Alaska Redd

Alaska Redd Is Tapping Into Other Markets To Grow His Brand

“By playing shows in smaller markets and making sure I promote with street teams in the different markets I plan on touring in.”

Check out the interview with Alaska Redd exclusively on Skilly Magazine Online.

Skilly: How were you able to start your journey in the entertainment business? Where did this all start?
Alaska Redd: I was raised in a home full of musicians which led to my love and passion for music. I started off in hip hop by b-boying and break dancing in the late 80’s. I later started perfecting my craft of freestyling and hooked up with a local record label in Fairbanks, AK by the name of 50 Belo Records back in 1998 which started me on my path to writing and recording.

What are some of the creative ways you use to promote your music?
Social media of course, but I also make it a point to do grass roots marketing as well. I hit the pavement and get in the people’s face. By playing shows in smaller markets and making sure I promote with street teams in the different markets I plan on touring in. As much word of mouth as I can get generated.

What is the greatest challenge you face in today’s entertainment business? How do you overcome them?
Some of the biggest challenges I face is my location. It makes it much more difficult to travel and tour. Just the logistics of getting out of Alaska can be bit much. Also I’m in a small market that’s not to supportive of the hip hop scene which in turn makes it difficult to book local gigs.

How is the music scene like in your hometown? What do you like about it and what don’t you like?
Logistically we are so far away from the lower 48 states touring becomes a difficult and an expensive task. Also, the smaller good ole boy feel of the smaller towns in Alaska makes it more difficult to book a show as most venues only cater to country or bluegrass. They’re slowly coming around and starting to see the benefits in the music though.

Where do you think the future of music is going to be? How do you feel artists can be more a part of it?
Digital. It’s already happened and happening. It’s crucial for artists nowadays to tap into all these great resources that are readily available to all of us. It just takes time figuring out what ones to peruse and what ones to weed out. There’s so much available now it can become a bit overwhelming if you don’t know exactly what you’re trying to do or looking for.

What advice can you give to other upcoming artists and musicians trying to achieve success?
Stay vigilant and stay focused. Take pride in the product and projects you put out. Take advantage of all of the opportunity that comes your way. They maybe few and far between.

What inspires you to write your next song?
I get my inspiration from a vast platform. Life in general, whether it be my children or social issues in society. It might have been something that happened on a certain day that I just want to go back and reflect on. Could be from a loss or it may be from something great that has happened or may happen. I try and pull my ideas from the energy around me.

What are the steps you take to make a song?
Idea, production, or beat that I’ll write to. Then structuring of the hook or chorus to give it the right vibe. Then I start filling in the verses or reaching out to other artists I may feel will work on the project. We write, we rehearse, and then we get in my studio and lay the vocals.

What do you think makes a great song?
Feeling. What I mean by that is the feeling you or your listeners get from an individual song. If I get goose bumps every time I hear a certain verse, I know it’s powerful. If a song about loss of a loved one is making your fans come to tears like it did to you while making it, chances are you have yourself a great song. It’s a feeling or vibe it gives people.

Where can we connect with you? Can you give us your social media links and where we can contact you?
Official website: www.AlaskaRedd.com
Soundcloud: www.soundcloud.com/redddott
YouTube: www.youtube.com/AlaskaRedd907
Facebook: AlaskaRedd
Twitter: @AlaskaRedd
Instagram: @AlaskaRedd - Mina Kirani

FAIRBANKS — The Fairbanks rapper known as Alaska Redd has been crafting beats and rhythms in the Interior for more than 15 years.

Redd bought his first drum machine and synthesizer when this kind of equipment was hard to find. He operated and later downsized a recording studio and he is now in the midst of something he’s never done before, a statewide tour.

On stage Redd, 34, whose real name is Josh Silva, wears his long red hair in braids, has a long goatee and wears an Alaska-shaped medallion around his neck with the 907 area code on it. He performs songs with beats designed to get audiences moving and lyrics filled with wordplay, profanity and Interior references

Silva lives with his wife, two teenage sons, two elementary-school-aged stepsons and dog at a house with a recording studio in the University West neighborhood. At an interview in the studio last week Silva wore a T-shirt from his On My Grizzly Tour, but not the 907 medallion or the braids. He laughs easily and speaks remarkably slowly for someone who knows how to spit out dozens of lyrics in a few seconds.

