i15 Interview Transcription:
DJ Booth: What’s goin’ on ya’ll? It’s your boy “Z,” doin’ it real big, and joining me inside the DJ Booth are three young men who are so thankful for the interstate highway between LA and Las Vegas that they named their group after it. Please welcome Das, Castro, and Flash of i15!
i15: What it is, what it is, what it is.
DJ Booth: Fellas, how are you doin’?
Das: Payin’ the bills.
Castro: You already know, man. We doin’ good, man – what’s goin’ on with you?
DJ Booth: I’m listening to your brand new music and I’m very impressed so far. So ‘i15’ is the chosen group name, but what was the second option if in order to get from LA to Vegas you needed to take the 405 to 14 to 58 over to i15?
Das: [laughter] Aw, man.
Castro: That’d be a whole ‘nother trip. We just narrowed it down to i15. You could throw the 101 in there, too, man.
DJ Booth: Then you’d just get in all types of crazy traffic.
Flash: [laughter] Yeah, then it’s like a math problem, so we just dropped it down to i15.
DJ Booth: You guys met producer Polow Da Don, who is responsible for inking the group to a deal with Interscope and his label, Zone 4. When you were introduced to Polow, I read that he told you, “I understand what you’re trying to do.” So explain to me, what are you guys trying to do?
Das: Trying to bring back the good music, man. It seems to be lost somewhere, with all this new music that’s comin’ out. And I respect everybody in the game, we all do, but it’s time to bring back that good feeling.
DJ Booth: Did Polow really understand what you guys were tryin’ to do, or were you all just afraid he might take off his shirt, expose those massive biceps, and beat some ass if you didn’t agree to sign with him?
Castro: [laughter] He really gets the vision, man. He really enjoyed the single from the get-go, and he really signed [and] believed in us off of one song, so we definitely feel like he got the nature of the group and what we were tryin’ to do.
DJ Booth: That’s great. The all-male group Pretty Ricky has had a firm grip on the sung rap niche in the past few years. Besides having one less man in your group, what separates you guys from a group like Pretty Ricky, or even the recently-joined duo of Omarion and Bow Wow?
Das: A whole lot. I respect what they do, but our music truly and obviously, bringin’ back that good feeling again. And I’m not tryin’ to dis’ nobody, but, we all know.
Castro: But really, to sum it all up, it’s just the approach to being an artist is different – like, image ain’t everything for I15. I speak for a lot of groups – not even the two groups you named, just for a lot of groups in the game, it seems like image is the main focus. We really take it back to what we doin’ in the studio, what we doin’ as far as creating, the music and just the approach to being an artist is just way different.
DJ Booth: I turned the radio on today, and evidently, she is “Lost in Love.” Have you all heard the same thing?
Castro: [laughter] Yeah, she’s definitely lost in love.
DJ Booth: A woman not knowing what she wants in a relationship, as us men know, couldn’t be more of an accurate topic for discussion. But, whose dating past was the direct and necessary motivation behind this hit record? Give me the goods, guys.
Castro: Shouts out to John Hudson and AJ, they wrote the record. A lot of us have been in this situation, and, I guess, from what he was tellin’ us, it was something that he went through. But like I said, it affects all of us. So that’s what made this good a record even more – as soon as we heard the record, like I said, it just hit and it stuck. Everybody related to it, and that’s what it was. We knew that it was gonna take us somewhere, bein’ that everybody put their emotion in the feeling that we got from the record.
DJ Booth: Definitely. I saw the video was shot in Vegas – which hotel and casino did you film at?
Flash: Aw, yeah – the Playboy Suite.
DJ Booth: Very nice choice. Did any of you take any breaks in between film changes or crew breaks to go ahead and gamble away some of that advance?
Castro: Nah, nah – I can’t do that. We all starvin’, we don’t wanna spend that money.
Flash: I was hopin’ they had a blackjack table, but they didn’t. We were so high up in that hotel, on like the highest floor of that Playboy Suite, I couldn’t even make it to the tables. But about five in the morning, we started takin’ breaks, trying to get some rest in-between shots.
Castro: [laughter] Yeah, that’s the only thing we was tryin’ to do, was get some rest. It was a heck of a shoot; it was an all-day shoot. We didn’t really have no energy to be tryin’ to go play some slots.
DJ Booth: Well maybe by the next time you guys film a video in Vegas, your status level will have elevated to where you call them and say, “Why don’t you bring the blackjack tables to us?”
Castro: Yeah, that’s what I’m talkin’ about.
DJ Booth: We’re gonna change it up a little bit, guys. Have any of you ever gambled on a relationship and won?
