The Walking Dead: A walker’s underground hip hop project
By Susie Graham
The Walking Dead walker actor Stephen Vining has a new creative project with underground Denver rapper Time that he would like to share with Undead Walking readers.
How to Sew Wounds with Words is the debut album from Stephen Vining under his music producer name, Ephelant, with Chris Steele, aka Time. The album was released on August 1, 2016, by Dirty Laboratory in Denver, an Underground Hip Hop Label owned & operated by Chris & Awareness.
Chris Steele, aka Time, is not only a well-known Denver hip hop artist, he is a respected journalist who has co-authored an article with Noam Chomsky.
How to Sew Wounds with Words is their first full album release together, but Stephen and Chris have been working together since 2012.
Stephen fell in love with Chris’ work while combing through hundreds of underground artists in major cities on the internet searching for the right someone to help with a special project, a musical equivalent of the movie Plan 9 from Outer Space by Ed Wood. Their first collaboration, Plan J, was the result of the fortuitous pairing.
The two have become close friends even though they’ve never met. They talk everything from politics, to music, to life and have helped each other learn and grow through life issues, documenting their experiences in their music.
With the release of their first full album together, they plan to meet and perform their music live in as many venues as possible across the United States.
You may wonder how they work together if they’ve never met. Stephen makes his instrumental music and sends the songs to Chris, who chooses the right ones for his lyrics.
Stephen is secretive about how he creates his music–”A producer never tells,” but he will say that he prefers to make music when it’s raining and leans toward moody and atmospheric sounds.
Stephen even raps a bit on the song, “The Shadow”, which he describes as a cryptic and honest song. He was honest with me about his cryptic producer name, which honors his inner child.
He wanted to wear his vulnerability in his name and let that child live in his music. Ephelant is the mispronunciation of his imaginary elephant childhood friend.
How to Sew Wounds with Words is receiving outstanding reviews in the underground hip-hop world. Vice calls it an “anarchist hip hop rallying cry.”
Experience the rallying cry:
Find Stephen Vining and Chris Steele online and on social media at the following links:
Stephen Vining: ephelant.bandcamp.com stephenvining.com Facebook Twitter
Chris Steele: thisistime.bandcamp.com Twitter