RMR Interviews Soultanz

Soultanz Gets Swanky At W Hotel | RMR Interview

A few weeks back I went to a swanky lounge show at the W Hotel in downtown Seattle. The hotel even has it’s own private recording suite that you can book. Down in the lounge they have a distinct purple lighting that has a vibe that screams for a martini, shaken not stirred. The free show was featuring an acoustic set from Araless, quirky duo Soultanz, and the always classy Bad Tenants.

I had seen Araless rap before but this time he opened up with a soulful acoustic set, even doing a cover of Ginuwine’s Pony. The Bad Tenants have an incredible stage presence, and the skills to match. They like to have fun with every set, even joking around that Casey’s falsetto was so good it broke someone’s glass.

RMR Talks With Soultanz After Show At W Hotel
Photo by Diana Bartos

The only act that I had not seen previously was Soultanz. The duo is comprised of Jared on the turntables, and Shayhan on the mic. As the second set, they provided a cosmic interlude with their atmospheric vibes. It was one of those moments where I couldn’t stop smiling. Shay was so comfortable he sat down on the stairs, eventually lying down completely on the stage. Immediately after their set I had to speak with them, and that led to the interview featured below.

Interview with Shayhan and Jared of Soultanz

Q: What are your individual backgrounds?
Jared: I’m from small-town Massachusetts. I began playing violin at 6, and it was at that time that music became my world; a sort of place that I could retreat to when practicing and just get away from the real world. I changed instruments to guitar at 13 and shortly thereafter began to record myself with Garageband. This was around the same time that I began listening to hip-hop and fell in love with sampling. Throughout high school and college I dedicated more and more of my free time to producing. I was working with the talented rapper The BlackSon out of Nashville before we decided to take Soultanz seriously and I moved to Seattle.

RMR Talks With Soultanz After Show At W Hotel
Shayhan and Jared of Soultanz

Shayhan: I was born in Seattle but lived in Buckley until I started 6th grade. Moving to Orondo WA, I took on drums as my first instrument. Being raised off classic rock, blues and basic jazz, I taught myself how to decently play a drum set until I got bored around my junior year of high school in 2009. I picked up a guitar not knowing shit or even looking up how to play it and wrote my first song on 1 string.

This is where my hatred of cover songs began as well as my sudden urge to become an artist. I was in a small town where everyone that was musically talented either played Jack Johnson or Radio Head to “Woo” whatever female they fancied. So I said, “F THAT, IMMA MAKE SOMETHING FROM MY NOGGIN,” and started to improvise becoming that kid who brought his guitar to school everyday, but spent many lonely hours at home learning how to produce off FL Studio.

I’m confusing you so lets fast forward : I wrote a crap ton of songs that don’t matter anymore, Tried out for American Idol and didn’t make it through the first round, moved to Seattle and pretended that I knew how to DJ while releasing original beats/songs exclusively on Soundcloud, met Jared online through Soundcloud, made enough songs with each other online to make a little Soultanz mixtape, I released a solo project called Ignorance and Jared moved over. The rest is history.

RMR Talks With Soultanz After Show At W Hotel
Photo by Diana Bartos

Q for Jared: You have a lot of worldly influence in your productions, where did those inspirations stem from?

J:  The inspiration comes from the Vision Quest I have been on. If you are into sampling, you will quickly realize that all the late 70’s RnB and funk has been sampled unto oblivion, and you have to be willing to push yourself to find something that is untouched. This has led me to some weird and cool places. 

In every genre, every era, every country, there is something worth sampling, something inspiring, something that I will put on my driving playlist and blast while cruising I-5. Brazilian jazz, krautrock, and classic gospel, for example, are genres that have influenced our sound both in the sense that we are using those sounds to create something and because those melodies, progressions and grooves stick with us and find their way into many of our tracks. 

I feel like the digging and rearranging that I do is part of a tradition dating back at least 40 years and includes the likes of Madlib, J Dilla, and newer cats like Knxwledge.

RMR Talks With Soultanz After Show At W Hotel
Picture by Diana Bartos

Q for Shayhan: What sort of vocal history do you have? Any professional lessons, or just a regimen of self teaching and practice?

S: I have had no lessons whatsoever, just been naturally good at imitation. I think I realized I could kind of sing after I saw Shrek. Picture an 11 year old me impersonating Eddie Murphy’s character “Donkey” doing his impersonation of Ottis Redding while making waffles.

