Friday, December 19, 2008

Boxing Day Clash - Festival

Watup internet – been a little slow on the blog tip lately, not really that much to report to you just yet. We’re chilling out, working on some new music and enjoying the Sydney summer. We are playing our last headline show in Sydney for a long, long time next Friday (Boxing Day suckers!) at the Annandale Hotel in the almighty Inner West of Sydney. If you’re around, come down because the line up is killer, especially at $25. It’s guaranteed to be a fairly loose day so come and pour some egg nog/cognac out for the homies.

Thursday, November 27, 2008

SS featured on "Who the Bloody Hell are They?" Music Blog

"Who the Bloody Hell Are They?" is an Australian music blog; one of the best actually. I've been an avid reader of their shit for a while now, so you can imagine the stupid grin I had on my face when I saw that they'd given us a little write up.

Many thanks dudes, keep up the good work:

Who The Bloody Hell Are They

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Newtown Festival: Recap

Watup guys, been a little slow in the blogging tip lately. We played the Newtown Festival in (gasp) Newtown last Sunday, easily one of the best local shows that we've played in a long time. Along with a swag of others, we've been doing our best to put it down for the I-Dub this year so it was great to finally perform at the festival. We had a pretty early timeslot at 1:20pm, so it was great to see a sizeable crowd in front of us when we took the stage. Thank you to everyone that came out and showed us love, apologies we couldn't extend our set a little longer but they had to make sure shit ran on time, our delayed start meant that we had to slice a song off the end (we would have performed for hours more if we could!). This was our second community festival show for the year, we did Surry Hills a few months back, and they're fresh, can't wait to do more in the future.

Lachlan Hicks took a few photos which I thought I'd include.









That was our last Sydney show for a while now, we have some Festival shit cooking for the Summer: more on that when it gets locked in. Until then, peace! x

Music Feeds: SS Video Interview

The other week we went through the Abercrombie Hotel in Broadway with Dialectrix and the Thundamentals boys for an interview/photo shoot with Music Feeds, which is a killer new street press which is operating out of Sydney. It's not exactly new, but new in comparison with the street rag stalwarts like 3D World, Brag and Drum Media. They do a fucking killer job, my man Mikey Carr held us down - we all got dressed up in 1980s B-Boy gear and managed to answer some questions in between laughing at ourselves. The physical version of the interview with photographs is out now, look for it wherever you get your normal street press.


Spit Syndicate with Music Feeds from Music Feeds on Vimeo.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Melbourne, we gotcha back..

We played a show in Melbourne on Saturday night with Thundamentals and Pegz and it was one of the illest shows we've played in a long time, definitely our best Melbourne show ever.

We got down to Melbourne on Saturday afternoon, nursing some pretty killer hangovers from a pretty killer Horrorshow/Hermitude show at Oxford Arts the night before - Horrorshow's live shit is tight as hell thanks to their touring schedule nowadays and Hermitude were, as always, incredibly impressive. We went straight to the studio with our main man down in Melly, Illy, to record a song for his debut album (no idea when it's going to be out, but hopefully sooner rather than later because he is an immensely talented sickcunt). Myself, Jimmy and Joyride all laid down some vocals, and I think Solo is going to get on the song as well. M-Phazes did the beat and it is just bonkers - keep an eye out for that shit..

The venue which we played the show at was premo - everyone we spoke to before the show had nothing but good things to say about The Corner in Richmond, and we found em all to be true, the sound was great. The crowd was awesome, Thundamentals and Pegz both smashed it. I don't know when we'll be down in Melbourne next, but hopefully soon, it's easily one of our favourite cities to play. Melly, we gotcha back!

Nick.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Boltz, Spit Syndicate and Royce Da 5"9 - The Best (Remix)

This is a remix of Boltz' "The Best" we recorded a while back, Fame did the beat for the remix.

Click

SSx

ARIAs recap

We went to the ARIAs on Sunday night and, amidst the swag of egos, c-grade celebrities and shady industry types, we had a ball. The awards ceremony itself was, as expected, a little boring (but aided by the free booze - shot cuz!), but it was good to catch up with some of the Melbourne-based Obese crew (as well as DJ Flagrant who managed to sneak in - sickcunt) and we represented nonetheless. Huge congratulations to our homies Bliss n Eso for taking out the award - they thoroughly deserved it, given their talent and grind. 2008 has been their year and it doesn't look likely to stop any time soon, much love to the fellas. The Herd were unlucky to take it out considering everything they've achieved over the many years that they've been putting it down, Muph n Pluto too (And Then Tomorrow Came is banging). The afterparty was fresh too, as drinks were still free as shit, and me and Jimmy were in quite a state when we finally threw in the towel at 9am monday morning - hands were definitely up.

Hack Half Hour: Image

Hey guys,

Hack, the wicked JJJ news/journalism radio program which focuses on current youth issues, now has a television called the Hack Half Hour, which is "a show that gets everyone talking about the issues that impact on your life". It's put together by the good folds at jtv and is hosted by Steve Cannane. The show, much like the radio program, is brilliant.

