afropunk exclusive! interview with husband and wife duo and “neo-ragtime” architects dessy di lauro & ric’key pageot #soundcheck

Husband and wife team Dessy Di Lauro and Ric’key Pageot have concocted a style of music they call “neo-ragtime.” Their latest album “This is Neo-Ragtime” (out Feb 5th) blends hip-hop, soul, RnB, and ragtime into a sound and style that looks back on the last 100 years of Black Culture while simultaneously looking forward. We spoke with them about their upcoming release, Black History Month, and the legacy of the Harlem Renaissance.

– Interview by Nathan Leigh

Your music seems to be all about tying together the threads of music from all across the African diaspora. Who are the artists you look to most for inspiration?

Dessy Di Lauro:
Because of the music we do, like a mix of ragtime, soul, hip-hop—we call it neo-ragtime—our influences are Duke Ellington, Fats Waller, Cab Calloway. A mix of the artists from the 1920’s, 30’s period mixed with today. Anyone from Stevie Wonder to Herbie Hancock to Outkast. There’s like a huge mix of all these artists. The main source of inspiration was definitely the artists from the 1920’s and 30’s.

Do you see yourselves as connected to mash-up culture then?

Dessy Di Laruo:
I do. I definitely do. It’s a new sound that’s never been done before. So I don’t fit into the categories that are out there right now. It’s not neo-soul, it’s not hip-hop. It’s a mix of all of that; but mixed up with ragtime. So it’s a sound all on it’s own. So I’d definitely put myself in that category with the artists that are more alternative soul, that kind of thing.

Ric’key Pageot:
The advantage with the internet is that people are still exposed to different genres. Now people are creating music; like you say, they just want to mash up all the things that they like and put it in one style. Back in the day you usually used to have your hip-hop radio stations, your RnB radio stations, your rock radio stations. And now with the internet you can listen to anything; you have access to anything. You see how electronic music is becoming such a part of hip-hop right now. So all of that is due to the internet. People are exposed to different genres of music. They don’t have to get it from the radio stations that are playing the Top 40 or the Top 10 from that specific genre. Now you just hear a lot of independent underground stuff online. And there’s so many influences now that people are mixing all the genres. They’re like “you know what? Let me just do what I wanna hear on the radio.” And that’s what we’re doing. We want to do what we want to hear. It’s not necessarily “grown folk music” and it’s not necessarily “rebellious hip-hop youth music.” It’s a cross. It’s crossing those demographic boundaries in a way that hasn’t really been done before.

Since you’re bridging these styles of music that are pretty far apart—at least in terms of the people who listen to them—have you seen people who are into the more old-school music connecting to it?

Ric’key Pageot:
Oh definitely. We see it in the crowds. When we play Blue Note, when we play in New York we get a lot of the youth; we get a lot of the college kids. They just want to hear something new. They saw the first video, and that video has been a huge tool for us. We ended up winning that video through a contest, and that video has done wonders. Wherever we perform, the venue puts it up on their calendar. Then you got people who come to the show from the 20’s 30’s 40’s 50 years old they all come and they’re singing “Why You Raggin’.” It’s a really cool response.

Dessy Di Laruo:
I think people don’t know what to expect. So the curiosity got them more than anything else. So when they come out they’re like “oh OK.” And then when they hear the music they’re like “oh wow.” It’s like a whole concept from the clothing to the music. From the style to everything it’s like a full on concept.

Ric’key Pageot:
And it’s fun. You listen to jazz—to pre-World War II jazz—and it’s fun music. You can’t stop yourself from dancing.

Dessy Di Lauro:
Fun music, but with depth. You know, the lyrics are deep. I have messages in each one of my songs. That’s important, you know. I find that relevance is lost in this era right now. It’s nice to have stuff that can still touch people, that people can relate to.

What are the messages you try to bring out with your music?

Dessy Di Lauro:
I have a little something for everyone. A lot of female empowerment songs, anti-bullying. I’m a strong advocate against domestic violence. So there’s some of that. There’s a little bit of everything. Empowerment, love, strength, courage. Also about popularity contests. A lot of people try to lose their integrity through their music, and I’m not about to do that. This is what I do, and I’m happy doing what I do. This is me.

What is it about the Harlem Renaissance that inspires you?

Dessy Di Lauro:
The one thing I tell people is that right now in urban music—and there’s some people doing amazing stuff, kinda mixing it up, there’s like Janelle Monae—writing stuff that can stick with people. People are like “oh that’s cool, I haven’t heard that yet.” And the one thing about the Harlem Renaissance is it was a really important period in American culture—in all history—because they created this sound that was all their own. It was a time of intellectual and artistic blossoming. African Americans were just blossoming. It was a period of burgeoning creativity that captured the attention of the world. I feel like right now we’re at a stagnant place with the music industry; in the industry part of it. I feel like people do want to hear interesting, relevant music, but now they have to sift through all this other stuff that’s out there. This period was so important. It was a time of creativity and taking chances and that really stuck. I grew up on this music and I thought it was important to share this. We have this whole campaign coming out for Black History Month. Because I want to reintroduce this music that has been kinda lost. Nobody touches up on this music anymore. It’s part of the roots of where all music came from.

Ric’key Pageot
Jazz, essentially.

Dessy Di Lauro:
Jazz, soul, RnB, hip-hop; it all stems from there. It just came about. Ric’key and I started working one day and it just happened. It was a natural process to create this sound. It just happened because of our influences. Being influenced by this music. It just came about. And I thought how cool would it be to re-introduce to the world…

Ric’key Pageot:
Almost 100 years later.

Dessy Di Lauro:
Right. 100 years later. Like “Sweet Georgia Brown” was actually a pop song way back when.

Ric’key Pageot:
In 1925, it was number one in the pop charts for 5 weeks.

Ragtime has gotten a reputation as the go-to music when you want to make something sound “old timey.” Is that something you guys play with or find yourselves fighting against?

Ric’key Pageot:
We embrace that.

Dessy Di Lauro:
We actually embrace that. But we also bring it into today. We’re trying to show people that yeah it’s this old influence, but it’s very today.

Ric’key Pageot:
We’re making it contemporary by using today’s sounds. On a couple of the songs I do use upright bass sounds, but most of the songs I’m using keyboard bass sounds. So the bass is really thumping is modern. The drums; I’m using hip-hop sounds. But at the same time I’m using the language they used to use back then. The striding piano, the clarinet, trumpet with the cup mute, all those elements that made the language of that period, I’m using those. So it’s blending both languages into one. We embrace the whole culture. When you come to our shows, you see us dressed up in time period.

Dessy:
I’m dressed up in a top hat, I’m wearing a latex dominatrix kinda tuxedo new look outfit. So it’s got this really modern twist to it.

You mentioned before your project for Black History Month, was it intentional to release this album in February?

Ric’key Pageot:
It was intentional, it was definitely intentional. I think that people forgot about the contributions that the Harlem Renaissance had on Black Culture. It’s sad to say that we only talk about Black History in February, but if that’s the way it is, we’ll use that month to introduce it and then we’ll use the music and our shows to keep talking about it the rest of the year. So that’s what we’re here for. We want to be the ambassadors for this music we call neo-ragtime.

Dessy Di Lauro:
I think everybody has this thought process that black music is only one thing. But it’s a mix of things. We can be creative. We can fuse it up. It’s not only one thing, it’s many things. We want to take those guards off people’s eyes and say it’s not soul music, it’s not only hip-hop. It’s a collage of different sounds. We’re just trying to push it to the forefront.