Featuring Fraksha and Scotty Hinds from Nine High.

Check this shit out YO! And don’t forget to tune into RRR every Friday night for Top Billin radio.

And a reminder that Top Billin’s own Doc Felix hosts his free hip-hop night every week in Gertrude St, Fitzroy. So get down there and give him an earful!

I was looking forward to hearing ‘The Festival Song‘ when I got my first glimpse of the back cover. Every time i think Pez, 360 also comes to mind. You guys obviously have a history together, how important was getting this track just right?

It was definitely important cos I knew the song had a lot of appeal and potential. But working with Sixty is always a very natural thing and not something that we have to put much thought into, we just let it come. That being said, I still know when somethings not quite right and I wasn’t going to let up until I thought the song had everything that it needed. Which I think it does and I’m really happy with the result!

‘It All Starts To Show’ definitely let you speak your mind. Do you see this as common knowledge to most?

Yeah it definitely gave me a chance to talk about some things that were on my mind. I wanted to have a song on the album that would give me a chance to open up and see where I end up, so ‘It All Starts To Show’ was a very important song for me and turned out to be one of my favourites. I don’t see the things that I talked about as common knowledge though, that’s probably the reason behind why I wanted to talk about them, because I get so annoyed at people’s lack of awareness and it’s my way of expressing it and letting go of it.

This being your debut LP, how has everything been at Soulmate? Any plans for future releases, what’s in store for Pez?

Well being that this is my debut LP, this is definitely my whole focus at the moment and will be for some time, though a ForthWrite album and a project i’m doing with Raymes are both in the works. Everything at Soulmate has been great and hopefully there will be lots of future projects for us to embark on together but it’s early days at the moment so we’ve just got to take it one step at a time.

Working alongside someone like Count Bounce must of been a great learning curve, what was his overall influence?

Working with Count Bounce was a great learning experience for me and Matik because it was the first time we’d seen our music come to life. We were both strongly involved in the mixing phase so we kept the brakes on him to some degree but he was able to suggest some cool things throughout. Plus I loved the result of having him feature on ‘Ain’t Got Time’! That song wouldn’t have been the same without him on it.

What’s the usual process between yourself and Matik, from making a beat, to concepts etc?

The process usually involves Matik sampling something or having a rough composition that really grabs my attention. Once that happens, he’ll bounce out a rough version for me to take home and write to, and we might have a little discussion about ideas for the track’s direction if something doesn’t immediately jump out at me. Then I like to be alone and get in a zone so I can put the beat on repeat and write until all of the lyrics come together. And finally comes the exciting part, where I get to go back and show Matik what I’ve done and he gets to show me all of the other things he’s added to the beat and we watch it come together.

Cheers for your time mate, any shout outs, upcoming gigs? Where can peeps find a copy of A Mind Of My Own?

Shout outs to everyone involved in helping the album come together. My album launch is on October 24th at Roxanne Parlour in Melbourne which is extremely exciting! And people will be able to find a copy at JB Hi – Fi, all good hip-hop stores and hopefully Sanity and HMV as well. Cheers brother. Pez

By Jeans

Well I am fuckhead for not posting this last week and before the gig oops – Ed.

Update – For those who missed the album launch Pez and 360 will be supporting The Winnie Coopers at “The Spot” 133 Sydney Road, Brunswick this Friday 31st October

Tickets $10
Doors open 9pm

Trem, thanks for your time and joining me today.

No dramas, thanks for the chat..

I understand you have been working on Fluent Form – Chapters of Substance. Tell us a little about that and what else have you been up to, oz hip hop wise etc ?

Yeah I got a beat on Fluent Forms forthcoming CD, it’s actually the title track and last joint on the album I believe… I haven’t actually worked on the release as such just the one instro…

And it kinda came about when I first decided to offload my production to the open public, for years I’ve been approached about selling beats etc. But always kept em in house for the crew, I guess I finally thought I had enough to go around and bein in between releases it was a good opportunity to slang beats to other heads in the market for my production. It was honestly a hard decision to make at first, one I struggled with a little, tussling with the notion “What If I sell a beat to someone and they completely destroy it… you know, In a bad way?”, Id actually had discussions with other producers who warned me off because this very thing had happened to them… but eventually I bit the bullet and reached out to those who’d approached me along with some other up and comers and from there the first batch of beats went like hotcakes.

