We’ve been writing about Staunch Moderates since 2021, and now, we’ve finally had the opportunity to track down this very busy musical, social, cultural, and political phenomenon, and find out what makes them tick.
How do you approach blending up to eight different genres in your music? Is it difficult to establish a cohesive sound across your discography?
We buy beats from a few different producers. We then choose the beats that are fitting to the vibe of each track we’re producing. I don’t necessarily know that we maintain a cohesive sound throughout our tracks & albums.Then again, we, “DJ Staunch & the Bigfoots”, do certainly have a unique sound that I think comes from our main rapper, Casanova Ace, my secondary, Greg Simmons, rapping voice, the typical, “on the low down” jazz, R&B & then “not so much on the low down”rock beats we use to counter our sound. All the above is also influenced by the philosophical & storytelling lyrics we write to tell history & then emanate peace through moderation, truly what we’re all about.
What kind of mood were you hoping to create with the instrumentation and sound of this LIVE album?
The mood we were trying to create via the instrumentation throughout our 19-track live album, ‘Staunch Moderates Experience Live’, depends on each track, for which we are telling our 19-track story. For example, we open with ‘Frank & the Rat Pack’, to start telling our three-track century of pop culture music history. We wanted to open with a popping jazzy track to tell the Frank & the Rat Pack story and did. The second track is a Ramsey Lewis tribute track to the just recently passed three-time Grammy-winning jazz pianist. We felt this should be a jazzy, cool track, and so that’s the way we made it. It turned out to be one of my favorite tracks on the album. Then to round out our 100-year history, we tribute Rolling Stone Magazine. This should be a rock n roll track, and it is. We picked a beat that to me is reminiscent of the sound of the Rolling Stones. The next track in the album is a tribute to our bigfoot mascot, “Staunch”. Here we chose an R&B beat that catered to mystical Bigfoot steps, where we layered the strings to bring an element of classical to the track all fitting a paradigm-shifting Bigfoot from the most terrifying folklore character to the coolest being on the planet. One could say this is an analogy to the paradigm-shifting intention coming from our Staunch Moderates intellectual movement to move from all the partisanship, vitriol, and hate our society is experiencing into a more peaceful and loving society. Please note how in the next track, ‘Baseball’, the beat sounds very much like the vibe, very chill game of Baseball, and then the next track, ‘Football’, is anything but a chill game, hence the beat is much more rocking and in alignment with that of a theme song for a football team. Anyone reading this interview, have you ever heard a football team theme song comparable to our Bigfoots Football: Bigfoot growls, Jeffery Skunk Baxter guitar leads, football plays, pomp and circumstance from within the stadium, and all. The reason for Bigfoots Football & Bigfoots Baseball being tracks within our live album is that this is our attempt to reach American society for our intellectual movement‘s consideration through the two most popular sports in the U.S, football & baseball, in a fun and playful way.Therefore, the mood we are trying to create is dictated by the part of our story we are trying to tell, quite similar to a soundtrack or score in a movie.
Were you influenced by any particular song or genre in the process of crafting the lyrics and overall message of ‘Rolling Stone (LIVE)’?
We were certainly influenced by the genre of rock n roll in crafting the lyrics for ‘Rolling Stone’.
What did working with Shorty Mack bring to the project?
Working with Shorty Mack brought to our project a welcome and different rap sound, not only to the project of our Live Album but also to our registered trademarked song series and franchise, Staunch Moderates News (SMN), three editions of it are in this live album, and the fourth one is currently in production. Shorty Mack wrote and raps with me in a duet in SMN2. It’s like two news anchors going back and forth telling the news, but in a rap song. Again, Skunk plays lead guitar.
Did you have a clear vision for the Rolling Stone (LIVE)’ music video? How did you bring this vision to life?
We shot some new images, used the content that we had in our archives or licensed outside images all that fit the lyrics to the song. The vision was determined by the lyrics.
What do you hope viewers take away from the visual experience that they might miss in just listening?
Beyond the hope that audience members are entertained by the celebration of the history we audio/visually tell in the track, we also hope they are entertained by our Bigfoot DJ Staunch® performing and that they then look more into this Bigfoot who also is the mascot of our intellectual movement, Staunch Moderates®, all about addressing the Divide and striving for national & world peace through the philosophy of moderation.We hope they tell their friends and the message spreads.
What role do you think music plays in sparking social and political conversations today? In your opinion, what makes entertainment media a powerful tool for change?
Let me start by stating that the current population in the U.S. is 340,000,000.We have had over 200,000,000, 30-second minimum, views and streams of our content.That means that we have roughly reached 2/3 of the nation with our songs and ideology to plant the seeds for “sparking social and political conversation”. I will take this a step further, we hope to inspire good behavior in a cool & entertaining way.We’ve been at this business for just over 5 years now.How effective we are is hard to scientifically prove; however, we have heard through the grapevine that there is significant embracement of moderate ideology in our society today.What is it, 80 or 90% of the country all moderate? In our opinion, entertainment media could be a significantly powerful tool.Our bets are on that it is or will be!
Where does ‘Rolling Stone (LIVE)’ fit into the visual album and your other current projects?
Our band, DJ Staunch & the Bigfoots, one of the things we’re into is entertainingly telling pop culture music history, and ‘Rolling Stone (LIVE)’ is a way we do so for 60 years, 1960s through the current day. It fits into our album as the 3rd track, just after ‘Frank & the Rat Pack’, & ‘Ramsey Lewis’, which tells a 40-year American pop culture music history before ‘Rolling Stone’. All together this is a hundred years of American pop culture music history to honor & 100 year celebrate President Woodrow Wilson’s 1919 creation of the League of Nations, currently The United Nations, to open our 19-track ‘Staunch Moderates Experience Live Album’. This three-track centennial history opening of our concert also introduces our fourth track, ‘Socrates Café’, which is a table of contents & storytelling of our Staunch Moderates Intellectual Movement for Peace, 2020, first year in operation.
For other current projects, ‘Staunch Moderates Experience Live’ is not only a live album, it is also a feature-length film, currently competing well in the film festival circuit, having won seven awards thus far. We intend for this virtual live concert to become a touring concert, a play, and even an academic course offered at many levels of education. “Rolling Stone Live” is an integral part of the story!
Watch the music video for their latest release, ‘Rolling Stone’ below, and find out more about Staunch Moderates and their music online on their officialwebsite,YouTube,Facebook, andInstagram.
