Whether you are in Melbourne or any other part of Australia or even the rest of the world, you can check out Top Billin Radio with Sherrif Rosco and Lee Rawles every Friday night from 10pm (AEST) on RRR FM.

Train Of Thought member Level Headed has just dropped his long awaited solo album Spice Of Life. This South Australian took some time out to have a chat to our own G Force about the inspiration behind the album, the good and bad of being part of a group and the general state of oz hip hop at the moment.  Not to mention get you hyped up for what promises to be a hectic tour to launch the album.

First up congrats on the album Spice Of Life. 5 years since the Train Of Thought (TOT) album. Were their plans for another crew album, was the solo first up or did it just turn out this way?

It just turned out that way; Debate is master beat maker since the early days before TOT, since 96. He was still making beats whether we were doing anything or not. After TOT dropped I moved to the country to teach and half the crew went overseas so it fell apart a bit. It was hard to get everyone together. I had gathered a few beats from Debate, just making a few tracks to stay in it and it got to a point where we realized we could do an album. Then I heard from Hacksaw after 3 years missing and we hooked back up. Then TOT just jumped in. We somehow got verses from everyone and it sort of became a TOT album almost under my name. I am happy to rep though, anything out of Debate’s lab is under the TOT label or TOT productions. We don’t have plans for another TOT album though; it is too hard to get all 4 of us together to write on the same topics and wavelength.

Using Debate the whole way through creates a “complete sounding” album, were you looking at other producers at any stage?

I maybe would have looked but I moved to country SA and lost contact with a lot of the scene. I knew I could have asked Suffa and Trials but I know they are flat out. Reflux was meant to cut when Hacksaw was AWOL but he came back. Next album I will use a few more producers. I mean Debate has hundreds of top quality beats with a fair bit of variety, definitely not all the same but he is a good mate and regularly see him so we will have to wait and see.

There is an SA style on the album. If I didn’t know who you were and where you were from I could still pick it as an SA album. Where do you think this style comes from and are you even aware of it or am I just categorizing SA?

I think because we had such prominent leaders in the Hoods who led the way they influenced everyone with their style and people came out similar. Also the twang of the accent. I do agree though, I think Social Change and now Headstrong Company have that same vibe also.

There is a reasonable upbeat party kind of vibe on the first half of the album then it switches to a bit darker. Is this a play on the spice of life and the good and bad theme throughout?

The album definitely had a lay out which fitted best in my head, which is the way it felt right. I kind of wanted beats with guitars at end for some reason. I also didn’t want to blow people away with deep shit straight away. Light hearted to heavy. It also starts with the solo tracks, first five to run with then onto the tracks with features.

Of the heavier and darker tracks, “Too Late” really stood out, especially as you are a teacher, where did the inspiration come from for this track?

I was fascinated with the massacres and the issues behind them. Kids getting picked on, youth alienation and so forth. At first I had written the track addressing these issues directly but I thought it came off a bit soft, I wanted a bigger impact. Some people gave me advice to not do it as I was a school teacher. I try to keep it separate though; my students can’t buy my album off me. For the most part I tried to keep the album clean. Trials destroyed that with his huge amount of weed references in one verse though, haha.

So do the Kids and their parents know you are an emcee?

Yeah for the most part they do. I try not to swear when I spit to me swearing is not used to show lyrical ability. I try to keep topics a bit coded and subtle, using samples of tracks to highlight stuff about past shit like smoking.

8th degree on the track “Bring Them Down” is a Hed Pe kind of hook, is this something you have been trying out, how did it come about?

Yeah, more a sort of a Rage style I was keen on trying it out. I wanted to do something not many people have done and I had mates who we could work with. Everyone has chicks on choruses and orchestral stuff and it seems a bit unnecessary at times and people doing it just because it is what they think a hip hop track should be like. It was something different I wanted to do without compromising or selling out, but still different. Few beers later and we worked it out. 8th degree were a late 90’s metal band that I know, they are inactive now so it was kind of a shout out to them.

Besides that track most have a 4 bar emcee layered hook that would work well live. What is the importance of sing a long live show hooks?

