Today we’d like to introduce you to Keith Lalley and Jean Louis Droulers.
Keith and Jean Louis, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
We’re a 7-piece rap band called Cook Thugless. We got started in 2012 at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ. Some of us were in the music program, some in the acting program, some were studying science or business, but we all had making music in common. We wrote instrumentals, and versus any time we weren’t in classes (and sometimes while we were in classes…) After putting together a full-length album entirely DIY in our campus apartment, we started playing shows in basements and venues around the area.
One day, a freelance videographer named Anthony King reached out to us after seeing a show. Anthony and his pals started MoonCulture Films, a company whose origins actually parallel a lot with our own: a couple of guys with a vision, a passion for putting together unique and high-quality work, and the resourcefulness to make a lot using only a little.
We met up at a hot dog spot called Destination Dogs and discussed ideas for a music video that would eventually become Sweet Coffee (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27lyFvO3zu4). At the time, JL was dating Isabelle Philips, another super talented actor, who not only starred in the video but provided the location: her childhood home in rural Pennsylvania.
There are huge fields, a really rustic-looking barn, it’s just a really beautiful property. We filmed the video using basically just all the stuff that was already around, super artsy statues and paintings. All of our friends came through to the shoot to act in it, help out behind the scenes, etc. We had no budget, and we didn’t need one: we had each other.
Sweet Coffee was the first in a still-growing list of collaborations with MoonCulture. JL would get an idea for a video based on one of the songs we were putting together in our makeshift studio. Then we’d get a lead on a good location from some urban-explorer friends, or even just deck out one of our own houses with a bunch of found props, and we’d all get together to make it happen. We kept making new friends and collaborators along the way, like Alex Gurevich from Pyrrhic Productions, and Sonia De Nicolo, who makes really intricate stop-motion videos from scratch.
So here’s where LA comes in: Brandon Flynn is a long-time friend of JL. They were childhood friends in Miami and went to acting school together at Rutgers. After graduating, Brandon landed an amazing part on the Netflix drama 13 Reasons Why. He and JL talked and Brandon was super down to star in a music video. However, since Brandon lives out in LA now, we figured it’d be a dope opportunity to head out there and find some dope new locations.
A small group of our crew flew out to LA to film for the music video for a song in the works called “Lockjaw.” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2xrqIoBK8g) The video came out right around the time 13 Reasons Why dropped its second season, so when Brandon posted a clip of it on his Instagram, it gained a ton of traction.
It wouldn’t be the end of our adventures in LA either; JL’s neighbors are another great band called Cool Company. They wanted JL to direct a music video for them for a video called “Summer Sickness.” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pToNuSNKYSQ) The featured artist on the track Roni lives in LA as well, so the boys packed up and head out once again.
The video stars Alisha Boe, another LA resident who coincidentally is a star of 13 Reasons Why! We didn’t stop at LA either. Our latest video, The Devil, was filmed in Tulum, Mexico. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5iCURrldg8) Our friend Alex at Pyrrhic has family down there, and they were gracious enough not only to let them stay at their place but to help out and even star in the video!
We’ve got our fourth album dropping January 1st, 2019. It’s called LUXE.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It has NOT been a smooth road. Like I said, we’ve basically always worked without a budget. The trade-off is that we’re always putting in a ton of raw effort and time.
Here are some examples of crazy stuff we’ve had to overcome to put videos together:
– During the filming of House Cat, we were filming on a Brooklyn rooftop. The scene had some people spray painting graffiti, but it started raining. Rain and paint don’t mix. We literally had to film in the moments in-between the downpour.
– Filming our music video for Circles took well over a year. All of the shoots, we were outside freezing our butts off. We had to sneak into our location and hide from cops.
– We filmed a whole music video called Wasteland out in Joshua Tree and Vegas in 2016. The video was completely impromptu because we were on vacation out there. We were still writing the song while we were out there, editing the beat on laptops and recording vocals with brand new friends. We finished filming on our last day in the area.
During transportation of a hard drive, all of the footage was completely wiped. The whole project was scrapped. Then there’s Lockjaw. Our most successful video to-date, people watch the video and see all of the successes… but honestly, it’s just an example of us making the most out of our failures.
The first day we were set to shoot with Brandon in some caves, but he got a last-minute audition. So, we filmed with JL in the caves so it would look like Brandon. When we finally picked up Brandon, we were planning on heading into the desert so we could catch some dope sunset shots… but the desert was three hours away, and the sunset in two and a half hours.
We literally jumped out of the car and ran into the sand, filming every second of it. Those shots made it into the video, Brandon literally running so we could catch what we could of the sunset. When we finally got back to LA, we were actually out of locations to shoot at in the area, so we turned Brandon’s house into a set and filmed there. Those turned out to be some of the most iconic shots in the whole video.
We got back to NY and realized we didn’t have enough footage, so we found another actor (David Hunte) and went to upstate NY in the snow. Normally it would have made no sense; the entire rest of Lockjaw was filmed in the summer, in the desert. But JL came up with the concept to make it all make sense, to play the hot against the cold.
We had to shoot again when we realized that we needed footage of the song’s feature, Shyrley, so we went to film AGAIN in Jersey City. Now we had three different locations… if everything had gone perfectly the first time we tried it, Lockjaw would have been completely different and, in my opinion, not nearly as beautiful as it turned out.
Cook Thugless – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
We’re Cook Thugless. We’re a 7-piece rap band based in NYC. We build on the music we write and produce by making short-film style music videos, with a focus on putting our own twist on visual storytelling.
We work most days with zero-budget and rely on our creativity, resourcefulness, and refusal to give up, to create the most original and high-quality art we can. We’re proud of that. We put on super hype live performances all over NYC and NJ.
A lot of rap acts out there now perform live with backing tracks or DJ’s. While there’s nothing wrong with that, we like to stand out by performing all our instrumentals live with a full band, complete with horns.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
The success of Lockjaw is something we’re incredibly proud of. Almost 300k views on YouTube, almost 600k on Spotify… I know that it’s not all about the numbers, but here’s how I think of it: it took a lot of people to make the song and video happen. A lot of passion and effort and love and struggle went into it, and it was recognized and accepted by thousands of people from all over the world.
We still get messages from strangers in different countries, telling us they found the video and can’t stop listening. It’s a new feeling, and it’s definitely inspiring us to work harder than ever to make the content we make. Maybe it sounds corny, but we’re just out here refusing to give up. None of this is easy. Mistakes happen. Plans fall through.
We don’t treat these moments like roadblocks; we use them like stepping stones. Every time we finish a song or video, not only does it mean we kept trying in the face of all the crazy stuff that happened, but we got BETTER at what we do because of it. Every song gets better, every video gets better. We’re not stopping, and I’m proud of that.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://cookthugless.com
- Phone: 7326723655
- Email: cookthugless@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/cookthugless
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/cookthugless
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/cookthugless
- Other: https://youtube.com/cookthugless
Image Credit:
AJ Seferlis, Valerie Brooks, Brandon Donnelly
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