Flatbush Zombies Are for the People – Complex

How have you been holding up in quarantine?

Erick Arc Elliott: To be honest, man, it's quite depressing. I think at the beginning of this, I was really paying attention to a bunch of news because I just wanted to stay informed. But I actually feel like that was doing more harm than good to me. What I decided was that I was going to pay more attention to what I needed emotionally to stay afloatand be more creative. But mostly to challenge myself to try something new and learn. I think that's more important. I'm just blessed that I'm staying healthy throughout this whole pandemic, man.

When did you stop paying attention? What made you step back for a second?

Erick Arc Elliott: I just felt like I didn't really know what some of these intentions were. Was it in their heart? Was it genuine? I didn't take a full reset. I still obviously use my account, but I stopped just looking at the news telling me updates of what's going on. I kept my head to the streets. I looked topeople that I knew were activists or abolitionists orphilanthropistsbefore this whole thing. If that's their MO before, those are the people that I spoke to get information from to find out how I can help and what we can do to raise awareness for all these issues. That seemed more impactful to me than for me to just hear messages on the internet, because I can't really determine what's really genuine, or what's even the truth.Juice, how about you?

Zombie Juice: I'm still having a good time because I'm not the type of person that needs other people to value how much fun I'm having, or value my place in society or in my heart you know? The people who need constant reassurance from outside entities and energies, they're the ones that are suffering because they can't stay at home and read a book or stay at home and do some push-ups, or stay at home and clean up, or just do a reset.People forget how to live with themselves, and people probably hate themselves so much that this whole quarantine shit is making them go crazy, because they realize like, Yo, I need more. I need these lights, I need this dopamine rush, I need to be seen. Sometimes you don't need to be seen when you have nothing to really show, so why do you want to be seen so bad? How about you take this time out during quarantine and plan something or set a goal or change your habits. You know? It's a reset, it's a shift.Yeah, everybody is going through a reset right now.

Zombie Juice: A lot of people are not going to understand this, and it may sound weird and crazy, but we are living sources of energy. We are connected to the Earth. The reason why they call the Earth Mother Earth is because she is nourishing us, she is the creator of everything, everything runs through her. We run through her, we're stepping on her body everyday we walk. Every day we break some shit, we're breaking a part of her bones, or every day we pollute the air, we're fucking up her lungs, you know what I'm saying? Every day we project negative energy and kill each other, we're destroying her heart, she's crying, do you get what I'm saying? The Earth is going through a reset right now, including us, and we're all connected, so everything is moving how it's supposed to be moving.

You guys put out a new single called Afterlife produced by James Blake. Erick, you're the main producer for the Zombies, so what do you look for when you're working with an outside producer like James?

Erick Arc Elliott: The first thing I'm going to say is that James Blake is not a human being. He's an entity. He's a spiritual guiding being. He's one of my closest friends, man. More than music, this guy introduced me to so much about myself and how to really improve as a producer. It's a certain level of respect and courtesy that you show and give to people, especially him coming into our situation, where I'm the sole producer. He didn't want to stray us to anything that we weren't comfortable with, but also he wanted to put us in a new place.I'm looking for someone who's not scared to take the risk, and also passionate about his shit enough to be like, Yo, here's what I think you should do. The respect for the music and the love for the music makes me automatically open my ears to say, What you got? This was about two years ago, we met each other. Ever since then, I feel like I've reached new heights of production. Even [my] writing, I was able to form better verses because I had less pressure on me to make beats and worry about how the record was constructed from the ground. James gave me the chance to develop as a lyricist and a writer.Did you and James do this song in the studio together, or was this during quarantine?

Erick Arc Elliott: No, we did it in the studio together, man. Just for some backstory, I met him at the Novo. Actually, I had a hernia surgery that I had months after that. So I was on tour and my hernia was really bad, bro. I remember after I got my surgery, I told him I wanted to record. It was a song that we started called Speed of My Own. I made the beat and he wrote the hook and wrote a verse, and we started working from then. Then, all of a sudden, I'm back in L.A. with him working, and we're doing these tracks. We cut about three or four different tracks together, and we sat down and said he wanted to meet Meech and Juice. He wanted my blessing to try to make music together. I gave him the okay and he came to New York. We all sat in Electric Garden and we cranked out pretty much an album's worth of music within a week and half.

When the Zombies and James Blake get in the studio togetherwhat isit like? You guys just clicked right off the bat?

Erick Arc Elliott: I think me being the bridge made it a lot easier to speak to him, because I was already kicking it with him so much. He was my friend at that point. So, although we've grown to be better friends since then, I think it was never anything weird. Meech and Juice haven't worked with no one else, really, but me, as far as production. SoI think that me being comfortable with him automatically made them comfortable to be free and speak what's on their mind. He was like a fourth member at that point. We were together every day during that little stint of time.Meechy Darko: I want to thank Erick for introducing me to a very rare, talented human being. It's not just his talents musicallyour personalities mesh, because sometimes you meet musical people and it feels like you're trying too hard to read each other and all this stuff. It's very natural with him. Yeah, I like to say he's like a fourth member.Zombie Juice: Its pretty apparent that he's a unique artist and a unique individual, and kind of misunderstood, lowkey. People think that he is weird and they have all these perceptions and projections about what they think James is, or how they think James is supposed to be. And I feel like Flatbush Zombies go through the same type of thing where people might think that we're weird or we're different. But really, we're not as different from most people. When you put two people like that together that are almost one and the same in their own different worlds, it's like a match made in heaven.What can you tell the fans about this James Blake project? How different is it than Vacation in Hell?

Erick Arc Elliott:I will tell them that this is a height that we've never seen. Like I said earlier, me playing the referee in the situation of a production, like, Hey, I'm going to call the shots. Here's what happens, I could just take a seat back and be like, I'm one of the guys right now. James is me right now. James will take the helm and I'm going to chill. Of course,he didn't do this entirely by himself, but this was the most that I've ever let anyone work on something for us, so I think that all of our writing became stronger. They're in a different space withhis piano skill and his understanding ofsound and structure. There are some tracks that he and I did, or him and I and Dominic Maker from Mount Kimbie. It's a good mixture of everything. That's all I can tell you.We recorded it during a very weird time for all of us. We were all going through a lot of shit during that time, but we all were motivated to go to the studio. A song like Afterlife came about because of that extreme feeling, especially what I was talking about in my verse. It's funny to hear a song like that now, because you would think we just wrote it. But that just shows you what timelessness does.

Zombie Juice: Its a different type of emotion that we're bringing out. Most people, when they listen to Flatbush Zombies, they're like, Oh my God, this beat is hard. Oh my God, Erick, you're dope. But now that Erick isn't at the forefront of the beat, now Erick can MC.They keep us in this box or these perceptions, and it's kind of sad. Now that Erick doesn't have to make beats, no one can automatically put him in that box first. They have to respect the MC! So it's like opening up a whole new world and opening up more eyes, and maybe we'll change people's perception. That's what I'm hoping will happen for him and for us in general.

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Flatbush Zombies Are for the People - Complex

Reviewed and Recommended by Erik Baquero