The TOT album only had two tracks with actually hooks the rest were cuts and it was awkward and weird live. So I learnt from that in what works better live, I continuously progress with live shows in mind. I really just wanted something to do during hooks! Hip hop is going towards a more hook related style with more focus on song structure. I don’t see why everyone needs to use birds on every hook though, bit of overkill. Some tracks I am enjoying are killed when a chick starts to sing on the hook when it really isn’t needed and I switch off.

Who chose tracks on the interlude “bring ya back to life”?

Me and mates sat down and chose them together after recording on weekends for the whole first part of the year. We had 30 tracks at the start! They were all well known, and it was hard to cut down anymore. I wanted a unique skit. We have a live rendition of bring ya back to life, juggling then into the scratches of that interlude, smashing it.

Back to SA, bigger crews blowing up, Oars, Hoods, has it affected the scene there and expectations?

Probably not too much, I mean Hoods are alone when it comes to their level but Oars are probably on the same level as some Obese and Elephant tracks artists. Like anywhere you have a top tier of artists and it then works it way down. There is a lot of respect in the SA scene and people know who has been around for a while. I would say the younger people who are killin it though would be Riverland, Social Change. Dialect. The expectations are high but I think people are meeting it. Of course you gotta check for Vents, Oars, Hoods and also Headstrong and Trane.

So where do you stand on young kids releasing product early? Do you think people should be releasing EP’s, demos or Full Lengths? Is the scene swamped?

To an extent, no one is saying you have to press 3000 copies. I have received good feedback on my CD but now my distro company Amphead has folded so I have to do self distro. There is no one stopping you doing it, so if kids want to press up stuff they can do it. CD cost $2, sell it for $5. No one is buying Cd’s, so it is still just to get your name out there then you need to focus on Merchandise and shows. Having an album, 12 tracks instead of 6 is where it is really at though; no one can fuck with that feeling.

So you think it will go back to people hustling their own stuff, backpacks as a way of selling?

It is disappointing but I don’t know whether it will ever go back to the old school way of slinging CD’s. People still download; they just don’t want to pay for it. iTunes has fucked it. People tell me, hey I heard ya CD but they didn’t buy it and friend just loaded it onto their iTunes. They don’t realize the effect it has on artists. Create another medium, MP3 sticks that blow up like James Bond after downloading. I pressed 2000 copies after we sold 3000 of Moving Heads. I am confident in the album but two weeks after it dropped there are 30 sites to download it and there is nothing you can do about it! If someone shows enough interest I would give them a free copy rather then having them download it. I want people to have it and the artwork and see the work put into it and have people appreciate it. Read about it and get involved in it. We are a bit saturated though there is so much music to get and gather. I understand people can’t afford to buy it all.

You have a Reason Collab from Melbs but the rest are from SA. Anyone else you wanted to collab with Aus Wide?

Reason and I are both teachers and this is something we had in common, I met him through uni and stayed with him in 04 while on tour with TOT. He is a legend and we get along real well. I jumped on his album Life’s a Lesson and an 8 bar verse on jump ahead. So we did the 24 to one remix. It was a fucking nightmare to do, took weeks to write. It was really hard to do, hard to feel it, I really wanted it to be more than just a count down, and it had to sound concise. As for other artists I am too far away, I would like to work with Thundamentals and Dialectrix. I don’t want to work with people unless I have had beers with them though and get along. We have just had City Wide from Geelong, jump on as a clothing sponsor with 3rd Chapter clothing so I am pretty sure I will do something there. I mean Pressure owes me a verse and he knows it. Suffa owes me a beat. But I am not one to seek charity or push mates, I am not going to cash in off their success.

Tour upcoming? What can we expect, looking forward to it?

We have written a new intro, coming out to an old song with specific intros for each state. We got Headlock and Trials in Adelaide with their verses, Reason in Melbourne with his. It is just a vibing show, want it to be a fun show. We have spent a long time rehearsing with better integration of the DJ. I want to turn the DJ into a part of the group lyrically. I have seen a lot of live sets try this and not do it well but I reckon we got it locked. I would love if I could jump on the decks like Finesse but I can tell you that ain’t happening!

www.levelheaded.com.au
www.myspace.com/levelheadedmc

Goto to check the new Video from Level Headed titled “The Hills”

Pick up Spice Of Life from all good Hip Hop outlets and check the launch coming soon near you! Check the flyer on your right for gig details!

