Donwill & Von Pea Talk Tanya Morgan's Spacey New Fifth Album Don & Von (The Witzard Interview)
Tanya Morgan is a Hip-Hop group hailing from Concinnati, Ohio and Brooklyn, New York. Its current line-up includes emcee, producer, and DJ William Donald "Donwill" Freeman (Don) and emcee and producer Devon "Von Pea" Callender (Von.) Tanya Morgan has remotely recorded and released four full-length albums, an online mixtape, and countless EP's and singles since their formation in 2003. Now, Don & Von are back with their fifth full-length album, simply titled Don & Von. This time, the duo steps out from behind the odd moniker to show listeners that they exist in a world that's all their own. The 12-track album tackles a wide range of topics, including their tenure in the Hip-Hop game, police brutality, and being Black in America. For Don & Von, Tanya Morgan recruited a handful of their old collaborators from back in the day when they first met in the okayplayer Forums.
Don & Von features guest vocals from Miss Jack Davey (J*DaVeY,) Kooley High, MoRuf, Nappy Nina, and Rob Cave and boasts production work by Von Pea, Donwill, Brick Beats, dane.zone, Clint Taylor, and Aeon. Clocking in at about 45 minutes, the album is a great point of entry for the uninitiated, a solid refresher for anyone who may have forgotten, and an instant classic for diehard fans. We were fortunate enough to speak with both Don & Von, via email, about Tanya Morgan's Don & Von, The Roots-flipping The Sandwich Shop, and everything in-between. Said interview has been lightly edited for general clarity and is now available down below the break. Tanya Morgan's Don & Von is now available to stream or purchase on HiPNOTT Records.
ON1. What would you cite as some of your primary sources of inspiration and influence while creating Don & Von?
Von Pea: While I was working on this album, I listened to N.W.A.'s EFIL4ZAGGG*N and it became inspiration for how I wanted the album to bookend. There's an energy to the first two tracks on that N.W.A. album that just pulls you into that world and the way it ends feels like... a "cool-down" after a workout. I liked that and wanted to do our version of that... as far as sequencing and trying to control the flow of the album.
TW2. Sound-wise, how would you say Don & Von differs stylistically from your past efforts together?
Von: Don & Von is just an up-to-date version of our earlier albums when we were a trio... sonically, it's the same producers. When we first became a duo, we started using more outside production as a way to explore the sound a little and see what we might morph into. This time, we went with mostly myself and Brick Beats, with Aeon coming in as another in-house producer, and the new [collaborators] on production this time [were] Clint Taylor & dane.zone
Donwill: The album sounds a bit more grounded, [in my opinion]. Like Von said, we haven't really assembled this original production unit in a while; so, it was kinda cool getting everyone back for a project.
THRE3. What was the group name "Tanya Morgan" initially intended to mean, signify, or convey?
Von: The name was originally a one-off thing for the first album, Moonlighting, but we kept it going since people liked our chemistry... we decided to go from being a side-project to a full-on group, first priority. It was kind of a [Beatles'] Sgt. Pepper's [Lonely Hearts Club Band] thing that stuck.
FOU4. How did you go about recruiting featured artists for Don & Von and where each artist would, ultimately, be placed?
Von: We're still fans, so we have people we want to work with and at the same time, these people end up being [mutual] fans of us, as well. Everyone on this album wanted to work with us and we were excited to work with them. "WE GO HIGH" was a track I heard MoRuf on, as I think his sound would pair well with Æon beats... as a fan of both of them, I wanted to hear him on an Aeon track. We go way back with Jack Davey [J*DaVeY] from our early days and she heard a demo of "A WHOLE MOOD" and loved it... said she was on it and we were happy. Charlie Smarts from Kooley High was hanging with Don at an event and said he wanted to work on a song with us. I picked the Brickbeats track and it became "SO GOOD." I wanted to hear Che Grand on "REACHING THE SKY."
Don: I've known [Nappy] Nina for a while now and just thought she'd sound great on "A - TEAM." I was bumping into her a lot, as well, because she does a lot of work with dane.zone and me and him were doing these weekly sessions where he was showing me how to use Ableton and we'd vibe out and make beats. That's where "BOOTS [AND PRACTICE]" came from.
FIV5. Who handled the production, recording, mixing, mastering, artwork, etc. for Don & Von?
Von: Everyone recorded themselves and I mixed the album. Don produced all of the interludes and co-produced the first part of "BOOTS AND PRACTICE" with dane.zone. The rest of the album is me, Brick Beats, and Aeon, and "FRESH LEMONADE" is produced by Clint Taylor. George Gomez, our long-time collaborator, did the cover. He's been doing most of our covers since Abandoned Theme Park (2016.)
SI6. Granted it as created during COVID-19, what did the writing, recording, creation, production, etc. processes behind Don & Von, actually, entail?
Von: This album was done in 2019. COVID pushed the release back a year, as we wanted to release it [during] Summer 2020. We have always recorded separately from day one, so it wasn’t a difference. We started as a long-distance group and found our chemistry that way, so even when we both lived in the same city, we kept the same practices. About 80% of our catalogue is us working together, via email and text (haha.)
Don: I do most of my writing while im walking around Brooklyn, so it was just a lot of walking around recording demos on my phone, then, texting them to Von to show him that I was, actually, working on the album haha.
SEVE7. How would you say Don & Von differs from your last full-length project together, You Get What You Pay For (YGWY$4?)
Von: Mainly it's the time and focus. The way we did [You Get What You] Pay For was we would demo a bunch of songs with a bunch of producers and we would pick what we wanted to finish or keep working on. There was so much transition happening when we did that album, it ended up taking years and it became kind of a collection of a whole era... like an anthology almost. This time, we spoke about what we were trying to do and just did it. This time, there was a bit more of an outline.
EIGH8. If you don't mind taking it back a few years here... what can you tell us about the creation of your The Roots Late Night "sandwiches"-flipping 2010 collection, The Sandwich Shop?
Von: We heard that Sandwiches tape and we wanted all of those beats lol... we were just making songs to them for the Hell of it and it ended up becoming a fan favorite project. I don't remember a lot about the recordings other than cheap wine haha. Definitely check out my entry on The Sandwich Shop from my [Instagram,] @vonpea. I did this retrospective on all of our projects called #13DaysofTanya.
Don: We recorded some of that stuff in my old [apartment] and it was just a vibe. We'd meet up before going out and track a vocal, then, just go outside and hang out. That was just about capturing a moment in time and not really thinking too hard about what we were doing.
NIN9. Who are some of your personal "dream" collaborators you might attempt to collaborate with on your Don & Von follow-up?
Von: You know... I really don't have anyone in mind yet. Whatever we do next, I hope it happens organically, like we usually do.
Don: I really enjoy working with the [people] we have around us. So, I don't really think about it, to be honest, but I really like Karriem Riggins a lot.
TE10. Now that Don & Von has been released unto the terribly unsuspecting world, what's next for Don & Von, either together as Tanya Morgan or separately?
Von: Don & I are going to do a reverse to his One Word No Space album with me as the lead [vocalist] and him handling production. We're gonna finish up the Rob Cave project we produced. There's an unreleased E L U C I D album that I produced and that's coming out soon, also!
Don: Just staying creative, in general. I'll probably start another solo album for later this year or next year, but, right now, I'm just kinda focused on Don & Von and producing for the crew.