There once was a Pilot, a Boss, and a Movement…
The company Original Genius Entertainment is an Umbrella Production Company founded for the sole purpose of cultivating the multiple talents of the people it works for. It all started with three childhood friends from Saginaw, Michigan, who had an unlimited amount of drive and a lot of scattered energy. Everyone in OG Entertainment and everyone affiliated with the crew work in many interchangeable ways. Here at Original Genius we stress the importance of being well-versed at knowing each others specialties, but even still we have very specific roles that we take seriously.
The Pilot – The Pilot is Nicholas Herd, a 22-year old Sound Engineer who trained in New York City where he got a degree in Fine Arts from New York University. His duties as the designated “Leader” include the Producing and Arrangement of any Music, Broadcast, or Film & TV audio that comes through the company. He has a scattered and eclectic approach that covers the Small-Town aspirations of his home to the Metropolitan Cities he has traveled. Quazzy has been all over the world and it is from his extensive travel as a Sound Engineer, Videographer, Photographer, and Yoga Instructor that gives Quazzy the expanded world-view to make the calls OG Ent needs. Check his Passport! That’s why they call him The Pilot.
The Movement – From the slums to the stage/Big screen/radio airwaves with a energetic, witty, and spontaneous style of comedy and unique voice. East side of Saginaw’s very ownGuyOffTheRadio(Marcus McDol
e) a.k.a “The Atomic Dog” created by the hard times using the world as his own personal stage and getaway. This Marketing Genius is bringing a new voice and originality to the Original Genius Entertainment along with a bubbling personality and amazing worth ethic and drive. Be ready to laugh, cry, smile, and be satisfied by the end of the night rather it’s a comedy set , radio show, voice over acting, or his perfect pitch marketing skills.
Exposed Vocals: How did you hear about Exposed Vocals? What made you decide to sign up?
OGent:Twitter. Twitter helped on that. We were chilling…excuse me “plotting” and we were contacted by Exposed Vocals on the 4th (The Day of Our Company’s Inception). We want to take this time to Thank You for your continued support with Original Genius Entertainment.
Exposed Vocals: So tell us your story. Where did you grow up? What made you decide to become an artist?
Mac Da Boss: (inhales) What?
Atomic Dog: (wears traditonal Japanese “Kasa” while sitting in reflective silence)
Quaz: (while typing this email) Ok so off the top I just wanna start this out by saying Thank You for having us and our personalities and stories is one that can be told in one fell swoop. In this time of great Civil Unrest…naw I’m just playing my name is Nicholas Herd, formely known as Alex, and as Quazzy Faffle I alone with Marcus “The Atomic Dog” (@GuyOnTheRadio) and Jalen “Mac Da Boss” McMillan are three Friends and Entertainers who came from their home of Saginaw, Michigan to make it big in the Biggest Apple: New York City. These three friends had different journeys to get here, but there must have been somebody praying somewhere and here they ended up, 16 years later. We all love to naturally entertain so we feel very confident people can get behind what we are saying, and on February 4th we decided to make it official with the naming of the company, “Original Genius Entertainment”
Exposed Vocals: How did you come up with that name? What was your inspiration behind it?
Mac: I like how it sounds, I like how it’s abbreviated. It’s who we are. It fits us perfectly man. We are all original.
Atomic: We are all original in our own way too man. We are all some Geniuses in our own way.
Mac:We are original then a b*tch too. We aren’t just three of the same muthafkkkkas, we also Geniuses too. (laughs) It’s kind of Self-Explanatory
Exposed Vocals: What do you think about online music sharing? Do you ever give your music away for free? Why?
Q: We definitely have given away the music in ways far from monetarily sharing it, people give away so much in many ways with their time and dedication to sharing and spreading our music man, we do it for the people because we know the people feel us. So in that regards every soul record I ever heard I got from my father and through online sharing I’ve shown him some music too. So we give away the music to the people, we made it so we could feel good making the music and we want everyone to feel good for free.
Exposed Vocals: Since everyone was a start-up once, can you give any smaller or local bands or artists looking to get gigs and airplay some tips?
Roll with Original Genius
Exposed Vocals: Do you ever make mistakes during performances? How do you handle that?