Sinergy Crew aren’t the most well known rappers about the traps but where they lack in recognition they make up for in skill. We catch up with them for a brief chat:

You’re both from Melbourne, How did you guys get together in the first place?

(R)oyalz: We met through mutual bong smoking graff head mates back in high school. He had me at ‘hello’.
(C)hains: The humble mixbowl has always been good at bringing people together.  That’s really what the middle east needs.  Sit down Palestine and Israel with a mix, a buge, and a copy of the Matrix.  Problem solved.

Sin City has been out a few months now, what’s the general reaction/feeling you are getting from heads?

R: The response has been pretty positive so far. The softer sounding hip hop has been blowing up recently, but some people are still wanting the rawer stuff and we try to punch people in the face with our music.
C: Yeah it’s been pretty positive.  In general hip hop around the world, and in Australia, has been gradually losing its edge.  We’re not really conforming to the ‘easy listening’ movement as such.  We also keep in mind the live aspect of our music, most punters want to go out and have a few drinks and let loose, and we provide a vehicle for that.  I don’t know many people that want to stand in the corner being depressed and wiping away tears.  The scene seems to have become a bit emo of late though.  As far as we know we’ve been getting some radio play in Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra and Perth on the independent radio stations.

It’s been 4 years since your Chaos Theory Mixtape, how have you  both evolved since then?

C: It’s hard to notice personally as you go along because it’s gradual.  It’s really when you listen to old tracks lined up against newer material that you can see how far you’ve come.   I think one of the biggest changes you notice is delivery and presence, which grows along with confidence.
R: We started rhyming around the same time so we’ve seen our style grow and become more polished over time. What Chains said is true though. I had a listen to Chaos theory the other week and you can tell a massive difference, both lyrically and beat wise.

Royalz you are also doing beats now? Did you always make beats?

R: I started out as an emcee first, but picked up making beats early on. With my first beat I actually used the same Debbie Does Dallas sample in Funkoars ‘Boxeaters’. I was really proud of myself until Turps showed me the Funkoars track and I crawled back under the rock I came from. Luckily I kept at it and have a sharper cleaner sound then I did back then.

Tell us a little about Sin City.

C: I’d describe it I guess as having a somewhat dark, uptempo, boom-bap style to it.  Hip Hop production should get your head nodding, and the lyrics should get your mind ticking over.  And not only the first time you hear it.  I like it when people pick up on a new metaphor or something even after listening to a track a number of times.

You have a few Aussie collabs including Raven from Hungry Humans, how did they come about. How was it working with similar artists? Do you think you blend well? Where there any problems?

C: Collaboration is a great part of the artform.  We recorded the track with Raven in his bedroom haha. He’s on a similar tip to us and we’ve always loved his music so was great to work on a track together.  The DBO Track was a bit of a problem logistically and was recorded in fits and spurts, and the A.I track was hard to pin Esvee down from Ballarat, but it all worked out.
R: Yeah although it was logistically difficult, I think working with similar artists and being with them at the studio helps the chemistry that hopefully translates to the tracks that we collaborated on. We don’t pay for myspace verses.

What’s your focus at the moment ?

R: We’re currently working on a free mixtape called the GRHYME Lab, which will feature new tracks from Sinergy Crew, Broken Aesthetiks and our crew Associated Illness. Then we’ve also got the Associated Illness album in the works. Dudes aint ready haha.
C: Yeah just doing Sinergy and A.I shows, the mixtape and then 2010 will be the Associated Illness album – gonna be a banger!   There’s also a focus on building up the GRHYME name, as the distribution situation in Australia isn’t great – so were trying to build a platform to release ours, and soon other head’s music.

What’s your hustle game like ?

R: I don’t do drugs.
C: As independent artists on our own label – that’s the only game we can play!

Sinergy Crew are hustling around Melbourne and you can check gig dates and pick up a copy of their LP below. If you like ya shit grhyme – cop this now.