They've put together an episode which focuses on the importance of image to young people, featuring a mixed bag of image experts, young people, musicians, etc. They asked me to be a part of it and lend some insight from a hip-hop perspective, so I did. I didn't really have that much insight to offer, funnily enough, so I said about 11 words in total - but the episode is pretty interesting.

You can stream it off the Hack Half Hour website here

Chuch.

Monday, October 13, 2008

SS on JJJ Home and Hosed

The good folks at Triple J are playing a few songs from our set at the Sydney leg of the Obese Block Party Tour which went down in May earlier this year.

It's on this Wednesday from 9pm-10pm, listen to it if you're anywhere near a radio.

Or here: JJJ website

Online Merch shop is coming very soon and we'll give y'all a recap of the ARIAs as soon as we get kicked out, too.


Peace..

Friday, October 3, 2008

NOTORIOUS trailer

Frank White - fuck yeah.

Monday, September 29, 2008

SYDNEY: Spit Syndicate/Horrorshow Acoustic Show

The 1Day crew are playing a special acoustic performance on Saturday 11th October at the Lincoln, in Kings Cross. The night will feature performances by Spit Syndicate, Horrorshow, Rowan Dix, Sarah Corry and JMac.

Previous acoustic shows have been hugely successful, and this one is shaping to be no different. The Lincoln is a cool but intimate bar, so capacity is extremely limited for this show. It's going to cost $10 on the door, or $5 if you're on the guestlist. To get on the guestlist, please send full names to: nickel182@hotmail.com




Hope to see you there..

Tour recap

Our national tour came to a boozy end last weekend, so we thought it was about time for a bit of a recap. Since we last spoke, we've played shows in Newcastle, Brisbane, Perth and Rockingham.

Jimmy, Rowan and myself made the trip up to Newcastle the day after the sold-out Horrorshow Sydney album launch, so we were nursing some pretty killer hang overs. We've always had a lot of love for and from Newy so we were mad keen to get up there. This excitement increased manyfold when we found Abbie Cornish at soundcheck, doing her thing with Blades. Us being a bit ignorant of Newcastle hip-hop, we had no idea that she was part of the group. We were really stoked with how the show went, it was great to catch up with a few old friends and the audience seemed to dig the show. After the show, we kept the party going with the Beats Working boys at a house until the wee hours. They had a bit of a makeshift studio set up at this house (complete with electronic drum kit) and we jammed and freestyled for hours. None of us had had that much fun in a very long time. Newcastle was definitely one of the illest experiences we had on the tour, huge shout outs to the Beats Working boys: these fellas are deadset sickcunts.

Brisbane was next, and after the Briz Obese Block Party show earlier in the year we were looking forward to hitting up Brizvegas. It was great to see Pure Product and the Lowdown live, they were both sick. We went on way later than we should have, and we ended up playing to a fairly empty, big room - it wasn't exactly our finest hour. Still, we dealt with it like anyone else would have: drank the shit out of our bar tab and partied until our hellish 7am flight to Perth. No sleep til Brooklyn..

After more hours than one should really be spending on domestic flights on no sleep (Briz to Sydney, Sydney to Perth), we got to Perth . We'd never been to WA before and had heard great things, and the show was another one of our favourites. We still hadn't slept but the feeling of being in a completely new city and having people there know the words and get into the music was unreal. We linked up with some friends over there and got treated to some Western hospitality, Perth is the illest. The show wasn't packed to the rafters, but everyone that was there got into the music and we had a ball.

Rockingham was the following night, it's about 40 minutes out of Perth. Again, the crowd was looking a little bit depleted but it ain't never been nothing to a boss, we did our thing and enjoyed it. Outside in the beer garden, a young Western Australian man was silly enough to challenge Joyride to a skulling contest. He was swiftly defeated; Dixy can pour alcohol down his throat faster than anyone I've ever met. We had to catch a flight at 12:30 that night, so we had to bounce pretty soon after playing.

In short, the tour was a shitload of fun. The shows weren't sell-outs by any measure, but playing music that we wrote in our bedrooms about 2 years ago to crowds in different cities is an amazing feeling, regardless of how big they are. Cannot wait to do it again sometime soon.

PEACE- SS.

Here Today, Gone Tomorrow film clip

Friday, September 26, 2008

Here Today, Gone Tomorrow film clip premiers on RAGE tonight

Yo apologies for the ridiculously late notice, but the HTGT clip is being screened on RAGE on ABC tonight at about 1am - if you're up, then check it out. Should have a high-res version for YouTube in the following days for those who prefer YouTube.

A few more apologies for the slowness on the blog tip, got plenty to fill you all in on, including a complete tour recap, some flicks and some new footage - and a whole bunch of merchandise for sale.

Bless x

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Tour so far, ARIAs, Blackalicious, Pretty Ricky, and more..

It's blog time.

What's really good blogosphere readers.

