Pegz

After having maintained a strong influence in the local scene for around 10 years, Pegz has cultivated a unique sound. His collection of achievements is equally impressive: he has released 3 solo LP’s, runs one of the largest and most successful independent record labels in Australia and has toured the country countless times. He recently declared that his solo career will conclude upon the release of his latest LP, Burn City. The idea of finishing with style summarises this collection of 13 soulful tracks.

The obvious inspiration for the album title is your city, Melbourne. What does living in Melbourne mean to you?
Well it means a lot of things. But the album isn’t specifically titled after Melbourne, obviously it has given me the inspiration but I think Burn City means a lot more than just the city of Melbourne, to me, anyway. Living in Melbourne, it’s a great place to live, I love living here. It’s where my friends and family are from. I think in terms of live music, it’s the capital of live music in Australia. It is quite a productive state but at the same time, it seems to have a little bit of soul left. Burn City is for me, a place that the album takes you to. Burn City means a lot of things, from the place where the passion lives inside me to a place that I want to take the listener to.

The track Burn City counters the remainder of a somewhat upbeat album with a despondent vibe. Is there any particular aspect of the city lifestyle which triggered the lyrics?
I’d like to think that certain things from living here for years have inspired that song. There was a point there where a lot of the councils stopped doing all the festivals. St. Kilda festival stopped for a couple of years, Prahan has stopped now. There was a time when there was constant festivals going on, celebrating living in the city and they had all been cancelled for years through government insurance policies, people had to worry about being sued for certain stuff. I think that was a slight trigger. It’s a lot deeper than that though. There are a lot of little things which have influenced that song but the main one is just my personal experience of living in the city. Just seeing change, places I grew up in like St. Kilda turned into little yuppy holes and all the working-class, blue-collar families being pushed out of the cooler areas.

Can you describe your reaction to assertions that Obese has a monopoly over the Australian scene?
Well you just have to look out there to see other artists doing well and getting constantly played on radio just as much as us. You’ve just got to ask labels like Shogun and Elefant Traks as to what sort of growth they have seen over the last couple of years and I’m sure we’re all in a similar growth rate at the moment. The perception is that we are years ahead of our competitors and in terms of success, yes we are. We’re probably about 3 or 4 years ahead of the nearest competitor in terms of success, the number of releases and our presence in the industry for such a small, independent label. Various things have contributed to that, number one being the Hilltop Hoods’ success. They are obviously years ahead in terms of sales. I think that sometimes the perception of those guys helps create that notion that we do have a monopoly. But there are only a few people who see it like that, usually competitors from different labels, even though I don’t like to see them as competitors, or up-and-coming emcees who pretty much just hate anything. The majority of the people out there appreciate us and they know that we’re in it for the music, we’re in it for the love of the culture. We’re about creating opportunities for our artists, that’s our role as a record label.

Were you wary of allotting too much attention to the issue on Burn City?
Well I think there is obviously going to be a lot about Obese and our journey in my records because it takes up such a large part of my life and it’s so important for me to make something of this opportunity. People can see it how they want to, there’s no real references to us being a monopoly, I wasn’t really thinking about having to defend myself against these accusations of monopoly because they come from very few people in the scene who have interests elsewhere and they start pointing the finger. I don’t think too much about it. I know there are other artists and labels out there who are doing well. It’s not true.

What inspired you to go with the soulful, 70’s sound on the new album?
I just wanted to make something that I think that would be in that hip hop tradition of the people who inspired me: King Sun, K-Solo, Public Enemy, Eric B. and Rakim, all that breakey sorta stuff which had a bit of funk to it as well as a dark side yet you could still nod your head to it. I think from a production point of view, I had a vision of what Burn City was and it was quite a soulful, exciting, up-tempo, fast-paced place like any city, something that sort of depicted the city in terms in of production characteristics.

I have read of the esteem in which you hold Plutonic Lab, what was behind the decision to strip back his involvement on Burn City?
Yeah, Jase probably did about 50% of the album, Plutonic did about 30& and Suffa did around 20%. I love Plutonic’s style, I think he’s just amazing but I wanted a bit more of a breaky sound and Plutonic doesn’t really like to do that stuff so much because it doesn’t challenge him, it’s not his favourite stuff. He likes to chop everything up into tiny little segments and really play around with that midi sort of style. He had just finished a record with Ivens around a month before Burn City was released so he had a lot on his plate as well and I needed to work with somebody who could give me 110%. It’s not because I don’t love his style, it’s just cause that’s the way thing were. Jase didn’t have the amount of commitments that Plutonic Lab had at the time so it was the obvious choice. I believe in Jase’s production 110% as well and when it comes down to an Executive Producer’s role, he really understands the artist’s vision and tries to compliment it. As soon as I realised that he understood my vision for this record, it was a natural choice for me to have him involved as Executive Producer. I think Plutonic’s production was more to offset the core ingredients that I wanted in terms of all the soul stuff from Jase. I think it offsets that quite nicely so it’s not boring or monotonous.

