via myspace.com/nuttinbutspringzmusic

Celebs Gone Good: You combine so many styles in your music. You even call it “pop-classic” and “urban rock”. What inspired you to combine hip hop and rap with classical violin?

Nuttin’ But Stringz: Well, we were coming from an urban area, the inner city Jamaica, Queens where we were born and raised at where hip-hop is prevalent. Then on the weekends we went to the music school where classical was prevalent. And when we came home, aside from hip-hop, we’d listen to my mom’s music—and all she listened to was rock like Rod Stewart. So, you know, at a young age we were just trying to soak it all in. So when we decided to start creating music, about six years ago now, we went in the studio and that’s what came out. And we have spent the next couple of years just filling in the cracks and making music in a way that everybody can understand it and enjoy it.

CGG: I know you have music featured in the action component for the new big movie “The Soloist.” Have you seen the film yet? How did you get involved with the project?

NBS: When I heard that movie was coming out—I actually saw Jamie Foxx on the red carpet of this event and he told us about the movie and I was like “this is nuts” you know, cause the movie is pretty similar to our lives. So when I saw the trailer for it I was like “you gotta be kidding me.”

I actually saw the movie yesterday at the Paramount Screening and its nuts. It’s a great film and I kind of got emotional through it because a lot of the things that Nathaniel went through, we went through, except the psychosis.

CGG: What are you guys doing to help out young people and encourage the arts? You two have been involved with some great causes like “Save the Music.” Could you tell me a little about your experience with that and how you have gotten involved?

NBS: Yea, yea we did a lot of work with “Save the Music” in the past. But we work with so many different organizations. We work with the “Feed the Homeless” organization that goes around and gets canned foods for the homeless.

Well, our organization for instance. We have a non-profit called “Violins against Violence” and our whole initiative is to get music--musical instruments back into schools. That is going to be a cool project to work on that we’re launching in the fall. And the whole mission for us is to go into at-risk communities that were affected by budget cuts and a lot of other things and get—not only violins but music programs in general to keep kids off the streets.

CGG: What is next for Nuttin’ but Stringz? Tell us a bit about your upcoming tour and album release.

NBS: So many cool things! Well, we are coming out with a signature violin line. That’s like a sneaker line…you know, but a violin line. That’s gonna launch hopefully with our new record. And the new album that’s coming out is going to be really, really good. I mean people are still listening to the album that came out in 2006, and that record was done in 2004. And people listen to it and they’re like “oh my god” but that album is like, six years old! We produced and wrote every song on that record and we did that when we were sixteen and seventeen years old. So you can expect even better music than that! We also have a world tour coming up—we’re gonna hit five different continents and its going to be really cool. And those are the immediate things. And there’s also a book coming out about our lives and we are working on a movie. So those are a few of the awesome things that are coming up.