Patrick Paige II
Success & Failure: How do we determine the difference between the two? For some, success is defined by fame. Followers and world tours are what they dream of having in their grasp. For others, it’s the embrace and adoration of their craft. Both of these definitions of success are things that, from the outside, it seems like Patrick Paige II has already achieved in his career as bassist in the Grammy-nominated quintet The Internet. And yet he still asks the question in the title of his sophomore album, If I Fail Are We Still Cool?
The record is a follow up to 2018’s Letters of Irrelevance, a deeply personal album that leans more lo-fi and tackles heavy subject matter in the face of hardship and loss, the brutal parts that we experience and often try to sweep under the rug but instead Paige released into the world to find release from their grip. If I Fail Are We Still Cool? is the blazing fire that rises with Paige as he comes out of the ashes and gets into the pilot’s seat to mark his own path to liftoff. It’s almost ironic that he questions himself while powered by such a strong offering that explores different sonic directions and shows his range as an artist of merit.
The singles started releasing earlier this year with “So They Say” dropping in February featuring Paige on a desert sojourn while musing about the doctrine of supposed fate over a guitar leading the beat. The visual feasts continue in “Whisper (Want My Luv)” with friends and collaborators Steve Lacy, Allen Love, and Durand Bernarr as they dip back into a 70’s groove aboard a colorful first class flight high in the sky before landing back down at LAX where Paige links up with Syd for a lose-your-shit surprise that paid off as the two lyricists go back-to-back in “Ain’t Talking Bout Much.”
And then there’s yet another departure in “Big Plays” with Westside Mcfly that’s got sweat, sun and muscles on full display in a celebration of putting the work in to get what one wants. Paige comes out the gate strong and doesn’t allow himself to get placed in any particular box because this is his journey that he’s mapping from the pilot’s seat.
The 17-track album is pure solid, with “New Habits” having harder beats that are evocative of the 90s greats and “Who Am I” giving a voice to all the things Paige is still hoping to accomplish. We catch up with him to learn about the driving motivation for getting this album out, finding the courage to collaborate with others, and his love for the Dodgers.
First I want to dive into your history with bass. What brought you to pick it up and start playing? From what I understand your mom was always trying to push you into gospel versions of different genres.
She wanted me to play piano and stuff because if you can play piano you could pretty much play anything. I kind of wish I would have went that route, but at the same time I'm glad I went the route I went because everything happened the way it's supposed to go. It was necessary. I started playing bass in eighth grade. I learned stand up bass. It was like beginner classical bass so I used to have to use the bow and shit, man. I wanted to play guitar more. I was more focused on guitar at the time but I ended up just running with bass and it being my thing and being the primary instrument of my career rather than guitar, piano, drums or anything that I thought I wanted to play.
Why bass specifically?
It was the closest thing to guitar I could get to at the time because I didn't have a guitar. I just really, really wanted to play guitar and that was the only class I could take at my school at the time. I was like, alright, well if I'mma do music and I'm gonna pick an instrument, I guess I'll learn bass because it's the closest thing to guitar. I was just so desperate to learn guitar and ended up running with bass. And yeah I wanted to be in a band and all kind of shit. I wanted to be a rockstar when I was younger.
You were born and raised in Los Angeles. Are there any specific places that you feel may have had an impact on shaping you into the artist that you are today?
Where I grew up, definitely. West LA, Mid-City area definitely. The whole city really. I can't even pinpoint one area because Los Angeles in itself, as a native, it's an experience. You have the more affluent parts, you have the not so affluent parts. You have the certain parts that aren't necessarily segregated but are more specific to one ethnicity, then you have areas that are melting pots. I'll say the city as a whole really. The entire city played a role in developing my character and all of that.
What about venues you grew up going to?
My church. The church I grew up going to and started playing drums at, First AME Zion. Well, I don't go there anymore. I haven't been a member there in years but it's on Adams and Vermont. Growing up there, that's definitely a standout venue for me. The Echo in Echo Park. The Echo and the Echoplex but The Echo more specifically because that was my very first show ever with The Internet. That was my first professional show but The Echo is a big spot for me. Now The Palladium is. Definitely the Staples Center and The Forum, definitely those two. Just seeing my favorite artists play there and wanting to be like, "I want to do that."
One important thing about artistry is being able to help impact people going through emotions in their own life. That's something that I've also seen that you want to do for others as well. Has there ever been a time where a specific track or album carried you through a time when you needed it?
Yes, Voodoo by D'Angelo got me through one of the hardest times in my life actually. One of the hardest summers. One of the hardest years of my life really. Voodoo by D'Angelo. This album called Hard Hold by this band called Jaala. Midnight Marauders when I was younger by A Tribe Called Quest. Ready to Die by Biggie Smalls when I was younger. There's so many, but Voodoo by D'Angelo I'm gonna go with is an album very, very close to me. Very, very close to me because at one time I felt like I felt every single lyric.
Jacket, No Sesso. Shirt, Rupert & Buckley.
You’ve said that "Good Grace" was a catalyst for the new album and it's the only song that you produced alone. What is it about that track that made it into a domino, and how does the rest of the record carry the spirit of that in the other songs?
