Since 2022, Salt Lake City’s Bad Luck Brigade has been quietly reshaping what live hip-hop can be. What started as a middle school friendship between Kilow and Ikaika Meatoga grew into a DJ/Emcee duo, and eventually blossomed into a six-piece band where drums, bass, guitar, keys, and horns collide with jazz, funk, and hip-hop energy. Their new album NOTHING captures the spirit of a band that thrives on improvisation, experimentation, and collaboration- recorded in their own home studio with longtime friend Jex Swenson at the helm. From jamming on a guitar riff to reshaping tracks in real time, the group has crafted a record that’s playful, soulful, and unmistakably alive, all while representing a Salt Lake City scene that’s more known for indie rock than hip-hop. We sat down with Bad Luck Brigade to talk about their creative process, their inspirations, and how they hope NOTHING inspires listeners to express themselves.

How did you guys first meet and come together to form Bad Luck Brigade?

Bad Luck Brigade has been something Kaika and I have been working on for some time. We’ve been friends since middle school and started working on music together in high school. The first iteration of the band was as a DJ/Emcee/Production duo. We started the band in 2022 after a few years of doing that. 

What drew you to jazz and hip-hop, and how do those influences shape your sound together?

Jazz and hip hop have always been hand in hand, since the beginning of hip hop as a genre. Everything is derivative in music, everyone takes and reshapes what came before them. We love the early 90s sound from groups like A Tribe Called Quest, The Jungle Brothers and The Roots. 

The album NOTHING blends soul, jazz, and more, with raw, lyrically-driven hip-hop. How did the creative process for this record differ from your earlier work?

The recording process for this album differed a lot from our earlier stuff because we went away from doing things analog in a studio and recorded this entirely digitally in our house. Our childhood friend Jex Swenson has been going to school to become a recording engineer and this is his first project. He completely spearheaded the engineering side of things and just let us create. Super cool to have one of your closest homies come to your house at 8 AM, set shit up, tell you “come and play” and then boom 6 months later you have a record. 

When writing new music, do you start with lyrics, melodies, or instrumental ideas? How does a song usually come together for you?

Since we’re a band it all just comes from everywhere. Matu, Ikaika and I (Kilow) were the main composers for this album. A lot of times it’s just fucking around on a guitar, or we sit down and write something on Ableton and rearrange as a band, or I’ve had this bar in my head for 6 months that we’re gonna put a piece around. Then it’s just jamming it out, figuring out what goes where and what the piece needs. 

How do you approach experimenting with new sounds or styles while staying true to your identity?

Sometimes you gotta take the reins off and just mess around. We all know what we collectively sound like, sometimes a song will drift too far in an experimental direction and we bring it back, or one person really pushes for an idea that the other 5 veto. Ultimately it’s a little democratic, but we (even if we [and by we I mean “I”] try to fight it) try to try everything before we say no. 

Being part of Salt Lake City’s music scene, what’s are some different aspects from the local culture that have influenced your style or approach?

There unfortunately isn’t much of a hip hop scene here, but there is world class indie rock. Bands like The Backseat Lovers and The Moss (our fuckin boys BTW!!) have come out of the scene recently and are tearing it up to world wide appeal. We love hip hop, soul, funk and are trying to go about exploring the genre with integrity even coming from a scene where there isn’t a lot of that. We owe a lot to acts like Earthworm, Swell Merchants, Eddie Lion and House of Lewis for paving what ways they did for the genre in the state. 

If a listener could take one feeling away from a Bad Luck Brigade show, what would you want it to be?

We hope it inspires you to express yourself in the good ways too. A lot of times, for me at least and I think my bandmates will echo this, playing music is a great way to cope and process fucked up things that have happened in your life. Sharing what you make with people opens a lot of doors and can put people into productive loops and that feels great. I don’t think I’d have a whole lot going on if I wasn’t making shit. I’m glad people resonate with it and I hope I inspire them to create too. 

Beyond your music, what inspires Bad Luck Brigade creatively- people, experiences, or even places?

We’ve kind of been fixated on this faux cowboy aesthetic. We feel it represents where we’re from pretty well. I think it’s a neat juxtaposition to see all of our branding be like horses and mountain man shit and then we’re actually a pretty mellow’d out soul/rap group

What advice would you give to other artists trying to create a live, instrument-driven sound in hip-hop?

Improvement isn’t linear and the thing you’re trying to do is create a moment that people can immerse themselves in. Make the song, put it out, show it to who will listen, don’t be too good for others, and be keen on who you spend your time with. The right people will find you and fuck with you.

Listen to Bad Luck Brigade’s latest album NOTHING here on our platform.