 

www.myspace.com/SinergyCrew
www.myspace.com/GRHYME1

“Talking shit with a hero of yours, that’s a good vibe,
As good as the first time you saw Hilltop Hoods live”

The first time I saw Hilltop Hoods live was way back in 2001 (when most of you probably didn’t even know Australian Hip-Hop existed). It was the album launch for Left Foot, Right Foot at Cherry Bar in ACDC Lane – a venue that holds about five people. How far they have come since then, playing to thousands at sold out shows, and tens of thousands at festivals in Australia and around the world.

I have gone to a majority of the shows the Hoods have played in Melbourne over the years, including the Big Day Out and the massive Stopping All Stations Tour at Festival Hall, as well as two or three of the phenomenal four sell-out nights in a row at the Corner Hotel in 2004.

So did I enjoy this show as much as all the others? Well to be honest, no, not really. It was the same hits from the previous two albums that I’ve already seen a number of times before, with the addition of songs from the latest album, which besides Chase That Feeling (in my opinion one of, if not the greatest hip hop song to come out of this country) I’m just not really feeling.

It was great to see Chase That Feeling live, but aside from that, I spent the most part more in awe of seeing the huge crowd all getting into it. While the show itself I could take or leave, seeing three guys from back in the day rocking the stage, and thousands of adoring fans singing along to their songs and loving every minute of it, is a fantastic thing to see. We’ve come a long way from Cherry Bar…

And the atmosphere really was amazing, with the Hoods performing with the same energy as they always have. They are consummate performers, and second to none in this country.

If you’ve seen the Hoods before, you don’t need a review to tell you about their show because you already know how awesome the Hoods are live.

And if you haven’t…well, you’re missing out on a good vibe.

By Fat Ho aka Patrick Ho

Image provided by Kez Photography.

State of The Art is availble now, well, everywhere.  For those after a copy of this on vinyl,  it is now availble for a whopping $100.00. You might want to call a head before heading down to your local record store because chances are they aren’t stocking it and you will need to pre-order. I have no idea why it is so expensive but apparently it’s been blessed by a pope and the wax is actually made from the tears of small children. Ed

THORTS INTERVIEW

G FORCE (G): Congrats on your recent release Bleeding Heart Muzik. The album is a very personal piece of work, how long was it in the works for and do you think it took you longer because it was on that tip?

THORTS (T): Thanks bro, a few of the tracks on this album were originally Mankind tracks and there are a couple that are actually remixes by different producers. I worked on this album at the same time as I was wrapping up other projects and collabs and then once the music part was done all the other shit took time you know, I wanted to plan it out and make it the best release I could, I didn’t want to rush it and just get it out there like my other releases, I wanted to put everything I had into this release and making sure it got out there and heard.

G: I will admit to following your hip hop development closely as I enjoyed the old radio frees, Field Trip, Mankind and other Hungry Humans projects and I commented once that this is exactly where I thought your debut release would sit. Do you think this was a natural progression in your style as a solo artist?

T: Word! Yeh me and my crew use to always spit live on pbs the formula back in 1999-2001, those were some fun days back then, it’s a shame we never put anything out back then though it would have been fresh! Well actually me and Dan Murphy made a cassette under the name “The Alliance” the tape was called Blak Calix but it would be very hard to find now. I have changed a lot since then though, I was a teenager and on drugs so what I rapped about back then and what I rap about now are 2 totally different things. I progressed as a person first, through life experience, getting my life in order, having a family, working hard, so yeh of coarse this came through into my music as well.

G: From these older days we saw acts such as Lost Souls and yourself in Field Trip yet we have not seen anything new from either duo only solo releases from Raven with Humble Beginnings and now yourself. Why not a full length Field Trip and what made you as a solo artist keep pushing to put out product?

T: Well basically, me and 86 live two separate lives, we recorded the Field Trip ep when I was living in Melbourne, but after moving to Geelong 86 had a family and focused more on being a father than making music and I focused more on solo tracks, we basically went our separate ways, music wise, the last track we did together was in 2007 absolute obselenc which I think is on the Field Trip myspace page. I think also we have different tastes in music and what we wanted to do so I decided to branch out and work with different producers and try different things, where still good friends but just work on our own thing, As for Lost Souls I think it’s pretty much the same story although I’m not sure if Budsa is working on anything at the moment but I know Raven is always hard at work.

G: You are influenced greatly by artists that you enjoy and seem extremely passionate about hip hop. What are your current thoughts on the Aus scene and hip hop in general?

