Swollen Members Interview

Exclaim's Andrea Woo interviews Mad Child & Prevail of Swollen Members as a November feature:

Exclaim: It's been a decade since your official debut with Balance. What have been some of your biggest achievements, or proudest moments, since then?

Mad Child: 2001 to 2004 were epic years for us. Those years were really incredible. The wave of success that we got to ride in Canada during those three years was just unforgettable. Looking back, we were real blessed to have gotten that opportunity.

Prevail: For me, having grown up in Victoria and knowing Nelly Furtado for a good portion of her life when she was younger, I think when we were able to do "Breath" together, that was ten years in the making. That was a pretty special moment. Of course, watching her rise to her success has been amazing.

Mad Child: Our first Juno win, I think, was probably the most exciting moment of our whole career just because it was so unexpected. I was at my parents' house watching the Junos and my mom was so excited we were nominated. We were getting mad at her, like, "Mom, there's no way we're going to win this! Don't get yourself so riled up and excited because there's no chance we're going to win this." When we won, I was more blown away than anybody. It was such an exciting feeling.

Prevail: My grandma called me and I thought she was having a heart attack. "Oh my God! Oh my God!" "Grandma, what's wrong?" My aunt lives on the East coast and saw it in real time. She called my grandma, and she in turn called me.

Exclaim: What would you say have been some of your biggest challenges as a group?

Mad Child: 2009. [Laughs] The whole thing, coming back to this world after being addicted to drugs for the last four years. The music business changed 100 percent. There's not very much left from what I remember, running a business and being in a group. That whole business model has changed completely.

Prevail: The one challenge that every hip-hop artist has is adding the legitimacy to their lineage by having success in the States, it being the birthplace of hip-hop. I believe that Swollen Members has had so much love from Canada that we really need to prove it not only to [the U.S.] but to ourselves that we have the vested faith to be able to take it to the next level and make the kind of noise that [Kardinal Offishall] and Drake have been making down south right now, which is amazing.

Read the full interview here:
Exclaim - Swollen Members