Thought it was high time that I hit yall with an update in the form of a blog. We played Revolver in Melbourne last weekend. As you may have noticed, we have a lot of love for the city of Melbourne (more love than Sydneysiders should, really..) so it goes without saying that we had a great time. The show was a lot of fun, it definitely wasn't packed to the rafters in there, but we had a great time on stage and everyone that came through seemed to have a good time as well. Huge thanks to all our Melbourne people that came and showed some love, as well to our NSW homies Beats Working, who sound ill. We're playing Newcastle on Saturday, along with Beats Working and Blades. The Last Kinnection were billed to be playing as well, but I heard some bad news the other day that they were caught up in a car crash - not sure of the details, but hope they're all safe and ok..

We picked up our Spit Syndicate Merchandise when we were down in Melbourne. It was manufactured by the good folks at Machine Industries, and it looks dope boy fresh. We'll be selling it online very soon, so there will be some pictures and videos for all of you to see before you buy - it is a very limited run though, so make sure you snap that shit up quickly.

We somehow got nominated for Best Urban Release at the 2008 ARIA Awards yesterday, which is a bit puzzling, definitely unexpected but pretty cool nonethess. I'm sure nobody (and I'm at the very top of that list) will be placing any large sums of money on SS to take out the pointy award, but it's nice to know that some industry folks are showing us a bit of love. Not quite sure how Urthboy's "The Signal" missed out on a nomination, and I'm even less sure of what the fuck an "Urban release" even is - but we'll be representing on the night regardless. 1dayers..

Speaking of 1dayers, we're playing the Blackalicious show at Oxford Art Factory on Tues 7th October with our friends who are currently taking the indie rap world by storm, Horrorshow.



Until next time fuckers, Nick. x

Friday, September 5, 2008

Some recent press...

We did an interview with Dan Rule for the Age and WA Today last week, here is the finished product:

click

We're heading to Melbourne tomorrow for the Revolver show, should be a great night. If you're in Melly then make sure you come down. Gotta give some Birthday shout outs to my partner in crime, Jimmy Nice, who turned 22 yesterday - big up yoself player.

All Sydney heads need to get themselves to the Horrorshow launch next Friday at the Annandale Hotel, it is going to be monster.

We're picking up the SS merch tomorrow as well, so that will be for sale at shows and also online too i guess. Here Today Clip is finally done, we had some last minute changes to make which caused the delay, but it's finished now, so it should be on your computer and TV screens very shortly.

Schlaters - Nick/SS x

Sunday, August 31, 2008

Towards the Light National Tour

So now that we've released the album and launched in Sydneytown, we're taking this show on the road during September, accompanied by none other than DJ Joyride aka Rowan Dix. This tour announcement is a little bit late, we've already started the tour (Albury recap is below) but better late than never. We're mad stoked to be getting out on the road and hope to have a few more interstate dates locked in before the year is out. More details, like supports, ticket prices, etc, will be available on our MySpace.

Photobucket

We played Albury on Friday night, at a classy little establishment called Roi bar. We've played down there before with Bliss n Eso, and they love their Australian hip-hop down there. We were told that Fridays are a little sleepy but we were very pleased with the turn out. The show went well and we partied well into the AM with the good folks of Albury. We love yall and we'll be back soon..

We'll be attempting to let all three of you who read this blog posted with our tour exploits, and we'll be posting up pictures and videos as much as possible.

Stay tuned - ldayers.

Monday, August 25, 2008

SS @ Qbar: some photos..

Courtesy of Reef Gaha @ Innerstyle and Sosueme, we have some flicks from the other night.

















Sunday, August 24, 2008

SS live footage from Qbar

Jimmy, Joyride and myself played a fairly wild club show two nights ago at Qbar in Sydney. I say wild because there was people pushing, damn near moshing and there was even a little punch on in the crowd during one of the songs. The man behind KeepMoving , none other than our homie Felix was on hand to get a whole lot of footage. There actually is a whole lot of footage, he managed to get pretty much the entire set. Now, it definitely wasn't a perfect set and we had a few technical fuck ups, but we also had a gang of fun. Shout outs to everyone who came through and got messy with us, the good folks at SoSueMe/Qbar for having us, Mailer Daemon + everyone else who performed on the night, and of course FZA for filming.

Check it out: Spit Syndicate @ Qbar Friday Aug 22 2008.









SSx

PS - if any of that intoxicated rapping looked like something you might be interested in, come and see us when we hit the road next month.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

New Myspace layout

Watup guys,

Our MySpace has had a much-needed revamp courtesy of Drake Designs, the same design wiz who has decked out the Tongue's, Urthboy's, Horrorshow's and just about everybody else's MySpace page. Big ups to Drake, he's got talent for days.

Check out the new Spit Syndicate MySpace:

Click

More liner notes, video clip and a special remix of "Bring it Home" (which is our next single) coming very soon. As always, stay tizzuned.

Peace - SS.