“This is what I’m about,” he said. “Spreading Alaskan hip hop and Alaskan music. It’s a music I want to bring to the rest of the world”

He’s busy with new projects to accomplish this goal. There’s the tour, his next album — tentatively titled “Snow Suits and Bunny Boots” — and his first music video, which just came out.

The video, which is on YouTube, is to Silva’s song “Lyrical Stick up” with fellow Fairbanks rapper Rio (Jamario Hewins). Fairbanks residents will recognize all kinds of local landmarks in the video. It starts with a closeup of the plaque on the Golden Heart Plaza fountain and goes on to feature Silva and Hewins strutting their stuff at locations including the Midnight Mine bar, the outside of the Yukon Quest cabin and at the downtown parking garage.

The song is about Silva and Rio showing off their rapping skills and challenging other rappers. But while he likes to trash talk in his songs, as a promoter and organizer Silva is all about giving credit to fellow hip-hop artists and growing the popularity of Alaska hip-hop. Silva has recorded six albums under his name, but for the past two years he’s been more involved making a series of eight mixed tapes — albums that feature a combination of local artists and out-of state talent.

Alaska hip-hop has a lot of potential because people in the Lower 48 are curious about the the 49th state, he said. Silva has gotten lyrics about 50 below weather and the midnight sun into his songs. He’s has been meaning to get in a line about Alaska’s previous governor.

He’s also trying to build some regional brand identify.

“I rep(resent) my city, my state, I’m from the great Northwest” he raps in “Northwest Connection,” a song like “Lyrical Stick Up” on his recent mixed tape “The Smokalation.” That song also is a chance for Silva to talk about the less glamorous and bittersweet side of music promotion:

“Nobody knows the real work behind a small man’s trade/Politics and making connections, straight grinding for days./All the funds you put and won’t never get back /just to put a CD out and put your city on the map.’”

’90s hip-hop scene

Silva has a grandmother who sang opera in San Fransisco and a father who had a rock band that played in bars and had jam sessions at home.

But Silva’s introduction to hip-hop music came not from his family from but from doing break-dancing moves. As an elementary school student in Spokane, Wash., Silva first got into break dancing, then beat-boxing. Learning to emcee came after his family moved to Alaska in search of better-paying roofing jobs for his step-father.

Fairbanks had a minimal hip-hop scene when Silva was going to West Valley High School in the mid ’90s, but he found himself improvising short raps with friends. Before long he was doing impromptu hour-long free-style sessions at house parties.

That led to an introduction to 50 Below records, a group of early Fairbanks rappers led by former Ryan Middle School teacher Brad Johnson. Some of them were going to Los Angeles to record, and Silva was almost seduced by promises of wealth and fame in Southern California. But at 18, Silva had become a father and the move did not make sense.

Silva wanted to keep rapping in Fairbanks, but when his friends at 50 below left for California he needed to create beats to rap to himself. He still writes most of his songs by finding beats he likes and then finding words that go with them. He began ordering equipment through local music stores and catalogues, working as a roofer to pay for the gear.

In 2002 he rented a downtown storefront to open Redd Dot Studios The business was a sucess for a short while when it was still a novelty and when there was no competition, he said.

“Every dude in town who wanted to be a rapper or thought they were a singer came to my studio,” he said. “But people start finding out how serious they are about their music when they start paying for it. ... I found out after about 5 years in the business, it’s not the biggest cash cow in Fairbanks.”

Silva still operates Redd Dot out of his home studio but does not spend nearly as much time with the studio side of his business as he used to.

Alaska hip rock

Hip-hop has a bad reputation in Fairbanks — for being associated with violence — Silva does not think is deserves.

In his experience, a rock concert at the Blue Loon is likely to result in a few fist fights. Not his shows, he said. The only fight he knows about at one of his shows was melee between teenage girls at an all-ages show for Kansas City rapper Tech N9ne.

