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Livin' It Up with Shwayze for 'Let It Beat'
by Troy Rogers
 After
climbing the Billboard charts with three singles
from their 2008 album, Shwayze, the duo of Shwayze
and Cisco Adler are back with their second full-length
release, Let It Beat, which goes wide to Shwayze
fans on November 3. On the heels of the 2008 debut
success, Shwayze also jumped into TV on MTV with
their own show, Buzzin', before following up the
year with more music on the Shwayze mix tape,
"Rich Girls". In 2009, Shwayze and Cisco released
the first single from Let It Beat called "Get
U Home" which got picked up for the soundtrack
for teen horror, Sorority Row.
With Shwayze about to head out on tour with LMFAO on the Party Rock Tour to coincide with the November 3 release of Let It beat, produced by Ric Ocasek and features Snoop Dogg. Darryl Jenifer of Bad Brains and Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band pianist, Roy Bittan, we caught up with Shwayze namesake, Shwayze, for an exclusive chat about what fans can expect from Let It Beat, what it was like to work with heavyweights like Snoop Dogg and Ric Ocasek, the Party Rock Tour, and the '80s vibe on Let It Beat.
THE DEADBOLT: With "Get U Home" on the Sorority Row soundtrack how did you guys work the cast into the video?
 SHWAYZE:
That was dope. When we found out the song was
going to be in the movie, we wanted to incorporate
the whole cast of it. So we got the director
of the movie to actually direct our music video
and he helped us get the girls and it was great
cross promotion. It was a very fun shoot [laughs].
THE DEADBOLT: Ahead of the official video, Cisco made his own video. Is that something you guys are looking to do with future singles?
SHWAYZE: Yeah, we do that all of the time. We wanted to get that out and put a video on it before the official video came out. But we have two cams and we're always on the road. In fact, with this LMFAO tour we have coming up, we're going to be shooting like a little web TV show with our own flip cams and all of that. You have to do it nowadays, keeping people involved, and some of it goes online as content that we just want to keep putting out there. So we're always constantly shooting videos, being crazy. Cisco did a good job on that video, because it shows a little bit of our lifestyle and what we're doing.
THE DEADBOLT: So "Let it Beat" drops on November 3 and then you hit the road with LMFAO on November 5. What will you be doing on those two days in between?
 SHWAYZE:
You know what? It's probably going to be crazy
with press and hyping it up. I think mostly
doing that. It's probably going to be a wild
time because LMFAO are our boys. So between
our record dropping and going on tour to promote
it, it's going to be crazy. It's going to be
a good time. So I think those two days before
are really just the calm before the storm. The
record comes out and we're going to be heavy
in press for two more days before the Party
Rock Tour. So it's going to be crazy.
THE DEADBOLT: What can fans expect from you guys on the tour?
SHWAYZE: Our live shows are crazy, man. You really want to come to our live shows. We have a couple more elements. For the last year and a half, Cisco and I have worked, and everything is great. But what we've done now is added a little bit more - We have our boy, Mark, playing more bass, guitar, trumpet; He's like a one-man band on the side of the stage. He plays all of that. We have a DJ and Cisco has a guitar and I pick up the drum sticks every once in awhile. We're trying to make it more musical this time around. And since the record is going to be out, too, we're going to be playing a lot of the record on the tour. So I'm excited for this tour, man.
THE DEADBOLT: What was it like working with Snoop Dogg for this record?
SHWAYZE: He's a genius. So he already had the hook and concept done. It was crazy. He's like a perfectionist and I'm a Gemini. I'm all over the place and it's like A.D.D. hell. I got my phone, I got this, I got that, and I was running around scatter-brained. And he's like, "You, write the verses." So it's really good to have him around and it's definitely a learning experience.
THE DEADBOLT: You also got Ric Ocasek to help out on the album. What was he like to work with?
 SHWAYZE:
Ric Ocasek is amazing. We were in the studio
and Cisco - I mean, the song was pretty much
done. We wanted to add some elements to it and
Cisco wanted to get Rivers Cuomo to come and
make these changes. But he was out on a retreat.
He does those retreats where for awhile he doesn't
talk to anybody or use a cell phone, so we couldn't
get a hold of him. Our manager was like, "What
about Ric Ocasek? He produced all of the dope
Weezer records." He got so excited and I didn't
know who Ric Ocasek was.
But Cisco went crazy. He's like, "Hell, yeah." And I'm like, "Who's Ric Ocasek?" He's like, "He was in the Cars." So we flew into New York and recorded and it was a very epic situation. I mean, Ric made us feel comfortable. He was very warm and humble. We also got Darryl Jenifer. He's the bassist for Bad Brains, the classic punk rock group, and he actually played the bass on a track.
THE DEADBOLT: Before you started in on the album, were you both worried about the sophomore curse?
SHWAYZE: [laughs] Not really. It was more excitement just to begin. We actually have a song on the record that kind of stresses that. It's a song called "Livin' It Up," featuring Snoop Dogg. When we made our last record, people went online and liked this specific record. For those people, with this record, we have all of these flavors. We have a flavor for everybody. I think it's definitely going to be a record of the year and I'm excited to get it out.
THE DEADBOLT: It has a bit of an '80s vibe. Was that the overall plan?
 SHWAYZE:
Do you remember back when the records used to
be art pieces and you could collect the art
work on the album? On the last record, we had
the sun setting and beautiful swaying palm trees
and shit. This one is kind of like the sun has
gone down and we're still on the beach. But
the sun has gone down and there's a sectioned
mannequin and you don't know what the hell is
going on. That's kind of like the record. The
record is like, "All right, we did our summertime
thing and now the sun is setting and now it's
a little darker. There's a little more partying!"
But it still has that beach feeling. All of
our album covers are art. You're right, there's
a bit of the '80s.
THE DEADBOLT: Any plans to get another TV show on the air again?
SHWAYZE: You know, we're not opposed to a reality show. A reality show would be great for us. But we're thinking about doing a web show, doing it online, and we're partnering up with Rogue Pictures for that. Also, we're working on a movie that might be shooting pretty soon with Cisco and I called, Get Jack's Tickets. So it may not be in the form of a reality show but you're definitely going to see us on the screen.
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