INTERVIEW: BLU ANXXIETY

NYC’S FINEST DARK FREESTYLE BAND

One nice thing about living in New York is that you can still hear freestyle blasting out of passing cars. 

Freestyle is a genre of dance music that arose in NYC in the 1980s, particularly within the city’s Puerto Rican and Italian-American communities, and then spread all over America. Freestyle is a DIY take on electronic pop that climbed to the top of the charts. The music tells tales of love and heartbreak over Planet Rocking drums. Freestyle is "Let The Music Play" by Shannon and "Fantasy Girl" by Johnny O. and "I Wonder If I Take You Home" by Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam. Though it is still kicking, the genre’s visibility peaked over three decades ago.

The phrase dark freestyle has already been used once in this blog post, and it’s about to get used a whole bunch more. That’s because Blu Anxxiety is a self-proclaimed dark freestyle band from New York City. The trio has lifer bonafides: Members Dracula Orengo and Brett Bartley played together in Anasazi; Justin Schmidt makes music as X Harlow and just finished a stretch helping to run what was one of the few true underground venues left in town—the Brooklyn space Chaos Computer.

Together, they stitch a sound out of Wax Trax-derived industrial, goth, post-punk, rap, and freestyle, all shot through a political lens. Their name refers to a term for cop-induced PTSD. Compared to similar revivalists, Blu Anxxiety takes a wildstyle approach to genre, one rooted in Dracula Orengo’s experiences growing up in the city. There are traces of both Alan Vega and Onyx in this music. Blu Anxxiety is nothing if not a New York band.

Last week, I had a nice, quick chat with the three on the roof of the legendary Chicken Hut in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. They had just finished a music video shoot—their second LP, Morbid Now, Morbid Later, came out last month on Toxic State—so a "crowd" of five or so people watched us talk. It felt unnervingly like a live podcast taping. To start the interview, everyone clapped.

One of the main reasons I wanted to do this with you is that I really wanted to talk about freestyle music.

Dracula Orengo: Ok, let’s go.

Because I think you're the first contemporary band I've seen that's tried to combine punk and freestyle in an overt way. 

Justin: Yeah, we call it dark freestyle. 

Dracula Orengo: Dark freestyle. I mean, basically, I've always had a vision of like, goth music being this freestyle mix. When I was a kid, I would listen to Noel, and he had this song “Silent Morning,” and I would be like, Wow, this is such a cool goth song. But then when I got old, I was like, This ain't goth, this is a freestyle song. And then you had Information Society. You had other artists who would just do this back and forth, but had elements of that. And I mean, Ministry did it the best, in my opinion, in their early stuff. 

But yeah, dark freestyle, organically, it’s what we are: New York City. I mean, it's just a mixture of different styles, of the streets. And freestyle music is the doo-wop of the late ‘80s and ‘90s, these love songs, and I've always envisioned this concept of being the opposite of that, the negative part of that, the dark shit, which in New York City is jail, police state, drugs, dying. You know, like, fuck them. What am I going to sing something happy about? Ain't no love like that, in my opinion. 

I still hear freestyle. My girlfriend lives in Bay Ridge, and I still hear that shit.

Dracula Orengo: Bumping in the street.

Slamming in the street, to this day. 

Dracula Orengo: That's anywhere in New York, that's any borough you go to on a Sunday afternoon. 

Yeah, that never left. For any of you, was this an influence in your previous bands, or was this kind of a new concept? 

Dracula Orengo: Always. Born and raised. I mean, being a Puerto Rican kid, 1983, born out of East New York, my whole family, every birthday party, every fucking celebration, if it wasn't like some salsa, it was freestyle music or hip hop or dancehall. So those are the main ingredients, but I feel like freestyle music, it had an element of emotion. And I feel like with doing Blu Anxxiety, I was able to project that with dance beats. 

That last song on the new record…

Dracula Orengo: Information Society “Running.” I'm talking about 1988, 1989, I'm in a house, I'm six, seven years old, I'm dancing with my mom. I mean, it was a Sunday afternoon treat to hear my mom playing freestyle music and cleaning the house. I would help clean the house and we would sing along to these freestyle tracks. Between that and hip hop, for me—childhood anthems. I listen to some Biggie Smalls, I feel the same way about Big Daddy Kane, Wu-Tang, Onyx, I mean, like fucking Gravediggaz, shit like that. I grew up listening to it and I love it. I put a melody in it, it makes me think of my childhood in New York City and my love for it.

For sure. And you’re such a New York band. I think the reason why I’m drawn to your band and not a lot of similar things is because you have a different kind of energy, one that pushes the music out of this full-on retro cosplay kind of zone of, like, we're doing this one genre very specifically. And I'm curious: what else are you thinking about when you're writing these songs?

Brett: I think genre is something you want to play with, not something you want to adhere to. And I think the problem that a lot of bands fall into is that it gets formulaic and boring. With Chi (Dracula Orengo) and Anasazi, and being a fan of Blu Anxxiety, you know, just seeing Chi’s evolution, it’s a natural evolution to Chi’s interests. I just thought Blu Anxxiety was so ambitious when I first saw it, and to be asked after a few years of kicking around in my personal life, to come into it is pretty incredible.

It’s fun for me in terms of the background, there’s always a throughline—it’s not exactly the same, but J’s musical history is sort of similar to mine, same thing to Chi’s, but not exactly the same. So coming in, it felt super natural, and writing music with the two of them is just so easy. It’s fun. I don’t know. Sometimes writing music in bands is not always easy. I think maybe it’s the way we write, in J’s room, that’s why I feel so comfortable. 

