Near the start of 2014, an army of Indiana artists came together to form BORED., a hip hop collective centered around the fearless leader Flaco. Now just one year later, the group’s original SOLDIER prepares to unveil his latest IKWYDLS physical release this Saturday, January 31, celebrating in grand fashion at Fountain Square’s The Hi-Fi. You can grab a digital copy of the album, which is available exclusively from the group on Mediafire, right here. I recently caught up with the Muncie emcee to discuss his impressive new mixtape and much, much more.  

Listen to BORED.'s live set at Indy CD & Vinyl from June 2014 via the player above. 

Seth Johnson: You, Benny and T.A.G. (who just dropped a new track of his own, "Yamagucci," which you can stream here) came together to form BORED. in early 2014. It’s now early 2015. What are some of the things you’ve accomplished since this initial teaming?

Flaco: I think the biggest thing is knowledge. We’ve accomplished getting our website that we wanted, getting the right promotional and marketing pushes we wanted, and doing it all in house. So I think we’re finally nailing down that infrastructure. That’s definitely what we’ve accomplished over the year. 

SJ: In what ways have you personally improved as an artist since that time as well?

F: An artist saying the word efficiency sounds weird, but I’m at a point where I can create efficiently, if that makes any sense. It’s kind of scary because I can make a lot of stuff and forget all about it. But, it’s good in the sense that I’m always busy and I’m always creating.

SJ: You released three mixtapes in 2014, which obviously points to this efficiency that you speak of. Why do you think it’s important for artists today to be efficient? 

F: We live in a 140-character society. People’s attention spans are very, very short. With an oversaturated market, people want to be fed. So definitely in this market of music right now, people want a shit ton of music. I wanted to feed that and really push myself to be as productive as possible. 

SJ: Talk to me about what all went into the making of your latest IKWYDLS mixtape (to be co-released on CD and cassette via BORED. and MFT).

F: Honestly, it’ll be a beat that I hear. Then out of that one beat, a creativity explosion happens, and I just kind of keep chasing these inspirational productions. I always try to make it a point that I make music that inspires me. Like, the hairs on my neck stand up when I hear this shit. So when making this tape, I followed that same path that I’ve had in the past of just following the inspiration and not necessarily having a strict conceptual basis going into it. Every time I’ve made 20 or 30 songs in like a month-and-a-half and I step back and listen to it sequentially, it always has an underlying theme, and that’s not something I even planned on. For me, that’s the dopest part because it takes its own life. It controls its own sound, if that makes any sense.  

SJ: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. So what would you say is the underlying theme of IKWYDLS? Where were you at in your life when you were making this mixtape, and how did that end up coming out in the music?

F: People tell me they kind of get an ominous vibe from the tape, but going into it, I was really happy. I was just in a really good place creatively and was legitimately pushing. In my head, it felt like I was finally making the right decisions, and that inspired me. So honestly, it was just this inspirational hustle vibe mixed with my weird ADD cadences and shit. I don’t know how I came up with the name. I don’t know how I came up with the conceptual art. I don’t know how I come up with any of this shit. It literally feels like it just comes through me. That’s the corniest thing I’ve ever said in my life, but it’s so real.

SJ: What would you say you like most about IKWYDLS?

F: I mix and master my own shit, so I was just most impressed by the quality, considering what I had to work with. I really try to push myself to be uncomfortable with my rhyme schemes, my cadences, and just song structure period. I want to just break away from conventional rules with song structure. 

SJ: Why is breaking away from conventional rules something that’s important to you?

F: Because I’m always thinking next. I understand what’s going on now, and I’m always searching for next. Like, “What will be the next type of flow? What will be the next type of sound?” I’m always searching for that. So it’s just pushing myself to really be innovative. That gives me a really fucking big high. Taking a weird approach to rhyming or a weird approach to a song just gets me off. I don’t get it, but I roll with it.

SJ: Are there any specific tracks from IKWYDLS that you remember feeling this way about while you were in the midst of creating them?

F: “MEGADEFF” and “LEMME”. In hip hop today, it feels like you can almost sense how most people would approach it. I’m trying to take the most expected and just go fucking left. I want people to say, “Man. I would’ve never thought to come at it like that.” I don’t necessarily go in with that in mind, but it seems to naturally be what I’m inclined to do.

SJ: There have been a lot of great things happening in the world of Indiana hip-hop over the past year. What excites you about personally being a part of that?

F: People are finally starting to understand networking with dope shit and filtering out wack shit. When I first started, I always used to hate that “Support your locals” [mentality] because for the most part, it sounded like saying, “Don’t support good music. Just support it because it came locally.” I didn’t fuck with that message because that hurts our scene. I shouldn’t necessarily support you just for the fuck of it. 

But, a lot of people in Indy right now have the audacity to say, ‘This is my sound. I’m doing this.” I’m comfortable with networking and really trying to build an infrastructure for hip hop in Indy because it’s going to happen. It’s inevitable. Hip hop is already pretty decent in Indiana, but I think we’re finally gaining our own platform to go nationally. So it’s a coming of age. We’re taking baby steps, but we’re getting there. I think being a part of that shit is the dopest part. 

SJ: In looking forward to your release show at The Hi-Fi on Saturday, what do you hope the audience takes away from BORED.’s performance?

F: We’re not completely naïve to the fact that people want to be entertained right now. So we’re looking for immersion because we finally have the tools to control the mood of the show and control the vibe. We want to exude our energy in the whole building, putting people in a real mood. So if anything, I want them to take away the atmosphere. Get to know us. Get to know the brand. Get to know the fact that we’re normal fucking humans doing this shit on our own, and we’re a part of a scene that’s growing. 

For more information on Flaco’s IKWYDLS release party, visit the event's Facebook page.