As for the themes of his music it’s not exactly kid-friendly, but it tends to be light spirited, he said. Especially in live shows, he performs mostly up-tempo songs about drinking, getting high, sex and generally having a good time.

“We’re not out here thugging, so we don’t really talk about that,” he said. “We talk about partying and having fun.”

One way he’s trying to introduce hip-hop to audiences who would otherwise have a closed mind to the genre is using a live band, an approach he calls Alaska hip rock.

On this tour he’s starting his songs with a conventional electronic beat for the first few songs and then adds in the live drum set, guitar and base. “It’s heavier, it’s grittier. It’s all played live and we’ve got the DJ scratching and throwing samples in there,” he said. “It’s really amped up.”

Silva’s tour stared with a show in Barrow last month, and next weekend heads south for shows in Wasilla and Juneau. - Sam Friedman

FAIRBANKS — While local rapper Alaska Redd won’t be the main attraction at tonight’s Blue Loon concert, it will the biggest stage he’s shared.

“I’ve performed with some very big names, but I’d have to say (Snoop Dogg) is the biggest performer I have ever worked with,” Alaska Redd, real name Josh Silva, said in a recent interview.

Silva is excited for the chance, not just to open for one of the world’s preeminent rappers, but to share music off his long-time-coming CD, “Trapped In The Land Of The Frozen.” The album, which Silva said took three years to create, features guest raps from the likes of E-40, Tech N9NE, Kutt Kalhoun, and many others.

“I worked with a couple guys I was really inspired by growing up and I ended up getting them here for shows,” he said. “I was fortunate enough when they were in the area to get them to the studio. What took the long part of the haul in getting this out was that I wanted to get all these feature artists together. I wanted it to be a very well-rounded album, something people wouldn’t expect coming out of Fairbanks.”

Indeed, the album’s bulging 19 original tracks speak of Silva’s Alaska experiences and lifestyle in a land of extremes. Right off the bat, Silva speaks of daunting 40 below weather and close encounters with Alaska’s notoriously tough troopers (he got off with a warning).

“You have to be here and appreciate it to know what it’s about,” he said. “It’s basically life experiences. I do some storytelling style of songs and try to get visual, but for the most part I ... try to keep it as honest and real of what I do and what I’ve been through.

“That’s what I’m trying to do as far as getting myself out there to the Lower 48,” he continued. “I want to keep that aspect of Alaska strong. I want to bring that Alaska edge to my music because people don’t know. A lot of people are like, ‘You all live in igloos?’’ I get those kinds of questions. It’s cool to express what’s going on in our market through the music.”

The album is a blend of styles, from party and club tracks to hard-hitting gangsta raps. There are also some easy-flowing freestyle moments along with “sentimental music that’s heartfelt and the average laid-back trying-to-have-a-good-time kind of music too,” he said.

All of the music was composed by Silva at his home Red Dott Studios — where he works on his stuff and helps produce other local musicians. Much of the music is the result of experimentation and, maybe, a little luck.

“I tinker around with making beats. We try different things, mess around with background music and beats and sometimes it comes out great and you run with it, and sometimes it don’t and you move on,” he laughed. “I wanted to take my time and put some serious mixing on it and make sure I came out with a solid product.”

At the concert, Silva said, he won’t do any mixing but will rap over background tracks with a couple guys providing back-ups and double-ups. He expects the set to be about half an hour.

And does he someday hope for a little of the fame and fortune of tonight’s headliner?

“Without the prison part, I’m hoping for the same,” he said, but, “this is my home, what I represent and what I bring to the world. That’s my angle, to get the rest of the world turned on to what we are doing. There is a lot of talent right here.”

Contact features editor Glenn BurnSilver at 459-7510.

IF YOU GO

What: Alaska Redd, opening for Snoop Dogg

When: 6 p.m. doors, tonight

Where: The Blue Loon, 2999 Parks Highway

Tickets: $60, $120 VIP

Information: 457-5666 - Glenn BurnSilver