After getting their first taste of tour with Vince Staples and Freddie Gibbs PNTHN is back for more and hit cities in the US that previously were untouched. I had the opportunity to ask them some questions about their sound, visuals, creative process, and more.
As your tour rounds out in California, how does it feel hitting spots in the US for the first time? Did touring with Vince Staples and Freddie Gibbs help set you up for a smooth-running tour?
Gulfwey – “It felt like we owned that shit. We just a group of twenty-something year-olds that literally put on a goddamn tour together.”
Kenny Casanova – “Ain’t nobody on our level doing this shit. I think it’s phenomenal we got less than 5k followers and are on our own national tour. We had some of the best openers too.”
dc4prez – “Next tour we gotta get more PNTHN solo sets tour. Certain tours gotta have Gun$mith Cats sets, Texas Taliban sets.”
Kenny – “That would be dope!”
Gulf – “I expected crowds for sure, but I was still surprised to see that all those people came to see us.”
Tony Tone – “I really appreciated getting to perform for the people who have waited years to see us because of where they live. Seeing those fans react was inspiring as fuck.”
Joe – “Tour has been cool but it’s just the beginning of the end. This has been prophecized.”
Who does your cover art for your singles/albums? What has been the main inspiration for creating your image? (music albums, tv, movies, fashion, etc)
Kenny – “S/O K3ltron, she’s the main artistic director as far as singles and covers, she shoots VHS too, she designs the fuck outta everything.”
K3ltron – “Mostly I draw a lot of inspiration from what everyone in the group is talking about and the media we’re consuming. The group looks and finds inspiration from the music, and I try to do so visually. I have synesthesia so what works for the group audio-wise, works for me visually. The process is similar, and I love having everyone’s feedback. For my personal style, I like things to be crispy, defined, even things that look distressed — I want them to be all there. And for the group, I feel like I’m a conduit for everyone’s visual ideas and pull the energy from each person.”
Kenny – “And the inspiration for our image is just us being ourselves. That’s what makes the cohesiveness of the collective, we’re one group but everyone got a mind, and we’re okay with everyone having that.”
Gulf – “We really just filled with bullshit, I don’t even know. The internet? Anime? Gangbanging, drug dealing, DMT, kickboxing, Kung Fu”
Kenny – ”Muy Thai, cars, Digimon”
Gulfwey – “Women’s equality, the fight for our rights”
Kenny – “The circumstances of being in the North American Wasteland”
Gulf – “Honestly yeah that’s the biggest inspiration. Oh, and Afrofuturism.”
If everyone got together for one last meal, what would be PNTHN’s “Last Supper” be?
(Brent Fayaiz – Let Me Know playing in the background)
twohorizonra – “Ima need the most fire catfish known to man. I need ribs that as soon as you grab the bone it’s gone them shits that don’t even stick. I need a lemon too. And unlimited sprite.”
Kenny Casanova – “Jerk chicken wings with the green curry and sweet plantains. With some Henny and piña colada, three ice cubes. Make sure the drink got the fire on the rim so whatever you need to get that shit popping. I need all that food sparkling like in an anime. Remember when they went to volcano island in the pokémon movie?
Gulfwey – “BBQ eel with three whole lobsters.”
twohorizonra – “Add some calamari for all of us.”
Gulfwey – “Add some scallops and some pasta with a white wine sauce.”
twohorizonra – “Ima need some bread and olive oil too. and peach faygo.”
Gulfwey – “Give me some augua fresca too. The melon one”
Tony Tone – “I just want some pussy.”
dc4prez – “I need some fuckin Thai green curry with the steamed fried rice. And I’m drinking some taro smoothie bubble tea.”
Trevon Tex – “Challah bread and biscuits and gravy. Ima be thirsty as fuck! Aye Kenny can get some water.”
Building the PNTHN brand of nitty-gritty “boneless” rap through visuals and sounds for you guys seems natural and built-in. Other than real-life connections and hard ass beats, how else does PNTHN connect with other rappers and artists, their fans, and each other?
(Beyoncé – Party playing in the background)
Kenny – “To be real there was a point in time we didn’t wanna work with anyone. But showing mutual support and being real in real life is how it works. It’s nothing different from that.
Trevon Tex – “Going out to other artist’s events and sets, showing love to one another, people can separate the fake from the real. We genuinely like these artists just like people genuinely like ours.”
twohorizonra – “I love that, that’s so beautiful. That’s really it – nitty-gritty boneless rap. PNTHN a direct result of a bunch of 90s hip hop vinyls thrown into a dishwasher with alfredo sauce as detergent. Don’t ask questions. It’s here bruh.”
How does PNTHN’s creative process for tracks start? Is it getting everyone together in a room or passing along bits and pieces to everyone until it forms?
Gulfwey – “You know the particle theory? Like when the fuckin atoms bust into each other’s shit creating energy and shit like that? The way we are starting off tracks bro, literally one atom is moving just shaking violently by itself. Then it starts shaking so violently that it’s too turnt up like ‘bro I’m too turnt up and no one is turnt up next to me.” It hits another one. And then that one starts shaking violently, so it’s two of them shaking violently in a column full of atoms that are not moving at all. Then the whole goddamn thing is turnt up, the whole molecule is turnt up, and that’s the pit.
twohorizonra – “I don’t know the question but its quantum physics I swear. A lot of PNTHN shit can be defined by quantum physics. But nah usually Kenny decides to make a move and colonizes the beat.”
Tony Tone – “PNTHN music is just like a very rich but delicate fine pasta. The pasta is like yo, if it’s overdone, it fills you up to the point where you regret it. If it’s way too little bit, and there’s not enough love, you’re like that was a fucked up piece of shit pasta. But when you know it was life in the pasta, then it’s your favorite food in the world. There are infinite types of pasta flavors and ingredients.
twohorizonara – “You need to stop bro that’s too much knowledge. Every time I come in here it turns into some kinda science I don’t know what the fuck going on bro.”
End the beef: In-N-Out vs. Whataburger
Trevon Tex – “We in and out whataburger, that’s the only in n out we know about. “
Kenny – “It’s more to Texas than burgers ”
Tony Tone – The world is fucked up, so buy our music and shut the fuck up, but also thank you for buying our music (still shut the fuck up though)
