Interview with The Airplane Boys

The Airplane Boys released their debut mixtape, "Where've You Been," on May 4. The talented up-and-coming hip hop group's Mannie Serranilla (aka Beck Motley) and Jason Drakes (aka Bon Voyage) spoke with TheCelebrityCafe.com's Jaclyn Baldovin during a phone interview about their mixtape and music videos, the Beau Monde collective – the creative team behind the group, and their music and fashion inspirations.

TheCelebrityCafe.com: Can you tell me about your experience recording your mixtape, "Where've You Been?"

Mannie Serranilla: Very free spirit. It was on the go. Kind of like, you know, whenever the studio wasn't being used we would go in and then just start recording, like for three hours, and some tracks were done in an hour. We had to write tracks and think of concepts the night before. We've been charging on this project – it was rough, free spirit and just honest emotions.

TheCelebrityCafe.com: What is your favorite song on "Where've You Been?"

Jason Drakes: It's hard to pick a favorite, you know? I guess one that resonates the most with us is "Yesterday's Dove." They're all real stories obviously, but "Yesterday's Dove" is like a real, real story. It's prophetic in a lot of ways. In a lot of ways it's just very real and graphic. It's a translation of our emotions. And people even relate to it and they put their different meanings to it as well. You know, when we see that it means a lot to us, so, definitely though "Yesterday's Dove" is that stand-out track for us.

Mannie Serranilla: We wrote that a year and a half ago.

TheCelebrityCafe.com: I know that you're starting to film the music video for "Gold Ribbons." Can you tell me about that?

Mannie Serranilla: Oh, you've been spying, you sneaky girl. [Laughs] No, you already know too much. I guess "Gold Ribbons" – we're still finalizing the concept. But I think – how do I say this without revealing too much? It's just – you'll see a change in the girl's emotions or her physical appearance as the video progresses and how she reacts to her surroundings and how she interacts with people. I don't want to reveal too much, but that's as much as I can say. Like she just changes during the video.

Jason Drakes: Transformation is, I guess, what you want to keep in mind.

Mannie Serranilla: Yeah. Transformation.

TheCelebrityCafe.com: Can you tell me about your experience filming some other music videos, including for "Born to Be?"

Mannie Serranilla: I went to college for broadcasting television and Warren [The Airplane Boys' brand director] used to help me on my college projects, and Jason would act in them and I just tried directing and stuff like that. And we found how much fun we had in that, and then we took the music more serious. We always wrote music since like elementary. And then we shot our first video, "Outer Space," and since then we just kept like – it's our own money, our own, you know, our own energy, our own time. We don't have any grants or anything. Everything is in house. And we go and make our own calls. You know, we find people that want to assist us and help us. And I mean, for "Born To Be" – that was a challenging video because "Escape" – we didn't reach our creative standards that we set. For "Born To Be," we just – it was just raw emotion and running up and down shooting from place to place. It was a three-day shoot. The locations meant a lot to us because those are times we spent when we were in our childhood. I mean, yeah, it's all natural, it's all natural. It's all in house.

TheCelebrityCafe.com: How did you initially start rapping?

Jason Drakes: Yeah, I mean, I moved to this neighborhood. My parents split and I was writing on my desk on the first day. And it was after school. I was in Mannie's class, and he walked over and he was like, "Yo, you rap?" "Yeah." "We have a talent show coming up." And I was like, "Cool." We made a group after that. It was of four guys and we just started doing the talent show and dancing and rapping and you know, the Backstreet Boys type stuff. You know, we just started growing and developing our craft, going through life and just trying to make that through our music. And, yeah, finally, you know, through different people it came to the point where – that was just two years ago, and things started falling into place with our childhood friends and we knew we could take it to the next level. And then we formed The Airplane Boys and the whole Beau Monde, which is the whole governing body behind everything. And, yeah, we just kind of took it from there.

TheCelebrityCafe.com: Can you tell me how you came up with the name, The Airplane Boys?

Jason Drakes: Before The Airplane Boys we were called Raw Steady.

Mannie Serranilla: R-A-W.

Jason Drakes: Yeah. People used to confuse that with like Rock Steady Crew, which is a dancing crew and that kind of stuff and we're obviously not about that. But at the time we were doing more like traditional hip hop, and you know, we've always been into experimenting with different types of music. It was one of the things that, you know, meant we could do more. It was a bigger playing field. We're the kind of guys that will say something and then put meaning to it later. So, he [Mannie] threw that out [the name, The Airplane Boys] and I was just like, "Yo, that works." And also it pays homage to our fathers. Mannie's father was an airplane engineer. My dad was a pilot. And they don't do that anymore. They don't really follow their dreams. They're just into their general lives and you know, providing and things like that. Commit to what life threw at them and The Airplane Boys, you know, believe in that – the whole moving forward. That's what that whole thing means – The Airplane Boys. Beau Monde – beautiful world. Creating your own. That's what we put behind that. It's not about just being fly and swag and whatever. It's really about what we're trying to do. That's what The Airplane Boys means. And homage to just following your dreams. Yeah.

Mannie Serranilla: Some girls think it's a cute name. [Laughs]

TheCelebrityCafe.com: Can you tell me about the Beau Monde collective?