PS. Murder Murdoch.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Online liner notes: The Lost Boys

I stole this idea from A-Love, thought it was a mad idea for some blog shit - online liner notes of songs off "Towards the Light", to give a bit of background colour to the songs. As you can see, I'm digging the self-indulgent blogging tip and doing my best to avoid the important shit I need to get done.

First up is one of our favourite joints off the album: "The Lost Boys". If you haven't heard it, I've uploaded it to our MySpace.

Click me

This was the last song which we wrote and recorded for the album. The album was lacking a song which banger a little bit harder than some of the softer shit we had on there, so we hit up the Prestons don himself, Adit. I'd wanted to write something which referenced the Lost Boys, as in the orphan mateys in "Hook". I thought the idea of a group of young dudes with no families all rolling together and running amuck was cool, plus the scene were they create that crazy feast by using their imaginations is the jumpoff. So, we ended up trying to write a loose story about a crew of streetkids who come from broken homes and thus roll with each other everywhere they go, skating and painting throughout the city. The whole song came together pretty quickly, as we were working to a deadline, and ended up being one of our favourites off the LP. Jimmy came through the studio that day with a pretty killer hangover after a big night, which is why he sounds more gruff on this track. Adit absolutely slayed the beat, we were very lucky to snap it up. If we had a Def Jam budget, it's the sort of song you could make a really mad film clip for. Alas, we don't.

More online liner notes to come..
SS.x

Our homies

'Scrackin.

Our fellow inner-west homies and close mates Horrorshow are dropping their album "The Grey Space" this Saturday 16th August. Now, I been plugging the shit out of these dudes for a long time now. They've been working on their music together for a while now but have pretty much come out nowhere for a lot of people. They got signed to Elefant Traks and everything has pretty much fallen into place for them - and we couldn't be happier to see them doing the goddamn thing.



Their whole LP is streaming off their MySpace for the next week so make sure you check it out for a taste of TGS.

Click me

This is the bit where I say I told you all so. Seriously though, check em out and if you're in Sydney, come to their launch on Friday Sept 12 at the Annandale. 1day family.

Another one of our close associates, Fame, also has uploaded some previously unheard of music onto the interweb. Check out the following two joints which are coming off a mixtape of his which is soon to be released. Fame played a big part in both ours and Horrorshow's albums, and is sitting on some seriously hot tracks.





Enjoy - you know I gotcha..

Nick.

Saturday, August 9, 2008

"Here Today, Gone Tomorrow" film clip.

Here it is guys, hope you enjoy it.



SS.

PS - psych. stay tuned fuckers.

Thursday, August 7, 2008

JTV Spotlight

We did a little interview segment called a "spotlight" with the good folks from jtv a few weeks back, the finished product can be found at the jtv website below. It's only short and we appear a little too gay for my liking (especially in the snapshot thingies - but, it'll happen), but it's definitely worth checking out:

click here


Cheers.
SS.x

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

OzHipHop Interview

We did this interview with the homie Clayton Bennett for the entertaining-but-deeply worrying website that is OzHiphop.com

Here's a link, but I think you have to become a member:



So for those that aren't members:


Clayton Bennett: In some circles the saying “towards the light” means approaching the afterlife or nearing death although the sound of the album is very uplifting – why then the title?

Nick Lupi: It’s definitely not meant to have any morbid undertones or anything like that. There’s no real concrete meaning behind it, we really just liked the way it sounded. It ties in with the idea of a new, different sound for Australian hip-hop that we, amongst others, are trying to push through.

Just Enuff: A: The title “towards the light” was originally taken from the opening track’s chorus “towards the light I walk that line, one step forward at a time”, and it’s really just a representation of where we aim to take our music or our sound. No real tie to the afterlife just our spin on the path we’re taking.



Clayton: How many years in the making was this album?

NL: Around 2 years I’d say, from when we started getting beats together off different producers and writing to them. It could have come out earlier than it did, we recorded drafts and then final versions, and then had to find a label to release the album, etc. We both went overseas for a bit as well, that was more of a delay.


Clayton: When did you first hook up with Obese to ink a deal? When did you catch their attention?

JE: Despite their success obese have always been on the lookout for promising new additions to their roster but I think more than anything it was our hunger to get our product out during 2006 and 7 and the surrounding buzz that got us signed early 08.

NL: Obese were one of a few labels we were talking to late last year about putting the album out. I’m not sure when we first caught their attention, but I know we had Jase putting in a few kind words for us. We hadn’t had any dialogue with them before we sent out an album sampler to a few different labels.


Clayton: Nick Lupi, is that your actual name?

NL: It is indeed my government name. I never really got around to picking a flashy rap pseudonym; the name that my folks provided me with has always done the job. It’s a funny sounding name though hey. Shit.


Clayton: In the same vein, Just Enuf, why did you choose a pseudonym and what does yours mean to you?

JE: Just enuf came about when I was in school and learnt how to do a lot of cool shit for next to no money, of late I refer to myself as jimmy nice.


