He’ll be representing Aussie Hip Hop in a big way at next month’s Big Day Out festival, so we took some time out to chat to the man known as Pez to talk about the BDO, his recent appearance at the Queenscliff Festival and much more… read on!
How did your performance at the Queenscliff Festival go?
Yeah, it was good! I played at a little show in Brisbane the night before that had some real epic dirt bikes doing back flips – so I went from that extreme to the more family friendly festival in Queensy. It was a real nice, chilled vibe with good people that are there for right reasons. It was nicer than some of the more popular ones, where you get more of the douchebag factor but yeah, that was pretty relaxed and cool.
Yeah, I’ve heard nothing but great things about that festival! And of course we are here talking about Big Day Out next year, you are one of the fine artists representing Aussie hip hop at the festival. Are you looking forward to it?
Yeah definitely, man. I guess it’s a time that almost every Australian artist imagines when you first start out, thinking you might be able to play at Big Day Out and when it finally happens it’s pretty awesome. I’m definitely looking forward to it!
Are there any artists you’re particularly looking forward to seeing? Other than Blur of course, which is annoying [laughs].
Yeah, they were one of ones I really wanted to see. So I am kind of fucking shattered to be honest!
Yeah, I think we all are.
I’m a pretty big Gorillaz fan as well so just to see Damon Albarn… we all wanted to see that.
I am a little shattered about that but I’m hoping to drown my sorrows by seeing some… I want to see some old school Snoop. Like I’m not too into this whole new manifestation of whatever the fuck he’s doing but I would love to reminisce on some old school Doggy Style songs which got me into hip hop. I remember listening to Doggy Style at a young age and being around my friends who listened to Korn and all this other shit. They thought I was this complete freak. I would love to get the chance to see some of that live!
Like you know, it is Big Day Out so there will be lots of good artists over all the shows, so hopefully I’ll get across to see a lot of people really – it will be awesome!
I was kind of hoping that maybe with Blur pulling out they’d bring over Dre or something and they’ll do a Snoop/Dre set and get the hologram Tupac…
Hologram ‘pac would be very cool.
How have things been going on your next record?
It hasn’t been released just yet, but we have sort of been finishing it all off. It is getting to that stage where we just need to get it out, which scares the absolute shit out of me!
So when are we going to be hearing it? It was originally going to be released last month, wasn’t it?
That’s right, it was meant to come out at the end of last month but we have added a couple of extra songs which I’m a excited about – just a few extra collaborations and things so I managed to convince them to hold off releasing until around the time of Big Day Out. That’s the plan, to release another single before that and then the album will probably come out near Big Day Out.
I’m not completely sure but I guess I am just excited that it’s at the stage that it’s at. I’m starting to get really proud of it! The thing with me is that I tend to self-sabotage and procrastinate and pick it apart, not really liking any of it so you don’t put it out. But I am going to have to let go at some point and I think we are finally getting to that point, which is good.
Another festival line up that just got released this week was the Push Over festival in Melbourne which has a great hip hop presence this year. Is that a festival that you have played before?
Yeah I played that when I was younger, when my first album came out. It is always pretty crazy because it’s a real different vibe when you play an underage show versus, say, Big Day Out with a lot of more of an overage presence. They just tend to go crazy and have a great time anyway so it kind of gets you to join in on the fun as well.
It looks like it is going to be a great event! What else have you got in store for us next year once the album drops?
So far just been finishing some songs on 360’s album because we have just started this label together, which is pretty exciting, and he’s also featured on mine so both these solo albums will come out together which will lead to a tour together at some point which will be fun. And we’re also working on an album together which will be more of a collaboration. I think it will be pretty busy here, we just have to finish and then once we sit back it is going to get a little hectic and be doing as much as we can.
Tell us a little bit about the label you guys have got happening
We have literally just set it up. His (360) solo album and my solo album will both come out on it and then we’re going to do one together which is pretty exciting. I was originally going to do a label on my own called Edie records, I always wanted to do that, and I had some people in my circle that I wanted to help put some music out. When 360 said he was thinking of doing the same thing as we had the same manager we decided to do it together because that would be way more fun. So here we are about to embark on this journey together! I remember I was talking to this one woman who said, don’t people who start labels lose a shitload of money? Yeah they do and there’s a chance it’ll happen to us too! But fingers crossed it doesn’t, and we have a good time.
I was about to say, if nothing else you’ll have a good time doing.
Yeah we’re going to go out in a fucking blaze of glory, it’s going to be awesome.
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Tickets to Big Day Out festival are on sale nationally.
Sunday 19th January: Metricon Stadium & Carrara Parklands, Gold Coast
Friday 24th January: Flemington Racecourse, Melbourne
Sunday 26th January: Sydney Showgrounds, Sydney
Friday 31st January: Bonython Park, Adelaide
Sunday 2nd February: Claremont Showgrounds, Perth
More details and tickets available at http://www.bigdayout.com/.
Transcript assistance by Natasha Day
