On July 30th, we hosted Queens’ rappers Deem Spencer and AJRadico on our rooftop along with Talia Goddess. We caught up with Deem before his performance to ask him about sound, his personal approach to remaining child-like in his music and how he says Hii.

(Below is an edited text version of the full conversation contained in the audio.)

Spurge Carter

We're here with Deem Spencer right now going to do into quick interview. Let's get right into it. Hey, Deem how you doing?

Deem Spencer

I'm doing well man. Excited.

Spurge Carter

I know we got freaking 600 people outside! Let's get right into the questions. So the first one is off of your recently released 'Deem's Tape' which seems to look back in your life, especially looking sort of the promotion and the vibe of the release, even sonically as well. How does nostalgia play into your sound for you?

Deem Spencer

I like to think my music is inspired aesthetically by Nickelodeon. You know, I mean, like it's a lot of colors and just playful sounds. I feel like I keep like a child-like vibe in my work. So I think that's how nostalgia stays around like my innerchild never goes away.

Spurge Carter

Kind of similarly, I guess in terms of question, have like a sort of sing-song vocal delivery that feels kind of reminiscent of like, you know, nursery rhymes, something I've noticed even like in like 'House Plant'. Do you have a favorite childhood song or something of the sort?

Deem Spencer

That's a good question. It's not a favorite childhood song. But something that just came to mind. My grandfather used to sing in his bedroom, like real early in the morning. Because it's like gospel song. It's like, (sings) "I got my mind made up and I won't turn back, because I want to see my Jesus some day".

Spurge Carter

Yeah, definitely many church sessions heard that. That's a good one. Nice. What's the favorite sound that reminds you of home?

Deem Spencer

Favorite sound that reminds me of home? You know. I feel like a lot of people can relate, like you you hear like, your parents' keys. You could hear from a mile away when they're coming home.

Spurge Carter

What is the Queen's sound to you?

The Queen's sound? When I think of the artists I know from Queens, it's usually a lot of young people just trying to get to it. I think the common thread in Queens' music is just the aspiration, you know? "Queens get the money" is the Queens slogan.

Especially being such a diverse place too, everybody's living there, so I'm sure everybody's trying to get it.

Deem Spencer

I think that's a common thread, but I can't really point out..I don't think there is a Queens sound. There's a New York sound, there's a Queens' sound.

Spurge Carter

Cool. How do you say hi? Or just greet people? You know, like, how would you say hi?

Deem Spencer

I just say "How you doing?" That's how I agrret everybody.

Spurge Carter

Like saying hi to your friends or homeies versus saying hi to like your parents or something? It's just kind of

Deem Spencer

"How's it going?" I might throw out a wagwan.

Spurge Carter

Okay, there we go. Last question. Do you have any unanswered questions about sound in general? What sound topics would you like to see explored? Like just anything in sound that's of interest or intriguing to you.

Deem Spencer

One thing I often run into, as far as like, sound is the line between good and bad. I feel like sound is matter of taste when it comes to music. But, it's also a science when it comes to, you know, just putting it together like distortion happens when there's too much..when there's an imbalance. That's what fascinates me. It's not really a question, but you know,

Spurge Carter

That's cool, it's worth exploring more.

Deem Spencer

It's not black and white.

Spurge Carter

I agree with you. Looking at even like, you know, tik tok and the way those like really deep fried [sounds] are used? Like, those are mad funny, but it's obviously like, objectively really shitty quality sounding stuff. But that's like down to taste because that's what's made it like, interesting people using something. So I agree.

I don't really have any other questions. Just looking forward to seeing your performance. Glad that you're here. Glad that we're able to get hella heads out to soho to see you do your thing. Looking forward to it. Thanks for being here.

Deem Spencer

Likewise man, thank you.

Rewatch Deem’s performance over at Move Forward Music’s Twitch page here.