Clayton: The production has a real soulful sound, how did you go about getting beats?

NL: We pestered M-Phazes when we were younger and starting out because we loved his shit and wanted to make music with him. So when he came around to our music and started sending us beats, we were cheering. Jase has been one of our favourite producers and having him on board was awesome, he caught our shit and wanted to make some music. A lot of the other production comes courtesy of our friends, people like Adit, Fame, our main Rowan Dix aka DJ Joyride, etc. The production is fairly varied throughout the album but we tried to keep a common element throughout. Or maybe we didn’t. I can’t really remember what we did.

JE: We listen to a lot of soulful shit in our own time which definitely comes through on the record.


Clayton: Having Ro Blvd on the boards was interesting, how did that come to happen?

NL: He actually hit us up on MySpace one day, a long time ago now, and showed a bit of interest in our music and we ended up getting a few beats off him. Some good old online collaboration – it should be noted though, that the beats of his that appear on Towards the Light had some additional (and crucial) production done to them by Fame and Adit.


Clayton: What are some issues or messages you wanted to put forward through your music?

JE: Our music is about what’s going on in our inner circles first and foremost, girls, summer, current affairs, heartbreaks, running game, whatever really. Anyone who knows us personally knows that our tracks don’t stand too far apart from our everyday lives, besides a bit of fly rap talk.

NL: I don’t know if we have any particular messages that we’re trying to put across via our music – a lot of the songs are very personal, emotionally-driven and all that jazz. That sort of stuff tends to bring out the best in us, as it does with a lot of artists. We just try and have some fun with it, too. A lot of Australian hip-hop makes me cringe, if they’re not writing mickey mouse raps, they’re throwing wack sausage fest parties or allowing mediocre shit to flourish by patting each other on the back. There a whole lot of artists who are making some real high quality music though, especially some of the new younger crews coming through.



Clayton: Adit from Horrorshow does a few beats too and Solo appears on ‘On and On’, how long have you known them? Your sounds gel.

NL: I went to high school and have been best friends with Nick and Adit from Horrorshow – they are my homies and it is so good to see them doing well. We all grew up together and to be making music together with them is fucking ill.

JE: We’ve been mates first and foremost since high school days, we grew up together as teens and have pretty similar taste in music. It’s only now that we’re both doing our thing that people see us shining together as this new wave of Sydney talent, Double S and Horrorsquad are the crews, ‘one day’ is the banner we ride under.



Clayton: What is the idea behind so-called “fresh breath” music? A new style?

NL: I don’t know whether it’s a new, distinct and specific style, it’s just the way in which we are making our music – I’ve always said this, I don’t feel like we’re reinventing the wheel or completely flipping shit on it’s head, we just feel like we’re doing something a bit different. We’re certainly not the only ones doing it either, plenty of artists are pushing boundaries at the moment

JE: A new contemporary lease on Australian hip hop, with a well balanced open minded approach. We’ve tried to make the sort of shit we’d listen to.



Clayton: There are many female vocalists featuring, what are your favourite female vocalists in music overall?

NL: That’s a tough question. In terms of established Australian female singers, I’m a huge fan of Sarah Blasko. I think Paris Wells has an amazing voice too.


Clayton: Do you feel any pressure being heralded as the “future of Australian hip hop”?

NL: Nah I don’t really feel too much pressure because we don’t really buy into that shit too much – we’re not really concerned with being the future of Australian hip hop. That’s some record label marketing jazz to catch people’s attention – it’s a big call and we don’t make our music and do shows to be heralded the future of Australian hip hop, we do it because it’s fucking fun and we like doing it. We put pressure on ourselves but it’s got nothing to do with being the future.

JE: Yeah there was a bit of pressure with everyone awaiting the release as well as us awaiting the public’s response, but behind the title is a product that we believe we can push for many years to come and hopefully attract a few unsullied ears.



Clayton: What are your hopes for the future of the scene?

NL: At the moment I feel like, for the first time in a while, the local hip-hop scene is thriving, shit is looking very promising. I’d hope that in the future that the scene will grow as much as possible, more shows and bigger shows, artists and groups playing big festival tours, and shit like that. And that’s going to happen, it’s already on it’s way.


Clayton: Was it easier or harder working on music as a duo?

NL: I’ve never really made many serious songs as a solo artist, we work well together as a duo in terms of putting the songs together and also doing shows. I’m sure there’ll be some solo stuff or side projects at some stage, but not any time soon.

JE: No one pushes me to write like nick does so it was hard on the ego at times but it’s definitely easier having two minds working collectively.



Clayton: ‘Bring It Home (One Day)’ you speak on the different styles you bring, what are your favourite albums of all time in any genre?

NL: I think Dead Prez’s “Let’s Get Free” is one of the best hip-hop albums out. My favourite albums for all different genres changes all the time – I think Bloc Party’s “Weekend in the city” album was pretty close to flawless. I’m a big fan of Santogold, I think her shit is real cool and blends a whole lot of genres well.

