“We spent the night hanging with some very rowdy people,” Smith chimes in. Other acts on the bill included Tkay Maidza, Bad//Dreems, Safia and Melbourne funk-soul outfit Saskwatch. “They’ve been named the Mötley Crüe of Australia,” he laughs. “They were a very rowdy bunch, but it’s been so good to catch up with everyone, because we do tend to see a lot of these acts around the traps.” “DMA’s have been over here as well,” Kolawole adds. “They’re killing it.”
In conversation, Remi and Sensible J are everything you’d expect – fun, friendly, and sharing a brotherly rapport. They feed off each other constantly. “These shows have been incredible,” Kolawole says. “We’ve played a lot of showcases that will hopefully open up new possibilities for us.”
“Can I tell the death metal story?” Smith asks. “Sure man, go for it,” says Kolawole. The anecdote concerns a show they played in Vienna shortly before arriving the UK. “We played at a venue that used to be a slaughterhouse, back in the day,” Smith says. “They’ve tricked it out and now it’s an awesome live music venue, but it’s used predominately for death metal bands. So when we rocked up there, we were incredibly nervous. We had visions of being lynched by this death metal crowd,” Smith and Kolawole both laugh, “but when we got there everyone was so cool. We were the supporting act for Dälek. He’s amazing – he does industrial, almost Nine Inch Nails-sounding hip hop. Obviously it was very different from home, you know? Normally if we supported a death metal hip hop act we would probably get killed. So it was very refreshing.”
Kolawole and Smith agree that life on the road is full of creative stimulus. Though, harvesting new ideas can be rather haphazard. “I’m always working on new music,” Smith says. “It’s tricky on tour because I don’t have any of my little machines to actually make beats. So I’ll just beat-box something or sing a melody into my phone.”
“Yeah, I’m always writing ideas down,” says Kolawole. “It’s kind of the same for me as it is for J, though. My USB mic looks too much like a bomb to take it overseas, so I just rap into my phone. I try to take in as much as possible and make little notes on my iPhone.”
“Didn’t Eminem write lyrics on napkins?” asks Smith. “I think he did,” says Kolawole. “He’d write lyrics everywhere – but he was a bit all over the shop.” “The shop where they’d sell the napkins?” Smith laughs.
Kolawole grew up in a musical family and started learning classical piano at a young age. In contrast, Smith was a promising sportsman before an injury left him permanently sidelined. “I was never the cool kid,” he says. “I was lucky because I could play basketball a little bit above average – I’m not going to say well.”
“Basically he was a mini LeBron James, then he hurt his knee and he was out,” Kolawole says. “It was emotional man. He had Magic Johnson on the phone coaching him through his pain. The shit got real [laughs].”
It’s resoundingly clear that Kolawole and Smith don’t take themselves too seriously. However, having scooped up a slew of awards – including triple j Unearthed Artist of the Year, Carlton Dry Global Music Grant, and more recently the Coopers AMP – hell, they must be doing something right.
“Remi does get asked for advice a lot,” says Smith. “I always say write pop shit and you’ll make heaps of money,” says Kolawole. “Nah, to be honest, the most important thing is to make sure you’re having fun. I know that sounds like some wanker shit but it’s the absolute truth. You’ve just got to reality check yourself as to why you’re actually doing what you’re doing, and the answer should be fun.
“The second thing is always listen to and compare yourself with your favourite acts,” he continues. “That’s what we do. No one is going to teach you how to do this job and it’s best to listen and learn as much as you can.”
“Read books and listen to old records,” Smith says, before admitting, “Oh, I actually don’t really know how to give advice. I just try to impress Remi with my beats and he tries to impress me with his raps.”
Kolawole’s second point of advice leads to a discussion of the artists that he and Smith look up to. “I like people like Jai Paul,” he says. “He can just put a song online and make a million dollars. He doesn’t have to do any press – I actually don’t know how he does it. He just came out of nowhere. That’s pretty incredible. Other than that I’m not really envious of anybody else’s career.”
“Except for Radiohead,” Smith says. “Yeah, Radiohead,” Kolawole agrees. “It’s pretty rare for a band to go more alternative and keep getting bigger,” Smith continues. “Hopefully one day we can do that – release something totally wild and keep growing.”
Radiohead actually make an appearance on Remi’s latest mixtape Call It What You Want (F.Y.G. Act:2), albeit in the form of a sample. The grab appears on Weirdos (from planet HOB), which is a nod to House of Beige; Kolawole and Smith’s indie record label. From humble beginnings, HOB continues to grow. “We started in a small studio – if you can call the spare bedroom in J’s house a studio,” Kolawole says. “From the start that’s where we recorded all of our music. J’s house was beige – the walls were beige, we’re beige, so we decided, ‘Let’s go with it’.”
Australian hip hop icon Hau Latukefu (of Koolism fame) is part of the HOB family, and he’ll be supporting Remi at a couple hometown shows this weekend. “He’ll be playing a bunch of new shit and it’s incredible,” Smith says.
“In fact, pretty much his entire upcoming album was produced by J and Dutch,” Kolawole adds. “What I’ve heard is really exceptional and I’m more than happy to be touring around the country with him – he’s like my brother. We’re always inclined to invite people on tour that we’re going to have fun with, but the real key is that we respect each other. That way the audience will feel there’s a good dynamic between us, we’ll have a great show and we won’t want to kick each other’s arses when we’re holed up in the tour van.”
After a quick run of shows along the east coast, Kolawole and Smith will head straight back to Europe for the summer festival season, taking in the UK, France, Germany, Holland, Switzerland and Croatia. “Honestly, by the time we get back from Europe I think we’re going to be pretty home sick,” Kolawole says, “and I’m looking forward to getting into writing our next record. We’ve got lots of ideas, but they’re just the bare bones of what we want to produce. It’ll be at some point next year – I’m not going to say when though. Mainly because I just want to be sure we’re giving people the best finished product that we can. We don’t want to put out something half-arsed, you know? Although we will be releasing plenty of music before we drop the full album… but I want to take my time with it and make sure the next record is the shit.”
BY NATALIE ROGERS