Mannie Serranilla: Beau Monde is our crew, our fam, our brotherhood, our band of brothers. Robin Hood's crew. Everything you want to say – our governing body. It's like everything has to run through Beau Monde. And we have meetings and all the creative steps that are put into this pot called Beau Monde and stirred by different chefs. J – Bon Voyage and me – Mannie, and you know, there's condiments and different spices like soy sauce and garlic and peppers. Just to create. There's an art director, a photographer – you know, he does everything that's visual given video, and then the viral means are all done by our brand director – Warren Credo, a childhood friend. And then our in-house producer – you'll never see his face because he's the kind of chef that has a paper bag on his head. No. All of us – we walk into this kitchen and we all stare at this one pot of tasty soup, but no one knows what the ingredients are because they're contributed by different personalities and elements of, you know, tasteful things. And we all bring it to our own table. If Jason wants to bring garlic, I'll bring soy sauce. I don't know why I have soy sauce in my head. And you know, peppers and salt are brought by Warren and Justin [Create, director of photography]. So, that is what Beau Monde is.

TheCelebrityCafe.com: Are there any particular music artists that inspire your music?

Jason Drakes: There are a lot. You know, Kanye West, André 3000, N.E.R.D.

Mannie Serranilla: Phoenix.

Jason Drakes: Daft Punk especially. Anything forward, anything that's cool. You know, we grew up on a lot of classic stuff too – Michael Jackson. And these guys are not only music influences, but fashion influences as well.

Mannie Serranilla: Any people that are looking to make music that's relevant or looking to bend and break barriers. I mean, I think that's part – especially known for the way that they express their stories, the way they express how they feel. I mean, from Kanye West and Drake, you know, bringing honesty into their music. And obviously from Toronto we grow up admiring and pay homage to Drake [who is also from Toronto], and watching Kanye West specifically – he breaks barriers in fashion and his personality and even bringing himself into the line of fire and writing about it after. That's a true artist. So, we look to break barriers.

TheCelebrityCafe.com: What inspires your fashion – the clothes you wear while performing and filming music videos?

Mannie Serranilla: I'm usually naked. [Laughs] We always wear what we just feel like. Sometimes when we want to be militant, we'll be like, "Yo, you feel like wearing all black?" "All black." And when it's sunny outside, we'll like [wear] – colors. I mean, fashion is just like the way you write music and the way you listen to the beat. There has to be a certain tone and aesthetic, and it's just another form of expression – whether you're painting, whether you're writing music. It's an expression – the detail, the fabric that you choose. It's all on all how you want to express yourself for the day and the weather. Especially if it's raining you want to have a hood on.

TheCelebrityCafe.com: Can you tell me about your upcoming performances?

Mannie Serranilla: I don't think we have any upcoming performances in the near future. I think we're setting up a listening party in the city. Other than that, we're going to just go hard on our visual presence and working on the next follow up to "Where've You Been" – just picking out concepts, meeting people, interacting with people and inspiring ourselves to go back on the next project.

TheCelebrityCafe.com: What has given you the motivation to work so hard at achieving your goals in music?

Jason Drakes: Our families, everybody behind us. People even relating to the music, coming up to us and saying, "You know, this song helped me through this," or even putting their own meanings. That alone is enough to just make us want to create more and to find the people within ourselves. You know, we're basically growing in front of everybody. It's an experience. You want people to accept that.

Mannie Serranilla: Yeah. Aside from the fact that we're inspiring a lot and we're inspiring ourselves. A lot of people would pay a premium just to find the purpose in life. You know what I mean? A lot of people go through life and not find the purpose. And for J and I to find it at an early age. And for that or the world to just give us like – here's your purpose. You'd be a fool to throw that away. I mean, that's what keeps us going – just being grateful, waking up every morning and saying, "This is your purpose. Go do it and tell your story, express, see the world, meet people and just smile and say, 'Thank you.'"

TheCelebrityCafe.com: Where do you see yourselves, in terms of your music career, in the next five years?

Jason Drakes: On top of the world. On a global level. That's where we're going right now and that's where we see ourselves. You know, we're preparing a team here that can take us there. That's what we've done. We've been blessed to even meet the people that we have on our team. So, that's what we want to utilize, and just be that household name that we've always wanted to be, you know? Because that's pop culture and to be a part of it – to tell our stories, the big stage. The big stage is possible whatever we can do with that.

Mannie Serranilla: Definitely. We don't just want to be regulated to hip hop, so we want to see the world and be the biggest show as possible. Make sure people hear our stories. It's all about word of mouth and having [people] hear our story. I mean, just picture the most beautiful color – that's what we want to add to a painting. Like pop culture needs painting. We want to be that fresh, new color that's being created, that's being bashed on the pavement, you know? Like, "Oh my gosh! Who did that?"

TheCelebrityCafe.com: Out of all the experiences you've had so far as you've grown as music artists and promoted your music, which has been your favorite and why?

Mannie Serranilla: I think our experience – the writing process and what we're doing as a whole because we pushed ourselves because of time restraints. And to be honest and to be accurate at such a quick time is like telling you to shoot while the car is moving and you have to hit your targets while the car is driving, going 500 mph, you know? You're driving fast, you're trying to shoot these targets and you hit them. At least you hit them in your heart. Like you feel like you did good. You shot the enemy. That's how we feel about music because it was a fast blare. We had concepts in our head and we had to shoot at a fast rate and we hit the target.

Jason Drakes: You know, we didn't like really look at the music – listen to it before its release. But we did obviously without adjusting the whole tape. We were like, "Yo, I just did that." And we took it in with a different, you know, mindset. And that's what we had to go through. I'm not doubting all the BS, or all the politics behind the projects. But no one sees all that stuff, you know? But we know it. And we're definitely proud of, you know, our first [mixtape].

Mannie Serranilla: I think our release of "Where've You Been" – that's our very first expression and we're so, so proud about it because it's hard to pick a specific moment where we just grew, you know, exponentially. But like, we took "Where've You Been" and released that. It was like gathering. It was like the answer to all the solutions that didn't make sense on the board and finally we got the answer. I mean, our best moment so far is the answer, which is like "Where've You Been" for our first chapter – releasing our story to the world.