We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Rashenal a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Rashenal, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?
The most meaningful project I have worked on so far in my music career would probably have to be my full length “Life Learner” album. It was a turning point for me in my career where I decided to do just about all of the recording and mixing on my own as part of a larger learning process. I found that I really enjoyed the process and having full control over how the final audio for each track sounded. It was also a new form of freedom for me where I could truly do whatever I wanted and experiment with finding the sound that I wanted to really represent myself. This album was also featured multiple times in the Phoenix New Times and AZ Central / Arizona Republic and more.
I am currently in the process of completing my next full length album to be released later this year, and so far from the album I have recently released a couple singles including “The Cloud” and “It’s You” produced by the crazy talented DJ DN³. This album has been in the works for a few years and truthfully it has been delayed a few times because of some major life events including getting married to my beautiful wife and us having our first son. Also one of the most talented artists I know G-Owens and myself have created a group called “Eighty Two” since we were both born in the year 1982. Over the last couple years we have been working on finishing our debut album from which we have recently released multiple singles including the songs “Better Day” and “Uptown”.
We are also currently having a sale in our online store and if you use the discount code SPRINGSALE you will get 25% off of your order, so be sure to grab a couple items while they are still available!
Rashenal, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I was born and raised in the beautiful desert city metropolis of Phoenix, Arizona. During middle school two of my best friends B-boy Miracles, Courdek, and I started going to a local community center where we were extremely fortunate to meet the legendary B-boy House (Furious Styles Crew) who worked there as a dance instructor. He taught us about Hip Hop culture / history and about the elements B-boys/B-girls, DJs, graffiti artists, and MCs. This community center also had a very small recording studio so Courdek, Miracles, and myself (Rashenal) created our first group “Mysterious Independent Creatures” (MIC) and we learned to write / produce / and record songs which is actually where a lot of my musical inspirations originated. We had one very local project release called “Measure One” that was first released on cassette and then soon after released again on CD.
I have also always loved computers and technology so after graduating high school I went on to college to study Computer Engineering, especially because my love for making Hip Hop music was not because of business or money at that time. During this time with Courdek, I started to work with AOTA (Avenue of the Arts) Crew which was a great experience but eventually I moved on to create a new different group “Wild Life Refuge” with Jelts, Idolize The MC, and DJ Reflekshin. We did a bunch of shows in Arizona and also a few small tours through California, Nevada, Colorado, Texas and more. During that time I also made it official and established my record label business Earsweat Records LLC. Soon after that I released my first solo project the “Day Birth” EP which was considered by many to be a local classic. My next project release after that was the full length “Human Block” album produced entirely by Jelts. You can find both of these projects on all music platforms so give them a couple spins!
The next couple years Idolize The MC and I inherited a Tuesday night weekly Hip Hop event that we called “Gallery Blu re:DEF” located at Stray Cat Bar & Grill in Tempe, Arizona. We did that for almost 3 years and then moved the weekly event down the street to Big Fish Pub where we ran it for almost another year. During that time Idolize and I also had a group called “Galactic Basic” and we released an album called “Base It On Basic” that was entirely produced by Mute. We had our album release party at the legendary “Blunt Club” and it was greatly received. The funny thing is at the time I thought running a weekly Hip Hop night would help me grow my record label business and fanbase, but I was not really running it like a business and honestly it ended up taking away focus / energy / time from creating and releasing more music, which was the whole reason I was doing the weekly event in the first place. I did get to meet tons of people and make so many great friends, but I also learned a lot of valuable lessons from the whole experience.
We also released two Earsweat Records label compilation albums, if you listen check out “Earsweat Drops” and “Traffic Jams” on any music platform which both highlight some amazing artists I was working with at the time. Eventually I realized that it was completely better to put the artist and artist name in the forefront and Earsweat was just a background platform / label to help them expand to new audiences and support / resources that artists need. We have done a ton of great shows including a couple at Arizona State University (ASU) and have done pretty well as a business over the years, but I also work full time as a Software Engineer so it can be difficult to juggle so many different things and keep the momentum going consistently. But making music is one of the things I love most and get so much joy and fulfillment from that I will never stop doing it. Overall it has definitely been a continuous work in progress and I am still learning to this day, but I am very excited for our upcoming new releases and more in the future.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
I first started making music when I was 15 years old and I am still making music today over 20 years later. For me it’s not a singular event that illustrates my resilience, but more just the longevity of my overall career and existence. There have been times when I was more active and other times when I was not as active, but I try to mainly focus on consistent work effort and overall longevity. I truly love every part of the process of making music and even after over 20 years I am still always learning and trying new things. I feel a sort of void and almost lost when I am not working on music, so being a creative artist is something that gives me great enjoyment and fulfillment. Of course there have been many difficult times over the years, but never once have I really ever thought about quitting because making music has always been a huge part of my life and who I am as a person. So my main message to the readers out there is to keep pushing and working towards your goals everyday and never give up on your dreams / aspirations!
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
For my company Earsweat Records LLC and myself it has always mainly been about having a creative outlet and trying to create thought provoking creative innovative music / art, plus trying to be a positive force for good in this world. For a long time I did not really approach it as a business because I cared so much more about creation of the art. I am still very focused on trying to create the best art that I can, but now I am also focused on building up the business side of things so my business can continue to grow and keep doing bigger and better things every year. It has never really been about making money to me, but also that’s business and to be successful you really have to figure out how to monetize every possible thing. It is a constantly evolving process but I am very excited for my upcoming new album release and also our upcoming “Eighty Two” group debut album as well. Lastly I am very excited about continuing to build the Earsweat brand with regular new merchandise collections and other products we will be releasing going forward. So just a reminder we are currently having a sale in our online store and if you use the discount code SPRINGSALE you will get 25% off of your order! Also we will be regularly updating the store with new items so check back often! Please feel free to reach out to me with questions / comments / or opportunities, I look forward to hearing from you. Thank you all for taking the time to read this and you can help make a big difference by listening to our music on your favorite music platform and sharing our music with your friends and family whenever you can thanks again! I also want to give a HUGE shout out to ALL of the Arizona Hip Hop community, we are stupid fresh and I have mad love for everyone in AZ doing their thing BIG UPS!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://earsweat.myshopify.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rashenal/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rashenal/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/rashenal/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/earsweat
- Other: https://www.earsweat.com/
Image Credits
Photos 01 “Day Birth” cover by Jelts https://www.instagram.com/