I’m back! What an amazing trip, I’m going to do my best to recap the tour from memory, as it’s taken me over a month to compile the video clips, crop and compress the pictures, and generally recover from the wildness that was Australia and New Zealand!
Here’s 2 videos summarizing the tour. All shot on my Flip Mino HD. The first one is promo and club stuff, the second is scenery and andom stuff. Hope you enjoy!
PART 1:
PART 2:
And if that wasn’t enough, heres a full recap:
Big shouts to Tim from Act Yo Age for braving the early morning and scoopin me from the airport. We then headed to the Bondi and Bronte Beach areas and checked out the scenery and grabbed a bite to eat. Then headed over to my dude Chinnys place where I stayed during my time in Sydney. Dude was the best host, and had me at his night @ World Bar called the Wall.
I was joined by some of the Ro Sham Bo crew including Levins (Sleater Brockman) and Moriarty. It was a cool party, and the homie Dave Nada was in town, and we did it up in proper fashion. The night was really cool, the other DJs were great, Moriarty dropped a great UK Funky set that had the place OPEN, and tons of local heroes came through, including the Bang Gang and Bag Raiders! We capped the night with a 5am trip to the strip club. Did you know you can “touch” in Sydney? I found out and got forcedfed a mouth full of titties..niiiice! The next day me and Dave Nada were guests on Kato and James radio show on 94.5 FBI Radio. They play amazing music and average about 40,000 listeners at any given time – needless to say we have nothing near as cool in Vancouver. We each did a set and interview which was a lot of fun, big up to those dudes! If anyone wants a copy of the radio show to check out hit me up. The next day, I headed up to Newcastle (aka Newie!!!) with Kato. Y’all need to definitely check for this dude, he’s one of the dons of the scene for sure, and the best person. We took the 2 hour trip and linked up with Adrian and Brenton Catt, 2 of the best bogans I’ve had the pleasure of meeting! We hit the Uni for an early gig with Kato, then headed over to the Civic for the party that night. I’ve heard its since burnt down! Damn!
They put me up in a really nice hotel which I didnt even see until about 4am that night, and at 9 we were groggily heading back to Sydney with a cold case of beer in the back seat. We stopped at “Macca’s” (McDonalds), which there are basically cafe’s that also serve burgers. They had ones with Beetroots, eggs and other weird stuff on it, and they also sell slurpees?? We made it back into town around 1 and headed to Hordern Pavilion for the MASSIVE We Love Sounds festival, check out lineup!
It was a gorgeous day, and over 15,000 people came out to party! There was a strangely high percentage of shirtless muscleheads but I guess that’s just how they do. All the FINE women surely made up for it. The festival was a family affair for sure, with so many friends on the bill and at the festival. Jess Jubilee from NY was there, the whole Ro Sham Bo crew, The Hoops crew, Dave Nada on the Bang Gang stage, and of course Kato and the Catt’s. I checked out as many acts as I could during the day, but many of the people I wanted to see were on the same time as I was. I still got to check out Shazam, Bang Gang, Bag Raiders, In Flangranti, Armand Van Helden, Justin Martin, and Hijack who played on the same stage I did. All in all an amazing day! We then braved the crowds, and heading over to the afterparty, Locodisco at Nevermind:
The after party was cool, but I was exhausted from lack of sleep, and a day in the sun. Headman was the headliner and played an amazing set of slow burning disco, that built up a strong vibe. Super impressed! I played all over the place and didnt know exactly what to play at times but a fun gig nonetheless! I spent the next few days exploring Sydney, and chillin with Chinny, Wax Motif, The Ro Sham Bo crew, Nick Catchdubs, and Jess and Nada. Good times! But none better than the Ro Sham Bo X Hoops Party with special guest Nick Catchdubs. We got lit up, and ended the night with an indescribable sing along to ‘Come On Eileen’. Peep the posse shot!
Wednesday I packed my bags and headed to Gold Coast, which is like Australia’s Miami. Nothing but new, crazy buildings along the beach, full of fake tits and surfer dudes and an extremely high number of strip clubs. Theres some money in Gold Coast but not tons of soul. I met up with my booking agent Joe there and we checked out the city, and prepped for the gig the next night. After being at the club the night before I was hyped to kill it. It was an “R&B” club, aka Top40 which is no problem. Had an amazing dinner with Joe, Blaze Tripp and Jessamy, and got my sushi fix that night. The gig went ok, and the next day we flew out to Melbourne.
