Living The #FreeLife With The Bixel Boys

Posted by on May 26, 2014

bixel boys

Two Fridays ago in New York it monsooned. Not your average everyday, downpour with the occasional flash of lightning, but a serious cloth soaking, 100% humidity state of affairs that created deceptive “puddles” that would envelop your entire lower leg up to your knee. Despite this and a 4 hour flight delay because of it, The Bixel Boys got to Webster Hall to play alongside the big man himself (he is actually a rather tall and imposing figure), Tchami.

So me hoarse from yelling over the music and a busted voice from a week of tough allergies and a cold, managed to get out some ridiculous questions to the guys and they gave me some great answers with Tchami “Untrue” blaring in the background.

FNT: Who do you want to see in a Freelife jersey?

Rob: Lebron James
Ian: Michael Jordan

FNT: What about females?

Ian: Natalie Portman
Rob: You fucker!

Ian: Wait, wait, wait, scratch Natalie Portman, Kate Mara.
Rob: Wait for it…. Hilary Clinton.

FNT: Power Move

Rob: Get it, get it.

FNT: Which person best defines the #Freelife?

Ian: Lance Armstrong before the scandal
Rob: That’s pretty good.
Ian: That’s nailing it, if he didn’t blood dope, he would be the Freelife.
Rob: I would agree with that.
Ian: Or Usain Bolt. Usain Bolt is pretty Freelife.

FNT: You agree with that (looking at Rob)?

Rob: I agree with that.

FNT: Who is better at sports?

Rob: This guy.

Ian: This is still to be debated. We were supposed to play in a basketball tournament, but our flight got delayed going Miami so I talk a big game.

Rob: I’ve got a decent jump shot, but Ian is a more finesse player.

FNT: What about the YMCA game?

Ian: The YMCA game in middle school was all me man.

Rob: Ian can probably dribble better than me, but I am a pretty good shooter.

I would venture to say that I am that short white asian kid with handles. I have crazy handles, which is tight. Jump shot is alright, but don’t give me the lane. Don’t give me my right and don’t give me my baseline.

FNT: Ian, why do you have a cupcake on your elbow?

Ian: Oh shit haha. I got that tattoo because my friend in Chicago was getting AK-47s tattooed on him and I thought it was ridiculous and he’s not hard. So I was just like, I am going to get a cupcake and now the tattoo guys are going to have to tell the story of how I had to tattoo this guy with AK-47s and then his friend came in and got a cupcake on his elbow. I don’t know man, I’m soft, I like cupcakes.

FNT: You have a lot of tattoos…

Ian: Yea I like cupcakes. I like spontaneous stuff. So I got the cupcake tattoo. It was in Chicago.

FNT: Why did you name yourselves the Bixel Boys?

Ian: Bixel is a really nondescript street in Los Angeles that runs from Silver Lake Park to the 10 and it is a pretty good representation of what LA really is. It goes from cool to hood to the freeway in a really fucking short gaps. It doesn’t run on the freeway, it’s a short ass street. I used to live on it, I used to work on it, Rob knows where it is. It was just one of those things where it is a pretty good description on Los Angeles. You can run the gamut of Los Angeles on this street within probably a mile and a half.

FNT: Are you cool and hood?

Bixel Boys: Well its like we will play cool guy indie funk shit, some super ratchet, hood shit and then some freeway drivetime music style. We’ll get around, it’s all good.

FNT: Do you think you have made big room underground?

Ian: Yes and no. Yes I feel like we are the first ones to put the name on it. Tracks have been there but have been reluctant to attach the name to it. I think the term big room is a term people don’t like to use and is something that we just take very literally. It’s something that is bigger than 300 cap [capacity] so why not call it that. So like who cares, we make music that’s what matters.

FNT: What is something people might not expect about you?

Ian: Rob is the Justin Timberlake of this motherfuckin’ group. He cleans up dude. We are going to start dubbing him Hot Rob because is cleaning up, cleaning up!

FNT: In the past week how did he do?

Ian: in the past week you want to talk about? In the past week did did really well.

Rob: Something people don’t know about Ian. Something that people don’t know about Ian that should is that he a branding and marketing wizard. Without the logo, without the #Freelife, the shirts, we would only be halfway to where we are now. It is a mutual thing between us. People don’t realize how much work he puts into the logo design and the process behind the group.

FNT: I thought that was Will [their manager]

Rob: No Will doesn’t do anything. ::Everyone laughs::

Ian: Fucking Will.

Rob: You can quote that.

Ian: Bold that in the interview, italicize and underline.

Rob: Will doesn’t do shit.

Ian: But we love him.

FNT: What do you have coming up?

Ian: We have a tour in Australia, we have a new EP coming out in late June.

FNT: How many songs?

Ian: Two song EP. We have another song coming around right now, a lot of originals on deck and Australian tour and a few more festival. Also we are playing a very large festival in Los Angeles that I am not allowed to say yet that rhymes with Pard Fummer.

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