Triune Gods (Bleubird, Sibitt, Scott Da Ros)

When you hear Seven Days Six Nights you might be wondering how three disparate creative energies were harnessed to create a focused and deliberate piece of work from three individuals living in different places. Or maybe you thought that this project was the result of back and for AIF or WAV file emailing. No…the three spent close to a week in Montreal with Scott Da Ros (the god of drums) on the boards crafting an album that swerves very left-field in its sound and concept. There are your usual suspects of off-kilter drums, interesting hooks, and deliberately off-time flows, but there are also pleasant drones, falling-shelf percussion sounds, expansive ambient sequences, and atmospheric bleats of surprising pop sensibility. And it lingers with a strange affect after you’ve moved on, like eating a piece of toast with your lord and saviors’ face burnt on it.

This sadness: maybe it’s the feeling of three extremely talented individuals in the same physical space and mental space recording together knowing that they’ll have to go their separate ways when the product is finished. Scott Da Ros, Sibitt, and Bleubird are these three individuals. Seven Days Six Nights is not just another internet collaboration…the songs were written collaboratively, engineered collaboratively, and are presented as a unified effort. The album weaves in and out of different sound-scapes created by Scott Da Ros, Endemik Records owner, recording engineer, and down to earth. He describes the process as cinematic and incremental, fine-tuning individual sounds until they came together as a single instruments and fine tuning the overall sound of the album. Then you have Sibitt, whose contributions are startling and impressive…the raps, the hooks, the eerie spoken parts – really glued the project together for me sonically (sadly I do not know Japanese because I think I would enjoy the project even more). Bleubird is basically awesome and if you’re familiar with his past work you will be pleasantly surprised by his appearance on the Triune Gods. It’s more reserved and meditative, but still characteristic of his energetic and vibrant flow. He is the God of rap, after all.

As the first outing with these geniuses, there are some parts that seem slightly disjointed, but that’s the charm of any first release. More important than the album, Triune Gods is not just a staged attempt to create yet another underground hip hop super group…it really does ascribe itself to the divine tri-unity that it professes. And it’s more than the sum of its parts. I asked each member the same questions hoping to get a different perspective on one of my favorite projects released this year. The answers are below.

Bleubird?

What goals did you have for this project?

Coming into this project I had no specific goals, only to create something new and different with two people who’s music I admire.

Referring to triunity, are you the father, the son, or the holy spirit?

All three.

How does this project differ from your solo material?

It’s bilingual for starters…and because of the language barrier I had to approach the writing process differently. I came to Montreal with no pre-written songs or lyrics, only sketches and ideas. Each day we would all sit down together and discuss the direction we wanted the particular song to go, if one of us had a solid idea…we would run with it. On the ‘Prinzenallee’ project I dabbled in telling stories from a character point of view, here I explored this much further. For example on “Plus Minus”, I’m writing as if I’m an American soldier at war writing home to his boo, or on “The Voyage” as a merchant marine from Boston who is lost at sea. Of course it still has elements of my style, it’s just presented in a more thematic way.

Are you really divine? Why or why not?

Definitely not, but the three of us together…possibly divine in a U-god sense…

What do you see personally as the ultimate direction for the Triune Gods?

Seven Days Six Nights was only testing the waters. Now that we know what we’re capable of we’re going to set our sights higher , we’re discussing interesting visual ideas for our live show including projections , as well as working on comic strips illustrated by artists we admire…the ultimate direction is yet to be determined…

When will you guys meet again?

Possibly not until we tour Japan in September , but in July I’m doing a Grimm Image Japan tour in for Swashbuckling Napoleons and there’s talk of Sibitt joining us…but sadly…no Scott.

How do you personally relate to the group name?

Both as a spiritual person and a rap enthusiast…I tend to degrade the importance of the word “God” I’m no five percenter but I still value knowledge…god, in the strictly WU sense…I was really into the name “Triune Triad” for obvious ridiculous reasons but didn’t want to drag along the negative connotation of “triad”. The word trinity is derived from Latin Trinitas, meaning ” the number three, a triad”. This abstract noun is formed from the noun trinus (three each, threefold, triple) as the word unitas is the abstract noun formed from unus (one)…so three as one. “one in essence-not one in person” There is no one God…we are all gods…god.

