ABiCA means homegrown hip-hop

Algonquin natives Brian Aureden (aka Hash) and Aaron Aleman (aka Tac) have known each other for virtually their whole lives. After entertaining friends with a number of jokey songs they concocted on Tac's computer, their rapport eventually spawned a serious hip-hop team they called ABiCA.

The duo, currently living in DeKalb while attending Northern Illinois University, released their first album entitled "Truth In Lies" in 2007. Their latest, "Enigma," surfaced this past February. Following an increasingly popular route for independent artists, ABiCA offers "Enigma" as a free download via MySpace.

The album's sonic complexity, as well as its surprising lyrical glimpses of naked emotion, help it stand out in a sea of amateurs and wannabe millionaire thugs. Sure, there's a heaping helping of anger there, but also sorrow and hope.

This year, ABiCA has already performed with rap-rockers (hed) p.e. and at the Gathering of the Juggalos, Psychopathic Records' annual fan base convention held in downstate Cave-In-Rock. Such crowds speak to ABiCA's appeal: catchy, professional tunes delivered from a blunted, middle-fingers-high suburban stance.

A new album called "Numb," which Tac says is "more rock" than past ABiCA discs, is due early next year, while more live dates loom, including a West Coast tour in November. Hash and Tac discussed their approach to music in preparation for a show (which includes ABiCA's friend and fellow DeKalb resident Ace White) at South Barrington's Penny Road Pub on Wednesday, Sept. 24.

Q. You started together in 2001. Did you make recordings then?

H. That's how we started. Aaron had a little computer mic in his basement, and we just went down there and started messing around. We recorded this song called "Nerd Song." We were just kind of mocking nerds. The next day, we went to school and showed all of our friends. They thought it was hilarious, and they told us, "You need to make more songs." It just started with that, and we kept making these songs that people loved. We weren't a band or anything. We were just recording these songs because it was fun for us.

Q. What drove you to start taking it more seriously?

H. Before our first CD came out, we made about 100 songs. After doing all that, we figured out that this is what we like to do. We'd be in our own little studio five days a week. We'd do all our own mixing on the songs, and the more we made, the better they'd get. We'd show people, they loved it. We thought, "Why not do this for real?" So, we said we were going to put together a CD and see what happens. We put out "Truth and Lies" and people loved it, and we just kept going from there. It's just what we like to do, we like making songs. We're still in the studio five days a week doing this.

Q. Did you grow up listening to hip-hop?

T. At least for me, I grew up listening to a lot of the mainstream kind of hip-hop, and a lot of rock, too. I think that's a big influence on our music, rock and some of the early '90s hip-hop.

H. Our biggest influence is Nine Inch Nails, we kind of listened to [Trent Reznor] and how he does it. We both have the same taste in music, so we kind of got the feel of that and tried to create our own music with our own style, be original with it.

T. A lot of our other influences would be Suburban Noize Records and the Kottonmouth Kings, Tech N9ne, Twiztid from Psychopathic Records... most of these people we've done shows with, but it's cool doing shows with people we listened to growing up.

Q. What made you decide to give "Enigma" away for free? It sounds like a lot of work went into it.

H. We wanted everyone to hear it. If you listen to it, I mean, they're not bad songs. It's not like we just put together a free album of some songs we weren't really feeling. It's an actual, real CD that we put a lot of time, a lot of effort and thought into, and we wanted to get people to hear it. We figured a lot of people, if it's an up-and-coming band, they might not want to buy the CD, so maybe we'd put it out and develop more of a fan base.

T. With the Internet, anyone can download your album anyway, so why not beat them to it and make it easier for them?

Q. Can you tell me about your approach to lyrics?

H. We write what's real, what we're feeling. Nothing that we do is fake. A lot of it's personal stuff. It's stuff that we've been through, hard times or good times or whatever it is. A lot of the songs have a little message or story to them.

T. Some of the lyrics may not have gone directly through us, maybe it happened to some people we know. Sometimes we just like to tell a good story.

H. For example, we've got a song called "My Demise" on "Truth In Lies." It's a song about being depressed and feeling like you've lost everything. I remember writing that song in my room, and that was real, I was feeling all of that. It's kind of hard to listen to the song right now, because it takes me back to that place where I was at.

Q. I know there's a hip-hop scene in the suburbs, but it seems more hidden than other musical subcultures.

T. It's very underground. I think part of the reason is that it's so easy to be a "rapper" these days. All you need is a mic, so the artist pool isn't very good. People just make songs, they don't really promote. It's so easy to just make a song, make a MySpace. A lot of these people aren't doing shows or anything. It's not just all music, you have to work. Promoting, going to malls, handing out fliers ... a lot of that stuff, people just don't want to do. They just want to make the songs. We always try to get whatever we can. If we want a show, we keep trying to get on it. We put the work in and never give up.

Next show

With: New Era Chi, The Nu Focus, Skrapt Soulz, Ace White, CRSMN

7 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 24, at Penny Road Pub, 28W705 Penny Road, South Barrington

Tickets: $6; (847) 428-0562