Lars Horris operates within his own self-created sub-genre of hip-hop: hardcore alien hip-hop. He does this, he says, because he is an outsider in the hip-hop world; his background prevents him from being one of the bad boys. Still, everyone knows that, in reality, the Wu-Tang Clan are all nice boys from the suburbs. This is the first thing that makes Lars stand out.

The next identifying feature is Lars’ lyrics, which do not enter the normal subject areas of rappers, or anyone for that matter. “I’m so post-modern I don’t even exist,” he cries on Hey That’s Me and following that he’ll give you a lesson in understanding Macbeth (Rapbeth (Foul Is Fair)) and tell you about raising the ghost of an abolitionist who was hanged in 1859 (The Séance At Harpers Ferry). We also get to find out some things about the man himself along the way, for example, he’s an alien (Yes I Am An Alien), he likes the music of Atom (Atom, You’re Awesome), he’s a trained lifeguard (Certified) and he once had to escape from an island populated by robots hell bent on taking over the world (Escape From Robot Island), although I’m not sure all of that is true.

Through a mixture of intelligence, comedy and pure talent Lars Horris has brought something interesting and new to the hip-hop table. I interviewed him just for you in March 2003.

How would you describe yourself?

MC Lars Horris is a hip-hop artist from San Francisco, California. He combines funky beats, clever lyrics, humour and poignant social commentary to create a fun and enlightening groove session both on disk and live in concert. How’s that?

Who are your influences?

I started doing music because of my inspiration and favourite musician of all time, “Weird Al” Yankovic. When I first heard him at ten, I was blown away by his wit, talent, and ability to be both funny and interesting. Some other artists I’m really into are King Missile, Wesley Willis, and Atom & His Package. In the hip-hop arena, I’m into Public Enemy, MC Paul Barman, the Insane Clown Posse, and of course Run-DMC. I would say that old school hip-hop influences me more than more recent stuff, although there’s some really influential and amazing rap music from some new independent labels like Rhymesayers, Anticon, and Def Jux etc.

What music are you listening to at the moment?

I got this really cool three-CD box set in Greenwich a week or so ago, and it covers the span of Sugar Hill Records’ career. It’s got some classic stuff by Grandmaster Flash, Spoonie Gee, Melle Mel and of course the Sugar Hill Gang themselves. I’m also really into this group Grand Buffet from Pennsylvania right now, they just toured the UK, and I caught them in London. They are hilarious and a lot of fun live, I like to imagine that if I had another guy doing this with me, we’d be like Grand Buffet. On a non-hip-hop tip, I’m really digging the new Tori Amos album. She is awesome and multi-talented.

You name check Kris Kross on Hey That’s Me. Do you remember their classic single, I Missed The Bus? No one else I ask does.

Yeah! That song is so funny and great, I guess it’s about twelve years old. Could we call it old school now? Maybe. My favourite line from that song goes like, “I went to bed late, didn’t think that late would affect me / Tried to wake up the next day, but ‘late’ wouldn’t let me.” After that, the two guys went through puberty and their record labels tried to market them through this gangsta image. They put out an album in 1996 called Young, Rich and Dangerous, which is pretty terrible. The funny thing is that Totally Krossed Out was one of the first CD’s I ever bought when I was ten, living in Oakland, and same day I bought that CD, I bought “Weird Al” Yankovic’s Off the Deep End. In terms of formative influences for me, the rest was history…

How do you go about writing a track?

The process is somewhat intricate, but essentially it’s a three step process: getting the words, getting the music, and then putting the two together. I have lyrics running through my head, constantly, and I always write them down wherever I go in little notebooks I have around me. I guess I have like fifteen notebooks back home in California with hundreds of songs that will never see the light of day because I’m always doing this new stuff, and I get bored with the past stuff if it doesn’t capture my attention right away. However, if a lyrical hook is really catchy to me, I play with the melody and try to find drum loops to rap and sing over it. That’s what happened with my track Rapbeth, in terms of being a cool lyrical hook I thought of and then wanted to use. Sometimes, I record some instrumental stuff and then come back later with the lyrics. From start to finish, at the fastest I can finish a song in about a week. It usually takes me about three months, however, and I’m always working on like five songs at a time.

There’s a lot of intelligence in your lyrics, Rapbeth probably being the most obvious example of that. Is that just they way you work, or are you specifically trying to educate people?

Thanks for that kind feedback. I guess, being a student, I am always around all of this interesting subject matter and that because it’s what’s running through my head, it comes out in my lyrics. I wrote Rapbeth (Foul Is Fair) when I was studying Macbeth in high school, and I liked the song so much I kept it and released it on my first CD. It’s interesting, because my strongest tracks I feel either tell a story or are insanely personal. I sometimes get sick of trying to emulate the typical rap convention of “Oh yeah, I’m just spitting tight rhymes over this beat, My flows are insanely tight and sweet…” because that gets old to me. One of the dudes I really like is the rapper Slug from Atmosphere, and he’s from Minnesota. He is really good with his conventional rapping, but it’s not just stagnant, it goes somewhere, because he tells stories and really can kick it.

