The most epic #ThrowbackThursday for Browntourage comes to you from the VAULTS — one of our very first interviews with none other than BC Kingdom of recent “Saint Heron” fame.

Their new video by Lane Stewart is a high fashion prison cell, with a very Fade To Mind techy intro. The nod to Hype Williams is by far the best I’ve ever seen. The production is a pared down, minimal ambient sound blanketed with those signature, seductive BC R&B vocals. The musical departure in “Lock Up” from their old work shows a coming of age, a growing editing eye, and affirmation that taking a slow and thoughtful path will lead to great things.

Let’s time warp to see where the Saint Heron darlings were last year. We sat down with them in May 2012 to chat about their hot beats, growing up in global households, and chillin with our first lady M.I.A.

So what’s with the name BC Kingdom?
Zou: When you’re walking through a gallery, a museum- those cards, it says BC and everything we would look at, we’d see these cool statues…whatever century BC. We’re really inspired by all things BC, all things before Christ. If you look up BC you’ll see how many cool things are tied to our references and you’ll see why that makes so much sense. Whether Indian, Moroccan, Persian, African, it’s BC.

Logan: We also have this mentality where a lot of things pre the year 2000 have been so good. We were born in the 80s and grew up in the 90s. In our mind basically everything BC is now. We are revisiting the past, whether in fashion or music. That’s why we’re so heavily inspired by traditional African clothing. It’s always taking it back.

Where does that revisiting come from?
Logan: Well we grew up in Inglewood. We come from big families that have traveled the world and come back with beautiful things and we became obsessed with them as children.

Zou: For me personally when my dad was traveling doing missionaries with his church, he travelled all over the world and spent a month in Johannesburg, South Africa and brought back all these different artifacts. I just became really obsessed with the children– how walking down the street is seeing a monkey on the side of the road, versus a cat, is just so mind-blowing. They come up to cars and sing for money. It was inspiring knowing that’s what children do out there, its’ a different outlook…I wanted to educate myself.

Logan: I took a lot of African-American classes at UC Berkeley. My godmother is a professor at Long Beach and studies the African Diaspora. I’ve always been surrounded by it. There are so many things that have been covered up that people don’t know about. There’s so much history of where we are from, that African Americans don’t even know. American is overshadowed by African roots. It inspires an obsession.

by//ryan mikail & amy wiggins

What do you hope draws people to the Kingdom?
L: We hope they see realness in a lot of things.

Z: Yeah- it’s awareness. It’s communal, it’s a gathering. When you think of that, you think of something positive. When people see us in these kufis, they say the word costume. Costume is not a word. It’s a way of life for people. It’s not about being African/Black. We’re not just a musical band, we’re a visual band. It’s a whole new decade now, and time to broaden your horizons. We try to balance what we do and what the world is doing so we can bring people into our kingdom.

L: You know how they had that whole 90s movement that was Neo Soul? I feel like we’re the new wave of Neo Soul- we’re not just singing R&B and Soul, we’re trying to have some world, pop and rap influences. We are going to be a part of that new wave that’s going to be a movement where the driving force isn’t to be cool but just being yourself.

Z: This new generation of people grew up on internet overnight. BC has been working for a while, now a few years. When I think of people we’re influenced by…MIA has been working for a long time, when someone like that gets a break, once it starts it never stops. People like us always have to work and work because it’s not trendy, what we’re doing is forward. The world has to wait for you.

L: You know Marylin Manson referenced NY Dolls and David Bowie…

Z: I feel like that’s us! It was timeless, classic. He was bold. He was taking things that were obscene and made them cool. Marylin Manson is consistent. And for us, it’ll always be. “Return To Me” was very house, and we can also reference a tropical atmosphere, but it’s still in the vein of who we are…we know how to maneuver in the seasons. BC in the summer is gonna be tropical, more dancehall references…we know how to transition with stuff year round.

photo//hawa chopped by//tonia

If you guys could do fashion collab with anybody, who?
L: Kenzo, Opening Ceremony.

Z: In London- KTZ, or Katy Erie: she’s very graphic and we love a lot of prints and heavy graphics. And then in Paris, we say Balenciaga. I would love to see how he would design men’s stuff for us like neon african prints.

The reason why we say those names is because constantly over the years, with everything becoming trendy, we know how to roll with the punches and the times. Our whole thing was Givenchy for a long time. We sat with a lot of creative directors and shared ideas with them. We had a blackbook.

BC Blackbook: It’s a mead folder composition book, and we use that, fill it all up. It’s like an old manuscript full of our ideas. If anyone had it/could read it, they could be successful. Some references have made it out to the public…it’s just science. It’s our brains working together. Ricardo Tischi does animals because we said prints. He did jaguars. People who talk to us know we’re spot on with trends. BC has to be aware of what we do/who collab with because we gotta set the trend and not work with people who’ve been used and abused. We wanna work with them because we see potential in what we can do. Hader Ackermann- he does a lot of opulent men’s clothing. He has deconstruction, but polished deconstruction.

What are some proud moments for y’all?
L: That Opening Ceremony mix- that was just an honor to us because we literally took what we thought was some of our favorite music growing up, gave it a BC twist, a few remixes, and they really loved it. And Nguzunguzu were the first to hear songs on the EP. Last year we filmed the “Return to Me” video. A couple weeks after that we recorded the BC kingdom EP and from those demos, Sugu (M.I.A.’s brother) sent them to MIA, Asma and MIA open their sets with our songs.

Z: It was really mind-blowing hearing feedback from Sugu, then meeting M.I.A., spending a few days with her- she came out to Santa Monica and spent some time at her hotel. She said “My fans really liked your stuff.”

L: It was validation that we were doing something right. If a tastemaker could love it!

Any other collabs?
L: There’s a list of people we’d like to work with. For our new song, we keep hearing Missy Elliot on it. Basically if we did work with a person, we’d love to put our own little twist on it. Bangladesh and The Dream would be cool.  I can see having ASAP on the track, we met him at a Jeremy Scott party.

Z: The producer for Garbage. No doubt that’d be organic, fresh, and new.

Do you have plans to travel to the places you reference?
L: Having the funds,we would def love to do it. Me, Zou, and Sugu taking a portable studio with us and record those places you actually go to in the music. We’d love to travel and record an EP or album on the move. Mediterranean sea, Northern Africa, Cannes, Paris.

Y’all reference a lot of geographic locations in your aesthetic and personal style too. Where do you get references for places you’re not necessarily culturally connected to?
Z: It’s from a lot of touring people, nomadic people. Not many people stay connected to nomadic people. It is so disconnected. We do connected to that, we feel like we’re treated like illegal aliens half the time we go out.

L: We’ve definitely taken the time to educate ourselves about what we’re wearing. I got this cobrasnake necklace from Angola (pointing to neck). It’s not just something we think is nice to wear… the connection is always out of respect.

Ok fun question, if you could be a Spice Girl, which would you be?
Z: Did you know they are-our favorites?

L: Haha, we’re probably a combination of all of them

Z: Somewhere between Posh and Sporty, cuz Posh has that look and everyone questioned Sporty’s sexuality.

Y’all were sleeping on them last time they were in the bay, so next year we’re gonna give you another chance at catching them live!