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Here's the extended version of this week's Tre Hardson interview. I've again included the introduction in case anyone needs context. The fantastic photos were shot by Tom Martinez.
WW: You come from the vinyl era with Pharcyde. Are you a vinyl head?
So how do you like Portland?
The Pharcyde reunited for Rock the Bells. How was it?
If you had to quantify what splintered the group in the first place, how would you do that?
Could you keep the group going if you didn't get along?
Does it fade away when you all hit the stage?
And those friendships go so far back.
That Pharcyde always did its own thing, despite coming out of a very specific L.A. hip-hop culture.
I read that. Was that your thing?
You do counseling?
And computers. You're a web-head!
I worry about that with kids raised on cell phones and the web.
With Pharcyde you had a whole marketing machine behind you. Was the transition tricky, finding out how to maneuver as a solo artist?
So if you just wanna be you as an artist, is that hard?
Pharcyde was huge, and I wonder if you ever struggled with ego?
Portland hasn't really seen you do any MCing dates, are they coming up?
The Live and Direct Crew: Rev. Shines, Tre Hardson, DJ Nature.
Whose idea was Live and Direct?
What do you have planned for the next Live and Direct?
With this project, you get to kind of start over. Is that fun?
Rev. Shines told me you were going to rap a Pharcyde verse or two at Live and Direct, but I don't think you did that last time.
Have you always been about that?
Maybe you should do a reality show out of that?
When you strategize for your next solo album, I wonder where your ambition level is.
Did you look at Pharcyde's success as luck, fate, or what?
Bizzare Ride
You're a veteran of the business now. Want to complain about the music biz?
Like the skinny jeans thing coming out of L.A.
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What did you grow up listening to?
Pharcyde used to have fans that would follow you around. That doesn't really happen in hip-hop.
Where did the skaters come into the mix?
Did that just work its way into the music somewhere?
Tre and the Live & Direct crew:
What's your dream collaboration?
What was in the water for you guys? And the generation right before you, that hip-hop changed and grew so much?
Even though it's all autotune on the radio?
Oh yeah, you gotta take extra offense to that as a guy who can sing.
You think there's another evolution coming soon?
Do you ever wake up in the morning and just wonder how you got here?
So you wake up happy?
It's crazy that music can take you to those places.
SEE IT: Live and Direct is Friday, Dec. 11 at Rotture. $3. 21+.
Links:
WWeek 2015