Shout outs?

Peace to the gods and the earfs! And Endemik, Granma, P-Vine, Wenod, Temple ATS, U-God, UGS mag!! all the Canadian Homies holdin it down!!!!

Scott Da Ros

What goals did you have for this project?

To make a record that I made the music for to be exactly what I was wanting and hoping for. To make is a cohesive 3-way album. Sometimes in hip hop, i feel like collaborations seem distant and we set out to make this a full collaborative album and I feel it came out this way.

Referring to triunity, are you the father, the son, or the holy spirit?

I am all and I am none.

How does this project differ from your solo material?

A lot of the time I end up collaborating with a vocalist so in that sense, it is not so different. However with Triune we were all in the same mind set with this album and you have to look at the end product from the eyes of 3 people but to make it sound as one.

Are you really divine? Why or why not?

Yes and no. All is divine in the world but at the same time we are all the same so I guess in turn that would make no one divine. Refer to question #2.

What concepts or themes did you contribute to the project?

Musically, all themes were sketched out by me, aside from the song “Same train” which was originally started by my friend Shortfacedbear. He was visiting in Montreal a few years back and we were going to collaborate on a few things so he left these parts with me and I transition them in this song – that project didn’t happen so it became a Triune song. Lyrical concepts were created by Bleubird and Sibitt. We all discussed the topics and i even had a bit of input and/or direction but mostly it was all them dudes.

What do you see personally as the ultimate direction for the Triune Gods?

Honestly, I haven’t thought so far ahead. I was hoping this first album would appeal to a lot of people and then look ahead to the next album. I would love to create an album with a small orchestra. Maybe one day we will have enough financial backing to do this.

As an individual working on the project, what was the songwriting process like?

I knew the musical direction I wanted to take with this album and knew the feel it should have. When creating the music for these two guys, I actually felt the most freedom I ever had when creating music so I just pushed myself to try new things and let it get carried away.

When will you guys meet again?

Sibitt is moving to Montreal for one year in April so I will see him soon. We will be working on his solo album as well as starting to work on the new Triune Gods album. Bleubird will mostly likely drop into Montreal a couple time this year to finish the album.

How do you personally relate to the group name?

This quote makes the most sense to me “They are distinct from each other; they have separate missions and also a collective mission. They are equal and different.” ?

Shout outs?

Yosuke and Daiki from Granma Music, Totti from P-Vine, TempleATS crew.

Sibitt

What goals did you have for this project?

I think one goal is another start, spinning a story which named “LIFE”?

Referring to triunity, are you the father, the son, or the holy spirit??

I am all and I am none.

How does this project differ from your solo material?

Not Arbitrary decision, respect each other.

Are you really divine? Why or why not?

I think everybody is divine; because you have the answer. ya-o-yorozu no kami ( ?????,countless kami) in Japan. (“ya-o-yorozu” means “countless” instead of “eight million” because the number eight often signifies large quantities in Japanese culture.)

What concepts or themes did you contribute to the project?

Dividing each other. Me –> We

What do you see personally as the ultimate direction for the Triune Gods?

In small space.

As an individual working on the project, what was the songwriting process like?

Sitting on the rock where in the woods, and talking about “LIFE” each other, and sometimes look in the same sky, sometimes think about my home town. Wonderful wonder.

When will you guys meet again?

If time is filled.

How do you personally relate to the group name?

Difference gives us something wonderful, so don’t afraid to be different. ??

Shout outs?

Scott Da Ros, Bleubird, Hiro Kurata, Mr.Kato (Granma Music Entertainment), Mr.Otani (Granma Music Entertainment), Liam, Mike, Andrew, Shuhei Tochiori (blues interactions), ?? (origami / TempleATS) ????????nanorunamonai / TempleATS, Naoto Amazutsumi (documentary film cameraman), YuichiSakuma.TempleATS (onimas, Masaki Toda, Yamaan, KOR-ONE, DJ 440, DJ Shun, tarzan, Cokkoro). My Family and people who I met in my Life. I love you everybody. And Earth and Universe and You.

triunegods.com
granmamusic.com