“I think music is the weapon of the future,” said Batsauce when I asked The Smile Rays about their place in the Summertime in the City festival. They look like the poster child for the new urbanism. Therapy is all hip-hop, Batsauce looks like an indie rocker, and Daisey is like a happy hippie flower sitting between them. Together they represent the diversity that this festival seeks to endorse. Not only that, but their live show is first-rate. It’s simultaneously energetic, palpably positive, and truly fresh. EU sat down with The Smile Rays to ask them a few questions.
EU: How did The Smile Rays ever get together?
BATSAUCE: Well, Therapy was doing his thing with The Abs, and his solo stuff, and we’ve been doing our thing with Heavenly Noise and we just sort of collided.
THERAPY: Basically the Smile Rays is just me, Therapy, and Daisey and Batsauce from Heavenly Noise trying to create something different from Heavenly Noise and The ABs.
EU: So when you first came together, was it in a performance or a recording scenario?
THERAPY: I remember it like it was yesterday. It was actually at their house. Batsauce and I have known each other for years, but then one day the stars were aligned and I called him and said “Bring some beats to my house,” and we just hung out and the next thing you know… We were basically just going back and forth for a while on musical theory and then it melded into some songs.
BATSAUCE: It happened in the studio, it wasn’t live, but it was natural. He heard a beat he liked and that was it. We didn’t have a plan.
EU: How did the live dynamic come together?
DAISEY: The live dynamic is really awesome because we have been doing what we do for so long as separate entities, that when we come together it’s exponential coolness.
EU: How do your performances in the hip-hop scene compare to performances outside the hip-hop scene?
DAISEY: Wow, umm. That’s a hard question.
EU: Like what’s the difference in crowd dynamic?
DAISEY: There’s a big difference in crowd dynamic. At hip-hop shows everyone is up front with their hands up and there’s a lot of energy. Where what we were doing before was definitely more low-key, a little softer, and people would sit and watch the show. Whereas at Smile Ray shows no one sits down. You don’t sit in hip-hop.
EU: What does Summertime in the City mean as far as the culmination of the hip-hop scene and the urban core?
BATSAUCE: It’s an awesome declaration that we’re here. It’s a testament to our strength and endurance and the fact that there is a movement going on here. As unrecognized as it may be because people at the beach or the colleges may not know we’re here, but there is something really going on here.
EU: Is it a snapshot of something that’s bigger than the underground?
THERAPY: I think it’s a snapshot of something that’s bigger than Jacksonville. And I just want to take the time out to say that I’m really proud of Ian and Tony and Mas for putting this together.
BATSAUCE: It’s great and it’s really what we need. I think all of the artists feel that way.
DAISEY: And the scene really is growing and Summertime in the City is a festival, it isn’t just a show. It’s bigger than that because the scene is getting bigger and bigger.
EU: What is unique about the Jacksonville scene versus the scene at large?
BATSAUCE: The best of it here is that everyone is working really hard and has to work for recognition and has to fight for it. It keeps us humble and sincere.
THERAPY: All of us are friends. That’s one of the things I’ve been trying to champion for a while. People need to just be cool people. This whole group of artists is cool in their regular life and they don’t translate anything different in their music.
BATSAUCE: I think it’s unique that we are all friends and we influence each other.
THERAPY: It’s really like a kind of collective. Ideas get bounced around to people in other groups before they get out to the masses.
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EU Critic’s Choice Awards