That's a good question. I don't know. I was just up at three in the morning and that beat just stepped on me. It was an instrumental that I couldn't figure out. I was stuck with it and it was stuck with me and I just kept coming back to it, remaking it and revamping it, then I just wrote some shit to it and literally everything I wrote kind of encompassed the album. I started up on that and elaborated on those exact feelings so it started with what I had but what I was ready to get. So like I have this and that's cool but I'm not where I want to be yet. So that's kind of what shaped the whole album.
With making an album in general, it takes a lot of courage to not only put pen to paper but also in collaborating and releasing that work out into the world. Obviously it gets easier later on down the line once there's that basis of trust and friendship built, but at one time that comfort probably didn't exist yet. How did that evolution from having those things be internal to finding the courage to share these parts of yourself with others come into formation?
Um, damn. How? Shit, I don't know. I guess it just happened. A lot of the people I met were already friends that I've done sessions with before so, to be fair, I've had prior history with them or experience with them in the past, but working together for some artists on this album [it was the] first [time]. It was literally just me jumping in the deep end, just having blind faith that it would work based off the homework I did on the artist and the chemistry I feel like we would have as friends or homies or associates. I'll bring that person in and really it was all just a matter of using my better judgment and just going with my gut and just trusting the moment and it worked out every time.
I really loved the transition from "Whisper (Want My Luv)" being high up in the sky in the video that y'all did and then "Ain't Talking 'Bout Much" literally grounding us back onto earth. Those two tracks are also side-by-side on the album but in reverse. What drove the pairing of keeping those together through different mediums?
That's so funny. Goldsmith actually arranged the album so that would be more a question for him. It was just sonically what he heard and it just made a lot more sense on the record to keep them together, but the video concept was my idea, putting "Ain't Talking Bout Much" after that. I don't know. I knew on the album "Ain't Talking Bout Much" came first and then it was "Whisper" on the album, but for some reason it just made sense for me... the visual just made sense. Again, that was another thing I just did on blind faith. I just kept listening to the song over and over. I was listening to "Whisper" and I've always loved the concept of a double music video like two-for-one kind of thing, like a surprise. You don't even ad it or drop the song, you can only watch it exclusively there on that video. That song just made the most sense so I put "Ain't Talking 'Bout Much" on the back and it was funny that it was reversed on the release but on the album it's the opposite way.
You've been exploring doing solo work for quite a while but it wasn't until Letters For Irrelevance that you finally jumped over that hurdle. It seems like the inspiration for getting through that hurdle was due to dealing with a lot of emotional weight on your plate at the time. For me, I find that there is a different mindset between putting something out there because you need to versus because you want to. The first can almost feel like drowning, like if you don't get this out of yourself and you don't do something with it it can consume you, while the second one it almost feels like you're standing on top of a diving board having to look into the water and making the conscious decision to jump.
I'm curious to know, with this second album, what you think the driving factor was to getting it to completion. Why was it important to you to get this album out there?
Like you pointed out, and that was a perfect analogy, Letters of Irrelevance was learning, was either sink or swim literally. It was literally either get myself together, figure this shit out and get it out of my system, or drown in that. So I decided to swim and just started moving. Then I got enough faith to get out the pool and get back on the diving board and dive back in that motherfucker. That's what the second album is. I wanted to and I needed to because one, I had more to say. I had more to prove to myself, not to anybody else but myself, that I can do this. That I want to do this to prove to myself that I wanted to do this. This album was, and like I said in a bunch of other interviews too, is another series almost of letters that aren't quite but just affirmations and manifestations and goals, you know? Things that I want.
A lot of these things that I've talked about on the album, before I had a lot of shit on this album, a lot of these things had manifested themselves already. Like the transformations and certain material things I've had and certain lifestyles. Before I even had these things completely locked down, I just knew I wanted them so I talked about them like I had them. Now I'm literally on my way to having all of them. It was moreso like proving to myself that I could and having more stuff to say, and then just loving creating and making music and making art and finding a way to now balance that and my love for the music without making it too personal. Making it listener friendly and more relatable to people, making it fun to listen to and not feel sad.
Jumpsuit, Helen Anthony.
Your physical health is also something that's very important to you. Much like with musicianship, it takes a lot of consistency and dedication. How did this come to be such an important aspect of your life?
It became important to me because for a long time my health wasn't at one point. It always was but then I went through this little spiral where it just wasn't. I wasn't taking care of myself and it finally backfired on me. I spent some days in the hospital after a very, very minor heart attack basically kind of situation. I already talk about that on record. I put that in a bar in one of the songs too but nobody's gonna catch that. I started taking my shit a lot more serious after that. I started gaining weight, I started not drinking water. I wasn't taking care of myself and I got tired of not taking care of myself and feeling the effects. And so I started taking care of myself, started feeling better, looking better, looking better because I was feeling better, feeling better because I was looking better. They went hand-in-hand. I was ready for a change. I was ready to live my life to the fullest potential as opposed to the holdups of being in my own way and doing unhealthy shit and just staying there in that pocket.
