Homeboy Sandman Interview: SXSW 2010

Homeboy Sandman has got a plan for Austin this year at SXSW 2010. With one year under his belt, he's got a strategy all laid out on how to make his second year as an official showcasing artist as productive as possible. Spinner recently caught up with Homeboy Sandman and his plan to divide and conquer this years festival.

What's your survival plan for SXSW?

I'm going to be a bit more strategic having gone through the one year. I'm basically getting a lot of sleep beforehand because I don't plan on getting much there, I'm definitely gonna plot out where I'm gonna be, the his year I'm bringing my right hand man Eric and my DJ too. We're gonna have a strategic route, have maps, going to have a big board with thumbtacks just like the FBI studying out a case. There's going to be alternate routes to get to places, they've got those cabs with hose dudes on a bicycle with the buggy in the back. We got it all planned out, we going at it like a war general of some sort, have a plan to take over, red zones, yellow zones and we're going to attack in waves.

How did you come up with your name?

That came to me one day as if in a dream, I've always had all these nicknames I used to give them to myself. This was before I was rhyming - but then Homeboy Sandman came to me one day, I said, it kind of captures who I am. There is a framework to it, even though I had to find out in retrospect what it meant, the sandman is the dreamweavery, the ability to plant images within your head so vivid and so specific that they seem real. But it's also like the Sandman the cartoon character, the villain, who's very versatile can turn into a sledgehammer. Beacuse I'm very much on the grooves I may be rockin, because it's like sand on the grooves and the beat I may be rockin'. Then Homeboy - that's your homeboy that's your peoples; if the Sandman lived in your building that's who he'd be.

Describe some of your musical influences?

I'm very much a musical instrument, I'm very much a musician, hip-hop music is my genre. I'm a musician just like Coltrane, or Billy Joel or Stevie Wonder. When I'm rhyming first and foremost it's improvisation, it's like a jazz solo. I used to play the saxophone a lot. I start off with my with rhythm and melody – my pattern, depending on what my beat tells me from a tone or mood point I may rap about different thing that's are going on. Some uplifting and some depressing, whatever they may be, but the sound of it is orchestral, definitely a symphony sound I'm an instrument just the rest of the instruments aren't there. I grew up listening to a lot of different music growing up, I just soaked up everything, hip hop is so cool I can take all that other music and just rhyme over it.

Do you have any musical guilty pleasures?

I don't get any pleasure out of things that make me feel guilty

Do you have any vices?

I know it sounds strange that someone says they don't have any vices. I definitely do, I definitely do right now in this point in my life, my most recent has been pleasures of the flesh, self-control in regards to pleasures of the flesh. But once I get that down pat, and I think I've got it down now, only time will tell, then something else may pop up. You know I'm really focused I try and make the most of every moment that I'm here, either thinking of a rhyme so I don't really dabble too much trying to kill time. People get into vices trying to kill time. I'm trying to bring time to life. I want to have no vices, I don't believe that people have to be imperfect. I'm, trying to be perfect in the way I live my life. If I had an answer to what is my vice, I'd try and go and take care of it right away.

Craziest thing ever happened to you on tour?

I'm not sure I've really got any crazy stories from being on tour. I've met some really interesting homeless people in various parts of the country, but I meet interesting homeless people on the streets of New York and interesting people all together. You know, I told you I try to stay away from the vices, so you know I don't try and wake up with someone's panties on my head on the roof or something like that.

Robert Evans is a contributor from Seed.com. Learn how you can contribute here.