Michael Elves: It's been a little while since The Coup released Pick A Bigger Weapon – are you working on a follow-up or some other projects?
Boots Riley: I've been working on a project that I'm not supposed to talk about, that'll be coming out in September – it's a collaboration with an artist I can't say. Also, right now starting on the new Coup album and that'll be out soon after that.
Michael Elves: How do you approach each new record? After Pick A Bigger Weapon did you guys have some ideas that didn't get pursued that you wanted to use later on?
Boots Riley: With the stuff left over, I'm about to look over those and see how relevant they are still but after that point, it's kind of taking time to reflect on my thoughts and my life, and the world and seeing what angle interests me.
Michael Elves: So what angles have been interesting you lately?
Boots Riley: I guess the story with me is people – people's personal lives and the things that get them to make the decisions to be part of the fight, be part of the struggle. Be part of a collective struggle. You can't talk about politics without talking about economics – that is what politics is. Unfortunately there are many writers that try to talk about electoral politics and different political contexts of the world without talking about how people put food on their table, which is one of the things that controls the world, one of the motivations that helps organize society.
Michael Elves: Is what you listen to tied to your politics, or more generally, what are you listening to these days?
Boots Riley: Right now I'm really listening to Jolie Holland. Are you familiar with her? Springtime Can Kill You and Escondida – I've been listening to those two albums over and over. I think that, y'know, the way that it's not just the lyrics but because it has something to do with the song writing that I believe her when she sings a song.
Michael Elves: Is there an artist out there that you'd like to collaborate with, other than this secret project you can't talk about?
Boots Riley: It's funny – they're all three female artists that just come off the top of my head and I have no idea what it would sound like: Jolie Holland, Cat Power and St. Vincent.
Michael Elves: Is it the same thing with Cat Power and St. Vincent as Jolie Holland – that they resonate with you – that makes you interested in working with them? Or is it for different reasons with each of them?
Boots Riley: St. Vincent, she has some just crazy-out-there stuff that I'm interested in seeing what kind of results we'd get. And it is a similar thing that resonates with her too; it's a different style than the other two though. She has a way different take on things musically in ways that I wouldn't do it – I wouldn't have thought of doing it in the first place – and I'm interested to see what an experiment like that would sound like.
Michael Elves: So what can we expect when you play the Fresh Beats series of the Jazz Winnipeg Festival on June 24?
Boots Riley: I don't know if people know, but I guess they would assume if it's the Winnipeg Jazz Festival, but we perform with a live band. We have been since the nineties and it's a three-piece – bass, guitar, drums – and we trigger other samples and stuff too and then there's Silk E and me. It's kind of like a really aggressive, yet y'know all of the musicians are really skilled and have good chops. It's kind of like a funk-rock sort of thing, but for people that dowanna see jazz, my musicians take a healthy number of solos.
