Most of my inspiration in recent times has come from home. To be honest I never expected it to be that way. But there are some amazing souls killing it and building something really real and potent. I'm honoured to live on that crazy island with'em. Here's some of my favourite cats right now in Australia:
Galapagoose
Galapagoose is Melbourne's Trent Gill. This dude's a hero. Every beat makers fantasy is to have their instruments naturally morph into their bodies so they can control these unlimited parameters at the drop of a hat like second nature. Trent epitomises that. He created this great free performance software called 'MLRV' which he also mastered playing. It was inspiring going into his room and seeing all the elaborate notes, soldering irons, instrument parts and of course – the otherworldly process of his practise. One example is Trent having the velocity on his pads setup to trigger different samples on the same pad – meaning depending how hard he hit it, it would play either a bass note, chord, vox sample or whatever whatever.. you guys don't understand – thats crazy! But besides all that stuff, his music is where it's at! Fun, complex, many onion-like emotional layers and crazy dynamics – especially for electronic music. I recommend spending a min looking up random Galapagoose videos
Seekae, “Void” from The Sound Of Tree Falling On People
Seekae are an electronic 3-piece from Sydney. Often referred to as 'Ghetto Ambient'. Truth is they are many types of electronic music and much more. Oz kids know whats up and they've been selling out pretty big venues recently – and with good reason! It was really inspiring to see musicians my age in Sydney doing more music I was into and it was so good too! Every time I would feel like there was no chance my brand of beat-based music would ever have a chance in Australia, I would usually bump into one of them in random spots and they would encourage me to go down that path which I've always appreciated. They've released 2 albums. The first album The Sound of Trees Falling on People is a classic and I still listen to it all the time – almost always when travelling! They just released another album called +Dome and it's also a brilliantly vivid experience. But you gotta see them live, really really amazing live!
Collarbones (I chose my favourite cut from the album Beaman Park)
Duo of Marcus Whale on the vox and Travis Cook on the beats. Just released their first album this year called Iconography. It's definitely one of my favourite albums of the year. These 2 kids got loads of style, chops, diversity, bounce to the ounce, and a whole lotta sensual/sexual vibes! I hear a million influences from all galaxies like Aaliyah, Dilla, Fennesz and Dirty Projectors. Their shows are so much fun, and their presence is next level! Separated on different sides of our lil island, Travis being from Adelaide and Marcus from Sydney – they do a lot of stuff Postal Service style sending tracks back and forth. Additionally Singer Marcus Whale is a fantastic presence on the Sydney scene. You can catch him at most gigs dancing (really well) front centre. Whether it be a full house or 3 people it always elevates the vibe in the room tenfold and thats always so awesome to see.
Other equally amazing acts that given me years of inspiration that you probably gonna hear me bumpin in the future:
Guerrre
Rainbow Chan
Electric Egypt
Wintercoats
