Thankfully, the run of bad luck and ill health has done nothing to diminish the artist’s efforts. This tour will also see Illy performing at a number of festivals including: Full Noise in Townsville, the Brisbane-hosted Sprung Hip Hop Festival as well as Newcastle’s famed Fat As Butter. Illy describes the advantageous practicalities of participating in such events. “I like being able to see acts from other genres that I am keen to check out. Also, festivals generally have considerably bigger crowds so obviously the bigger the crowd, the bigger the buzz. I love playing to big crowds, especially when you have them in the palm of your hand. Festivals are just much easier in general because it’s not our own show where we have to be there early for sound check and such. There’s none of the running back and forth, the responsibilities of your own show. Festivals are great because you can turn up an hour beforehand, do the show and have a drink afterwards and leave the cleaning up to someone else.”
Despite the monumental popularity of Illy’s most recent album, The Chase, Illy has decided to deliver slightly more than that for this tour. In terms of set material, there are plans to mix things up slightly, treating punters to a varied set. “We are chucking a couple old jams into the set but only for the tour shows. For the festival shows we are probably going to try out a new track. I threw it on over the weekend and whilst I was happy enough, it went alright but there still needs a bit of tinkering.”
Although this time around, the lesser-trodden, regional areas do not get a look-in, Illy goes on to extol the positive aspects of playing shows in such areas. “I do get hit up a fair bit about regional shows and I am really big on doing them. I love getting out to those areas because a lot of the time people in regional areas don’t get as much in the way of live gigs so when you go there, they are really appreciative. Unfortunately we probably won’t be doing another large scale tour with regional dates until the next album comes out.”
Despite the current focus on the live set, in the months leading up to this tour, Illy has been hard at work in the studio, crafting the first few tracks for an album he hopes to release by the middle of next year. He elaborates on how the new disc is developing. “Trials actually sent me a beat yesterday morning and I wrote a song for it which I recorded last night. I’ve been working pretty flat-out on the album material, probably about four or five tracks down at this point so it’s coming along nicely.”
When asked whether that kind of pace for writing a track is unusual for him, Illy explains how the process generally pans out for him. “I never really rush shit but I’m not one of those dudes who take years upon years to get something that they are happy with putting out there. I think I have enough confidence in myself so that when I have written something, I’ll touch it up a bit but if I feel it’s good I’ll back myself completely. It’s probably a slightly quicker turnaround compared to other artists but that’s not to say that the quality is ever lacking.”
For those unaware, throughout every tour and, indeed, throughout the recording of both his albums so far, Illy has been completing a law degree which he has only just completed. He contemplates challenges of the future with a pinch of old fashioned procrastination. “I graduate in about two weeks from now, I finished in June. It took me six and a half years because I studied part-time. It’s pretty hard to split the two for pride. I guess if I had to, I would probably put what I have done with music above the law degree because one is a passion and one is more of a work device. I’m really not looking forward to dealing with the job market at all but hopefully I can put that off for a couple of years and continue with the music without having to worry about something like that.”
