In a cookie cutter era of hip-hop, where one sound dominates the industry, a little known group from Virginia fights to buck the system and show the world that there isn’t one sound to rule them all. Samsun (vocals), Barcodez (vocals), Mikemetic (Bass), J.Bryant (guitar), Nick Tharpe(drums), Wade Puryear (Keys) and Dr. Data (turntable-synthesizers) a.k.a the Photosynthesizers, created there own genre of music, eclectically fusing hip-hop, rock, spoken word, and synth, creatively dubbing it Tronic Soul School. They’re infectious and multi-layered sound portrays so much more than music, it reflects on a lifestyle of passion and the pursuit of your dreams. It’s also like nothing you’ve ever heard before.
I got a chance to sit down with the six men, one woman, wrecking crew of a band to pick their brains about everything from how they got into music, to what they would be doing without it. Eagerly ready to answer all my questions, the band huddled around the nearest phone, pausing their already started studio session.
How did you guys come up with the name Photosynthesizers?
We wanted to embody an organic kind of feel and a digital feel, which would reflect our music so we had bounced a couple names around. We were thinking about what we trying to do which was turning light into sound, and so we kind of adopted photosynthesis. Plus, the synthesizers are electronic, something we try to bring to the music, so that’s how we got the synthesizer part of it.
Describe your sound.
It’s kind of a melding of a lot of different things. We named our sound ‘tronic soul-school hip hop.’ That kind of embodies a lot of the elements that we have, whether it’s electronic based stuff or soul. There’s also hip-hop from Maurice rhyming, but that’s definitely its own element in our music. One thing that people tell us is that they don’t really hear a lot of bands that have all of the elements that we do.
You decided to make a band instead of just doing the conventional rap group. What was that decision process like?
Originally, we started as an MC and duo group before we even had the name Photosynthesizers. J. Bryant played guitar and Barcodez was the MC. We really hit a lot of bumps in the road making music together as a duo. We always wanted to expand the sound and we didn’t want to just keep ourselves locked in to just being a hip hop group, we wanted to have influence where we could crossover into other genres and that’s the way that we thought we could do that, to have a band.
Where do you get your inspiration?
Everything, anywhere…right now.
Most of our music actually comes from us just playing around in rehearsals or at some other time. We’ll come up with an idea and then we develop it into a song and build it from there. The coolest thing about all of this and it’s very much reflected in our music is that all of us listen to all genres of music. So the things we pull from are pretty much limitless
It’s a tough business, how do you all stay motivated to make music when times get tough?
that tough times motivate us to make music. You know, this is what we do, it’s our passion, it’s what we love, and it’s how we express ourselves, the way that we feel about certain things or certain situations. We’re like a bunch of kids that love to play with toys and each practice session is like a new building block, somebody might bring a new toy, somebody might bring a new idea for a game and everybody loves to play.
If the band didn’t exist, what would you be doing?
Mikemetic: If I wasn’t a part of the band that would free me up for a lot of time, so I probably would have more of a regular job. My background is in IT work, like technical support. I worked for Canon doing technical support for them for about 3 years. If I had a real job it would be doing technical support, like some kind of computer related work.
BarCodez: If the band didn’t exist, I think I still would be doing music. I would probably be trying to write more in terms of music books or articles. I guess I’m a writer first, so I’m, always going to pursue my writing, so I would still be involved with writing somehow.
Samsun: I would definitely still be doing music. I think we would all be doing music in some sort of way because we were all doing it separately before we came together. Outside of music, I have two little boys so I would definitely be spending time with them. I also do style work, nails and aesthetic work, facials and make-up, so I would probably be working on opening my own spot because I have a sister who does the same thing.
Describe the feeling of being on stage and performing?
BarCodez: I get nervous and excited all at the same time. There’s not a show that I never get nervous, I’m kind of the opposite of Mike, but I’m attracted to it. I’m attracted to the nervousness. It’s a way for me personally to try to overcome my fear because I was always the kid that was afraid to be in front of the classroom so it’s really a way for me to get over that when I’m on stage. It’s electric for me, you know, once we get onto the stage. I’m like 40% but up to that point, yeah, I’m scared sh*tless.
Samsun: With smaller crowds, I am actually more nervous than with the bigger crowds. But I was terrified to sing in front of people until I was 21 years old. But for me, honestly, it’s like Church, you get that heavenly feeling, it’s amazing to watch people enjoy what you do or what you’re saying. Just to have people receive you in that role I think is awesome.
RVA TV Sessions – The Photosynthesizers from RVA TV on Vimeo.