Das: [laughter] Good question.
DJ Booth: Thank you.
Castro: It’s a great question.
Flash: Man, I gambled many times, and won every time. [laughter]
Castro: I gambled a couple of times and lost – I’m not a good gambler, actually. I’m from Vegas, and obviously they didn’t deal me the great cards to be winnin’ stuff like that, so I don’t really mess with it anymore.
DJ Booth: All right. So, Castro, you don’t mess with it, but Flash, Das, you guys say you have won. What is winning to you, in terms of gambling on a relationship?
Flash: If you don’t get caught, man, they don’t ever find out, then you win it! ‘Cause you know when they find out, it’s over, man; you’re gonna lose it.
Das: I’m just not a gambler.
Castro: [laughter] You have to claify that asap!
DJ Booth: I’m thinkin’ maybe you guys are just saying this ‘cause you’re worried if someone who you dated in the past were to hear the interview...
Castro: [laughter] Nah, man, we keep it real.
DJ Booth: One of the songs on the self-titled debut is, “Committed.” The ballad’s produced by Teddy Bishop, and focuses on a plea for a serious relationship. Flash, you just turned 23. Das, Castro, you guys are both 21. With the start of your promising career ahead, where does a committed relationship rank on your current priority list?
Castro: I mean, my relationship is my music. It’s a subliminal message, you know what I mean? People can take it for what it is, but I’m really talkin’ about the music.
DJ Booth: LA and Vegas are notorious for many things, one of which – as I’m sure you all know – are crazy parties. Considering you’re all burgeoning celebrities and part of this business is being out, being seen, and making new connections, I’m sure you all thoroughly enjoy the nightlife, correct?
Das: It’s pretty good to us.
DJ Booth: So what is the most outrageous, off-the-wall, wish you had a video camera moment, when you’ve been out celebrating you rise to stardom?
Castro: Oh, we’ve got it on camera.
DJ Booth: Okay. What’s on camera?
Castro: It was the moment we were in Shreveport, Louisiana, and were at a club, and it was over packed, and the cops were around. We’re from the West Coast, we’ve seen a lot of crazy stuff with the cops, man. But the cops were just manhandling teenagers and just manhandling, we got it on camera.
Flash: Slammin’ them on the ground and everything. You can go to http://youtube.com/i15music, and you can check it out – we documented the whole tour, and we got a lot of good footage up.
Das: Until we got our cameras stolen on tour.
Castro: We ain’t gonna go into that…
DJ Booth: You can go into it. Your camera got stolen – take it from there.
Castro: And we got A-Town stomped on in A-Town.
Das: We were performing at a club – we didn’t have a hotel to check in, ‘cause right after the show we were leavin’ South Carolina that night to do another show in the morning. We did a great show, we killed it, we came back to the van and everything was gone; somebody broke in and took all our stuff.
DJ Booth: Damn. If you want, for the holidays, I can buy you guys another video camera, is that okay?
Castro: Aw, man, I’m gonna hold you to that, Z, don’t play with me like that.
DJ Booth: Give listeners a reason why they need to save all these holiday gift cards and certificates they’re about to receive so they can use them on your debut album that’s going to be dropping next year.
Das: Yeah, it goes something like, [singing] “She don’t know no better/Triflin’ with my heart like it was a parade of fun/In and out of love/Make me feel inadequate/If I try to perfect it/She wouldn’t even let me in.”
Castro: And that’s a good enough reason right there, to go cop that.
DJ Booth: That was a great reason, as a matter of fact. You sold me. Guys, give a website, a Myspace page, so people can find out more about what you got goin’ on.
Das: myspace.com/I15, youtube.com/I15music, you can go to the website, I15music.com. Check us out.
Castro: Whenever you’re out on the web, just do a search; type in “I15”
DJ Booth: Definitely. I know for a fact you guys have taken over the top five spots on the Google search engine when you type in “I15,” so you’re more popular than the interstate, and that’s huge.
Flash: Yeah, man, we’d better. We own the interstate – I’ve enjoyed it about 50,000 times, so we’d be over that boy!
DJ Booth: I appreciate you guys takin’ the time to join me inside the DJ Booth, and I wish you nothing but the best of luck on your upstart career in 2008.
Das: Thank you.
Castro: Thank you too, Z, it ain’t nothing, man.
Flash: Hey Z, appreciate you for real. Come out to LA and we’ll meet up, man; we’ll have some calamari, sushi and drink some 40 ounces.
Leave your Comment on i15 Interview
Total Comments: 1
You must be logged in to post comments. Please log in below.
Email this page to a friend
