Most people have entertained the idea, perhaps fleetingly, of working with friends. But the logistics of working and playing together are rarely balanced enough to make the venture actually viable and fun – the reason for doing business together in the first place. The One Day crew have found that balance, cultivating their burgeoning hip hop powerhouse while maintaining camaraderie amongst the ranks.
One Day are made up of the seven Aussie hip hop tastemakers who perform separately as Spit Syndicate, Jackie Onassis, Horrorshow and Joyride. With Sydney’s Inner West providing the backdrop to the boys’ teenage years, their music is deeply rooted in the place that gave them their slang and influenced their music. The majority of the crew attended the same high school, Petersham’s Fort Street High School, and Nick Lupi from Spit Syndicate recalls its nurturing environment.
“When we first started in Year Seven, there was a fairly strong hip hop presence at this school, be it dudes in the older grades that were into graffiti, rapping or DJing,” he says. “We were exposed to that when we started, and we were very impressionable at that age – like most 13-year-olds are.”
Although the crew has been in the rap game for close to a decade, the constituents’ respective schedules haven’t previously allowed for a collaborative effort of the scale they’ve achieved now. Last year the One Dayers got together with the intention of making a mixtape, but a stint in their makeshift Byron Bay studio convinced them otherwise: that they had a whole body of work fit for a debut One Day album, Mainline.
“We’ve done songs together here and there over the years, we’ve toured together in various capacities, but we haven’t actually been on a tour with all four of the acts,” says Lupi. “The main motivator behind Mainline was being able to take that on the road. To see that come to fruition is really fun.”
When asked to spill the beans on who’s the biggest troublemaker on tour – this is a group of young men and mates, after all – Lupi laughs and fumbles for an answer before reaching a diplomatic conclusion. “There are some members of the crew who perhaps you know are going to be late to rehearsal, and some members of the crew you know are going to be pushing to stay out a bit later. But I would say we all cause trouble in equal parts in our own ways.”
Despite having seven cooks in the kitchen, One Day finished their album in just six months. “There were certainly some spirited discussions, especially given we’re all very strong-minded and opinionated individuals,” says Lupi. “And I think being friends – and being very close friends – we felt comfortable voicing our opinions to each other.”
Indeed, Lupi says there was a healthy competitive spirit between the group’s MCs. “That kind of competition exists within the crew even when we’re doing our own individual stuff,” he laughs. “When you’ve got four rappers on the same track, and they’re amongst the best doing it, of course you want to be able to hold your own on a track, or onstage next to these guys. It’s a real positive element.”
Seeing each other at work also encouraged a constant cycle of reviewing and revising – “to outdo themselves and outdo each other,” Lupi explains. “That definitely happens and will continue to happen. It’s just the nature of the project. And ultimately you’ve ended up with a better result – you can’t really be mad at it.”
Mainline is an unapologetic dedication to the place that raised the One Dayers – particularly the Sydney train line between Strathfield and Central. But the crew was never worried that the album wouldn’t resonate with fans outside the Inner West loop.
“We were certainly aware that some of the things were Inner West-specific,” Lupi says. “But that’s a big part of our music; it’s taking where we grew up, our slang and things like that. It’s taking that with us where we go. We more want to share that with people than to think of it as holding the music back.”
In between their various individual musical projects, One Day are professional partiers who curate a monthly block party. Since its inception two years ago, One Day Sundays has outgrown its long-time home at The Vic in Marrickville. “We wanted to put on the sort of Sunday session that we would all want to go to. It’s kind of taken on a life of its own now,” says Lupi. Boasting capacity turnouts, the boys are setting their sights interstate. “We’re trying to [keep] a momentum going, and just keep throwing these parties and hopefully not kill ourselves in the process.”
After the band’s latest tour, the boys will be knuckling down to work on their own projects, with releases expected from Spit Syndicate, Joyride and Jackie Onassis later this year. But Lupi assures us that Mainline isn’t going to be a one-off for One Day. “It was too much fun and we got so much out of it to leave it at just the one,” he says.
And with Horrorshow’s MC Solo as his roomie and the other boys living within a stone’s throw, Lupi says they’re “in each other’s faces all the time”. How do they keep it together, ensuring each member’s mental health is maintained? “There’s a lot of shit going on,” says Lupi. “But ultimately it comes down to the fact that we’re making music, touring and doing business with our best friends.
One Day will be supported by Briggs and Jayteehazzard at the Metro Theatre on Saturday 18 April. They will also be playing alongside Hermitude, Flight Facilities, The Preatures and more at this year’s Groovin The Moo.
