Aaris A. Schroeder

Schroeder is the founder/editor-in-chief of Sacramento’s UBO Magazine.

I thought you were a dude when I first heard about you.

Yeah, everybody thinks I’m a dude.

Really? What kind of name is it?

It’s Greek. It means goddess of discord.

I noticed the hip-hop scene isn’t as pretentious as the rock scene.

I think that hip-hop is more of a community. We’re working together to bring the music up. … I’ve been researching music recently, trying to find the actual hip-hop sound in Sacramento.

Huh?

I pulled up my little Excel sheet and did some nonbiased research on MySpace and hit up every Sacramento hip-hop page. I organized them under independent, signed or unsigned. And I looked at everything from Christian rap to gangster and gutter rap. I actually found out that the main sound is a slightly political, conscious hip-hop sound.

Are you kind of anally retentive?

No, I’m a perfectionist.

Do you bite your fingernails?

Yeah, I’ve been biting them my whole life.

Is it nerves?

It’s everything.

So what do you think of Sacramento music?

I think we have a pretty good scene here. [Professionalism] and management is the only downfall. That’s why a lot of artists aren’t able to break out of Sacramento.

[There’s some kind of commotion across the street. A bunch of muscular frat bros have convened by a parked truck.]

What’s going on? I’m too lazy to get up.

I don’t know.

[It turns out, a truck was parked illegally and blocking another car from leaving. The frat bros picked up the offending truck and moved it with their bare hands. A frat bro yells, “We picked it up!”]

Awesome!

See that dude over there? He owns Health & Fitness magazine.

Weird. Tell me about your Camel Menthol habit.

No.

Why not?

My mom will be mad.

She doesn’t know about your Camel Menthol habit?

No.

OK. Why are you on this planet?

To communicate. And to educate myself.

And to convert everyone to Christianity?

No.