With not so much a bang as a thump, wallop and crash, Ecca Vandal has begun the year with total sonic detonation.
In a surprise move, the South African-born and Melbourne-based pop stomper and hip hop rattler released her debut EP End Of Time last month without even a word of warning.
“You know what? I just want to release something now,” she says. “I felt like I just wanted to go direct, you know, online for the fans. Like, not take too long doing an album, and these tracks are already finished. So I flew to Sydney and chatted with the [label] guys and just said, ‘Look, this is what I want to do. Can we do this?’ And that was just a few weeks ago. And I wanted it to be a surprise, so luckily they’re really cool and are all on board, so here we are.”
Nothing short of a tornado of beats, End Of Time is described by Vandal as “a fun collection of tracks that most of them – I think all of them – you could probably dance to”. What’s more, this five-track sampler ferociously showcases her range as well as eclectic influences and Sri Lankan heritage.
“I guess you can probably hear a few elements of punk rock,” she says. “I’m a really massive hip hop fan. Some people say they can hear it, some people they can’t, but I guess I’ve got some jazz influences in my sort of musical past … I studied it for a long time and so there’s probably a few of those things you might be able to hear in the melodies, maybe. And also some people say to me that they can hear some kind of South Indian cultural influence in there as well, which is most definitely ingrained in my musical heritage, cause that’s culturally where I come from. So it’s not something I intentionally go to, but I guess it sort of comes out somehow.”
In such a rich musical melting pot, the notion of genre never even comes into the mix. Instead of boundaries and confines, Vandal’s music resonates with a free-flowing and multi-layered energy, instilled with her first memories of music from when she was growing up in Africa. She remembers “just being surrounded by the South Africans there and the amazing richness of their harmonies. They sort of break out into song, you know, even if they were coming over for dinner … they’d just sort of start singing. And beautiful, lush harmonies and traditional gospel songs and folk songs. Just beautiful, lush voices. And I remember that richness of that harmony, and I think that kind of inspired my love of harmonies. That’s definitely something that’s stayed with me.”
These influences blend convincingly on End Of Time’s musical backdrop, while the boldness and complexity are also reflected in Vandal’s lyrics. The song ‘Divided’, for instance, seamlessly tackles issues of racism, social toxicity and personal tribulation. She raps, “You can’t bring that dark girl home / Cause Daddy’s waiting to see the next generation that follows … You just couldn’t grow a pair.”
The EP’s title track, on the other hand, is an impassioned love song. It was also the quickest to write. Vandal recalls, “I got a new toy, which was a Dave Smith synth. And I started playing around on this synth, and came up with the pulsing, kind of bassline theme. And I tracked that. Then the next session with [producer] Kidnot, I actually played it to him and he really dug it. So we just literally built the rest of the track straight away. I started singing a couple of melodies and those melodies stayed … It just all really happened quite organically and fast, I didn’t sort of overthink anything.”
Vandal’s throbbing, spontaneous energy permeates the EP as it does her musical process. “I guess I’m a pretty spontaneous person by nature,” she says. “I kind of like to just do things on the fly and keep things fresh as much as I can, and not kind of get stale by overthinking it and reworking it. It’s something that I tried to break the habit [and get] out of early on, because I kind of felt like when I first started writing music, I’d write a melody and I’d go, ‘Oh no, no, no. I can do it better.’ And I’d keep going and keep going and keep going. And most often I would come back to the first one. So I kind of thought, ‘Hey, why don’t I just trust my instinct?’”
Having only played her first-ever gig last year, the future is bright for Vandal. She is also excited to be embarking on her maiden Australian headline tour. “I’ve got to say, the most rewarding thing is actually meeting people face to face who might be enjoying the music,” she says, “and they come up and say hello, and they say, ‘I really dug that. I just came across your music.’ That’s really a very beautiful, human kind of exchange. I really enjoy that.
“I’m always really grateful whenever someone comes and says hello and says, ‘You’re killing it.’”
[Ecca Vandal photo by Kidnot]
Ecca Vandal playsNewtown Social Club onFriday March 4, withWaax. in the meantimeEnd Of Time,is available through Dew Process/Universal.