T: Hip Hop is alive and well! Real hip hop is FAR from dead; you just have to know where to look! I am inspired mostly by American artists that I listen to and work with people like Pigeon John, Brother Ali, Atmosphere, Escape Artists, Sontiago, Living Legends etc there is so much good hip hop around but I suppose everyone has there own taste with what they like, I just like real, innovative, creative, blue collar sorta stuff. As for the Australian scene, there’s only a few artists that really interest me, I really like Subsketch, Crixus, Morgan Macmanus, all of my mates of coarse haha but yeh there’s not too much I can relate to really, not really my sound, I really just focus on creating my own music, I guess that’s why I don’t have a similar sound to any other artists in this country.

G: There is a range of production credits on the album yet a similar vibe and sound throughout the whole lot. How did you go about selecting producers, beats and how heavily did having a ‘concise, complete sounding album’ weight into this?

T: The producers I worked with on this album are all friends of mine, which is great, I basically just wrote to beats I dug and beats I dig usually gel together nicely, I am very happy with the way they work together, I dint think they would gel that easy haha.

G: Lyrically throughout the album there is a similar personal vibe. Be it through story telling or a first person perspective there is a heavy dose of honesty and emotion in there. Are these tales closed books now and what will we hear from Thorts in future rhymes?

T: Is life a closed book? Unfortunately I never really learn from all my mistakes haha I write what I feel at the time, there’s no great story really to why I write, it’s just whatever i’m going through at the time, my music is more like a journal entry, so unless I had a crystal ball I couldn’t really tell you exactly what to expect, all I can say is I will be working with some dope international producers and mc’s and my overall sound will just keep getting bigger and better!

G: Does it bother you at all that you may be pigeonholed as an ‘emotional emcee’ or similar tags and people may not peep your music because of this when obviously there is a lot more to it than just that aspect?

T: Well the only bad thing about being pigeonholed is that yeh some people might not check my music, I know that if people at least got to hear my music then they might open up to it but as for being labeled as an emotional mc haha I couldn’t care less, being real to yourself and expressing what you feel is called being a human, people do this day to day so I do it in my music. I’m not gonna be one person in real life then a totally different person on the mic, there are mc’s that do that shit and it’s not for me, It is what it is, I am who I am.

G: Your partner Kadyelle is also an emcee. Are you guys going to release anything together and how much opinions and influence do you have on each others content?

T: Me and Kady have tracks together on her upcoming releases. She has an ep with Fathom (u.s.a) and a full length album titled “silence the piano” they both should be out later in the year. At the moment we have songs together on her stuff and mine but nothing in set in concrete about doing an album together, I think my brother Esvee is first on that list! Basically we listen to the same music and share our lives together so in that aspect we have lots of the same influences but when it comes to writing and recording we do our own thing, don’t sleep on Kadyelle! She is diggity dope!

G: You have moved around a bit the past few years and had some life changes, did this impact on the topics you were writing about and put hip hop to the background a bit?

T: Well I have only had one move in the last 6 years so it hasn’t impacted me greatly creatively but yeh life changes, I have had a huge life change recently with the arrival of our little boy Isaiah Malekai and moving over to Bunbury w.a with my family that has definitely put my music on hold for a little bit, just trying to find myself here and get settled with a good job which I still haven’t done yet but once that is done im sure I will be able to get stuck into my music again.

G: You and Esvee vibe really well on the album and on past works and live shows as well. Any thing in the works with him and why we are on the topic what is next for Thorts?

T: Yeh me and Esvee first met back in 2005 at a show in Geelong, since then we have been best mates and made heaps of dope tracks together. He is a dope mc and a great person in general. His music is much like mine but he still has a distinct feel to his music that makes him heaps different. We gel together nicely and I hope to work on an ep or album with him sometime in the future. At the moment I am working slowly on a free digital ep with the help from Sydney producer Proph 1 who has some amazing beats! The ep is mostly filled with features with artists such as Reach (u.s.a), 1/6 (melbs), 7ravesty & Rival (Brizzy), Kadyelle, Marksman (Perth) & Morgan Macmanus (Canada/Brizzi), I’m just making this for fun and the chance to work with different artists while I’m trying to settle down. After that I have a couple of albums to work on with 2 different producers and some dope international and oz hip hop mc’s which I am really looking forward to, but that’s all I am going to say about those for now, Oh Kadyelle will also have a new clip up very soon and we will also have a clip together, both clips are for tracks off her new album so make sure you peep them once there up and if you haven’t peeped my new clip for my track “into the wind” then go have a look now!

