Poetic Thrust on Organically Creating “Artichoke”

Photos by Kyle Glenn

Poetic Thrust, a seven piece hip hop and jazz group based in Brooklyn, New York first met in college at SUNY Purchase. Made up of vocalists Yoh and Nakama, and instrumentalists Zach Berns, Juno Arreglado, Stu Pender, Jaedon Alvira, and Nat Ranson, the friends have been working together to reshape their spin on contemporary music.

After a few members graduated, the opportunity was presented to improvise and perform in Brooklyn weekly, where they got to experiment and cultivate the energy and sounds for an evening. The group released their second EP On Deck this past November. Purposefully taking their time to create organically, the songs speak to their new process. For the first single off their EP, “Artichoke”, they created a video that embodied that same natural feel. Director Richie Ellis remarks, “The vision was to create a video that was true and authentic driven by substance and not style. A video that captured the raw essence of the group with a fun, up close and personal vibe.”

Watch the premiere of “Artichoke” below along with a conversation between Poetic Thrust on how the EP came to be.

Director & Producer Richie Ellis DP Sachi Bahra Steadicam Austin Castelo 1st AC Brandon Yoon Film Loader Will Cherry Colorist David Mosqueda

Juno: I feel like “Artichoke” was the beginning of a different era with Poetic Thrust. We did All Water, and that was a very different process in terms of writing the songs. With On Deck, and “Artichoke” we started to take some time to breath, and getting up to your cabin in Pennsylvania–

Nat: Yeah, that was the big difference to me. We decided to isolate ourselves as a band to hone in on this new sound we were all hearing, and “Artichoke’ was the first thing we wrote for On Deck. It felt like it came together very naturally.

Juno: Yeah, we wrote All Water in literally one weekend, and On Deck we really took the time to explore the songs.

Jaedon: And on top of that I feel like we were looking more toward ourselves instead of looking outward for inspiration, like looking directly inward and then we made something that felt completely original.

Yoh: Yeah it felt like one of the first times we really talked as homies. Obviously not the first time, but we were away from the city, we were all just together, asking like what has been going on in everyone’s life. And I feel like you can’t make genuine music until you get all of that out there.

Nakama: No definitely, I remember we were working that groove, and the groove for “Neo” for hours, and we hit a wall, and I was like “I need to go take a walk,” and I finished my whole verse on the walk—

Stu: Hell yeah.

Yoh: Wooooooooo!

Nakama: And I was like aight, that’s how we need to do it. Get outside of your self for a bit, take a breath, and then come back to what’s important to say; which I think is emblematic of the actual writing process.

Nat: I think it’s when we first started to unify.

Nakama: Totally.

Nat: We had a really emotional moment together, and I specifically remember walking around and hugging everyone in the band individually.

Yoh: Yo yeahhhh.

Nat: And then feeling this really intense connection between us, and then going to the river and swimming—almost like a baptism, it felt like a rebirth for us as a group.

Jaedon: Word. I remember while that emotional moment was happening, and we were all trying to comfort each other through conversation, Stu started playing the groove, then Juno followed suit, and one by one we joined in.

Stu: Yeah it’s funny man, sometime those songs come out of conversation, like literal music will come out of a conversation.

Nakama: Absolutely 

Juno: And we’ll use “Artichoke” in a set to kind of cleanse the palate, because it has this uplifting vibe.

Yoh: It came from a real place, it’s like warm.

Nat: Every time we play “Artichoke” I can feel the energy we put into it when we wrote it.

Yoh: Yeah, like you can’t play the song or listen to it and not feel good.

Juno: And I’m happy we were able to put the song in the hands of Richie.

Jaedon: AHHHHH! *burning his hand on coffee*

*Everyone laughs*

Stu: Yeah Richie was just a natural guy to have done the video because he just wanted to catch us doing our thing.

Juno: Yeah we all trust Richie immensely, he’s always coming out, and he’s definitely a part of the family.

Jaedon: He brought 110% of himself to that shoot, and he picked a great crew.

Nat: …. Y’all want some pickles?

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