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Thicker
Than Water It was a warm, spring night, and inside the sold-out WOW Hall, the air was steamy hot. Onstage, Eugene local Justin King coaxed flowing melodies from a guitar as the crowd danced and swayed. Outside on the merch. table were two CDs that looked almost exactly the same. One was King's Le Bleu, self-released before he signed to Epic Records, the cover image a profile photo over a vague skyline. The other was a remix, The Raging Family Le Bleu Sessions, with the same picture appearing blurry, runny and faded, like an old, damaged photograph.
The second album, a remix of the original Le Bleu, was a collaborative project between King and the three brothers who make up Raging Family: Cosmos, Freeman and Eden. They created Raging Family in their teens when they were all living in a 10-bedroom house on East 13th Avenue making music, spinning beats, DJing, recording and throwing huge public parties. Over the years their focus has shifted toward the production end of the music business. They all still make music, but each has his own projects as well. "A lot of people are just copying other people's sound," King said. "But they [Cosmos, Freeman and Eden] weren't afraid to get in there and do what they wanted with Le Bleu. They cut it up into little pieces, smashed it apart. There was this cool irreverence in how they approached it, and I think that made it a lot more interesting. They weren't afraid to turn it into something completely different." Sounds. Physical objects. Dogmas, rules and philosophies … Cosmos, Freeman and Eden take a proverbial sledgehammer to anything that doesn't work for them, reducing things to their elements, and then piecing the essential components back together. The foundation of such an intentional life, of an outlook in which the brothers approach each day as if it were a soundscape waiting to be painted, with no rules other than the ones that support their values and beliefs, started before they were even conceived. "I left a kind of millionaire life in Beverly Hills," said their mom, Kathryne Corbin-Parker. "I just left society and tried to build a life without consumption, without money and without those values." Corbin-Parker, who attended UC Berkeley, UCLA and NYU, gave away most of what she owned and moved with her Harvard-educated husband Edwin Corbin to Yachats, where they had purchased five acres of land. And there, on what would later become the childhood home of Cosmos, Freeman and Eden, she started building her life by tearing things apart. "I tore down motels to get the materials to build the house," she explained. "And when Cosmos was born, it was just a 10- by 20-foot one room house." The family grew a lot of their own food and home-schooled their children. "We were educated massively in the fields of art and music, and we were all classically trained musicians," Freeman said. "I played violin until I was 12, and we all played all these different instruments." "No, not all these instruments," Cosmos said, jumping in. "We all play some of them." This verbal interplay between the brothers is constant whenever they're together, with one starting a sentence, another ad libbing in the middle and the third finishing the thought. Yet the narrative as a whole is clean and fluid, a tale that twists in the three threads of their experiences as deftly as an experienced weaver might spin in reds, yellows and purples. The decision to home school her children was an easy one for Corbin-Parker, part of living the philosophy she would eventually impart to her three sons. "Even when he was really young, Cosmos had a really strong personality and saw through things," she said. "There was an incident where he was in second grade and he got called into the principal's office. And we were all there, and the principal was talking to him and telling him, 'Cosmos, your mother does things she doesn't want to do.' And even then he was very reflective, and he thought about that for a few minutes, and then he said, 'No, she doesn't.' And so the principal said, 'Well, your father does things he doesn't want to do.' And he thought about that for awhile, and then he said, 'No, he doesn't.'"
For the Corbin brothers, having parents who raised them in an environment where they were encouraged to pursue their passions, where the focus of learning was on studying what naturally interested them and where their parents made choices that freed them from the daily grind, the biggest lesson was to follow your dreams and do only what you love. As they grew up, the message they heard was that what you do with every second, every hour, every day is important. "I didn't want a life that was dominated by the things of life rather than the doing of life," said Corbin-Parker. "I don't know what else you can teach your children that's more important than that. Because if they're not doing their day well, they're not able to give their energy to things that really matter." On any given day, the amount of things that Cosmos, Freeman and Eden do is more than most people accomplish in a week. Each is simultaneously working on numerous different projects. In addition to music, Cosmos, 28, makes instructional videos and recently finished one called Cancer and Diet: Using food to eliminate cancer and promote recovery. He's also produced two videos on glassblowing and leaves for Brazil soon to work on a video on Capoeira. Freeman, 25, blows glass. Not the kind of glass you see in head shops, though you might find some of his work there. His creations are world-class, and his clients include international companies like Bombay Sapphire Gin. Gesturing toward a box of half-finished and broken pieces of beautifully curving glassware in the multi-station glass-blowing studio he built himself, he explains that every year the company holds a contest for martini glass designs. "Then we're responsible for making them," he said. "Which is a really difficult and often stressful project because the designs are created by people who don't know anything about glassblowing." And Eden? Well, at 22 he's already got his realty license, is getting his MBA and just married a Chilean woman named Iris whom he met while traveling in Chile to learn Spanish. "We talk about this thing we call The Total Passion Program," Freeman said, sitting in the living room of his house, which is full of light streaming in from the windows that make up two sides of the room. "If you accept the fact that your life might not have everything you want, if you're willing to sacrifice everything to do what you want, it's inevitable that you'll end up spending your life doing what you want. This is what we do all the time. We try to make music, and we steer clear of bullshit."
