"Dark City Lights"
Last year, Asbury Park's Bulletproof Belv (aka, James Anderson) released 11:11 Wishful Thinking. That collection gave us single "Dark City Lights" featuring Matty Carlock. The song paints a picture of both the daily struggles and the carefree nightlife of living in the city. It's, ultimately, a message of perseverance in the face of everything that life can throw at you. Today, we're sharing a new video for the duo's live, in-studio performance of "Dark City Lights." This take transforms the song into a moving piano ballad.
I sat down at Abury Park's Cafe Volan for a chat with Belv and Carlock. We had a wide-ranging discussion over coffee about each artist's background and what led them to collaborate on a single. Matty was preparing to head out on a short Canadian tour, and both he and Belv are readying new albums. Carlock's Jailbirds, featuring guest appearances from Jared Hart, Danny Clinch, and Jesse Malin, is due early next year; while Bulletproof Belv has already given us "Every Night" from his upcoming end-of-year release. Another collaboration, "F Being Friends," is also in the works.
Check out the live version of "Dark City Lights" right here. After that, read on for my interview with the duo below.
Belv and Carlock will be joining The Cold Seas ft. Drew The Recluse and Sonic Blume at Asbury Park Yacht Club on November 16th as part of the Makin Waves Hunger Benefit for Food for Thought.
Just to start off, you've both done so many different things. Matty, you were a hardcore frontman and have evolved into a singer / songwriter. Belv, you've released a lot of music and had some pretty big-time collaborations. But, going back, what made you want to do music?
Matty Carlock: My parents raised me in a Springsteen religious household. I grew up around Backstreets and Born To Run and the whole cheesy Asbury Park, Red Bank thing. My mom used to follow Springsteen's tours. My dad even looks like Springsteen.
I just grew up always with a guitar. It was a blessing to be around that at 5 or 6. My grandpa would play piano in the house. My older cousin got me into hardcore. He showed me Shai Hulud and bands like that. So I got exposed to Springsteen and hardcore at the same time.
Bulletproof Belv: I was raised in the church. My mom made us do choir. I think, in my own eyes, I was the lead singer in the choir. I just found a love of music since then — Michael Jackson, a lot of R&B — the love of music was always there. It was instilled in me since I was a child. I always wanted to be an entertainer. Every event, Thanksgiving or whatever, I always had to do something to get everyone to watch me. I knew what I wanted to be since I was a child.
So, you were the center of attention at family events?
BB: Well, I thought I was.
How did this collaboration come about?
MC: Through my hardcore travels I linked up, when I was younger, with my friend Joe None of Second To None and Shattered Realm. He tapped my band and brought us out on the road. Belv had been on a Shattered Realm song, and we knew of him for a long time without knowing him.
I was always interested in hip-hop, like an Eminem kid. I've always wanted to try that. I always made beats. Joe would always talk about "My friend James, my friend James." I had this beat pack with all these hooks that I did, and I reached out to people including Belv. The one beat that ended up being "Dark City Lights" just locked in.
BB: Like he said, we met through Joe None. I went to college. Got kicked out. My mom was like, "You gotta get a job. You can't just sit around the house." I hooked up with Joe at a job. We had the same kind of lifestyle outside of work. He mentioned this friend he had, and I told him to email me.
At the time, a lot of tragic stuff happened in my life; and we didn't get to work together. Like six months to a year later, Matty reached out again about the beat. I told him to send it right over. Then, I think, we were both at the same place mentally and spiritually; and this song was just our way of letting it out.
MC: Now that I think about it, I was upstate following a really bad break-up. I went to the Poconos to record the Jailbirds album which is coming out now. It was like a folk / Americana / rock album. That style of music just wasn't fulfilling at that time. I was like, "I don't want to listen to guitars. I don't want to listen to pianos. I don't want to listen to Springsteen. I want to listen to angry rap / hip-hop." So I was listening to a lot of Schoolboy Q, a lot of Biggie because it was making me feel better. I was like, "I don't want to make this Jailbirds album right now. This is for people who are in love. And I just got dumped."
That's when I reached out to Belv. That's when we made "Dark City Lights." I think he was going through some stuff, too, and that's why it came out the way it did.
The two parts of the song play off of each other so well. The hook sounds happy and carefree. There's a positivity to the verses, but there's also the day-to-day struggle of living in the city. How did you guys write the song?
BB: On my part of the song — I think through 6 albums or mixtapes or whatever, I've always tried to say the same thing. This was the first time, I think, I said it in a way that every listener could be like, "Oh let me listen to it." All of the other times, it was vulgar with a lot of cursing and stuff.
It was a build up. I was going through some tragic things. Like, I went to a show. I was performing. I met an A&R rep, and they were interested in me based on my single "My Operation," but then two of my brothers were injured in a fight at this event and hospitalized. I was going through a break-up. My dad passed. My friend died in his sleep. Somehow, I was strong enough to live through it. I would have thought it would have killed me, the pain inside. I wanted to put that in the track. All this stuff you go through, at the end of the day, you still live through it.
I overwrote every verse. He told me, "There are too many bars!" There was so much stuff coming out. He sent me the beat, and I literally wrote it in 30 minutes. I called him and said, "I'm done." He said, "What?" I said, "I'm done."
I wanted to get those emotions out. It's about feeling. Like the lyric "Tell your girl you love her / Hope she feels the same." She might not say it back to you, but you hope she feels it. Music is the way I let that out. When he sent me that, I was like, "Oh my God. This is my chance to release everything. Let me say it in the most humble way."
MC: And the hook sounds so carefree because that song used to be called "London." I wrote that staring at the London Eye while on tour with Shai Hulud. A massive sold-out tour. I wrote that at the most carefree point in my life. So, when I came home, I sent him "London."
BB: And I'm not a fictional rapper. I'm a realistic writer. I have to have been through something to talk about it, so I was like, "We have to change the London thing. I've never been to London."
MC: So we decided to make it an anthem about where we're from.
BB: "Dark City Lights."
Asbury has — and I've been as much a part of this as anybody — kind of marketed itself as a rock and roll town, but there is an active rap and hip-hop scene around the area. Do you feel like the different music scenes are becoming more aware of each other?
BB: I just booked a record release show at Asbury Park Yacht Club in November; and, since the song came out, more stuff like that has been happening. I don't want to say that "Dark City Lights" started that, but it does show that it's possible to reach new people.
You're both from the area, and you've seen the changes Asbury is going through. What are your thoughts on that?
MC: My bands cut our teeth here in Asbury years ago before all the re-development. We were here when things looked pretty bad for Asbury…
BB: I'm from Asbury Park. I'm kinda sad that this took so long. I was deprived of a normal childhood, of being able to walk from my house to the beach. My brother and I were shot over on Bangs Avenue…
MC: …just like two blocks from here.
BB: There's good and bad, but the city deserves to have some success.
What do you say to people who say things like, "I like all kinds of music except country and rap?"
MC: I say they're probably not that into music. I like all kinds of music. Like I said, I didn't want to listen to folk or Americana after my break-up. I went to Belv and told him not to hold anything back on this song.
BB: I think, if you listen to a song that features someone like me, and you like it, you'll start digging and realize, whoa, that's a hip hop artist. To each their own, but people have the same problems. There are different issues on the different sides of the tracks, but people still deal with problems; and that's the same.
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