Justin: I was learning electronics when we started—I came from guitar and then me and Chi just started jamming when I was living in a shipping container. And we literally just used a loop pedal and a synthesizer. And I learned how to write electronic music kind of on the fly basically coming from punk and loud guitar music. And so, you hear the combo in that, and as we progress, we kind of have more of a distilled sound, where we know what we're doing. We still keep heavy guitar on stuff. We still have these dance beats. And then the live show is, you know, it's like a full performance where there's a lot of showmanship to it, I would say. 

Yeah, tell me about the costuming because I walked in and I saw Justin getting wrapped in a garbage bag. 

Dracula Orengo: It was supposed to be a body bag, but yeah. Organic genocide, concept of opera. I mean, when I put my nun habit on, it's blasphemy all over the fucking place. End of rock and roll, RIP. I'm here to kill it with my bandmates. 

So, do you like to play rock shows? 

Dracula Orengo: I like to play any shows. I like anything organically. Anyone who just fucking enjoys themselves. So, any artists who can go out there and they're just about themselves. They're not trying to be anybody else. I appreciate that shit. 

Justin: I tried for the last couple of years to book us a lot of shows that are really mixed with different crowds, bringing different crowds together. I think the last show we played was with that band Sediment Club, at Chaos Computer. I mean, most of the shows happening there were really mixed bill type-things. And those ones, I think, for us are kind of the best because we don't fit in anything in particular. 

Dracula Orengo: In life. 

Justin: In life, we're misfits, I would say. Straddling a lot of different scenes that don't work for us if it's just one thing. 

With a lot of music now, it's funny. There's parallel things happening at the same time, where musically, they're pretty much the same, but then culturally, they're a million miles away. 

Dracula Orengo: We should be playing with drill artists. That's it. Yeah. Eric Adams is trying to put a stop to that. In New York, fuck Eric Adams. Fuck the NYPD, put that in the interview. 

You gotta probably be the first person to write an anti-cop freestyle song. 

Dracula Orengo: Dark freestyle, maybe. 

Dark freestyle, I'm sorry. 

Dracula Orengo: I mean, Blu Anxxiety, the meaning, PTSD from the police state. There was never a definition for that. Why was that? No, seriously, why? I don't know. There was never a definition. I was like, B-L-U, because when you're dealing with the pigs and you're going through the system and you're going through the jail and bookings and all that, it's you by yourself. You're dealing with that with a lawyer. And the two X's is always the two strikes. Someone feels like their life's fucking over when they got two strikes on their record, you know? So, Blu Anxxiety. That was the definition. 

To me, your style has developed pretty organically… 

Dracula Orengo: Yeah, and I'm glad because now we got Brett, and me and Brett, we were in Anasazi together. Brett played the drums. And I felt with Justin, our combination, man, these are the twin towers over here. They fucking, you know, working and Justin and Brett…

Justin: Falling apart at all times. 

Dracula Orengo: Oh, yeah, that's me. But these guys right here, working with them, it’s just amazing. 

So what's the touring dynamic? 

Dracula Orengo: I sit in the back. 

Justin: Chi sits in the back, I sit in the front. 

Dracula Orengo: I can't sleep in a car. 

Justin: I got a bad back so I have to recline all the way. 

Brett: It flares up every time I'm gonna pick something up. 

Yeah, touring after 30, you know, I think about it a lot. I don't do it as much. It seems a little more difficult?

Brett: I think it's easier now. 

Really? 

Brett: I think we're better at having fun. Back in the day, it was like everybody's hungover and like, straightening their hair for three hours. We're just sober and we're losing our hair. 

It's interesting to figure out how to navigate DIY touring as you age.

Dracula Orengo: A good sanctuary of the mind. A good cleansing of your subconscious and good spirits. 

Justin: Yeah, we try to keep it light and it's been working. 

Have you traveled overseas at all? 

Justin: No. We're going to Japan in two weeks. In two weeks. 

Dracula Orengo: I'm gonna get banned in Japan. 

Justin: We're going to do three Tokyo shows, we’re gonna play Osaka and Nagoya. 

Amazing. 

Justin: And that's like with goth and punk bands, I think that's like mainly the circuit that we're doing there. 

Yeah, it's definitely maybe a little bit more focused out there—people dial in on exactly what they like. 

Justin: Definitely. 

I’ve toured there a few times and those were easily the best tours I’ve done in my life. 

Justin: Oh really? 

Dracula Orengo: Did you like the food? 

Yeah, I mean the food was amazing. Hopefully you got someone showing you around, it can be a secret kind of country. 

Dracula Orengo: I gotta get down with the Yakuza when I'm out there. 

Well, I think if you have tattoos in Japan, if you want to go to a swimming pool, you gotta cover that shit up because it's a Yakuza signifier. 

Dracula Orengo: I mean I don’t go to swimming pools in New York, I'm not gonna swim. 

Brett: You know what I was thinking about, Chi, is when we met in Anasazi, we had “Nuclear Paradise” about the nuclear power plant in Japan that was melting down or whatever at the time. And now they just released the water back into the ocean and we're about to go there. 

Dracula Orengo: I'm gonna drink it. 

Brett: It's very full circle.

Morbid Now, Morbid Later is out now on Toxic State. Blu Anxxiety on Instagram and Bandcamp. (Photo by Rob Coons)