Q&A with Johnny Polygon

A promise: Alternative, hip-hop-like Johnny Polygon is like nothing you’ve ever heard. His February project, The Nothing, boasts no labels, no samples and no features.

With the ultimate confidence in himself and his unique sound, Polygon purchased his own tour bus and is now on a 25-plus city adventure with the fun guys of Pac Div. Staff writer Mballa Mendouga talked to him about his subtle crescendo of success.

Diversions: Talk to me about your name a little bit. It sounds like there’s some sort of deep meaning behind it. What does Johnny Polygon mean?

*Johnny Polygon: *I went through a lot of different names, started out as a break-dancer, and then I started rapping after seeing an emcee battle.

And then — my name, I went through a bunch of different intonations of it. Johnny Polygon is basically, you know, a many-sided figure.

I like to think that I make all sorts of different types of music, not just hip-hop or R&B. I just sort of do whatever I feel.

Dive: What kind of processes did you go through when it came to finding yourself as an artist?

JP: You know what? I’ve always just sort of done my own thing. I think now I’ve grown as an artist. It’s just the natural evolution of things, of getting older and living more life and, you know, getting better through repetition of things.

But I’ve always been on my own thing. There’s what’s going on over there, and there’s me over here. I’m cool with that. I like it like that.

Dive: Is there a fear associated with having to do this all on your own? What are your feelings about everything that you’ve done?

JP: There’s not so much nerves there because there’s like I said, a natural evolution. So by the time I get to the next step I’ve already gotten really comfortable with the step I’m on.

So sometimes when I look down, I see how far I’ve gotten, but I just try to keep my head forward.
Dive: You’re from Oklahoma, and listeners don’t get to hear too much about what’s happening with the music scene down there. Houston has its chopped and screwed, D.C. has go-go. Does Oklahoma have its own kind of thing?

JP: I think there’s just a lot of individuality there. I haven’t lived there in almost 10 years, but when I go back I definitely see the change and the improvement of things. It’s started becoming more diverse.

There are certain bars that you can go up to and hear great original bands all night, that you’ve never heard of, then you leave a fan of all of them, you know?

Dive: Do you ever fear you’ll eventually reach a point that you feel like you have given too much of yourself in your music?

JP: When I write songs it’s like I become a character that’s like a part of myself. I can consider an album a complete representation of myself at that moment. So it’s like when I put out an album it’s sort of like a journal for me, or a yearbook.

It’s like a freeze frame of that moment in time. So it’s like I can never regret any of that.