Interview – MC Lars

December 10th, 2009 by Sophie

Words: Sophie Egboh and Richard Heaven

How did you come by the name MC Lars, and the ‘Post-punk laptop rap’ tag?

MC Lars came from a movie with Ben Stiller in 1996 called ‘Heavy Weights’. These kids go to this summer camp to loose weight, it’s like a fat camp, and there’s this counsellor from Germany named Lars and I thought that was so funny. I was about twelve when I saw that, I’m twenty-seven so that was fifteen years ago.
So I called myself Lars Horris, and then I called myself MC Lars Horris, and then I dropped the Horris so it was just MC Lars.
Then I made up the term ‘Post-punk laptop rap’ because I used to play guitar in a punk band, and discovered hip-hop in university. I realised after sex pistols broke up, and when Public Image Ltd and Joy Division happened , post-punk bands kinder took like the energy of punk, but they did it in a different way.
So I wanted to make post-punk and hip-hop, then I did beats on my laptop… So it’s post-punk laptop rap.

Does your laptop come on stage with you then?

It used to but now we run it from my ipod because with the laptop, people throw water, people would fall down and I’d loose all my files… so… (laughs). It’s safer now.

How do the bands react to the clash of styles between rap and emo/post hardcore?

That’s a great question. I think that when we started out, it was funny because everyone realised we were kinder making fun of the scene. With my song ‘Signing Emo’, we made fun of emo bands and people thought it was real.
Then bands like Bowling For Soup took us out, I became friends with The Matches, and the Cobra Starship guys. Bands like that. Simple Plan took me out… so I’ve collaborated with all sorts of people in that scene.
We haven’t really gone out with anyone that heavy though. Failsafe, my backing band, are a five piece melodic hardcore band from Preston and are probably the hardest band I’ve toured with.
Bands like our sense of humour. It’s cool. Since it’s hip-hop, we’re able to incorporate so many different genres.

Growing up, how open where you to different genres? It’s fair to say you are breaking down virtually age old barriers.

I grew up listening to punk and then I got into hip-hop, like I listened to Snoop Dogg and stuff when I was little, and my mum confiscated my Snoop Dogg tape. Hip-hop was always this forbidden thing!
Then bands like Aerosmith, Anthrax, Public Enemy and Bio Hazard all collaborated. So there’s kinder been this connection between hardcore music and hip-hop. I’ve just made it a point to just not care that it’s a bit weird for someone who looks like me to be doing rap as a career because it’s in me. I live it.
So yeah, I think it’s good to break down barriers and that’s where we get our best stuff; through fusions of genres which you wouldn’t expect.
Then we do a hardcore song, ‘Hot Topic Is Not Punk Rock’, which is fine because kids have a mosh pit, then it goes back to the rapping (laughs). Our set is so crazy but it’s honest.

You have referenced ‘Moby Dick’, ‘The Raven’ and ‘Macbeth’ in your work already. Are their any contempory writers you would like to work with or incorporate into your work?

Well, I love Chuck Klosterman, he’s an American guy who does a lot of essays on music and culture, I’d love to do something about him. I wanna do a song about Kafka’s Metamorphosis… I think doing literature songs is one of my favourite things and I’ll keep doing it. Eventually I want to do an album of literature songs.

What kicked off the process which led to you creating Horris Records?

Horris Label started off as my imprint. I was with a company called Nettwerk Management and they helped me get my start. My manager worked with Brand New, so he had a lot of good contacts. We got started in 2003 with that. So now, Horris Records is my production company and we do mix tapes and just did an EP with our friend K.Flay. Jared from Bowling For Soup started a label called Crappy Records and they put out my new album and they’re putting out my next one. So I teamed up with them and kind of combined forces.
This tour’s been awesome because our album is back in the Amazon hip-hop charts and everything, so it’s cool! This tour has been phenomenal.

Tell us about working with the legendary Wierd Al Yankovic?

(Laughs) I’ve been a fan of Weird Al since I was ten years old, and I’ve always loved how he can incorporate so many genres. It’s so funny… He’s such a great performer and I was star struck by him. He hit me up in 2006 cause I put out a track called ‘Download This Song’, and he had a song called ‘Don’t Download This Song’. That was just like, coincidently, mine came out six months before him. So he emailed me like “Hey, I’m a big fan of your work, just wanna let you know, I wasn’t trying to steal your idea! But it’s coming. ‘Don’t Download This Song’ is coming.”
So I was like “Dude you wrote me!”, and so we kept in touch over the years and we talked about the music industry and stuff. ‘True Player’ a song I wrote with Wheatus, needed an accordion part, so we had him come and play it. That was awesome. Talking to him about triads and chords and transcribing it on the accordion. He’s just so down to earth and he’s so incredibly successful, but so nice. He doesn’t have an ego. He’s still a big, sweet awesome guy. That was probably a career highlight. Working with him. (laughs)

This tour is one of many things you have done with Bowling For Soup. How did that friendship come about?

The guy who signed them, Howie Abrams worked at a metal label, Roadrunner Records, with my old manager. So when I was working on stuff in my dorm room in 2003 and 2004, Tom, my ex manager gave my CD to Howie, who gave it to Bowling For Soup and Jared heard it before anything came out.
He was like “I love this music, I’m gonna support it to the end!”.
They took me on my first US tour, in 2005 when they had their hit ‘1985’ for three or four months and I took senior year off, then graduated the summer after that.
It’s been pretty incredible like, they’ve taken me to so many places… they’ve been really supportive. And I think their new album is great!

Who would you like to tour with?

Hopefully we’re gonna go out and tour with Cobra Starship in the US sometime. That would be good because I think that their fans would get it. I love 3OH!3, I’d tour with them. We did a festival with them and I thought they were so cool… two festivals actually. Their album ‘Want’ is my favourite album of the year. They’re just cool, funny and catchy.
Electronic laptop, hip-hop, is the kind of music that I like. Stuff that’s totally genre fused.

What can people expect from you in the near future?

I’m doing a lot. For my next record, I’m working on producing a hip-hop musical which hopefully will be coming together at the end of next year.
I’m doing a graphic novel about the history of hip hop, a kids album… a lot! Then we’re supporting the Bowling For Soup tour in America during November and December, and then coming back with Zebrahead in March. A headlining tour in the US in January… It’s cool cause I’m working hard and promoting the Robot album. Everything’s awesome.

Do you having any parting words to people reading?

I think my whole message in my music is I try to teach kids to create instead of consume. Like society and mass culture teaches kids that they should play guitar hero and be on myspace all day, when really they should be doing stuff like you’re doing. Interviews, writing and creating. That’s my whole motto. Don’t hate the media, become the media. Create and build something and don’t just be passive. Put yourself out there! In hip-hop they say “Do you”. which means be yourself.

Tags: MC Lars
Posted in Interviews