G: A few tracks such as Sleep at Night are predominately made up of singing. I thought at times it was a bit of overload on something that I thought worked well with hooks. Can you tell us more about this style and the importance of these varied styles of hip hop to your music?

T: Well I am influenced by artists who do what they want when they want no matter what people think or say so I do the same. I sing songy hip hop so if that’s the feeling or vibe I get off the beat and that’s what I want to do then I do it. I know I don’t have a great singing voice but I enjoy doing it, that’s it!

G: There are quite a few lines spread across the album that I replay and really think they are poetic, not just a hip hop lyric. Do you explore other facets of art and rhyming such as poetry?

T: I don’t write poems as such but when I write I try to write in a way that’s poetic and not just straight up rhyming, I like to push myself to write differently each track, make it interesting you know, I think it’s most evident in my track “when it’s all been said and done” I really sat down with that one and though about what I was writing and how I was writing it and I will be doing this a lot more in the future with my new music too.

G: Thanks heaps mate. I really enjoyed the album and I think it is a solid piece of work. Any final shout outs, thank yous and the like?

T: No worries bro, glad you enjoy the release! I just want to say that I aint going nowhere! Music is my life and I will be doing this till the day I die! Peace

THORTS SOLO ALBUM – BLEEDING HEART MUZIK Is availble NOW in all good record stores. Featuring Esvee, Crixus, Class A, DJ Bogues, Amber, Mata, Must, JP, 1/6, Urban Monk & J.Waters plus production by Crixus, Saint Surly, Crytearia, Must, Simple Simon & Geko.

http://www.myspace.com/thortsthescorpion

G Force (G): Congrats on the release of the EP ‘Ritual Law’ fellas. Was it always on the cards to drop an EP after the freebie ‘Mixtaste?’

Deece: cheers dude. To be honest the original plan was to drop Mixtaste then the LP, but as always time gets away like a runaway bride. As soon as we looked like rapping up the album over a year had passed since mixtaste and we didn’t want to risk missing the stand up citizens of this scene suffering from short term memory lose. We re-jigged a few track arrangements and come up with a formula we thought would give peeps a good ear to who we are and what the LP will offer.

G: You seem to have a good idea of what you want to be doing with the timeline and progression of things. Not many artists would drop a video clip with an EP let alone having two of the four tracks with a clip, what’s the idea behind this?

D: We’re both just mad fans of a good clip and of the opinion that a good clip can give a dope track a whole new dimension, plus there just mad fun to do. We’d do a clip for every track if we had the time.

B wiv: Were also lucky to have a few hook ups that have helped us out and I’ve been able to edit them myself so we thought why not?

G: The professional and serious approach extends to the final sound side of things, using Sing Sing for mixing and Jack the Bear to master. You both have a big interest in equipment and the recording process so did getting the right final sound play heavily on your minds?

D: Fuckin oath! That’s pretty much the whole reason it’s taken us so bloody long. We’ve always been on the hunt for the perfect vocal chain and the perfect mix. We’ve had the tracks written for a while but couldn’t bring ourselves to let them loose not sounding up to scratch. We’ve constantly upped our game in the studio on a mission to get our shit to what we thought was releasable quality. We eventually got the recording down but still couldn’t get the mix exactly we’re we’d envisioned it. We did some research and got onto Tony Espie (his mixed everything from the classic Avalanches ‘Since I left you’ LP to TZU’s latest ‘computer Love’). Working with Tony in a room full of vintage eq’s and compressors was unbelievable. He used what we had already done as reference then took it to the next level. Of course Jack then tied it all together to get it to sound consistent because each track really has a mind of its own sonically.

G: Production wise B Wiv has a pretty unique style, what are your influences and how do you go about your own production?