Atomic: There is never mistakes. I improv. When you do an act, the crowd pays to see the act. As far as they know I meant to make that to happen, as if it is apart of the show.
Quaz: It comes down to what you value as a mistake. If you slip up on some material that was written along time ago, it’s up you to update that material to your present situation in that present moment. The people aren’t there for you to feel like slipped up, the people are there to feel your energy.
Exposed Vocals: Do you tour? Anything interesting happen on tour that you think our readers would enjoy hearing about?
Mac: Tours? Tours *****
Original Genius is currently available in Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, New York, New Jersey, and Delaware/New Hampshire. For more info on booking please email [email protected]
Exposed Vocals: Where do you usually gather songwriting inspiration? What is your usual songwriting process?
Quaz: For me inspiration comes from all places that foster a positive learning space. The music that has been coming out since we have all formed together has been very free-flowing and recorded like a Live Studio Show. We live in a 3 bedroom apartment and we use the 3rd room as a interchangeable studio. The room is bordered with everything from mini auralex foam pads to Dragon Ball Z Tapestries. There are huge slabs of uncovered fiberglass that surround the wholes and get sharp glass dust on your hair and clothes when you brush by it. There is a manequinn named Betty and for all that it’s worth it’s her room. We use it most of the day recording freestyles we edit later. At night I sleep on Yoga mats in the room with Betty.
Exposed Vocals: Do you have a band website? What online platforms do you use to share your music?
The Current website up is www.HeyQuazzy.com There you can find links to all of our music and video platforms. Our biggest platform has been www.Soundcloud.com/Quazzy where we have just dropped “The QuazAtomic Show”
Exposed Vocals: What are some really embarrassing songs that we might find on your mp3 player?
Quaz: I got it all man, it’s too much to be ashamed about. If it’s Backstreet Boys if it’s Barry White if it’s Ricky Rozay it’s all the same if it’s good music.
Exposed Vocals: If you were given half a million dollars and a year off, what would you do? How would you spend it?
(everyone looks and smiles)
Mac: Can we just clear the elephant in the room?
Quaz: I for one would buy more of these cookies Mac came through with they slappin! And also probably something for world peace.
Exposed Vocals: Any planned studio upgrades? What are you working with now?
Quaz: We have a lot of Upgrades coming man for one we have just UPGRADED to and Limited Liability Company thanks to the help of ___. On the technical side of things we have a studio that is set up in a way that the feng shui has put the elements in Symbosis with each other. I have an MPC 5000 and I mix my music through ProTools on Yamaha NS-10 monitors. The home footage is recorded on a Sony A7s Camera.
Exposed Vocals: How do you find ways to promote your music? What works best for you?
Quaz:Marcus McDole is also known as the movement. He gets all the promotion into gear.
Exposed Vocals: If you could perform anywhere and with any artists (Dead or Alive) where and who would it be with? Why?
Quaz:Jimmy Fallon because we could freestyle with The Roots.
Exposed Vocals: So, what’s next? Any new upcoming projects that you want to talk about?
The projects have been flowing and we haven’t figured out how to exactly arrange it all. What we do know is we have about 15 new songs and 3 or 4 new videos on the way and we will be keeping you all posted on Heyquazzy.com
Exposed Vocals: If you weren’t making music, what would you be doing?
Quaz I teach Yoga at Yoga to The People
Mac: I’d play baseball
Atomic Dog: I be with my girlfriend.
Exposed Vocals: Do you remember buying your first album? Who was it? What was going through your head?
Quaz: Yea I bought “Doctors Advocate” by The Game
Mac: Same
Quaz; Yea it was around 2006 the game was going pretty hard.
Marcus: First album I bought? UGK.
Exposed Vocals: How do you juggle the rest of your responsibilities while trying to stay ahead in your music life?
We Support Each other
Exposed Vocals: What should fans look forward to in 2016?
Quaz: The world chico, and everything in it.
Quaz: So if your flow was a burger, what kind of toppings would you have.
Mac: Lot of Ketchup with some muffuckin Sesame Seed… well it’s gonna be on a Pretzel Bun, Sesame Seed on the Pretzel Bun and cut out the ketchup I don’t even need it. Just so I make my own burgers.