Interview: Vokab Kompany

By Juan Barragan
Vokab Kompany
11 January, 2014

Recently we had the chance to speak with Matt Burke, one of the two MC’s for Vokab Kompany. The group is based in San Diego, and they make a mixture of electronica and hip-hop music. Burke talked to us about what Vokab Kompany has been up to and what lies ahead for the band. Also interviewed was the manager for QuitSleep, Ian Xavier, who provides Vokab Kompany’s production needs.

Question: Vokab Kompany was featured a few months back on 91X for their Local Break, how was that?

Matt Burke: It was great! We have a really good relationship with 91X. We were doing Loudspeaker last Sunday night, which is another one of their shows. Christy Taylor has been a big support of us. We love them! They actually hooked us up with one of our two managers; Michael Burnet who manages Iration. Michael was in there working with her and Christy Taylor from 91X was like, “You need to check out this local band, Vokab Kompany, they might something you might be interested in.” Michael Reached out and since then we have graduated from just being a local band to being a national act. We have a ton of gratitude for 91X.

Q: You recently released a video, “Where’s My Delorean,” how was that? Where was it filmed?

MB: We recorded that all ourselves. Our keyboard player is an engineer and a great producer, so we recorded with him. We did some of the tracking in Big Fish Studios in North County. We filmed the video up and down the coast. Robbie belongs to a Delorean motor club, so we got the Delorean and it was really fun to shoot.

 

Q: So what’s next for Vokab Kompany?

MB: We are playing SnowGlobe on New Year’s with Snoop Dogg, Tiesto, and a bunch of other great acts. We are doing some small runs in the spring with Zion-I. In March we go on tour for three weeks.

 

Q: Are you guys working on an album in the near future?

MB: Actually, we just released today, V Sides, which is our version of a B-Side’s album. It’s not really B-Side material. It’s basically compilations we’ve done over the past year, which didn’t really have a home, so we stuck them there. We are releasing another album in May. Our last album, VKCE, we released a year ago today. That was a really great album; a fusion of electronic and hip-hop and live instruments. It was produced by Jesse who’s our Sax player through his production company called Crush Effects. He’s also the keyboard player for Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe. You might not know about them but they are one of the treasures of San Diego. Karl Denson is an African-American Saxophone player who also plays with Slightly Stoopid. They do like 250 shows a year, they are the shit! That’s that jam-band funk stuff, you missed it by about five or six years. The electronic stuff is more of your generation.

 

Q: If you were to describe Vokab Kompany’s genre, what would you say it is?

MB: We started as hip-hop. It was just Robbie and a DJ. I was doing hip-hop in like a jam-band thing. Then we really started getting into electronic music. We started fusing electronic and hip-hope with live instruments, which gives our music that live flavor.

Ian Xavier: Let me tell you also about our production company QuitSleep. We are a creative events production company. We do stuff in all genres. We focus on things that we think are cool, such as live music and electronic music.

 

Q: When did QuitSleep come about?

IX: We started going under the title of QuitSleep about a year ago. Since then we’ve been doing a lot of local events at the Belly Up, a lot of downtown clubs. We like to really focus on the production side; visuals, performing artists, just something different that’s not just the DJ and lights. We can do sound, lighting, visuals, we can do anything across the board. Every person on our team can do something special.

 

Q: So what is QuitSleep doing to try and expand and branch out more?

IX: We have Zion-I on January 24. We have some creative events in the summer. We have a super bowl party on February 6th. We’re doing the Firehouse parking lot in Pacific Beach with large TV’s for the super bowl event. It’s all positive, so check out our website QuitSleep.com. We try and keep everything fresh.