1.The First Song I Wrote
I was 12 and it was called the ‘The Homiest G In G History’. It was a little skater rat suburban anthem that we rapped on the school bus – still using American accents we’d heard from the radio.
2.The Last Song I Released
We just released a song called ‘Criminal’ that we are really proud of and it’s the best song yet for sure. It’s basically about the ever-increasing amount of laws in New South Wales crippling the rights of citizens. There has been a bunch of people around where we live (Byron Bay) losing their licences and getting criminal records for having indeterminable amounts of marijuana in their system from sometimes days or weeks ago. These events, combined with people getting huge fines for having their elbows out the windows, not locking their cars and now not carrying a licence while riding a bike, made me question the fairness of these laws and go and write a social justice song. The song was recorded by Dave Atkins (Resin Dogs, Wolfmother) at HydroFunk Studios in Mullumbimby and mixed by Andrew McKinnon (Desmond Cheese). It has elements of Sticky Fingers, The Police and Cat Empire and it will be the first single of an upcoming LP later in 2017.
3.Songwriting Secrets
For me, lyrics sometimes come out of a passionate thought or sometimes whole verses can spark from an interesting word or rhyme. As most lyricists will say, it can be completely random – sometimes I’ll be out surfing and come up with a verse and have to keep rapping it to myself all the way to the car park so I don’t forget it. I find travelling also inspires some of my best lyrics. Writing with instruments is a new challenge and really fun – everyone in Droppies loves surfing, skating, pumping beats down the beach with a couple of beers, so we love writing about that.
4.The Song That Makes Me Proud
Our latest track ‘Criminal’ makes me proud. I feel like it’s the first track we really nutted out together as a band over time. The guitars are smooth, the drums are banging, the bass is drivey, the vocals flow nicely and the horns are just awesome.
5.The Song That Changed My Life
‘Toowong’ by Brad Strut, a Melbourne MC from the golden age of Australian hip hop. I heard this song in high school and it just blew my mind. I couldn’t believe there were people in Oz with Australian accents with flows and lyrical content rivalling the US rappers. It was so honest and raw and motivated me to start writing better verses and rap all the time.
Get along toDrop LegsatJam Gallery on Thursday April 7; and Moonshine Bar, Hotel Steyne Friday April 8.
