during the songs conception and finalized when recording. But the best songs tend to be a double whammy, everything happens at once. You poop and vomit your cosmic energies before you’ve even realized they were there.
Any major plans for 2014 that you’d like to share? Pinky and the Brain that shit and release our album.
Read “March To The Beat” on page 122 of the Feb/Mar issue!
All images via Total Assault
