Today we are proudly sharing the exclusive interview of Chunjay and Flatline of Positive Hip-Hop Crew, Royal Ruckus.

Q: First of all we want to say welcome to you.

Flatline: Well met! And a swell welcome as well!

Chunjay: Thanks, I appreciate you taking the time to interview us! And what are the origins of the term “welcome”? If you break it down, it is “Welc” and “ome.” And what do these words mean? It’s a mystery. And so is the meaning of “welcome.”

Q: Say something about your musical journey?

Flatline: Something akin to a train fueled by burning guitars and drum sets flying through the cosmos of outer space.

Chunjay: I grew up playing drums, started writing rap songs when I was 12, started making beats around age 13, and started Royal Ruckus when I was 17. Everyone in my family enjoyed music, but I was the only one who wanted to make it. I have this urge for DIY stuff. I like beer, so I started homebrewing. I like tacos, so I started making tacos at home. I like the rap songs, so I make rap songs.

I also like women, but I don’t know how to make women. This isn’t Weird Science, after all.

Q: How did you come into music industry?

Chunjay: Harnessing the power of the World Wide Web, we garnered the attention of the masses until they couldn’t handle it anymore, and so the black hole of Nashville caused us to morph from Californians to Tennesseans. The music industry promptly dashed our hopes. But it turns out sometimes that giving up is the beginning of great things. And thus was born our magnum opus, The Summer of the Cicadas.

Flatline: I didn’t choose the game. The game chose me. Just putting music out into the world is joining the business of music and here I am.

Q: Who was your inspiration for music?

Flatline: Kurt Cobain, Paul McCartney, and The RZA.

Chunjay: I have a lot of musical heroes. Probably my top three inspirations in hip-hop are the Beastie Boys, A Tribe Called Quest, and Soup the Chemist (from the 80s and 90s Christian rap group SFC). My favorite songwriter outside of hip-hop is Benjamin Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie.

Q: What is the name of your debut song?

Flatline: Side one, track one.

Chunjay: That would be an interesting song title, Flatline.

Q: What is the next single from The Summer of the Cicadas?

Chunjay: “These Things Remind.” It’s a break-up song. We filmed the music video in Nashville at The Standard, which is a restaurant and members-only cigar bar. I’m friends with the owner, and it was a lot of fun to do.

Q: Who helped you most in your journey?

Flatline: Brazilian artist Hermeto Pascoal.

Chunjay: Musically, probably Pigeon John back in the day, and more recently Cookbook, both of whom are in the rap collective, LA Symphony. Cookbook does success coaching and stuff, and he’s been a big part of my music world the last year and a half. He can be reached at [email protected], and he does more than just music coaching. Hit him up.

Q: Who gave you pieces of advice?

Flatline: Jack Handey gave the best pieces of advice I’ve ever pieced together.

Q: What do you do now days?

Flatline: Now days I make music a fraction of the amount that I make coffee, which makes me a living most of the time.

Q: Let us know something about your future projects.

Chunjay: I’m working on a series of EPs under the Royal Ruckus name, which are collaborations with other artists. It’s more of a solo Chunjay endeavor with other artists outside our camp, but Flatline is involved creatively. That’s about all I’m going to say for now.

Q: What is your message to your fans?

Flatline: Sit down. Be humble.

Chunjay: Love God, love others, don’t take life too seriously.

Q: Any message for new artists?

Chunjay: Be yourself, unless you’re not a person worth being. In which case, you should probably fix yourself, and then be yourself.

Flatline: Free your mind and the rest will follow.

Q: Anything else?

Chunjay: Yes, I’ve got a new podcast called “Brews, Beards, and Shipwrecks.” Look it up on iTunes, Castbox, TuneIn, and so on, or you can check it out at http://brewsbeards.com.

Website: http://royalruckus.com
Music videos: https://summerofthecicadas.com/videos

Latest album is double LP, The Summer of the Cicadas, which was released February 2017 on Nashville-based indie label Invisible Library Records. More info at http://summerofthecicadas.com or look it up on iTunes, Spotify, Apple Music, all the things.

Readers can use coupon code “feature” on http://RoyalRuckus.Bandcamp.com for 15% off of purchases.

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