B: Man my influences range from DJ Premier, The Rza, Nu-Mark, Suffa, Trials to Rage Against the Machine, Bob Dylan and John Lennon. I have no set way I go about making my beats, I guess it starts with the sample or a melody I’ll have in my head and then I’ll structure the beat around that.

G: Deece, the track 40 days and 40 fights is a deeply personal track. Was hip hop a big outlet for you to relieve some stresses and emotions involved with this or was this track used as a closure to the experience?

D: It’s both really. I’ve been on the mic longer than I’ve been sticking myself with insulin. Something I don’t expected people to pick up on is the fact I refer to myself in the third person up until the time I’m diagnosed in the track. When I look back on life before the needle it’s like looking at a different person. I didn’t want the track to come across like I was looking for sympathy because I’m really not. Just being in the hospital after knocking on deaths door made me realize how lucky I was. I was in a bed across from a stroke victim in his 40s who was totally paralyzed and I was kept up at night listening to the nurses trying to shove a tube down is throat to feed the poor bugger. I had nothing to whine about next to that dude and many others around me so from that day onwards whining and wasting time was over with.

G: How would you describe your sound and how it differs from other Aus hip hop releases at the moment?

D: In one word I’d say aggressive. B wiv’s production can be simple or it can be epic, but most of the time it’s just plain epic. His got a good music brain and it comes across in his production, especially when there’s no sampling involved. It’s always suited my style and helping push it. If I had to put a point of difference between us and others it would be simply that we don’t sound remotely like anyone else out there at the moment. Although I see originality as a good thing it is a catch 22 in that it has also alienated us to an extent. I reckon it would take balls to say you think B wiv Deece is the shit to your one track minded hip hop buddies haha.

G: Being brothers you probably argue at times. How does this work with creating music together? Are you honest and critical with each other on both production and lyrics and has this led to any problems?

D: You know what? I probably argue with Mr Wiv the least out of the whole crew. We grew up 2 of 7 siblings and there was plenty of arguing no doubt, but our personalities are chalk and cheese and the only reason we’ve got this far. I’ve been involved in plenty of musical relationships and this incest situation has defiantly been the most productive. I’d say we’re very honest and critical of each other but in a positive way. One of the reasons we work so well musically is because we grew up sharing bunk beds with the same posters on the wall listening to the same shit. We both know what we like and have very similar tastes, so when he goes na that sounded whack, nine times out of ten I take a second listen and agree. The other one time I slap the shit out of him.
B: Yea that’s pretty much how it is except the complete opposite haha.

G: So, from here what can we expect? A full length release and when?

D: the full length is in the can awaiting its chance to shine. At the moment we’re pushing the EP to ready people for it. We’re also sorting out all the behind the scenes stuff like lable/distro. Ritual Law is a 100% independent release but for the full length we’ll be seeking assistance to get it out to as many suckers as possible. Regardless of how we end up releasing it, it should be out late this year.

G: Maundz features on the EP, any plans for him or other features on the full length?

D: Not at this point, however I’ve just recorded a verse for his upcoming LP ‘Mr. Nobody’. For the amount of time we spend in the studio together it’s lame how much we don’t rock tracks together. At the end of the day it’s probably just that we have such different styles that rarely relate to the same beat and concept. In saying that though we’re talking about dropping a joint 12” after we both finally get our LPs out but we’ll see.

G: What else should we be looking out for from B Wiv Deece, live shows, guest spots, production credits?

D: Defiantly some shows in the next couple of months. We’re working on getting interstate as well for some launches. As far as guest verses from myself go there’s not too much on the cards apart from the Maundz LP. I guess I’ve been so busy recording that foul creature as well as mixing the whole thing I don’t have time for much else. I then of course have to deodorize the house after he leaves, it’s a lot of work but it’s very nearly done!

B: I’ve laid down some beats and cuts for Maundzs LP, he pretty much gets all the B wiv Deece leftovers haha

G: I thank you greatly for your time, good luck with the release and do you have any shout outs or final words?

D: Go out and cop it! The easiest way is directly from www.myspace.com/bwivdeece via paypal. You get the EP + postage + your very own B wiv Deece stubby holder for the bargain price of $10! It’s a steal. It’s also in local shops and on itunes so keep an eye out.

B: You can also check out our clips on Vimeo or Youtube