When Cosmos moved to Eugene, his brothers soon followed. With help from their mom, they bought the house on East 13th Avenue and lived there for a few years in what could best be described as a collective or a cooperative for artists and musicians. "It was a 10-bedroom house with three stories and a music production studio in the basement," Freeman said. "It was really insane, with about 20 people living there. It was at that time that we started calling ourselves the Raging Family." Metric, a local MC and member of the hip hop group Genus Pro, credits the brothers for his success today. He was homeless when he met the Raging Family, and they invited him to come live at the house where they apprenticed him in the basement studio. "They took me in and guided me in the right direction, away from crime and drugs and in the direction of music and making money," he said. During the years of the Raging Family house, which spanned most of the late '90s, the three brothers put on huge events — 2000-person parties with themes. All three agree on their favorite: a spring event they called Pollination. "We rented the Nexus building and spent 18 or so hours in there with 10 to 15 of our friends completely decking the place out," Freeman said. "We seriously had too many speakers, like one entire wall of them. And our mom brought in loads and loads of fresh cut pine branches and flowers, and we hung them all over the place, and it smelled like spring." For 48 hours during the event, they didn't take a break. "I remember at one point I went up onto the balcony," Cosmos said. "And I looked down and there were people spinning beats and the floor was just packed. It reminded me of a movie, and it was just totally incredible."
Those days ended in legal battles with the cops and their neighbors and led them to what they call the Corbin Valley Ranch, a woodsy valley where they all have homes. On the outskirts of Eugene, the gravel road to their houses is steep and narrow, climbing up through woods dotted with wild irises and daisies. Inside his house, Cosmos sat briefly in the center of a circle of instruments then got up and gave a tour of his artwork — swirling, textured paintings inspired by the natural world and complex collages made with tiny pieces of paper cut and used the way you would use brush strokes. Just down the road is Eden's house, and a little further away lives Freeman. Jokingly, they call it the compound and talk about buying land in Brazil or Argentina so they can actually live the life of one of their aliases: International Men of Leisure. "See that house over there?" said Cosmos, pointing to a blue house on the far hill. "That's where our mom lives. If we went over there, she'd show you her organic gardens. "I never thought music would be their vocation," Corbin-Parker said. "I always thought, if nothing else, when they got together when they were in their 40s, they would have something to do." But for right now, they are together, one big family with friends and partners included, living out on the Corbin Valley Ranch, making music and living by their own rules. "They stick together," Metric said. "And as long as they do that, it's like they're in this impenetrable bubble where the ills and the evils of the world can't touch them. They've got each other's backs."
SOUNDS, BEATS & BREAKS All the music produced by Raging Family is available for free online except for projects they did with other artists. By making their music available online, Raging Family has reached millions of people all over the world. For example, about 3,000 songs from Black Holes are downloaded every day. "I don't think of music as a career," Cosmos says. Freeman adds, "We've had a really great time as brothers and it's allowed us to stay together. It keeps the camaraderie of our friendship together. We all love music, and that's what powers us to do it." Speed of Life Luscious, smooth grooves layered with velvety vocals. Rich and soulful. GENUS PRO, Grow The debut album from one of Eugene's own. If I Remix You Tonight Will You Still Love Me In the Morning Cosmos masterminded these crazy, funny, incredible beats and remixes of everything from AC/DC to George W. Bush. DJ FREE, The Old School This is seriously old school, like '50s, '60s and '70s old, remixed. Longhorn Pete's Adventures in Hollywood Funk- and hip hop-influenced, booty shaking, scratch-filled wonderfulness. Everywhere Is Zoom In-your-face sample assaults with snippets of melody, grooves and occasional rhymes. Hot Tub Luv Breaks Hot Shower Breaks Projects of the International Men of Leisure, these two vinyl releases give DJs sick breaks, scratches and beats to work with. The Talk Sick Buffet A collaboration with local vocalists Destiny, Eli'azar and others. Straight up hip hop. Ultrasur Moon Sessions When he went down to Chile, DJ Free (Freeman) created this sultry, steamy collection of Latin-influenced mixes with local singers. Black Holes What happens when science collides with the complex, darker side of the Raging Family. Mood Area 52 and Cosmos, Guevara's Ghost See review, p. 4 Justin King, Le Bleu Sessions An organic re-creation of King's classical guitar work that balances beat against melody, samples against sonic white space. Beautiful and deep, it reaches into your soul and rests there. My favorite RF creation. Legomaker,The Program Is You Cosmos and DJ Free's gritty beats and samples layered over Unkle Nancy's rich, unique voice.
::
Intro :: Death
Metal :: CD Reviews :: Raging
Family :: Band Profiles ::
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