JE: That’s too hard, maybe albums that I never get tired of listening to would be:
.Blueprint- jay z
.Silent alarm- Bloc party
.All eyez on me- Tupac
.Any crowded house or Michael Jackson.


Clayton: The lyrics get political on ‘The Lucky Country’, as a leading young hip hop duo what are your thoughts on the youth as the leaders of modern Australia?

NL: The future of the country is in fairly safe hands, a lot of traditional, conservative shit in this country is being ironed out through the generations. That’s a tough question to answer to be honest bro, I can’t say I think too much about the youth as leaders. Someone in NSW needs to fix the fucking trains and whole transport system though, hopefully the youth can do that.


Clayton: The aforementioned track speaks on racism, speaking of which did you cop any flack having the initials SS with their unfortunate historical connection? You solved this by having one S reversed.

NL: No, we’ve never copped any shit for having the same initials as the Nazi death squad – except for a little bit of online ribbing on OHH. Perish the thought hey. The reversed “S” wasn’t to dispel any possible connection between our music and the Nazis – people aren’t that stupid..

JE: haha as the tongue said so eloquently we’re going ‘towards the reich’.


Clayton: How important is the balance between party rhymes and conscious lyricism?

NL: Everyone tries to maintain some sort of balance in the way they make music, even if not necessarily between party rhymes and conscious lyricism. Some get the balance pretty wrong, but I think the best MCs are the ones who can talk about any topic and do it with class and finesse, in terms of getting the balance exactly right.

JE: It’s everything that an emcee needs to stay relevant, finding a balance between fly shit, political shit, personal shit, and keeping it all as advanced and contemporary as possible is a hard thing to do. When you find that you can start making timeless music.


Clayton: Storytelling features on ‘On and On’, who are the best storytellers of our time in your opinion, who influences you when you write stories in song?

JE: Old nas story telling will always be the sharpest. Ghostface and lupe are also crazy at giving you a personal, yet universal take on things.

NL: You can’t really go past Nas, his storytelling game is crazy. Nas is the greatest.



Clayton: On songs such as the aforementioned and ‘Til The World Blow Up’ your love for family and friends and related issues are evident, how has the reaction been from them since the album dropped?

NL: We are both lucky to be blessed with some fantastic friends and family, being thankful for that and letting them know that we got them is a strong, recurring theme in our music. They have a lot of love for Spit Syndicate and we got a whole lot more for them – they’re proud of us and they get behind us 100%, we’re very lucky.

JE: Looking back on it now, the whole process behind making this album was a very family orientated affair. ‘Family’ in the sense that none of us wanted to flood the record with well known guests in the first place, and we also happen to have a long list of extremely talented people who were willing to creatively contribute. Friends and fam mean everything. Period.



Clayton: The light has shone on Spit Syndicate, what’s next for you guys?

JE: A bossy ass, sucker free summer. One dayers!

NL: We’re going on tour to support “Towards the Light” in September, we’ve got some big shows on the cards for the rest of the year. Just trying to keep making music and pushing it as far and as wide as we can while juggling study, work and broads. Thank you for the interview Clayton.


Spit Syndicate - Towards The Light is out now on Obese Records

Interview by Clayton Bennett, 2008 OzHipHop.Com

That's all for now - stay up kids.
Nick.x

Monday, July 21, 2008

JJJ Live at the Wireless: Obese Block Party

The good folks at Triple J are broadcasting a selection of songs which were recorded on the 3rd of May at the Sydney leg of the recent Obese Block Party national tour. We performed on that line-up, along with Hyjak n Torcha, Bias B, Chasm, Reason, Horrorshow, Pegz, Muph & Pluto and Drapht.



The following songs are being played on Live at the Wireless on Monday 21st July at 8pm and then Sunday 27th at 5pm.


1 Bias B 'Goin' Down'

2 Reason 'Life's a Lesson'

3 Hyjak N Torcha 'All I Have'

4 Hyjak N Torcha 'Nutcase'

5 Chasm 'The Takeover'

6 Chasm 'Superpowers'

7 Chasm 'Let the Beat Go'

8 Spit Syndicate 'Bring it Home'

9 Spit Syndicate 'The Lost Boys'

10 Drapht 'Drink Drank Drunk'



I can't remember shit from this night except Solo and Muph both getting shitfaced and being hilarious on stage. Unfortunately, the producers at JJJ seem to have left out both moments of drunken hilarity. But, you can't win em all. Tune in or stream at your own convenience.

Enjoy.
SS.x

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Upcoming shows

Whatscrackin.

We're playing a free show in Sydney next Friday the 25th July at the Roxbury in Glebe. But it ain't just any old show - it's a special acoustic show featuring ourselves, Horrorshow (The Grey Space is dropping August 16th on Elefant Traks and is going to change your life), Made in Japan, Rowan Dix, Sarah Corry, Jonny Mc (of Lullabyes fame) playing original songs and a few covers like you've never heard them before.

We've done a few of these shows before and they are not to be missed - come and party with the 1day family if you can.



We're also handling hosting duties at the Lyrics Born, J-Live and Blu & Exile show on Saturday 9th August at the Forum. What a line-up, holy shit. This show is certain to sell out, so make sure you grab your tickets while you can from moshtix.



We just wrapped up shooting a little segment for JTV which should be on screens and online in the next 2-3 weeks, as will the "Here Today, Gone Tomorrow" film clip.

Stay up kids.
Nick.

PS - I'm lucky enough to have an advance copy of the Made in Japan EP which should be out shortly. Wow. These kids are freakishly talented and are destined for very big things.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Album launch recap and more..

What it is.

I'll tell you what it's not.

A motherfucking mixtape.

So we had our long-awaited album launch on Saturday evening. It's late Tuesday evening and I'm still buzzing from it. What an epic show. It was everything that we'd hoped for over all the years we'd been waiting for it. Thank you to everyone involved in the show: all the support acts (who all slayed it - especially nick and adit [who made his DJ debut to rapturous applause]), my main man Rev from Rising High who helped promote the show, the big homie DJ Joyride (who DJed/sung/played keys with a dislocated shoulder), Sarah Corry, the most incredible, incomparable Made in Japan band who backed us up live (as well as dazzling with their own set - these boys have an EP coming out very shortly), and, of course, everyone who came through to enjoy the night and helped us sell out the Oxford Art Factory.

For real - from the very bottom of our collective rap hearts: thank you.

The homie Felix from KeepMoving managed to catch some of the night on film. Check it out here:





HORRORSHOW:



The "Here Today, Gone Tomorrow" film clip should be on your screens within the next 3 weeks - we had a long day's filming last week which was a lot of fun. Big shout outs to Glen Ellis and his crew for doing a stellar job, as well as all our friends that came to get amongst it.

More blog coming very soon.

Love yall.
Nick.

Monday, June 30, 2008

UPDATE: So the album is out..

..if you haven't yet bought/downloaded/stole our album "Towards the Light", then now is the time. The album is in all good record stores and on iTunes (although I do recommend supporting the specialist hip-hop stores such as Soul Clap Records here in Sydney). We'd like to thank everyone who has gone out and bought the album - hope you're enjoying it.

We're busy planning for the Sydney album launch which is going down on Saturday the 12th of July. Tickets are $13 + BF from moshtix or $20 on the door. Supporting on the night will be Horrorshow, Chasm + Jeswon + 2buck + Dtrix, Illy (Crooked Eye/Melbourne), Made in Japan, Sleater Brockman, and more. We will be playing our entire set with a 5-piece band, made up of the MIJ boys and our DJ/collaborator/dear friend Joyride/Rowan Dix, and the night is going to be one to remember. The Tongue is hosting too. If you haven't got tickets yet, do it now..



Speaking of The Tongue, he has a mixtape out at the moment called REDUX - which can be downloaded at www.thetongue.com.au or bought at shows. We feature on a track called "Night Life" - the whole mixtape sounds fucking great and is packaged very nicely. The mixtape is a 2CD dual-mixtape actually, Sydney MC Nikkita also does the mixtape thing - and she does it very well. Check it out!

If you haven't heard by now, our One Day family members Solo and Adit - collectively known as Horrorshow - have just been signed to Sydney label Elefant Traks. Congratulations are very much in order for the boys - their album "The Grey Space" is fresh from the mastering studio and is sounding crazy crazy crazy. It drops on August 16th - they're doing some of the Herd's NSW tour dates as well so check em out there if you get the chance.

That's pretty much it for the update. We're shooting a film clip for Here Today next week so that should be on your screens in a couple of weeks. Some SS merchandise is also in the works, we'll be slanging t-shirts and hoodies within the next month or two. The label is currently locking in dates for a national tour in August/September - stay tuned for that.

Much love,
Nick.

Friday, June 13, 2008

New song uploaded + interview...

Watup world.

We've uploaded a new song off "Towards the Light" onto our MySpace and Facebook pages. It's called 'Weapon of Choice' and is produced by Kaos from Melbourne of Justice n Kaos fame. He is a monster with the beats, sickcunt too. The song is a shitty mp3 - for the high-quality version you're gonna have to cop the album, or at least download the high-quality bootleg.

MySpace

Facebook

Here is a phone interview that I did last month for Sauce magazine in Tasmania. And she loves to show me off of course, smiles everytime my face is up on the sauce. Shout outs to Tassie.

Interview with Sauce

We played the final show of the Block Party tour last weekend in Melbourne, at a place called the Palace (formerly known as the Metro) - the venue was huge, really cool too. The place was packed out, had to be close to 1500 people there. We had a ball, enjoyed playing a Melly show as always.





I'll leave you with Nasir Jones' latest offering "Hero". This is classic Nas bossy shit.

Nas - Hero

Enjoy your weekends suckers.
Loop.

Monday, June 2, 2008

album cover and tour recap...

what's crackin world.

got an account set up with statcounter which tells me that there actually are people coming to this blog and checking it out - so i thought i may as well get an update popping.

our debut album "towards the light" is dropping in just under 3 weeks - june 21st. it's a saturday. check out the album if you can! i'm a little bit over it personally after having worked on it for nearly two years. but we're very keen to hear what you all think of it with your fresh ears.

this is the album cover, courtesy of ben funnell from april 77. everything you've heard about the man is true - he is the motherfucking don. bug zapper comes courtesy of the homie reidy.



the block party tour is coming to a close - we've had a fucking ball so far. it's been good hitting up cities where we've never been before, although we don't get to see too much as we're only there for a night. catching the plane with a big crew and having all the different crews take up an entire level at hotels is sick. all of the acts have been smashing it – i hadn’t caught too many obese shows prior to us signing, but everyone has held shit down mad proper: drapht (killer live show, backed up by MJ and carlsani – bosses!), muph & pluto (muph did get mad pissy on the first sydney show but is an incredible performer and has been dazzling the audiences), chasm + jeswon + dtrix + 2buck (very, very tight live outfit), hyjak + torch + squeeze (these fellas have kept us in stitches the whole tour. torch needs his own tv channel for real) and pegz + patto + bonezy.

adelaide was dope, neither jimmy nor myself had been there before but were keen to check out the city, which has produced some of our favourite mcs. the crowd was pretty tough but we hopefully made a good impression. we've played canberra twice before with bliss, eso and izm and i love it there - we had a few sound issues during our set which is always quite fucked up, but got love nonetheless.

hobart was a personal highlight for me. we were shown some mad hospitality by a local tassie lad by the name of james from edge radio. James was a deadest boss, took us around hobart and was an all around sickcunt. we did a radio interview for edge radio which was broadcast from a local high school and somehow wound up on the local news. slow news day in tassie? the venue got changed at the last minute and was pretty shitty – but we were very happy with how the show turned out. the tongue gave me a heads up about some local lads mdusu & jameza – these boys killed it, definitely a duo to watch out for.

very pumped for melly next week. you already know what it is.

towards the light june 21
spit syndicate (nick).

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Block Party Footage...

this is not a blog post.

footage of hyjak of hyjak'n'torcha fame.

shouts to skweezy. sickcunt.

ss

Friday, May 9, 2008

Friday: illest day of the week

Can't fuck with a Friday son.

New post to hit y'all with some footage from the first stop of the Block Party Tour, at Manning Bar in Sydney. Courtesy of my man FZA who runs Keep Movin Sydney - one of the best blogs to come out of these here parts in a long time. Do check it out.



Don't have time to write a long essay so I'll keep it brief, Block Party tour has been ill so far, Sydney and Brizzy were very good to us and the rest of the acts killed it. The big homie Pegz is somewhat of a legend up there in Brizvegas, they love him. Our boy Solo from Horrorshow done smashed it as well, he's turning a lot of heads at the moment. More pics and footage coming very soon, but enjoy that for now...

Enjoy your weekend
SS
x

Monday, April 28, 2008

Welcome to SS: Blog

Watup internets,

With the impending release of our debut album "Towards the Light" (out June 14th on Obese Records), the good folks here at Double S decided it was about time we get a proper, regularly-updated blog on and poppin.

So welcome - make sure you bookmark it and keep checking it regularly, because we'll be going out of our way to upload as much content as possible (photos, videos, new songs, tour blogs, other miscallaneous self-indulgent bullshit).

To kick things off, just thought I'd hit you with a bit of an update with us. We got back from Melly last week, where we had the album mastered by Joe Carra @ Crystal Mastering; who did a fucking stellar job. Many thanks to the homie Joe, as well as Jase who came through and lent his highly prized ears to the whole process. The album is sounding very polished after mastering, it was our first time doing the whole process and weren't sure what to expect, but it made the whole album sound so much cleaner and warmer.

We went out and got royally fucked up in celebration with the big homie Pegz, Illy, M-Phazes, Eleanor from Obese and a bunch of others. It was our third or fourth trip to Melbourne, and we love it there. I'm definitely planning to move there one day in the future. It doesn't have the beaches of Sydney but it's a fucking cool place. Shout outs to our main man Illy down there on the Frankston line, the number one brother from a wuthering height.

Took some photos when we were down there:


Joe Carra from Crystal Mastering doing the damn thing.


Myself and Jase. Young Jeezy eat your heart out.


Jimmy and Melly sunset.

Jimmy, Loop, Pegz, Illy.


Illy, Loop and Phazes.

Anyway - just wanted to kick things off. In the next few weeks, I'll be wasting a lot of my time uploading shit onto here. We've collected a lot of footage over the past year or so and I'll be putting it up here. We'll be previewing some songs from the album very soon and will have regular updates/blogs/video blogs from the Block Party tour which kicks off this Saturday.

If you haven't yet - become a SS facebook fan:

Spit Syndicate on FACEBOOK

Much love.
Nick.