[audio:http://www.wdde.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/High-Elders.mp3|titles=Delaware Public Media's Cathy Carter interviews Wilmington-based MC Gentle Jones.]
Living on opposite sides of the world wasn't a barrier for a Delaware MC and a producer from Ireland when it came to creating their new project.
The duo High Elders, say the world is a lot smaller thanks to the internet and that’s how Wilmington’s Gentle Jones and Carlow, Ireland’s Auxiliary Phoenix were able to craft their new 11-track digital download and cassette, "Forest of Pencils.”
Gentle Jones is the stage name of First State native Bill Ferrell, a network technician for the Delaware Division of Libraries. His tech savvy skills were developed as a teenage musician who wanted to learn how to release his music over the internet.
Since then, he’s dabbled in punk rock and fronted a popular ska band but his true musical passion is hip hop.
“Well it’s absolutely hip hop if you look at the format; the fact that I do rap and that I consider myself to be an emcee,” he says. “Further than that, I would say the music is experimental,” he adds. “I do try to look forward where music is going and I don’t put much stock in what’s happening on the Top 40 because it tends to be trendy and it comes and goes. If you want to make something that is going to last you’ve kind of got to be blind to the fashions and be forward thinking.”
Gentle Jones has released ten albums since he began recording music on a four track tape recorder as a teenager. He’s been involved in Delaware’s music scene for years and is a bit of historian when it comes to the state’s hip hop past.
“Delaware’s hip hop history goes all the way back to the beginning,” says Jones. “It goes all the way back to what they call the golden age, way before anyone that I know was actively recording music around here, and then people started releasing albums in the 80’s. You saw vinyl records come out from guys like Disco Beave, Doc D and Cut Wiz, Grand G with Project X and Cage One from Newark. These records were discovered much later by the international community and they stand head and shoulders above a lot that came out at their time and they were equal to their contemporaries.”
Delaware’s hip hop pedigree may not be as recognized as better known music scenes in Philadelphia or New York City but Jones says some of those early First State pioneers are appreciated around the world.
“The international crate digging community has a certain taste that leans towards a very traditional hip hop sound and with Delaware being just a short trip from New York City and Philly and Baltimore; we’ve been in the thick of it the entire time,” he notes. “Artists like Run DMC and Biz Markie performed a lot in the early days in Wilmington. Delaware’s hip hop roots go all the way back to the beginning.”
With an eye to the past but a desire to expand the genre’s boundaries, Gentle Jones found a like-minded partner in producer Auxiliary Phoenix to form High Elders. For their 11-track album “Forest of Pencils,” the producer would create the beats and cuts and then send the files to Gentle Jones.
“Then what I would do is burn a CD of the music and ride around in the car,” says Jones. “That’s where I do most of my writing,” he adds. “It probably looks like I’m talking to myself up and down Route One, but I have found that the most rewarding writing that I’ve done has not been with an idea that I’ve been sitting on germinating, waiting for a place to put it, but rather it’s when I’m listening to music and I’m in the moment and there’s a seed of something that inspires or delights me.”
This piece is made possible, in part, by a grant from the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency dedicated to nurturing and supporting the arts in Delaware, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts.