T-NEB/RCP one of the largest independent production companies in Athens GA . Housing 2 executive producers , 2 engineers , 6 music producers , DJ , 13 artist & musicians . Our home base is located in the great CLASSIC CITY of Athens GA . We specialize in music production for Artist , Commercials , Movies etc. It is important for us to always push the envelope , and to break the barriers of the norm . We live by ," We are not bi-coastal we are universal . Life is music and the music is our life ." We hope you enjoy everything you see and hear on our website . Love , Life , Music .
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Thursday, August 09, 2007
Athens Banner Harold / Julie Phillips interviews T-NEB.
Athens' T-Nebula Productions honing talent for the world
Galactic gatherings
In a tidy living room tucked into one of Athens' East Side neighborhoods, stars are stirring.
Under the moniker T-Nebula Productions, the home serves as headquarters for producer Nolan Terrebone and a handful of local talent he's pulled into his galaxy, helping them smooth their skills in the recording studio.
Among the artists on the T-Nebula roster, Ben Stevens, Curtison Jones "Son 1" and DJ Killacut sit on a recent afternoon in Terrebone's house discussing music and their futures.
The three - whose music ranges from rap to DJ to singer/songwriter/R&B, say they've placed their trust in Terrebone for both his vision and his skills as an engineer.
"Nolan's good at guiding artists with their work," says Son 1, who's currently working on a new album following November's "The American Hero," his self-released concept rap album following the harrowing story of an American soldier in Iraq.
"When you have a certain destination in mind," adds Killacut, who also serves as head of promotions for T-Nebula, "you go with the best course of action - and that's (Terrebone's) way of working."
"He's got a lot of experience," adds Stevens. "We all start in different places, but we come together under his expertise."
A native of Louisiana, where he first developed his interest in music, Terrebone moved to Athens 16 years ago. Having lived in Gwinett County for a time, he made regular visits to Athens to play music or check out shows and says he liked the scene.
"Athens felt like home," Terrebone says. "But it was the music in general that really drew me here."
He spent time in a number of Athens bands, following up years spent on the road and in the studio with a number of different musicians and engineers. He shrugs off the credit the T-Nebula crew give him for his work in the studio - "If it weren't for the guys that helped me along the way ..." he says, and then turns the table on the three men around him. "You know, it's what you put into it, that's the whole thing about recording - if you've got garbage going in, you've got garbage going out. But when you've got a great talent to work with, I'm going to get it right to the best of my ability."
So far, the formula is working. He points to local rap artist Bear, aka Stackman, also with T-Nebula, who he says worked hard - which is a big part of his success.
"Two years ago, nobody knew who he was and in six months, he sold 1,000 CDs," Terrebone says of Bear's 2006 T-Nebula release "Ready Fo' Me." "God bless him," he adds. "He worked his a** off, but he (wants it)."
While 1,000 CDs might not be big by industry standards, on the local level, it's substantial. And to the T-Nebula crew, work isn't so much "work" when they're doing what they love.
Still, the hip-hop scene in Athens is a hard road, eclipsed as it is by the indie rock scene, Terrebone says.
"I want to see the hip-hop scene become as free as the rest of the Athens music scene," he says, adding he's working toward that goal.
And he and the others say it's within reach.
"I don't think you have to over-exert (hip-hop) to have a cohesive music scene," Killacut says, adding he knows a number of musicians in different genres, and there's a respect among them that, he says, is a strong point of Athens. "You hang out with people, buy them a beer, and then see them up on stage and you're blown away."
Terrebone says he's working with musicians in a number of genres to collaborate both for shows and in the studio.
"With hip-hop, the collaborative opportunities are so great," he says.
Terrebone also stresses that while T-Nebula is hip-hop friendly, it's open to all kinds of music - something that's abundantly clear as he pulls out his guitar to accompany Stevens in a song the two wrote together.
Stevens' voice is velvety and gorgeous and instantly fills the room with the kind of goose-bumpy quality you feel is without question destined for greatness. Stevens almost effortlessly has the kind of voice an "American Idol" wannabe would kill for. (In fact he's considering trying out, if only for the coaching and experience he'd get from the audition process, he later says.)
The tune is decidedly singer/songwriter stuff with Terrebone on guitar, but with his ability to hit pitch-perfect high notes into the stratosphere, Stevens could give any great R&B artist a run for his money.
Stevens already has worked with a number of Athens musicians, Terrebone points out, and notes he's working on a solo album with Stevens as well.
In another beat, Terrebone looks around the room, crediting each musician with talent he's eager to introduce to the world.
"For me, these guys are the most important thing," Terrebone says of his work. "I feel like I'm living out a dream working with these fellas."
Upcoming shows featuring T-Nebula artists
Sept. 13: Bear and Son 1 will be opening for Nobody Famous (former Georgia resident now living in California); at the Library, 420 E. Clayton St.
Sept. 15: Bear and Elite the Showstoppa; at the Caledonia Lounge, 256 W. Clayton St.
Oct. 27: Battle Lounge with Bear and Ben Stevens, with Stevens and Nolan Terrebone doing an acoustic set; at the Caledonia.
Nov. 3: Ben Stevens (acoustic), Bear, Def Judges, Elite the Showstoppa; at the Caledonia.
Published in the Athens Banner-Herald on 080907
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
T-NEB. Flagpole interview (Classic City Connections)
Category: Blogging
Crowded House
Connecting in the Classic City: T-Nebula Collects Local Hip-Hop
originally published May 30, 2007
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Ben Stevens, Nolan Terrebone, Bear, DJ Killacut
"Well I'm just a soul whose intentions are good / Oh lord, please don't let me be misunderstood!" So goes the gripping refrain from the 1964 tune penned by Bennie Benjamin & Co. And in a modest Eastside subdivision, sitting in the wood-paneled house of local producer Nolan Terrebone, I half expect him to burst into song, delivering his own version of the song kept alive over the years by Nina Simone, The Animals, Santa Esmerelda, Joe Cocker and Yusuf Islam, among many others.
"It's not a shock that you can actually accomplish things because you work hard at it, whether it's a million dollars or whatever your goal is," says Terrebone, talking of the work he put in on Classic City Connections, a free album showcasing a wide variety of local hip-hop talent. "To me, a goal is helping look towards the future. If I'm right here in 30 years looking back, at least I did it, as Frank said, my way. I don't know anything else but music. I've been a professional musician since I was 16, playing my first shows at 17, went out on the road at 25. I don't have a high-school education. I don't come from the best town. But I've played music and have always known that's what I wanted to do. When you get into something big, you know it's right for you. I'm not looking for superstardom, but I'm looking for something real."
Terrebone - who also goes by the handle Jon Gris - is at the center of the T-Nebula crew, a hip-hop family that has expanded over the past year, developing its sounds and making inroads into live local performance. But he's no newcomer to the scene. Terrebone's been immersed in Athens music for years, kicking around town with the loose and like-minded family of '70s revivalist bands in the late '90s - Fuzzy Sprouts, Sound Tribe Sector Nine, King Daddy Zeb and Phallic Phungus, among others - and playing in the diverse funk band Planet Jive until its dissolution in 2000. He even performed a handful of gigs in a short-lived folk-rock band called Anoli, which featured his talents on the Native American flute.
Classic City Connections is an 18-track loose collection of Athens hip-hop collaborations, a good starting point to sample local sounds, ranging from hard rhymes to political raps to smoother numbers. It features most of the core T-Nebula group - Terrebone, rapper Bear, singer Ben Stevens and DJ Killacut all contribute sounds, though recent T-Neb addition Son 1 sits this one out.
"I wanted to get past that thing where it's all brother, brother, brother, I love you, but I'll stab you in the back once you turn around," says Terrebone, who put the collection together over the past year. "I didn't want any fakeness or anything forced, artificial, so I let it take its course. I wanted all these cats to just show what they've got and I'm not gonna treat 'em like an asshole. That's what Classic City Connections is about, just showing people what we've got here in Athens. I wanted to meet a lot of people and see how they'd work together. I wanted to understand people. It wasn't intended to be an album, it was intended to be what it is - free, something different, something easy."
The first track is an intro from Montu Miller, the tireless scene championer, and it flows into the F.L.Y.-produced "In the Classic," a track featuring both Ishues and Bear, the former a well-known heavyweight who's had a high profile in town, the latter a rapper who's been in town just as long, but is only now making the move into the public arena. DJ Killacut and 4C team up for the incessant "On the Grind," and then with "Cold World With You," the collection takes a turn towards the soulful, with Ben Stevens' soulful, Pendergrass-esque R&B croon over a skittery, atmospheric backing track by Terrebone.
Elite tha Showstoppa's unmistakably gravel-voiced delivery pops up, and Amun Ra offers a mystical take on new-age, crystal hip-hop. Spoken-word artist Isai contributes a piece, and former eLeMeN.O.P. emcee Whisper spits out hard-hitting verses over ornate strings provided by Terrebone. The diverse sounds capture a distinct moment in time, according to Bear. "Now is a time when the scene's flourishing," he says. "What better time than now to get people together? All these people out there pumping and making the scene what it is. What better time than now while it's going on?"
"Right place. Right time. Destiny. Whatever the hell you want to call it," says Terrebone. "I was on the road for a long time, got off the road, got back into engineering. I like to believe that nothing was manipulated, it just kind of pollinated itself. I decided to sit home and write music and get back to the real life. There's only one difference between a musician at our level and a musician on a label, and that's money. I'm not just talking T-Neb, but all the Athens hip-hop that's coming up: Mantooth Music, AthFactor, Reality Check, Black Mane. From each group, there's real talent… Coming from a couple of scenes that have flourished here in town - the funk scene, for one, and the rock scene before that - it's nice to watch something growing. When I look around, you can see it happening, especially because it's the sort of thing that I've been through before. So I'm looking to get all the artists I'm working with on the same mindset and make sure it explodes before it implodes."
The local hip-hop scene's finding its footing in the downtown consciousness, but it's already becoming a diverse crowd that doesn't fit under one tent - Son 1 just posted a diss track on his MySpace page directed at local rapper Jdown Valmont, criticizing him for not coming up through the accepted channels and not giving props in the preordained manner. Perhaps it's a sign that as the town's talent pool grows, it'll splinter even more, offering options for whatever the public craves. For now, though, Terrebone and the rest of the T-Neb crew are happy with a snapshot of Athens hip-hop circa 2007.
"I really do believe people should be able to give what they can when they can," says Terrebone, "even if it's not much, so for me, [Classic City Connections] became a chance to meet people, make connections and give back a little bit to the city we all love. I want everyone to see that, to understand what we're doing."
Chris Hassiotis
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