If you're plugged into the West Coast hip-hop scene, there's a good chance you've seen or heard the man known as Deuce Eclipse, whether you know it or not. See, about 16 years ago, I went to my first proper live hip-hop show, a couple of weeks after I turned legal drinking age up here in British Columbia. It was a Quannum Projects tour featuring Lyrics Born and friends. Among those friends was powerful Zion-I. At that time, Zion-I was three people and one of those people was singer/rapper/generally amazing human being, Deuce Eclipse. It wasn't until the summer of last year (2019) - when Garden City Grooves festival here in my hometown announced they were bringing Bay Area groove-monster BANG DATA as part of the years festivities – that I realized that not only had I encountered Deuce Eclipse's captivating talents more than a decade and half before, but he has been (and still is!) putting out ridiculously groovy, thoughtful, passionate music with the powerhouse that is Bang Data.

Paired up with the multi-talented Caipo, Eclipse formed Bang Data and the duo hasn't stopped creating since, carving out a special place in the west coast music scene. “I was working on a solo album and I was working with Amp Live, from Zion-I, at the time. We kind of hit a wall. I was trying to do more singing in more Spanish, so he took it upon himself to reach out to other people and put them in touch with me. That's how I met Caipo,” Eclipse says, speaking to me from home in the Bay. “At the beginning, Amp Live was actually part of Bang Data. He was still in Zion-I and it was taking off, so he had to be there more, so Bang Data ended up being me and Caipo. At the end, we're the ones who stuck it out, stayed in the studio and started creating. Caipo thought he was basically kind of done playing live, but I think the music inspired him in a way that he wanted to start playing again. We started recording and coming up with all kinds of different music, then we ended up staying together as a group.”
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1. When's the last time you did something for the first time?

I don't know why this is coming up, but when I water-skied, a long time ago. This was years and years ago, somewhere in California on a camping trip. My friend's dad had a boat with skies. I don't know why but the first time I snow-skied as well, I did it the first time. I don't know how I did it the first time but I did. I got up water skiing for the first time with no problem. I think it was for Boy Scouts. That's one of the first times I did something that stands out in my mind. But I've never done it since.

2. If you could spend the day with anyone, living or dead, who would it be and what would you do?

It would be my dad. I would spend the day with him and we would probably catch a Giants game, drink some beer and just talk.