Northern State
Biography
“We are Northern State and we are pleased to announce our new album 'Can I Keep This Pen?'.
We’ve been friends for a very long time. Our names are Sprout, Hesta Prynn and Spero. We grew up together in deep suburban Long Island and found ourselves living in NYC after college. One night at a party at Hesta Prynn’s apartment we had the idea to start a rap group. So we did.
We have now been a band for 7 years. 'Can I Keep This Pen?' is our third proper album, following 'All City' (Columbia Records, 2004), and 'Dying in Stereo' (Northern State Records / Startime / Wichita UK, 2003). We also released a 2002 independent EP 'Hip Hop You Haven’t Heard', which was supposed to be our demo but somehow ended up in 'Rolling Stone'. We have had the good fortune of sharing the stage in the US and Europe with acts like The Roots, Le Tigre, Talib Kweli, De La Soul, The Gossip, Gym Class Heroes, Tegan And Sara, and Cake.
After 'All City', we became increasingly frustrated with the Columbia machine and left the label. Finally free, we teamed up with producer Chuck Brody of Shitake Monkey (Wu Tang Clan, Yoko Ono etc.) and Adrock from the Beastie Boys and began making our new album. We wrote some rock songs and some hip hop songs and some other kinds of songs. We pushed the limits more than ever in terms of what a hip hop song might sound like, what a rock song might sound like, and what Northern State might sound like. We finally named the album 'Can I Keep This Pen?'.
'Can I Keep This Pen?' includes songs about our friendship (“Better Already”), our president (“Cowboy Man”), the apathy that surrounds us (“Cold War”), as well as what may be the first Northern State love song (“Away, Away”). Our classic old school hip hop sound runs through the album, weaving its way through an electro-rock current. We did an unprecedented amount of singing, there are more guitars than ever, as well as several references to horses.
We were fortunate to have some talented friends like Mr. Murray Hill, Kaki King, and Katie Cassidy stop by and play on the album. However, we are no longer allowed to hold “writing meetings” at the Rodeo bar.
Mike Patton and Greg at Ipecac heard the new record and loved it and we are thrilled to finally be working with a label that encourages us to be as weird as we are.
Oh, I’m sorry…'Can I Keep This Pen?'