You also prioritize taking care of your mind as well. You seem to have a pretty weighty taste when it comes to your favorite literature. In the Complex interview, you mention The Kybalion and As A Man Thinketh. What got you to stick with reading when that's something that so many of us can struggle to keep up with?
Goldsmith actually. My mom always made fun of me and was like, "Read a book." She would always say that before she passed, as a joke and shit like that because she'd always use these big, wild ass words you wouldn't hear nowhere else. I'm glad she did that because it made me actually look them up and read, but I didn't get into reading for myself because I just loved reading until I was 28 or 29. Goldsmith started me off with this. He was like, "You should read this book, it's only an hour long." And I did an audiobook and I loved it and I just dived in straight from there. Then I went to The Kybalion and I went to The Science of Getting Rich then I went to The Four Agreements. I've read so many books now. I just finished Ask and It Is Given. I think the mind, body and spirit are the most important things to take care of. Those are the Holy Trinity if you ask me. Those are the things to take care of, everything else will follow through. So my mind I keep it exercised by reading. I watch what I read. Sometimes I want to go on an adventure but I still want it to be relevant to what I'm doing. If I go on an adventure reading, it'll be something like The Alchemist or Siddhartha. I read Siddhartha not too long ago. I read The Alchemist last year. Both are still stories and imaginary but they still pertain to the type of lifestyle going. They're all about transformation and the next step and using your full potential.
On to topic of favorites, you've mentioned that one of your favorite music festivals is Afropunk. What is it about the festival that makes it so special to you, and are there any specific memories that you have from that festival that will always stick with you?
Yes. My very first time is always the most specific. It was my first time being around that many Black people all together at a music festival like that where we all came together to see the same type of music, see Black artists on stage. It was a full Black ass festival. It was amazing. Like granted, of course, there were other people there, other ethnicities and shit, of course they came out to support but the core of the audience being Afro-Americans, that was incredible to me. Even the artists, most people on the lineup. It was incredible, it was dope. It was just a bunch of Black love. It was dope. It was amazing! My first time just seeing like that kind of festival and everybody being around my age too, like I was out in the crowd walking around and shit. It was definitely one of my favorites.
I've also seen you've made sure to uplift Black businesses whenever you can, even including and shouting out several in the video for “So They Say.” Was that something that just happened naturally because it's part of your daily life, or was that something that you made sure to go out of your way to include that way they got that extra lift of support with you?
Jacket, Helen Anthony. Pants, Goodfight.
Both, definitely both. It's something that I just kinda do for real because I support all of my friends and I love supporting Black businesses. And then two, I make sure to make it a point to put these on whatever platform I can share, what little platform I do have. I'm going to share as much as I can, I'm gonna put on for my friends as much as I can, support my friends as much as I can. Whatever kind of support I can get to put them in the position to get the same kind of some kind, I'mma do that. So both, definitely both.
One thing that's surprised me about the pandemic, I didn't know so many people were Dodgers fans. I noticed that you wear your Dodger jerseys a lot. I gotta know: What's your Dodgers story? How did the become the team for you?
So, all the Dodgers fans, like you said you didn't know so many people were Dodgers fans. I've been one I would just like to say for the record. I've been down since high school for real. Once I started playing baseball, actually since I was a kid, I started going to Dodgers games when I was a kid. I was always on and off with baseball. I played baseball in high school but I wasn't very good. My grandpa kinda being the catalyst for my love for the Dodgers. Ever since I was a kid, being from the city, even if I couldn't name all the players, I'm from the city, I have to show love for the city. I love the blue L.A. hats. I love the Dodgers jerseys, the colors. I love going to the game. Everything about it encompasses being from this specific region, just like somebody from New York probably would love the Yankees or the Mets or whoever they love. I'm sure there's people in L.A. who love the Angels. I feel sorry for them. Not this season because I guess the Angels are doing good. Let me say on record, the Angels are actually doing good this season so I take that back but yeah. To see [The Dodgers] finally win a championship, and the Lakers win a championship in the same year, that was fucking monumental for me.
With things reopening and in-person activities potentially being safe again, what do you have scheduled for the rest of the year? Are you looking into doing shows? Do you think you might do other hands-on projects?
Definitely looking forward to doing some shows. I definitely want to when it makes the most sense. I definitely want to hit the roads with this album. I want to tour the hell out of this album. I want to go across the world with this shit. That's what I want to do. Definitely want to be out there with this album promoting this shit. I want to play shows, I want to perform this shit like all year. I'm working on merch right now. I want to get my tea business off the ground. I'mma be quiet about that but that's one thing I'm working on is taking my tea shit very serious and figuring out the next steps for that.
When did you get into tea?
I've loved tea ever since I was young. I've just always liked making tea and watching animal shows or watching something real chill. I've always loved tea as a kid and then quarantine, I'mma be honest, I just started getting high as hell and just trying shit and it just was fire. So I just stuck with a bunch of shit and all the ingredients I used and started making videos about it and people loved that shit. So I'm like, this could be a thing. I love making tea, I love making tea for people. I could make this work.
Photography by Ryan Kevin
Photo Assistant by Ryan Bussard
Styling by Jordan Blakeman
Shot at Thrift Shop Studios
