What up peeps?
Caught up with my man Nick Lupi from Sydney's mighty Spit Syndicate yesterday for a chin wag about their up coming album, getting a deal from Australia's biggest Hip-Hop label & his travels through Europe.
Blat blat!
What up Mr. Lupi? How things?Whats crackin brother - everything's gravy. Making a few final changes to our album, working to a deadline for the first time which is proving a little stressful but it ain't nothing to a boss.
You just returned home after 3 months away. How was your travels?Travelling was real fucking cool - had some amazing experiences and met some cool people. It's good to be back home but all I can think about is hitting the road again, travelling some more.
Where did you go?All throughout Europe (which was expensive as hell - but dope) - my favourite places were Barcelona, Berlin, all of Italy and Marrakech in Morocco.
Did you colab with any internationals while tripping around?Me and my man Solo did a song when we were in Paris with a good friend of mine, a French rapper by the name of Octa, who I met when he was working in Australia a couple years back. He showed us around Paris and we hit the stu when we were over there.
Congratulations on the deal with Obese. Tell us how that came about?Cheers matey. Well, right from the jump we decided that we wanted to build a name for ourselves and write, fund and record a full album on our own terms before we started thinking about a label. We shopped ourselves to some labels and we had a few options on the table, but yeah we ended up rolling with Obese. Pegz and the rest of the staff at Obese know what they're doing and they do it damn well - it was a big decision for us but we were stoked that it came through.
So what can you tell me about the up coming album?The album is called Towards the Light, and it's dropping in May. We worked with some well-known Australian producers on there, including dudes like M-Phazes, Kaos, Jase and Suffa from the Hilltops - those are probably some of the top beat-makers in the country so we're stoked that they blessed us. We also worked with our lesser-known homies Merlot Nelson, who is a one-man musical genius that we often hit the Beach with, and Made in Japan - who are an up-and-coming indie band from the Inner West of Sydney, our area. The album doesn't have a great deal of features - we've got a young Sydney MC by the name of Solo, from Horrorshow, on a few of the songs and of course our motherfucking man Fame. There are a lot of guest vocalists but they're more lacing us with chorus vocals rather than verses. You'll have to check it out man, I hope you dig it.
The last few times I have seen you guys you have been playing with a live band that just seems to get bigger & bigger. Are you planning on always rocking live with a band?We played with a live band in November for a show we did at Spectrum and it was hands-down the best show we've ever played. The band is actually made up of Made In Japan, our indie-rock mates, and Merlot Nelson, the big fella on keys. We don't have plans to play with a band every show that we do - we'll just take it as it comes and see how it all works out. Playing with those dudes takes our show to a whole 'nother level though.
When can we see you next?We're playing at the Pegz and Chasm show on the 29th March at Manning Bar in Sydney - Vents and Trials are also playing that gig and I think it should be pretty killer. We will also be hitting some major capital cities round the country for a tour in May but I'll let you know more information on that when I have it!
Who is coming up in Sydney we should be looking out for?One word - Horrorshow. They're our close friends and they're incredible. A very well-kept secret in Sydney hip-hop, but they're gonna explode in 08. Mark my words bro, check em out here:
www.myspace.com/horrorshowcrewAny shout outs?Shout outs to Horrorshow, Made in Japan and Merlot Nelson. And Petersham Charcoal Chicken. Thanks for the interview as well player, take care of yourself.
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http://www.myspace.com/spitsyndicate © keep moving
