Remi

“We spent the night hanging with some very rowdy people,” Smith chimes in. Other acts on the bill included Tkay Maidza, Bad//Dreems, Safia and Melbourne funk/soul outfit Saskwatch. “They’ve been named the Mötley Crüe of Australia,” jokes Smith. “They were a very rowdy bunch but it’s been so good to catch up with everyone because we do tend to see a lot of these acts around the traps.”

“DMA’s have been over here as well,” Remi adds. “They’re killing it!”

In conversation, Remi and Sensible J are everything you’d expect – fun, friendly, and sharing a brotherly rapport. They feed off each other constantly. “These shows have been incredible,” Remi says. “We’ve played a lot of showcases that will hopefully open up new possibilities for us.”

“Can I tell the death metal story?” Smith asks Remi.

“Sure man, go for it,” he replies.

Smith launches into an anecdote about a show they played in Vienna before heading to the UK. “We played at a venue that used to be a slaughterhouse back in the day. They’d tricked it out and now it’s an awesome live music venue, but it’s used predominately for death metal bands. So when we rocked up there we were incredibly nervous. We had visions of being lynched by this death metal crowd.” Smith and Remi both laugh. “But when we got there everyone was so cool. We were the supporting act for Dälek. He’s amazing – he does industrial, almost Nine Inch Nails-sounding hip hop. Obviously it was very different from home, you know? Normally if we supported a death metal hip hop act we would probably get killed! So it was very refreshing.”

Remi and Smith agree that life on the road can be enlightening and very inspirational. “I’m always working on new music,” says Smith, “but it’s tricky on tour because I don’t have many of my little machines to actually make beats. So I’ll just beatbox something or sing a melody into my phone.”

“Yeah, I’m always writing ideas down,” agrees Remi. “It’s kind of the same for me as it is for J, though. My USB mic looks too much like a bomb to take it overseas, so I just rap into my phone. I try to take in as much as possible and make little notes on my iPhone.”

“Didn’t Eminem write lyrics on napkins?” Smith offers.

“I think he did,” Remi answers. “He’d write lyrics everywhere – but he was a bit all over the shop.”

“The shop where they’d sell the napkins?” Smith counters, to laughs all round.

It’s resoundingly clear that Remi and Smith don’t take themselves too seriously, but with a slew of awards (including triple j’s coveted Unearthed title, and more recently a $30,000 prize as the recipients of the Coopers AMP) – hell, they must be doing something right. “Remi does get asked for advice a lot,” Smith says.

“I always say, ‘Write pop shit and you’ll make heaps of money!’” begins Remi. “Nah, to be honest the most important thing is to make sure you’re having fun. I know that sounds like some wanker shit but it’s the absolute truth. You’ve just got to reality check yourself as to why you’re actually doing what you’re doing, and the answer should be ‘fun’!

“The second thing is to always listen to and compare yourself with your favourite acts,” Remi continues. “That’s what we do – no-one is going to teach you how to do this job and it’s best to listen and learn as much as you can.”

“Read books and listen to old records,” Smith adds, before admitting: “Oh, I actually don’t really know how to give advice. I just try to impress Remi with my beats and he tries to impress me with his raps.”

“Also, don’t try to be too competitive with other people because that’s fucking stupid!” Remi insists.

When it comes to those artists who inspire them, both Remi and Smith are happy to name some names. “I like people like Jai Paul,” Remi answers first, “because he can just put a song online and make a million dollars. He doesn’t have to do any press – I actually don’t know how he does it. He just came out of nowhere – that’s pretty incredible. Other than that I’m not really envious of anybody else’s career…”

“Except for Radiohead,” Smith adds. “It’s pretty rare for a band to go more alternative and keep getting bigger. Hopefully one day we can do that – release something totally wild and keep growing.”

There’s a Radiohead connection on Remi’s latest mixtape, Call It What You Want.Vocals from the band’s frontman Thom Yorke are used on the track ‘Weirdos (From Planet HOB)’. Remi says the mixtape is a taste of what’s to come as he plans the follow-up to 2014’s Raw X Infinity.“I will be releasing