New Album, Still Ageless

NYC-based electro hip-hop soul producer Wes Paioff, a.k.a. Ageless, is back at it, following up his 2015 Fortified EP with a lengthier, more complete effort in his new album, Perfect World. Perfect World marks the 5th solo Ageless album since 2013’s Broken Inventions, Paoiff’s first official release, back when he first joined up with Kansas City-based label Philos Records. All the funky grooves, soulful crooning and rugged hip-hop samples fans are familiar with are accounted for; songs like “From Here to Senegal” will take you from nodding your head and bouncing your shoulders to feeling the raw emotion of the sad soul lyrics. That’s where Paioff separates himself from the pack of other artists in the new and ever-growing genre, his ability to eloquently maneuver and arrange his samples in a way that allows individual tracks to roam the full spectrum of emotion.

I got to sit down and talk with Wes on Tuesday; we talked about the album, what he’s been up to, and whom he would choose to be the wordsmith for Ageless beats, among other things.

In your artist bio on the Philos Records website, it says you come from three generations of musicians. Was there anyone in particular in your family who really inspired you to pursue music? What kind of role did music play for you growing up?

Yeah, kind of just being around it; no one was like a big name musician or anything, but I come from… my uncle is a professional, he plays traditional Russian music, my heritage is Russian, my grandfather also played violin in an orchestra, mostly orchestra performers going back three generations. Not like contemporary music that influenced me directly, but I think just being around musicians definitely sparked my interest for music.

So it sounds like music played a big role for you growing up then?

Yeah, for sure, just listening, like when I started listening to my own music and started checking out new hip-hop in the late ’90s was really influential for me; that’s when I started having ideas to make my own music, just from listening to radio and starting to go to shows.

Being a New York City resident, what’s your favorite music venue in the city?

Music venues? I like… there’s a lot of nice old venues that have been around for a long time, like Hammerstein Ballroom; I like Bowery Ballroom, played one of my first shows there (opened for Break Science and Paul Basic). That was a sold-out show; it was one of my first shows as a producer, so it was kind of overwhelming, but it’s just an amazing venue. It was packed, it was a great night, I’ll always have a special place in my heart for it. I’ve been playing recently at this place, American Beauty; it’s also known as Slake depending on what day. Anyway, that’s a great venue; I’m playing there September 22nd for the third time. That’s a great spot; that’s one of my new spots that I love.

With the show coming up on the 22nd, should we be expecting a tour for the new album anytime soon?

I’m not putting together a full tour for this album; I’m just laying back and working on more music, to be honest. I’m definitely going to be playing most of the album that night, and I do have a few other dates coming up, a few random dates here and there, so I’ll be around, and I’ll definitely be playing a lot of the new stuff.

When the album came out, you said that this project had been born out of the concept of universal balance. Can you tell me a little more about where you were when you were making this album and how that concept affected the creative process?

I think in general everyone goes through ups and downs, and I think that music can be a great reflection of both sides of the coin; there’s music that’s uplifting, there’s also music that is darker and speaks to someone who’s going through a hard time a little more directly. I like to blend both of those aspects into individual songs and bring a level of duality to everything, because life is never just one-sided, so I feel like music is just a reflection of that, and there’s a lot of music out there that’s very happy or very positive, or very negative, or just one thing, but I think it’s more representative of life really, if you have both. So I’ll have a happy, kind of funky sample, then I’ll also drop into a darker electronic bass-heavy section, and I think that balance between the two is, for me, what keeps the music interesting. Beyond my music, that’s what I like to listen to, too, is kind of full music that hits both sides of it. When I was writing the album, I was definitely going through hard times, a few family problems, you know, stuff like that, everyday struggles, but also trying to keep a positive mind with everything and knowing that it all balances out in the end, and that’s kind of the concept of the album. In Perfect World, no matter how bad things are, the universal forces kind of keep things balanced.

Last year, you said that is was important to go and experience other parts of life on top of music. How has that been going?

It’s not exactly easy. I think people, especially now in the music scene, can’t just drop out of the scene for awhile. You have to always to be working on something new or working towards something new, and I think that can be overwhelming, and what can happen is, what I’ve seen, is people oversaturate themselves; maybe they put out too much music or lose inspiration after a while, and I think it’s important to take a few days off and just do something that inspires you, then come back to the music. So I’m trying to do that, but it’s also kind of an obsession.