Melbourne is an amazing city, certainly the artistic capital of Oz, and co-incidentally the sister city of Vancouver. Strangely enough it was also the #1 city in the world to live in, up until Vancouver took that honor. The street press was amazing there, and I got tons of press:
This one was done over the phone while @ We Love Sounds and I’m quite certain I didnt say much of it as it was written. Some funny answers and sentences that don’t make much sense haha.
It was also the first time I was a victim of misquoting in themedia:
I had done this interview via email, so I figured there was NO WAY they could misconstrue anything, right? Wrong! The first question was about what I grew up listening to. I explained I was from a small town in rural Ontario, and grew up listening to rap when it was rather taboo. Everyone else was listening to Nirvana, at a time when if you didnt listen to rock you “were trying to be black”. In quotes, as an attempt to explain how others reacted to me at the time, saying that I was ‘trying to be black’ for listening to hip hop. Well, of course it was edited down to “I was listening to rap, I was trying to be black” !!! My excitement about the interview soon turned to dread for the implications of the misquote – I’d never say anything that ridiculous! Its funny, because none of the Aussies seemed to see why I was upset about the quote, while everyone at home was like “Oh man, you have to get that corrected!”. Of course that wasn’t possible, so I send an email back to the editors, who printed the correction. It was a stream of consciousness email so it didnt make much sense, but it was extra publicity, and printed right under a giant picture of the Bloody Beetroots, so it helped lessen the blog. You can check out the correction here.
Next up was the gig @ Eurotrash in Melbourne. It was great party with Mu-Gen, 1928 and Sleeves, and made all the better by the fact I was stayin with some good homies from Toronto, Caff and Rick, and also linked with my dude from Vancouver, Geoff. We drank a quick bottle in the alley and caught up, then partied until about 6 the next morning. Got a bit messy, and the hangover was rough, but completely worth it. By Monday I was back and living, and Caff and I hit the Melboure Zoo, on weeeeed man! It was a nice peaceful day and we zoned out on the amazing animals. You can see the footage I compiled a few posts down the page.
Tuesday we linked with the Scattermish crew (Shouts to Hamish, Lewis and Mu-Gen!), and got to play a last minute impromptu gig with them, and Classixx who were in town as well. We ate some amazing Korean food, then hit the club. Wednesday I composed myself and got ready to leave for New Zealand!
Thursday I had to fly from Melbourne to Sydney, and headed into town to get my NZ Work Visa, last minute styles. Then cabbed back to the airport and flew to New Zealand. The promoter Matthew picked me up in Wellie and we hit the club for a few drinks, but had an early night to prepare for the next day. Then linked up with local awesome dude / shop owner Eli and we grabbed some food and took the tour around town. The show was at Hope Bros, and had the illest poster of all the gigs by far. it looked like I ate a zombie and was drooling blue blood. Send me that ish!!! The party went off, and played alongside Marek – people in New Zealand like to drink! Some nice people over there!
The next day I barely made my flight to Aukland, but was glad I didn’t. The promoter and all around awesome MTron picked me up at the airport and we drove into town. They put me up in a really nice hotel, and we hit an amazing Japanese restaurant, again quenching my thirst for sashimi, soy and wasabi. The party that night was off the hook! Possibly the best of the entire trip! The club was packed with gorgeous women and the opening DJs had great taste. Couldn’t ask for a better night!!
The next day, I was admittedly happy to start the trip home. It had been a long trip and I was looking forward to my own bed. Unfortunately there was a 6 hour delay leaving Aukland! Then, because of that, I missed my connector in LA! It was also fathers day, so I left a voicemail on my Dad’s machine, and called ride to let them know I’d be delayed. The two one-minute phone calls cost me $30. NEVER pay for a call with credit card! Lesson learned.
Well, that about says it all. I’m sure I’ve forgotten some things, but I really don’t need to write any more. Here’s one of my favorite pictures from the trip. An ironically fitting end to this recap!
