Schizophrenic, Progressive Hip-Hop: If That Hasn’t Got You Excited, You’re Probably Dead.
All hail, Eminem has managed to secure another entrant in the urban music game. Yes, Phatchance was interested in music ever since he was a little tyke, scoring his first cassette player at a pretty young age, using it to dub songs he liked from the radio to make little mix-tapes – some of which he admits to singing over badly! And then he met Hip-Hop and the rest is history.
So the music thing, Hip-Hop, yes?
I wasn’t really into Hip-Hop at first, as a kid when it was becoming popular in a big way I was pretty opposed to the whole movement, whether that was because I didn’t connect to it or because I gobbled up the bad press that was flying around – keep in mind this is coming from a guy whose first CD was the unsuccessful follow up single to Blue by Eiffel 65 – it wasn’t really my cup of tea!
It wasn’t till I heard Stan by Eminem that I really saw the genre for the medium it was, there’s something very unique about the writing in Hip-Hop music, there’s more words and those words were the focal point of the whole song so there’s a lot of raw potential for communication. From that point I became obsessed with the genre and started trading songs and CDs with friends, spending pretty much all my money at the indie Hip-Hop store in the city I frequented and began learning to mimic what I was hearing, badly!
And what about your musical direction? I’ve never heard of progressive Hip-Hop before, have you?
No, but I’m a real big fan of press release hyperbole. I tend to get labelled with words like progressive or introspective – partly because my music is a bit left field and doesn’t necessarily slot into the typical vibe of the genre, and partly because those are the best words to capture the schizophrenic nature of what I’m doing! My music is created in a pretty organic way, I’m not afraid to throw something like a mandolin or kazoo into the mix if I think it’ll sit well. I like weird bi-harmony choruses, eclectic layering and strange ambient bridges that I’m sure frustrate radio presenters to no end – I also love hook writing and thumping Hip-Hop drums and some of my songs after a stretch would probably slot perfectly into a summer barbeque playlist.
Tell us about your life, about the day to day, what gets you up?
I work primarily on music, I run a home studio and record and mix music for a whole lot of different artists, I do a lot of technical production for records. This can involve everything from plotting the instrumentation and arrangement of a song – to haranguing an already frustrated vocalist to stop making that weird tongue click noise before they deliver a line. Other than that I mainly work on the promotional and creative sides of my own music and the music of the other artists in my collective called ‘I Forget, Sorry!’ I spend a fair bit of time touring and try to spend the rest of my day convincing my friends and girlfriend they should keep hanging out with me!
Tell us about the studio, EP’s, albums, remixes, collaborations, actually everything?
My album Inkstains has been out for about a year and that’s the release I’m actively touring at the moment. I’m about mid way through the pre-production phase of my next album and am currently knee deep recording an acoustic EP, with renditions of tracks from Inkstains and one or two unreleased originals. I’m also always actively collaborating with other artists for their records, I’ve got songs dropping with a lot of different producers this year and next year, as well as some of my favourite emerging artists including Johnny Utah and Coptic Soldier, two of the guys in ‘I Forget, Sorry!’
How does the Sydney scene compare with the rest of Australia?
The Sydney scene’s pretty awesome – for a long time it was compartmentalised and you’d see a lot of the same faces at every show, now I really never know who is going to turn up to a night. There’s a huge support base for the music and there’s a lot of fantastic artists doing really cool stuff. Actually, that pretty much applies to everywhere in the country, I’m always amazed when I head off on tour and get a chance to listen to peoples unreleased material from around the place. It’s really a head spinner just how high the quality of local Hip-Hop is getting.
In 2010, what are some of your inspirations and influences?
Probably a combination of passion, hunger (both literal and figurative), groove, jealousy and amazement at all the great work people around me are producing.
And what else is on the agenda for you?
After this tour we’re hoping to wrap production on the acoustic EP and head off on a shorter acoustic tour, we’re doing another rural run in-between Christmas and New Years and then it’s full steam ahead with the next album. I’m also trying to complete the production phase of Elgen and Johnny Utah’s debut release, which is a time consuming and awesome project to be involved in, I think that one’s going to turn a lot of heads.
Finally, what can we expect from you on tour? A pretty decent line up, huh?
A cocktail band set up, sporadic and awesome tambourine playing, some unexpected and rowdy cover numbers, messy garage style harmonies and a combination of older and unreleased material. I’m really stoked with the supports we’ve lined up for the whole tour and the few shows we’ve played so far have been far more successful than I expected, so I’m really excited about what’s to come.
Phatchance [AUS] plays First Floor on Monday November 1.