“…Burn City is for me, a place that the album takes you to. Burn City means a lot of things, from the place where the passion lives inside me to a place that I want to take the listener to…”

Plutonic produced an incredibly classy beat with Just Married. Can you explain the inspiration for the lyrics?
I think about 6 beers each for me Muphin to tell the truth. This was at a point in time when Muphin and I were touring as Milk Bar Stars, that song was originally supposed to be on a Milk Bar Stars album that we were going to make together but I ended up nabbing it for my record. There’s some great memories attached to that song, just the laughs and the fun we had on tour together. It was a really special time for me. Me and Muphin were laughing our heads off, in hysterics writing and recording that song. I was trying to be as rude as I could be and he was trying to be as soft as he could be. I think it captures a little bit of the larrikin in Muphin and myself.

What was the rationale behind the opening track?
I think it was just to scare off anyone who thought that they were going to get an album of Back Then’s to tell the truth. It was just to let them know that this is a hip hop record in the real essence of it and it was made for everybody to enjoy but at the same time, it is inspired and it has tradition which is important to me. I’m not going to pretty it up. If you don’t like the first track than you’re probably not going to like the rest of the album.

No Attachments seems to be a favourite of many. Did the production cater to being picked up as a single?
I think so. I didn’t originally want that to be a single. I don’t send out singles to radio, I just send them the full album and they just pick out what they want to play. Judging by the response, it’s probably going to be the single. It was the last song I made for Burn City. Suffa had been sending me tonnes of beats and I had just finished the record and about a week later he told me that he had a beat that I had to use and I said ‘not a chance, don’t even send it’ and he sent it through and within 10 seconds I said ‘you bastard.’ I was straight back into the writing process for another 3 or 4 weeks and got the song finished and recorded. I think it captures a common theme which runs through the whole album about communication and connection. At the same time, it’s drawing on some of my experiences from the last 3 or 4 months before writing the track, with the opposite sex, trying to meet someone and all that sort of bla bla. I think it does capture an important social dynamic where connections get lost and relationships get devalued by technology. That theme runs through the whole album.

What was it about the beat which originally pricked your ears?
I could just hear it live. I could see thousands of people jumping up and down to it. I love the way that Suffa has chopped up the drums, they have a lot of attitude. I like the the little hook in the chorus, it’s something different but it still sounded like it belonged on Burn City. The production just had those elements of grit and rawness, almost capturing that New York in the 70’s kind of vibe.

Another notable absence on Burn City was DJ Selekt, what was behind the switch to DJ Bonez?
Well I had been touring with DJ Bonez for last couple of years. Selekt had been out of the picture and living in Perth for quite a while. Unforunately, I don’t even know if he’s still DJ’ing these days, I hope he is because he has a tonne of talent. Me and Bonez have a pretty special connection now, he’s one of my best mates and we hang out on a social tip a lot and I think that’s important. Me and Bonez worked together pretty well on Burn City. I did choose all the cuts myself and I did all the arrangements in terms of sequencing and did pretty much everything on the record except for make the beats, in terms of responsibility and accountability, everything was on my shoulders. Jase did give me some direction so I appreciate it heaps and it’s good to have his perspective.

The LP has some real bangers on it – Block To Block, No Attachments and Ali Shuffle – that are sure to work a treat live. What can punters expect from a Pegz live show?
I kicked off my first show on Saturday in Brisbane and it had to be stopped 4 or 5 times from the crowd mosh pitting and slam dancing. That was the first time I have seen a response like that, I needed to make Burn City to get that response and that was considered whilst making Burn City, making something that can work live. I’ve been inspired by seeing Funkoars live and knowing that production from the Hilltop Hoods is made for live shows. So that was definitely a big part of making Burn City and judging from the first response, this record looks like it is going to have a bit of longevity. The crowd was singing the whole way through the show, the tempo is up on all of the tracks and it just keeps them bouncing the whole time. I think people are going to be pleasantly surprised with a big jump in terms of my professionalism with shows these days.

www.myspace.com/mcpegz