Rapper Allday finally finds his purpose in his latest record
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21.08.2019

Rapper Allday finally finds his purpose in his latest record

Allday
Words by Marnie Vinall

Aussie rapper Allday has been in headlines and various clips circulating our social media feeds a lot of late. He recently dropped an album, performed a killer Splendour set and is about to head off on a national tour with mates Mallrat, E^ST and JXN.

Most notably from his Splendour performance was when he joined forces with The Veronicas to revive the iconic tune still beating strong in millennial Aussie hearts, ‘Untouched’. Allday was quick to acknowledge this too, alluding that “‘Untouched’ did go off, big time. But it was an overall good time”.

His Splendour set was also one of the first chances for punters to hear his latest album Starry Night Over the Phone performed live. The name, he says comes from, “a painting by Van Gogh called ‘Starry Night Over the Rhône’, which is a river”. Simple, but in Allday fashion, poetic nonetheless.

Allday agrees that the album has a reflective quality about it, claiming that comes from spending most of his time in America and missing home. “I wrote all of it pretty much in America and I was thinking about Adelaide, I was thinking about Melbourne, I was thinking about home and yeah, just because I was missing it.

“I was in LA and I think it’s obvious from the music that I was in a relationship and it wasn’t going very well and so it was a combination of missing home and being in a kind of broken relationship that made it a collective nostalgic album, maybe.”

You can hear this In ‘Protection’, ‘Rhythms’ and the collaboration with The Veronicas, ‘Restless’. The partnership with the pop duo might seem like an odd combination, but Allday explains that it worked seamlessly.

“They asked me to be on their album. We already knew each other, we always hang out when they’re in town in LA. So, they asked me to be on their album and I did that and I said, ‘hey, do you want to jump on this track’. I had the record sitting there with my vocals on the chorus and it didn’t sound right [at the time].”

‘Restless’ has already seen a large amount of adoration from its release in early June and the rest of the newly released tracks on the album are getting a lot of love from fans too. This may have something to do with Allday really coming into his own.

He recently tweeted, “I finally feel like I have something to say in my music + the ability to say it. Album coming in July and I’ve half-written another one. God is great.”

On this, Allday tells us, “You know what, it’s not just that album, I feel like it’s since the album; I’ve been going, I’ve stayed in the studio and I’ve kept making songs. With other albums I was kind of burnt out at the end.

“I feel like I have a bunch of people around me that know how to get songs made. I feel like these next few years will hopefully be a productive time – a fruitful harvest for me.”

Right now, however, the rapper has his sights set on his upcoming tour where he’ll be taking frequent collaborator Mallrat along for the ride alongside E^ST and JXN. “We’ve kind of reshaped the songs and added to them,” Allday explains. “And playing with the band, who are super tight, it’s made it more fun for me to perform rather than just doing it over the track. So, I feel it’s opened up a new level for our show, which is really exciting.”

His only qualm – playing in front of his mum in Adelaide. “I love performing in Adelaide except there’s something about performing in front of your mum and your family that, you know, it’s hard to have a party while your mum’s there, you know what I mean?”

Allday’s new album, Starry Night Over the Phone, is out now via ONETWO. The rapper comes to Festival Hall on Saturday August 31. Grab your tickets via the venue website.