How EarthGang Finds Peace in Life

EarthGang Interview

In this Interview, we see how EarthGang makes one piece of the puzzle that makes up not only the enigmatic city of Atlanta, but our planet as well. EarthGang is here to show you through their music that we’re all a part of one thing, we all share the same space. We may live different lives but at the same time, we are more alike than we think. We’re all a part of EarthGang.
–
What were your first creative outlets as a kid?
Olu (O): For me it was drawing, drawing on the concrete with chalk and sketching in class, trying to figure out some ways to paint, but my first creative outlet was just drawing. Music was always natural, so I never really put much effort into that, but I did put effort into drawing. I just loved to draw all the time.

Do you still draw?
O: Nah, I don’t bro. I’m so busy, man. I need to take some time out so I can do some drawings, I’m really always out working or just resting. I definitely gotta go draw more though man.

WowGr8 (W): I used to, I still do write a lot of stories. I don’t do it like I used to as a kid, but I used to write a lot of fiction stories. My mom read a lot of fiction to me and she kind of raised us reading whatever kind of books she could get her hands on.

I would write stories for her as a kid so she could read them. That was cool. I was drawing stuff too, but a lot of times it would be like vandalism [Laughs]. Not necessarily even to vandalize, it was just like, this looks cool. I would never think of it as vandalism. I would just like to draw and paint on things for fun. Things I thought were funny, always very humor based. That’s where I was, of course outside of music. Honestly I have been doing something music related my whole life, so it’s a little bit of everything.

When I think of the name, EarthGang, the first thing that comes to mind is togetherness, like everyone on earth is a part of this one thing. We’re all with each other and we represent something. Is that true, what does EarthGang mean to you?

We want to be present. It’s about this idea of togetherness, of collectivity. Focusing on the individual, because we’re all going through the same thing.

What’s the goal when you’re making music, do you feel like your songs are an expression of you guys specifically as people or are you guys trying to tap into something greater?
O: I feel like expressing your true self is tapping into something greater. We go through things that everybody can relate to. Ups and downs. Your relationships, your job or realizing that you were meant for something greater.

Realizing that you want something more. We’re just following a pattern that we set out for ourselves. When you tap into that, you are tapping into something greater, you don’t have to worry about trying to speak about 8 billion people. If you just speak your truth, then you can touch anybody.

Earthgang Interview

I feel like you guys are a really great representation of this creative, eccentric energy that comes out of Atlanta. Do you think that you’re one piece of the puzzle that makes up Atlanta?
W: I feel like our location is embedded into who we are. We couldn’t be who we are without Atlanta. We couldn’t make music like this without Atlanta. Like we still put Atlanta in our music every day, in our stories, into our experiences. And the great thing about it is, the world loves Atlanta also. So all we have to do is be authentic and be our true selves and it’s gonna continue to spread around the world.

When we were together, you felt like you kinda didn’t live anywhere for like a few years at a time, cause you’re constantly on tour. Do you feel like now is a good time to reconnect with your home?
W: That’s all I’ve been doing all year, reconnecting with home and reconnecting with family and with friends that I haven’t talked to in a very long time. Homies from high school and middle school, elementary school, friends I grew up playing outside with, kids in the neighborhood.

My favorite thing about reconnecting to the South and back home, is how I can just feel it pouring out of the music. I feel a deeper connection with the sounds that we created these days. We kinda like being back home just to give you another perspective and appreciation for being in one place and being somewhere that you know and love and helped mold you.

I’m 10,000x Atlanta now.

In recent years we’ve been discovering that due to climate change, we as people have t

o make huge improvements in the way we treat the Earth if we want to preserve it and stay alive.
W: It’s funny, you said that we recently found out. Because that’s what it feels like, especially to people in our generation. I’ve been doing my research during this time. They’ve known about these possibilities of climate change for way longer than we thought. It’s just, no one has taken the action to really improve it.

I think one of the greatest burdens of our generation is to fix what our fathers messed up and what their fathers messed up. I think that’s one of the most important responsibilities we have too.

What are some things that people can do to help?
O: I just feel like first, people have to start at home. The small things like recycling, making sure you’re not buying a whole lot of plastic bottles. You can use water filters, things like that. Being resourceful with the food, not wasting food, not wasting energy. We just got to change the way we live at home and then everything else will reverberate.

Especially if you own businesses. If you own a business, just find a way to make your business have a smaller imprint on the planet. The less of an imprint we leave on this Earth the better.

Continue to explore your connection with the Earth. Enjoy being here.

Go hike, you know it is beautiful. There are beautiful places you can discover far away and there are beautiful places right at home in our backyard. Just go outside and enjoy it, take it in. You’ll appreciate it more when you actually are in flow with it. Rather than just saying, “Oh, I’m just put here.”

You’re not just put here, you live in harmony with the planet.

The more you stay in tune with it, the more you’ll want to be here.

Appreciate the Earth and realize its beauty. Explore it and you’ll realize why we need to preserve it.
O: A lot of people don’t have an appreciation for it because I feel like they haven’t explored enough of it. Like if you’ve never seen a waterfall before, if you’ve never laid out on this beach and seen the sunset or seen some dolphins jump up out the water, then yeah, you might not appreciate it for all its worth. Even simple stuff,

Just sit outside and breathe some air.

