R City: Legends in the Making
For years, R City has been writing songs for Pop and R & B artists. Brothers Timothy and Theron Thomas have gained a following with their creative talent and exemplify a style of blending various music genres such as Caribbean, Rap, R & B and Dance Hall to effectively showcase their vocal skills. Theron Thomas spoke with Parlé about the group and where they are headed.
Parlé: Where did you come up with the name Rock City?
R City: Rock City stems from where we are from. St. Thomas is where we are from, so that’s where the name comes from. We named ourselves after our home.
Parlé: What made you guys decide music was the road for you?
R City: Our dad. We started doing music at the age of eight. We always knew we wanted to do it, but our dad pushed us. He had a vision and a dream in his heart. My brother & I just thought it was something fun to do; he was the one who made us take it serious.
Parlé: How did you get started with writing songs for other artists?
R City: We’ve always written songs for ourselves, since we were young. We wrote this song for our album and Akon heard it and said “I love it.” He said he was going to pay us some money and then he was able to get our names out there. A door opened and we ran with it.
Parlé: How would you describe your music style?
R City: I would say there are never too many different things under the sun. Everything has influences from everything else. One thing I would say to describe us is that first we’re brothers, but we blend everything. We blend rap, R & B, calypso, dance hall, soca, pop; but when you hear it – it doesn’t sound confusing. I would say that the fans aren’t concerned with what it is, as long as it’s jamming. They want to be able to get it and I think we do that.
Parlé: There is a campaign that you and your brother started called PTFAO. What is that?
R City: PTFAO stands for Put the Fucking Album Out, which is a campaign that was initially started by our fans. We would be on the road performing and people would be like where’s your album at. You guys are dope. It started as a joke and then we took the idea to our manager, after I started texting people with it. It was a way for us to get people to look at music without telling them that they are looking at music.
Parlé: You just released a mixtape, Independence Day. Would you touch on that?
R City: Well, we have an album coming soon called Wake the Neighbors, but Independence Day is a little different. It isn’t at the same degree of Wake the Neighbors. Independence Day was free music for the fans, while Wake the Neighbors is something where we wrote songs that are about everyday life. These are songs that ordinary, everyday people can relate to. Sometimes as artists we live a certain lifestyle and we talk about certain things that we do not necessarily experience. We can say that we have experienced the stuff that we write about. The average joe can say when they’re driving in their car, listening to our music, yo I did that yesterday. Independence Day was just a preview of what we can do.
Parlé: Do you and your brother differ in your music styles in terms of how you record a track?
R City: Well my brother, Tim is very laid back. That’s how he got the name Don’t Talk Much. He’s very quiet, where I’m more the spokesman. He’s more into the Hip-Hop aspect. He’s the harder edge of the group and me; I’m crazy, eclectic, melodic person in the group. I sing mostly in the group, but he does too and he raps, and I do too. But, my brother would much rather do an album that sounds like Kanye or Talib Kweli, and I would rather do one that sounds like Black Eyed Peas or Outkast.
Parlé: Did you work with any artists on the debut album?
R City: We’re still working on the album. Because we’ve built so many relationships with other artists with the songwriting thing, we’re definitely going to get some people to help on the album. But to be honest, we just don’t know what song to put people on because we do everything. I’ll be like we can put a rapper on this – but then I can rap. And my brother will write a verse and he’ll say let’s put a singer on it – but then he can sing. We definitely will get some people, but we’re not gonna flood our debut with feature artists.
Parlé: You recorded a track called “Stop Lying.” What was the meaning behind that?
R City: That’s a favorite. When we came in the game, everybody kept saying you need a story. What have you been through? What did you go through? We grew up in the projects, with both of our parents. We work hard. We don’t drink, we don’t smoke. We’ve never been in trouble with the law. They were like yeah, man but you gotta come with something better than that. What’s better than the truth? I can’t tell you anything else, cause it would be a lie. The song is about finding out that some of the things people say they do and live, they don’t do and live. The track is about how we feel. We wanted people to say this is the most gangsta song I’ve ever heard, even though we’re not gangsta. We gave it a harder edge. We wanted to trick people into listening to positive music like Kanye did with “Jesus Walks.” He said, I’m gonna make a song about Jesus and do it in such a fly way, that people might not want to hear this in the club, but will. And they played it in the club; this was the inspiration behind “Stop Lying.”
Parlé: Have you decided on a first single from the debut album?
R City: We haven’t decided because there are so many songs to choose from and we are doing some changes to some of the songs on the album. We will be making an announcement soon about our first single. We do have a record out now called “Go Around,” but that’s just a teaser like “Losin It.” “Go Around” has been getting a good response from people, and djs have been playing it. We’re letting that song do what it do, but we’ll be making an announcement soon about our first single. Probably by March. We don’t have a release date for the album.
Parlé: How can people get in touch with you guys?
R City: Everybody can follow us on Twitter at R_City, our MySpace page, RockCityVi and RCitymusic.com.
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