From that point I started to try voices by people that inspired me. (Stevie Wonder, Joe cocker, Michael McDonald, Michael Jackson, Donald Fagen, Bradley NowelI, etc.) I found out I can imitate anything I put my mind to.

After a few years finding my singing voice and learning cadence as well as delivery, singing became my strong point. Anybody can sing if they sit down and do the same thing a million times over. That goes for everything you are passionate about. Patience is key.

Soultanz – Look of Love ft. AllA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIQ1PhXvqLA

Q: Did Soultanz form as an off shoot of the Zoltan cult, and/or do you know where the Continuum Transfunctioner is?

S: Jared and I are of Middle Eastern decent and in ancient times some people were ranked as Sultans. I wanted our blood to be somewhat involved so I threw in the name Soultanz. That’s it (Head looks down to the ground). Everything regarding the whereabouts of the Continuum Transfunctioner is classified.

Q: Regardless of your cult status, it was Soundcloud that brought you together in 2011. Were you both in Seattle already or was it purely a virtual relationship to begin with?

Jared: Soultanz began as a virtual relationship.  I was posting beats and Shay was looking for something groovy to record over.  This was back in the Golden Age of Soundcloud.  He made a song out of one of my beats and sent it to me, so I sent a bunch more beats and the mixtape started to take form.  I was in school in Nashville at this time.  It wasn’t until I had heard his skill as a producer that I decided we had to start working on something more serious and I road-tripped my way to Seattle.

Soultanz – Tangents

https://soundcloud.com/soultanz/sets/tangents

Q: Having met virtually, what brought you into being a part of the Seattle music scene.

Jared: It was a “less think more do” kind of thing.  Seattle has a growing and evolving music scene, so it is a perfect time and place for us.  There are so many talented artists and music-lovers, and nothing is so well-defined stylistically as it is in NY or LA.  Everybody, from TownTv to MistaDC is on the grind making it happen here in Seattle.  We are blessed to be a part of it, as well as a part of the Seattle-based Northern Natives collective that has been putting out so much good music.

Q: What does a typical studio session look like for you guys?

J:  It depends on who is in the “captain’s seat”. We have a huge library of projects, and often 4 or 5 songs that are in the works. When I am sitting down, it is often organized madness; I am looking for the project that inspires me right then and there. Shay is more of an organized worker; he likes to focus on one thing at a time, which is a good influence.

Sometimes we just loop a beat and sit there writing for a couple hours, sometimes we jump right into recording, and sometimes we play musical chairs in the production of a beat. Truthfully, a lot of the best work happens when one of us is sitting alone with headphones in the middle of the night. We are definitely an interesting mix of personalities, but we are both inspired by having other people around, so we like to bring friends or artists into the studio with us.

Q: How do you prepare for a performance?

J: Practice. We are currently reimagining ‘Tangents’ for a completely live set with a bunch of talented musicians. This is what we always wanted our live sets to be, so it is exciting work.

Q: What are your personal favorite tracks off of Tangents?

J:  The Devil Speaks Softly and Bad Theory are my favorite tracks, and they are probably the weirdest tracks on the project as well. ‘Devil’ speaks differently to me every time I listen. Sometimes you write a track (this one was mostly written by Shay) and when it is done, you find that the sum is something greater than what you had intended. This is how I feel about the track; I can’t quite discern whether it is something personal anymore, or whether the words were meant to impose some larger message to the listener.

‘Bad Theory’ is one of those tracks I created when there was another song stuck in my head and I badly wanted something similar. The track in question is the groovy, beautiful and conscious ‘Umi Says’ by Mos Def off of ‘Black On Both Sides’. Like many of the songs I produce, it is an amalgamation of several projects meant to create something that has movements, sections, and is almost formless. ‘Bad Theory’ is a story of my mind containing the good, the bad, the weird, and all the shitty ideas and theories that are in between. “Don’t follow any specific method” from the ‘chorus’ is something that I apply to my life whenever possible and always in my music.

S: “Bender” is one of those tracks that when you listen to it, there is no way you can catch every single reference in one fell swoop. It was one of more tedious tracks to record because I wasn’t sure how to deliver Jared’s lyrics to where we were both comfortable with them. It was one of the first tracks written with no chorus marking a step in our constant evolution. I’ve always wanted to be a gangsta rapper and I think this is the closest I’ll ever get to that. It’s a fun track to do live and you learn about our corrupt world.​

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