You also mentioned online that this album was a blend of different genres, including reggae and Latin, “rooted in world music.” Was that the plan going into the studio?

Yeah, definitely. In general I’m always drawn to American soul and funk, classic ’70s funk and stuff, but I also love reggae music, and I also appreciate music from all around the world, so I sample what I can from different cultures and different styles. I’ve always been making soul and reggae beats, but I experimented with a few Latin funk tracks on this, which is cool and different, definitely a style I’m into, so bringing that and blending it with modern electronic beats, it’s definitely different; it’s definitely fun to make.

One of my favorite songs off Perfect World is “Wide Brim Hat,” which opens with your classic hip-hop soul intro but breaks down into this chaotic wonky drop not heard on a lot of your other tracks. Is this kind of sound something we may be hearing more of in the future?

Yeah, that one was really influenced by original style dubstep, just heavy basses and panning, and meant to be listened to with sub-woofers on full blast, you know? But yeah, definitely looking to make more tracks like that, blending soul with dubstep and heavy bass tracks, something you don’t see too often.

Hip-hop is obviously a pillar of your music. Are there any new artists out there who have caught your ear in the last couple of years?

Man I gotta think hard about that. There’s a lot that have caught my ear for being terrible a lot (laughs). I mean, I like anyone who’s lyrically… anyone who focuses on wordplay and intelligent rhymes. It kind of makes me feel like an old man when I talk about it, to be honest. I don’t even get half the stuff that’s popular nowadays; I still listen to ’90s hip-hop all the time, old-school stuff, Nas and Dre; I just love that stuff; there’s not anyone new that’s impressing me too much.

Speaking of hip-hop, the new show on Netflix, “The Getdown,” focuses on the early days of the genre, focusing on the relationship between the MC and the DJ. With that in mind, if you could pick any rapper, alive or dead, to be the MC or wordsmith for Ageless beats, whom would it be?

Oh man. Okay, it has to be someone who gets the crowd hype, but also someone who can flow. Probably… probably Immortal Technique. I’ve seen him live so many times, and what I love about him is obviously he’s a great MC on records, but he just gets the crowd hype, too; he’s an old-school showman with the hip-hop shows, just making sure the crowds into it.

Being from New York, how did you get linked up with Kansas City-based label Philos Records?

Just through the internet, you know. I was approached by Jordan, the founder, to release an album with them in 2013, and we put together Broken Inventions, which was the first release on the label. It was brand new then, so he just hit me up; he’s from there, Missouri. Nowadays you don’t really need to be in the same city as the label; we’re all actually, all the artists are spread around the country, even in Europe and Canada too. We all just check in and chat online about what needs to be done and call each other. For the most part we’re all in different cities, but we still link for the albums and everything.

You do a lot of collaborations. On this album you did a song with labelmate Daily Bread, who also has a new album out, but in the past you’ve done a full length album with the duo SwAy. Is there a follow-up in the works?

Yeah, we actually started working on a new one that was kind of a totally different direction. I might play some of these tracks live. I have a three-track album from us, basically, but it’s… I don’t know, it went in a totally different direction. I’m not sure how people will really receive it, so we might get together to do an actual SwAygeless follow-up. But, for the record, there is one floating out there that is yet to be released. I love those dudes, though; we work great together; I love working with them.

I’ve seen your music described as future funk, and I’ve heard it described as electro hip-hop soul. Of the two, which do you feel represents your sound more accurately?

Electro hip-hop soul is more accurate, but nowadays it’s so hard to describe music that blends genres and really think of a term that represents it well, so I give people a link to my stuff and tell them they can listen and they can come up with the name of the genre and let me know, ’cause I don’t even know what to call it. I’d say that electro hip-hop soul name was probably invented by, like, Pretty Lights, and maybe GriZ, I don’t know, but I think a lot of people use those terms because that’s the closest thing to describe our music as, but I don’t know if it always does it justice.

In 2013, you released the album Off Course, But on Point. Now, most recently, you’ve dropped Perfect World. Does that kind of sum up what was going on then and what’s going on now for you?”

Huh. Yeah, I mean in a musical sense definitely, but really when you say it in the overall sense of life, yeah, it is reflective. You can hear it in the albums, too, I think. The new album’s a little more cohesive, but Off Course was kind of more experimenting a lot.

Perfect World and much more available for ‘name your price’ download here. Check it out!