Interview with Abel Battery

  21 years in the DMV have shaped the stylings of local rapper Abel Battery. With the release of his latest EP “Any Colour You Like”, Abel allows listeners to enter the flow of his mind with the skillful and emotional flow of his rhymes. Begin your journey into his consciousness here. Brace yourselves.

Stage name? How’d you come up with it?

My stage name is Abel Battery. My parents came up with the first part, Battery came from a song of the same name that really moved me when I first heard it. The song is by Aesop Rock, not the Metallica one. The Metallica one moves me in a completely different way that involves more blood and damaged knuckles.

Where are you from?

I was born in DC, but lived most of my life in PG County, Maryland. 

How has the area shaped your musical and personal style?

The DMV shaped the slang I used for sure, but more importantly it inspired some of the reoccurring images that pop up in my songs. Bloody foamposites are a DMV thing. Plus DC is really an American nexus. We are right between North and South, and so both styles emerge in our local music. We made Fat Trel and Diamond District. All of that I believe is in the subconscious when I write. Plus the Smithsonian is free to enter, so just wandering there can break a spell of writer’s block.

How would you define your musical style?

I would define my music as hip-hop for pretentious philosophers. Just kidding, but I really am just bringing stream of thoughts into my music. Stuff good for just vibing to on the solo mode. 

How would other people who listen to your music describe your style?

I’ve heard other people say “post-modern hip-hop” and “eclectic ramblings”. I was very flattered when after a show someone told me I sound like Robert Frost mocking Q-Tip. That one was really creative.

Musical inspirations?

Musical inspirations? Antonio Carlos Jobim, Pink Floyd, Mos Def, Atmosphere, As Tall As Lions, Jay Elec…We could be here for a while if I try to list ’em all. 

Favorite musical artists?

My favorite musical artists are too many to name, and are the same ones that inspire my music. So reference above haha.

Favorite song (of your own)?

My favorite song of my own: It changes with my mood. “Violet: Determinism” is a song on my latest project that I really love, but that’s still with the engineers right now. So I’ll say “Montalban”. It’s named after a mix of horchata, tequila, and goldschlagger. What’s not to like?

What are your goals for your music? Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

My only goal with music is to make great music people can enjoy. It’s weird being in hip-hop, which is a pretty ego-centric genre by default, while being a pretty low-key dude myself. To some degree it’s a conflicting desire, so I don’t think about it too much. I just make music. 

Tell me about your latest album. Is this your first album?

My next EP is called “Any Colour You Like”. It was heavily inspired by Dark Side of the Moon. I would almost call it a rapper’s response to that album 40 years later. I work with a producer named Darren Smith for most of the album, and we both approached the project trying to create that psychedelic feel to it. A lot of the themes and repeating motifs in the album come from my DMT fueled hallucinations, so I think context wise and sound-wise we achieved what we were going for.

How do you share/ promote your music?

In the past I went through iTunes and selling on Bandcamp. My next EP will be free though, so we are working on a site where people can download it. Promotion is a whole other story. Maybe we will include a really addictive web game on the download site. Or free chipotle coupons with every download. Haha, I don’t know, I still have to figure that out.

Target audience for your music?

Well I don’t really believe I approach my music with a sense of a “target audience”. I guess it goes back to what I said earlier about being low-key. The marketing side of music really bores me, so I ignore it. There are people who will enjoy it, people who will hate it, and people who will be ambivalent, and it is very difficult for me to generalize who is going to fall where.

What do you do when you’re not recording/writing/performing?

When not working on my own music, I am usually recording other peoples music. Either that or mixing it down. To relax I take bubble baths while reading comic books, play Risk, or wander through the metropolitan area while blasting music.

Biggest flaws you see in the music industry currently?

The largest flaw I see in the rap game…maybe a couple of years ago I would have went on a long rant with this question. But now I see it differently. The problems with rap reflect the problems in our culture as a whole. Misogyny  homophobia, conformity, avarice, etc. If art is to be a mirror of the times, rap is doing an amazing job of that. Mos Def said it best in his opening track on “Black on Both Sides”. We are hip-hop. So if we want hip-hop to be better, we have to be better.

Hardest part about being a rapper?

For me its finding the balance between adding meaning to a song, and being catchy. No one wants an overly preachy rap song. It is annoying. But I can’t rock with the “I’m better then you, richer then you, fresher then you” music all of the time (though it is a guilty pleasure once in a while, it’s too damn fun). 

Do you even consider yourself a rapper? Or would you call yourself something cool like a “Soul Lyricist” or something?

Hell yeah I consider myself a rapper. I get so pissed off at all those pretentious snobs that say stuff like “that’s rap, this is hip-hop!”. I just want to slap those fools with their mama’s hand. Hip-hop is a culture, rap is a style of vocalizing music. Context and subject matter doesn’t change that fact. By not calling myself a rapper, I’m saying that rap is a lesser form. Any person doing this kind of music should want to take the genre forward, make it better. They shouldn’t be ashamed of what it is and all the shades the music comes in. I know I’m different from a lot of rappers, but if the painting world has room for Monet and Picasso, I think it has room for NWA, Danny Brown, and Abel Battery.