But, in response to your question, I guess I’m not necessarily trying to consciously educate people specifically, but in a sense I am. I want to make the stories of Shakespeare and John Brown accessible and fun, because they can be if you look at them right. You know? But I’d be wary about being a fun-boy Raffi type of educational musician, having kids sing along and memorize the elements through my lyrics… I am working on a concept album called The Canterbury Freestyles, however, and hopefully that can go beyond the didactic and reach a cool and educated audience. When I graduate, I may go into teaching to keep in an academic mindset and keep my brain sharp to write these tracks, because I would hate just sitting in my house writing about my cat or my VCR or something. That would make me want to shoot myself.

Most rappers seem to spend their time inventing stories about crack deals and drive-bys but you make a big point of being an outsider in hip-hop. Why not just pretend you spent some time in prison?

It’s interesting that you bring that up. This dude I know from Monterey named Mostel has some great gangsta rap type tracks he does, but socio-economically, he has basically the same background as I do, going to the same prep schools etc. But, he likes to rap about guns and marijuana, and that kind of turns me off. We did production together when we were both starting out and he kind of influenced me with his “gangsta” imagery, but I guess I out-grew it and found my own voice. If I’m not coming from a real place, then what the hell am I doing? I wouldn’t feel comfortable lying about getting sent to jail, but I guess I would if I were writing a first person account of Milton’s run in with the monarchy, or something like that.

The sound of your tracks varies a lot, from old school hip-hop to techno to stuff that’s a bit more rock. Is that intentional or just the development of your sound?

Ha ha, that’s an interesting point. Musically, I started playing guitar and learning guitar theory, so that is where I am rooted, so to speak. I played in a few rock bands from around the Monterey Bay area before I got into the hip-hop stuff. From there, I started doing stuff with keyboards and techno on my computer, and then realized that with the same instruments and elements, you can do rap music, a kind of happy medium between rock and techno. I would say that it’s kind of un-planned, but that all of the elements reflect my development over the years. That is why you hear the two step beats on my first CD and the Soul Coughing-esque guitar riffs on my second CD.

In the US you sometimes perform with a full band. Do you write with that in mind or is it a case of rewriting the songs for live instruments? I take the Trent Reznor approach to my project, I guess. I lock myself up in my room and try to record every single thing that I can by myself, sequencing all of the tracks and playing all of the songs over and over to myself until they sound awesome. Then, after I have a finished song on a CD, my band the Androids are like “Great Lars, now how are we going to do it live?” So, then we rewrite and figure everything out for the band, trying to make it sound as close as it can to how it does on the CD. My motto: when in doubt, add a bass solo. That gets the frat parties rocking usually, as those are our typical gigs at Stanford right now.

What’s the least rock ‘n’ roll thing you’ve ever done?

Study really hard all throughout high school, go to Stanford University and major in English.

When’s your new album out and what will be on it?

It’s called Radio Pet Fencing and it’s coming out on May 13th through an American label called Noseman Records. It will have a lot of the tracks off of the demo I recently sent you guys, which include the single Hey That’s Me, as well as Make Way for Ducklings and Escape from Robot Island (featuring M.N.P., the underground Seattle rapper). Plus the new MC Lars Horris album will have the philosophy song, Taking Care of Is-ness.

How much longer are you in the UK? Are you playing any more shows? Will you be back?

I’m here in the U.K. until March 24th, then I go back to the U.S. I have a few more shows coming up before I go, listed in the “shows” section of www.mclarshorris.com. The U.K. has been really really cool and nice to me musically, and I would love to come back and play again in England sometime, maybe with my band. I am hoping to be back at the end of this summer, or hopefully at the latest in December, to promote Radio Pet Fencing. I really have put a lot of time and love into this album, and would really love to see people embracing it with as much energy as I have put into it.

And finally, without making any direct reference to yourself, tell our good readers why they should listen to you.

It’s hard to find music that is obsessively honest and yet original sounding and professional. Also, rap music often either takes its self way too seriously or becomes an inane caricature of itself, and I try to find a gentle balance between these two extremes, respecting the craft of rapping yet keeping a sense of humour. If a listener is looking for unique and enjoyable hip-hop, clever and educational lyrics, and clean and professionally recorded music, then I can’t see why I wouldn’t recommend my stuff to them. Is that too self referential? Perhaps, but I hope you get my point.

Official website - www.mclars.com