Grey Ghost Gig

As this was a four-week residency at the workers club in Fitzroy, I was booked to play the second week. The first week I went down to check out the set, and it had been a while since I’d gone to a gig just as a spectator. I love being around live music, it’s the only real place I feel that I fit in/feel at home.

Turns out GG is playing with a full band, and the whole set had me thinking “Goddamn that bass player looks familiar”.

Turns out its DJ Matik. If you don’t know who this is, he’s the man behind the music for Seth Sentry, Pez and Grey Ghost. He’s also one of Australia’s best scratch DJ’s. If you ever get a chance to see him playing a DJ set, it’s more than worthwhile checking out.

After the show had a chat to him and GG, was pretty pumped for my set the week after.

I took the liberty in this set of playing a lot of new album material I’ve been working on, and played 6 or so songs for the first time ever. This is so exciting for me as I’ve been sitting on these tracks for a while now, and the crowed (although small numbers for my set) was really feeling the new stuff. Being so intimate and close was also fantastic after playing a few big shows recently… really lets me show my soul through the mic when I'm performing.

Allday was the other support for the night, and I was really interested in checking out his set. You’ve probably heard his new one “It’s all good” being smashed on triple J rotation.

GG killed the set again as expected… Also noticed mantra just quietly shifting through the crowed. It makes me so happy when I see bigger names still making it out to gigs and involving themselves in the scene. 

Supporting Seth Sentry and Chance Waters

The Funkoars support really got shit rolling for me, and this next support slot that I landed I was so, so happy with.

Seth Sentry and Chance Waters are two of my favorite Australian rappers, and when I heard that their shows were being merged together and that I was going to be playing along side them: Mind basically blown.

This show sold out. And I mean really sold out. And then they managed to sell at least another 50 tickets than what the Everlyn could hold… The show was overflowing.  I have never seen the Everlyn with that many people in it before. That venue, as I'm sure it does with many people, has a special place in my memory. I remember going there on a Monday night (when I was about 14) for the hip-hop night hosted at the time by litigate, seeing acts such as Fluid MC (now known as Bam Bam) come through and rip sets and open mics. I’ve seen so many great gigs at the Everlyn from every style of music, and lots of the acts I’ve seen there have gone onto pretty massive things (Pez and 360 as prime examples).

Anyway, the crowed was digging my opening set, which was nice, and getting props from Seth and Chance really is a highlight of my career to date.  Chance played with his full band, adding even more dimensions to an already killer set… When it was time for Seth Sentry to take the stage, you should have seen the crowed go mental. Comes on stage starting the chant of what is pretty much the unofficial hip-hop anthem

“Its bigger than… HIP HOP, HIP HOP, HIP HOP!”


Also gave us a taste of the new album... this is the first time i heard the new single "Float Away" which I'm sure you've heard by now. 

What a fun night. Check this photo out of me getting my fan on and getting all my shit signed…

This is a video of a track me Olivia Romas and Jordan Creely wrote together, decided to play it for the first time live. Its Called "Fake Hate That Can't Aim". Used this to close the set.

Also notice the Grey Ghost drawing in there. I ran into him on the way out of the gig and stopped for a chat. Its funny though, I had this song stuck in my head for weeks and I couldn’t for the life of me remember where I had saved it/what it was called. It was a track that I’d listened to A LOT when I was about 14, after one of the nights at the Everlyn seeing the band “Alex the Kid”. I could even recite the lyrics, and I new that the song was featuring Jeremody (now known as Grey Ghost).  I took my chance and asked him about the track, and because I didn’t no what it was called I had to rap back some of his lines to him… it quickly jogged his memory and he laughed saying that that song was never released and wondered how I had it. I really have no idea, but once he told me the name of it I found it saved on an old laptop of mine. Listening to it as we speak…

“That’s why I don’t take drugs anymore, I just drink lemonade” – Jeremody (Grey Ghost)

I think this little run in is maybe what sparked his management to contact me for me to support him at his Mixtape launch.

If you haven’t already check out Grey Ghost’s EP and new free Mixtape… I am a big fan.

Greyghost.com.au 

Funkoars Support

All right, so like with lots of things in my life I start them and never go back to them… thankfully I have a little more drive with music than I’ve had with this blog! Lol.

I have a pretty big catalogue of things to discuss with hat I’ve been up to recently with music, so I think I’ll extend them to a few posts but first thing first:

SUPPORTING THE FUNKOARS  (yep. Little ol’ me and THE Funkoars)

This was a little bit of an up and down with the promoter calling me and offering me the spot… then calling back and saying there was not going to be any local supports, then a few weeks later calling me back to re-offer the spot to me. I have to say I'm very glad that he called back. As with all support slots they the deal is basically you get to play, but you have to sell pre-sale tickets. Not that Funkoars tickets were hard to sell, but still you have to actual do the legwork to move the tickets.

The night itself started for me at sound check. Rocked up to Dj Reflux with 3 mics in hand rapping Funkoars songs because no one else had turned up for sound check… things like: “I hate my group, I hate, hate my group” were thrown in between verses… me and the sound guys had a pretty damn good laugh.

Anyway, this show was great for me in many different ways. Not only did I get to open up for/meet the Funkoars, I got to play a hometown show for the first time in years, and when I looked out into the crowed I was in awe of how many people had gotten in early to see me play. I swear though half of the people there went to my high school (Frankston) at some point hahaha. Check out some pictures from the night below: All photo's were taken by Dylan Nie you can find his blog here http://dylanisrestless.blogspot.com.au

The other supports for the night included Maundz, Briggs and Backyard Funk.

What a fantastic night.

I THEN however got up for work the next day to proceed to just clean shelfs and the windows for about 8 hours.

“Last night, rocking out with the Funkoars,

Day light, 8 hours mopping down floors,

Yeah I rap, but I still need this day job,

Making music in my time off…!”

Yeah, my job is pretty brain taxing.