Calling from the top

Matt Lambert, aka MC Suffa, makes up one third of the supremely successful Australian hip hop act Hilltop Hoods. Full-fledged Aussies, their established national fan-base is testament to their innovative lyrical poeticism.

It is difficult to fathom when speaking to Matt that he could be a groupie himself. But that’s exactly how this down to earth Adelaidian comes across when he let loose about the ‘Hoods’ recent opportunity to work with Pharoahe Monch.

“Yeh we’ve been massive fans of him, me and Dan since we were like 13.

“When he got here I pulled out like 20 vinyls for him to sign.”

The collaboration with renowned US rapper and producer, Monch came about due to the Hilltop Hood’s latest project, their third album proper:State of the Art. Which upon listening will tantalise even the most mundane of music listeners. Following in a similar vein to that of their previous efforts, The Calling and The Hard Road this album feels like it the lads have matured and ripened with age and given the time off they are energised and ready to rumble once more.

These laidback larrikins, born and bred in South Australia, can be accused of teasing their fans recently with their most recent outpourings being a remix of sorts. That is they took album two: The Hard Road and combined it with a symphony and repackaged it as the The Hard Road Restrung. For Matt who claims he’s still too close to it to comment it’s being touted as a departure from their upbeat and fun rhymes, this time they’re packing more of punch.

“We’ve always been who we want to be we just you know we just wanted to make a heavier album it is just the way we were feeling, but you know The Hard Road and The Calling and all that, that’s exactly the records we wanted to make,” he says.

Quiet for just on two years, they’ve been burrowed away pretty much for the entire duration, doing Matt assures nothing more than but the norm…

“Just working – it took along time to put together, cos when we do something like this, I usually make over a hundred beats and we’ll write a ton of stuff and people will go how long do you take to make twelve songs?

“You’ve got to make a lot more to get down to these sort of twelve songs.”

Matt professes to enjoy the making beats side of the music composition than the writing rhymes side of it. He’s not formally musically trained but he’s from musical stock, with his mum a music teacher, his dad a jazz-music collector and two of his three brother’s both in bands it’s any wonder he loves what he does and calls it his one and only and passion.

Perhaps this is also what has driven the cue ball right into the socket for the Hilltop’s latest offshoot - their label. It’s a chance Matt sees for them to influence the music industry in a positive way and give back some mentoring opportunities for those talented and upcoming in their industry.

“When our contract with Obese sort of expired, we thought about what we wanted to do, we wanted to control everything ourselves and we wanted to work to our own timelines and almost as important as that we wanted to put out the music of friends and of those who we respected as well.”

With speculation rife over the ‘Hoods’ decision to cut ties with Obese executives Matt is firm when he explains at the end of the day he and his band-mates have always done their own music.

“It’s just going back to what we’ve always been doing,” he states.

The year ahead looks likely to be spent touring the new album. Matt’s tone becomes serious when he discusses the task ahead of them, building their fan base overseas. Where does he think they might have the most success internationally?

“We’re definitely not as well known overseas…The UK for a couple of shows and Germany, where we’re doing a tour supporting Atmosphere, and a couple of shows on our own and then we’re finishing up with a festival in Switzerland.”

Then they’ll be back in time for their national tour which will take in most capital cities and of course the nation’s favourite winter festival – also Matt’s fave too, Splendour in the Grass.

“We haven’t played festivals overseas until now, so you’ll have to ask me again in a little while as it’s unfair to compare to Splendour anyway, ‘cos it’s my favourite festival.”

Ruth Bailey

Posted: July 7th, 2009 under Australian Interview, INTERVIEWS.
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A neat turn of Phrase

Take any number of renowned collaborators, work with a talented mc and musician known only as Phrase lay some tracks, bundle it all together post produce it as an album then… wait two years for its release.

The loss of his A&R rep and an overall lack of interest from his label caused Phrase’s blood sweat and tears to produce this his sophomore album to be it appeared all in vain. Initial completion saw it remain on the shelf. It wasn’t until Phrase took things back into his own hands that he started to make things happen again.

“It was sitting in the background for a certain time and that was pretty tough on me, I’d not put anything out in a long time, I’d kind of finished up touring and I was stressing out about when the record was going to come out, so eventually I took a song to Triple J off my own back and said: ‘listen this is what sort of happened and this is my record can you do something with it?’” He said.

That’s the bare bones tale behind the making of Australian Hip Hop artist Phrase’s latest offering Clockwork. Due in stores this month, it’s been a difficult journey for the 27-year old but he’s emerged from the confusion stronger for the forced hiatus.

“Like it really put me to the test, a lot of self doubt, what if the record wasn’t good enough, and I got to the point where I was really, really stressed out and really depressed and then finally I was thinking do I just do something else in life?

“Then there was the twist of fate, boom it was on the radio and the record label got inspired again and things have been really good again,” he reflects.

24 months later or there about did Phrase feel the need to revisit any of his content?

“To be honest I thought I was going to have to, but it’s weird, the more I listen to it, the more it seems all really relevant to me now, content on there, topics seem really relevant to where I’m at, I feel like although a lot of the content on there sort of comes from a dark place to me it kind of feels like I’ve used that dark place to push forward and do something positive.”

“That’s sort of the cycle of what happened with the album,” he adds.

Featuring a re-recording of Wendy Matthews hit: ‘The day I went away’ and working on other tracks with friends and touring partners Bliss n Eso making Clockwork was full of one-off special experiences. One in particular was the inclusion of a track about the death of his friend who fell victim to Australia’s mental health system.

“It’s been a few years now since my friend passed, you eventually sort of move on, recording that song, I did the vocals it took me nearly two hours to get through that I had to just do a little bit at a time You know at the end of the day I revisited that song and I thought should I put it on the record you know it’s a pretty personal thing and maybe it’s too indulgent on my behalf …I think at the end I thought: ‘you know what it’s a nice tribute from us to him.’

“The more I think about it loss is a pretty widespread thing, why not use my grief, a lot of people have to deal with it,” he continued.

No matter the stories behind each track on this album all are representative of Phrase as he is today.

“A lot of people ask me what the difference is between this and the previous album Talk with force. I think that Talk with Force I wrote that record when I was 18 and when I think back I sounded like such a pent up angry young man I felt like I really had something to prove and this time around not mature in a boring way, I’ve kind of found my feet and I’ve gone out there and done what I’ve needed to, self-discovery, toured the country and I think now this record is coming from a certain place.

It appears the album though could not have been timed better for release. Phrase has just finished touring solidly including support shows with N E R D while Pharell and his crew were in the country and the support he’s noticed from the ever-building crowds is only getting stronger.

“It’s awesome to see how much of a difference it makes playing live, the albums not out so it’s not like people can be huge fans of this record and come along to gigs knowing all the songs.” He says.

Ruth Bailey

Posted: May 1st, 2009 under Australian Interview, INTERVIEWS.
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