The Hype Magazine interviews with “T H R O N E”

Alternative hip-hop artistic couple T H R O N E recently released the music video for their new single “Orochimaru”, produced by Jules Soledad. Currently residing in the Sandia Mountains of New Mexico, T H R O N E is the union of Charlotte native and globetrotter Hayatheus (hi-ah-theus), and YVHIKV (yuh-hey-guh), who hails from Mvskoke (Creek) Nation in Oklahoma. “This is the most ‘us’ song we’ve made so far,” Hayatheus says of the track, their first release as a duo. “Multi-genre, no hook, complex meaning – but still a vibe. We made this song at 3:00 am, we heard the beat and immediately started recording. Doing each other’s doubles and adlibs, a mix of written and freestyled lyrics, this is skilled free form delivery, this is a jazz approach to hip-hop, this is a taste of what T H R O N E is bringing to the game.”

How did your music partnership blossom? How does a couple go from romance to “let’s start a rap group”? What were those early days of finding your musical feet together like?

It’s funny because we actually met in the studio last summer ‘19. And almost immediately… got together. H (Hayatheus) had flown to New Mexico to work with our friend F.R.E.E, who Y (YVHIKV) had already been working with. We both had heard each other’s music and knew we wanted to work together. From the very first song there was… tension. And then pretty much before you knew it, we were writing with and about each other. H decided to relocate to New Mexico, and we spent the rest of the summer making music every day. We started to ALWAYS want each other’s voices on our songs. It just felt right. As of January 2020 we decided to become an official duo and never looked back.

What’s your current process for writing and recording?

We like to do a ‘beat draft’ when we get drops from our producer friends. We listen to all of them together, and then split them up depending on who likes which beat more. When it comes to writing, H writes constantly; to beats, to music we listen to, to the washing machine cycle complete sounds… or to nothing at all, never really focusing on any one song in particular. Y likes to be more solitary and intentional; she will have a specific beat and goal for her song, just listening to a beat she immediately hears melodies in her head, she then begins working on the lyrics until the song is done. For recording, we are pretty much complete opposites! Y is very technical in her approach. Starting with a creative vision, she begins recording already having an idea of what she’d like to accomplish. Trying out different melodies, she keeps going until everything is in place. H’s way of working is extremely free form, he actually prefers to not practice before recording, keeps different lyrics open to choose from, and likes to switch back and forth between many different tracks – just to see what he feels like recording in that moment. We completely rely on each other for feedback. When we finish recording, we have the other listen immediately and decide if something is good, needs work or is just… straight trash. It’s good that we record at our own home studio, because we probably would drive most engineers crazy!

You guys have been spending most of 2020 in the mountains of New Mexico. Tell us about the life.

We live in a tiny casita in the Sandia mountains that is surrounded by trees and wildlife. Being so secluded, for us, is honestly amazing. Everyday we make home cooked food, plan our music work, talk to our collab partners, write and record, walk in nature and then finally relax (almost never in that order). One big hobby we have is making custom clothes. Most of the clothes you’ll ever see us wear we made from a combination of thrifted items and hand drawn art from H. We design the pieces together, but Y is the master seamstress! Otherwise, we watch movies, anime and play video games. Our favorite show lately is Star Trek, Next Generation and we’ve been playing a lot of the new Hades game on Switch.

What inspired the manga references in “Orochimaru”?

Many people have dealt with the quarantine lifestyle in different ways. We used to not watch TV at all, but missing out on our routine of meeting friends and going to coffee shops for months made us change our rule. Enter… anime. A lot of anime. Specifically – hundreds of hours of Naruto. The character Orochimaru is not only one of our favorites (we both agree Hinata is bae btw) but also has this amazing quote at one point when threatening one of Naruto’s friends, Sai, he says “Careful with your words in my wake.” H quoted him when writing his verse for Orochimaru. After that, Naruto became a subtheme of the whole song.

What are your plans for 2021?

The same thing we always do – try to take over the world! But seriously, we are going to keep releasing music, refining our sound and finding new dope artists to work with. We have a kind of throwback NYC duo sound (90s and early 2000s) that we’ve been merging with our sort of “lo-fi/abstract/southern” writing style. Our heaviest contemporary influence is the Lo-NY movement, music from folks like Earl Sweatshirt, MIKE, Navy Blue, Ade Hakim, Ovrkast (and many more). The result of all these styles and influences is the T H R O N E sound, or as our friends like to call it “alternative Jhene Aiko and Big Sean vibes”. One day we will relocate to Japan and do shows in tiny cafes while sitting in each other’s laps making everyone really uncomfortable, but for now we will see where the wind takes us here in USA, stay healthy and focus on the art.