Sorry about the inconsistency people, computer access is limited at the moment, bare wit me, solid.
So I went to see Tom at his house in Avondale and get welcomed inside. There's no furniture & no TV, only a big fish tank, a tin of cabin bread, a Marilyn Manson poster & a mic where the lead goes into the floor....
Nah not really I'm all shit but we all know Home Brew & I got the chance to pick emcee Tom' brain a lil. I was going to go with the less serious tone but I'll leave that for the commercial media who want to know if Toms single or has tattoos of past girlfriends so here goes everybody, 4 The Rhyme not the Slime (commercial shit) I got lazy trying to edit the grammar, my bad.
1. Hey bro, were you always a music & hip hop fan growin up as a kid? dubbin over mums tapes n stuff?
TOM: hahaha. yeah bro. was always into hiphop, since i was about 5. My next door neighbor was 5 years older than me. Tongan dude. he was blind, so all he did was music. He had like the Naughty By Nature tape, Coolie High Harmonie hahaha all that kinda shit and that's what sparked me up. Plus my dads job is music, hes a jazz bassist, so I was stuck with music in my life. But yeah gravitated to hiphop for some reason. And yeah i remember dubbing tapes hard bro. Put the cellotape over the top or stuff the holes lol. Got doggystyle for my 10th bday from my Dad. (then my mum took it off me after she read the cover) and got the Kriss Kross tape from Santa when I was like standard 1. (shame)
2. How do you come up with these lyrics that people just get? Thats delivery & flow too. You're dope on all topics you spit (coverin it perfect in 3min), how is that?
TOM: Your too kind bro. I wouldn't say I do anything different from any other emcee. I just rhyme about my environment. Only reason i rhyme more about everyday normal shit is probably cause where I grew up if you rhymed about bullshit, people would know. They'd be like bro that's eats and you'd just be a dick. So when I first started rhyming I just spat about stuff that people could relate to and it worked way better than tryna spit like canibus nuclear physics kinda shit. But yeah.
3. Was last week EP a hard thought out project & did it have an aim, or was it just "your music"? cause when it dropped, it was epic no doubt & for NZ hiphop a fresh good sound that no one's done before.
TOM: Shot bro. to kind again. Guna make people think we're geniuses with this interview hahaha. Nah Last Week was just something that happened in a week. I'd written this one track (Thursday) about what happened to us the night before, cause it was a mean night. Me, Haz, Lui, Lucky Lance all on it in the shack behind my house freestyling n shit n I wanted to capture that the next day. You know how you have those nights you can't really explain why it was so good, it's just like 'fuckn mean night bro, shoulda been there'.. so yeah I wrote that track and then we just wrote another 6 songs every other day of the week and put it together. It really just came together. funny how that shit happens aye. Music doesn't really give a fuck about how long you take to make it. It just either works or not. so yeah, then we called it last week.
4. Bro, you got your style sussed & to transition to a live band was another epic move. Do you think you know what you want as an artist. From lyrics to beat to flow to feel?
TOM: Shux.That's a hard one. I guess what every artists wants is to be unique, so that's always something. Then on top of that I really just wana express my self you know. Just wanna say my thoughts and make them rhyme. but sometimes, like at the gig on saturday night I feel like I didn't get the chance to express myself. Too many north shore chicks yelling out 'do friday, do fire' hahaha. You know. And sometimes I just wana do some personal shit or some shit about like consumerism, or global warming, or some boring shit like that. But people just wana hear tracks about getting drunk and stoned all night hahaha So i guess that's one thing I wana do, I wana express myself.
But yeah. With the live band I think the main goal is to just be invisible, like be another instrument. just another part, instead of be the lead man. And that's something i'm really still learning a lot about. and as far as lyrics, i really like the art of rhyming. just like a mean cross over in ball, or a good goose step in league or something like that. just the show offy part of it. the technique of it and shit. I always wana improve on that. and then as well as that I always wana be clear with my story telling and shit. there's HEAPS I wana work on as an artist. Always gota progress aye. But yeah just to be me and to be able to express who I am and maybe make people think about the world and shit without half the crowd walking out. thats about it.
5. Are you lookin to sign with a label anytime soon? I heard a label can direct your sound, is it somethin thats keepin you away? Pretty sure if you ever drop an album it will debut at number 1.
TOM: hahahaha number one on the avondale market charts. But nah yeah I don't think we'll sign with any majors aye bro. I really wana hold on to control of how we market ourselves. cause people probably don't ever think about it, but we do all our own promotion and marketing. We decide when we wana drop our e.ps. and how we guna get them out n all that. I think that's something I wana hold on to. Plus we can say whatever we want on our tracks, so we feel free. And I don't wana give that up to anyone. Plus in todays industry, you don't need a label you know. It's a way smaller world with the net. Just need clever ideas and good music. So yeah, guna stick to what we doing and hopefully people just like the music. That's the main goal.
Shot Tom, thanks for the Interview, solid. I don't need to say more lol One point he mentioned I reacon is what most people lose sight on, is "The Art of Rhyme". It is an art, which requires passion and heart really, so you can't abuse it, or it will turn out to be "just another rap song" and if more of these are made than songs with heart, the meaning of the art gets lost?. Kinda like grafitti, people abuse it by tagging and so for the passionate grafitti artists, the art has been demoted because people think it's vandelism.
But anyways, I'm out to learn Niue, you can catch Tom, LuiC & Haz (with fuckin solid live band) at Khuja this Friday night! Again, if you ain't seen them, you're missing out!
Download for FREE all their tracks below. Shot Tom, Lui & Haz.
Download - Home Brew EPs
Download - Home Brew Vintage EP
Far, sorry guys, I can talk music forever, my bad. I love it. That's real.
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