Join us this Saturday, June 20th in Oceanside, CA from 4–9pm for the 4th Annual Chemistry Collective event. This year, we teamed up with Chemistry Surfboards to release a limited edition Time Teller as part of their “Timeless” box set. We'll have live music, art, surf films, food, drinks, and plenty of good people.
Keep reading to hear from Thes One, one of the founders of Chemistry Collective.
Interview with Thes One
What’s up Thes One?! Let’s get a little intro going. Tell us a little bit about yourself and what is the Chemistry Collective?
Hey guys, great to talk with you! For those who aren’t familiar with me, I go by Thes One. I’m a producer and rapper, and I started off my journey as one half of seminal LA Hip Hop group People Under The Stairs. After 23 years of touring across 6 continents we retired PUTS in 2019 with the release of our 12th LP, but I’m proud of our extraordinary career — tons of random joy like a full page farewell in The LA Times, an appearance on The Simpson’s 20th Anniversary, being on the Tony Hawk soundtrack, a John Peele Session at Abbey Road and main stage performances at Glastonbury, Coachella, Bottlerock, Governors Ball, Bonaroo and so on.
I grew up surfing and skating in San Pedro, Ca. and one of the coolest things about touring for me was always being able to grab a board and paddle out with random people I’d meet, which is how I came to know Jason and Willie at Chemistry Surfboards. We had a mutual love of music that skewed towards skate (which always embraced underground hip-hop) and it made them unique in the surf community. Jason made beats and they had even used our song SF Knights in an early edit so it was cool to become friends.
During the pandemic we talked a lot about what made each of our brands unique and decided to start a combined annual project that celebrated love of community, hip hop, surfing and just getting together and having a beer to some music. So that’s how the Chemistry Collective was born and it’s just been an amazing force, pushing all of us to create and experiment!
This is the 4th year of the Chemistry Collective and the theme is “Timeless”. Give us some insight into the theme and why you chose that.
Last year I had an idea to anchor the project around a specific year that I saw as culturally important, which was 1992. I think when you look at ’92 there’s a distinct, revolutionary change in surf, skate and music culture. On the other hand, this year, we swung the pendulum opposite and went to Timeless, which celebrates how good style, or what we would consider timeless style, is a thread that runs through all years and decades.
There’s certain surfers, whether you’re talking a Tom Curren or Gerry Lopez or even Mikey February or Machado, who have a grace and style that transcends eras. I’d like to think that's the style in which I, as People Under The Stairs, made music. One of our albums, O.S.T., is considered a classic in our genre and the highest compliment is when people call it “Timeless”. So the cool thing of course, was then turning all those ideas from a concept into an actual release, and linking up with Nixon just really made it all happen.
The capsule release comes with a vinyl of an original song. Tell us more about the year’s song: “Timeless”
Once I come up with a concept for the year’s Chemistry Collective, I usually get in the studio and really try to lean into what it would be. I start my productions with the drums, and for this I thought “I have to start with one of the classic breakbeats” but then chop it up and present it in a new form. So then that track just started coming together and I had an idea for the chorus, and began writing and recording that.
The hard part was drilling down what felt Timeless to me, and I kept coming back to the idea that often things with that style I referred to aren’t always accepted or appreciated in the moment. So I wrote the chorus “I don’t need no likes to cosign this” based on that idea — that sometimes striving for a style beyond the moment can be misunderstood or even liberating. Once I got that down I wrote my verse and tried to get a couple mechanical watch references in there, like the double entendre of “Took the crown and the bezel just to face my death and live on”.
Once I got that tracked I reached out to Kyle Rapps, who’s been doing great work in his “Surf Rap” lane and who I met when he was shooting a video with the really dope LogRap crew. I sent him the concept and the beat and he had me a verse back, fully recorded by that night! The final piece is sort of a tradition for the Chemistry Collective songs — I drove down to Oceanside to Jason’s house where he has a super rad studio and we just vibed with DJ Chaps One and knocked out all the scratching. He always brings great ideas and serious skill so it’s just icing on the cake. Mixed it, mastered it and sent it off to get pressed as a 45rpm 7” vinyl all within a week or two!
What else comes inside of the capsule this year?
We always try and step up the capsule each year and this one is definitely one of our biggest accomplishments, just from theory through to execution. There will only be 180 full sets available, each of which include the custom Nixon Time Teller paired with a hand etched wooden crate filled with 4 unique complimentary colorway 7” 45rpm records, a custom journal and a pair of Raen sunglasses. It’s an incredible collectible that we think embodies our idea of being Timeless.
You designed the Time Teller we collaborated on for this year’s release. What went into your design inspiration for the dial?
Ahh that’s a really great question. So going back to the music side, and in the same way the Time Teller is, I thought it would be really cool to honor some of the mechanical, analogue timeless pieces of gear you find in every music studio — some of which are so revered that you literally hear them on every single record going back to the 1960s.
I’m talking about studio compressors like the La2a, the 1176, certain tape machines and so on. And not to get too nerdy but the one thing you find, consistently, on all this classic gear is a Sifam style VU Meter. This distinct meter — maybe non studio nerds would recognize it as a rectangle with a needle that measures how loud a level is — graces everything from giant recording consoles all the way down to vintage home stereos and amps, so it just seemed fitting to use that as a design style. Particularly with the vinyl element we are including in the box set.
And to my surprise, I did some research and couldn’t find any history of someone incorporating it into a watch design, either as a tribute or a design element. So that was a really cool starting point. I tried laying it out a variety of ways, but ultimately decided to keep the functionality of the round face and have the 1, 2, 3 represent the red, overmeter parts of the VU Meter. I incorporated the classic font style and colors, and with Nixon’s help was able to really get it feeling like a VU Meter. Timeless!
Now let’s get down to the real business — the release party in Oceanside! What’s going to be happening there?
This is definitely the part of Chemistry Collective that’s most exciting and most people look forward to. First off, it’s free and one hundred percent family friendly. Shoots has amazing food and the Tremont Collective patio is such an amazing vibe even on an average day, but when we fill it with like minded people and amazing DJs, bands and artists it just lights up.
When we started doing this 4 years ago, we really just wanted a way to kick off the summer, and it’s just become the best party of the year. One of the coolest things is that many of the artists who donated their time and talent from the beginning continue to do so year after year — DJ Chaps One, DJ Day, live spraycan artist JDrawls, just so many people putting in effort to make the night amazing.
We’re super excited this year to have rocking with us the youngest generation in flxres all the way up to Kyle Rapps and The Mighty 388s, a spinoff of SD’s Surefire Soul Ensemble. Just a really massive lineup of talent! Additionally, we started a Surf Competition based on the concept, and it’s really exciting to announce the winners of the competition and give them their prize money. Of course, most importantly, you’ll be able to buy the box set in person and guarantee you get one.
If people can’t make it to the launch event, how can they get their hands on the special release capsule?
The remaining units that don’t sell at the Chemistry Collective party will be available online on the Chemistry Surfboards website the following day at 12pm PST. The capsules typically sell out quickly so I would definitely set an alarm!
Thanks so much for chatting with us! Before we go, tell us more about what you have planned next?
Following the party, we pack up and take the whole event to Japan for two more in July — one in Tokyo and one in the surf village of Hamamatsu. Additionally we may be taking it to London and Tunco, El Salvador — lots of cool plans on the horizon.
Thanks again for featuring me and a huge thank you to everyone who plans on picking up the capsule — all of the money we make we give back to the surf contest groms, the artists, and next year’s event and release. So it’s just an amazing thing to keep going for all of us. Thank you!!!
