The Latest on the ‘Illest’: Catchin’ Up with the FEM boys @ MTV World Stage 2013

It’s been close to a year since we’ve hung out with the boys of Far East Movement and we heard recently that the combination sales of digital downloads, streaming and CD of their latest album – Dirty Bass - has led to it being certified gold in Malaysia. The boys themselves just heard of the news when we caught up with them the day before their MTV World Stage 2013 gig at Sunway Lagoon and were incredibly grateful. “We are so thankful to Malaysian fans – it’s our third time here and every time it’s been incredible. Just all the more reason to move here!” KevNish exclaimed. “Much love to all the people – especially (those on) Social Media – we get a lot of messages from those in Malaysia,” Prohgress chimes in. “Yeah, you guys are STRONG online,” KevNish adds.

And despite the fact that they have been here twice before and have been doing hundreds of gigs all over the world, the boys are still ever as eager to perform on stage in Malaysia. “(Being on stage) still (feels) like the first time,” J-Spliff reminisces. “I still get nervous cause a lot of times we make (last minute) changes before the show. I don’t even know the key – we just changed the key of that whole song, how am I suppose to play that? So, we’re guessing half the time we’re up there (but) … it’s fun,” Prohgress says. Kev Nish continues, “It’s almost more exciting though because the first half of our career was performing in night clubs and it’s such a different environment when you have an embedded crowd of wild, crazy party animals, and then you do a concert or a festival or TV. We get the most nervous of TV (performances) because you don’t know who you’re performing to. Everything is so zoomed in, locked in and we’re (not like that) – we’re so uncalculated.” In fact, the boys let us in on a bit of an unforgettable ‘uncalculated’ moment in one of their live TV performances - J-Spliff completely knocking over DJ Virman’s MAC while jamming out on stage. They were reeling over in laughter days after. “Always fun to get the troll comments!,” Prohgress laughs. Waaaaiiit, how about Prohgress’ epic failure of a crowd surf? “One time I did a crowd surf in the UK at a beach and we didn’t have a lot of time to set it up and I jumped into a crowd of nine year olds. They did not catch me and I hit the cement really, really hard! So now, I definitely look for people with upper body strength,” confesses Prohgress with a laugh.

But the boys have been keeping themselves busy not only on stage but also in the studio as well – their latest offering ‘Illest’ features the crazy, unpredictable Riff Raff and has people going all out crazy during the chorus. In real life, sure but we were actually referring to the ‘crazy’ in the music video. Kev Nish explains, “That video was inspired by one of favourite movies ‘Office Space’ and we wanted to make a National-Terrorize-Your-Work Day where you get one day to throw it all back to your bosses face.” Far East Movement then reached out to all those around them and had all of them each do a cameo in the video and in fact, KNUKEasters spotted even a k-pop connection with Dumbfoundead’s (who has worked with the likes of Jay Park) hilarious desk moment! And that’s how the boys apparently roll – surrounding themselves with people from different backgrounds and different aspects of the music scene.

This rather conscious decision to be constantly surrounded by different backgrounds helps the boys construct a more fluid identity that enables FEM to incorporate different visual or adjacent aspects of music into who they are and what they do. Being huge fans of certain products, they incorporate them into the Far East Movement ‘lifestyle’ and carry them into their branding. Kev Nish goes on to talk about a few products they’ve made part of the FEM identity, “(For example), we’re huge fans of (the) Alpine Bass (stereo system). Before we made music, I used to install car stereos and alarms and Alpine was always the product I would (recommend) as a sales guy. So it was a complete shock when they approached us to do a collaboration. Just like music, (that) was a dream come true. And with Xtra Large … Far East Movement has always stated that we’re the biggest Beastie Boys fans ever and we discovered the brand X-Large as Beastie Boys’ fans – Mike D was part investor in the company – and so when we were approached by the brand to (endorse their products), that was like another fashion dream come true. (Fashion-wise) we have also collaborated with another brand, called ‘The Illest’ too.” “Next fashion concept: DJ Virman with earrings,” jokes Prohgress. Does this mean there are more up and coming fashion concepts being explored? “We’ve definitely thought about (setting up our own fashion brand) but we’re gonna stay in the studio first and get our music right. But yeah, definitely something we’re thinking about,” says Kev Nish.

An upcoming concert in Malaysia is also something that the FEM boys have been considering, “That would be awesome. We get a lot of love from you guys,” gushes Prohgress. “It’s on the people. If you guys want it, then sure – we would love to come back (and have one),” Kev Nish adds. So calling all FEM fans! You heard the boys (and they hear you online!) – ask and you shall receive. As usual, the boys were the incredible effable and down-to-earth gentlemen they are known for during our awesome time chatting and before we knew it, we had to say our goodbyes. Thank you MTV World Stage for an amazing catch-up session with the boys but don’t worry fam (we know an FEM fan when we see one), we have a STRONG feeling the boys will be down preeeetttyy soon. And when they do come, we’ll be here to feed you the latest on ‘The Illest’. So till then, peace out!