Aside from Fluent Forms release I got beats on Kid Selzys new stuff, a new crew on the way called The Aphilliates, a bunch of stuff on the Kings Konnected forthcoming project/s, my boy L-Flows copped some shit, plus a few others here n there… I’m actually in the process of getting the next stash up n runnin to throw out there to keep the wolves at bay…

Aside from the Production thingy I’ve been busy with other operations ranging from maintaining label shit to mixing, since The Mahogany room shut doors I’ve still been mixing tracks n projects for heads, so that still keeps me on my toes, just been cleaning up Struts new release “The Fallout Shelter” recorded in London, organising some stuff for his other release “Rejuvenation” which with out saying too much is a remix project he’s putting together with heads from all over… And of course plotting and piecing together the Trem LP in my spare time!

What is a normal day in the life of Trem?

Hmmm this is probably best broken into a week to give you a better idea-

Generally the first half is day job steez, I’m lucky (or unlucky) enough to have a casual day job I can shift to suit music life, allowing me to work as much or as little according to Unkut Biz and how hectic it is, but as a general rule 3 days of my week (give or take) are spent there which allows me Thurs. Fri. Sat. to focus on Music be it Production, Mixing, Writing, Recording, Admin, Label shit, whatever the case may be… Sundays a leisure day… 2 years ago, even a year ago, this wasn’t in the picture, but as age has taken its toll I need a day for myself to relax, clear the head, chill with wifey, paint, go to the footy whatever…

You are regarded by many as one of Australia’s best lyricists, were you are aware that three of your solo albums have been collectively sold for over $1400 on Ebay recently?

Cheers, Ha, Yeah the releases were 12”s, we didn’t even market them as E.P’s let alone albums… just 12”s jam-packed with your moneys worth! (Keeping in mind we were sellin em out the hand for like 12-15 and wholesale for a tenner or thereabouts) And I did see that Sheer Talent one go for what, $730 or some shit??? Crazy, Delta actually rung me and said peep that shit!!! And some one mentioned to me not long later Amateurs was up for a bit too…

Did you ever think that Sheer Talent and Amateurs would become such collectors items when they where in production 10 years ago?

No idea at all, this was 10 years ago, I simply did those releases for me. I was always hellbent on droppin wax first up… it was always something i was gonna do… its the main reason why I didn’t drop product til 97 alot of that shit was more 94 stuff but I wasn’t content with rockin a tape so accumulating funds to form the label and press vinyl took a bit of time… I guess in the long run tho limited quantity pressings on vinyl are always gonna become semi valuable in someone’s eyes, As I said though, I merely dropped em on wax because to me that was Hip Hop. They have they’re little place in History but in hindsight Id be more comfortable if both 12”s were compiled and released as a tape back then, they were both pretty much recorded around the same time along with another 2 or 3 tracks so I actually had enough to drop a full length tape… woulda been a hell of a lot more viable financially back then, but maybe not so much now for the heads rakin in monstrous profits on their investment!!!!

Ive got the official numbers pressed down somewhere but it was fuck all and the cost was ridiculous. Smart business sense wasn’t an issue when it came to local hip hop then and we were all willing to part with our doe to put out music… Put it this way, I never made $730 off the entire run…

With that in mind, can we expect anymore solo work from you in the near future being that there is obviously a high demand for your solo work? I hear talk on the grapevine but nothing yet? Is it that you prefer to work with other artists?

Yes you can. To say a Trem solo is overdue is an understatement, and I can’t thank the fans enough for the patience they’ve shown in waiting for it… But anyone who knows me knows these things- When we kicked off L.C that crew became my life… I devoted more of my time to the crew than you would to your own new born, to our hustle and music, everything. I’ve always enjoyed workin in a team environment more than a solo one… I love team sports, cricket/ football etc, fuck golf n tennis. So I put the crew and the crews projects first, then when I saw what Strut had cookin with his second solo I loved it, believed in it and wanted to be a part of it so when we put the L.C stuff on hiatus I gave everything to The Legend Official release and the mix-tape preceding it. So with all this going on, my own solo gets pushed back further and further, but thats all good, Im not blaming these releases, that was my choice, but I’m just relaying these points to the punters who think I’m a slack fuck. Ha… So then I state Im not gonna be involved artistically with any other Unkut product til my solo is done, thats something I put on myself, but still cant help but say to Strut “shoot the recorded files my way and I’ll do a clean up/ initial mix of your new project!” Plus here I am on my spare days tinkering with production to sell etc instead of writing. At times I’m my own worst enemy!

Adding to this, believe it or not, I’ve never been the fastest rhyme writer on the planet, not to mention I’d probably be the pickiest…
So all in all, the solos in the works… without giving too much away about 5 tracks in.