A lot of people spend time online. A lot of people spend time at work or in transit, to and from. Nah man, go outside and see what’s out there.

How do you guys find peace in your lives?
W: That’s a good question. How does anybody find peace? I know for me personally,

I find peace through myself first.

There’s a lot of affirmations I tell myself, a lot of reviewing things in my mind. I meditate a bunch. Make sure to do a lot of intentional peacemaking, intrinsically.

But from external sources, I get peace whenever I’m creating. No matter what type of song I’m making, whenever I just put that energy into focusing on creating. It brings you a lot of peace.

I get a lot of peace just from solitude and being by myself. Exercising and running are always important for me too. I run like at least three or four miles a day. Little routines that I have that help build you up, I feel like that’s really important.

O: I find peace by creating a context for my day. I’ll always think about how I’ll go about my day and know what I want to accomplish.
But more importantly, I find peace by giving it.

That’s a big thing for me. Whenever I see anybody who’s off balance, I always make sure that I meet them in a place of respect. So you can’t do nothing but the same. No matter where you are, peace is emanating from me, so it’s going to affect you and then it’s going to come right back.

Totally it’s crazy how helping others and making other people happy, will in turn, help you and make you happier yourself.
W: That’s the key.

Whenever I hear you guys speak, people always try to mention who they think you sound like, usually Outkast. I think that’s because you guys are pretty unique and people haven’t heard too many artists like you. So they try to reach for something that’s familiar to try to describe you.
W: I think familiarity is just the easiest way for some people to describe things, You gotta go with what you know. Like if you ever ate a dish that you’ve never eaten before or something that was from another place. You go “It kind of tastes like this” or “It kinda reminds me of this from back home”.

I always take it as a compliment. It’s always a cool thing to hear what people think you sound like. Eventually when it happens generationally. The next generation, there’ll be a group that people say,

“Oh, y’all sound like EarthGang!”

We’re gonna be to them, what OutKast was to us.

How important is individuality to you?
W: It’s important just knowing who you are. Understanding who you are and embracing your sauce. It’s important for people to feel it out and learn self-confidence. When your confidence is up, it changes everything around you. You realize who you are and are happy to be where you are, embracing your flaws. You just gotta know that niggas can’t fuck with you.

It takes a while to get up and it’s not a constant state, You have ups and downs and things in life happen. Sometimes things happen and you just take a hit, but you gotta come back though.

How you come back from those downs is what will make you.

Something that stands out to me, is your ability in songwriting. I feel like you guys are great songwriters and not just rappers or singers who just put a 16 down on a repetitive beat. Your voices ride certain aspects of the production, each verse or bridge sounds like it’s meant for the production. How much do you focus on songwriting as opposed to just singing or rapping?
W: It’s pretty important. I mean where we started in music was with our appreciation for songwriters and listening to different music styles, genre bending rules. That intrigued us into being musicians in the first place, so we studied and studied. I can say we both study songwriters, I’ll read lyrics while listening to songs all the time. Not just to see who spit in the hardest, but to observe. I like finding songs with the shortest lyric pages, even though it feels like a lot. When you realize a song is only like 40 words, this whole song. I’m into that.

Earthgang Interview

I just like finding nuance, finding the things in between other things.

That’s what I like to study. We study those things pretty closely and we talk and laugh about it all the time. These are the things that we like about music. A lot of it is the perspective you get from the songwriter you’re listening to. I’m glad it comes back through our music.

We were listening to that song Cherry Wine by Amy Winehouse and Nas. She has a great quote where she says something along the lines of being able to get across an idea in her music that she can’t get through just talking in conversation. She can have a 30 minute long conversation and still not be able to say what she can in a 2 minute song. Do you feel the same way?
W: Oh for sure. It’s not just the words you’re saying, it’s how you’re saying them. It’s the melody, you know, how you draw words out, how you make it show. Show what you’re saying instead of just saying it.

Are you guys always together when you make music?
W: We’re not always together when we cook up, but we do have to talk about the records and what we like about them or don’t like about them. A lot of the time we’ll bring ideas together, but some records we’ll already be together. We don’t get together all the time.

But we are both creative all the time.

So you can’t stop that creativity just because we’re somewhere else in the world. You just gotta bring it back to your boy and be like, this is what I’m thinking about.

Do you guys have to compromise with each other or are you mostly on the same page?
W: Yeah but that’s just taste differences though. That’s like, if you have two chefs. one chef might like garlic a little more than the other one. So how are we going to spin it so it tastes good for everybody?

Recently, you covered ‘I Shot the Sheriff’ by Bob Marley. When making music, do you feel like you are channeling these past greats into your work?
O: Yeah, man, these things inspired us from the beginning. You know, like I was saying the true songwriters are the people speaking their true experiences. And it’s beautiful that those songs get to go out and just affect and change the world. So that inspiration always stays with us and always encourages us to continue to be ourselves and continue to write the stories and make the music that really touches people.

What are some things Bob Marley taught you?
W: To love, love hard. Love your family.