Finding himself may be easier said than done for Jones. This is a man who was at Aussie hip hop’s push into the mainstream with 1200 Techniques, and after closing that chapter in the mid-noughties, has grafted between Australia, London and the rest of Europe, playing gigs, recording music and mentoring young musicians.
When I get the chance to speak to him he is taking a bit of time off to be with his family in Western Australia but we are talking about one busy dude, and he says he wouldn’t have it any other way. “People get so caught up in their art and they want it to be perfect and if it isn’t they won’t do it basically but they’ll live their life doing something they hate forever. Once you get past that you go, ‘Okay, how do I make this work for me, what do I want?’ It’s been a long journey and development but 1200 [Techniques] was the start. It’s always gonna be on my mind and in myself.”
First popping up on our radar in 1998 with single Hard As Hell, 1200 Techniques smashed their way into the minds and onto the radios of Australia with 2002’s Choose One. Lead single Karma peaked at number 36 on the ARIA charts, a song instantly memorable for its smooth soul keys, rocking guitar riffs and solos blended over a classic hip hop beat as much as the eye-catching clip in which the band become homicidal puppets.
Jones puts the success of 1200 Techniques down to hard work, and maybe just a little dash of luck. “There were a lot crews working hard but it seemed like no one wanted to let anyone get through to that higher tier, high rotation on the J’s [Triple J], getting through to your Novas and maybe even over to a Fox or something like that. It was a big no no. We were just fortunate I guess to be around at the right time. If you look back there are certain things you’re meant to do to get your status up and get heard and get out there, but we were just doing those things organically and didn’t realise it. It was amazing to me to be apart of that first initial wave that was able to crash the shores that a lot of artists have now built on and taken much further.”
Finding it hard to break into the mainstream in Australia pales in comparison to what faced him in London as a solo artist. “There’s so many people who were getting their hustle on in London,” he says. “So many people were so full of hot air and ‘Oh I know this guy’ and ‘I’m doing that’ and a lot of people flex over there. People here don’t say they can deliver things if they can’t, but over there a lot of people are almost frauds, but the people we hear about who are doing well are never in those sort of circles and never caught up in any of that. If it’s good things will work, all the hype is just bullshit.”
Recording an album he hopes to release in February next year, things aren’t slowing down anytime soon for Jones, who says he’s “just enjoying making music, you aim for the heavens but don’t expect too much”.
“It really wasn’t on the cards for me originally,” Jones says about the upcoming record. “But the Babylondon EP did alright, March On got a lot of airplay, people have been offering me gigs here and there and its sort of been building.
“Just before I moved to London I met these guys, Jay Smith and Dutch, two boys in Melbourne, really nice, good people. You get those people you meet sometimes and they’re so good and nice you’re like, ‘What’s wrong with this person?’, until you realise they’re actually like that. I met them and we wrote a bunch of music and then I moved abroad, but when I was away I kept thinking about this music I’d written. I was doing a lot of gigs over there and writing a bit but I kept thinking about this project. Then when I came back to Aus we started linking up again. After we’d done a few things with Drapht and Drapht was starting to vibe with them as well he was in my ear like, ‘Yo, you should do your record, let’s do it, I’ll help you get your head around it if you want’.
“You often need other creatives around sometimes to help you separate the woods from the trees. Most of its done now, we just got to get all the mixing finished and a couple of extra vocals here and there. It’s not like I stress and rush through things, it’s just getting it done in its time like it’s meant to be.”
BY RYAN BUTLER