Stay tuned for more details…

Now that Brad has moved to London and Balans is busy with his family is their any future for LC? Rumor is that you guys have officially split up ?

Nah we haven’t split up, we family. As I said before tho, we put crew shit on hiatus for an undetermined time tho to focus on other stuff including solos etc. Like you said, Struts in the UK getting busy, Bobs takin care of his family, you know doin exactly what a man should do… And I’m on a never ending quest to eventually smash out this fuckin solo! So there’s valid reasoning for the Crew to be on hold for a while… At some stage I’ve got to get this LC DVD eventually out too! But yeah we always on each others product and Id like to think shit will come full circle eventually where we can all be on the same plain, meet minds and build a crew album to end all!

What are some of your favorite artists to work with either beats wise or mc’ing?

I’ve pretty much enjoyed working with everyone I’ve had the opportunity to over the years… I mean I don’t get out there and jump all over dudes tracks n shit, but the few I’ve worked with have all been on point. I love workin with Strut prolly most of all, when it comes time to do our thing we just seem to click… When I push beats his way he spins me out at times with what he comes with, then when we hit the studio, it seems simple and enjoyable, from an engineer’s perspective that is… He’s straight pro, knows the routine back to front and I feel I operate along the same lines so we vibe a bit then bang, smash shit out easy peezy. He use to lob to mine and do like 2-3 tracks a day, plus you know were like brothers so we are straight up with one another…
It was a mad experience when Q Unique swung past the Trematorium to work on Murderous, that was a highlight for me, just to see how they were doin it in BK, like I said most heads Ive worked with have been dope at what they do. On a beat front, Im cool to rock on anyones beat if it gets me goin… Im really feelin Beat Butchas shit at the minute, hes got a bunch of shit on my solo, Ive put the word out there, if any heads have beats shoot em my way for a listen Im compiling the remaining tracks for the album!

Who are your up and comers you would like to work with or work more with?

Yeah you know It’s always hard to work out… I guess I kinda got burned once so am a little more sceptical bout givin Trems touch to the cause… This was also something I had to juggle when it came time to sell beats to possibly rappers I’d never heard before… But on that I been lucky (and also a little strategic) that those who’ve blessed my tracks outside the fold have been on point so far! I’m working pretty tightly at the minute with my boy Stricknines crew –“Kings Konnected” without blowin too much smoke up they’re ass, I really feel they’re on the right path, hopefully they stick with it. But with the knowledge I have of what they’ve got in the works, I’m actually slightly amped about it, hopefully everything falls into place for them. Theirs a bunch of semi established, yet still new to the gamers I’m watching, but we’ll see where they head next… I’ve done bits and pieces of work for bunches of young bucks comin thru and to be fair, a chunk of them really do have varying potential, I guess its whether or not they capitalise on that potential and more importantly it comes down to what they see fit and where they wanna head with their music. What I see as dope isn’t everyone’s cuppa…

What is the future for Hip Hop in Australia? Do you see it getting stale? How do you see it evolving ?

Who the fuck knows? It’s certainly been a see-saw for the past 5-6 years. I guess leading up to its explosion it was a lot more stable, you know, you new what you were getting and only the strong survived, or even attempted, you’d get shut down quick for bein half arsed no doubt. I wouldn’t say it could get entirely stale as far as the music being made, but I think its heading towards a stalemate as far as how far it can go, whats next, has it hit its plateau etc… Although we’d all love sales to exceed and make proper doe off it, I personally think, if it hasn’t already, it’ll scale back to something like the days of old… Its gotta… bandwagon jumpers only stay on for a bit, then when they see its not all its cracked up to be, they leg it… Dwindling sales won’t allow labels etc to invest time and money into wak product and wak artists who expect everything to be done for them won’t bother with it any longer. True heads in it for the music sake will keep on keepin on, and those true heads lucky enough to maintain a loyal fan base can hopefully continue to pay to press up quality product and maybe have a lil left to grab a couple records a pizza and some beers…

Is their anything in particular you hate about hip hop at the moment ?

I have my moments where I hate heaps, but then i hear those diamonds in the ruff and get excited again… ha… I’m a jaded fucker tho…

For future Trem and LC updates please check out :

www.unkutrecordings.com
www.myspace.com/tremlccrew
www.myspace.com/unkutrecordings
www.myspace.com/lyricalcommissioncrew

Trem Portrait by- Linz – www.thekingsapprentice.com